Many of The Stark County Political Report's blogs have a tinge of political sarcasm scattered among its letters, words and headlines.
But sarcasm is a little harsh, and, it gets missed by readers all too often.
I decided I needed to change my ways and go to a milder form of getting my point of view across in my blogs.
A master of satire is The New Yorker's Andy Borowitz.
He is my inspiration for doing political satire on local political and public figures.
So brace yourself Stark County elected officials and public figures.
You are about to become the stars of Stark County's only political satire outlet.
Every once in a while political satire will be the order of the day at the SCPR.
The honor of being my very first object of satire is The Repository's executive editor Rich Desrosiers.
Desrosiers has been on the job for two years, almost to the day.
It is obvious that he is just hitting his stride as executive editor.
God love him.
On July 28th, he wrote about my absolutely favorite grocery store of all time.
Well, sort of.
Until it went "belly up" in November, 2015, A&P was my favorite. As a boy in the 1950s, mom and I would walk the two and one-half blocks from our home on East Middle Street once a week to smack dab in the middle of Gettysburg, Pa to the A&P located on Baltimore Street, a mere half a block away from where Abraham Lincoln put the finishing touches on his famed "Gettysburg Address."
What a weekly trip for mom and I. A "special event" time of bonding.
Three pounds of hamburg for $1!
And served up (in the 1950s) Deli style except in G-burg there were no Delis. But the "behind the meat counter" employee made us feel like we were we were being serviced by a grocery store Deli that likely in those days only graced the skyline of America's really be cities.
La di da di da.
Fatty ground beef: exactly what a family of eight kids needed to sup on as chili or spaghetti or burgers and the like for the following week.
There was none of this fancy, mancy cellophaned wrapped 90% fat free ground chuck to be had at least for the Olson family.
It was fat-laced and good! Absolutely delicious to a kid (me) that was about as skinny as one could be and still survive.
In 1964, after four years in the USAF, I relocated to Akron where I met the spellbinding Mary Joy Harless. And what can I say. 51 years later: we are still at it.
Isn't life great!!!
The second best thing that happened to me on becoming an Akronite was the annual Acme-Zip game (1954-2001.)
Wow!
Two tickets for a buck. What a deal! All courtesy of Fred Albrecht's Acme grocery chain.
A hometown grocery chain that now has 16 stores spread throughout northeast Ohio.
Though second on my list of favorite grocery stores, Acme was definitely number 2 only awaiting the death of A&P (remember, November, 2015) to catapult into being NUMBER ONE.
In 1971 as the Acme sponsored extravaganza, some 43,171 filled the Rubber Bowl to defeat the mighty Butler Bulldogs and ya know what?
I and my cherished bride were there!
Can you believe it?
If we weren't there, instead of 43,171 fans; there would only have been 43,169 fans.
So proud to have been there. Supporting Acme (the Ellet store our store at the time) and supporting our school: "the Zips." Mary graduated in 1966; me 1968 (undergrad), law school in 1973.
So when I saw this editorial on July 22, 2017, was I excited!
BIG TIME had arrived for the grocery store that (thank you Kathy Bates) I was a NUMBER ONE FAN of.
Whoop de doo!
And THANK YOU! thank you, thank you again REPOSITORY EXECUTIVE EDITOR RICH DESROSIERS.
Awesome! Simply awesome.
A gigantic space upgrade for a Stark County-based Acme.
You talk about bodacious news, man: expanding floor space at Acme IS it!
For Mary and I; we shop at Acme in North Canton. And I have this sneaky hunch that the Desrosiers family does, too.
The Olsons and Desrosiers both live in Lake Township.
The space upgrade at Acme Everhard/Whipple is big time news, but just call Martin and Mary Olson sentimental.
Acme North Canton is OUR store. Every Wednesday Mary makes her way to OUR Acme to by five ears of corn, a bag of green beans and super delicious fresh tomatoes.
Think maybe there is a lot of joy in the Olson household, Martin and Mary chomping away on those Acme provided groceries.
Eating terrific Acme groceries and remembering those stupendous Acme Zip games.
Life is absolutely wonderful, no?
I used to think The Repository had the worst editorial board of any major Ohio metropolitan area.
BUT NO MORE!
Desrosiers certainly showed me that he has his editorial priorities right where they ought to be.
It's not everyday that a major Ohio newspaper devotes editorial space to an expanding grocery store story.
Maybe our hometown newspaper The Hartville News. But The Repository?
But anyway.
Thanks, Rich!!!
And keep those Acme-esque grocery store stories coming.
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