Holiday Humor

Merry Christmas and happy holidays to all! Best wishes to you! Whatever holiday you celebrate may it be your best ever.
As for Christmas the holiday is about the birth of Jesus. There are also songs, movies or stories that to each of us exemplify what the spirit of Christmas is about. The story about the [...]

Worshipping Satan at Christmas Time

Mrs. and Mr. Elecpencil and our friends Patti and John went to New Castle’s Scottish Rite Cathedral yesterday evening. We experienced B.E. Taylor’s annual Christmas concert tour. We went last year and loved it so much we have decided to make it an annual Christmas tradition.
B E included local special needs adults who join him [...]

Local Christmas Shopping

Mrs. Elecpencil and I took a ride over to Sharon, Pa. this morning. We stopped on the West Hill at an art gallery/gift shop called, 29 Logan Ave. We then walked down the hill to the Walnut Lodge at 80 S. Irvine Ave. The lodge had about twenty artists set up selling handmade and fair [...]

They’re All Gay

This 9/11, 2009 held a different sadness for me, other than remembering the terrorist attacks of 9/11 2001. That is because on 9/11 2009 poet/singer Jim Carroll died of a heart attack. You might know about Jim from his 1978 autobiographical book, “The Basketball Diaries.” In 1995 it was made into a film of the [...]

Don’t Box Me In

Thanksgiving is over and the next holiday will be Christmas. It is really not my holiday, as I decided a few years back that I was no longer going to be a Christian. Yes, I believe Christ was an important prophet and teacher. I also believe that Buddha, Mohammed, Moses, Confucius, Gandhi, George Fox,  Zoroaster [...]

EX-Mayors, Ex-Bishops, Excellent Pizza and Fish

Today November 22, 2009 Mr. & Mrs. Elecpencil attended the Artists of the Mahoning Commons Holiday Open Studio and Art Sale.  It was held at, the Ward Bakery Building (across from U-Haul), 1024 Mahoning Avenue, Youngstown, Ohio. We attend every year and this year Mrs. Elecpencil bought two pieces of jewelry from two different artists. [...]

You Got the Wrong Number

A week ago I got a phone call from the National Rifle Association (NRA).  I am not nor will ever be a member so the call surprised me. A woman asked me to listen to a recorded message from Wayne LaPierre, Vice President of the NRA.  Mr. LaPierre was ranting about how there is a [...]

The Oakland Theater Cured My Phobia

Last night Mr. & Mrs. Elecpencil went with friends to see, “The Rocky Horror Show” at the Oakland Center for the Arts in downtown Youngstown. Before I get into a review of the Oakland’s play I want to talk about the movie. I have seen the movie several times since it came out in 1975.
The [...]

Living in the Mahoning Valley and Smiling

I haven’t gotten around to making a list of the best things our valley has to offer. I got to thinking, I just need to add some of the places  I have experienced on each blog I post.  More than anything else on my blog, I want you to go to the Armchair Activist section [...]

Dumb White Folks

I have never been able to understand racism. Support by poor white Southerners for slave owners during the Civil War has always puzzled me. Many of these whites lost their jobs at plantations because the plantation owners replaced them with black slaves.  Yet, when the end of slavery was threatened the same plantation owners were [...]