What do a church, a brewery, and an elementary school have in common? Each is home to art installations created by the Artifactory, a partnership between two Delaware County artists who work with those groups to create intricate mosaic pieces from recycled materials.
Now she and Corwin teach groups in central Ohio and beyond to create those free-form mosaics that are then installed as permanent works of art.
If it's January in Ohio, we can count on ice — lots of it, everywhere. From the treacherous and violent to the tiny and delicate, our intrepid ice-chaser set out to capture these scenes of wintry wonder
Photographer James Proffitt warns that some of the images that went into this essay were taken in what he describes as NSFW conditions — Not Safe for Wading. Following are some of the musings from his vast wanderings in 2024 and 25 while collecting his images.
We love it and we hate it. It cools food and drinks, we skate on it, fish on it. We slip and fall on it, crash our cars on it and it destroys roads and sometimes things around the house. It can be treacherous, unforgiving, and beautiful: Ice.
Gray squirrels are the bane of those of us who attempt to keep backyard bird feeders filled with birdseed. In large cities, small towns, and even rural areas across the Buckeye State, these arboreal aerialists seem to defy gravity in getting to places we don’t want them to be.
For instance, a very early Columbus resident and hunter shot 67 gray squirrels in one day from just one tree in the middle of a cornfield on what today is the Statehouse lawn.
Happy New Year! It’s hard to believe that a full year has passed since I began writing these messages as CEO of our statewide association of electric cooperatives. 2025 was a fulfilling year, filled with both highlights and challenges, and I’ve been grateful for the opportunity to share my thoughts and to reflect on our progress.
December is a special time of year. The days may be shorter and colder, but there’s a lot to like. College and pro football start to get really interesting as rankings and playoff hopes take shape, and most of us aren’t too tired of the weather (yet). Christmas music can be heard everywhere, and for those of us who love it, especially the deep cuts or new songs just being released, it brings a lot of positive energy to the season. I look forward to discovering new Christmas music each year and love listening to favorites I haven’t heard for the last 11 months.
Todd McMullen’s dream was to buy a Ford Mustang Cobra convertible and take his family on rides at dusk underneath a sky ablaze with color.
But that dream hinged on a more serious goal: First, he had to beat his glioma.
Glioma is a fast-growing type of cancer that affects the brain and nervous system. Its survival rate varies widely depending on the specific type and how early it’s caught. He immediately began treatment — he followed the specific protocols his specialists ordered and underwent multiple surgeries — and it worked. Periodic follow-up MRIs indicated no suspicious growth.
Todd and Sara started a family — sons Colin and Corey were born a few years apart — and lived each day as a special gift.
The Mustang
On the morning of November 14, 2023, 16-year-old Brynn Goedel was in great spirits, traveling on a charter bus with fellow band members, teachers, and chaperones from Tuscarawas Valley Middle-High School.
That stuck door saved Brynn’s life, says her mother, Danielle Goedel. Brynn was standing in the aisle when a semi-truck loaded with batteries plowed over an SUV and slammed into the back of the bus, obliterating the bathroom she had been trying to enter. The collision threw her forward and ignited a massive fire. When Brynn came to, she was surrounded by flames; the bathroom door was on top of her and she was unable to move. Eventually, the band director and a good Samaritan pulled her from the bus as batteries from the truck continued to explode.
The idea first came to Steubenville business owner Jerry Barilla in 2015, when he thought that the sight of empty storefront windows deterred folks from coming to the downtown area to do their Christmas shopping.
Visitors to the Nutcracker Village encounter just about any character they could imagine in nutcracker form — from whimsical storybook heroes and cartoon characters to real-life movie and television stars; from historical legends and religious leaders to first responders and service members from the various branches of the military.
