Author Archives: Denny

Wild and Wonderful Again

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In 2013, my Christmas Escape destination was a West Virginia state park and since then I’ve escaped to state parks in Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana. Last year, I didn’t escape to anywhere as travel was seriously curtailed by the ongoing pandemic. I’m a little excited to again hit the road and quite happy to be returning to West Virginia. Before I get to Hawks Nest State Park for a Christmas Day buffet, I’ll stop at a couple of other West Virginia parks, and before that, I take note of the Winter Solstice. That’s the Winter Solstice sunrise at Fort Ancient in the photo.

This entry is to let blog-only subscribers know about the trip and to provide a place for comments. The journal is here.

Book Review
Isaly’s Chipped Ham, Klondikes…
Brian Butko

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It’s been said you should write what you know. Brian Butko may or may not believe that but there is reason to think he might believe even more in the corollary: Write what you want to know. I frequently get the impression that Butko enjoys the hunt as much as the kill, research as much as publishing, learning as much as teaching. Isaly’s Chipped Ham, Klondikes, and Other Tales from Behind the Counter gives me that impression in spades. This is Butko’s second run at the subject having published Klondikes, Chipped Ham, & Skyscraper Cones: The Story of Isaly’s in 2001. I’m not familiar with the earlier book but know that there is some unavoidable overlap. No surprise there. There is no doubt a multitude of reasons for the redo but I’ll suggest — and this is pure conjecture — that not only was it tackled in order to improve the story with knowledge learned in the intervening twenty years but as an excuse to learn even more.

In the middle half of the twentieth century, Isaly’s was a major regional presence whose farms, factories, and stores helped feed a whole lot of people in northeast Ohio and northwest Pennsylvania. The arc of that presence is not unique. It was a family business that saw the success and growth of the first few generations eventually fade away in corporate buyouts. I’ve lived in Ohio my entire life but we missed each other. My neighborhood has been the state’s southwest corner, and the closest Isaly’s ever came to my home was Columbus. Although a few Columbus stores remained in the late 1960s and it’s possible that I saw one, I have no memory of it. The company entered Columbus in 1935, peaked there in the 1940s, and officially began its exit in 1954. Everything I know about Isaly’s I learned from Brian Butko. Brian Butko learned from family members, former employees, company records, newspapers, and libraries. 

There was plenty to learn. Isaly’s operated dairy farms, manufacturing and packing plants, home delivery routes, and stores that ranged from ice cream stands to delis and restaurants. Milk, cheese, butter, and ice cream were the most notable items they produced. They rebranded coffee, soft drinks, chips, pretzels, and more. They served chopped ham in a way that made it their own.

The ham thing is a great example of the innovation that marked Isaly’s early history. Chopped ham is made by boiling pieces of ham and pressing them into a loaf. A patent for the process was filed in 1937 and granted in 1939. By the end of that same year, Isaly’s was serving it sliced extremely thin. The technique is called chipping. It eliminated chopped ham’s inherent toughness and was an instant success. It wasn’t long before ham sales exceeded ice cream sales. Isaly’s trademarked the term “Chipped Chopped Ham” in 1960. 

There were other innovations such as Skyscraper Cones, Party Slices, and Klondike Bars. Klondike Bars were the biggie. The only Isaly’s product to have success nationally, they are still available today although they are made by Unilever and no longer bear the Isaly’s name. They do, however, still bear the Isaly’s bear.

Butko makes all this learning fun. The book, both outside and in, is colorful and just looks like fun. Old and new photos abound along with reproductions of advertisements and various newspaper items. This is not a company history presented chronologically. It’s the story of people, places, and products presented in bite-sized pieces. Every chapter contains an even number of pages (either 2 or 4) so that each begins on a left-hand page with a colorful — and sometimes playful — title. The short chapters might make it easy to leave the book and return but they are so tasty that I bet you can’t read just one.

Unlike me, Brian has plenty of personal Isaly’s memories. He says that his earliest was of their macaroni and cheese. His excitement is evident when given access to a 3-ring binder of company recipes. He finds the sought-after Baked Macroni then writes, “I have yet to try the official recipe…”.  The fact that the recipe yields 60  servings might be one deterrent but I think I also detect a little fear that today’s result might not live up to yesterday’s memories. I, for one, encourage Brian to face his fear and look that macaroni right in the elbow. Finding 59 mac & cheese eaters should be easy.

Isaly’s Chipped Ham, Klondikes, and Other Tales from Behind the Counter, Brian Butko, Senator John Heinz History Center (2021), 9 x 9 inches, 148 pages, ISBN 978-0936340319

Available at the Heinz History Center in Pittsburg, PA, or their online store here

A Cosmic Reason for the Season — Reredux

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The following article first appeared in 2019 then reappeared in 2020 when the Fort Ancient winter solstice sunrise program was canceled. I have seen nothing specifically about the program this year but know that the site will be open between 7 and 10 AM on December 21, the day of the solstice. That’s a Tuesday which is a day that the site is normally closed this time of year. It is clearly being opened for sunrise and a program of some sort seems possible.

The article’s first publication occurred one day after the solstice. The next year, it was one day before. This year it is two days before. That shifting comes from our efforts to make Sol, Luna, and Earth play nice together. Most of this blog’s posts, and all three posts of this article, occur on Sundays. Days of the week usually shift by one each year because seven does not fit evenly into 365. The two day shift between the article’s first and second appearance was because seven is an even worse fit for 366 and 2020 was a leap year. The seven-day week isn’t quite as arbitrary as it might first appear but neither is it an intuitive unit of measure. The moon circles Earth every 29.5 days. The Egyptians divided that into three ten-day periods. Four eight-day Roman weeks or seven-day Babylonian weeks fit less precisely but could be tied, albeit imperfectly,  to the moon’s four phases. The Babylonian seven-day week was spread far and wide by Alexander the Great, and as Rome moved into Alex’s old stomping grounds, it began to think that way too. The western world’s week became pretty much established in 321 CE when Constantine declared that an official Roman week was comprised of seven days. This Sunday post precedes the winter solstice of 2021 by 2 days; 2 days, 4 hours, and 58 minutes to be precise. 

Calendars come and calendars go and Earth just keeps on turning. And it keeps on orbiting, too. The turning bit creates what we call days. The alternating periods of light and dark impact almost all life on the planet and humans adopted the day as a basic unit of measure pretty early on. What we call years comes from Earth orbiting the Sun. There was plenty of time for early humans to stare at the sky and not a whole lot to keep them from doing it. They couldn’t help but notice that things in the sky moved around. In time, some of the more observant among them realized that not all that movement was random and eventually some patterns were noted. I can’t imagine how exciting it was when some smart guy figured out that the sun popped up at the same point about every 365 days. Of course, that “about” would be very important.

The opening photo shows the sun rising yesterday over a “gateway” in the earthen enclosure at Fort Ancient. The photo at left was taken a bit later and includes a small mound inside the enclosure in the foreground. When the mound, gateway, and sunrise align, sunset will follow sooner than on any other day of the year. This is the northern hemisphere’s Winter Solstice. It is the day when the sun is above the horizon for less time than any other day of the year, and yesterday that amounted to 9 hours, 25 minutes, and 9 seconds. Although we talk about Solstice being a day, it is technically just an instant. It is the moment when the Sun is farthest north or south of Earth’s equator. It happens twice each year and happened yesterday at 23:19 EST.

Serpent Mound, another ancient earthen structure containing solar alignments, is a little more than forty miles southeast of Fort Ancient. The serpent’s head is aligned with the Summer Solstice sunset. Body coils align with Summer and Winter Solstice sunrises. For several years, a modern event known as Lighting of the Serpent took place there at Winter Solstice. It was discontinued in 2017. The picture at right is from 2014 which is the only time I attended.

Long before they knew anything about orbits and equators, humans knew the day of Winter Solstice was special. It is the point where each successive day receives more rather than less daylight. It’s the big turnaround that will eventually lead to the warmth of spring and summer. It is clearly a day worth celebrating and it has indeed been celebrated in many different cultures in many different ways.

During their existence, humans have developed a slew of calendar systems. Several actually remain in use today, but the Gregorian calendar is the one most widely accepted. In the late sixteenth century, this started replacing the Julian calendar which had been around for all of those sixteen centuries and then some. The Julian calendar had been created by folks who calculated that a year was 365 and 1/4 days long which was a lot more accurate than an even 365. They came up with the rather clever idea of adding an extra day every four years to balance things out.

We now know that a year is 365.2422 days long. A year is the length of time it takes Earth to orbit the Sun, a day is the length of time it takes Earth to rotate, and neither is adjustable. When the Julian calendar was first adopted, the northern hemisphere’s Winter Solstice fell on December 25 but it slowly drifted away. Someone in authority thought to put an end to this nonsense by declaring December 25 the official solstice. But those non-adjustable orbits and rotations kept doing what they were doing and the official solstice and actual solstice just kept getting farther and farther apart.

The Gregorian calendar, which we have used for roughly 400 years now, put an end to that. Like the Julian calendar, it considers most years to be 365 days long but has a more involved system of “leap years” that add an extra day. The result is that over a long enough period our years will average 365.2422 days in length. Not only did the new calendar eliminate future drift, it tried to correct for some of the previous drift by throwing away ten days. The calendar’s namesake’s full-time job was as Pope of the Catholic Church. Ditching those ten days moved the solstice to December 22 which is where it had been in 325 when the church was founded. Of course, some holidays that had been tied to the official solstice (which hadn’t been anywhere near the actual solstice for some time) would continue to be celebrated on December 25.

Anyone wanting a more complete discussion of calendars, solstices, and holidays will find one here. Additional information on Fort Ancient is available here.

Book Review
Christmas in Cincinnati
Wendy Hart Beckman

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This History Press publication, as is their standard formula, is built around lots of photos both old and new. In this case, a few of those photos are mine. I won’t pretend that isn’t what made me aware of the book and triggered this review but will point out that the book does fit handily into the local-author-local-subject category that I’m fond of talking about. The local author, Wendy Hart Beckman, isn’t a native Cincinnatian but has spent much of her adult life here. I’m thinking that her New England background might actually help in recognizing what is unique or even just a little different about Christmas in Cincinnati.

As befits a book from The History Press, the first section of this book following the introduction is named “History” and notes that the very first celebration of the holiday in what would become Cincinnati occurred way back in 1788. Christmas is technically a Christian holiday, of course, and this chapter includes the history of the early days of the churches and the religion itself in the city. With Christmas being the only federal holiday with religious connections, I’ve often wondered why and when that happened but never got around to digging up the answer. Beckman answers the “when” question by writing that President Grant made it an official federal holiday in 1870. Ohio had made it official in 1857. Guess I’ll have to learn why on my own.

What follows is five chapters devoted to our five basic senses. There is a considerable amount of history presented in each of those too. But you knew that without me saying it. The reason you knew that, is because, like me, you instinctively knew that this book was about Christmas traditions and traditions are just an ongoing form of history. So, as Beckman informs us of “Things to Do”, “…Hear”, “…See”, “…Smell”, and “…Taste”, she presents the history of those things along with some guidance on how to experience them ourselves.

“Things to Do” in Cincinnati around Christmas time include skiing, sledding, and ice skating on Fountain Square. Shopping and visiting Santa in the numerous downtown stores was once a major draw in the days leading up to the holiday but the stores and the shoppers slipped away to the suburbs some time back. In 2020, COVID-19 nearly put a stop to in-person shopping anywhere and only time will tell if it ever fully returns. The same is true of sitting on jolly men’s laps. Beckman includes “Donating” among things to do and writes about several Cincinnati signature campaigns like the Ruth Lyons Children’s Fund and Neediest Kids of All.

Starting with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, there is no shortage of “Things to Hear” in Cincinnati. Beckman identifies many musical organizations, both professional and amateur, that offer Christmas-themed performances around the holidays. In addition to the many local groups, she mentions the Trans-Siberian Orchestra whose Decemberish visit has become something of a tradition over the last twenty years.

There are indeed plenty of things to do and hear in Cincinnati but there are even more “Things to See”. Beckman lists many Nativity scenes and light displays including some at private residences that have become must-sees over the years. The Cincinnati Zoo’s “Festival of Lights” and the tree on Fountain Square are in that must-see category. What might be considered the big three of Cincinnati Christmas events are on Beckman’s “Things to See” list. The oldest is Boar’s Head and Yuletide Festival which has been celebrated in Cincinnati since 1939. That’s clearly long enough ago to qualify as a true tradition but the festival’s history goes back another 600 years in England. Number two is The Nutcracker which the Cincinnati Ballet Company has been doing since 1974. The newest of the three is Playhouse in the Park’s production of A Christmas Carol which dates to 1991.

Only two categories of “Things to Smell” are identified by Beckman but each has quite a few entries. The “Freshly Cut Trees” category includes wreaths and garlands but if you want a serious grade A freshly cut aroma you need to do the cutting yourself and more than a dozen places offering that experience are listed. The second category is “Family Dinners” and only scents, not locations, are listed.

Good flavor is often advertised by a good aroma so it isn’t surprising that the word “family” reappears in “Things to Taste”. “Family Affairs” talks about some of the feasts of Christmases past. Some restaurants are also mentioned in the “…Taste” chapter but it was photos and descriptions of Cincinnati’s bakeries, candy shops, and ice cream parlors that got my taste buds’ attention. If you want to talk about tradition, how about a company (Doscher’s) that has been making candy canes since 1871?

For the history buff, Christmas in Cincinnati provides a good look at how Cincinnatians celebrated Christmas in the past. Perhaps more importantly, though, it identifies pieces of those celebrations that have become Queen City traditions and offers some guidance in how to participate in those traditions in the future.

Christmas in Cincinnati, Wendy Hart Beckman, The History Press (October 18, 2021), 6 x 9 inches, 160 pages, ISBN 978-1467148313
Available through Amazon.

Holly Days Under Glass

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I’d read that Dayton’s Arcade has been the focus of major restoration efforts and that some tenants have moved in and that others were on the way. But I had also read that most of the structure, including the 90-foot rotunda, was not yet open to the general public full time. I had completely missed some opening-related events that had been held in the rotunda but finally got my act together on the second day of Holly Days 2021. It’s an event that the Arcade has hosted in the past. The most recent, however,  was in 1993.

In recent years the Third Street facing side of the building shown in the opening photo is the image assigned to the structure in my mind. Almost all of my memories of the Arcade are, strangely enough, from the outside. My only memory of the inside is of a straight glass-topped walkway that I believe is behind the giant smiling face and was once lined with shops. I vaguely recall stepping into that area in the tow of an aunt on a mission. I have no recollection at all of what she bought but I’m fairly certain that we reversed paths once the purchase was made and I never reached the rotunda. I automatically assumed that access to Holly Days would be through that arch but it was not. My first view of the rotunda was from a normal hallway behind these bland glass doors on Fourth Street.

I had seen plenty of pictures so that first view didn’t shock me but it sure did impress me. I actually think I was more surprised by the bustling crowd than the phenomenal restoration work. I’m pretty sure crowds only bustle during the holidays and possibly only when their focus is gift shopping. About half of the rotunda was filled with potential gifts and this crowd was clearly bustling.

Crowds would have also filled the rotunda in its earliest days and they might have even bustled on occasion. It opened in 1904 as a farmers market which explains the turkeys, ram heads, and fruit decorating the upper walls. Note that cardinal directions, such as east and south, are marked on pillars along with some of the more popular intermediate directions like 159° and 212°.

During Holly Days, a variety of entertainment utilized the rotunda’s north side (i.e., the side opposite the big S). While I was there on Wednesday afternoon, the Miami Valley Dance Company performed selected dances from The Nutcracker.

How something like this could have come as close as it did to vanishing is a question I’ve asked before about other treasures but there is hardly ever an answer. In the end, we just have to be thankful when the wrecking ball is avoided and doubly thankful when something not only dodges the ball but comes back looking like this. If you are unfamiliar with the Arcade’s history, I recommend checking out the information provided here. I also suggest taking a look at Ronny Salerno’s 2016 The Dayton Arcade for a glimpse at what it came back from. Ronny even has a picture of the bit I think I remember.  

Musical Review
Need Your Love

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Back in 2015, I attended a reading of KJ Sanchez’s Cincinnati King in Washington Park and wrote about it here. Three years later, I saw it performed at Playhouse in the Park and wrote about that here. At the time, I really expected that I would next encounter the name KJ Sanchez when Cincinnati King opened in another theater in another city. That hasn’t happened yet — although I very much believe it should — so my next Sanchez encounter was back at Playhouse in the Park where her second play with King Records connections is now playing.

Cincinnati King is the story of King Records told through three main characters. There are other cast members but company founder Syd Nathan, long-time session drummer Philip Paul, and star recording artist Little Willie John are all that Sanchez needed to paint her King Records picture. Her latest play is about just one member of that trio and she is every bit as efficient this time out as last. If three characters can tell the story of a large record company, how many are required for a single artist?.

For KJ Sanchez, the answer is one. I first realized that Need Your Love is essentially a one-man play while reading the program in the playhouse lobby before the show. I say “essentially” only because the four-piece band is an integral part of the performance, is always on stage, and occasionally interacts with the only cast member. But that cast member, Antonio Michael Woodard, speaks every line, sings every song, and dances every step. OK, technically — and only technically — that “speaks every line” claim isn’t entirely true but it is impossible to watch Woodard’s performance and not be impressed with the collection of talents he brings to the production.

The band’s performance was also impressive. Half of the quartet, drummer Richard Huntley and bassist Terrell Montgomery, were also part of the Cincinnati King combo. Pianist Ian Axness and guitarist Joel Greenburg may have missed Cincinnati King but they are hardly rookies. The group convincingly delivered a variety of styles. Naturally, “Fever”, John’s biggest hit, is included in the show’s thirteen songs as is his first King release, “All Around the World”. They supply a glimpse of Jack White’s somewhat edgy cover of “I’m Shakin'” then follow it with the original Little Willie John R & B version. The title inspiring “Need Your Love So Bad” is there too, of course. 

The technicality that results in Woodard not quite speaking every line is one of the production’s coolest features. Syd Nathan, who died in 1968, recorded some instructions about how King Records should operate. At several points in the performance, excerpts from those recordings and possibly others are played from off stage. Sometimes the on-stage Willie John sort of has a conversation with the disembodied voice. This isn’t an attempt to pretend that a living Syd and Willie are chatting in the 1960s. The play’s setting is the empty King Records building in Cincinnati. The time is now. It opens with a group of musicians entering the building for a not exactly kosher jam session. Something about the old building transforms the group into Little Willie John and friends and the music begins to flow. It is, I suppose, the spirits of Little Willie John and Syd Nathan having those conversations.

It was an all-around great performance and it was KJ Sanchez’s script that enabled it. Regrettably, I cannot praise the script quite as freely as the performance. Little Willie John’s life certainly had its ups and downs and its ending was truly tragic. There is little doubt that racial prejudice affected his treatment in prison and probably in the courts. It is entirely possible that John was quite innocent of the crime for which he was enprisoned. There is, however, room in the real world for doubt but little such room to be found in Need Your Love. Some of those rough spots in John’s life were his own doing. He had some problems with alcohol and drugs and even his temper. Sanchez did not omit these from Cincinnati King and I don’t believe they made me any less angry about the injustice John encountered. For some reason, though, those things seem to be missing from Need Your Love.

Sanchez made contact with Willie John’s sister Mable during the writing of Need Your Love. Mable had her own musical career both as a solo artist and as a Ray Charles Raelette. Now 91, she recorded some remembrances of her brother that are played near the end of the show to further dilute that “speaks every line” claim. It was a real surprise and a nice touch. It even occurred to me that Sanchez may have left out alcohol and drug references to keep Willie’s image a little cleaner for sister Mable. If so, I guess I can live with that.

Need Your Love wraps up its run at Playhouse in the Park on December 12.

A Hanukkah Drive-Thru

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I’m not really sure what to think about Rockwern Academy’s drive-through Hanukkah display. On one hand, this new addition to Cincinnati’s holiday attractions is clearly making a lot of people happy. On the other, it is a little sad to see what seems to be one religion feeling compelled to compete with another. Of course, it could just be an example of a religion making a small concession to the modern world. Let’s go with that. It’s way too easy to overthink the whole thing. 

As I pulled into the display on Monday, a greeter offered some guidance and tips such as turning off headlights. She also held up a big QR code to help connect a smartphone to the school’s website and a soundtrack. The connection can also be made by manually entering the site’s address. The soundtrack is a brief introduction followed by recordings of students singing a number of Hanukkah songs. I scanned the QR code, connected my phone to the car’s sound system, and entered the display surrounded by happy young (the school is K-6) voices. I’m sure the owners of some of those voices appear in the slideshow of school scenes projected on a large screen near the beginning of the display.

The display is believed to be a first for Cincinnati. There is online evidence that something similar existed in nearby Dayton, Ohio, last year but that seems to have been a one-time pandemic-inspired thing. The folks at Rockwern say theirs will be back bigger and better next year.

I’ve never been Jewish although I once claimed to be 1/8 Jewish because my wife was 1/4 Jewish. I really don’t know much about Jewish traditions. I did know that Hanukkah celebrates a lamp’s one-day supply of oil lasting for eight days back in 3622 (139 B.C.E.). And I did know that the celebration lasts for eight days with a candle being lighted on each of those days. I even knew that those candles were held by something called a menorah but I did not know that menorahs come in two configurations. A Hanukkah menorah holds nine candles. The center candle is used to light the others, which represent the eight days of miraculous lamplight.

As I poked around the internet while writing this, I was seriously confused by the seven candle menorahs I saw. I’ve certainly seen plenty of them in the past but they just hadn’t registered. The seven candle menorah predates the miracle of the oil. If there was ever a single universally accepted explanation for its seven branches, it seems to have been lost to history. I’ve found references to the seven days of creation, the seven days of mourning associated with a death, and (from pre-telescope days) the five planets plus the earth and moon.

I also noticed what I thought was a significant number of bears in Hanukkah-related images. Almost all are the cuddly Teddy Bear type like in the opening photo. The internet was of no help in explaining then so I asked a Jewish friend. She knew of no official connection and theorized that their popularity might be due to being able to dress them like humans in displays such as this. It’s possible, we decided, that the whole thing just might be a Build-A-Bear scheme to increase the holiday market for their product.

Even though today, December 5, is the final day of Hanukkah 2021, the last chance to experience the display was last night. The first was last Sunday meaning that not one of this blog’s regular Sunday morning posts occurred during the event. If you missed it because you’re depending on me for Jewish holiday alerts, you are clearly meshuggah.

Santa Claus Is Climbing to Town

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The title of this post is based on accepting that people climb down as well as up and that rappelling is a member of the climbing family. That’s because rappelling from the top of a twenty-three-story building is how the man in red entered Cincinnati last night. And that’s how he intends to enter the city every Saturday night from now until his other job has him busy all night long on the 25th. The daring drop is part of an event called Downtown Dazzle.

I reached Fountain Square with enough time before Santa’s arrival to walk a half-block one direction for dinner and a half-block in the other direction for a beer. Between the two, I snapped a picture of the city’s 56 foot Christmas tree which was officially lighted in a ceremony just yesterday.

There was a time when the Christmas tree really dominated Fountain Square during the holiday season. It still dominates the view from outside the square but it’s the skating rink that dominates the square itself. There has been a rink on the square since 2006 but it grew in size a few years ago. Last year, bumper cars were added and they’re back again this year. I was hoping to get my first look at the cars but, although they had operated earlier in the day, they were parked for Downtown Dazzle and 100% of the rink was available to skaters.

At a few minutes past 7:00, we were alerted to some “breaking” (but not very shocking) news. Reporters appeared on the square’s giant TV describing a UFO of some sort circling around downtown Cincinnati. When it was thought to have landed, searchlights played over several nearby buildings trying to locate the craft or its occupants. Three figures were soon spotted on top of the Huntington Center, and we all got to watch one reindeer, one Santa, and one elf descend to a much lower rooftop.

The instant that the trio reached the target roof and disappeared from sight, the first volley of fireworks exploded. For roughly twelve minutes, the Genius of Water and the Carew Tower were illuminated by the rockets’ red (and other colors) glare. Pretty cool! Be there at 7:00 PM on each of the next three Saturdays for more breaking news.

Although I had photos in hand, I did not identify my dinner spot when I mentioned it above. That was partly because it did not fit with describing the Dazzle and partly (maybe mostly) because I wanted to finish the post and go to bed. Now that deadlines are past and I’m no longer dozing off, I’m tacking it on.  Hathaway’s Diner has been operating in Cincinnati since 1956 but it wasn’t here. It was semi-deep inside the Carew Tower with no windows. The current owner has described it as a cave and I can’t disagree. It nearly closed in 2019 but a renegotiated lease kept it going. Then, just last month, they moved into a spot vacated by Frisch’s. It’s still in the Carew Tower but it now has windows and an entrance right on the street. There is also an entrance from inside the tower and that’s how I arrived. I exited directly to the street where, despite the chilly temperature, the diner was going hatless. I’d only eaten breakfast at the former location but went for a very good patty melt on my first time at the new, more visible and convenient, spot. I’ll be back. Probably for breakfast.

A Stranger Bought My Breakfast

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Saturday the 13th was the twelfth anniversary of my retirement. On the following Monday, as I did on that first retired Monday a dozen years ago, I went to the nearby Original Pancake House for breakfast. When my boss retired a few years ahead of me, he said he would know he was really retired when he was enjoying a leisurely breakfast on a Monday morning and that worked for me too. Although it isn’t always at this pancake house, I do try to reverify my status on the anniversary of the first day of that first job-free week.

The first time, twelve years ago, I had a brief conversation with a lady at a table near mine. Either her name was Virginia or she was from Virginia. (My memory sometimes thinks it’s retired, too.) Like me, she had a book as a dining companion, and, also like me, she was retired and well aware that the day was the start of a workweek for many. Virginia (or an unnamed lady from Virginia) had started enjoying workless Mondays some years before me. I haven’t seen her since but I hope she’s still doing that somewhere.

This year, I sat at a booth with no other customers nearby and split time between my eggs and my book. When the waitress came by to pick up an empty plate and offer another coffee refill, I expected her to leave a check. Instead, she told me someone had already paid for my meal. I asked her to repeat it and know I stared at her like an idiot.

“Some sort of pay-it-forward I guess,” she offered with a smile. I tried to return the smile but suspect I just continued to look dumb.

I reached the end of a chapter in my book and turned to my phone to check on the world before leaving. At the top of my Facebook feed was a post from Ray Wylie Hubbard who had an anniversary of his own on Saturday. He turned 75 that day. Ray Wylie hasn’t retired — musicians rarely do — and had performed in Austin on his birthday. His post was one of those RWH things that seem kind of rambling but really aren’t. He talked about his birthday and aging and such. In the middle, he tossed out a line that I know I’ll come back to on my own 75th in a few months and probably on some other anniversaries, too. “…but no matter how old I feel or think I am, I come back to being extremely grateful for my time here and try to show each day the respect it deserves while I is cause at some point in the future, well..I ain’t.”

He closed by suggesting folks “find something to be grateful for” if “you got some trouble in mind” or “darkness swooped down on you”. I have neither trouble nor darkness but it sure is easy to find something to be grateful for.

My Gear – Chapter 22
Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark III

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This is a PIP: a Pandemic Inspired Purchase. It has pre-pandemic roots, but it was the lack of travel and its associated reasons to take pictures that triggered the purchase of another device for taking them. I know that’s not very logical but I think quite a bit of what we did, and continue to do, during the COVID-19 pandemic is like that — especially what we purchase. I’ll tell about the purchase before I say much about the camera.

There are two sorts of those pre-pandemic roots I mentioned. One is my experience with Olympus in the days before the digital revolution. I was extremely satisfied with the two OM-1s I owned. The wonderfully small size was one reason; reliability was another. A third reason, and one that I never missed an opportunity to mention, was their lack of dependence on battery power. Yes, a battery was required for the built-in meter, but everything else, including focus and shutter, was manual and would function just fine with a dead battery. I guess that’s the same sort of thinking that had me using only cameras with standard AA or AAA batteries for so long after I left 35mm film behind.

The second root can be traced to my curiosity about the new breed of “mirrorless” cameras even though I dislike the name for the same reason I dislike the label “unleaded gas”. The idea of feeding an electronic viewfinder with the same information going to the image recording sensor makes sense but my experience with the concept had not been encouraging. I’d owned a couple of what used to be called “bridge” cameras because (I think) they bridged the gap between compact cameras and DSLRs. They were practical and yielded satisfactory images, but the sluggishness and low resolution of the eye-level viewfinders left me unimpressed. Curiously, I didn’t whine about it in any of the bridge camera My Gear posts (DMC-FZ5, DMC-FZ8, DMC-FZ70). I did mention the sluggishness of the DMC-ZS40 despite it being much improved from the older cameras. By then I’d gotten used to a real SLR again. I now got to wondering just how good were the EVFs in these even newer offerings?

With that background, two things converged in the stay-at-home days of 2020 to make the purchase happen. One was my constantly walking past two containers of coins in my bedroom. For a little more than twenty years, they had frequently, though not regularly, received handfuls of pocket change. The largest, a jug I’d started on after a snack can had become full, was too heavy to move, and I asked myself just what the purpose was. When I’d started the hoards, the possibility of one day dumping them out for gas or groceries was real. That really was no longer the case, and, unable to explain to myself why they were there, I decided to empty them. I began taking the coins to a nearby counting machine where I had the option of getting 93% of their value in cash or 100% of their value in Amazon credit. I went for all the value all the time. Then, just as my Amazon credit balance was reaching an all-time high, Olympus announced a new E-M10IV and folks started discounting E-M10IIIs.

I am surprised to see that Olympus still offers the OM-D E-M10 Mark IIIs (not sure what the ‘s’ means) with a 14-40mm lens for $600. The E-M10 Mark IV is available with the same lens for $700. In September 2020, I bought the pictured kit, which includes a 40-150mm lens that Olympus currently offers for $200, for $598 in what was once pocket change. The included case and SD card were icing.

I was quite impressed when the kit arrived. Although I didn’t list it as a “root”, I think I was just about as curious about the Micro Four Thirds form factor as I was about “mirrorless” viewfinders. The camera’s size reminded me of those distant OM-1 days. Other things about the E-M10 also reminded me of the OM-1 including the general feel and the perceived quality. Photo quality was also good with a sensor of approximately 16 megapixels. With the pancake style 14-40 lens mounted, the camera fits into many pockets and another pocket might hold the 40-150.

So, with all those good things going for it, why has it taken me more than a year to finish this post? The short answer is “lack of use” and the reason for that lack of use is almost the camera’s only negative and it is actually just a personal problem. Even with the tiny size of my cast of cameras, it wasn’t easy finding a role for the E-M10 to play.

The Olympus shares work with a Nikon D5100 and a Panasonic DMC-ZS40. Note that none of these cameras is at all high-end. All three are more or less entry-level for their type. When size is no object, the Nikon wins. It’s hardly the best camera in THE world but it is the best camera in MY world. When size is very much an object, the Panasonic wins. It’s not only the smallest of the three but with a 30X (24–720 mm equivalent) zoom, it is the most versatile. Of course, when the word versatile enters the conversation, my Pixel 4a phone demands attention. It’s almost always at hand and I must reluctantly admit that it does a mighty fine job of taking pretty good pictures in pretty bad situations.

I did find a role for the Olympus during my most recent road trips, but before I reveal what that is I’m going to get in a couple of digs. One is the major flare seen with backlit subjects. This is something it shares with the Panasonic and I theorized it was due to their smallish sensor size. I haven’t totally thrown that possibility out but people more knowledgeable than me have suggested it might be lens quality. The actual problem at the heart of my second dig was operator error but the camera encouraged it. At a point when I really intended to seriously put the camera to use, I found the camera’s field of view so narrow that I simply scrapped my plans and used the Nikon in situations I had thought to use the Olympus. I blamed this on the Micro Four Thirds system. I eventually figured out that the default setting of the rather prominent Fn2 button is to activate 2X digital zoom and that I had apparently pressed it at some point. It was a misunderstanding brought on by unfamiliarity with the camera (which I’m still drenched in) but it was irritating nonetheless.

That role I found for the Olympus? Car seat companion. I like to take road pictures; always one-handed and often, though not always, through a dirty windshield. Doing this with the Nikon or Pixel is too awkward to even think about except on an empty highway or at a dead stop. The Panasonic is actually pretty good at it — once it’s fired up. But firing it up, even when it is on and just sleeping, is a sluggish affair. When sleeping, the Olympus wakes up rather quickly with a touch of the shutter button. It is a bit heavier than the Panasonic but is nearly the same size with a rear screen that is at least the Panasonic’s equal. Even with my digital zoom interfering faux pas, it was good at this and it became even better once I rectified my goof.

As shown by that digital zoom thing, I’ve made little effort to understand what is obviously a very capable and somewhat complex camera. Heck, there might even be a setting that would vanquish that backlit flare. The Nikon D5100 has been in fairly heavy use for over eight years and I know I still don’t understand half of its capabilities. I don’t expect to master the Olympus E-M10 anytime soon but I do expect to take some OK pictures with it. All in all, I’m pretty happy with my PIP.

My Gear – Chapter 21 — Garmin zūmo 396LMTS