From Joel Sherman for the New York Post:

The Cubs were looking for a way to psych themselves up with their season possibly nine innings away from termination. But even facing elimination, the underdog motif fit these Cubs as well as a Mini-Me costume does Shaquille O’Neal.

Read the whole story here.
 

From the Washington Post:

The weight-loss industry has long been saturated with gimmicky, too-good-to-be-true diets, so one could be excused for thinking the main benefit of “Eat Fat, Get Thin” is to burn calories by causing particularly vigorous eye-rolling.

I mean, doesn’t eating fat, like, make you fat?

Actually, the answer is a big, fat no, at least according to Mark Hyman, director of the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medi... Read more >

From USA Today, Oct. 30, 2016, by Bob Nightengale:

Cubs not dead, planning return trip to Cleveland for Game 6 of World Series

The city of Cleveland has never been confused for anyone’s idea of a tourist destination, where even the natives love to poke fun at their two seasons:

Winter and construction.

Yet, despite all of the jokes over the years about their city, and those cold and long winters, there’s nowhere more a group of young... Read more >

"Baseball legend recounts how [Louis Sockalexis] dazzled Cleveland fans in 1897. With the first Native American ever to play pro baseball so dominant, Ohioans started calling his team 'The Indians.' His on-field feats and Apollo-like physique had already inspired a Maine writer and rival manager Gilbert Patten, using the pseudonym Burt L. Standish, to create the mythical scholar-detective-superstar dime-novel athlete Frank Merriwell. The great sportswriter Harry Grays... Read more >

"Unbeknownst to most outsiders, however, Cleveland’s rebirth is happening at street level as well. This gritty, 'underdog' city is now home to six James Beard award-winning chef-inspired restaurants, a thriving bar, arts, and music scene, and biomedical and 'smart' manufacturing start-ups that are quickly luring America’s youngest and brightest away from Boston, Austin, and Silicon Valley. All of which makes every Saturday night along East Fourth S... Read more >

As locals know, from the wins on the court and around the diamond to a nearly incident-free Republican National Convention, things are going very well here in Cleveland

The national press is predictably flummoxed.

- In this one for the Washington Post, for instance, Adam Kilgore seems to believe we're all slack-jawed and blinking doe-eyed at one another, bewildered that anything other than gray skies and doom could befall our unfortunate lot:

"P... Read more >

A cross-country caravan celebrating the city of Cleveland gathered at the intersection of 40th and -- of course -- Cleveland streets at UPCO Park in Lincoln, Nebraska, on Saturday.
 When the Cleveland Cavaliers took home an NBA title on June 19 for the first time in 52 years, Weston Wride, a Cleveland native living in Provo, Utah, thought celebration was in order. That’s when he decided to take a crew of photo, video and social media gurus on a ride in his 1992 Ford... Read more >

USA Today poses the question: Does all of the local basketball and baseball success make Cleveland the best sports town in America right now? Watch Luke Kerr-Dineen and Charles Curtis break it down in a short video here.


 

It's much to the delight of Fresh Water staff to roundup some national coverage on the stunning Tribe pennant victory over the Toronto Blue Jays last night.

"The team hasn't won the World Series since 1948." - CNN

"Cleveland had waited so long for this." - USAToday

"Welcome to the October of Tito." ESPN

And perhaps our favorite - a headline from the New York Times: "Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, Clevel... Read more >

The Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency (NOACA) is asking area residents to participate in a quick and easy online survey to gather information about what they think transportation in Northeast Ohio should look like over the next two decades, including priorities for commuters, cyclists and transit users. The survey will remain online until October 30.

The effort is part of NOACA’s Long-Range Transportation Plan, a 20-year framework to guide investments for ... Read more >

America's Got Talent invites all singers, dancers, magicians, performers and purveyors of entertainment to come and show them what you've got at an open call audition on Monday, Dec. 12, 2016, at the Huntington Convention Center, 300 Lakeside Ave. in downtown Cleveland.

Details on registration, creating a Performer Profile and auditioning online for the show's season 12 are available here.

“There’s no show on television that changes lives ... Read more >

From Billy Hallal for Thrillist:
 There’s a problem with the current discourse on progress in different areas of Greater Cleveland: you can’t describe a neighborhood as “on-the-rise” when it’s already risen. Some neighborhoods and districts have been established for decades. Everyone knows about Coventry’s hippie/hipster vibe and Little Italy’s old-world charm. Some have seen their star rise rapidly in the past decade or so: your ... Read more >

"Along with the gum is a notarized affidavit signed by then Akron Deputy Mayor David Lieberth who chuckled Tuesday when told the 'infamous' LeBron gum had resurfaced."

Chew on the whole story from Ohio.com here.

Though daunting to consider, every action we take affects the water we drink, the water for our crops, and the water we play in. Across the entire Greater Lake Erie region, the phrase “Lake Erie Starts with Me" applies to each of us.
 
The West Creek Conservancy has worked to protect vital stream and wetland systems, forested areas, as well as open green spaces - all in an effort to protect the waters of Greater Lake Erie. The conservancy's goal is to p... Read more >

A no-frills cheat sheet. Click through for more information on all the events. Let's have a great October, Cleveland!

Oct. 1 and 8: Uptown Saturday Nights, University Circle. FREE.
 
Oct. 2: International Cleveland Community Day, Cleveland Art Museum. FREE.
 
Oct. 7: Cleveland Institute of Art's Lunch on Fridays: Michela Picchi. FREE.
 
Oct. 8: Tour Undiscovered E. 40th Street on Lolly the Trolley. $5.
 
Oct. 12:... Read more >

How many fresh-cut flowers can fit in a Detroit Shoreway restaurant? Anyone opting to dine at Spice Kitchen and Bar this weekend will have a chance to find out during the popular eatery's "Flower Field Takeover" event on Friday, Sept. 30th, and Saturday, Oct. 1st, from 4 to 10 p.m.

Staff is harvesting the entire half-acre Spice Acres flower field, which is part of a 13-acre sustainable family farm in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. All of the blooms will ... Read more >

On Tuesday, Sept. 27, Cleveland VOTES will partner with local organizations to host a series of events for National Voter Registration Day 2016. The effort is part of a massive 50-state drive to register thousands of voters before Election Day, November 8. The theme for this year’s National Voter Registration Day is "Celebrating Democracy in America."
 
The day will be marked by an array of registration drives across the city, from a “Pop Up Cook... Read more >