Black Squirrel Books – serie

The story of an Ohio regiment in the Civil WarOriginally published in 1902 by Henry O. Harden's newspaper publishing company, History of the 90th Ohio Volunteer Infantry tells its story through the soldiers' personal letters, diary entries, and memoirs. Formed in response to Confederate maneuvers in Kentucky in 1862, this regiment was comprised of men from Fairfield, Fayette, Hocking, Perry, Pickaway, and Vinton counties. They served in the Civil War from 1862 to 1865 and spent much of their time in Tennessee bravely participating in such battles as Stones River, Tullahoma, Chickamauga, Resaca, Kennesaw Mountain, Atlanta, Franklin, and Nashville.History of the 90th Ohio Volunteer Infantry contains the memories and voices of the men who served in this unit. Asked to reflect on their experiences nearly 40 years after their service, these men recalled the miles they marched, the friends they made and lost, the hardships they suffered, the fear they felt, and the jokes they enjoyed. Harden covers the entire life of this regiment, from the formation and early days to the fate of every member at the close of the war. With its primary-source descriptions of battles, miscellaneous stories and poetry, and listing of every member and his fate, this book will be welcomed by those interested in the Civil War and the role Ohio played in it.

Tom Batiuk was a junior high school art teacher in Elyria, Ohio, when he created a comic panel aimed at teens for the Elyria Chronicle-Telegram. That panel was the precursor to what became Batiuk's award-winning comic strip Funky Winkerbean. Since its debut on March 27, 1972, Funky Winkerbean has chronicled the lives of a group of students from the fictitious Westview High School. This volume, which presents the strip's first three years, introduces the strip's title character, Funky, and his friends Crazy Harry Klinghorn, Bull Bushka, Livinia Swenson, Les Moore, Holly Budd, and Roland Mathews. Principal Burch, counselor Fred Fairgood, and band director Harry L. Dinkle also make their first appearances.Funky fans will relive Les's misadventures in gym class and his unintentional attendance at the homecoming dance as he remains stuck on a climbing rope high above the gymnasium floor. They will remember Crazy Harry's ability to play pizzas like records and his air guitar virtuosity, and majorette Holly who never removed her uniform. They will recall the school's winless football team, and Harry Dinkle's attempts to win the Battle of the Bands despite the contest always coinciding with a natural disaster.Volume 1 contains a charming autobiographical introduction by Tom Batiuk that shares his early attempts at cartooning, discusses his teaching career, and explains the genesis of Funky. Subsequent volumes will each contain three years of Funky comic strips and will be published annually. Batiuk has been recognized for his humorous and entertaining portrayals of the students and staff at Westview and acclaimed for his sensitive treatment of social and educational issues.

Funky, Les, and the gang pun their way through Westview High Since its debut on March 27, 1972, Funky Winkerbean has chronicled the lives of a group of students from the fictitious Westview High School. This second volume, which presents strips from 1975, 1976, and 1977, sees the comic strip rounding into the form that will carry it into its middle years. With gentle humor and not-so-gentle puns, Les, Funky, Crazy Harry, and the gang comment on life's little absurdities.Funky begins to ponder why there are cloakrooms in elementary schools when no one wears cloaks. Crazy Harry, firmly ensconced in his locker-as-living-quarters, moves out because his row of lockers has gone condo. Les Moore blossoms as a character and replaces Funky as the leader of the school's out crowd when he is seen alone on his bicycle at the local drive-in movie. The computer at Westview High becomes sentient and subjects the students to its obsession with Star Trek, including holding Star Trek conventions at the school. Westview's principal and teachers cope with it all with irony or Zen-like detachment.In Volume 1, we met Harry L. Dinkle, the band director at West-view High. The self-proclaimed "World's Greatest Band Director," Dinkle is based on a retired band director from Avon Lake, Ohio, who was also the band director at the junior high school that Tom Batiuk attended. Band camps, the Fall Battle of the Bands, and the annual torrential downpours become fixtures in the strip. Other familiar themes are the turkeys and fruitcakes that show up through the years as band fund-raisers. The Westview Scapegoats go national and march off to the 1976 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Harry L. Dinkle marches into real life, lending his name to a line of Dinkles band shoes, actual band candy, and the "Harry L. Dinkle March" composed by Andy Clark. He even shows up on scoreboards at college football games.Volume 2 includes an introduction in which Tom Batiuk shares the creative and evolutionary processes in his development of these characters. Subsequent volumes will each contain three years of Funky strips and will be published annually. Batiuk has been recognized for his humorous and entertaining portrayals of the students and staff at Westview and acclaimed for his sensitive treatment of social and educational issues.

A countdown of the greatest games of a Steel City institutionWhen slow-footed former Pirate Sid Bream broke the heart of the "Bucco" nation, it was Game Seven of the 1992 NLCS. He slid across the plate in the bottom of the 9th for the Braves, giving them the pennant with a heart-wrenching 3–2 victory. The run began a mind-numbing slide that enters its third decade of sub .500 performances. The curse of Sid Bream was born.Until the surprising 2012 campaign, a generation of Steel City baseball fans had hungered for the Pirates to be involved in an actual pennant race, a goal that even the most diehard could not have imagined. There was a time that it wasn't a far-off dream, but instead an annual right. From 1970 through 1979, Pittsburgh won six eastern division crowns and two national championships. While impressive, the 1970s were only the second-best decade in franchise history. Classic Bucs looks back to the beginning of the twentieth century, the indisputable best decade of the Pittsburgh Pirates, when a young and brash team captured four senior circuit titles and their initial World Series in 1909.During the years between those two memorable seasons, the club won two other world championships in 1925 and 1960, the latter of which culminated in arguably the greatest contest in the history of the game. On a memorable fall afternoon on October 13, 1960, a second baseman known more for his defensive prowess than his bat became the only man in the history of the World Series to end the last game of the fall classic with a home run. The second baseman was Bill Mazeroski, and he smacked a Ralph Terry pitch over the left field wall at Forbes Field to give the Bucs a wild 10–9 victory over the New York Yankees and send the town into hysterics.Incredible moments like this are the inspirations for this book chronicling the 50 greatest Pirate games of all time. Memories of these games are sure to bring a collective smile to the Pirates Nation. Classic Bucs tells the story of this celebrated old franchise to a new generation of Pirate fans, a generation that has been looking for its own Mazeroski moment ever since Bream slid across home plate three decades ago.

Latinos dominate baseball today, leading off the lineups of the best teams, making contenders strong up the middle, or helping to anchor pitching staffs. Vladimir Guerrero, Omar Vizquel, and Mariano Rivera are well-known professional baseball stars. But many Latinos had less flashy beginnings.Speak English! The Rise of Latinos in Baseball chronicles how much and how little has changed since the first Latino played in the big leagues in the nineteenth century. By the middle of the next century, the Alous, Vic Power, and Rico Carty worked to earn their place in the game amid taunts and ridicule. Today, even established players and stars may be told to speak English in clubhouses eliciting cringes or shrugs from individuals who are seemingly still hurting.Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig offers a foreword full of nostalgia and pride. The afterword by Omar Minaya describes his experience playing ball in Queens and being the first Hispanic general manager in baseball. Speak English! selects the stories of 45 players to illustrate the collective history of Latinos in baseball and is illustrated with photographic portraits of many of them. Today, more than a quarter of all major leaguers are Latino, and most began as outsiders. Globalisation unearthed baseball in San Pedro de Macoris, Caguas, and Maracay. American teams looked abroad for talent and cheap wages, carving baseball diamonds out of sugarcane fields. Players in their teens left their families. Those from Cuba knew they were possibly leaving for the rest of their lives, just for the chance to play in a country still struggling with diversity in the 1950s and 1960s. Yet many Latino players still speak as if not much has changed. Far from perfect, their no-rules journey to professional contracts has increased the risk of taking improper shortcuts. Several players were implicated recently in the use of steroids and performance-enhancing drugs. Others admitted to shaving years off their ages, allowing them to compete with an advantage against younger players. The great Latino story is also one of glory, as some of the best players in major league history tell of their hard voyage to baseball s mainland. The tale is likewise one of realists, and readers will not find anything in these stories that does not exist in other walks of life. The story is not clean, but it is compelling. Like baseball, there’s enough to love in it to keep coming back to it as generations learn from the ups and downs of the Latino role in baseball and its rightful place in history.

Agriculture continues to be the largest industry in the United States with over 2.2 million farms. Amazingly, well over 100,000 new small family farms have sprung up in the past few years . . . and almost no one noticed. Why Cows Need Names follows one young Amish family as they dream about and then struggle to establish a profitable and quint essentially American small farm. The story starts with Eli Gingerich’s first timid phone call to author Randy James, the county agricultural agent in Ohio’s Geauga Amish Settlement the fourth-largest Amish settlement in the world and traces the family’s progress over the next five years. Through gentle dialogue and true stories, James captures the challenges of creating a simple business plan that will lead to the family’s radiant success or dismal failure. As the narrative unfolds, readers get a rare glimpse into what it's like to work in the fields with draft horses; in the barn with cows, calves, children, and Chip the family dog; or to sit at the table talking with family and friends over a noontime meal. A picture emerges of how quietly living a shared goal and doing without during hard times can strengthen families and provide an appreciation for what is truly important in life. In addition to the business aspects and day-to-day farm activities, James interweaves commentary on our complex relationships with animals. The stark differences in the way animals are treated and valued in agribusinesses versus on small family farms is a recurring theme, as is debunking the myth that bigger is always better in American agriculture.Surrounded by a factory-farm world, the Gingerich family employs a business model that flatly rejects the dogma of economies of scale and instead focuses on the diversity, flexibility, and efficiency that only a small family farm can capture. Why Cows Need Names provides a partial roadmap, not only for other small farms but for the many thousands of family businesses that are created each year and largely ignored in our national psyche. It will appeal to anyone interested in business management, our food supply, animal welfare, and Amish family life.