I know, Throwback Thursday has been around for a long while now.  Probably a bit too long, and we all kind of put up with it.  But the one thing I always notice from the second a pic is posted is the huge chorus of Vidal Sassoons and Paul Mitchells  chiming in with, "OMG that hair!"  Or  "Those bangs, nice mullett, or what's up with your hair?"  and the LOL's are flying around like planes over O'Hare.  And being fair, it's apt.  It's about all anyone really says.

But Throwback Thursday has taught me over the years there are two things to keep in mind.  One is, yes the hair was awful. I mean look at this pic from me from the 4th grade.  What hedge-trimming, machete-wielding, pinking shear-throwing sadist did that to me? Truth be told, it was probably my mom with some razor blade contraption from the Revco.  But things are different today, as many parents put a lot of money into their own hair, or thier kids hair too.  And that's fine, everyone is looking good!  Until you don't.....

The second thing to remember is this. The hair you're wearing right this minute as you read this, will be laughed at hard in Throwback Thursdays up the road.  The clothes too.  We all think we are the height of fashion, until one day we are not, and today's hair style is the thing of a good laugh from others and probably you too, in the years ahead.

But right now, we are looking good!  Real good!

I have owned two Huskies.  The late Kona, and the very much alive, Juneau.  As great as these dogs are, I have to ask one question.  Where the heck does all this hair come from?

I mean, this is us on the way to get a haircut!

You have to put the car in like a haz-mat suit to even get the dog to the people that will attempt to shed some of this shedding!  Its a process!

Look,  I've had some long hair at times, but nothing like this.

If you have a long haired dog, you get it.  Thank goodness we have those who are willing to go in and get it done.  My great friends at Pay It Forward For Pets keep Juneau looking good -  Thank YOU!

It's been a couple of days since we wrapped up the WQMX Tree Of Lights, and I took a couple of days to digest the enormity of it all.  Every year we raise money for local and worthwhile organizations, and this year we began with a new benefactor, NEOPAT, The Northeast Ohio Foundation for Patriotism.  These are good people. 

Fun Pic of Ken, Me, Sarah and some GREAT Guardsmen

Our area has been greatly impacted by veterans and military involvement. This was a great marriage that I hope continues on for a few more really great years.  Everyone we met with NEOPAT, those who represented them, and members of the active military that was a part of our two day radiothon were simply amazing.  How lucky we are that we have an organization that takes the time and effort to help military families that are in need.  And there is need.

Harlan, a Vietnam Veteran came by and shared some joy!

We raised, with your help and the help of many of our caring sponsors, about $30,000 for this very deserving group, and we say thank you!  I am hoping this is just the beginning of a new door opening and we raise even more money for them next year.

I always love supporting local people that are worth supporting, and these people are, as are the amazing souls who make up the selfless military famlies of our area.

Thank YOU!

Today, for some reason is National Llama Day. Do we need this?  Do llamas really need a day? Asking for a friend.  I mean, who owns a real llama?

Stuffed llamas don't last long around our happy house.  All three dogs seem to love them, and well, you can see the carnage. The Beautiful Windy keeps making Target runs to get new ones, and MIddy, Luna, and Juneau keep tearing them up.

Long live llamas!   Sort of.....

Wild Lights at the Akron Zoo!  Is another great gift idea this year for Christmas!  Or maybe a zoo membership!  If you have little kids especially An Akron Zoo membership is a GREAT idea.

Click here for all the info you need for the Akron Zoo!

We go every year!

Here's a very good idea if you are looking for a great Christmas gift for somene that's hard to buy for. Over the last few weeks, I have been lucky enough to go to Playhouse Square downtown Cleveland for a couple of different shows, in a couple of different theaters.  How lucky are we to have that amazing place.  Windy and I saw Trisha Yearwood and then over the weekend we saw the Cleveland Pops Orchestra do a Christmas show.

Incredible Ceiling View.....Ornate!

Both were fun, and just as much fun is seeing the incredible theaters.  A fantastic tribute to an era gone by, and one that is a strong as any today.  Those theaters host a large array of shows and there is certainly one that will interest you or someone you know.

What a great and imaginative Christmas gift it would be, sending someone there for a show of some kind.  Keep it in mind, sure beats a ton of stuff you can spend the same money on.  I have really become, lately even more so, of giving the gift of an experience instead of an actual gift.  Hit a show and a downtown dinner and you have made an amazing memory.

Old School Box Office.....Vintage!

How lucky we are for Playhouse Square and how lucky you will be if you go to a show!

Windy and I had a great time!

I took a day after that horrible Browns loss in Pittsburgh to fully digest what I had just seen. An insanely depleted Steelers team whipped up on a fairly healthy Browns team in a game the Browns, and Steelers had to have. The Steelers just wanted it more. (Duck Hodges!!!)  This Browns team is so incredibly disappointing, it's hard to know where to begin.  So I'll begin where you should - at the beginning.

I have always felt the real job of the NFL head coach is singular.  Getting players to WANT to play for them. The great ones all did  - and do. Lombardi, Landry, Brown, Noll, Parcells, and more recently, Belichick, and Tomlin.  They took different paths of motiviation, but they all got there. There are plenty of assistant coaches to do the X's and O's. Head coaches motivate players and coaches and manage games. Here in Browns Country, we have none of that.

What I can't decide though is this. Do these Browns players today not like and respect Freddie Kitchens, or do they like him too much and everyone is just dudes and buddies? If it's the first, the team is lost, if it's the second, the team is lost.  THE job of an NFL head coach is to get these guys to walk through fire for them.  And this team will not do it. 

My feeling is that it is the former.  Kitchens has produced a very immature football team that mirrors himself, where they don't know how to win. And he refuses to admit that he is being out prepared every week by more seasoned coaches that are way, way down the line from him on the field and off. And it's not by a little, the word is out, don't fear the Browns, they don't know what they are doing. And they don't.

He forgets the coaches on the other sideline are getting paid too, as he attempts to reinvent the wheel most Sundays, as other coaches simply laugh.  Many of those same coaches would love the talent Kitchens has to coach, as they watch him squander game after game with blunders, inexperience and an arrogance that's here way too soon.

This team is really not as bad as it seems.  They just have to learn to walk through fire.  And one day they will, but for whom?

This week I'm sharing Thanksgiving memories with you, and at the same time wanting to give thanks to many during a week that is set up to do so.  I spent 21 Thanksgivings away from Northeast Ohio.  But when I came back home, I learned how much I missed holidays away from my hometown.  Spending some Thanksgivings with my friend Don,his wife Terri and his family reminded me of such.  I've been friends with Don for just about 40 years and Terri almost the same.  Don and I play golf all the time as well.

Tough Stance, Don......

I don't know the actual number, but I have spent a bunch of them at thier house. They come from a much larger, and frankly younger family than I do.  My family is spread out over the country, theirs is local.  So spending Thanksgivings with them was a win in many ways.  My family, at times would travel and Don would invite me over.  Their Thanksgivings were very different than mine were here. Large gatherings, with a ton of family and exended family. Great people, and great times.  I never knew a large holiday in my own family, there just were not a lot of us. 

I like the large gathering,  I also like how there are a few different parties going on at the same time.  You have the cooking bunch in the kitchen, food focused, with prep going on,  carving and planning.  And there's the bunch watching football.  Then the wine drinkers who are socializing with apps, and then there's the room with the kids and young parents.  All fun.

Between Don and Terri's respective families, they are great cooks and the food is amazing. Plus there is no shortage of it.  Being more than honest, I really like that.  In my own family as a kid growing up, I wasn't around those kind of cooks.  They always laugh at me as I still show great enthusiam for the food, and it's genuine.  But with all that said, there is a larger lesson here, and one that makes me pause, stop and learn.

It is clear that Don, Terri and family are the most generous friends I know.  Through their example, they show that all are welcome.  And not just simply, welcomed, but embraced. I feel like I am a member of their immediate family through thier welcoming nature.  And this goes well beyond Thanksgiving, but to Easter many years, July 4ths and so on.  This year they are going to reward themselves and spend the holiday on vacation to visit their own families that live out of town, and let someone else host and I'm thrilled for them.

It's great to have friends to be thankful for........

This week I am sharing some Thanksgiving memories with you, and at the same time wanting to give thanks to so many during a week that is set up to do so.  I spent 21 Thanksgivings away from my home here in Northeast Ohio.  I was on a 21 year professionaI radio job road trip tour, and I spent it with various friends and people. Some I still see, and some I have not in many years, but that's our world.  Suzi from Columbus, I do not, but I will not forget her kindness.

I had just moved to Columbus in the fall of 1983 to work at a Country station there, WRMZ.  It was my biggest break yet in radio, I was newly 22.  I had a very small place in a seedy joint called the Moonglow Apartments, north of town on I-71. You can still see the sign from the highway as you drive by it.  My first Thanksgiving there I was poor, and had to work the weekend, so I could not go home.   It was my first holiday away, and I was home watching Billy Sims and the Detroit Lions beat up on someone in the first game.  Was I lonely?  Being honest, I don't really remember. But what happened later I sure do.

I had a neighbor that lived above me named Suzi.  She worked late nights and I think was about 10 years older than me.  I didn't know her well at all, and being honest, never really did even after this day I'm talking about.  But around halftime of the Dallas game, she knocked on my door and gave me a ton of leftovers from her familys Thanksgiving celebration she was coming home from.  I was so shocked, I was speechless.  She stayed for a minute and said she had to go up and sleep before her night shift. 

I remember the food was great, and I was so happy I did have a Thanksgiving after all, beit alone.  But what I really remember was Suzi's kindness, that has stuck with me all these years. I think it was like the first real "adult" thing ever done for me. And it opened my eyes to the fact I was no longer a "dude" and I was going to be dealing with grownups in my personal life and professional life as well.  It changed me.

Always thankful for that act of kindness....

I wish I could say this is perfect, but I can't.  But what I can say is that Tom Hanks is terrific in this darn good movie that puts PBS TV Icon Fred Rogers front and center.  And he deserves it. 

This is based on true events, but sadly it deals far too much about a middle aged reporter and his daddy issues from years ago that are relateble for sure, but in the end, tiresome and mundane.  As this reporter comes to do a national magazine article of Rogers, he experiences  Rogers' amazing kindness and conviction to helping people.   All of this eventually becomes the center of his healing, and that's fine.  There's just too much of his world, and not enough of Fred's.

But that does not make this a bad movie.  This is a good movie, and Hanks is remarkable, there just may not be enough of him.  True, we all know of Rogers' incredible compassion and dedication to helping his fellow man.  I just want to know where all that came from.  I wanted to know more of Rogers, way behind the scenes, and we don't get that.   But what we do get is his gift to our hurting reporter and his family, and we have to concede that this is the reporters story and not Rogers.

This is very good movie making and the script that was given to us is true and taken in the direction that they saw fit, and that's fine.  But I think we may all want to know more about a man that was unlike most others in about every way there is.