Five things you might have missed: 11-04

Top stories from this weekend's editions of The Blade

Experts say it will take six months or more before Chrysler will know if the Cherokee is a hit with customers. Some new domestic cars are a hit initially but then fade.

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Lisa Deeter, co-owner of Deet's BBQ, center, smiles as she takes orders from customers from the company's food truck in downtown Toledo.

1. Food trucks provide moving downtown dining experience

It took awhile, but the food-truck phenomenon that has been blossoming in Ohio’s largest cities and other metro areas across the United States finally has motored its way to downtown Toledo. For now, it’s limited to two or three trucks and a tent on St. Clair Street adjacent to Levis Square. They are there on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

But those involved in the mobile dining experiment are hoping to keep it going through the winter and possibly see it blossom next spring to give downtown workers and visitors some tasty cuisine while out for a noontime stroll in Toledo. READ MORE

Author and political commentator Jeff Greenfield will speak 7 p.m. Thursday in the Main Library’s McMaster Center at Authors! Authors!, cosponsored by The Blade and the Toledo-Lucas County Public Library.

2. Jeff Greenfield to discuss book on what might have been had JFK lived

Rain starts. Rain stops.

Suppose the rain didn’t stop. The bubble top would have remained on the 1961 Lincoln Continental as it drove through Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963.

“History turns on a dime. Or as I say, it doesn’t turn on a dime, it turns on a plugged nickel,” said political commentator Jeff Greenfield.

His new book, If Kennedy Lived (The First and Second Terms of President John F. Kennedy: An Alternate History), is hinged on that meteorological twist of fate: JFK survives the assassination attempt and completes eight years in office. How would life in the United States have been different? READ MORE

The new Mercy Medical Center will be opening on today in Perrysburg.

3. Mercy opens 24-hour emergency room in Perrysburg

Perrysburg will have its first 24-hour emergency room on Monday.

That's when the $13.6-million Mercy Medical Center opens at 7 a.m. It will have an emergency room, though it's not connected to a hospital, that has 12 beds and a nursing station. Also, the building will have a diagnostic center with a room for x-rays, sensory mammogram testing room, sensory CT scan room, and a sensory MRI exam room. It expects to have up to 20,000 patients a year.

The center, which is to begin accepting patients at 7 a.m. Monday, is at 12621 Eckel Junction Rd., near State Rt. 25 and I-475/U.S. 23. It is across the expressway from a 24-hour clinic which ProMedica opened a month ago in its medical office building in Levis Commons. READ MORE

The historic farm house is the centerpiece of the Castalia Farms property.

4. Owens-Illinois' prestigious corporate retreat near Castalia to be sold at auction

By late in 1937, William E. Levis had put together a 1,000-acre expanse of property just north of this village and set about transforming it into a sportsmen’s Valhalla.

Here, the president of Owens-Illinois Glass Co. owned roughly 10 miles of meandering trout stream, fed by the aquifers in the area that send an abundance of 48-degree water surging to the surface. There were also pastures for his prized champion Corriedale sheep and fields where Mr. Levis and his guests could hunt for pheasants.

The core of the Levis haven — known as Castalia Farms — remained essentially intact after it had been enhanced with conference centers, a small theater, and other amenities, such as a driving range and a trap shoot. Its ownership was eventually transferred to a subsidiary of Owens-Illinois, and the site has been used for at least the last half century as a corporate retreat and more recently as a place for O-I to occasionally entertain its customers. That era will end on Nov. 15. READ MORE

Experts say it will take six months or more before Chrysler will know if the Cherokee is a hit with customers. Some new domestic cars are a hit initially but then fade.

5. Cherokee revving up week after arrival

Jeep dealers expect the new Cherokee to eventually become their top-selling model, though it will be several months before the industry is able to judge whether Chrysler Group LLC has the hit it thinks it does with the new sport utility vehicle.

Formally introduced to the public in March, the first Cherokees began arriving in U.S. showrooms last week. Officials have said it will take a couple more weeks to get the vehicles in volume to dealers across the country.

Even so, sales are starting to trickle in.

The automaker said Friday it sold 579 Cherokees in October.  READ MORE