Five Things You Might Have Missed: 1-20

Top stories from this weekend's editions of The Blade

Bahaa Hariri, co-owner of the Middle East Market on Dorr Street, estimated there are 1,000 to 1,500 Arab-American families in Toledo.

THE BLADE/JEREMY WADSWORTH
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Bahaa Hariri, co-owner of the Middle East Market on Dorr Street, estimated there are 1,000 to 1,500 Arab-American families in Toledo.

1. Arabs, others feel overlooked, undercounted

Ask Khouloud Smaili, 43, owner of Toledo Market, a Middle Eastern grocery on Dorr Street, how many Middle Eastern people live in Toledo and she’ll say likely anywhere between 15,000 and 20,000, based on the volume of customers in her store and orders from the community.

But Bahaa Hariri, 26, co-owner of Middle East Market farther west on Dorr, estimates the Arab-American population alone stands at 1,000 to 1,500 families, with an average of three to four people per family.

Six thousand? Ten thousand? Fifteen thousand? No one, let alone the U.S. Census Bureau, knows how many people in the Greater Toledo area were born in the Middle East or were born to parents or grandparents from the Middle East. READ MORE

Mitch Ansara with one of his movie posters.

2. Artists shun bland promos for films, return to era of movie posters as art

“Art is either plagiarism or revolution,” French Post-Impressionist artist Paul Gauguin once wrote.

And while Gauguin considered these trends to be mutually exclusive, more than a century later a group of mostly unknown artists are, in a practical sense, doing both, fueling the underground and worldwide phenomenon of alternative -- some say re-imagined -- movie posters.

It’s a growing trend -- perhaps protest is more appropriate -- that pays homage to and resurrects the decades-old tradition of the movie poster as art. READ MORE

Vincent Hooper, general manager of Rapunzel’s Lice Boutique, hangs a sign heralding the grand opening. A treatment costs $145, takes about 30 minutes, and kills 99.2 percent of lice and eggs.

3. New Toledo business puts the heat on lice

When Sarah Casello-Rees tells people what she does for a living, they usually take a few steps back and start scratching their scalps.

Ms. Casello-Rees is in the business of ridding people of lice — a harmless but oh-so-gross parasite that’s estimated to affect as many as 12 million children every year.

It turns out lice and their eggs can be killed by heat, and the Food and Drug Administration has cleared a device developed by biologists at the University of Utah called the AirAlle to do just that.

Ms. Casello-Rees started using the AirAlle in 2008, and opened her first salon, called Rapunzel’s Lice Boutique, in Ann Arbor in 2009. Two more locations soon followed in Sterling Heights and Farmington Hills, Mich.

Her fourth salon officially opened Saturday at 2525 N. Reynolds Rd. in Toledo. READ MORE

Dino Babers, right, is named the new BG football coach by athletic director Chris Kingston on Dec. 19. Babers said every player will be entering spring competition vying for a starting position.

4. Falcons football coach Babers to hold competition for starting spots

When spring football practice arrives March 1 at Bowling Green State University, every player will be entering competition vying for a starting position.

New coach Dino Babers said he has not watched game replays of last year’s 10-4 Mid-American Conference champions.

“I just won’t look at last year,” Babers said. “I will base all my decisions on what I see [in spring practice].

“That gives everyone a clean slate, a clean opportunity to prove who they are.”

So while the Falcons return seven starters on offense and five on defense, those numbers may as well be zero. READ MORE

Corey Allison, Paula Williams, and Dwayne Garrett, from left, patch potholes on Berdan Avenue near Detroit Avenue last week.

5. Collins offers initial plan for street projects

The Collins administration Friday released the first hint of street repaving projects for 2014, which seems initially to be less than the number of lane miles fixed last year.

Mayor D. Michael Collins sent council a request to spend $8.1 million on streets, which includes $4.2 million from the city’s capital improvement budget for what is called the 2014 “matches and planning program.”

“We try to have early legislation for what we call matches and planning, which are bigger projects that we commit for matches for state and federal funds,” said Robin Whitney, the city’s public utilities director.

Residential streets are not eligible for those matching grants, Ms. Whitney said.

The Collins administration is also asking to spend $2.2 million from the capital improvement budget for the 2014 general resurfacing program and $1.69 million of prior, unused capital improvement money for this year’s street program. READ MORE

Alexis and her mother Suzanne Peats during the climb up Mount Kilimanjaro.

OUR TOWNS:

Perrysburg girl, 11, and her mom climb Mount Kilimanjaro

Alexis Peats woke up at 2 a.m. about a week ago, but not from a bad dream or to get a glass of water. The 11-year-old Perrysburg girl was ready to make a eight-hour trek to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa.

At 10 a.m. on Jan. 10, she reached the peak of the 19,336-foot tall mountain in Tanzania, on her sixth day climbing the mountain. It's the tallest mountain in Africa.

"Lexi did very, very well," said her mother, Suzanne Peats. "It was difficult mentally and physically, but she did very well, even when she was exhausted. She was outside her comfort zone and stuck with it."

Ms. Peats, Lexi, Cokie Berenyi and Ms. Berenyi's daughter Helen, 9, made the hike under the guidance of a non-profit organization called She Climbs. The group, founded by Ms. Berenyi, was created to help women and girls of all ages gain self esteem and confidence. READ MORE