Articles

Christopher Johnston looks back at industrialist Frederick c. Crawford’s tour of the western front in the late stages of WWII In December of 1944, Frederick C. Crawford, president of Thompson Products, Inc., an automotive and aviation parts manufacturer in Cleveland, stepped out of an airplane in Cherbourg, France. He led a group of six major…

By welcoming and engaging its citizens from all corners through literature, the city is spawning discussions that could help it tackle tough social issues from homelessness to substance abuse. At a long conference table on the east side of Cleveland, Daniel Gray-Kontar listens closely as one of his students, a high school senior, starts to…

JULY 9, 2017  CLEVELAND On a recent Friday night, when many women are spending time with their families or going to see a rom-com movie with friends, Renee Jones is doing something unconventional. She’s driving around Cleveland’s seedier neighborhoods, visiting some of this city’s most notorious strip clubs. Her intention isn’t to see the young women…

S0, have you heard the one about the Irishman who walked into a bar to apply for a job and 10 years later walked out the owner? No, this isn’t a joke. It’s a story – a story about a storyteller. The Irishman is Brendan Ring, proprietor of Nighttown restaurant and bar. Top of Cedar Hill, Cleveland Heights. (This part of the an-tickle is best read in da t’ickest Irish…

Ohio’s second-largest city has become a national leader in responding to rape cases and dealing compassionately with victims. By Christopher Johnston, Contributor | Cover Story | FEBRUARY 21, 2016 CLEVELAND — Registered nurse Elizabeth Boothis was haunted by one rape victim: petite, late 20s, clad in jeans and a sweatshirt. Sitting alone, crying, nose running, with…

The prolific Cleveland-based writer’s career is packed with impulsive twists and crises averted. By Christopher Johnston, American Theater YOU’RE PLAYWRIGHT ERIC COBLE. YOU’VE SPENT two decades getting more than 40 original plays and adaptations produced on six out of seven continents and racking up numerous awards. Now, it’s April 2012, and Estelle Parsons is lined…

By Christopher Johnston, Time.com (3/22/12) John Demjanjuk died March 17 as he had lived much of the last 35 years of his life: in the shadow of the courts. And his legal afterlife is likely to see his friends and lawyers trying to wrest him from judicial limbo. At the time of his death, the accused Nazi…

ScientificAmerican.com | High-Pressure Hybrids: Fuel-Efficient Hydraulic Vehicles Come of Age by Christopher Johnston, ScientificAmerican.com (August 11, 2010) Thanks to hybrid hydraulics, there is something especially awesome in the power of the next generation of garbage and delivery trucks that will soon be rolling through your neighborhood. Although they may still look like big, bulky trucks,…

CHRISTOPHER JOHNSTON | THURSDAY, JULY 09, 2015 GLENVILLE On an overcast Saturday morning, when most attorneys his age are golfing, James Levin sits behind a metal desk in a basement office of the Famicos building on Ansel Road in Glenville, trying to unravel the convoluted legal history of a Cleveland man named Albert. Just a…

Faced by a fresh awareness of the “finiteness” of life, Henry A. Zimmerman III decided that quality time with his son meant spending seven weeks together on a 9,OOO-mile odyssey around America in a 1982 VW Vanagon… Ready the full story here