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Cracking the Code: Our superpower

One of my concerns on our U.S. Commercial Services Roadshow trip to Turkey earlier this year was language. I do not know any Turkish. In Istanbul and Ankara, the presentations were in English or they had a headset with a translator. In Koceali, our second stop, everything except our afternoon presentations were in Turkish with no translator. I had no idea what they were saying. When the third panel started, I sat next to a young woman who whispered to me, translating what the panelists said. I learned valuable information. At one point, the woman whispered, “He just told companies ...

Backyard Gardener: Tomato hornworm: Big worm, big appetite

Hello Mid-Ohio Valley Farmers and Gardeners! We are experiencing one of the wettest Augusts in recent memory as rain totals this month are more than 8 inches in many areas of the valley. As the harvest of tomatoes, peppers, green beans, sweet corn and other vegetables continues, please contact the WVU Extension Office with questions on freezing, canning or other garden-related questions. Keep in mind green beans are a low-acid food and must be processed in a pressure canner. The high temperatures of a pressure canner destroy Clostridium botulinum spores, preventing the formation of the ...

The Way I See It: Newsroom legend Jim Bartholow left his mark on newspaper

Generations of young journalists got their start working in the newsroom of The Marietta Times, including me. For 46 years Jim Bartholow helped to gently guide them along. He knew what was going on in their heads because he had been in their exact same spot. Jim started at The Times directly out of Ohio University in 1972. He stayed there until he retired in 2018. He died last week. Jim held a lot of jobs at the newspaper, both official and non-official. When I started at the newspaper in 1977, Jim was covering city government. He also covered sports on the weekends, and it was while ...

MOV Climate Corner: C8, water and household pollution management

If you live in the Mid-Ohio Valley and rely on public water, it is worth knowing whether your community is filtering for C8 and other forever chemicals. The region is widely known for C8 contamination linked to DuPont Washington Works. What most people probably don’t realize is that Parkersburg, the community most closely identified with this global crisis, has yet to implement a filtration system to deal with the problem. Across the Mid-Ohio Valley, the pollution is widespread, yet some communities have filtration and others do not. Some of us have benefited from filtration for ...

Cracking the code: Give first with a loving heart

This week I met with several women from our church to discuss how to start growing our membership. We lost people during the pandemic who stopped coming to church. Our church is facing a challenge. Most of our members are over 60. The women know people in the community better than most of the men. I suggested, “Instead of focusing on growing membership, what do people in our community need, we can help with? This changed their thinking. The women produced creative ideas like a community movie night, morning walk followed by coffee, a game night, or a women’s craft session. They ...

Early Marietta: Henry the Dreamer and the WASHINGTON, Part 2

On Monday evening June 3, 1816, Henry Shreve's new steamboat WASHINGTON, built at Wheeling, cast off on its long maiden journey to New Orleans. She was built along Wheeling Creek; wood for the boat came from old Fort Henry. Florence Dorsey, Henry's daughter, in Master of the Mississippi: (She) sat on the water like a great aquatic bird...Niles' Weekly Register: She is 148 feet in length. Her main cabin is sixty feet; she has three handsome private rooms, besides a commodious bar room. She is furnished in very superior style...'" Shreve's years on the river had taught him the engineering ...