Plight of the monarchs
With their striking orange and black wings, monarch butterflies have long been a favorite sight in Ohio gardens. But those graceful visitors are under threat from a number of factors, including habitat loss, climate change and pesticide use.
You can learn about monarchs and their plight at Monarch Mayhem, a program from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday at Brushwood Pavilion in Furnace Run Metro Park, 4955 Townsend Road, Richfield Township.
Carrie Elvey of the Wilderness Center near Wilmot and Sharon Treaster of Ohio State University will team up for the program, talking about the life cycle of monarchs and the threats the butterflies face.
Cost is $10, and reservations are required. Information and a mail-in registration form are at http://summit.osu.edu/topics/horticulture.
Film list fades to black
Time for movie fans to hit a bookstore.
Leonard Maltin’s 2015 Movie Guide does not officially arrive until Sept. 2 but you may want to pre-order it now, or stock up on previous editions. The new one will be the last.
The decline in bookstores and the shift to reading online both affected the book, Maltin told Deadline.com. “An entire generation has been raised to acquire all their information online from their mobile devices or computers,” he said. “These are not the likely customers for a physical paperback reference book. Our sales have sharply declined in recent years.”
The new edition of the book, which first appeared under a different title in 1969, is available in Kindle and Nook formats, but the idea of an online version simply did not work, Maltin said. And the capsule-description format was made more for print than online, where far more detailed and extensive sites including Turner Classic Movies and IMDB are available.
So grab a couple of copies of the 2015 edition, put one next to your TV remote and set the other aside for use when the first one wears out.
Whispering at Lock 3
At 7 p.m. Saturday, R&B vocal group The Whispers will perform at Lock 3 Park, 200 S. Main St., Akron.
The group is still led by twins Walter and Wallace Scott. The R&B Hall of Fame quartet has a track record of hits including And the Beat Goes On, It’s a Love Thing and Rock Steady. Opening for The Whispers will be Cleveland-based artist Sarah’s Girl, aka honey-voiced R&B chanteuse Stacey Richardson.
Tickets are $10; go to www.lock3live.com for more information.
