Nothing but 'Net: Take a peek at Farmers' Marketplace
10/6/2000Toledo Farmers' Market
May has finally arrived, which means that Toledo-area farmers by the dozens soon will be trucking in home-grown produce to the sprawling city market in the Warehouse District on the edge of downtown. Regulars, including discriminating chefs from all across town, know well the earthly delights of the open-air market - the hubbub of crowds thumping the cantaloupes, picking the peas, checking out the corn, and haggling over the price of onions, greens, peppers, and bushels of sweet red tomatoes. It's a marvel of the senses, especially on crowded Saturdays, and people new to the market can get a foretaste by checking out its Web site.
There you'll find a long list of edible and nonedible items for sale, from afghans to zucchini, flowers to strawberries, fresh-laid double-yolk eggs to squash, dressed chicken to rhubarb. The market dates back to 1832, and there's a detailed history of its various locations and ups and downs. The site gives the hours and includes a map, and there's even a category called Louise's Recipes - although for more than a month the only thing to be found there has been a lonely recipe from the page's namesake, Louise Mikesell-Wireman, the market's executive director. Either she's overwhelmed with the details of getting the Farmers' Market ready for its 10th annual Flower Day May 28, or else she's really, really proud of her Piedmontese Shredded B-B-Q Beef.
http://www.toledofarmersmarket.org
Live and in person
Spend a few minutes or a couple of hours exploring Live-at.com and you'll discover a feature of the World Wide Web that not everybody knows about. An array of live media - breaking news, concerts, chats with authors, models, and actors, fashion and political conversations, self-help discussions, and much more - is encompassed in nearly two dozen categories, from Business to Women.
This is Command Central for what's going on in real time over the Internet, updated every day. This week's possibilities, for example, included a live broadcast of Roman Catholic Cardinal John O'Connor's funeral in New York City's St. Patrick's Cathedral; a White House press briefing, and chats with Reba McEntire, Shirley MacLaine, and Emilio Estevez.
Another decent site to browse is LiveOnTheNet.com, which covers the same breadth of possibilities. Its music section, for example, hawks live events by Latino, country, alternative, classical, blues, and rock acts. Both sites have streaming media links, including Webcams. Of course, you need a sound card and a hookup to Real Player, Quick Time, or Windows Media Player to listen to or participate in the events, which costs next to nothing considering what opportunities are suddenly opened up.
The end of LIFE
This month, the last regular issue of LIFE magazine landed on the newsstands. A weekly from 1936 to 1972, the magazine with the distinctive red and white LIFE logo then became a monthly; now it will appear only periodically in special issues commemorating important or historical events. During its long tenure, the magazine became a fixture in millions of American households, chronicling the ebb and flow of life in words and thousands of unforgettable photographs.
But though it is almost gone, LIFE is not forgotten, thanks to its Web site, which gives visitors a chance to browse the covers of the magazines from 1936 on. You can also click onto what the editors have chosen as the 60 classic covers and the 60 wackiest. Two examples are a 1937 photo of a little boy playing marbles, his face scrunched in concentration, and a chilling 1940 cover showing a gun-toting German soldier standing guard in the dark shadow of history as Hitler began his conquest of Europe.
Where are they now?
Danielle Brisebois. Scott Baio. Mayim Bialik. Tina Yothers. Wil Wheaton. Emmanuel Lewis. Gary Coleman. Danny Bonaduce. Recognize any of these names? Sure you do: They're former child stars, and this site is a veritable beehive of information, gossip, and links to fan club sites of hundreds of other well-known young actors who are either still chasing television and movie careers, or have vanished into the rank and file of ordinary Americans. Visitors are invited to report sightings of ex-child stars. The focus is on the 1960s-1980s, but there's at least one sitcom dating to the 1950s. You'll be glad to know that Lauren Chapin, Elinor Donahue, and Billy Gray, who starred in Father Knows Best, are still alive and kicking.
http://members.tripod.com/former_child_star/
If you have a Web site to recommend, send an e-mail to tgearhart@theblade.com.