CityBeat | August 7, 2024 by Big Lou Holdings

NEWS

Special Prosecutor Steps in On Raleigh-Morrow Family Assault Investigation

Campaign finance records show the Raleigh family’s lawyer donated to Hamilton County Prosecutor Melissa Powers’ campaign several times over the past two years.

“NONE OF THIS SITS RIGHT WITH ME!” Morrow-Stickrod said in the post.

“NONE OF THIS SITS RIGHT WITH ME!” Morrow-Stickrod said in the post. “Does the fact that these people are locally famous and have someone with high status involved that held the title of judge, attorney, sheriff play a role in things sitting still, I say more than likely!”

“Does the fact that these people are locally famous and have someone with high status involved that held the title of judge, attorney, sheriff play a role in things sitting still, I say more than likely!”

Additionally, Morrow-Stickrod shared that her mother, Lois Morrow, was told on July 19 that she was showing signs of dementia as a result of the alleged attack. Studies have shown that head injuries can increase the risk of dementia or worsen existing dementia.

Powers steps down from the case

According to a July 31 announcement from Powers’ office, Clermont County Prosecutor Mark Tekulve has been appointed to investigate the incident.

“It is important that the public have confidence in equal application of the law,” Powers said in her statement. “No duty is more important for a Prosecutor. With this appointment, the public can be assured that justice in this matter will be administrated fairly and impartially.”

Former State Rep. Connie Pillich and Democratic candidate for Hamilton County Prosecutor told CityBeat that while she trusts the police to investigate thoroughly, Powers’ previous silence on the case had an “appearance of impropriety.”

Campaign finance records show the Raleigh family’s lawyer donated to Hamilton County Prosecutor Melissa Powers’ campaign several times over the past two years.

BY LILY OGBURN AND MADELINE FENING

AAspecial prosecutor has been assigned to investigate the alleged attack of an elderly couple following a traffic crash involving members of a high-profile Cincinnati family.

special prosecutor has been assigned to investigate the alleged attack of an elderly couple following a traffic crash involving members of a high-profile Cincinnati family.

Steve Raleigh, who is widely known as WCPO’s chief meteorologist, has stepped away from his spotlight as one of Cincinnati’s most recognizable weather-casters and into scrutiny for his alleged role in the now-viral incident.

What happened?

It all started on June 22, when 28-yearold Carter Raleigh, Steve Raleigh’s son and the grandson of former Hamilton County sheriff and attorney Simon L. Leis, Jr., was driving his grandfather’s black Cadillac Escalade through the Montgomery Inn Boathouse parking lot on Riverside Drive.

According to a heavily-redacted incident report from the Cincinnati Police Department, Carter Raleigh was involved in a crash in the restaurant’s parking lot with 79-year-old

Douglas Morrow. Douglas Morrow’s wife, 76-year-old Lois Morrow, was in the passenger seat. The Morrow family alleges that Carter Raleigh failed to yield to traffic before hitting their Ford F-150 pickup truck, got out of his grandfather’s Escalade, and began arguing with the Morrows.

That’s when the Morrows and their attorney, Konrad Kircher of Mainevillebased Kircher Law, say Steve Raleigh emerged from the direction of the restaurant and asked the Morrows not to call the police.

“Steve Raleigh should have allowed the police to come and take a report,” Kircher told CityBeat. “He insisted that the police not be called. He got agitated when he learned police were coming and then that incited [his son] to resort to violence.”

The police report does not provide specific details about the alleged assault, but CPD officer Shawn Newman summarized witness testimonies in the report, saying, “suspect approached victim #1 striking him with a closed fist in the head knocking him to the ground causing listed injuries.

Victim #2 and victim #3 while attempting to aid victim #1 was struck and shoved down to the ground by the suspect causing listed injuries.” The report also said “the offender” was suspected of using drugs or alcohol.

Morrow-Stickrod posted a video depicting the aftermath of the alleged assault on July 10, quickly amassing thousands of views. That same day, Steve Raleigh’s social media pages quickly disappeared and he was absent from WCPO’s 5 p.m. newscast. He hasn’t returned to air since. Raleigh has not spoken publicly about the incident, but his employer has come out in support of the legacy weatherman and the investigation process.

Weeks go by with no arrests

“In law, in my opinion, we should avoid [appearing improper],” Pillich said. “I think the rules of our profession teach us to avoid that, judges try to avoid that, lawyers should try to avoid that, no matter who they’re representing in the case.”

Merlyn Shiverdecker of Carr & Shiverdecker, who is representing the Raleigh family, has supported Powers’ campaign financially over the past two years.

Shiverdecker contributed $5,000 in two separate donations to her campaign committee, Powers for Prosecutor, on April 10, 2023 and June 14, 2023, according to Powers’ 2023 semiannual campaign finance reports.

Additionally, Shiverdecker appears on a list of contributors on Powers’ host committee for a reception in support of Powers on June 4, 2024. Shiverdecker is listed on the document as an “Advocate,” a term indicating that he donated $1,000 to Powers’ committee.

Weeks go by with no arrests

More than a month after the incident, no arrests have been made and no charges have been brought against anyone involved.

Stacie Morrow-Stickrod, the daughter of the elderly couple, took to Facebook on July 23 to express her concerns with the investigation’s progress.

Shiverdecker did not respond to CityBeat’s request for comment by press time, but Kircher told CityBeat that Powers’ stepping down is an “appropriate move.”

“We didn’t request [that Powers step down], but, I can understand why the prosecutor of Hamilton County would want to avoid an appearance of impropriety. So, you know, we welcome the decision,” Kircher said.

Konrad Kircher, an attorney representing members of the Morrow family, addresses reporters about the June incident 22 involving Steve Raleigh and members of his family.

PHOTO: LYDIA SCHEMBRE

Konrad Kircher, an attorney representing members of the Morrow family, addresses reporters about the June incident 22 involving Steve Raleigh and members of his family.

PHOTO: LYDIA SCHEMBRE

Dozens of Amazon Employees Walk Off Job at KCVG Amid Union Push

BY MADELINE FENING

Amazon workers organizing with the Teamsters at KCVG, the company’s largest air hub located in Hebron, Kentucky, walked off the job on July 24.

Unionizing employees walked off over issues concerning surveillance, discrimination and retaliation for engaging in union activity, according to a press release from organizing employees.

In an emailed statement about the walk-out, Amazon corporate doesn’t seem concerned.

“Today’s event was initiated and attended by mostly outside organizers, and had no impact on our operations or ability to deliver for customers,” said Mary Kate Paradis, an Amazon spokesperson.

About 40 demonstrators total were in attendance at Wednesday’s demonstration following the walk-out, but it’s unclear just how many were KCVG employees. Hunter Collins, a current KCVG employee, told CityBeat that Amazon’s recent actions inspired him to join the demonstrators on Wednesday.

“We are here on an unfair labor practices strike,” Collins said. “We are here striking against Amazon’s retaliation, bullying, and spying on us. I started with Amazon in November of last year. I worked at a different location in 2020, during Covid. The differences between 2020 and now are stark. They have taken

a lot away from their employees and things are continuing to get worse.”

Employees at KCVG began union efforts in November 2022 after upper management announced there would be no peak pay for the 2022 holiday rush, but mandatory overtime would be required. Amazon’s gross profit for the 2023 fiscal year was $256.202 billion, an 18.52% increase year-over-year for the world’s largest retailer. Employees pushing for a union at KCVG are asking for a standard $30-per-hour wage, improved health benefits, on-site translation for non-native English speakers, union representation at disciplinary hearings and more.

In August, lawyers for Amazon will return to a federal court room in Cincinnati.

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), a federal agency that investigates violations of workers’ rights to unionize, alleges that Amazon’s union-busting at KCVG has been potentially illegal, saying the megaretailer has retaliated against several KCVG employees for union organizing, required employees to attend anti-union presentations and tracked employees who were engaging in union activity, among other complaints.

At the time of the NLRB’s filing, Amazon told CityBeat that the company’s actions have been lawful and that they will let the legal process play out.

The trial will resume on Aug. 19.

About 40 demonstrators total were in attendance at Wednesday's demonstration following the walk-out at KCVG.

PHOTO: LYDIA SCHEMBRE

Cincinnati Couple Starts Fundraising Challenge for Local Trans Youth Charity

BY LILY OGBURN

Cincinnati couple Carolyn and Kevin Martin awarded a $10,000 matching gift to Transform Cincy, a charity providing clothing and support for local trans and gender-nonconforming youth in memory of a trans activist killed last year in Maryland.

The Martins issued a challenge on social media to raise $10,000 to support the organization in memory of their friend Meghan Riley Lewis, who was shot to death outside her apartment in December, according to a news release.

The Cincinnati charity has now raised over 40% of the required match in the first week since the challenge was announced.

“Meghan Riley Lewis was a friend, mentor, advocate, sounding board, parent, Navy war veteran, tech professional, music lover, and ‘trans mum’ to the younger generation of trans people in her community,” said Carolyn Martin in a news release. “’Stay Sparkly’ was her tagline.”

Lewis was an outspoken activist for LGBTQ+ youth, volunteering at a housing center for LGBTQ+ people and working with trans individuals

through an online support group in Baltimore.

The Martins pledged their donation to Community Shares of Greater Cincinnati, Transform Cincy’s fiscal sponsor nonprofit. The donation will help Transform Cincy build a new storage facility for donated clothing for local trans and gender-nonconforming youth and support the organization’s local programming.

“We built Transform as an empowering space to create and curate community for those at the margins, trans youth and their families/support systems,” said Tristan Vaught, Transform’s co-founder. “We are so grateful to the Martin family for their generous gift. A gift given in memory of a woman who embodied the very work we do at Transform.”

Transform serves hundreds of clients each year, providing complete wardrobes of donated clothing.

According to the news release, the Transform home in Silverton also provides support groups and social programming for LGBTQ+ individuals.

To learn more about Transform Cincy, visit transformcincy.org.

Demonstrators March Against Police Killing of Sonya Massey, Ongoing War in Gaza

BY MADELINE FENING

Local pro-Palestinian groups gathered on July 28 in Cincinnati’s Downtown neighborhood to protest Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza, a common sort of demonstration since the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks and subsequent deadly counter offensive in Gaza. This march, which started at Fountain Square, specifically called out Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s U.S. Congress address on July 24 that organizers said attempted to “justify his war crimes and the systematic slaughter of Palestinian lives.”

But this protest featured a unique theme compared to the regular anti-war demonstrations organized by Students for Justice in Palestine UC, Cincinnati Palestinian Solidarity Coalition, Palestine Diaspora Movement and others. Demonstrators and organizers held signs and shouted for their support of justice for Sonya Massey, a 36-year-old Black Illinois woman who was shot and killed in her home by law enforcement on July 6.

“Today I am here in honor of Sonya Massey, a Black woman who was brutalized by the police after she had called for help. I am here to let her name be known,” said Cynthia Morrison.

Massey was killed at her home in Springfield, Illinois after deputies responded to her 911 call about a possible “prowler,” according to the Associated Press.

Sangamon County sheriff’s deputy Sean Grayson, who is white, was fired

and charged in the shooting death of Massey after he allegedly shot her in the head for holding a pot of boiling water and “rebuking” them “in the name of Jesus.” Prosecutors say Grayson also discouraged the other deputy on scene from providing medical care to Massey after the shooting.

A civil rights attorney for Massey’s family has said she dealt with mental health struggles.

Grayson has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder, aggravated battery with a firearm and official misconduct charges related to Massey’s killing. Reports also indicate that Grayson has worked in six different law enforcement agencies in the last four years, has been charged twice with driving under the influence, and was discharged from the military for misconduct.

Morrison said Massey’s death is an example of systemic injustices that impact people of color near and far, including Palestinians.

“I believe that all of our liberation is collective,” she said. “In America, we face a lot of oppression in the Black community and the Native American community. I believe that all of us oppressed people need to stand together. We are here with our Palestinian brothers and sisters today so that we can show our solidarity, all of us together. Because we are not going to stop fighting. We need people to understand that. You can’t just push us into a hole and make us be quiet.”

A crash involving Steve Raleigh's son escalated into an assault on June 22.

PHOTO: LYDIA SCHEMBRE

Meghan Riley Lewis was an outspoken activist for LGBTQ+ youth, volunteering at a housing center for LGBTQ+ people and working with trans individuals through an online support group in Baltimore.

PHOTO: PROVIDED BY COMMUNITY SHARES OF GREATER CINCINNATI

A Race Against Time

Ohio’s 24-hour waiting period abortion rule is meant to give patients time to think about their choice, but lawyers tell CityBeat it takes more choices away from patients.

BY MADELINE FENING

While staring at the ceiling of an Ohio emergency room, Ellen Groh realized she’d experienced this pain four years before.

In February 2020, at nearly 18 weeks pregnant, she experienced a miscarriage.

“I was feeling great and then all of a sudden I had to poop,” Groh says over a Zoom call. Some identifying details, like her legal last name, have been changed to protect her identity. “And so I ran to the bathroom, and I didn’t poop. I delivered into the toilet. My 18-week fetus, pregnancy… I’m going to call them pregnancies, I think. I don’t really know what to call them.”

Weeks before, this pregnancy came as a surprise to Groh and her thenboyfriend, now husband. Nervously embracing the prospect of parenthood, everything was new to the young couple, including the symptoms of labor that had started three days before she ended up delivering in her toilet. Despite both Groh and her husband working in the medical field, they felt lost at that moment.

“We kind of froze,” she says. “We’re like, ‘What the hell do we do?’”

Groh told her husband to call their

doctor, who instructed her to go to the hospital right away. There, she delivered her placenta, received antibiotics and started to navigate ricocheting feelings.

“It’s all different emotions, like relief, guilt, obviously sadness,” she says. “But like, we were okay. Cried a lot.”

Fast forward to October of 2023. Groh and her husband found out they were pregnant for the second time. Still a surprise, but a welcome one. They were excited to be parents.

“I want to say it was planned, because it was kind of like, if it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen,” she says. “Who’s ever ready?”

Like her first pregnancy, Groh’s developing embryo was healthy, but she and her husband took extra precautions to try and prevent another miscarriage, like genetic testing. Everything from her anatomy scan in February 2024 looked great.

Less than 10 days later at 20 weeks gestation, Groh and her husband were having sex – which is widely considered safe for pregnant individuals – when she began bleeding.

“I just kept bleeding and I was like, ‘Well, this is not normal,’” Groh tells CityBeat. “I had one big cramp and I was like, wow, that’s weird.”

Groh’s doctor told her to go right to the hospital. She thought they’d be coming home that same day.

“We didn’t even pack any bags,” she says. “It’s like, alright, we’ll be back soon.”

Groh’s cervix was nearly four centimeters dilated with telescoping membranes, meaning it was likely her body would try to deliver the pregnancy. Doctors presented the idea of cerclage, which is where doctors stitch a patient’s cervix shut to stave off labor, but Groh was told she may be too far dilated.

“After you’re dilated a certain amount, it becomes a risk of rupturing the membranes, and then [you’re at risk of] infection,” Groh says.

Next came the subject of viability – a conversation Groh knew was coming.

Fetal viability, which is the gestational age at which a fetus can survive outside the womb, is generally considered to be around 23 to 24 weeks with intensive medical care. Pregnancies delivered between 21 and 22 weeks rarely survive, with only 3% of babies surviving four hours after delivery, according to the National Institutes of Health.

“At this point [...] I don’t think anybody has told me specifically that I’m miscarrying yet because, like, they’re trying, you know? We’re trying to get hope,” Groh says. “But I just want the facts. Give me the facts because I understand what’s happening with my body. With the limited medical knowledge that I have of this area, I can understand.”

Planned Parenthood’s Cincinnati location in Mount Auburn is one of only six surgical abortion centers

PHOTO: LYDIA SCHEMBRE

Groh made it clear to her care team that she is a pediatric nurse. She knows the size of the tubes that can be used to keep a premature baby alive, and that a baby delivered at 20 weeks is too small for even the smallest tools needed to give them hope. She’s also intimately aware of what life would look like if she were to deliver a baby that’s not ready to enter the world – if her pregnancy would survive at all.

“There are substantial effects that this pregnancy, that this child could have down the road. Because I see this daily at work,” she says. “At this point, with the knowledge that I have and my history, in my brain, I think I know what’s gonna happen.”

Contractions were ramping up and becoming increasingly painful. Doctors

confirmed Groh’s instincts from her experience in 2020: this wasn’t labor, this was a miscarriage. The pregnancy’s chances of survival were extremely low and the threat of infection and complications were rising, putting her own health at risk. Her care team grew with more specialists, more doctors who presented her with options, of which she knew there was only one. She decided to call it.

“It was almost like, kind of relieving,” she says. “I have all these thoughts in my brain, but now we’re going down a solid path. This is the path that we’re going down.”

The path included a handful of options for ending Groh’s physical and emotional suffering, but only two stuck out in the moment and in her memory:

delivering the miscarried fetus naturally or getting a dilation and evacuation, known as a D&E.

“At the end of the day, this is what I wanted. I wanted a D&E,” Groh says. “I wanted to be done having contractions because I knew this fetus, or this pregnancy, was not going to survive. I had already been through it once, so I knew that this is what this fetus is going to look like.”

In addition to being used in miscarriage cases like Groh’s, a D&E is a method of abortion care used by doctors. Often referred to as a surgical abortion, the procedure uses suction and medical tools to empty the uterus. Some patients may also use misoprostol to remove a miscarriage during early pregnancy loss. Misoprostol is one pill

from the often two-step medication abortion method, which is available to patients who are less than 11 weeks along in their pregnancy.

Patients who want or need to terminate a pregnancy can do so with a D&E until 21 weeks and six days gestation – that’s when Ohio law prohibits abortions of any kind moving forward, unless the patient’s life is at risk.

In Groh’s case, there was no way to know how long it would take to deliver her miscarried fetus naturally. All they knew was she was bleeding and the pregnancy was still giving off tones that indicate cardiac activity, and that matters. Doctors could have proceeded with the D&E if Groh’s fetus was no longer giving off heart tones, but Ohio law requires that doctors and their patients

wait at least 24 hours before starting an abortion if fetal or embryonic cardiac activity is detected. The medical community generally considers cardiac activity to begin in utero around six weeks gestation, which is usually before most patients know they are pregnant. The concept of being able to hear a true fetal heartbeat at six weeks is also contested by some physicians.

According to Dr. Nisha Verma, an OB/GYN from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, cardiac valves don’t even exist at six weeks of gestation.

“The flickering that we’re seeing on the ultrasound that early in the development of the pregnancy is actually electrical activity, and the sound that you ‘hear’ is actually manufactured by the ultrasound machine,” Verma told NPR for a story about “heartbeat bills.”

Anatomy of the 24-hour rule

Identifying the presence of fetal heart tones is part of Ohio’s mandatory “informed consent” requirement for abortion patients, and it’s wrapped up in the 24-hour rule under that same umbrella.

The Ohio Legislature first imposed a mandatory information requirement for abortion in a law that took effect in 1992. Originally, that law allowed the information to be conveyed 24 hours before the abortion, “verbally or by other non-written means of communication” – meaning it did not require an initial in-person visit to the clinic. The information could be given by phone or even fax. This law was challenged in state court in Preterm Cleveland v. Voinovich, but the 10th District Court of Appeals upheld it as constitutional, and the Ohio Supreme Court declined to hear the case.

Then, in 1998, the legislature amended the law to require that the communication must occur in person. Ever since, a physician must give the patient written confirmation that a cardiac activity is present and provide the patient with information about the statistical probability of carrying that pregnancy to term. The patient must sign and acknowledge receipt of this information, fulfilling the state’s informed consent requirement for abortion care.

Ohio is one of 33 states that requires such counseling before an abortion is performed; one of 29 states that details what information abortion providers must give these patients; one of 28 states that requires patients to wait a specific amount of time for their abortion after counseling; and one of just 16 states that requires this counseling take place in person, according to the Guttmacher Institute.

After jumping through the hoops of a consultation appointment and putting

pen to paper, that’s when the clock starts. And while the waiting period rule may only span 24 hours, abortion providers tell CityBeat there are domino effects that can last weeks.

Why abortion providers oppose the 24-hour rule

Vanessa Hinsdale is the administrative director of surgery for Planned Parenthood of Southwest Ohio. She says the 24-hour waiting period clogs the entire scheduling system, impacting all patients.

“With the waiting periods for us because of the volume of patients that we see, it takes right now about 20 days to get in just for your first appointment,” Hinsdale says. “That clock is ticking and, say they really want a medication abor-

coming from states with total abortion bans, like Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia. But even states that have enacted and maintained narrow abortion windows, like Florida and South Carolina, are seeing citizens flee to Ohio for care. Hinsdale says Ohio’s waiting period law is making it difficult to meet the needs of both in-state and out-of-state patients.

“I will tell you, because of the 24-hour period and the amount of distance that patients are traveling here, we see around 51% of our patients are not in the state of Ohio,” Hinsdale says. “They’re coming from Lexington, Louisville, Tennessee, Indiana, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana.”

Ohio currently has nine abortion clinics in operation, including six surgical centers and three medication-

“Because of the 24-hour period and the amount of distance that patients are traveling here, we see around 51% of our patients are not in the state of Ohio,” Vanessa Hinsdale says.

tion, you know, they get in and they’re nine weeks and it’s 10 weeks in a day – it is literally 70 days, so if you come back after that 24-hour period and you are 71 days, we can’t. Without a waiting period, they would have more of a choice.”

The U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade in June of 2022 created a cascading effect on abortion rights across the nation. States that once had abortion access quickly enacted “trigger bans” that drastically scaled back abortion access, sometimes outlawing it altogether. Ohio’s own “heartbeat bill” was enacted after the fall of Roe, effectively banning abortions after six weeks, but the ban was put on pause four months later when a Hamilton County judge granted a motion for preliminary injunction. In November of 2023, Ohio voters passed a citizen-led state constitutional amendment to enshrine the right to reproductive freedom, protecting abortion access. Issue 1 passed with wide margins – 56.8% of the vote. Ohio was the first red state to restore abortion rights after the Supreme Court returned the decision to the states.

Because Ohio abortion law currently allows patients to access an abortion up until 21 weeks and six days gestation, Ohio has become the only option for many out-of-state patients seeking an abortion. These patients are commonly

medical providers perform questionable and perhaps unnecessary surgeries, such as hysterectomies, where a waiting period might serve to quell unthinking acceptance of a doctor’s conclusion. This is not too far afield of the common insurance company practice of requiring second opinions before invasive procedures are undertaken.”

But Hinsdale says sterilization procedures, like hysterectomies, aren’t held to the same standard as abortion care for “reflection” about your decision.

“If you are getting a vasectomy and you’re using certain types of insurance, or any kind of sterilization, there is a waiting period, and that is a very small subset of the population,” Hinsdale says. “There is nothing else that’s comparative to being like, you have to jump all through these hoops and wait and do all these things in order to have basic healthcare.”

only clinics. Depending on a patient’s location and gestational timeline, even in-state patients may need to travel hours and stay overnight to meet the 24-hour waiting period requirements. For out-of-state patients, this further extends the time spent away from work, family and loved ones, many of whom may not know their loved one is seeking an abortion.

“Not everybody has that comfort level, that ability, those people,” Hinsdale says.

There is no medical rationale for the 24-hour waiting period, says Hinsdale – it’s simply a matter of the state requiring the patient to have time to think about their decision. In Preterm Cleveland v. Voinovich, the case that upheld the 24-hour waiting period rule, Judge Petree wrote in his partial concurrence (he disagreed with others on the three-judge panel on providing patients with state-mandated information) that a 24-hour waiting period “would foster reflection” in patients.

“Clearly a waiting period, with ample provision for emergency situations, would foster reflection about important medical decisions,” the ruling reads. “Though we are unaware of similar waiting periods for other types of medical procedures, this is not fatal. No doubt there are many situations where

The 24-hour waiting period law is different for those who are experiencing a medical emergency and want or need an abortion as a result, but doctors are often dealing with extremely narrow definitions about what constitutes “life of the mother” exceptions. Even if a patient is pregnant for less than 21 weeks and six days – the cut-off time for an elective abortion in Ohio – it’s against the law for a doctor to provide an abortion within the 24-hour waiting period window when there’s fetal cardiac activity. That is, unless the patient is at risk of losing their life or a major bodily function. In Ohio, a doctor who is found to have violated that 24-hour rule can be charged with a misdemeanor and potentially lose their license. Since the fall of Roe, there have been highly publicized cases of doctors, including in Ohio, who are declining to perform abortions for medically-emergent patients for fear of breaking the law.

“If you make standard medical care a crime when folks in all kinds of difficult medical situations present, especially in emergency situations, we are always going to see some type of delay,” Caitlin Gustafson, an OB-GYN in Idaho, told Politico in April. “Because it’s criminalized care, physicians are going to naturally hesitate.”

Whether a doctor will take on that risk on behalf of a patient experiencing a medical emergency can vary from hospital to hospital – sometimes transfers have to happen.

“You do have a section of patients that have a pregnancy that might have been a very desired, very sought after, sometimes a fertility-based pregnancy and that there might be parts of the pregnancy that are not sustainable but are not risk of life to the mother,” Hinsdale says. “If a patient doesn’t want to [deliver the pregnancy], they want to be able to just have a procedure, they either have to, in some cases, follow

the 24-hour law or they have to go out of state to where there’s not a waiting period. It’s just more undue stress on a very stressful situation.”

The clock starts for Groh

In Groh’s case, the start of her 24-hour waiting period on that February evening was when she started to feel less like a stoic pediatric nurse and more like a scared patient.

“I was terrified – oh my god, I’m going to start crying,” Groh says, pausing the interview for a moment. “Jesus Christ, I haven’t cried like this in a while.”

Her body was still bleeding. The unknown was catching up to her anxieties, and she still had 24 hours to go.

“I was bleeding and nobody knew if there was an abruption,” she says. “I was like, I’m gonna bleed out, and nobody’s gonna be able to do anything.”

Groh signed her informed consent form around 9 p.m. that night, meaning doctors had to wait until 9 p.m. the following day to begin her D&E. Her care team promised to monitor her heavily over the 24 hours, tracking her bleeding, the fetal heart tones. She wasn’t sure if they would be able to move up the D&E time if the fetus’ cardiac activity stopped, but she was in too much pain to think about specifics at this point.

“[I had to] sit here in this agony of these contractions that are terrible,” she says. “I’ve never felt pain like this before.”

Doctors gave Groh an epidural to help with her painful contractions. She declined one at first, feeling strange about getting care that resembled what was supposed to be a happy experience for fully-developed pregnancies.

“I’m like, I’m miscarrying a baby, I’m not truly in childbirth,” she says. “I’m like, I don’t need an epidural. Like, I will look weak if I get an epidural, basically. But no, I got one, and that thing was life-changing.”

Groh’s anxieties dulled slightly with her pain. Her husband, mom and cousin made sure she wouldn’t be alone for a second of her 24-hour waiting period. Under the hum of hospital fluorescents and steady beeps, Groh and her family tried to make the hardest 24 hours of her life feel somewhat normal.

“I was trying not to think about it,” she says. “We are very sarcastic people in my family, and we joke a lot with each other about things. It was kind of just like, we’re just getting through this. We’re here and we’re getting through it. We’re gonna joke about stuff, we’re going to cry about stuff, we’re gonna do it all. We just have to get through these freaking 24 hours.”

Snacking on vending machine sustenance in a line of chairs in front of Groh, her husband joked that he felt like they were at the movies, with Groh as the leading lady. She laughs at the comment

“I had to go down the path that I did not choose,” Ellen Groh says.

still, thankful she had her family there to wait with her as the clock ticked.

“I have these people here to support me, which other people do not,” she says, tearing up again at the thought. “I could not imagine being told that I have to wait 24 hours and not having anybody with me. So this is why I’m doing this [interview], because it’s jacked up that there are people out there that have to do this by themselves.”

To Groh’s surprise and dismay, she felt the sudden urge to push around 3 a.m., just six hours into her 24-hour mandatory waiting period. Her husband hurried to call for the nurse, but her pregnancy arrived first. It was breathing.

“It’s obviously traumatic,” Groh says. “I deliver a breathing, 20-week pregnancy, taking breaths, but still not viable. This is not the road I wanted to go down. I wanted the D&E so that I did not have to deliver, see this pregnancy breathing, knowing that it’s going to die. That was probably one of the hardest things, because I chose to have a D&E, but because of [the 24-hour rule], I did not make it to that time. I had to go down the path that I did not choose.”

Reflecting on those moments makes Groh sad, but really she’s angry. She knows there are patients out there who are forced to navigate the same experience alone, patients who aren’t mentally equipped the same way she was thanks to her own medical training.

“That’s why I’m angry,” she says. “I think of, once again, all the people who don’t have the support system that I have, and [...] there are people that suffer from mental health issues, I think we all do in some sort of aspect, but there are people that can’t handle it.”

The memory of delivering a dying pregnancy, the baby she was looking forward to meeting later under radically different circumstances, has cemented itself indelibly in Groh’s mind. The memory of her miscarriage at home now coupled with another fatal birth in the hospital. It was never supposed to be this way.

“It was traumatic the first time, and now I’m doing it a second time. It’s even more traumatic,” she says. “I could have had a D&E. I could have been asleep, like I wanted to be. I could have not had a recollection of delivery.”

Her choices whittled down by fate and the state, Groh used what little election she had left to do something that she still can’t explain to this day – she chose to hold her dying baby. CityBeat asked Groh why, after everything she went through, she held her arms out.

Groh pauses. “I don’t know. I have no idea. Because, I mean, it’s your baby,” Groh says. “I didn’t have to hold the pregnancy. That was also my choice.”

Taking the 24-hour rule to court

In April of 2024, the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Ohio and Planned Parenthood Federation of America filed a lawsuit on behalf of Ohio abortion providers to challenge Ohio’s laws that force abortion patients to wait 24 hours to begin abortion care.

According to the ACLU, the laws violate a part of the Issue 1 constitutional amendment that prohibits the state from “burdening, prohibiting, penalizing and interfering with access to abortion, and discriminating against abortion patients and providers.”

“These laws violate Ohio’s constitutional right to reproductive freedom passed on November 7, 2023,” reads a press release from the ACLU. “The challenged abortion restrictions unnecessarily require the overwhelming majority of patients to make two trips to a health center and, in practice, often force patients to wait much longer than 24 hours to receive an abortion. This delays – and in some cases, completely prevents – patients from receiving an abortion.”

“The singling out of abortion for differential and unfavorable treatment perpetuates the discriminatory view that patients do not think carefully about their decisions and do not understand the nature of the procedure,” adds Bethany Lewis, executive director of Cleveland’s Preterm abortion clinic. “This is a patronizing stereotype that has no place in our laws.”

Jessie Hill is the lead attorney with the ACLU taking on the state’s 24-hour rule. She tells CityBeat their lawsuit goes after more aspects of the informed consent process for abortions in Ohio, but the 24-hour waiting requirement is the focus of this case.

“The Reproductive Freedom Amendment that Ohioans adopted in November has much stronger and clearer language that makes it clear the state cannot restrict reproductive decisions, including abortion, unless they are doing so to advance patient health and in accordance with medical standards,” Hill tells CityBeat. “That is clearly not what this [24-hour waiting period] law does. And that’s really the linchpin of our case.”

The lawsuit is set to go to trial in April

2025, but the ACLU has a hearing scheduled for their motion on a preliminary injunction to stop the 24-hour rule on Aug. 16 in a Franklin County Common Pleas court. Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, a Republican, filed an opposition to this request, saying in court documents that it’s the state’s duty to “respect the will of the people” who passed Issue 1, but that it’s also the state’s duty to defend “statutory provisions that the amendment does not invalidate against meritless attack.”

What makes the lawsuit “meritless” to Yost is that the newly-passed constitutional amendment keeps the state from burdening, penalizing, prohibiting, interfering with or discriminating against patients seeking an abortion or those assisting with an abortion. To Yost, clinics themselves are not protected by this amendment, so a lawsuit filed by those representing clinics can’t legitimately argue that the 24-hour rule is impeding on patients’ individual rights.

Yost goes on to address the argument made by the plaintiff that laws creating delays in care, like the domino effect of a mandatory waiting period, are not even the state’s business.

“But the fact that patients often wait longer than 24 hours is not because of the law, but rather is attributable to several factors outside of the state’s control,” Yost’s filing stated.

Ohio Republican Governor Mike DeWine, who opposed the passage of Issue 1, told WSYX that the 24-hour requirement should stay in place.

“Those guardrails are still in effect. They worked well before. So I don’t see any reason to change them,” DeWine told reporters in May.

Former Dayton mayor and Democratic candidate for Ohio Governor Nan Whaley, who was named the newest CEO for Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio in June, said the law has not “worked well” like DeWine believes.

“The 24-hour waiting period is a real challenge for people coming from long distances that, unfortunately, have to come in from long distances to access abortion care,” Whaley tells CityBeat. “We’re becoming a safe-haven state –and we see this in the Cincinnati clinic, particularly – the rule is holding up the ability for us to serve more patients.”

CityBeat asked Groh if she thinks the 24-hour rule “worked well” for her, as DeWine would suggest. She scoffed.

“Not at all, no. I feel like it discredited my knowledge, my decision making abilities,” Groh says. “It comes down to the fact that this was my choice. Your choice would have been totally different, which is fine, your choice is your choice. But I want to make the choices that are best for me and for my family. So that’s at the end of the day what it boils down to, and I want to make them when I want to make them.”

ARTS & CULTURE

A Spirited Affair

Cincy Shakes’ world-premiere Kindred Spirits taps into ghostly high humor

A Spirited Affair

REVIEW

BY RICK PENDER

Cincy Shakes’ world-premiere Kindred Spirits taps into ghostly high humor

REVIEW BY RICK PENDER

PPoor Charles Condomine. He just can’t shake haunting reminders of his past life. The self-centered author was the central character in Noël Coward’s 1941 comedy about ghosts, Blithe Spirit. (It was a record-breaking London hit, receiving more than 2,000 performances.) In the drawing-room comedy, Madame Arcati, a loony psychic, inadvertently conjures up Condomine’s late first wife, Elvira, a shameless party girl, much to the dismay of his no-nonsense, earthbound second wife, Ruth. In an unintended car accident, Ruth ends up dead, too — and she and Elvira must contend for Charles’s attention from “The Other Side.” Other characters can’t see the ghosts — who are plainly visible to the audience — and Charles begins to doubt his own sanity. His country home in Kent is left in shambles as he flees.

oor Charles Condomine. He just can’t shake haunting reminders of his past life. The self-centered author was the central character in Noël Coward’s 1941 comedy about ghosts, Blithe Spirit. (It was a record-breaking London hit, receiving more than 2,000 performances.) In the drawing-room comedy, Madame Arcati, a loony psychic, inadvertently conjures up Condomine’s late first wife, Elvira, a shameless party girl, much to the dismay of his no-nonsense, earthbound second wife, Ruth. In an unintended car accident, Ruth ends up dead, too — and she and Elvira must contend for Charles’s attention from “The Other Side.” Other characters can’t see the ghosts — who are plainly visible to the audience — and Charles begins to doubt his own sanity. His country home in Kent is left in shambles as he flees.

Such a vastly entertaining tale is too ripe for a single onstage work, so — with a commission from Cincinnati Shakespeare Company (and permission from Coward’s estate) — playwright Alice Scovell has crafted a sequel, Kindred Spirits. Its world premiere is the 2024 summer offering by Cincinnati’s classic theater company. Scovell recently penned The Rewards of Being Frank, a sequel to Oscar Wilde’s delirious 1895 comedy, The Importance of Being Earnest, that premiered in 2023 by Cincy Shakes and subsequently traveled to New York City for an OffBroadway run.

Building a sequel on the foundation

of Coward’s classic comedy, which Cincy Shakes produced back in 2010, is no simple task. In a program interview, Scovell said, “Because Coward is a giant, I wanted to be respectful of the world he created, especially the rules regarding ghosts. I preserved four of Coward’s memorable characters, including the iconic Madame Arcati, and added three characters of my own. … Because not everyone knows Blithe Spirit, I wanted to create a work that could stand on its own.” She overlaid a feminist message on her script and created a seven-character play with six well defined female characters.

In Kindred Spirits, twelve years have passed since Charles (Austin Tichenor) and his ghostly wives parted company. His time of singlehood is about to end as he returns to his country home, besotted with a flirtatious hatcheck girl, Avis (Connie Castanzo), an overt gold-digger. His plain-Jane writing partner, Claire (Tora Nogami Alexander), is there, too, helping him meet a publishing deadline. He is planning to sell the house — too many memories — and he’s waiting on his real estate agent, none other than Madame Arcati (Kelly Mengelkoch), who has stepped away from seances to a new career. But her loony sensitivity means she still perceives spiritual presences. The ghosts of Elvira (Courtney Lucien) and Ruth (Jasimine Bouldin) have rematerialized, certain that Charles is making a bad decision with Avis, young enough to be his daughter, so they conspire to

Scovell has done a fine job of extending Coward’s characters. (He reportedly wrote Blithe Spirit in six days!).

derail his misguided romance. When Madame Arcati does her best to return the pair to the Other World, she inadvertently brings out another unwanted ghost, Charles’s domineering mother Gertrude (Christine Pedi). He’s truly outnumbered by strong women Scovell has done a fine job of extending Coward’s characters. (He reportedly wrote Blithe Spirit in six days!). Charles remains an arrogant, egotistical male chauvinist, a bit past his prime and with more charm than insight. Tichenor, a Chicago theater veteran, plays him as a man who is increasingly made aware that he is definitely not in charge. Elvira and Ruth remain true to Coward’s creations, one impetuous and the other pragmatic. Lucien and Bouldin, both attired in gauzy blue gowns and pale makeup, have a great deal of fun with their scheming roles. As Madame Arcati, Mengelkoch makes the character even a bit daffier and clueless than she was in Blithe Spirit. Arcati can neither see nor hear the ghosts, so she’s constantly hunting for them — in the wrong places.

Charles remains an arrogant, egotistical male chauvinist, a bit past his prime and with more charm than insight. Tichenor, a Chicago theater veteran, plays him as a man who is increasingly made aware that he is definitely not in charge. Elvira and Ruth remain true to Coward’s creations, one impetuous and the other pragmatic. Lucien and Bouldin, both attired in gauzy blue gowns and pale makeup, have a great deal of fun with their scheming roles. As Madame Arcati, Mengelkoch makes the character even a bit daffier and clueless than she was in Blithe Spirit. Arcati can neither see nor hear the ghosts, so she’s constantly hunting for them — in the wrong places.

Scovell’s new characters keep the pot boiling. As single-minded Avis with her eyes on the wealthy husband prize, Castanzo is a standout as a crisply stylish, young woman on a single-minded mission, flipping back and forth between sweetly flirtatious and overtly rapacious. A whirling dervish of naïve but driven pursuit, she’s ultimately defeated by her ghostly nemeses. As Claire, Alexander evolves from a devoted,

Samantha Reno’s posh set is a character unto itself. As Arcati casts her errant spells, the posh drawing room’s lights flash, a howling wind blows the curtains and flings the glass garden doors open, and everything shakes and rattles before darkness falls (lighting design is by Watson). The production’s chaotic conclusion is an appropriate denouement to the comedy’s amusing action.

faithful editorial assistant to an assertive, clear-thinking professional, much to Charles’s surprise and dismay. And New York stage professional Pedi (also a SiriusXM host for the On Broadway channel) gives Gertrude Condomine the necessarily imperious demeanor to put her dithering son back on the right track. She too wears a gauzy blue gown to remind us of her ties to the Other Place. (Rainy Edwards is the production’s accomplished costume designer.) Samantha Reno’s posh set is a character unto itself. As Arcati casts her errant spells, the posh drawing room’s lights flash, a howling wind blows the curtains and flings the glass garden doors open, and everything shakes and rattles before darkness falls (lighting design is by Watson). The production’s chaotic conclusion is an appropriate denouement to the comedy’s amusing action.

Director Brian Isaac Phillips has kept the story spinning and concise — the first act is 45 minutes long; the second act is 55. (Coward’s original three-act play took three hours.) He’s done a fine job at creating symmetrical stage pictures, often with the women encircling poor confused Charles. Phillips is responsible for the show’s frothy, witty ambience, making for delightful summer entertainment.

Kindred Spirits, presented by Cincinnati Shakespeare Company, continues through Aug. 18. More info: cincyshakes.com.

From L-R: Jasimine Bouldin, Kelly Mengelkoch, Austin Tichenor and Courtney Lucien in Cincinnati Shakespeare Company’s production of Kindred Spirits

PHOTO: MIKKI SCHAFFNER

From L-R: Jasimine Bouldin, Kelly Mengelkoch, Austin Tichenor and Courtney Lucien in Cincinnati Shakespeare Company’s production of Kindred Spirits

PHOTO: MIKKI SCHAFFNER

IIVISUAL ARTS

Nathan Felix Brings his Inimitable Guerrilla-Style Operatics to the Cincinnati Art Museum

BY BEN PERKINS

Nathan Felix Brings his Inimitable Guerrilla-Style Operatics to the Cincinnati Art Museum

BY BEN PERKINS

t was a chance encounter, a moment of synchronicity, on his first visit to the Queen City that gave Nathan Felix, the renowned self-taught composer, indie rocker and street choirmaster, a musical idea tailor-made for a Cincinnati audience.

While sitting outside an Over-theRhine café in 2021, he befriended two local opera students from University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music. Felix had just written a chamber opera, as well as a choral symphony, a piano concert and more. Immersive and interactive, he had “staged” these performances in the hallways of an art museum in Austin, at an after-dark festival of lights in San Antonio, and even on city buses. A Mexican-American Gen-Xer from working-class Texas, he was interested in challenging the traditional experience of communal urban spaces, “activating” them aurally and visually. And he was looking for a new project.

The two mezzo-sopranos asked him if he’d ever been to the Cincinnati Museum of Art in Eden Park, and, the following day, Felix was inside the galleries, taking reference photos, listening to the acoustics and divining the art for inspiration.

Now three years in the making, on the evening of Aug. 16, Felix’s vision will come to life as a pop-up operetta entitled The Thinker based on the life and times of another self-educated multi-hyphenate, the sculptor Auguste Rodin.

CityBeat caught up with Felix via email and Zoom and asked him about his process, and how he identifies with Rodin (whose masterworks from The Burghers of Calais are on view at CAM as part of Rodin | Response: FIELD family secrets until September). CityBeat also asked him about his expectations for this fourth-wall-shattering event, and what opera can mean to a diversified and democratized audience — how it can bring an audience to life.

A veteran of over 20 immersive public operas, Felix says he connects most with Rodin’s “rebellious character” and that he’s learned to expect the unexpected of the patrons in attendance. If it is an arts-friendly crowd — as he expects from Cincinnati — it may make audience members even more forward about using their agency and “throwing themselves into the action.”

He gives the example of his 2023 opera Glory Gone about Gloria, a Hispanic pop star, and the jealous photographer who betrays and attacks her. He staged it in Albuquerque at a

college, and a 10-year-old boy in the audience, he remembers, seemed to become wondrously obsessed with the protagonist. At one point in the story, the photographer throws Gloria down onto an upholstered bench where some of the audience, including the boy, was sitting. Gloria is taken away in an “ambulance” (a campus golf cart) because she is “on life support,” and the boy worriedly followed after to make sure she was okay. Later, she confronts her attacker with a very real kitchen knife but spares his life, and the boy began cheering. Gloria leaves the performer weeping on his knees, and the boy approached the chastened man as if approaching a statue. Felix remembers him “trying to figure out if it was all real.”

The Thinker should be a similarly exciting spectacle. Felix says he didn’t want to create a “generic biopic,” so he centered the story on the Exposition Universelle of 1889 which was a world’s fair in Paris attended by tens of millions and best known for the unveiling of the Eiffel Tower. Rodin was hoping to unveil at the Exposition what would become a signature achievement of the Western art world — a bronze statue of a pensive, thinking man. But his

plans were too ambitious. His thinking man was supposed to be perched atop a 20-foot-tall Dante-inspired bronze gate, and also Rodin’s life was complicated by competing tempestuous relationships with several women. The sculpture of the thinking man wasn’t finished for another 15 years, and though he worked on it for the rest of his life, the massive gate was only fully assembled and displayed after Rodin’s death. Felix enthuses about the soapy parts of the story and says that he “fully leaned into a salacious narrative to fuel the drama needed for opera.”

When asked whether his work is poised to be completed on-time, he explains that he is in the “prep-forproduction stage of things.” He actually finished the entire work and delivered it to his performers in May. The cast spent the summer learning about and connecting with their characters while Felix put his work aside until late July — about three weeks prior to the performance — to give himself a chance to “recalibrate” before directing.

When asked if he would be worriedly following after performers as they made their stage exits and entrances, he says that he takes a more “fly-on-the-wall approach” than the audience. He says,

“it’s important for the singers to be in control of the flow.” He explains that, “as a director, I want to provide an opportunity to let the performance unfold in a very natural way so it doesn’t feel rigid.” He further explains that waiting in the wings also frees him to shoot a documentary of the performance, which will become his new project after this Friday night’s culmination.

This one-time opera will represent years of anticipation for the host venue and its staff too. Cincinnati Art Museum’s Assistant Director of Interpretive Programing Haley Perkins has been advance-planning this event, she says, almost as long as she has been employed at the art museum.

“We’re always looking for ways to enliven our collections,” she says, “and I was so excited by his use of space.” She emphasizes that she especially wanted to work with Felix because he’s passionate about working with local musicians. “This is unlike anything we’ve had before because it’s written just for us. It’s uniquely for us in Cincinnati.”

The Thinker opens at 6:30 p.m. on Aug. 16 at the Cincinnati Art Museum. Performances begin at 7 p.m. More info: cincinnatiartmuseum.org.

The Thinker opens at 6:30 p.m. on Aug. 16 at the Cincinnati Art Museum. Performances begin at 7 p.m.

More info: cincinnatiartmuseum.org.

Auguste Rodin (French, 1840–1917), Jacques de Wissant, clothed (detail), 1885–86, cast 1989, bronze, h.83 7/8 in. (223.2 cm)

PHOTO: COURTESY OF IRIS & B. GERALD CANTOR FOUNDATION, PHOTO BY ADDISON DOTY

Auguste Rodin (French, 1840–1917), Jacques de Wissant, clothed (detail), 1885–86, cast 1989, bronze, h.83 7/8 in. (223.2 cm)

PHOTO: COURTESY OF IRIS & B. GERALD CANTOR FOUNDATION, PHOTO BY ADDISON DOTY

FOOD & DRINK

FOOD

The Path to Delicious

Taste of Cincinnati winner, Alley Baby, set to open first location in Norwood

BY KELSEY GRAHAM

Taste of Cincinnati winner, Alley Baby, set to open first location in Norwood

BY KELSEY GRAHAM

TTaste of Cincinnati Winner, Alley Baby, Set to Open First Location in Norwood

aste of Cincinnati Winner, Alley Baby, Set to Open First Location in Norwood Dek: Alley Baby offers elevated comfort food with a laid-back vibe. It started with a gyro cart and a dream one mid-October night during BLINK in 2022. Having been in the restaurant industry for years, Overthe-Rhine resident Alex Frohlich decided to take a chance and set up a recently purchased gyro cart in his apartment’s courtyard during BLINK for neighbors and passersby to try some of his dishes and give their feedback. As luck would have it, the feedback was positive, and Frohlich remembers thinking, “There’s something here; I’m gonna keep working towards this.” And so Alley Baby began.

Dek: Alley Baby offers elevated comfort food with a laid-back vibe. It started with a gyro cart and a dream one mid-October night during BLINK in 2022. Having been in the restaurant industry for years, Overthe-Rhine resident Alex Frohlich decided to take a chance and set up a recently purchased gyro cart in his apartment’s courtyard during BLINK for neighbors and passersby to try some of his dishes and give their feedback. As luck would have it, the feedback was positive, and Frohlich remembers thinking, “There’s something here; I’m gonna keep working towards this.” And so Alley Baby began.

Food has been a part of Frohlich’s life for as long as he can remember. Frohlich says he grew up in a big family, and his father traveled often. When he returned, they would make big meals with friends and family to

gather and celebrate. “Us all being together and having meals together was important to my parents, and I’m glad we did,” says Frohlich.

Family is a constant theme in Frohlich’s story. He named his business after his dad’s childhood nickname for him: Alley Baby. He even used his dog, Hank, as inspiration for the restaurant’s logo.

One of his first jobs was as a busboy at the now-closed Houston Inn in Mason when he was 14 years old. From there, he graduated from the Cincinnati State Midwest Culinary Institute. After graduating, he worked off and on in the industry, from managing restaurants to working as a private chef. One of the families he worked for as a private chef for five years, along with friends and family, encouraged him to go out and start a business on his own, which is how he ended up purchasing the gyro cart for BLINK.

After a positive response during his BLINK debut, Frohlich started

promoting Alley Baby more and undertook more catering gigs to test his food and spread the word. Around this time, Frohlich was working for a door company in Norwood, which happened to have a catering kitchen area. The building owner let Frohlich use the space to prep his food when he was just getting started. As fate would have it, this location would also become where Frohlich would choose to open his brick-and-mortar location for Alley Baby.

One of the first places Alley Baby set up shop was in Second Story’s back alley, where he set up a food cart on most weekends and sold food.

This year, Alley Baby was invited to participate in its first Taste of Cincinnati. “I saw it as an opportunity to get Alley Baby out there and kind of separate myself from these other businesses,” he said. At its first Taste of Cincinnati, Alley Baby won Best of Taste in the appetizer category for their smoked chicken wings.

One of the first places Alley Baby set up shop was in Second Story’s back alley, where he set up a food cart on most weekends and sold food. This year, Alley Baby was invited to participate in its first Taste of Cincinnati. “I saw it as an opportunity to get Alley Baby out there and kind of separate myself from these other businesses,” he said. At its first Taste of Cincinnati, Alley Baby won Best of Taste in the appetizer category for their smoked chicken wings.

Owner Alex Frohlich (left) with his dog, Hank, and father

PHOTO: LYDIA SCHEMBRE

Owner Alex Frohlich’s dog, Hank, makes an appearance inside of the restaurant

PHOTO: LYDIA SCHEMBRE

Owner Alex Frohlich (left) with his dog, Hank, and father

PHOTO: LYDIA SCHEMBRE

Owner Alex Frohlich’s dog, Hank, makes an appearance inside of the restaurant

PHOTO: LYDIA SCHEMBRE

Since then, Frohlich has been working on opening his first brick-andmortar location in Norwood, where RJ Distillery was located before moving to Eastgate. He plans to offer a laidback spot with exceptional service and a lounge-like vibe. “I really want to put an emphasis on you coming in, chilling, relaxing and getting excellent food and service without having to worry about all these extra fees,” he explains.

Many of Alley Baby’s dishes are inspired by recipes Frohlich would make at home for friends and family, which he calls elevated comfort food. “I put a lot of time into every dish,” he said.

Some menu items include the award-winning wings and a coconut chicken sandwich, another crowdfavorite at Taste of Cincinnati. There’s also the Alley Baby burger, which is made with a lamb and Angus beef blend and topped with housemade Alley Sauce, lettuce, pickles and cheese. Frohlich also makes freshcut fries that are served with the sandwiches. The location also has an alcohol license and will serve drinks and spirits.

Living close to Findlay Market, Frohlich finds inspiration from the market, especially when it comes to using local ingredients. “Just walking around there has been great, and talking with the other vendors,” he says.

“I really wanted to make that a part of this when I could.”

Frohlich also sources ingredients from his parent’s small farm in Lebanon when he can. “My parents kind of have their own Funny Farm,” laughs Frohlich. He says his dad has about a half-acre garden where he likes to get tomatoes and beans, along with duck eggs.

Frohlich is waiting to hear back from Norwood’s Health Department with the official go-ahead before opening the brick-and-mortar location. He has the inventory and equipment in place and plans to offer delivery options immediately once he gets approval. From there, he plans to open the restaurant inside within two to four weeks.

Alley Baby, 2810 Highland Ave., Norwood. More info: instagram.com/ thealleybaby.

Alley Baby’s smoked chicken wings PHOTO: LYDIA SCHEMBRE

Gorilla Cinema Unveils New Bar, Restaurant and Mini Golf Space, Oakley Greens

BY BRYN DIPPOLD EATS

Gorilla Cinema Unveils New Bar, Restaurant and Mini Golf Space, Oakley Greens

BY BRYN DIPPOLD EATS

GGorilla Cinema Presents is known in Cincinnati for its outof-the-ordinary restaurant and bar concepts, including the downtown karaoke bar Tokyo Kitty, the Shiningthemed bar The Overlook Lodge and The Lonely Pine Steakhouse.

orilla Cinema Presents is known in Cincinnati for its outof-the-ordinary restaurant and bar concepts, including the downtown karaoke bar Tokyo Kitty, the Shiningthemed bar The Overlook Lodge and The Lonely Pine Steakhouse.

Oakley Greens in Oakley across from the Oakley Cinemark is the newest concept from Gorilla Cinema and its 10th project overall. It is similar to Covington Yard, one of its already successful open-air bars. Like Covington Yard, Oakley Greens has specialty cocktails, a large green space with ample seating, massive flat screens and options for dining in.

Unlike Covington Yard, Oakley Greens, which opened in June 2024, has 36 holes of elevated mini golf, making it a great place to drink, eat and play.

Jacob Trevino, CEO and creator of Gorilla Cinema Presents, has been working with investors for three years to get Oakley Greens up and running.

“It’s one of the longest projects that Gorilla Cinema has ever worked on,” he says. “We are very excited to be a part of it.”

Oakley Greens is also the largest venue that Gorilla Cinema has ever done; the indoor and outdoor spaces can hold up to 2,000 people. “That opens the door for so much more creativity from our company,” Trevino says.

While Gorilla Cinema is not the main owner of Covington Yard and Oakley Greens, it is the managing partner. “[Investors] came to us to help them kind of bring their dream to life,” Trevino says. “That’s an exciting part of our company now. It’s not just our ideas, but helping other people with their ideas.”

Oakley Greens offers specialty cocktails, like the Caddy Shack Margarita with an accompanying shot of Grand Marnier, the Gilmore G&T, with lemon tonic and Tanqueray, and a classic Aperol Spritz. Mocktails are also available (the Peach Palmer has peach sweet tea and lemonade, while the Par 3 has ginger beer, grape juice and lime).

Food from Hangry Omar’s Food Hall is available, including sliders, loaded fries, tater tots and cheese bites. Carnitas tacos, chips and queso, nachos, pizza and salads are also available for ordering at the two kiosks inside the main Oakley Greens building.

Mr. Oakley’s Ice Cream Shop, also inside the main building, offers a sweet treat for adults and kids alike. The food is universally likable and easy to share, making Oakley Greens a great spot for families, friends and coworkers.

“It really makes it this kind of almost country club that everyone can join,”

Trevino says.

“It really makes it this kind of almost country club that everyone can join,” Trevino says.

This promotes a spirit of inclusivity, one that Trevino says Cincinnati is known for in the hospitality industry, which he says is unusually supportive.

“If you go to other cities, there is not a ‘root for your neighbor’ mentality,” he says. “It’s very cutthroat. But Cincinnati has developed this excitement about supporting other people. You cheer for your friends and also hopefully they make you better.”

This could also be due to the fact that Cincinnati is a town where restaurant owners, bartenders and chefs all seemingly know each other and are known to Cincinnatians like local celebrities.

Trevino has made a name for himself alongside the likes of Jose Salazar, Molly Wellmann, Kayla Robison, who appeared on and won Food Network’s Chopped, and Christian Gill, who has appeared on a variety of Netflix and Food Network food shows.

This could also be due to the fact that Cincinnati is a town where restaurant owners, bartenders and chefs all seemingly know each other and are known to Cincinnatians like local celebrities. Trevino has made a name for himself alongside the likes of Jose Salazar, Molly Wellmann, Kayla Robison, who appeared on and won Food Network’s Chopped, and Christian Gill, who has appeared on a variety of Netflix and Food Network food shows.

This unique environment in Cincinnati unfortunately does not alleviate the stresses of owning and operating a restaurant and/or bar.

Recently, Cosmic Gorilla, a comic book shop and its accompanying

speakeasy, Galactic Cantina, owned by Gorilla Cinema, announced its closure. It won’t be empty for long: Gorilla Cinema’s new cocktail bar and tapas place, The Highball, will be taking its place in fall 2024.

While this kind of unpredictability might stress out a different business owner, Trevino shares that it’s part of the process for Gorilla Cinema.

“It’s always been about creating really cool processes and really cool experiences,” he says. “Some of them are going to be great and some of them are just going to be okay. And some of them are going to get flipped every five years. I feel like that’s kind of built into our DNA.”

According to an Ohio State University study, around 60% of restaurants fail within their first year of operation, and 80% fail within five years.

Gorilla Cinema just celebrated 10 years since the beginning of its popups, and on Halloween this year, its first brick-and-mortar bar, The Overlook Lodge, will celebrate nine years of business. While some of its concepts have closed and/or been switched out for a new idea, Gorilla Cinema seems to thrive on its flexibility.

“I’m rarely chasing trends,” Trevino says. “It’s more about the neighborhoods

we go into and think, ‘What’s that neighborhood missing?’ And then it’s always been about trying new things. I think we’re not afraid to try something, and this sounds terrible as a business owner, but like try something and kind of fail at it and relearn how to do it.”

Though Trevino has created and expanded Gorilla Cinema to 10 concepts, you’ll still find him behind the bar sometimes “I still consider myself very much a bartender at heart,” he says.

Though Trevino has created and expanded Gorilla Cinema to 10 concepts, you’ll still find him behind the bar sometimes “I still consider myself very much a bartender at heart,” he says. Additionally, Trevino, who has worked in hospitality his whole life, knows what makes a bar good or bad.

Additionally, Trevino, who has worked in hospitality his whole life, knows what makes a bar good or bad.

“I’ve been very fortunate that I create bars that I want to go to,” Trevino says.

Now, with Oakley Greens, the door has been opened for bigger and loftier Gorilla Cinema concepts in the future.

“Oakley Greens is great because it’s allowing us to do some of the bigger ideas that have been on the shelf,” he says. “I’m very excited about the next 10 years and Oakley Greens kicking off this next stage of Gorilla Cinema in terms of scale, scope and the things that we want to do.”

Oakley Greens, 3065 Vandercar Way, Oakley. More info: oakleygreens.com.

Oakley Greens has speciality cocktails, a large green space with ample seating and options for dining in.

PHOTO: TWINSPIRE PHOTOGRAPHY

Oakley Greens has speciality cocktails, a large green space with ample seating and options for dining in.

PHOTO: TWINSPIRE PHOTOGRAPHY

MUSIC

Wussy’s Mournful, Joyful Celebration on The Great Divide

The Cincinnati band discusses new music, the death of band member John Erhardt and more ahead of their album release

BY BRIAN BAKER

Since the 2005 release of Funeral Dress, each successive Wussy album has been hotly anticipated and enthusiastically celebrated. The Great Divide, the band’s imminent eighth studio album of new material and quite possibly their best album yet, follows that general blueprint with a few significant diversions. The six years since 2018’s What Heaven is Like represents the longest gap between releases in the Cincinnati band’s 20-year history, which can be partially attributed to COVID/lockdown interruptions (although band members Chuck Cleaver, Lisa Walker and Mark Messerly worked through the pandemic by streaming 60+ living room concerts).

While Wussy actively celebrates the release of The Great Divide with their standard blend of cautious optimism, hard-won cynicism, nudge-wink pragmatism and self-deprecating pride, the festivities are slightly muted. There is a missing face at the feast; the sudden and unexpected death of pedal steel

master John Erhardt in May of 2020 dealt the band a crushing blow that could easily have ended their spectacular two-decade run.

As the band notes, Erhardt was more than just a member of Wussy’s estimable ensemble. He was a pedal steel ninja whose noise-to-melody ratio and Kryptonic intensity transformed the band’s sonic profile. He was also an emotional Zen sensei/shaman who was somehow the perfect complement/ counterpoint to every diverse personality within the Wussy family.

“John had this weird connective thing,” says Messerly. “The way he played connected everything.”

“And it wasn’t just his playing, it was John’s presence,” says Cleaver, who met Erhardt in a writing class at the University of Cincinnati in the late ‘70s and formed the Ass Ponys with him in 1988. “It was the same in the Ass Ponys. John was kind of our ballast. He always had that calming effect.”

“It was like, ‘Dad’s here. Everything’s

going to be okay,’” Messerly concurs.

Drummer Joe Klug recalled a classic Erhardt moment from one of Wussy’s UK tours. “Mark and I went out for a delightful brunch and Chuck and Lisa were losing it a little bit, like they wanted to go home. Mark and I went back to the hotel and John was pacing back and forth in the parking lot, back and forth, and we were like, ‘What are you doing?’ And he said, ‘Thinking about what I’m going to say to Chuck and Lisa in a few minutes.’ Like he was rehearsing it in his head.”

The anecdote elicits gales of laughter from the rest of the band, likely because every Erhardt story sparks an additional 10. This is the path of mourning that Wussy has charted; to mollify the pain of his passing by celebrating the staggering impact he had on the band, individually and collectively.

When the band began working on what would become The Great Divide, one of the first considerations was the songs to be included on an album

that would inevitably form a tribute to Erhardt. Although they had written songs in the immediate aftermath of Erhardt’s death, they didn’t have the specific tone the band required (“I wrote three or four, and they were good, but I think it was more therapeutic,” says Cleaver). As it turned out, they already had everything they needed.

“We had two records worth of songs and Lisa gathered what songs would make this thing,” says Messerly. “And I think it was Lisa’s idea to find some of the songs that John played on so he would have a voice on this record.”

“We had a grouping of songs and it seemed like there was sort of a break point, maybe not lyrically but feel-wise,” says Walker. “It did seem like it made sense to put them together.”

As Messerly notes, The Great Divide is a mid-tempo album, as befits a tribute to a beloved fallen friend. Given that the tracks on the patently excellent set all predate Erhardt’s death, songs like the hair-raising “The Ghosts Keep Me Alive”

Wussy

PHOTO: JON CALDERAS AND LISA WALKER

“One of the joys of being in a band is learning how each other plays,” says Lisa Walker. “It’s fun because now I get to learn how Travis plays and I get to learn how to play with and around him. It’s one of the greatest joys of life for me.”

and the eerily prescient “Please Kill Me” pack an even greater emotional punch. The most improbable fact about The Great Divide (and its most Wussyesque characteristic) is that it’s a record that mourns a death that hadn’t yet happened when it was written; to that end, Erhardt’s contributions are featured on two songs, “The Night We Missed the Horror Show” and “Days and Hours.”

The Great Divide features Wussy’s famed blanket of sound, a sort of Americana-tinged My Bloody Valentine, which is something that Erhardt helped to solidify.

“It’s so cool when it sounds like there’s an extra part being played but no one’s actually playing it,” says Messerly. “It’s some weird artifact of all the instruments.”

“We like to blend so you can’t hear the mistakes,” Cleaver says.

The next order of business might have been difficult, but Wussy has, from its very inception, taken an organic approach to personnel decisions. At one point, they decided Erhardt was irreplacable (he will continue to be listed as a member of the band on all subsequent recordings), and then somehow, everyone began thinking about Frontier Folk Nebraska guitarist and veteran session musician Travis Talbert.

“When Dawn (Burman) left, all of us said, ‘Think Joe will do it?’ Everybody,” says Messerly. “And even though we didn’t talk about it, we didn’t set out to have a pedal steel player. We didn’t know what we wanted to sound like, what we wanted was to work with Travis. It was uniform.”

“One of the joys of being in a band is learning how each other plays,” says Walker. “It’s fun because now I get to learn how Travis plays and I get to learn how to play with and around him. It’s one of the greatest joys of life for me. And it’s not just somebody’s ability to play and sound good. It’s about a spiritual connection too. Do I feel comfortable and safe being vulnerable and creative around these people? 100% yes. (Klug and Talbert) are amazing players and you feel like family around them without having to spend a lot of time together.”

“Plus, in practices, you have to be able to talk about stupid shit for an hour and a half and play music for half an hour,” says Cleaver, revealing his personal litmus test in the Wussy clubhouse. “That’s important.”

Talbert was influenced by Erhardt before he even sat down with a pedal steel. “John was one of three people who played pedal steel that made me want to get one. When he first started (with Wussy), I remember he just kind of made a sound, and I thought, ‘That’s what I would do with it if I played pedal steel.’ I’ve always gravitated toward that idea, like I’m playing the Hammond organ.”

Wussy has never done anything by half measures, so naturally their first full audience live set since before lockdown was opening for Guided By Voices back in April. They considered adding in songs from The Great Divide and then reconsidered.

“We practiced like three or four of the new songs, but one by one, they got axed,” recalls Talbert.

“We knew if we didn’t play a rock set, we’d get buried,” says Cleaver. In any event, that gig firmly established that Wussy is beyond prepared for this next chapter in their saga. The Great Divide will drop later this fall, along with two EPs, one a full band release with two songs that didn’t make the album, and the other a two-track set from Cleaver and Walker’s side project Wussy Duo, a teaser for the full length slated for early 2025.

And there are still a record’s worth of Wussy songs waiting to be recorded, as well as things that are being written now that Talbert is in the fold. The band doesn’t know and honestly doesn’t care how their work is ultimately judged, they’re just thankful they have an outlet for release through Cincinnati’s Shake It Records.

“Darren (Blase) is like our patron saint,” says Cleaver. “People still ask, ‘How did you get on Shake It?’ And I say, ‘I don’t fucking know.’ I walked into the store and he said, ‘I heard you guys are recording, I’d like to hear it.’ I took him three songs and he said, ‘You want to make a record?’ And I said, ‘Yeah. Duh.’ And it’s been that way ever since. Never signed nothing or any of that horseshit. And he puts out every godddamn thing we make. That’s amazing to me.”

It sounds just right to us.

Wussy’s forthcoming album, The Great Divide, is set to be released in the fall. More info: wussyworld.com.

SOUND ADVICE

RED HOT CHILLI PIPERS

Aug. 9 • Sorg Opera House

The Red Hot Chilli Pipers, not to be confused with the American rock band, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, are the Celtic bagpipe band set to bring an electrifying performance to Sorg Opera House in Middletown this month. As the self-proclaimed “Most Famous Bagpipe Band on the Planet,” the group is made up of pipers, guitarists, keyboardists and drummers who travel the world performing their famous blending of traditional Scottish music and rock/pop anthems coined “Bagrock.”

The group’s claim to fame was on the BBC’s When Will I Be Famous? reality show in 2007, when they won the public vote and the grand prize of ten thousand pounds. After gaining international fame, the band would eventually sell out shows worldwide and perform over 200 times each year. Putting their unique spin on contemporary songs like Queen’s “We Will Rock You” and Avicii’s “Wake Me Up” — the band’s cover from the BBC’s Radio 1 Breakfast Show can be found on YouTube with over 5 million views — the members showcase their bagpipe brilliance through an infectious and powerful instrumental performance of both classic and modern tunes.

Three highland pipers lead the stage at a Red Hot Chilli Pipers show, with around five to seven band members accompanying them. The skirling of the bagpipes colliding with the beat of the drums and the shredding of the guitar all on one stage truly brings the fire to the show. Paired with vocal performances and even the occasional Scottish highland dance, this fire is what has kept fans coming back for over 20 years since the band’s start in 2002.

The Red Hot Chilli Pipers play Sorg Opera House on Aug. 9 at 8 p.m. More info: sorgoperahouse.org. (Alanna Marshall)

SARAH SHOOK & THE DISARMERS

Aug. 10 • Southgate House Revival

Aug. 10 • Southgate House Revival Sarah Shook & the Disarmers center their songs on Shook’s searching lyrics and gritty, evocative voice. It’s the type of vocal emission that convincingly relays the trials and tribulations of a person who has struggled with identity — Shook recently changed

Sarah Shook & the Disarmers center their songs on Shook’s searching lyrics and gritty, evocative voice. It’s the type of vocal emission that convincingly relays the trials and tribulations of a person who has struggled with identity — Shook recently changed

their pronouns to they/them and first name to River — and a past informed by religious constrictions. They used music as a way out. Shook started playing guitar and writing songs as a teenager in Garner, N.C., eventually self-releasing an EP in 2013 — songs based in country music but injected with a dose of rock and roll and even punk, both in spirit and sound. Flash-forward more than a decade and Shook’s fourth release with the Disarmers, this year’s Revelations (via Thirsty Tigers), is the culmination of a creative and personal evolution (they recently got sober after years of substance-abuse issues). The opening track, “Revelations,” sets the tone, as reverberating guitars intertwine with Shook’s modestly delivered but

expressive voice, a classic highlonesome sound that transports the listener to a particular corner of the world. In this case, the world of Shook’s reliance on music as salvation and security: “Hey, baby, I’m barely gettin’ through each day/Breakin’ my back for a pittance paid/No slack in the line/Sick of standin’ in my own way.”

Shook took the production reins for the first time on Revelations for a simple reason — they wanted to keep things as “real” as possible.

“I didn’t start writing songs with the intention of being a great singer or even a great guitarist,” Shook said in a recent interview with The Nashville Scene. “My voice is just simply a catalyst for the writing, and to me,

the writing is everything. When I’m listening to vocal takes and choosing what’s going to be on the record, I’m not looking for perfection. I’m listening for the thing that makes my heart feel something. If I had a production signature, it would be finding beauty in the flaws.”

Mission accomplished, River. Sarah Shook & the Disarmers play Southgate House Revival on Aug. 10 at 8 p.m. More info: southgatehouse. com. (Jason Gargano)

THE SCRIPT

Aug. 13 • Bogart’s Global pop sensation The Script is hitting Cincinnati on their upcoming world tour. The band is currently

Red Hot Chilli Pipers

PHOTO: PROVIDED BY RED HOT CHILLI PIPERS

Red Hot Chilli Pipers

PHOTO: PROVIDED BY RED HOT CHILLI PIPERS

making the rounds to support their new album, Satellites, which drops Aug. 16. The Script is renowned for hits such as “Breakeven” and “The Man Who Can’t Be Moved ” Now citizens of the Queen City will get the chance to jam out to these songs in person.

The Script was originally formed in Ireland in 2001. Since then the band has released six studio albums, with their upcoming release being their seventh. Each album has produced hits that have topped the charts in Ireland, the U.K., Australia and the United States. Other notable works have

included songs such as “Nothing” and “Hall of Fame.”

The style of the band is akin to other similar radio rock acts. The Script has drawn comparisons to U2, Coldplay and The Police. Despite the radiofriendly sound, the band has been hailed as experimental in writing their new melodies. Critics even categorized some of their songs as indie or alternative rock due to the distinct flair the band puts into their catchy tunes.

For fans of the band, the forthcoming release of Satellites signifies a pivotal moment in the band’s career. When

more somber tones fans are used to from the band’s other releases.

The Script play Bogart’s on Aug. 13 at 6:30 p.m. More info: bogarts.com. (Logan Turner)

KING GIZZARD & THE LIZARD WIZARD

Aug. 25 • MegaCorp Pavilion

Is King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard the hardest-working band in the world? They’re certainly in the running. In fact, it’s hard to keep track of the Australian sextet’s voluminous output over the last dozen years — the band has released 25 full-length albums since 2012, including a whopping nine since 2021. That’s more than seven hours of music in just the last three years, an adventurous smorgasbord of offerings anchored in the band’s beloved psych-rock base with offshoots into garage, pop, prog, metal and electronic. Then there’s King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard’s ceaseless touring schedule — shows, typically two hours in length, that range from trippy, acid-drenched sonic excursions to acoustic-based covers or alternate versions that rarely fail to satisfy.

And, of course, they’re not done yet — the band’s latest, Flight b741, dropped early this month, another curve ball marked less by their typical conceptual zeal than an effort to simplify their approach.

“We wanted to make something that was primal, instinctual, more from the gut, just people in a room, doing what feels right,” tireless frontman Stu Mackenzie said in the press notes that accompanied the album’s release. “We wanted to make something fun.”

The Script first started releasing albums in 2008 with their self-titled record, the band stayed consistently busy, releasing an album every two years. The band’s upcoming album Satellites, however, is the band’s first release in five years. This makes it a great opportunity to support the group as they look to get back on the same grind they did earlier in their careers.

If you’re curious about what the new album might entail, the band has released a new single entitled “Both Ways,” an uplifting and cheerful tune that marks a sort of departure from the

Cue “Hog Calling Contest,” a footstomping barrage of southern-fried riffs, manic drumming and gang vocals with lyrics about flying high first class on flight b741 with their piggy chums. It recalls early Grand Funk Railroad laced with dashes of Frank Zappa and The Grateful Dead, all soused on grits and absinthe. Then there’s “Le Risque,” another good-natured, boogie-woogie trip down South rife with choogle guitars, bleating harmonica and, curiously, the debut of drummer Michael Cavanagh on lead vocals. The lyrics encourage us to live in the moment, using two iconic adventurers to make their point: “Hello, Evel Knievel/Running through the red light/Philippe Petit, yeah/Walk the tightwire/Take the risk, take the risk/You only live once.”

King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard are certainly taking their own advice, creating music and playing shows at a head-spinning rate rare in any era.

King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard play MegaCorp Pavilion on Aug. 25 at 6 p.m. More info: promowestlive.com/ cincinnati/megacorp-pavilion. (JG)

River Shook

PHOTO: JILLIAN CLARK

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard

PHOTO: JASON GALEA

The Script PHOTO:NALTERNA2, FLICKR

THE PERFECT CROSSWORD DOESN’T EXI--

BY BRENDAN EMMETT QUIGLEY WWW.BRENDANEMMETTQUIGLEY.COM

Across

1. Assorted list heading: Abbr.

5. Official records

9. Dam on the Nile

14. Color similar to electric cyan

15. Source of linseed oil

16. Stiller’s comic partner

17. Stocking finishers

18. Revealer at the poker table

19. Mild and pleasant

20. Out-of-pocket expenditure done quietly?

23. Hot time on the Côte d’Azur

24. Container that’s a homophone of 33-Across

25. Long way to go around town?

26. Booster shot

28. Do not disturb

30. Walk through water noisily

32. Card game that comes in a ColorADD version for those with color blindness

33. Ocean eagle that’s a homophone of 24-Across

35. Publican’s serving

36. Crash respondents: Abbr.

37. Vagabonds on the Interstate?

41. Springfield grunts

42. ___-hit KO (video game cliche)

43. Tidy amount?

44. Like those with a dark, pessimistic view on life (sometimes)

45. Classic Ford sports car, briefly

47. Open mic failure

51. “Sure thing”

52. Resistance unit

53. French accord?

55. Jamie Dimon’s title at JPMorgan Chase

56. Primary thoroughfare of a Spanish cathedral city?

60. Salad servers

61. Drag on a butt

62. Beehive, e.g.

63. Language where “good luck” is “kia waimarie”

64. Pitcher in a still life

65. Congestion charge, e.g.

66. Espionage gathering

67. “___ Like This” (Van Morrison song)

68. Exceeded the limit

Down

1. Surrealist Duchamp

2. “What exactly was said was ...”

3. Spectacle in the west

4. All their world’s a stage

5. On the trail of

6. Tidies up

7. Chalk used in powerlifting

8. Sturdy metal fastener that connect to a car’s wheel hub

9. Surprise attack

10. Close tightly

11. Bit of parkour

12. Aggressive insects

13. Turn-down vote

21. Fermented Chinese tea

22. Laser printer parts that melt the toner onto the paper

27. AL East team, on scoreboards

29. Seeks change?

31. Coat of paint

34. Genre for Iron Maiden or early Def Leppard, initially

36. Award with a large atom

37. It can put you in your place

38. “That would be bad!”

39. Full of energy

40. Tax cheat’s fear

41. “Who ___?” (Cincinnati Bengals fans’ cheer)

45. Throat mass

46. Shrek’s buddy

48. Cold summer treat

49. Tattooist’s tool

50. Staled

54. Everybody online

57. Shrek, e.g.

58. Louisiana Purchase state

59. Stuck positions

60. “Will you stop talking about that!,” initially

LAST PUZZLE’S ANSWERS: