1. It's a charming, feel-good movie about soccer.
   
2. It reminded me of growing up in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, and playing soccer and watching the Tigers play at C.S. Harris Field: Tim Tapallion, the O'Briens, the Garys, Thad Berry, the Foleys. The tournament games, the penalty kick thrillers, the state championships.
   
3. I learned that Andrew Shue and Elizabeth ( Read more... )

GoNOMAD's Max Hartshorne linked to this article in the Wall Street Journal reviewing a biography of Peanuts creator Charles Schulz. But he left out what I thought was perhaps the most tantalizing detail: that it was written by Bill Watterson. That's the Bill Watterson, of Calvin & Hobbes fame. The famed recluse of Chagrin Falls, Ohio.

So, Garrison Keillor's Prairie Home Companion is a movie now (John Boonstra liked it). I'm not sure what to think about it. There was this article I saw in Slate yesterday. The writer, Sam Anderson, cogitates on exactly what is Keillor's "mysterious appeal." Anderson's take is interesting. He says this about Keillor's "irony-lite" bland of humor ( ( Read more... )

I was bouncing around on the internet this afternoon and came across this page, a transcription of a commencement adress at Kenyon College given by Bill Watterson. Thinking of Bill Watterson now living a hermit's life back in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, I feel a kinship with the man who craves anonymity.

On Thursday, the writer's group met at Cafe Koko. We talked to Richie about his three-part series on Shelburne Falls. He had told me that he was thinking of Tracy Kidder's Hometown when he wrote it. I asked him what he thought "made Shelburne Falls tick." He said there was a sort of equilibrium between the townies and the from-aways. At least for ( Read more... )

Friday evening in Painesville, Ohio, we spilled out of the lakeside hall where my cousin held her wedding reception and discovered the sun was setting over Lake Erie. We wound down the path through the tall grass to the fence. Below, lake swells crashed against the shore. Out over the lake, the sun was casting out gold and copper rays as it settled ( Read more... )

I came across this story today, in Cleveland's alt.weekly, The Scene. It's a story about Bill Watterson, the cantankerous and secretive genius behind the comic strip Calvin & Hobbes. Watterson, apparently, has moved back to his hometown -- and mine -- Chagrin Falls, Ohio.