Paulette’s Studio of Dance is helping mamas and papas get moving with their little ones with their newest class, Nurturing Baby. This interactive dance experience explores dance concepts using multisensory props, a wide variety of music, and rhythm instruments. The activities foster enjoyable and appropriate movement practice for building baby’s body and brain. The classes are divided into weekly classes for six weeks, with a new session beginning in July. Taught by Janet Frederick, M.Ed. For more info or to register, call 419-654-3262.
Drums Along the Maumee
See and hear fife and drum corps play military music from the 1750s through the War of 1812. The music starts at 10am both days and the corps perform a massed ensemble at 4pm each afternoon. War of 1812 soldiers and civilians provide demonstrations of weapons, camp life and provide hands-on activities for children. Through Sunday, July 25. 9:30am-5pm. Fort Meigs,
29100 W. River Rd., Perrysburg.
419-874-4121. www.fortmeigs.org.
Pioneer Life Part 2
The pioneer life program is offered over a two-summer span as children spend time in the historic Peter Navarre cabin at the gardens. Make candles, soap and cornhusk dolls. Participants also get to play pioneer games. Pioneer Life Part 1 attendance not required. See website to register. 9:30-11:30am. $15. Toledo Botanical Garden,
5403 Elmer Dr., Toledo.
www.toledogarden.org.
Score a big slice of fun
Mood boostin’ fun
Quite exhausted after a less than fabulous couple of weeks, I somehow mustered up enough energy one Saturday evening to round up Team Zickes to pay a visit to Andrew Z’s Sportz Pizzeria. As we approached the restaurant, my world began to change. Great tunes blasted out the front doors, and, inside, there was pizza and beer!
I absolutely love music and dancing. Among other favorite music, I also love hip hop, Top 40, and most everything they play on 92.5 KISS FM, where pizzeria owner, Andrew Z (Zepeda) is the morning host. As I went bounding through the doors, I already had some pep back in my step.
Pizza with a side of sports
In a nutshell, Andrew Zepeda unveiled this sports-themed pizzeria in Levis Commons in October and has since opened a second location in Downtown Toledo. In the evening, the atmosphere shifts from pizzeria to the bar scene.
Tuesday through Saturday nights, the DJ cranks out the tunes around 5p.m. DJ Corey W. King, also from KISS FM, is in the house taking your requests and making sure the mood stays upbeat and fun. The evening we were there, Andrew Z was making rounds, visiting with customers. He and his team even scored some points with my children’s Phys Ed teacher, who was there, when they sang Happy Birthday to her.
“Glass City Style Pizza”By know you probably understand that the atmosphere was fun, but how was the food? Well, we loved it! The pizza that Andrew Z named “Glass City Style” is a cross between Chicago deep dish and New York style pizza. The crust comes up higher on the sides but is not a true deep dish pie.
Kids’ meals are free with the purchase of a $1.99 kids’ beverage. Choices include pasta or a personal size pizza, including a peanut butter and jelly pizza! Getting their own pizza was a hit with all three of our kids. It was a hit with me, too, as now my husband and I could order whatever we wanted on our pizza. You can build your own pizza starting at $13.99 for a 12” medium cheese pizza. My husband and I could only finish half of our medium Slam Dunk Supreme for $18.99. The leftovers were great, by the way.
The menu also offers a dozen different subs, calzones, salads, spaghetti, and appetizers. The kids thoroughly enjoyed the Andrew Z Ballz appetizer — round yeast dough rolls baked fresh and covered with cheese, butter and garlic — for $5.99.
For dessert, we passed on the huge chocolate chip cookie with ice cream, and went The Dessert Ballz, rolled in cinnamon and sugar. I think my kids would have been happy just eating the bread balls for dinner and dessert!
Bottom Line: Score more than dinner next time you take the family out for pizza. Andrew Z’s Sportz Pizzeria is definitely a unique concept and stands apart from other pizza joints around town. The atmosphere is upbeat, and the food is a winner, too!
Karen Zickes is a mom of three active children and freelance writer who resides in Holland, OH. She can be reached in c/o [email protected].
Gong, daddy, gong
It’s something to hear the guy who created “The Dating Game,” “The Newlywed Game” and “The Gong Show” teeter on the edge of tears. As he starts talking about his new book Della: A Memoir of my Daughter, Chuck Barris’ voice starts cracking with emotion. Not a sobbing fit, but tinged with the whispered hesitancy of a man speaking about a pain usually described as ‘unspeakable.’
Written by the author of the literary cult classic Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (in which Barris straight-facedly claims he was a contract assassin for the CIA during his TV producing years), Della marks a confession of a different sort—that of a grieving father who lost his only daughter to a drug overdose when she was 36. The book chronicles Barris’ struggle to juggle his television career alongside his parenting responsibilities after winning sole custody of Della when she was in her teens. Soon after, Della descended into the proverbial Hollywood rich kid hell of sex, drugs, rock ‘n’ roll, and more drugs—a descent that Barris claims he did not try hard enough to stop.
Calling from his home in Manhattan, Barris spoke candidly about his late daughter, his mistakes as a parent … and cites Della as a handbook for how NOT to raise a child.
What was your main motivation in writing this book about your late daughter?
Catharsis. This book is certainly different from what I usually write about, and it will be very difficult to talk about it. But I’ve written it, so I have to talk about it. Writing (Della) was a big problem—I started it and stopped it many, many times over the years because it was just too painful to write.
Do you think there is such a thing as a child who is “born bad?”
That’s a very, very good question, and I’m going to have to think about that more. I think in Della’s case, she wasn’t really born bad, but I think she had a bunch of bad breaks. I would have thought differently back then if I had thought Della had simply been born bad, but I don’t. I think it was really a series of bad breaks in her life—and I think I was one of those bad breaks.
As someone who took a lot of heat for the content of his television shows, you’re uniquely qualified to answer—do you believe TV, movies, or violent video games leads to antisocial behavior in kids?
I don’t know. I don’t think my shows necessarily led to any antisocial behavior in kids, but with the way television is today, I think I might be edging towards “yes.” What I see on TV now is very snide and always very mean-spirited in its approach. It seems like all of the contestants are looked down upon and the show is almost rooting for them to lose. But I really don’t know the total answer to the question.
What advice would you give to a parent who is dealing with a child who is abusing drugs or committing crimes?
First and foremost, stick with them. Show that kid an inordinate amount of affection — something I never did enough with Della. Also, keep the kid in one school. That was a terrible mistake I made with Della. She kept changing schools and I know that ultimately gave her a strong inferiority complex because it’s so hard to make friends in the middle of the school year when you’re the new kid. And parents need to remember that you cannot love your children too much.
What’s next for you? Any possibility of any of your other books being turned into films? (Ed.—Confessions of a Dangerous Mind was adapted into a critically acclaimed, George Clooney-directed film in 2002)
That’s a difficult question. To get Confessions adapted into a film took lots of luck. I don’t think any of my books will be made into films, but I’d love to see my first book, You and Me, Babe turned into a film. Back in the ‘70s it was optioned—(Twentieth Century Fox producers)David Brown and Richard Zanuck made me an offer for $185,000. Being as the book was a bestseller, I asked for $250,000. So they then passed on my book and they made “Jaws” instead. So if another opportunity like that comes along, I’m not passing it up.
Della: A Memoir of My Daughter is now available from Simon & Schuster in
booksellers everywhere