‘The Post’ wins four Top 10 honors at national conference
Last weekend, several staffers from The Post traveled to Washington, D.C., to attend MediaFest ‘22, a networking conference hosted by the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Collegiate Press and the College Media Association.
Posties spent four days at the conference attending informational sessions and meeting students from other media outlets at colleges across the U.S.
As student journalists preparing to graduate and enter the industry, it’s reassuring to be recognized for our hard work.
RYAN MAXIN EDITOR-IN-CHIEFWe listened to speakers such as keynote Washington Post legends Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein and the Washington Post TikTok guy Dave Jorgenson. We viewed other student work and noted which publications we’d like to model our own after. On the last day, we excitedly awaited the announcement of the awards.
At this year’s MediaFest, The Post picked up four national top-10 awards for podcasting, our website, our newsletter and our 2022 Orientation Guide special edition. The Post’s director of photography, Jesse Jarrold-Grapes, was featured as a finalist in the conference’s photo shootout as well.
For decades, the field of journalism has been seen as a volatile one, where journalists are underpaid and underappreciated and where uncertainty looms around every corner. Of course, I’m in no place to comment on the validity of those claims, but I will say that the prospect of joining a workforce with so much buzz around it certainly doesn’t settle my nerves.
However, I am part of a student publication that has gained national notoriety for its work. I’ve mentioned this several times in my past columns, but I truly think students at The Post and Ohio University are some of the most impressive in the country. We work hard to do what we love, and when that work is noticed and celebrated, it makes us want to work even harder.
I’d be remiss not to congratulate WOUB, Thread Magazine and OU’s chapter of SPJ on their honors as well. Together, we proved OU is the place to get involved in
media and win awards while doing it. Winning awards isn’t the reason we do what we do, though. We want to help inform others and tell their stories. Above all else, The Post will continue its commitment to that duty, awards or not.
Ryan Maxin is a junior studying journalism at Ohio University and the editor-in-chief of The Post. Want to chat with him about his ideas? Email Ryan at rm554219@ohio.edu or find him on Twitter at @ryanmaxin.
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Horses in the middle of the road, stalking reported
MOLLY WILSON NEWS EDITORHorse gone wild
The Athens County Sheriff’s Office received a report of a horse in the roadway on Sams Road in Albany.
Deputies responded to the area but determined the horse was no longer a hazard.
Wrong way driver
The Athens County Sheriff’s Office, alongside the ACEMS responded to a wrong-way driver complaint on State Route 50 West in Coolville.
The female driver was evaluated by emergency services and transported home by a family member.
‘I have a stalker’
Deputies from the sheriff’s office received a report of potential stalking. A re-
port was filed, though both parties involved agreed not to contact one another.
Suspicious person
Sheriff’s deputies responded to Athens after receiving a report of a suspicious male. Deputies responded to the scene and patrolled the area but did not come in contact with the male reported.
Threats were made
The sheriff’s office received a report of threats and harassment being made on May Avenue in Chauncey.
Deputies responded to the area and spoke with the individual who filed the complaint. Deputies also spoke with the man that was reportedly threatening the complainant.
It was determined that there was probable cause to arrest the man making the threats, and he was transported to South-
eastern Ohio Regional Jail without incident.
‘My phone is gone’
Deputies from the sheriff’s office responded to North Clinton Street in The Plains after receiving a theft report.
The complainant said his neighbor stole his cell phone, though he did not want to pursue criminal action and only wanted his phone back.
Deputies located the male suspected of stealing the phone who returned it to the deputies.
Deputies gave the complainant his phone back, and no further action was taken.
Screaming on Halloween
The sheriff’s office received a complaint of someone screaming in New Marshfield on Biddyville Road.
Deputies patrolled the area but did not make contact with anyone.
‘Someone is in my house’
The sheriff’s office took a report of breaking and entering on Vanderhoof Road in Coolville.
An investigation is pending.
Possible breaking and entering
The sheriff’s office received a call in which the caller stated his neighbor’s front door opened, though his neighbor had left home shortly before.
The caller was worried someone might have broken in, so deputies responded to the scene. Deputies cleared the residence and found nobody inside. The door was locked and secured.
@MOLLYWMARIE MW542219@OHIO.EDU Palmer • Hocking Stewart • Milliron Coss • E. Union W. Washington W. State • FranklinLaw enforcement reports numerous arrests over Halloween weekend
KENDALL WRIGHT FOR THE POSTWith the return of Athens’ infamous Halloween Block Party, Ohio University’s Halloween weekend was calmer compared to previous years, and arrests and crimi nal charges were down from 2021.
Though the city’s special events made a comeback for the first time since 2020, Halloween weekend was much easier to handle than several years before, Athens Police Department Chief Tom Pyle said.
Pyle said he observed a large differ ence in the activity and number of charges since he started working during OU Hal loween in 1989.
“Those historical Halloweens we would arrest 200 people a weekend,” Pyle said.
In 2021, APD made 23 arrests, and the Ohio University Police Department had 20 reports filed, according to a previous Post report. During the last city block party in 2019, 18 arrests were made, according to the same report.
During this year’s Halloween weekend, APD, OUPD and the Ohio Investigative Unit made several arrests.
Athens Police Department
This year, APD made 16 arrests between Oct. 28 and Oct. 30.
On Friday, three arrests were made. The reports listed the offenses as ob structing official business, offenses in volving underage persons and having physical control of a vehicle while intox icated, respectively.
On Saturday, nine arrests were made. Two individuals were arrested for offens es involving underage persons, and two people were arrested for underage con sumption or possession.
The other five arrests included aggra vated burglary, domestic violence, ob
structing official business, harassment of a police dog or horse and disorderly con duct by intoxication.
In the early morning hours of Sunday, four people were arrested. Two were ar rested for carrying concealed weapons and using the weapons while intoxicated. The other two were arrested for disorder ly conduct by intoxication.
During the block party, APD was sta tioned on Court Street from 11 a.m. Sat urday until around 12 a.m. Sunday, which was an hour after the event ended, Pyle said.
After the event ended, APD spent the following hour clearing the street and opening it back up to traffic. No problems occurred during those times, according to APD.
After the officers left Court Street, the remaining staff stayed around the area until around 4 a.m. to patrol and respond to calls. APD had extra staff on hand.
“There’s no comparison,” Pyle said. “This is a much easier event for us to han dle this year, certainly post-pandemic, than Halloweens’ in their heyday.”
APD typically focuses on belligerent behavior and issues that arise from drink ing. When someone is arrested for under age drinking, there is typically another charge with it, Pyle said.
Other than block party events and en tertainment on Court Street, Pyle said Halloween weekend was similar to every other weekend, only busier.
Ohio University Police Department
OUPD reported a total of 14 offenses from the weekend.
“Recent Halloweens have been pretty calm compared to several years ago, which is a trend we hope continues,” OUPD Staff Lieutenant Tim Ryan said in an email.
On Friday, six charges were made. A
report of disorderly conduct was made in Tanaka Hall, where an individual was is sued a citation for disorderly conduct by intoxication.
A theft of a backpack occurred in Luchs and an offense of possession of marijuana occurred in Hoover House. An ambulance was requested at Washington Hall, which resulted in an individual being cited for disorderly conduct by intoxication.
An offense of an underage person con suming alcohol occurred in True House, and OUPD assisted APD with locating a victim of a crime in Brown Hall.
On Saturday, OUPD responded to a to tal of six reports, including drugs being confiscated in Stocker Center. An individ ual was issued a summons for a fake ID at the McDonald’s on Richland Avenue.
Two light poles were damaged on South Green in a report of property damage. In Carr Hall, confiscation of drugs occurred and an individual’s fake ID was collected for destruction. Additionally, an individual was charged for operating a vehicle under the influence on West Mulberry Street.
On Sunday, OUPD assisted APD in lo cating a suspect on Mill Street and a traf fic crash occurred near the Golf and Ten nis Center on South Green Drive.
Ohio Investigative Unit
The Ohio Investigative Unit reported 152 charges made over the weekend. Of those charged, 76 were arrested, includ ing four juveniles.
“It was certainly a busy weekend,” OIU Commander Eric Wolf said. “A lot of the activity downtown was pretty well-be haved and things went smoothly. We had a fair amount of activity in some of the off-campus housing areas. Overall, a busy weekend but kept things pretty safe for everybody.”
The crowds in Athens during Hallow
een have been increasing since COVID-19, Wolf said. OIU experienced no major is sues but had one situation in which there was resistance to arrest.
Throughout the weekend, 100 peo ple were charged for “underage persons” alcohol offenses. Two individuals were charged for selling to underage consum ers. Four people were charged with open container offenses.
Additionally, 38 individuals were charged with “acts prohibited with fic titious identification,” and two were charged for using someone else’s fake ID.
One individual was arrested for pos sessing a controlled substance and two were arrested for possessing cocaine. Another individual was charged with ob structing official business and two were charged for failing to disclose personal identification to an officer.
Athens County EMS (ACEMS)
ACEMS responded to 24 emergency calls relating to holiday activities during Halloween weekend. All the incidents oc curred between 7 p.m. on Friday and 7 a.m on Saturday.
Four of the calls ACEMS received were for intoxication, one was for anxiety-re lated issues, one was due to an assault and another was made for a fall with an injury. Five of the seven calls received Friday re sulted in individuals being transported to OhioHealth O’Bleness Hospital.
ACEMS received 17 calls on Saturday, all of which were for intoxication-related issues, with nine individuals being trans ported to OhioHealth O’Bleness Hospital.
ACEMS said they had more staff on hand for the weekend, and all calls were handled in a timely manner.
West Elementary School school to be demolished, replaced with soccer fields
MADALYN BLAIR FOR THE POSTAthens City School District, or ACSD, is demolishing West Elementary School, which will be replaced with new soccer fields.
In 2018, a levy was placed on the ballot to demolish the school, among other renovation suggestions. Voters passed the levy, and the demolition is based on the building’s poor conditions.
“Most of our buildings were designated as being recommended for replacement as op posed to renovated,” ACSD Superintendent Tom Gibbs wrote in an email.
The school officially closed in June 2022 and is currently vacant. Plans to replace the buildings with soccer fields are in the works, Gibbs said.
Students who previously went to West Elementary School were placed in other schools within the district following the clo sure of West.
The students who formerly attended West Elementary School and are in preschool
through third grade were moved to either East Elementary School or Morrison-Gordon Elementary School.
“There are identified boundaries for these two schools and students are assigned to one or the other based on their address. Parents may apply for open-enrollment to attend the other building,” Gibbs wrote in an email.
Students in fourth through sixth grade are now attending The Plains Elementary School, the new Intermediate School. All three of those schools were previously rebuilt or ren ovated.
The soccer fields that are going to replace West Elementary School are to be primarily utilized by Athens Middle School students.
For many years, Athens Middle School students had to walk to the soccer fields be hind Walmart, located at 929 E. State St., to practice, Gibbs said. However, those fields are being reduced or eliminated, which would deprive youth players of a place to practice.
Jason Schroer, Athens High School varsity girls’ soccer coach, said he is hopeful other Athens soccer programs will be able to take
advantage of the new soccer fields.
“I would hope other soccer organizations will have the option to use the fields in the future,” Schroer wrote in an email. “Overuse can be an issue and natural fields need time to regrow.”
Greta Hibbard, a sophomore studying math and physics, attended West Elemen tary School when she was younger. She said it would benefit players to practice on a new field.
“The current fields flood easily so it’s good they’re finding a better spot for them,” Hib bard wrote in an email.
Schroer is optimistic about what the new soccer fields have to offer to students.
“In my opinion, sports can be an integral part of a student’s growth and development,” Schroer wrote in an email. “Sports offer the chance for students to develop social skills and other life skills such as teamwork, com munication, and commitment.”
However, Hibbard said she is overall torn by the idea of her former school being demol ished. ªShe explained how her experience at
West Elementary School was overwhelmingly positive.
“On one hand it is exciting for Athens to improve their education system for a pleth ora of reasons, but it is also sad because the building has so much history,” Hibbard wrote in an email. “It’s sad I won’t be able to come back and feel nostalgic about the building.”
Ultimately, Hibbard said the school holds a sentimental place within her and her peers’ memories. She was able to create interper sonal relationships with her fellow students, teachers and staff due to small class sizes.
“It meant a lot to the community, especial ly those who went to school there,” Hibbard wrote in an email. “Everyone feels very nos talgic about it. I don’t necessarily think people are upset about it being torn down because it is replaced with a very nice facility. Mostly nostalgic-sadness not anger-sadness.”
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Student organizations reflect on Fall Semester
MAYA MORITA ASST. NEWS EDITORStudent organizations at Ohio Universi ty have hosted meetings over the semester, and many are seeing an increase in member numbers due to recruitment practices.
There are over 500 registered clubs on Bobcat Connect, allowing students access to various organizations. Christine Blay, the treasurer for Alden Book Club, or ABC, said she has seen a substantial amount of new members join the club this semester.
“I know about 100 people signed up at the Campus Involvement Fair,” Blay said. “We have had a decent amount of outreach to readers on campus.”
Blay said she and other executive mem bers began the club during the Spring Se mester of 2022. They had about 30 members at that time.
“Our first meeting was actually so great,” Blay said. “We met in the CoLab, we had this little room to start off with and it was amaz ing.”
ABC hosts monthly meetings where they discuss the book they have chosen to read. Blay said members can buy the books or find them through free websites.
ABC received a one-time funding of $200, which they put toward meeting expenses.
Although ABC received funding from Al den, some clubs are chapters of a larger organization and receive funding through dues.
“We get all of our money through nation als,” Lydia Gher, CHAARG president, said. “Memberships cost money, but they pay through nationals and then nationals will send us a part of that money.”
CHAARG, which focuses on the well-be ing of women through fitness and social ac tivities, has been at OU since 2017. However, this year, Gher said over 50% of their mem bers are new to the organization.
“We have a lot of new members, which is exciting because we’re rebuilding our chap ter after COVID-19,” Gher said. “We used to have over 100 members my freshman year, so it’s different with being like a smaller chapter
now. The members seem to really enjoy all the events that we do, and I’ve made some good connections with people and I think a lot of members have made new friends and stuff through charge.”
To participate in student organizations, members must complete the anti-hazing training through OU’s website.
“...We do not permit any student to par ticipate in a student organization until they complete the mandatory training,” Taylor Tackett, assistant dean of students and di rector of community standards, wrote in an email.
Blay said executive members send out re minders to their members to ensure they are completing the anti-hazing training.
“I know all of the execs have (completed the Anti-Hazing Training),” Blay said. “We put it in our GroupMe, when we send out our mass emails we include that also in there.”
Tackett said the office of Communi ty Standards and Student Responsibility is working on compiling a list of students who have completed the hazing training.
“We are currently mid-process with our compliance efforts and are working towards publishing a report with full details about our compliance,” Tackett said in an email. “We anticipate that report will be available early spring semester.”
Blay said she hopes to implement more diversity and recruit more members for ABC in the Spring Semester.
“I’m just hoping for more diversity. I’m the only person of color on exec and I feel like most students on campus don’t really know that we exist,” Blay said. “I’m really looking forward to starting campaigning … so I can see more ethnicities, races in our organiza tion, so we’re diverse or inclusive, and we’re reading and exploring different topics that affect different groups of people.”
Students can join these organizations through Bobcat Connect.
OU’s physical therapy program receives $1,000,000 donation
ABBY JENKINS FOR THE POSTOn Sept. 30, the Ohio University Phys ical Therapy Board of Alumni had incredi ble news come their way. A generous donor wanted to support the program that changed everything for him and the love of his life.
Dr. Ashok Gupta, an emeriti professor of marketing at OU, moved from India in 1980 and received his Ph.D. from Syracuse Uni versity. He was offered a position at OU in 1984, retired in 2020 and has stayed in Ath ens since then. In 1986, however, Gupta and his wife, Sudha Agrawal, faced an event that would change their lives. They were vic tims of a car accident and Agrawal’s femur was shattered. She was told she would walk again, but not without a limp.
“The way doctor’s described it was, her
femur was shattered like you drop a china plate on a concrete floor,” Gupta said. “She was in the hospital for 10 weeks.”
However, her determination and the physical therapy she received at the hospi tal made it possible for her to walk normally again. After this event, Agrawal took an in terest in physical therapy and the idea of as sisting others. She received her master’s in physical therapy from OU in 1998 at 42 years old. She continued to work in local Athens clinics for 15 years and retired early in 2013. Unfortunately, she passed away in 2016 from ovarian cancer.
This change in Gupta’s life prompted him to donate $100,000 four years ago, estab lishing the Sudha Agrawal Memorial Endow ment. The new gift, in addition to the orig inal amount, totaled $1,000,000. Gupta said that he wanted to provide more than just a
scholarship, and over the past four years, the money has been used to fund speakers in a lecture series for the college.
“Initially we started with the idea of just the lecture series and the $100,000 dona tion,” said Gupta. “The lecture series was great, but I asked Gary, ‘Are there any other needs?’”
After further discussion with Gary Chle boun, the previous director of the school of rehabilitation and communication scienc es, a decision was made to allocate donated funds to administrative support, faculty and student professional development. Gupta hopes the program becomes the first choice for students and faculty alike.
“I want the program to not only continue as a strong, rigorous and successful program but to also become a premiere continuing education provider for our clinical partners
and clinicians across the region and coun try,” Michele Courtney, who stepped into an interim director role in July 2021 after Chle boun’s retirement, said in an email.
Courtney said this was a wonderful op portunity for the program and, like Gupta, hopes the program continues to soar.
“I just want to see it continue to strive for excellence in PT education,” said Chle boun. “Really push the limits on how they can prepare students for practice, how they get what kind of research our program can focus on and have an influence on the future of physical therapy.”
El Día de Los Muertos celebrates return of deceased
MCKENNA CHRISTY CULTURE STAFF WRITERAclassroom on the second floor of Gordy Hall did not have enough space to accommodate all the stu dents who came to hear a presentation about Día de Los Muertos on Monday.
Sigma Delta Pi, Ohio University’s Hispanic Honor Soci ety, hosted a celebration with food, crafts and information on how the holiday is celebrated in different Latin American countries.
Día de Los Muertos is celebrated on Nov. 1 and 2 and “brings the living and the dead together,” according to Day of the Dead, or DOTD, a website dedicated to sharing informa tion about all of the holiday’s traditions.
Diana Marysol Contreras Licea is the editor of Sigma Delta Pi and a graduate student at OU studying Spanish and litera ture. Marysol Contreras Licea is from Mexico and explained to the students why Día de Los Muertos is celebrated yearly.
The holiday is celebrated predominantly in Mexico and other Latin American countries. Each country has unique traditions for Día de Los Muertos.
“The Day of the Dead is a pre-Hispanic tradition,” said Marysol Contreras Licea. “And where it is thought that peo ple who died in the past can come to visit their family on earth.”
Día de Los Muertos originated when Spanish conquis tadors arrived in Mexico and “introduced” Catholicism and “traditions and beliefs” mixed “to create their own customs,” the DOTD said.
There is no mourning during the Day of the Dead. The holiday is the time to celebrate a family’s journey back to Earth.
“Nov. 1 is All Saints’ Day and Nov. 2 is All Souls’ Day,” said Marysol Contreras Licea.
The first day of November is dedicated to the children who died, said Marysol Contreras Licea, and the second day of November is the day for adults.
Julio Beltrán, an OU student and current support teacher, is from Ecuador and discussed the traditions there. The cel ebration is called the Day of the Dead and the customs differ from those of Mexico.
“We eat two plates,” Beltrán said. “La colada morada, which is a drink made with purple corn flour and has other ingredients such as mortiño or pineapple or ishpingo.”
The drink has a thick consistency and is bright purple. Blueberry and a plant called ishpingo give the drink its color and flavor.
The other dish is called “guaguas de pan,” and the word “guagua” is Quechua for “baby.” The food consists of sweet bread that resembles babies and dolls and are decorated in bright colors.
In Ecuador, during All Souls’ Day, people visit the ceme teries of their family members and pay homage to them.
And in Mexico, the Day of the Dead is celebrated with an altar known as the Ofrenda. The offering “is a collection of offerings dedicated to the person being honored,” DOTD said.
At the base of the offering is where the offerings are placed. Offerings include things a family member enjoyed and traditional Mexican food. At the top of the Ofrenda are photos of deceased family members and other personal items of those members.
Skulls are important symbols during the Day of the Dead. According to the DOTD, people make skulls out of sugar and clay and paint them on their faces. “Skulls are often drawn with a smile as if to laugh at death,” DOTD said.
The Goddess Mictecacihuatl, the ruler of the afterlife, was worshiped by the Aztecs and was represented as a skeleton, according to the DOTD. Other pre-Columbian cultures also used skulls and skeletons as offerings to the gods.
Marigold flowers are placed in Ofrenda and cemeteries during Día de Los Muertos because their bright colors and strong scent help guide spirits back to Earth.
The ability to learn about different Latin American cul tures is why Caroline Rhude, the vice president of Sigma Delta Pi and a third year studying Spanish and social work,
joined the honors society.
“We have a lot of international students and current and graduate students who are from those specific countries,” Rhude said. “So not only is it a way to help others learn about (their cultures) but we can let them take the lead.”
Marysol Contreras Licea said that while she is in Ohio, the Day of the Dead does not leave her side.
“I feel like my positions stayed with me no matter where I am,” said Marysol Contreras Licea. “And I would also say that it is the most important Mexican celebration.”
Through the lens of a witch
Onceshe stepped into the dark room of her college, Ashley Kouri knew what she wanted. The oldschool glamor of the chamber and the pro cess of developing photos enchanted her. The witchy vibe of handling potions and mixing tinctures together empowered her to step into the male-dominated sphere of photography.
“My goal is to be that safe spot for people to go to, … as opposed to some guy with a camera that’s trying to just get girls naked,” Kouri said.
The subject of photography makes the 25-year-old student light up. After high school, she went to University of Akron near her home of Cleveland and got her Bachelor of Fine Arts in photography. Currently, she is pursuing her Master of Fine Arts in pho tography and integrated media at Ohio Uni versity.
From early childhood on, she said she would describe herself as dorky. Kouri went to a Catholic school with strict rules, one where she said she had to wear a uniform and would get in trouble for dying her hair. Tired of norms and restrictions, she said she reclaimed her power by getting tattooed and pierced the second she turned 18.
“I wanted to start becoming the person that I wanted to look like,” Kouri said.
The person Kouri wanted to be, has her ears, nose and lips pierced, as well as a tattoo under her chin and three dots on each side of her outer eye corner. Kouri said her body decoration helps her to feel powerful.
Everything about Kouri is a bit eerie and resembles fall. Her arms are decorated with black tattoos: ghosts next to a skull accom panied by a bat and flowers. Kouri loves Hal loween, which is her busiest time as a free lance photographer since she specializes in a gothic, black-and-white, uncanny retro look. Even her coffee order is autumnal–she said she likes pumpkin spice lattes, despite pre viously working as a barista and the cutesy stigma attached to the drink.
In the same way that making coffee is about crafting and mixing the right ingredi ents together, Kouri also treats photography as an artisan, taking most of her photos on film.
“I like to make things hard on myself,” Kouri said. “There’s such magic in being re ally hands-on with the process. I feel like a spooky witch with my potions almost.”
Choosing film is not just about aesthetics but about stripping oneself of the possibility to heavily edit photos and chime in dominant beauty standards. For Kouri, analog photog raphy shows real beauty and adds a cer
tain rawness. Black and white photography symbolizes the very pared-down essence of what humans are.
“You can’t get away from it like you can with digital photography: cleaning your face, and like the Kardashians, taking away a mus cle,” Kouri said.
Kouri said she wishes to conquer this power hierarchy by empowering her clients. That includes taking time before stepping in front of the camera and setting up safe sur roundings but also breaking habits and the way one views the world.
“I probably won’t ever go to another pho tographer because she’s just so good,” said Lindsay Mesenburg, one of Kouri’s models, a musician and a close friend of Kouri’s.
Kouri and Mesenburg often collaborate on covers for Mesenburg’s music. The two women have known each other since grade school and met through a mutual friend. Mesenburg remembers that Kouri was al ways into photography and even had a good eye for taking pictures before going to arts school.
“I feel so comfortable around her, the way that she does things,” Mesenburg said. “If you’re feeling insecure or uncomfortable, she’s very good at trying to make you feel
more comfortable and feel more beautiful.”
Mesenburg said Kouri’s photography is poetic and it is feminist. She often uses sepia tones or black and white, as can be seen in her current exhibition at The Dairy Barn Arts Center. For Mesenburg she breaks up her statement scheme. On the single cover of “Divine,” Mesenburg is sitting down, draped in a dark fabric, wearing a crown-like head piece. The background is simple and gray while Mesenburg is surrounded by colorful flowers. The idea with the fabric evolved during the shoot, said Mesenburg, who felt powerful in the pose.
“I’ve had pictures taken by men before and it is very different,” Mesenburg said. “When men photograph you it’s very to the point. They don’t care about your comfort level.”
The friendship between Mesenburg and Kouri sparks from creativity and is fueled by their differences. While Mesenburg de scribes herself as dainty, she says Kouri is just cool.
“When you see her, you automatical ly think ‘oh this person’s like hardcore and stuff,’ but she’s the sweetest person ever,” Mesenburg said about Kouri.
During 2019, both women lived togeth
er for a short time and Mesenburg recalls the contrast between their rooms, her own room looking rather bright, with open win dows, boho-themed and macramé. Kouri’s room was dark and reflected her witchy and mysterious personality with photographs all over the walls and books on photography ev erywhere.
Reading about photography and learning more about feminism and power relations is important to Kouri because whoever is con trolling the camera, in the end, is controlling the gaze. The camera historically has been directed by men, which creates a struggle for Kouri to ensure she’s not falling into the popular trap.
“The camera itself is naturally going to be this gaze, right?” Kouri said.
The theory of the male gaze was coined by the feminist film critic Laura Mulvey in her essay “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cin ema” in 1975 and describes the act of depict ing women and the world through as mas culine, cisgendered, heterosexual view. The male gaze turns women into a sexual object to be looked at by male voyeur, or as Marga ret Atwood famously phrased it: “You are a woman with a man inside watching a woman. You are your own voyeur.”
The male gaze is something Kouri con stantly is challenging. For her, it is necessary to get a feeling of what it is like in front of the lens in opposition to just staying behind it, to be more empathetic.
“Another way I’m contradicting the male gaze is turning the camera on myself,” she said. “The models are not alone in that and I understand their position.”
For Kouri, she said taking pictures is more than pushing the shutter release button.
“It’s (about) stepping away from my own gaze as a photographer and knowing what the art technically is about and then working in collaboration with the vision of everyone else,” Kouri said.
She often sprinkles questions like that in her answers, doubting oneself and a dash of imposter syndrome are an essential quality for her as an artist.
Kouri is not afraid of making herself vul nerable and admitting her weaknesses and challenges. In art school, she was told that being unique doesn’t exist because every thing has been done before.
“You’re just a part of the conversation,” she said.
She said she cares more about taking photos and concocting her potions, anyways.
The walls of the exhibit rooms in the Kennedy Art Museum at Ohio University appear untouched and spotless. Yet, curators spend hours moving, measuring and cutting panels that will hold and present the art proudly.
The museum’s home, The Ridges, formerly known as the Athens Lunatic Asylum, represents a history of mistreatment and abuse, and some of its present-day art reveals a similar theme.
The uranium mining crisis on Navajo Nation
On Navajo land in present-day northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico and southeastern Utah, 30 million tons of uranium ore was extracted between 1944 and 1986, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA. Today, there are more than 500 abandoned uranium mines on Navajo Nation.
Its radioactive properties were discovered in 1866 and became recognized as a potential energy source in the mid 20th century. Now, uranium is used “to power commercial nuclear reactors that produce electricity” and produce isotopes for medicine and defense industries.
A uranium boom in the U.S. occurred in the 1950s after World War II, according to the Utah Division of State History. The U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, or AEC, sponsored the search for uranium in the “four corners” of the Colorado Plateau, which mostly belongs to Navajo Nation.
People rushed to the area to profit off of the uranium mining and the Department of Defense sought to use uranium to build nuclear weapons. Leases were created with Navajo Nation, the EPA said, and the AEC guaranteed a purchase of all uranium mined, according to the National Library of Medicine, or NIH.
The Manhattan Project, created by the U.S. during World War II to produced the
first nuclear weapons, also created an initiative to mine uranium domestically for fast purchase, according to the Atomic Heritage Foundation.
When the Cold War ended, a statement of Navajo Nation to Congress said the federal government didn’t need uranium for nuclear weapon production and mining sites on the land were abandoned.
Too much damage was done. The Church Rock uranium spill of 1979 “was the largest release of radioactive materials” on U.S. soil, the Atomic Heritage Foundation said. A crack in a wall that prevented radioactive waste from rushing into the Puerco River led to 1,100 tons of solid radioactive waste and 93 million gallons of liquid contaminating the river.
John Feodorov, a Seattle-based contemporary artist, was contacted by the Kennedy Art Museum to create an exhibit. At the time, Feodorov was furthering his knowledge about the health and environmental crisis of the abandoned uranium mines.
The health impacts of uranium mining were documented before the U.S. government even began mining. In Germany and Czechoslovakia, uranium ore was mined for centuries and a lung disease associated with mining activities was found to cause the death of nearly 75% of miners, according to the NIH.
A study conducted in 1950 by the U.S. Public Health Service, or PHS, led experts to believe that a radioactive chemical element in the mines caused lung cancer in uranium miners in the Colorado Plateau.
While the study initially focused on white miners, a full analysis on the Navajo population was conducted in 1984.
Navajo mines were also paid minimum wage or less. The NIH said a copy of a pay stub shows one miner was paid between $0.81 to $1.00 an hour.
The Science History Institute said that around 85% of original radioactivity remains from unmarked piles of debris and rocks from the mines, affecting most people living on Navajo Nation.
The Southwest Research and Information Center has researched the effects of the uranium mines on Navajo health since 1952. The center finds, using research from the University of New Mexico and the Miners Colfax Hospital in New Mexico, that 68% of miners who worked prior to 1971 and 66% of miners who worked after 1971 “had abnormal chest X-rays indicative of pneumoconiosis –” a lung disease listed under the Radiation Compensation Exposure Act, or RECA.
In 1990, RECA listed lung cancer, breast cancer, fibrosis of the lung, silicosis and others as “compensable diseases” for uranium miners and others working for mining companies. However, miners who worked after Dec. 31, 1971 aren’t eligible for compensation, according to the Southwest Research and Information Center.
The EPA has a 10-year plan to clean up the abandoned mines and address other impacts of uranium contamination on the Navajo Nation. The plan aims to clean up 230 mining sites at contaminated structures, but the exposure to uranium has already left consequences.
The museum’s connection to the mines and Navajo art
The Kennedy Art Museum is named after Edwin L. Kennedy, a former OU Foundation Trustee and donor, and his wife Ruth E. Kennedy. The two were OU alumni who donated their collection of Southwest Native American art to the museum.
“Someone mentioned that the namesake for the Kennedy Museum, Edwin Kennedy, actually was on the Navajo reservation working for a uranium mining company (and) looking for places to mine,” Feodorov said.
An American energy company, the Kerr-McGee Corporation, elected Kennedy to the oil exploration company’s board of directors in 1949. In 1952, the Kerr-McGee Corporation obtained a uranium mining company in northeastern Arizona on Navajo land. Two years later, the company
built a uranium processing plant.
“As a director and financial adviser for the company, Kennedy accompanied a regional manager of Kerr-McGee on an automobile trip in 1954 to the Lukachukai Mountains, where they were scheduled to inspect the mine and the new mill,” Keller said.
The two made a stop at a building with the sign “Red Rock Trading Post” with the names “Kennedy and McGee” labeled underneath, Keller said. Inside, they met one of the co-owners of the trading post, who did not have a family connections to the late name.
Kennedy was shown a display of Navajo blankets and regarded it with beauty.
“Despite an admitted lack of knowledge about the tribe or its weavings, Edwin Kennedy purchased a white Yei blanket woven by Vera Begay, the wife of a medicine man,” Keller said.
“This began Kennedy’s “unexpected intimacy with the Navajo culture,” Keller said, and an interest in collecting Navajo art through the Red Rock Trading Post.
The “Night Skies: Navajo Textiles Depicting Sandpaintings” exhibit and includes textiles from the Kennedy’s collection. Edwin Kennedy commissioned Red Rock area weavers to create these weavings in the 1960s and the collection is made up of almost 700 textiles.
Sally Delgado, the Kennedy Art Museum’s curator of education, said only 12 of the weavings are hung up in the exhibit. The rest are kept in temperature controlled storage to be kept safe from damage.
Navajo sandpaintings, according to the Natural History Museum of Utah, are ceremonious and “include sets of actions and elements performed in sequence, often over many days, to bring about healing and the return of balance and harmony to individuals and the universe.”
The medicine person is responsible for creating the sandpaintings, which is sometimes called dry painting, “on the floor of the ceremonial hogan.” The hogan
is a traditional Navajo dwelling and ceremonial structure. Colored sand is trickled onto the surface and the medicine person “illustrates sacred places, stories and beings from Diné belief and culture.”
Despah Nez, a Red Rock area weaver, and her two daughters, Anna Mae Tanner and Alberta Thomas made most of the weavings presented in the exhibit. Gladys Manuelito and Mary Ann Foster also contributed weavings to the collection.
Controversy surrounds the commissioned Navajo weavings because the practice isn’t meant to be permanent.
“The ceremony is performed, and then all of that goes back out into nature,” Delgado said. “So it’s very temporary.”
How ‘Yellow Dirt’ and Feodorov came to be
“Yellow Dirt” is the exhibit of 12 paintings created by Feodorov that hang in the room across from “Night Skies.” The exhibit was, for one reason, necessary to make because of Kennedy’s connection to the uranium mines and Navajo sandpaintings, Feodorov said.
“And for me that just seemed like a bolt of lightning,” Feodorov said. “This has to be done. This exhibition has to happen and it needs to be specific.”
Shades of yellow, pink, brown and gray painted in various rectangular shapes and rigid and smooth textures on the 12 wooden panels resemble the environmental and health crisis caused by the abandoned uranium mines on and near the Navajo reservation in the collection.
When Feodorov studied drawing and painting at California State University, Long Beach, he became frustrated with art being used as a commodity to sell to rich people. Feodorov dropped out of college for a while but returned once he realized he could make art to respond to personal experiences and figuring out how the world works.
“We think of everything in our culture as valuable if it amounts to a career,” Fe-
odorov said. “I’ve been painting and making art all my life without ever getting paid for it. I’m not making it to sell or to make money. I’m making it because I need to make it.”
While growing up in Southern California, Feodorov remembered loving music and art but he was different from his peers. In school, Feodorov refused to say the Pledge of Allegiance during the Cold War, and was bullied for his Navajo heritage.
“I was the half Navajo, half white kid growing up in Los Angeles,” Feodorov said. “But we would go back and forth between the reservations so that was a completely different experience.”
Sometimes art and forms of entertainment are used as distractions for people, but Feodorov said he cannot imagine not having art as a way to address his experiences and work through problems and complexities.
“I think for me, art was a way, at first, to try to resolve those (contradictions),” Feodorov said. “But I later figured out that they’re not resolvable. And so it’s really been a matter of … putting it out there (through art) and thinking about it differently instead of just internalizing it.”
The exhibit’s curation process
Students at OU who work at the museum and carefully transported Feodorov’s paintings from the basement to the first floor of the exhibition room.
Lily Adams, a sophomore studying studio art, said she wants to work in museums full-time in the future and play an “empathetic” and “genuine” role in curating art.
When Adams was taking a break from the first day of curating the Yellow Dirt exhibition, she said the experience handling the paintings was special because Feodorov sent the original Yellow Dirt artwork to the museum.
“It’s been really nice to see John Feodorov’s creative process,” Adams said.
“It’s really cool because being an artist you know how much work you put into that. He signed all the backbone and labeled all of them.”
Yellow Dirt’s transportation was a delicate process. Abby Querry, a second year graduate student studying integrated media, is the graduate assistant curator at the museum. Querry said the student curators ensure the artist’s creation is safe.
“There’s a lot of emotional pressure,” Querry said. “We’re trusted with this; the heart and soul of the artist. So we’re extra extra careful. But we’re close to the painting and handling it. It’s scary sometimes just because you’re so trusted with this.”
The students also carry the paintings’ message with them. Madeline Melragon, a junior studying commercial photography, takes photos of the work at the museum and the exhibits.
“We have so much Native American artwork,” Melragon said. “But we don’t have anything directly commissioned by Native American artists. This project is really cool because of that.”
The difference between the Night Skies exhibit and the Yellow Dirt exhibit are transparent. Night Skies is an exhibit of Navajo sandpaintings depicted as weavings commissioned by Kennedy, and Yellow Dirt is a collection of paintings by Feodorov emphasizing the uranium crisis on Navajo reservation caused by injustice.
“So I think it’s really important that when you’re curating work, you’re also curating how it’s being visualized and responded to,” Querry said. “A lot of museums don’t tell you those stories. They don’t tell you where it came from. The Feodorov exhibition is really genuine … It’s not taking it from somewhere else.”
Feodorov was impressed by the Kennedy Art Museum’s “awareness and sensitivity” about the Night Skies exhibit. He said that museums, generally, are becoming less defensive about the history of stolen artifacts and other problematic ways similar institutions received their artwork.
The impact of Feodorov’s paintings
For “Yellow Dirt,’’ Feodorov printed photos of areas where his family lived on Navajo reservation and glued them to the wooden panels to guide him through the process of then painting.
“I had something to respond to,” Feodorov said. “I tried to just respond knowing that this was my family’s land, the history of my family, but also the topographic shapes of the maps. Sometimes you could see the mines and the tailing ponds where they evaporate the contaminated water.”
Feodorov’s exhibit shares with its viewers how art can personally connect the injustices of the past to their consequences in the present.
Yellow Dirt, through its colors representing uranium contamination and its shapes revealing stolen land, reminds people that the treatment of Navajo Nation by the government holds a place for reflection. Feodorov used his own family’s photos for personal reflection of the uranium mining crisis to not speak for all members of Navajo Nation.
The exhibit is open from now until Dec. 18 at the Kennedy Art Museum located at 100 Ridges Cir. Admission to the museum is free and is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. from Monday to Friday and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.
“I can’t imagine not having art as a way to address these things,” Feodorov said. “There are so many people that don’t have art and I can’t imagine not being able to do that … For me art is that way of not trying to distract myself from what I’m thinking and experiencing but trying to figure s—out.”
Students with ADHD share their experience on campus
GRACE KOENNECKE FOR THE POSTIn 2016, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that 6.1 million American children had been diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD. According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, “between two and eight percent of college students in the United States have ADHD.”
At Ohio University, ADHD affects how many students navigate their college schedules, classes, extracurriculars and day-to-day life.
“I would definitely say my ADHD affects me on a daily basis, especially with schoolwork and balancing working as an RA– that is a big challenge,” said Kelley Lach, a junior studying integrated media. “There’s just always something to do, there’s usually something I’m forgetting. I think the workload can be overwhelming to me a lot of the time.”
Meanwhile, other students find it difficult to focus in classes outside of their majors, especially if it’s a course that meets a general education requirement.
“It’s fairly difficult, particularly with paying attention in gen-ed classes,” said Bandit Palmer, a sophomore studying studio arts. “I usually do pretty well in my studio courses, and then my English class is difficult. I’m like a very low energy person, so I usually cope by drinking exorbitant amounts of energy drinks, like, three or four a day, every day.”
Jack Greene, a sophomore studying journalism, says he takes Adderall for his ADHD, but his main resource has been Student Accessibility Services, or SAS, on campus.
“The way I cope with it is I work with SAS,” Greene said. “I have three basic things that can help me within the classroom. I get deadline extensions, I get extra time on tasks, I have the ability to take a test in a different location.”
Lach also receives accommodations like Greene, which she said were easy for her to receive after having a 504 plan in high school, a service provided by schools to accommodate students and remove barriers to learning.
“My accommodations are life saving,” Lach said. “The one that I use the most is probably the flexibility with deadlines policy, which just allows for 48 hours of flexibility in turning stuff in. I use it all the time because I am always underestimating how much time something might take me.”
On the other hand, Palmer has not yet received accommodations for their ADHD, nor have many of their friends, which has proven to cause problems daily.
“I haven’t personally been able to seek
accommodations yet, but I do have a lot of ADHD friends who haven’t been able to get accommodations despite being diagnosed formally by a psychiatrist,” Palmer said. “With Disability Services, it’s kind of hard to get accommodations because you have to prove so much.”
Additionally, OU provides students with ADHD with other resources like the Academic Achievement Center at Alden Library, which includes services such as academic coaching, tutoring, and supplemental instruction.
“The other resource that I’ve been using lately that is really incredible is at the Academic Achievement Center,” Lach said. “Just having someone to kind of keep me accountable in terms of like, ‘Okay, you said you’re going to study this much this week. Did you meet that goal?’ It really helps me.”
Regarding receiving ADHD medications in college, Lach and Greene have had similar experiences, both receiving their prescriptions from home.
“I have not found it a problem because I get it shipped to me,” Lach said. “My mom doesn’t even have to forward it, which is re-
ally nice. Because it’s a controlled substance, they’ll only prescribe it 30 days at a time, and they won’t give you refills.”
Yet, Greene says that he has to be careful where he stores his medication and how he protects it from others who could abuse it.
“Personally, I take Adderall every single day, which could be a struggle just because I have to have a lockbox, I have to put the code in every morning and I have to hide it within my room because you don’t want people stealing,” Greene said. “I have to go home to get it because there’s Adderall shortages, and sometimes places up here in Athens won’t have it readily available.”
While many students have received accommodations on campus for their ADHD, Lach says it’s important for those struggling to advocate for themselves to mental health professionals and staff, even when it’s difficult.
“I think it’s really difficult to be someone advocating for yourself with ADHD, because a lot of these processes do not feel ADHD friendly at all where you have to initiate it yourself and call different offices and do dif-
ferent steps on websites and such,” Lach said.
Greene also says that SAS needs to become more widely known at OU for students to know of its resources.
“I say make it more known that SAS is there because I know some people that have ADHD but don’t know about SAS until I tell them,” Greene said. “SAS does pretty good work. Also, I hate the location of the testing center. It’s eerie-looking in the basement of Bromley.”
To combat the challenges ADHD creates, students say the university needs to make the accommodations process easier and erase the stigma and stress surrounding the condition.
“I think maybe what would feel better for people with ADHD is putting a face to this kind of thing where it’s like, ‘Hey, we know that this is the easy process, but it’s really important that you’re advocating for yourself and we want to help you along that way,’” Lach said.
Ohio stuns Buffalo in 45-24 win
MOLLY BURCHARD ASST. SPORTS EDITOROhio is first in the Mid-American Confer ence East, and it truly played like it Tuesday night.
The Bobcats dominated the Bulls, beating them 45-24 at home. With Buffalo and Ohio being the top two teams in the division com ing into the game, it was expected the game would be close. However, almost no one could have expected Ohio to look as good as it did against the team on a five-game win ning streak and undefeated in conference play.
The key to a win Tuesday was to be the team that scored first and set the pace of the game. When Ohio held Buffalo to just nine yards on the first drive of the game, it looked
to be that team. Five quick plays and 70 yards later, Ohio had a 7-0 lead.
The Bobcats scored 17 points in the first quarter, the most it scored in an opening quarter this season.
Quarterback Kurtis Rourke and receiv er Sam Wiglusz were in sync the whole time and were responsible for one of Ohio’s touchdowns in the first. After just one quar ter, Wiglusz had four catches for 77 yards and Rourke had seven completions for 99 yards.
Ohio’s defense was also exceptional in the first quarter, holding Buffalo to just 43 total yards and zero points.
The second quarter was a similar story, although Buffalo picked up a little more on offense. It kicked a field goal on its first drive and scored a touchdown on its last.
Despite the Bulls cutting the Bobcats’
lead to a touchdown at multiple points, the Bobcats never wavered. Even when Rourke threw a pick six one minute into the third, it didn’t shake him. He looked calm and col lected on the next few drives, leading the Bobcats to three more touchdowns.
“We’ve been put in some big adversity moments this season, and that was just an other moment,” Rourke said. “So mentally, personally, I just had to shake it off … and just trust that we can keep going, and that’s just a hiccup.”
The biggest highlight of the night was Ohio’s defense. Except for a few unnecessary penalties, it played arguably its best game of the season. The defensive line was strong, holding Buffalo to 22 rushing yards; the sec ondary shut down Buffalo’s passing attack with great coverage all night, and Ohio had
six sacks, its most in a game this season.
“I thought as a defense we played really well,” Keye Thompson said. “We came out with a lot of energy, did our key fundamental technique and we were rolling.”
With the win, Ohio is bowl eligible for the first time since 2019. A major philosophy of the team is “one game at a time,” but achiev ing its goal of being eligible for a bowl game is not something that should be ignored.
“(We’re) very excited,” Ohio coach Tim Al bin said. “We’ll see where it goes.”
Men’s Basketball: 2022-23 season preview
ASHLEY BEACH FOR THE POSTOhio’s season didn’t end the way it want ed to last year.
It lost to Kent State in the semifinals of the Mid-American Conference Tournament and fell in the second round of the College Basketball Invitational. It later lost almost half its team to the transfer portal.
But the Bobcats are back and arguably the freshest they’ve been in a while. The roster boasts nine underclassmen and three transfers. Of the current Bobcats, only four of them have seen significant playing time in green and white.
“I feel like we have a lot to prove,” se nior Ben Roderick said. “I feel like everyday we come in (and) we want to get closer as a team every day and we want to get better as
a team.”
Luckily, Ohio’s summer trip to Spain al lowed coach Jeff Boals to see his new squad in action.
“We played three professional teams ranging from 23-year-olds to 35 year-olds, “Boals said. “That was really good for our guys. We (also) had a preseason scrimmage against Cincinnati to go against another Di vision I team, which was really good for us.”
There are a few interesting stops in Ohio’s nonconference schedule. Along the way, Ohio will see familiar faces at Marshall and Cleveland State. It will later travel to Tampa in December for a semi-neutral game against Florida. Before then, Ohio will play UC Cler mont, a Division II USCAA team, on Nov. 30.
Scheduling has been tough for the Bob cats over the past few seasons. Their success has turned away potential opponents but
opened the door for new ones.
“I understand why some teams don’t want to play us, but we have a tough schedule,” Boals said. “We have a lot of tough mid-ma jor games at Youngstown State, at Delaware (and) at Detroit. You try to get a lot of differ ent styles of play.”
Ohio will start MAC play on the road this season. It will play at Buffalo on Jan. 3 and at Bowling Green on Jan. 7. Its first conference home game will be Jan. 10 against Ball State.
The MAC looks a little different this year. Ohio was one of many teams to be hit by the transfer portal. However, Ohio knows that its scouting ability will help it through. It will be important for the new Ohio to congeal be fore it takes on the MAC.
“Going from nonconference to confer ence, the intensity grows,” Roderick said. “I feel like getting our chemistry down and re
ally making sure we’re in the right spots early in the season because then when it comes to conference play, teams tend to pick it up.”
The Bobcats were picked to finish fifth in the MAC in the preseason coaches poll. They did not receive any first place votes this sea son.
Ohio is set to begin its season again with an exhibition against Capital. Last season, Ohio defeated Capital 92-66 at The Convo. Boals sees the exhibition as a dress rehearsal for his team because it’s the first time they will play in front of an audience this season.
“There’s just so many question marks about our team,” Boals said. “I feel good about where we’re at, but we’ve got to keep getting better. (Capital) is the first step.”
Kurtis Rourke proved once again that he is the answer for Ohio
WILL CUNNINGHAM SPORTS EDITORQuarterback Kurtis Rourke is back. After playing two of his worst games of the season against Western Michigan and Northern Illinois, he exploded against Buffalo and re-established himself as one of the best quarterbacks in the Group of 5, outgunning the entire Buffalo offense by more than 100 yards by himself.
Rourke completed 20 of 29 passes for 317 yards and five touchdowns, tying the Ohio single-game record for touchdown passes, set by Boo Jackson in 2008.
He threw a pick six on Ohio’s third play of the second half, but that only made the rest of his game even more impressive.
Two weeks ago, against Western Michigan, Rourke threw an interception late in the first half, impacting his play for the rest of the game. He had completed his first 12 passes before that interception, but just 10 of his final 24 were caught. Ohio won the game on the back of its defense and the leg of Nathanial Vakos, who hit four field goals.
Tuesday’s game could have followed a similar path, as Rourke almost threw an interception at the end of the first half and did at the beginning of the second. Those plays were surrounded by 14 unanswered points from Buffalo.
But this time, Rourke responded. He immediately marched the Bobcats back down the field for another touchdown to retake a 14-point lead. After the Bulls responded with a touchdown of their own, Rourke led two more touchdown drives, the second of which ended with a beautiful throw to Miles Cross in the back corner of the end zone to put the Bobcats out of the Bulls’ reach.
“On some of those throws, the throws to Miles Cross, I told Spence (Nowinsky), that throw was unbelievable,” head coach Tim Albin said.
From the very start of the game, Rourke was locked in. He dropped his first throw of the game perfectly into the hands of Sam Wiglusz down the left sideline, and his third found Wiglusz again, this time in the back corner of the end zone for the score.
He worked the middle of the field and the sideline; he checked it down when nothing was available downfield, and one of his best plays wasn’t even a pass.
With Ohio leading 31-24 early in the fourth quarter and marching 80 yards down the field, it got the ball all the way to the Buffalo one-yard line with a chance to land a potential knockout blow.
The Bobcats went to the read option, a play they have loved to run near the goal line this season. Rourke held on to the ball for a long time, but just when it looked like he would hold it for too long, he pitched it to Jake Neatherton for the touchdown.
“I gave Coach Albin a little bit of a heart attack, holding on to the ball for so long,” Rourke said. “But it was just good execution, good blocking, we got the edge and I’m glad Jake was able to get the touchdown.”
“I thought Kurtis could have pitched the ball sooner than he did,” Albin said. “I was voicing that very loudly on the headphones, but he’s a calm, cool guy.”
Ohio would recover a fumble a few plays later, and Rourke hit Cross for the game-sealing score.
Tuesday’s game saw the version of Rourke who emerged as a frontrunner for MAC Offensive Player of the Year over the first six
weeks of the season, and it was exactly what Ohio needed to take over first place in the MAC East with a dominant, 45-24 win.
With Rourke playing at this high a level, Ohio can beat anyone in the conference. Rourke has Ohio bowl eligible and three wins
away from a trip to Detroit for the MAC Championship game.
.Ohio played its most complete game at the perfect time
WILL CUNNINGHAM SPORTS EDITORDespite the fact that Ohio was 5-3 over all and 3-1 in the Mid-American Conference heading into Tuesday’s game against Buffalo, it had not authored a complete performance yet this season.
In its first win, Ohio allowed Florida At lantic back into a game that should have been easily won, ending in only a threepoint win. Then, it played two poor games in blowout losses to Penn State and Iowa State and finished its nonconference schedule by allowing 52 points to Football Championship Subdivision Fordham.
When MAC play started, Ohio still had questions to answer. It allowed 736 yards of offense to Kent State and gave up 34 points to an Akron team, one of the worst in the Football Bowl Subdivision. It also saw its of fense, one of the best in the MAC through
six games, put up a couple of disappointing performances in wins over Western Michi gan and Northern Illinois.
In every game this season, there has been at least one major hole in Ohio’s performanc es, but that all changed against Buffalo.
The offense, outside a pair of drives on either side of halftime, was fantastic. It was a return to form for the Bobcats. They scored 45 points thanks to a rebound game from quarterback Kurtis Rourke and a passing attack that continues to dice through MAC defenses. Ohio ranks first in the conference in yards per play, yards per game and passing yards and second in passing touchdowns.
However, Ohio’s defense put up the most impressive performance Tuesday. Buffalo scored 24 points, which may not seem that low until you take a closer look at how those points were scored.
Seven of them came on a pick six, so Ohio’s defense actually only allowed 17
points. A second touchdown came after a shanked punt at the end of the first half that gave Buffalo the ball on the Ohio 35-yard line.
Buffalo’s third and final touchdown came after a Julian Ross fumble gave it the ball on its own 44, which means that Buffalo’s two touchdown drives totaled just 91 combined yards.
Prior to a 78-yard Buffalo drive in the fourth quarter that ended in a fumble once the game was already out of hand, Ohio only allowed 182 yards.
A quick look at the score might not sug gest it, but Tuesday was a dominant perfor mance from the defense, who also forced three turnovers and sacked Buffalo quarter back Cole Snyder six times.
The only phase that might warrant some criticism is the special teams unit, mostly due to the shanked punt in the second quar ter. But they also made plenty of plays, as
punter Jack Wilson had two punts downed inside the 20, one of them inside the five. In addition, kicker Nathanial Vakos continued his excellent season, hitting all seven of his kicks.
At different times this season, all three parts of Ohio’s roster showed they were ca pable of excellence. But on Tuesday night, they all did it in the same game for the first time this season.
After the win, Ohio sits in first place in the MAC East and controls its own destiny for a spot in the MAC Championship game. After each game this season, there have been questions about Ohio, but they were all an swered on Tuesday.
Week 9 Student Media Poll picks from ‘The Post’
Each week, the Sports editorial team selects its Top 25 Division I college football teams for the Student Media Poll.
The SMP is a nationwide poll featuring 122 student journalists from all Football Bowl Subdivision conferences. There are voters from 69 different schools across 34 states.
The Post Sports will break down its ballots each week. Here are the top five, those it kicked out of the Top 25 and those it added:
Will Cunningham, Sports Editor
Top 5
1.) Ohio State
2.) Georgia
3.) Tennessee
4.) Michigan
5.) Clemson
My Top 5 is the same again, but it was a tough decision to leave everyone where they were. Ohio State struggled against Penn State for about 52 minutes, then won comfortably. Georgia’s game against Florida was a one-score game in the second half before the Dawgs pulled away.
Unlike the two teams ahead of them, Tennessee and Michigan flattened their respective opponents, Kentucky and Michigan State. The Vols took a big lead early and never looked back, and Michigan allowed just seven points to the disappointing Spartans.
Clemson did not play and still holds a tenuous lead over TCU for the fifth spot. Despite a struggling offense, the Tigers still have one of the best defenses in the country, giving them just enough to hold on to No. 5.
Ashley Beach, Sports Writer
Top 5
1.) Ohio State
2.) Georgia
3.) Tennessee
4.) Clemson 5.) Michigan
It’s no surprise that my Top 5 stayed the same. All five of these teams are untouchable and it will boil down to when they face each other.
Ohio State did have its moments against Penn State, but it pulled through in the end. The same can be said for Georgia
against Florida. Michigan and Tennessee, however, did not struggle against their opponents. Clemson had a bye-week, so there isn’t much to judge it on.
Molly Burchard, Asst. Sports Editor
Top 5:
1.) Ohio State
2.) Tennessee 3.) Georgia
4.) Clemson 5.) Michigan
It took a lot of self-convincing to keep Ohio State at No.1 this week. It did beat another Top 25 team by 13 points, but I once was again extremely impressed by Tennessee. I almost put the Vols at No. 1 after they beat Kentucky 44-6, but talked myself down and only raised them one spot to No. 2
The rest of my Top 5 pretty much stayed the same. Georgia took Tennessee’s previous spot at No. 3, while Clemson and Michigan stayed at No. 4 and No. 5.
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‘The Post’ Sports editorial team explains who their top five college football teams are, who they added to their rankings and who they dropped
Best women’s bathrooms Uptown
PEST STAFF WRITER
Listen: We all have to go to the bathroom at some point to avoid bladder damage. If you’re like me, you go more frequently than others. It may be taboo to “break the seal” on a night out, but Court Street has some decent bathrooms for when it’s time.
Almost every bar Uptown is a dive bar, so it makes sense that the bathrooms aren’t that nice. However, a lock on a stall door is necessary and most don’t have them.
Here’s a review of some women’s bathrooms Uptown:
Broney’s Alumni Grill
The Broney’s bathroom features doors that have locks but no fasters, toilets with the tops zip-tied down and generally empty paper towel dispensers. Don’t fret though, it has several mirrors to check your hair and makeup or to take selfies in. It’s not the cleanest, but it’s not the worst. Ranking: 7/10
Stephen’s
If you love small spaces, this is the place for you. There’s always a group of girls cluttering this bathroom for no reason. The stalls do have doors; however, they don’t lock. Thus, there will come a time where you have to hold the door while performing all things necessary to go to the bathroom. Also, you can see out into the basement bar from the stall because the doors are short. If you love a good challenge, the Stephen’s bathroom is for you. Ranking: 2/10
Red Brick Tavern
This is another small space. It has horrible fluorescent lighting and only two stalls. It is in the basement of the bar so it is secluded from the madness going on upstairs, so it can be a great escape if you’re overstimulated on the dance floor, but not a great place if you have to pee. It’s gross down there. Ranking: 6/10
Pawpurr’s
This one is great for emergencies only. There’s been puke just about everywhere in that bathroom. It’s sort of clean and occasionally has all the necessary items. However, the door remains open at all times which is odd. Privacy is minimal in this one. Ranking: 6/10
Lucky’s Sports Tavern
Lucky’s has two stalls that sit up on risers. Luckily, the doors lock here, so you’ll be safe to watch TikToks or text your ex. The toilet paper is located behind the toilet and occasionally some will be there. It also has a full length mirror for selfies. Ranking: 7/10
The C.I.
This is the best bathroom Uptown. There’s multiple stalls, the soap is full and the hand dryer actually works. It is also covered in cool graffiti and has lots of charm to it. I would recommend this bathroom to anyone. Ranking: 10/10
The Crystal
This is one of the worst spaces uptown. It’s not really clean and people like to use it as a hookup spot. I would not recommend using this bathroom if you respect yourself. Ranking: 5/10
The Overhang
The bathroom here is just OK. It’s not terribly dirty and it has a nice full-length mirror. It may have some slight damage and possibly a missing lock, but it is spacious. I would leave another bar to use the bathroom here. Ranking: 6/10
The Pest is a satirical column and does not reflect the views of The Post.
Here’s a list of the 5 top places to study away through OU
GRACE KOENNECKE FOR THE POSTCollege is the perfect time to study away, usually during one’s junior or senior year. Ohio University’s Office of Global Opportunities provides a plethora of options for students who want to leave their comfort zone.
Whether you want to travel to Asia, Europe or elsewhere in the U.S., there’s somewhere for everyone to experience a new culture and receive college credit.
Here’s a list of the five top places to study away through OU:
US: Scripps Semester in D.C.
If you’re more comfortable traveling within the U.S., the Scripps Semester in D.C. may be right up your alley. A collaboration between the School of Visual Communication and the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism, the program allows students to work in the nation’s capital, focusing on the branches of journalism. Students can gain experience in print, broadcast, data and photojournalism. The first four weeks of the semester are in
a seminar setting. Each week focuses on a different topic such as multimedia storytelling, data journalism and visualization, ethics and strategic communication. The weeks following consist of a 10-week practicum in the D.C.
Japan: Chubu Exchange and Study Abroad
Students can study abroad at Japan’s Chubu University and enjoy learning Japanese in a quiet, comfortable setting in the nation’s third-largest city, Nagoya. The program offers courses in Japanese for students of all proficiency levels. Students take field trips and excursions during their stay and can live in double-occupancy rooms in an international studio dorm at Chubu University. Those interested can choose to study abroad during any season of the year.
Germany: Leipzig University Exchange
Within this study abroad program at Leipzig University, students can experience Leipzig, Germany through its array of cafes and arts. The city also has easy access to
other places such as Berlin and Prague. Students can select from several living options, including university-sponsored dorms with single rooms, dorms with German roommates or student houses. Students will also enroll in full-time courses alongside German students. Leipzig offers a pre-semester language and orientation course at minimal additional cost.
China: Hong Kong Baptist University
Hong Kong Baptist University offers undergraduate students a diverse array of study options, including visual and fine arts, business, communication and humanities. Students will have access to cultural diversity, shopping, hiking, beaches and thousands of restaurants. There is no foreign language requirement for enrollment at the university, as most classes are taught in English. Students can also attend two sports centers offering various exercise options, such as a fitness center, a multi-purpose gymnasium, a soccer field and a swimming pool. Support services are provided by the International
Student Exchange Center, or ISEC, which offers counseling services.
Spain: Spanish Language and Culture in Toledo Summer
Offered by OU’s Department of Modern Languages in association with the Universidad Castilla-La Mancha, students will have the opportunity to immerse themselves in the Spanish language and culture, all while living in Toledo. Past excursions have included visits to the Alcazar and Roman aqueduct in Segovia, trips to Madrid and Cuenca and exploration of Toledo and its surroundings. Students live with host families, with one student per family. The program runs from May 7 to July 1, 2023.
This past March, Charli XCX dropped her final album with Atlantic Records. Re turning to her pop roots of “Boom Clap” and “I Love It”, she created arguably one of the best albums of the year, “CRASH.”
An album centered around the inner tur moil of a pop star, Charli XCX wails in pain and scorches her past lovers with electric synths and auto-tune. Listeners feel like they’ve just witnessed a scene straight from the album’s cover art: the singer pressed against a crashed car, blood dripping down her body.
Overall, this album is a masterpiece. As we dive into its 12 tracks, here’s a ranking of the “CRASH” tracklist:
“Good Ones”
1. This song has a catchy hook and tem po reminiscent of a 1980s cardio workout. “I always let the good ones go” sees the singer admit to her failed love affairs. The track shows a confident array of XCX’s vo cal abilities and her conceptual genius. “Good Ones” could have easily been a sob story, but Charli XCX writes the story of a protagonist rising from the ashes. Even if their former relationship left a few scars, she survives; hence why the music video for this track is equally as impressive.
“Baby”
2. “Baby” sees Charli XCX playing with sounds of the early 2000s, with a sound similar to Britney Spears’ “Toxic.” With a string quartet opening the track, the singer finds herself entranced by another person, desperate to be theirs. Containing another memorable chorus, its fast pace, will make you want to get up and strut. This song is ranked this high because simply of how iconic it is. Its high energy makes up for its lack of lyrical variety and XCX produced a pop song unlike any other.
“Lightning”
3. Charli XCX channels the 1980s again with “Lightning,” adding in extra layers of production to transport listeners into a thunderstorm. The song builds from XCX’s voice, which is layered to sound like a robot, then explodes as she sings, “You struck me down like lightning.” While the song copies what many artists have been doing lately by incorporating an old-time feel, XCX mixes her electronic-pop style seen in her pre vious albums such as “Charli” and “Pop 2.” This track stings on the first listen, but af ter a few times, it becomes a perfect song about falling in love.
“Constant Repeat”
4. “Constant Repeat” is a sensuous track that sees Charli XCX embrace her feminin
ity and move on from a previous relation ship. The introduction to the song sounds like you’re entering a club at its peak hour, searching for the hopes of someone new. “I’m focused on you / You’re all on me too / I’m cute and I’m rude / And you like what I do” proves that the singer is confident and unintimidated. This song is ranks high be cause of how easy it is to get swept away in its storyline, intentionally placed early on in the album by the singer.
“Yuck”
5. Charli XCX sings of being grossed out or getting an “ick” from a potential suitor who is overly affectionate. She is sick of re ceiving gifts and compliments and simply wants physical affection, growing impatient throughout the song, waiting for it. “Yuck / Now you got me blushin’ / Cheeks so red when the blood starts rushin’” exemplifies the embarrassment one feels when all eyes are on them, and “Yuck” is a great song to play if a person is bothering you and you want them to stop.
“Move Me”
6. After the first few songs of “CRASH” are bombastic and in your face, “Move Me” is a turning point in the album, XCX reflect ing on letting go of her past relationship to pursue someone new. “I already know I’m letting go of something sacred / Drive us off the road, I take a good thing and I break it / Think it’s it my soul / The way I run from something real” symbolizes the doubt of moving on, but meeting someone else and starting a new chapter in her life.
“New Shapes (feat. Christine and the Queens and Caroline Polachek)”
7. This star-studded collaboration is an other significant track on “CRASH,” but it gets lost as it’s the second song on the al bum. However, Christine and the Queens and Caroline Polachek complement Charli XCX’s vocals on this song, making a pretty good pop song. A song about female em powerment, hence the lyrics, “What you want / I ain’t got it,” makes listeners feel in spired and powerful, the overall undertone of “CRASH.”
“Crash”
8. Just like the album’s title, “Crash” is the first song to kick it off, a flawless intro that puts listeners in a speed chase between XCX and an ex-lover. “I’m about to crash into the water / Gonna take you with me / I’m high voltage, self-destructive / End it all so legendary” is where the singer openly states her flaws, not usually part of XCX’s musical persona, as she’s famous for singing about living luxury and owning who you are. Overall, this opener ends on an impressive note, signaling the “crash” itself, allowing listeners to hypothesize that the rest of the album will explain how the singer got to this
point.
“Used To Know Me”
9. While this song isn’t the worst Char li XCX song ever, it simply was overhyped before the album’s release. Sounding like a stereotypical pop song and lacking exper imentation, it just isn’t the singer’s best. It definitely had the potential to be something better, but it’s still a song you can dance to and revel in getting revenge with. Sadly, “Used To Know Me” just doesn’t stand out on the album at all.
“Beg For You (feat. Rina Sawayama)”
10. No shade to Charli XCX or Rina Sawayama, but this collaboration just doesn’t flow with the rest of the album. It would fit way better on XCX’s self-titled al bum, “Charli,” and it gets lost in its lack of lyrics and repetitiveness. Although both of their voices sound beautiful in this track, and you can tell there’s chemistry between the two. It’s also a cute little song about proving to someone how much you love them, even if you’re scared to admit it.
“Twice”
11. “Twice” ends the album on a hopeful note, yet is extremely existential. “All the things I love are gonna leave me / One day, you’re never gonna be there / I tell myself to take it easy / Don’t think twice about it, baby” is one of the more gut-wrenching lyr ics on “CRASH,” a display of the singer’s fear of the future and growing older. Compared to the rest of the album, this song also lacks the star power that songs such as “Good Ones” and “Baby” exhibit, but at least Char li XCX tried to be more relatable and open with her fans.
“Every Rule”
12. As sad as it is to admit, “Every Rule” does not fit at all on “CRASH.” It’s too slow and too mushy-gushy. All it discusses is the singer cheating on her former partner, which causes the latter half of the album to lose a little of its steam. Even though XCX is baring her soul to listeners with this insight into her love life, the concept of the song could’ve been more cinematic, dramatizing a love affair in shambles after infidelity. At least, that’s what most fans were anticipat ing.
the weekender
Appalachian Understories strives to tell the tales of local history WHAT’S GOING ON?
CAROLINE KAMMERER FOR THE POSTCAROLINE KAMMERER FOR THE POSTAppalachian Understories is an organi zation that seeks to educate residents of southeastern Ohio on local history through their Bike and Brew Tour in the Little Cities.
Appalachian Understories provides guided tours on natural and cultural histo ry, which sometimes include overnight ad ventures. It often explores the Little Cities, a collection of southeast Ohio towns that sprinkle the Appalachian foothills.
This Saturday, Appalachian Understories is hosting a guided tour through Old Flood wood, formerly an old mining town. All that remains of this ghost town are ruins.
The tour is 14 miles long on the Hock hocking Adena Bikeway. The tour starts and ends at the Eclipse Company Store, 11309 Jackson Drive, with various drinks on tap for participants at the end of the tour. Bikers will depart for the three-hour tour at 1 p.m and return at 4 p.m. General admission is $40 and kids ages 5-12 cost $10.
Madison Donohue, the tourism specialist for Appalachian Understories, is biking with the tour this weekend. She hopes people will appreciate the rich history of this Appala chian region.
“Learning the legacies and industry of the region allows us to develop a greater appre ciation for what it is today,” she said.
While a 14-mile tour may seem like a lot, it is very accessible, according to Donohue.
“I really like how accessible this event is,” she said. “It is 14 miles, which for some peo ple could definitely seem not doable, but it is all flat and it’s on a paved bike path.”
There are also additional accessibility resources for the event. Bikes can be rent ed through Baileys Trail System Bike Rentals and delivered to Eclipse Company Store in time for the tour. Other adaptive bike equip ment is free for those with limited mobility who want to participate.
The tour is led by local historian Tyler McDaniel, whose family dates back almost 200 years in the area. His great-grandmother and her family were residents of Old Flood wood until the town closed in the 1950s.
Donohue and McDaniel work together to share this regional history with others.
“We have a lot of different tours where the historians are well-researched on the topic and can tell it as if they lived it or as if their grandmother told them the story,” Donohue said. “Tyler is also very well researched on Old Floodwood but it’s really cool that he has colloquial stories about this town.”
The two worked together to create and share this event with the community.
“(McDaniel) was talking about the stories of his great-grandmother living in the town and I saw that it was on the bike path and I think we just had the idea that it would make a great event,” Donohue said.
McDaniel, who grew up in Hocking Coun ty, is the vice president of the Little Cities of Black Diamond Council, an organization that educates people on local history and culture.
“I’m really tied to this region,” he said. “It’s special to me because you get to share that knowledge and that history with folks of all ages.”
McDaniel is very passionate about the history of this region, which is typically un known to many people, even those who have lived here for a long time.
“Seeing people be surprised by this his tory is so rewarding because you can see the gears starting to turn in people’s heads when they’re starting to process (it),” he said.
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FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4
The Dads Weekend Stargaze, hosted by Outdoor Pursuits, will take place at The Ridges. There will be a short hike around The Ridges followed by a campfire to roast marshmallows. There will also be stargazing and tales and lore shared about the Ridges. The group will depart at 8 p.m. and return at 10:30 p.m.
Attendance: $10
Strange Attractors is the newest exhibit in the Trisolini Art Gallery that features pieces from ceramicist Noah Reidel. The gallery first showcased this exhibit on Tuesday, and it will be at Trisolini Gallery in Baker Center until Nov. 26 from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Attendance: Free
Athens Black Contemporary Dancers and The Movement will present ABCD Moves. These two student organizations work to provide a showcase for student choreogra phers of all backgrounds to show their work. The concert will be held in the Shirley Wim mer Dance Theater in Putnam Hall at 7:30 p.m.
Admission: $8 and $5 for students with stu dent ID
Athena Cinema is hosting Dads Week end Movie Classics on Friday and Saturday nights. They will be showing the classic film “Back to the Future” at 7:30 p.m. for everyone and their dads to enjoy.
Admission: $8
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 5
The Alden Open 2022 is a mini-golf course that will run through Alden Library. The course is set up on three floors, with the op tion of playing nine or 18 holes. The event starts at 10 a.m., with the last tee time set at 3:30 p.m.
Attendance: Free
The Alumni Association is hosting a Dads Weekend Alumni Open House at 29 Park Place. The open house will run from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and will have snacks, cocoa and cider for everyone. There will be indoor and outdoor games and prizes.
Attendance: Free
Jay Pharoah, an actor and former “Satur day Night Live” cast member, will perform at Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium. Pharoah is best known for his comedic celebrity impressions and various roles on different television series and films such as “Family Guy” and “Sing.” The come dy show begins at 8 p.m.
Admission: $25-$45
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 6
Outdoor Pursuits will lead a Dads Week end Day Hike through Conkles Hollow in Hocking Hills. On the hike, there will be a variety of things to see such as waterfalls, sandstone cliffs and rock formations. The group leaves from Ping Recreation Center at 10 a.m. and will return at 2 p.m.
Attendance: $15
The Ohio University School of Music is putting on Laura Silva’s graduate piano re cital in Glidden Recital Hall at 4 p.m. The per formance will feature the premiere of three works and Ohio University Singers.
Attendance: Free
Here’s what you can do in and around Athens this weekend.
Migos’ rapper Takeoff, dead at 28
ALICIA SZCZESNIAK FOR THE POSTKirshnik Khari Ball, better known as Takeoff, was shot yesterday morning outside a bowling alley in Houston, Texas, at about 2:30 a.m.
An altercation allegedly broke out while Takeoff and a fellow member of Migos, Quavo, played dice at a friend’s birthday party. As a result of the fight, someone in the area opened fire, shooting Takeoff either near or in the head, leading law enforcement to pronounce him dead on the scene.
The Houston Police Department stated on Twitter, “Downtown officers are on a shooting at 1200 Polk. One victim was
found deceased upon arrival.”
Alongside the young rapper, two other bystanders were shot and injured and taken to the hospital in private vehicles. Quavo himself was not harmed in the shooting.
The Houston Police Department has announced no arrests, and there are currently no announcements regarding the identities of any suspects involved in the shooting.
The 28-year-old rapper was the youngest member of Migos, a hip-hop trio from Atlanta composed of Quavo and Offset, his uncle and cousin, respectively. The three
of them broke into the mainstream with their hit song “Versace” in 2013 and subsequently released three albums: “Culture I,” “Culture II” and “Culture III,” of which the first two reached number one on the Billboard charts.
Fans and friends have taken to social media to pour out their condolences and mourn the loss of Takeoff, with one user saying. “Rest in peace to takeoff. I just spoke to him too … I’m in shock right now, I can’t believe it. I pray to god it’s fake. This just isn’t fair bro wtf”.
Another stated, “Really sad day for music and for Gwinnett. Takeoff is a legend
everywhere, but in G-Co, he is absolutely loved. The kindest, most humble, most caring man with the best sense of humor. All my thoughts and prayers to those closest to him who are dealing with unimaginable loss. RIP.”