Paging Through History

I recently saw an interview with a teacher who said she doesn’t use a textbook for a class that requires her students to employ critical thinking. “The newspaper is my textbook,” she said. I don’t know this woman, but I love her for that.

This is a tough time for newspapers. Their journalists are doing excellent work despite the obstacles presented by economics and a hostile president and administration.

I don’t know what the future holds for newspapers. But I do know you still have a couple of weeks to look back at their history in Cleveland. “When the News was New” is at Cleveland Public Library’s main branch until Nov. 30. The free exhibit celebrates 200 years of newspapers in the city.

The Plain Dealer, which first published in 1842, has been Cleveland’s only daily newspaper since The Press folded in 1982. Others came and went before that, including The Cleveland News, which was sold to The Press the year before I was born. I grew up reading The Plain Dealer and The Press because my parents subscribed to both. And I worked for The Plain Dealer as a copy editor when the climate for daily newspapers and journalism in general was much different.

Nothing documents historic events quite like a newspaper. Think about recent history here in Northeast Ohio. When the Cavs won the NBA championship in June 2016, cars were lined up outside the PD’s printing plant to get copies of the paper that documented that milestone. I'm sure that scene would have been repeated a few months later if the Indians had won the World Series. A printout or screen shot of a web page just doesn’t have the same impact as a newspaper.

Kudos to friends and former PD colleagues Dave Davis and Joan Mazzolini for their work in getting the exhibit into the library. And if you like this, you also would like “Plain Dealing: Cleveland Journalists Tell TheirStories,” the book Dave and Joan put together to celebrate the bicentennial of newspapering in Cleveland. The book, which you can download for free or buy as a paperback for $10, includes essays from former Plain Dealer reporters and other local journalists whose bylines PD readers will recognize. If you’re curious about what goes on (or went on) behind the scenes at a daily newspaper, you’ll want to read this.

Cleveland Stories

How’s this for a midweek lift? Every Wednesday at 7 p.m. the Music Box Supper Club presents an installment of its series Cleveland Stories Dinner Parties. You can hear fun tales about Cleveland’s past at no charge, not even a cover charge.

Past dinner parties have included local authors and personalities talking about their Cleveland experiences. My friend Moe and I attended one in May that celebrated the 50th anniversary of radio station WMMS. DJs Ed “Flash” Ferenc and Denny Sanders (center and right, respectively, in the photo here) and program director John Gorman (left), who all worked at the album-oriented rock station in its heyday, were on the panel.

You’ll probably want to eat or drink something during the dinner party. You can get a three-course dinner that usually has a tie-in with the presentation for $20. The dinner for tomorrow’s party with Brecksville-born comedian Michael Cheselka, for example, is whoopie cushion soup, rubber chicken and banana pudding.

Beverages are extra, and you also can order food off the menu. I think it’s a great deal for a tasty meal and a novel entertainment experience. The Music Box is on the West Bank of the Cuyahoga River in the Flats, so it offers fabulous views as well.

Writer in the Window

This is a new experience. I’m writing from the window Thursday morning at Appletree Books in the Cedar Fairmount neighborhood of Cleveland Heights. To my right are shelves full of books. To my left is the traffic on Cedar Road, including foot traffic.

I’m doing this as part of Literary Cleveland’s Writer in the Window program. The organization asked members to take two-hour shifts writing in the front windows during November to celebrate NaNoWriMo. That’s National Novel Writing Month, when writers are challenged to write a novel in 30 days.

I’m not planning to write a novel, but who knows what inspiration might come from working in the window? You could call this a novel experience, though. Many of my workplaces haven’t even had windows.

Literary Cleveland is a nonprofit organization for writers and readers. I joined last year, and I have met wonderful people and attended quite a few free classes and the occasional mixer. A free six-month class on personal-essay writing led to the creation of a writers group that meets once a month. Hello, Real Writers!

The number of programs Lit Cleveland offers astounds me, particularly the number of free programs. I have attended classes covering subjects ranging from memoir writing to tax tips for freelancers. Memberships support the organization, and members get benefits including discounts on classes that have a fee and free admission to the mixers.

One of my favorites is the annual Cleveland Inkubator, a week of classes, readings and performances that concludes with the free all-day Cleveland Inkubator conference and book fair at Cleveland Public Library’s downtown branch. The links here are to last year’s Inkubator, but they give you an idea of what the week includes. I highly recommend attending if you like to read or write.

If you’re reading this post this morning, consider stopping by to see me at Appletree Books. I’ll be in the window again today from 10 a.m. until noon.

Talk About Free!

CLE on the Cheap loves free things, including being free. Today is Election Day in the United States. Please exercise your right to vote if you haven’t already. Voting won’t cost you a thing, but not voting might.

It’s not too late to vote if you’re registered. Find out what’s on your ballot and where your polling place is here.

If you’re in or near Northeast Ohio, reward yourself for voting by visiting MOCA Cleveland for free from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. today.

Then watch the returns tonight, knowing you did your part for democracy.

Women Who Soar

Every time I’m near the International Women’s Air & Space Museum in downtown Cleveland, I think “I really should go there sometime.”

Meanwhile, I’m recommending you do something I haven’t done myself. The museum seems fantastic, from what I’ve read. It’s a perfect fit for CLE on the Cheap because it’s free. Besides permanent and temporary exhibits, the museum has events such as an Author Day tomorrow (Nov. 3) that features books by my friends and former Plain Dealer colleagues Marc Bona and Laura DeMarco, among others. Author Day includes a book sale and a pancake breakfast (suggested donation $5). What’s not to love?

The International Women’s Air & Space Museum has been at Burke Lakefront Airport since 1998, when it relocated from Centerville, Ohio. Its exhibits are in the lobby and west concourse and are viewable every day. The museum was started by a committee of The Ninety-Nines, an international organization of women pilots, whose first president was Amelia Earhart. There were 99 charter members when the organization was formed in 1929. 

You’ll find photos and information about famous women in aviation such as Earhart in the museum, but you’ll also learn about women you probably haven’t heard of before. One of them is Shaesta Waiz, the youngest person to fly solo around the world in a single-engine aircraft. Another is Matilde E. Moisant, pictured above, who was born in Indiana in 1878 and became the second woman pilot (after Harriet Quimby) to be certified by the Aero Club of America.

Waiz will speak during “Dinner with a Slice of History,” a fundraiser that begins at 6:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 9. Tickets are available here until Wednesday, Nov. 7. Waiz also is the founder of the nonprofit Dreams Soar Inc., whose mission statement is "to inspire the next generation of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) and aviation professionals."