Francisco Lindor, formerly the beloved shortstop of my Cleveland Indians baseball team, was traded to the New York Mets in early January. Three months later, he signed the longest contract in Mets history — 10 years — and one that, at $341 million, is almost three times that of what had previously been the franchise’s largest deal.

It’s the third-richest deal in Major League Baseball history based on total value, and the largest ever for a shortstop.

No way could Cleveland ever offer a contract like that.

I’m here to say, thank goodness.

Received in New York with great fanfare…

Live Concert Series

When we stretch our minds back to early 2020 and the halcyon months prior to that, we quickly realize how many “lasts” exist within that hazy, pre-COVID sphere.

The last time we traveled to another state (a family trip to Blowing Rock, North Carolina to scatter some of my father’s ashes in a place he loved). The last time we went to a restaurant or bar. The last time we got to see a concert.

My husband and I attended a charity fundraiser for the Waterloo Alley Cat Project at Bottlehouse Brewing Company (gloriously located a mile and a half…

Cooking from the Book

The dish noted in this article’s title (which I cannot pronounce with a proper French accent, having filled my language requirement with Spanish from 7th grade through college) means “Mound of French Pancakes Filled with Cream Cheese, Spinach and Mushrooms”, according to Julia Child.

Oh Julia, what to do if your significant other doesn’t eat mushrooms?

I’ve grown increasingly adept, over the years, at finding suitable substitutes for mushrooms. …

Keep It Simple Cooking Series

Let’s be honest. A show of hands, please. Who’s more than a little bit tired of cooking?

Yep, me too.

As the “person in charge of food” for my family, I’m exhausted. I love to meal plan and grocery shop and cook, under normal circumstances, but I’d truly be thrilled if I didn’t have to think about or prepare meals for a week or so.

We’ve ordered takeout from time to time over the past year, mostly to help our favorite restaurants survive the pandemic, but not frequently enough to give me much of a break. We’re trying to watch the budget too, after all.

Let’s face it — typically, most of us wouldn’t be eating at…

Favorite Soundtrack Challenge

When I was young, navigating those painful preteen puberty years when my hormones were a menace and I had one foot stuck in childhood with my big toe barely starting to test the waters of womanhood, there were certain songs that made me feel “funny” (before high school forever removed the blush of innocence from my cheeks.)

Shalamar’s “Dancing in the Sheets” from the Footloose soundtrack (the first factory tape I bought with my own money at age 11) was one of them. …

Fine, I admit it. Medium, I’ve been cheating on you. I started publishing on News Break back in December, seduced by the potential to (gasp) make a little bit of money with this side gig of mine.

I had to sign a contract and was able to take advantage of special terms for “early bird” creators, as we’re called on News Break.

For the first three months of my agreement, I only needed to write three articles per week, with a minimum word requirement (which was not strictly enforced), to reach the threshold for my monthly base payment.

No sweat…

Owning an old home is rewarding but working on one comes with a hefty serving of trials and tribulations.

When someone asks what you have accomplished around the house lately, and you reply that over the past two years you’ve scraped and painted about one-sixteenth of the home’s exterior trim and polished a couple of solid brass doorknobs by boiling them in baking soda water to remove layers of paint from decades past, they tend to look at you like you’re crazy or lazy or broke (and you’re probably all of the above).

When you tell them about the time a house centipede (Scutigera coleoptrata) fell on your head while you were sound asleep, they start to inch away…

“Popeye was right about spinach: dark green, leafy vegetables are the healthiest food on the planet. As whole foods go, they offer the most nutrition per calorie.” — Michael Greger, physician and advocate for a whole food, plant-based diet

It’s another gorgeous early-spring day in Cleveland, with brilliant sunshine, temperatures that are a tad higher than the norm for March, and the kind of clear blue skies that people who don’t live here refuse to believe we ever see in our part of the world.

Warmer weather is just around the corner, and we’re starting to get spring fever. Along…