MICHAEL McINTYRE'S TIPOFF

Cleveland Plain Dealer Metro Column

Tipoff: The Cafe on St. Clair makes list of 'Great American Dive Bars'

by Michael K. McIntyre/Plain Dealer Columnist

Monday November 17, 2008, 3:20 AM

Playboy.com has produced its list of "10 Great American Dive Bars." (Editor's note: Playboy's site is Playboy; don't click if you wouldn't open the magazine.) Amid the bars in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas and New York is Mitzi Jerman's Cafe on St. Clair Avenue in Cleveland.

The piece notes that Mitzi's obituary ran on the front page of The Plain Dealer in 2006 (it was written brilliantly by reporter Michael O'Malley, who won a first-place award for obituary writing from the Press Club of Cleveland) and calls the bar "a shrine to the grand dame of rust belt tippling."

Mary "Mitzi" Jerman lived above the bar in the apartment where she was born, called all of the customers "honey" and always wore a housedress, clip-on earrings and a smile.

This week, as regulars sipped Dab and Miller Lite, Susie Myers, Mitzi's daughter, shooed Belle the cat from atop the bar and Roscoe, the bar's dog, belted out a tune.

Myers said Mitzi, who didn't seek publicity but got it anyway, would wonder what all the fuss was about. "If my mom were alive, she'd say 'What the hell is all this?' "

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Tipoff: Don't lose sleep over this survey

by Michael McIntyre/Plain Dealer Reporter

Friday November 14, 2008, 9:00 PM

The latest survey picking on Cleveland ranks the city as the second most sleep-deprived in America - with a grade of "F."

Yawn.

Men's Health Magazine said it looked at a number of statistics and surveys, including how much we snore, how many sleeping pills we pop and whether our TVs are on in the wee hours.

Just like all the other statistically dubious surveys that call us fat, poor, stupid and stressed out, we're skeptical of this one.

Because you've got to get up pretty early to fool Clevelanders into believing some silly survey on sleeplessness.

Way foul:

The numbskulls who destroyed the Northeast Cleveland Little League's concession stand at Humphrey Park this week will get more than a nasty letter if Cleveland City Councilman Mike Polensek gets his way.

Vandals trashed the kitchen, broke lawn mowers and defaced banners at the sports complex at East 161st Street and Grovewood Avenue.

Polensek said the vandals need to get "thumped and thumped good."

Friday, Polensek said, he was told police had a hot lead. He wants justice: "Everybody nowadays wants to be cutesy and nicey. Well it doesn't work with these two-legged hood rats."

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Tipoff: Zach Reed rebuffs University Circle president's request

by Michael K. McIntyre/Plain Dealer Reporter

Monday November 10, 2008, 3:30 AM

University Circle Inc. president Chris Ronayne asked Cleveland City Councilman Zack Reed if he could address the councilman's ward club to discuss plans at University Circle.

Sounded routine. But with the presidential election done and some minds turning to who will challenge Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson next year, Reed smelled politics. Ronayne, former Mayor Jane Campbell's chief of staff, often is mentioned as a possible Jackson opponent.

"I was born at night. I've looked at my birth certificate. But I wasn't born last night," said Reed, who considered a run for mayor in 2005 and still has aspirations. "I ain't stupid."

Ronayne, who won't discuss whether he's interested in ever becoming mayor, said he understands how Reed and others might see "conspiracy theories" but insisted his motives were not political.

"For those who can't pay [$50 apiece] to get into our annual meeting, we'll take that annual meeting to them,"" Ronayne explained.

Reed said, "He's been in University Circle for several years already -- he never wanted to talk before."

Said Ronayne: "It's ironic because he called for a comp pass to our annual meeting, but he won't let me take my show on the road to his ward for free."

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Tipoff: PR guru returns after prison term; Conan O'Brien takes shot at Ohio

by Michael McIntyre/Plain Dealer Reporter

Friday November 07, 2008, 8:27 PM

Local public relations legend Ron Watt fled the country when banks discovered he'd been lying about his assets to keep alive revolving lines of credit that facilitated his upper-crust lifestyle. He eventually returned to Cleveland to face the music, receiving a 3 ½-year sentence in U.S. District Court.

Watt, who for 30 years ran influential PR firm Watt, Roop & Co., did his time in prison. Now he has returned to Cleveland to play the music.

Watt was recently transferred to a halfway house in Cleveland, where he was encouraged to find a job to shorten his stay. Enter the Hermit Club, the private club dedicated to the performing arts in Cleveland. That's where Watt, a member since 1979, had often played piano with his jazz band.

Now, he's on staff there, helping with membership and marketing -- and tickling the ivories each day for happy hour. He's playing at the bar instead of sitting behind it.

"I'm trying to resurrect my shambles of a career," said the gregarious Watt, who noted he'll be re-entering the public relations world. He's already got the patter down:

"I liked Morgantown an awful lot," he said, referring to the federal prison in West Virginia that he called home. "But I love Cleveland."

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Tipoff: Librarians have a recommendation for your Tuesday reading list

by Michael K. McIntyre/Plain Dealer Reporter

Monday November 03, 2008, 2:38 AM

Librarians, aside from mastering "Shhhh," are known to caution readers never to skip ahead to the ending. Books are meant to be read from front to back.

Except one: "Unthinkable, but true: Librarians are suggesting that you read the end of the book first - your ballot book," said Madeline Brookshire, spokeswoman for the Cuyahoga County Public Library.

That's because Issue 127, the one that seeks a 2-mill replacement and 0.5-mill additional tax to fund the library system, is at the end of the ballot in the 47 communities that will vote on it in Tuesday's election.

"Librarians are concerned that new voters focused on the presidential election and others with limited patience will give up after voting on the state issues," Brookshire said. "So, just this one time, librarians are asking voters to go to the last chapter and read the ending first."

The librarians know that a "yes" vote will result in an ending of "happily ever after," or at least until the next levy.

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Tipoff: Ex-Talking Head front man rants about Cleveland

by Michael K. McIntyre/Plain Dealer Reporter

Friday October 31, 2008, 9:26 PM

Singer David Byrne, the former Talking Heads front man, was steamed about his visit to Cleveland for a gig at the Allen Theatre last week.

In a blog entry on his Web site (davidbyrne.com) titled "Highway Robbery," he raged about Cleveland, reserving particular scorn for a cabby -- whose initials and phone number he published -- who Byrne said tried to rip him off for $100 on a trip to Shaker Square from the Hyatt at the Old Arcade.

The cabby, Richard Sabau -- who says he has driven a cab in Miami and Cleveland for 30 years -- says he's been getting vulgar and threatening calls all week from out-of-town area codes. And for no good reason.

"It was an honest mistake. It happened so fast it was unbelievable," he said.

"I wasn't trying to swindle him," he said, adding that he had no idea who Byrne was.

Byrne screamed at him and threatened to call the cops. He got his money back, paying the $18 fare, with a $4 tip.

Byrne then went on to describe a stretch of Euclid Avenue thusly: "One thinks of the Mayan temples that were already being abandoned before Cortes even arrived."

There was a bright spot, though. Byrne went to see tortured genius guitarist Glenn Schwartz at Hooples on Thursday night.

"He may have lost his mind," wrote Byrne, "but his fingers are firing on all cylinders."

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Whoopi Goldberg meets Cleveland nuns: Michael K. McIntyre's Tipoff

by Michael K. McIntyre/Plain Dealer Reporter

Monday October 27, 2008, 7:14 AM

Sister Mary Assumpta, the habit-wearing, cookie-baking, "Major League" movie star nun, was well prepared when she met Whoopi Goldberg this month.

Sister Mary, who runs the Jennings Center for Older Adults in Garfield Heights along with 11 other nuns from the Sisters of the Holy Spirit, attended a conference about services for the aging in Philadelphia. Her job: to present keynote speaker Goldberg with some of her Nun Better cookies in a nun-shaped cookie jar.

Goldberg loved the nuns, especially since they were big fans of her work in "Sister Act," a movie in which Goldberg's character, a singer hiding out from bad guys, pretends to be a nun, joins a cloister and gives the choir its groove.

" 'Sister Act' happens to be one of our favorite movies at the convent. You know, we have the lines memorized," said Sister Mary.

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Fighting words if you're Steelers

by Michael K. McIntyre

Saturday October 25, 2008, 11:03 AM

Talk about political football. The big championship
game for the Tri-City youth football league at Byers Field in
Parma on Sunday pits two friendly pols against one another. DeGeeter's Fighting Irish, sponsored by Ohio Rep. Tim De- Geeter, faces the DePiero Destroyers, sponsored by Parma Mayor Dean DePiero. The sponsors have a wager: Loser buys the
winning team's pizza and kicks in $50 for charity. DeGeeter, in his first year as a team sponsor in the fourth through sixth-grade league, chose "Fighting Irish" because he
grew up near South Bend, Ind., and is a big Notre Dame fan.
He was a bit nervous naming
his team the "Fighting Irish" in
the heart of Buckeye country. But
the team's coach reassured him:
"It's an improvement. We used to
be the Steelers."
Speaking of which: With the
purchase of National City Bank
by PNC Financial Services Group, will Browns fans who
usually use the "National City
Gate" have to enter the stadium
through a gate sponsored by a
Pittsburgh-based bank? Isn't that
an illegal substitution?
Dotting the i: Nick Stefanik, a
2005 graduate of North Royalton
High School and son of North
Royalton Mayor Robert Stefanik,
will dot the "i" as the Ohio
State University marching band
performs the marvel of marching
precision known as "Script Ohio"
tonight. Stefanik, a sousaphone
player in his fourth year with the
"the best damn band in the land,"
will kick, turn and bow at halftime
of the Buckeyes' duel with
Penn State.
"As a freshman at North Royalton,
that was a goal he set for
himself. He stuck to it," said the
mayor, who was headed to Columbus
Friday with 30 friends
and family members to watch the
game. "It's worth listening to all
the screeching in fourth grade."
He should know better: Seven
Hills resident Terry Krafcik has
complaints about the gorgeous
new hiking and biking trail that
abuts his home.
For one thing, despite the "no
motorized vehicle" signs, ATVs,
motorbikes and, shockingly, even
cars use the asphalt trail.
Monday evening, Krafcik said,
he nearly got clipped by a kid on
a dirt bike as he crossed the path
to sit on a public bench.
He called 9-1-1 to report three
dirt bike riders, one an adult.
The scofflaws, it turned out, were
City Councilman Pete Draganic
and his kids.
Draganic said "it wasn't anything
heinous" because they were
testing out a new dirt bike on
land adjacent to the path, riding
on the path only briefly.
Police let him off with a warning,
which Krafcik considered
unfair: "If it were me, I'd have
gotten a ticket. And you'd think a
councilman would know better."
Police Chief Gary Durkin said
his officer was right to give a
warning, but he called the councilman
later to reinforce it.
"This is not a good thing to do
and, in fact, it's a violation of city
ordinance. I told him if it occurred
again we are going to impound
the vehicle, and somebody
is going to get cited."
Said Draganic,

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