Email
PrintTerrorism, homes and pets
Andrew Welsh-Huggins. Courtesy Andrew Welsh-Huggins.
We’re doing something rare in this issue of Columbus Monthly: printing a book excerpt. It’s from Hatred at Home: al-Qaida on Trial in the American Midwest, by Andrew Welsh-Huggins, the Columbus-based legal affairs reporter for the Associated Press.
(For the record: I believe it’s only the second excerpt ever published in our history. The first was in the April 1987 issue, Bob Greene’s autobiography about growing up in Bexley, Be True to Your School: A Diary of 1964.)
Hatred at Home chronicles the paths of three friends, from when they gathered at an Upper Arlington coffee shop in 2002 to their federal convictions on charges related to terrorism.
Welsh-Huggins covered the trials of all three: Iyman Faris, accused of plotting to destroy the Brooklyn Bridge; Nuradin Abdi, who told authorities he talked about opening fire in a Central Ohio mall with an AK-47, and Christopher Paul, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction.
Their cases brought the War on Terror close to home. “It was another example of Ohio being the center of a national issue,” Welsh-Huggins says.
The book tackles big issues, including “the paradox the government faces after September 11: how to fairly wage a war against alleged enemies living in our midst,” as described by the publisher, Swallow Press/Ohio University Press. And it’s especially relevant as we approach the 10th anniversary of 9/11.
The excerpt starts on page 45.
I’ve never heard a boring home renovation story, even the ones that went smoothly. There’s a lot of drama and plenty of anecdotes about tough decisions.
I particularly enjoyed the tales about the five winners of the Columbus Monthly Homes Annual Renovation Competition. It’s an eclectic mix: a black library in Jefferson Township, a large family complex in Muirfield, a bathroom in an 1894 bungalow on the near east side and two kitchen redos (a modern makeover in Upper Arlington and a traditional take in Bexley).
Also check out the stories in Homes about the Victorian gem of former Ohio Supreme Court justice Herb Brown, an elaborate outdoor kitchen in Tartan Fields and an Ohio State student’s virtual spending spree at discount furniture stores on Morse Road.
The other day, a co-worker asked me my preference in pets. It was an easy answer. None. Nothing against dogs or cats or any other creature people like to spend their time, money and affection on, but I’ve never been a pet person. I like animals, as long as they’re not in my house—or my face. (There’s also an allergy thing.)
So I feel a bit lost when we gather to choose the winner of our Cutest Pet Contest, feeling less than qualified to make a choice. Nevertheless, I do, which, by the way, ended up not winning.
The winner is a goldendoodle (whatever that is) named Scarlet.
She’s really cute.
Or so I’m told.
