Description
“Feagler has been entertaining, chastising and instructing us for three decades with his newspaper columns. He is our Royko, our Damon Runyan, our Balzac, capturing our foibles and the goofy logic with which we pursue our grand schemes.” — Northern Ohio Live
Dick Feagler’s sharp-witted newspaper columns and TV commentaries defined Cleveland for a generation. This book collects the award-winning columnist’s best writing about his hometown: 104 essays covering Cleveland politics, sports, crime, people (famous, infamous, and ordinary), and timeless tough issues. A comprehensive and uncompromising look at life in and around the city.
Table of Contents
Editors’ Preface
Introduction
MAN ABOUT TOWN:
Where’d we go?
You have to murder a park
Bad jokes
Plum crazy
A farewell to Halle’s
The rubber stamp
Lessons from Rockford
Don’t rock the polka
Suspending artistic license
Rude awakening
Two anniversaries
THE PASSING PARADE:
The leader passes on
The last picture
Ariane packs her memories
The fall guy
A soldier’s smile
Miss Herbert
Symbol of glory
A tree of love
Welcome back, Kotter
A single rose
Out of job, out of life
It’s expensive to be a hero
Christmas Angels
Do not disturb
PUBLIC SERVANTS:
Rockefeller’s cool
Two years later
Perk brushes up
Ralph Perk’s boat
Rating a crisis
A tale of two speeches
So long, Dennis
A bitter city votes
Jim Rhodes goes fishing
Ask the consultant
Who’s watching the children?
The cost of caring
Winning the west
A more fitting tribute
The senator from Ohio
SHADES OF DIFFERENCE:
Reminders of violence
Ghosts of the past
Solomon’s choice
Surprise ending: no surprise
Bus ride to bigotry
Missing the bus
Facing racism
A snob is a snob
Inside the closet
Kiss the rules goodbye
Gender rules
Bodhi benediction
The Anglo file
Without a prayer
A wing and a prayer
Add it up
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT:
Murder gets personal
Meeting a statistic
Eddie Watkins’ cellmate
Vigil for a hostage
Steele’s smile
A father’s hope
A sane solution
Not guilty?
When rights are wrong
Lawyers, guns and money
Stolen innocence
Begging the question
Right and wrong
The bishop and the chief
FROM THE BLEACHERS:
Rocco’s song
The search for a dream
The boys of summer
When legends were neighbors
A quiet pleasure
The name rings a Belle
This year is different
Names that start with zzzzz
The peace pipe
Opening day
Summer fling
Throw it back
Morons in the stands
Farewell to Art
We’ll live
MILESTONES:
Special delivery
Christmas at Aunt Ida’s
The longest day of the year
A razor’s edge
Play that funky music
It won’t be April foal
A summer storm
“Peppa-Rex!”
Labor Day
Memories of a price war
40-year-old meets himself
A midwinter’s tale
Shall we dance?
STOP THE PRESSES:
Stuck
Nuts discover television
The ghosts with me
Newspapers before Watergate
Stop the presses (for the very last time)
POSTSCRIPT:
A bicentennial letter to Moses Cleaveland
