By Mary Pannabecker Steiner
Ohio is experiencing yet another random January. Snow one day, rain the next; 10 degrees one day, 50 the next. And so it goes. Typical Ohio weather.
Every year, people comment on how strange this winter is and the usual contention is that it is all the result of global warming - which is no doubt true. Those of us who are at least 40 years old will swear that we had a LOT more snow in our childhoods than our children have ever seen.
Somewhere in our attic is a dark green Girl Scout sash, but since it belongs to daughter number 1, it's been packed away carefully in her recently reorganized "corner" and I've been ordered NOT to mess it up.
But a quick search through my husband's box of family "heirlooms", I located an old green Girl Scout dress that belonged either to his sister or mom. The label reads "Girl Scouts Trademark Official Uniform".
The Wall Street Journal headline read: "Kodak Teeters on the Brink." Reading this, my mind did a long, fast reverse. It stopped somewhere in 1970, inside the Bowling Green State University journalism dark room.
There I heard Jim Gordon, our photo professor, tell our Photojournalism 201 class, "There will always be film." Professor Gordon wouldn't lie. He may have even suggested we buy Kodak stock, but I'm not certain about that.
By Mary Pannabecker Steiner
Some individuals walk into our lives quietly and unobtrusively, yet leave such an indelible impression that we feel their presence long after they are gone.
Helen James Minck was one of those individuals. When Helen died on Christmas Eve, I felt saddened that I'd never get to hear more of her stories, to hear her laugh. Yet her face and voice are so clear, so present.
What shall we name the baby...in 2011? The Bluffton Hospital provided The Icon with the list of first names of babies born last year in Bluffton. Want to know the popular names?
