Today at the Cleveland International Film Festival I felt lucky to be among the crowd watching "Bomber". The film was shown in two theaters at 2:20 pm and both theaters were at capacity. I personally knew people waiting in the stand by line, and unfortunately they were unable to get into the film.

Bomber is a comedy about love and family. Alistar, an 83 year old man plans a much-anticipated and meaningful trip with his wife. They don't get off to a very good start and they have an accident in the driveway which prevents them from leaving in their own car. Ross, their son had stopped over to wish them well on their adventures but now has volunteered to drive them to their destination. The trip turns out to be a nightmare full of arguments. During the entire trip Valerie, Alistar's wife, tries to keep the peace between the three of them. It was impossible not to laugh at the conversations they had during their journey.

"Will You Marry Us" is a love story between Rahel Hubli a civil registrar in a simple Swiss town and a pop star, Ben. Earlier in life Rahel and Ben were in a band together and Ben had always been the love of Rahel's life. Since that time Rahel married Thomas and had a son named Flo. Ben went on to become a very famous singer/songwriter.

One day Ben comes back to town and runs into Rahel. Ben has come back to town to marry his movie star girlfriend, Tinka. Eventually Ben and Tinka ask Rahel if she would marry the two of them. Rahel agrees andnduring this time she finds out her husband, Thomas is cheating on her and her marriage quickly falls apart.

Rahel helps Ben and Tinka plan every detail of their wedding but old feelings begin to reunite between Rahel and Ben. Ben eventually tells Rahel he has true feelings for her and is questioning his marriage to Tinka.

The marriage plans continue but at the time of the ceremony, something happens.... and I don't want to give away the ending!

You can see the film at the "Cleveland International Film Festival on Sunday March 21, at 9:30 p.m. Purchase your tickets today online.

Did you know all loggerhead turtles begin their lives by being buried alive? I learned many things about loggerhead turtles at the Cleveland International Film Festival.

"Turtle" is a true story about the remarkable journey of a loggerhead turtle, now named Feebee. Loggerhead turtles begin their lives being buried alive and spend 3 days emerging from the sand. They quickly try to make their way from land to water scurrying past predators. During the film Feebee travels from a Florida beach across the North Atlantic until she reaches Africa. Only 25 years later she returns to her birth place in Florida to lay her eggs. Only one in ten thousand turtles survive this journey.

Long-time Plain Dealer television critic Bill Hickey was 83 when he died of cancer Friday morning. Please pass this along to other old-time PD writers and editors on your social network list. The obit will be in the paper Saturday or Sunday. McGorray's Funeral Home on Center Ridge Rd. in Westlake from 2-8 on Monday. Funeral Mass Tuesday morning at 10:30 at St. Raphael Catholic Church, Dover Center Rd., Bay Village. Get there early. Huge crowd. Bill and wife Joan have nine children and 32 grandchildren. They'll all be there.

He won a National Headliner Award for his television writing in the 1970's which was the highest award ever for a Plain Dealer writer until Connie Schultz won her Pulitzer. (Editorial cartoonist Ed Kuekes won a Pulitzer in the 1940's.)

He also was the first editor of the PD Action Tab, forerunner to the Friday Magazine, where he created restaurant critic Forchette Escargot.

Last night was the opening of the 34th Annual Cleveland International Film Festival. The festival kicked off with the film TiMER. To accommodate everyone in attendance the film was shown in several theaters at Tower City Cinemas.

Before the film started CIFF Staff Members, Mayor Frank Jackson, Dollar Bank Representatives, Jac Shaeffer the director of the film and Jennifer Glynn the producer of the film visited each theater and welcomed everyone. It's always exciting when the producer and director of the film are present. I enjoy seeing the people that are responsible for creating great films.

So, what if you could know the exact day when you would meet your soul mate? Would you want to know? That is the synopsis of TiMER. You can choose to have a device implanted in your wrist that will count down the number of days, hours, minutes and seconds until you meet your true love.

Even though I would never want a TiMER I really enjoyed this film. The cast was amazing, I loved the music, laughed so many times and also got teary eyed. This film deserves a lot of recognition and I hope many more people get to see it . Learn more about TiMER at Timerthemovie.com

Kids in Ohio will take center stage in the fight against tobacco on March 24 as they join thousands of young people nationwide for the 15th annual Kick Butts Day. More than 1,000 events are planned in all 50 states and the District of Columbia (for a list of local events see below).

Sponsored by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, Kick Butts Day is an annual celebration of youth leadership and activism in the fight against tobacco use. Kids are sending two powerful messages on Kick Butts Day: They want the tobacco companies to stop targeting them with marketing for cigarettes and other tobacco products, and they want elected leaders to do more to protect them from tobacco.

In Ohio, health advocates are calling on state leaders to increase the cigarette tax by $1 per pack in order to prevent kids from smoking and raise much-needed revenue to address the state's budget shortfall and fund critical programs such as health care and education. According to a recent report by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, a $1 cigarette tax increase in Ohio would have the following benefits:

-- Prevent 109,000 kids from becoming smokers;
-- Spur 52,600 current adult smokers to quit;

You have to hand it to the Plain Dealer for incisive, penetrating attention to finding solutions to the city’s grave problems. I mean by giving special attention to someone who has the answers to those dire problems. Drew Carey.

Of course, I’m kidding.

Sometimes newspapers like to be “taken” by certain interests. That’s the only reason I can see for the PD paying any – any – attention to the self-promotion of a comic.

Thankfully, the alternative Cleveland Scene sees through the self-promotional nature of Carey.

C’mon, this a public relations trip that the PD has tagged along with for reasons that have nothing – nothing – to do with solving the city’s problems.

Shame on the Pee Dee.

The Scene, with an appropriate cartoon of Carey on its cover says, “Hey, Drew. Screw you.” Just the right tone. The piece by Editor Frank Lewis deals with the comedian’s pr and political nonsense in deservedly derisive attention.

This week’s Scene can be picked up in various locales and here on line:

http://www.clevescene.com/cleveland/Home

There’s other good stuff in the Scene this week also.

Here is what Congressman Kucinich said today and the text of what was posted on his official website:

Each generation has had to take up the question of how to provide for the health of the people of our nation. And each generation has grappled with difficult questions of how to meet the needs of our people. I believe health care is a civil right. Each time as a nation we have reached to expand our basic rights, we have witnessed a slow and painful unfolding of a democratic pageant of striving, of resistance, of breakthroughs, of opposition, of unrelenting efforts and of eventual triumph.

If you are of Irish Catholic descent in the Cleveland area odds are that you have heard about the legendary festivities that go on on Saint Patrick's Day at St Colman's church. The West Side Irish Club descends upon the church which was built by Irish immigrants nearly one hundred years ago before heading downtown to the largest annual parade in Ohio. If you are disappointed that you couldn't make it for the mass today, we have you covered. Here are the sights and sounds of today's festivities:

What kind of a society do we live in? No, really, I want to know. We allow politicians to cut budgets at the very agencies that do the difficult work of providing a safety net for the most vulnerable among us — children — and then, when the all too predictable happens and the now-porous net frays, we want to point media fingers of blame at the dedicated professionals we’ve charged with the impossible task of being perfect … of being 100 percent right, 100 percent of the time in their decision-making processes regarding children of the fragile families who are in their system.

It’s not only grossly wrong for us to demand such accurate (and humanly impossible) foresight… it actually borders on the incredulous, and here’s why: As long as we focus the conversation on fixing a somewhat antiquated, under-funded system whenever it breaks down (a system that by its very nature was only designed to apply tourniquets to the worst hemorrhaging cases of child endangerment), we’ll continue to fail to implement a program that has proven it can and does work: The Harlem Children’s Zone.