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40 years and 20 names...was it really a dream?

Posted by Fred Steiner on March 17, 2010 - 4:37am

We challenged James Pannabecker to create a column for the Icon that mentions the names of 20 Bluffton residents. He met the challenge. Here is the result. You may find other columns by him on his blog.

By James Pannabecker
Two weeks with Wanda Pannabecker, who proved on 5 occasions that one plus one equal three (Phil, John, James, Tom, and Mary), drove me back to sites of my youth.

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Joanne Niswander: Do they know?

Posted by Fred Steiner on March 12, 2010 - 6:38pm

By Joanne Niswander

I've just come back from my first real walk of the spring - with no coat, only a light sweater (and that was a little much). All of you Ohioans who have spent the winter inside, walking the treadmill or the indoor track, know how refreshing it is to be able to step outside with no coat and breathe in something other than cold air and snowflakes.

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Benny's or Whippy Dip...whatever...tis the season

Posted by Fred Steiner on March 12, 2010 - 7:37am

It takes something fairly spectacular to drag my attention from Lady Gaga singing "Poker Face" on my headset at 6 a.m. on a warm March day, but Bill Marchal did it with a simple statement.

"You know what. March 19."

Say no more. But dang. That's still a week away -- seven days too many.

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Two of a kind

Posted by Fred Steiner on March 10, 2010 - 9:20am

About 24 1/2 years ago, a baby girl was born. Well, probably a lot of baby girls were born at that time, but this one in particular made an impact on me...for a variety of reasons, not the least of which that she was my daughter.

Somewhere along the way, she developed an interest in music, dance, and created a repertoire of odd characters -- each with his or her own personality and accent. Daily, these individuals would wake us up in the morning or bid us goodnight. Throughout the day, they'd pop up at the least expected moment.

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Book review: Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monster...you never know what will happen next

Posted by Fred Steiner on March 8, 2010 - 5:03pm

Review: Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters
By Kerry Bush

"The family of Dashwood had been settled in Sussex since before the Alteration, when the waters of the world grew cold and hateful to the sons of man, and darkness moved on the face of the deep."

So begins Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, a book that, like its predecessor Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, takes a classic tale of romance and adds to it the element of monsters.

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Game reviews: Final Fantasy XII gets an "A"

Posted by Fred Steiner on March 7, 2010 - 5:25pm

TEH. BEST. GAMES. EVAR.
By Andr'e Swartley

Issue #15
Final Fantasy XII
Developer: Square Enix
Publisher: Square Enix
Platform: Playstation 2
Rating: T for Teen

Square Enix has always aimed to reinvent the Final Fantasy series with every numbered entry. Consequently, numbered Final Fantasy games usually offend long-time fans in some new and unforgivable way. Final Fantasy XII took this tradition to the extreme.

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