Category Archives: toledo

Telling The Planet Where to Stick It

canada, politics, rhetoric, toledo 2019.08.26 Sean Shannon Leave a comment

Ontario gas pump sticker violators will face fines, says Ford (Global News)Elections Canada climate advertising guidelines puts chill on green groups’ advocacy (Reuters via Yahoo!)Democratic National Committee votes against allowing 2020 candidates to participate in climate change debate (CNN) My personality is probably a good explanation for why I tend to be such a night owl, but my earlier living situation played a large part in that as well. For most of the time I lived in Toledo, I was going to bed in a…

Missing the Mosquitoes

personal, toledo 2019.06.24 Sean Shannon Leave a comment

Summer hasn’t quite come to Wisconsin yet, but it should finally get here tomorrow. Temperatures around these parts have been slightly below average these past couple of weeks, reminding me of mid-spring weather back home in Toledo, and that’s definitely a good thing for my mood. Mid-spring weather was always my favourite in Toledo, that longest span of the year when everyone can keep their windows open twenty-four hours a day and no one runs their air conditioners, so the smells of new flora follow…

New Ground

personal, toledo 2019.05.13 Sean Shannon Leave a comment

For a few years around the turn of the millennium, the main clock at my father’s office was one of those clocks that broadcast a different bird’s call from its speaker for each of the twelve hours. The idea behind getting that clock for the office was to help us all be more aware of time, since it’s easy to tune out the same chiming sound , no matter how many (or few) times it’s made at the top of each hour. Maybe our brains…

In Enemy Territory

personal, sports, toledo 2019.04.15 Sean Shannon Leave a comment

NBA Playoffs 2019: Bucks make a statement to the rest of the Eastern Conference with Game 1 destruction of Pistons (CBSSports.com) Growing up in Toledo has a way of making you painfully aware of whatever Ohio State-University of Michigan sports rivalry is dominant at any particular moment. There used to be a whole chain of stores in Toledo devoted solely to clothing and other merchandise from the two colleges; it’s down to one location now, but it’s still a testament to how Northwest Ohio and…

Klatsch Klutz

food, personal, toledo 2019.04.01 Sean Shannon Leave a comment

It wasn’t exactly like coffeehouses were invented in the nineties, but that might have been their modern heyday. The fictional coffeehouse that was central to a certain NBC sitcom may be the most iconic of its era, but in the middle part of the decade, back when independent stores and media were thriving, the coffeehouses that popped up around the Toledo area were lovely, and even though my hopes of becoming more social by sitting around drinking coffee there never really materialized, I still have…