Places you forgot you had been

It's interesting to see some of the things you find on the way to looking up other things.

Realized during a search recently that Google was archiving image files of newspaper stories, including some of the pieces during my years with Associated Press as a newsman, correspondent and news editor in Indiana, Tennessee and New York.

Not included are the 560 columns for the Indianapolis Star from 2000-03, the enterprise work on Iraq War veterans from 2003-05 or the online work as an editor and multimedia producer for IndyStar.com from '05-08 before joining Ball State University.

Three days on an Ohio River barge towhttp://news.google.com/newspapers?id=fDoqAAAAIBAJ&sjid=ZEcEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6716,31410&dq=john-strauss+ohio-river&hl=en

Driving in a demolition derby
https://tcom610.blogspot.com/2011/08/driving-in-demolition-derby.html

Bus drivers remember a favorite passenger - and friend
https://tcom610.blogspot.com/2014/11/looking-back-bus-passenger-column.html

Preview of the 1990 World Chess Championship in New York
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=jCIVAAAAIBAJ&sjid=KgcEAAAAIBAJ&pg=4908,7284006&dq=john-strauss+chess&hl=en

Meeting Lech Walesa in Poland
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=FDEqAAAAIBAJ&sjid=R0cEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5161,309125&dq=john-strauss&hl=en

Prison riot at Pendleton
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=PUwVAAAAIBAJ&sjid=FuQDAAAAIBAJ&pg=2009,155066&dq=john-strauss&hl=en

My day with the mercenaries in the prison-break caper http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=8kIaAAAAIBAJ&sjid=NyQEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5914,2721237&dq=john-strauss&hl=en

Talking to country singer Steve Earle in New York
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=pekcAAAAIBAJ&sjid=11gEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5281,1681403&dq=john-strauss&hl=en

Two Black Hawk helicopters collide at Fort Campbell http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=tPolAAAAIBAJ&sjid=gvwFAAAAIBAJ&pg=6928,3730565&dq=john-strauss&hl=en

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=xEMaAAAAIBAJ&sjid=iSQEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5333,2774584&dq=john-strauss&hl=en

McDonald's manager was killed after offering himself as a hostage during a robbery.
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=8kkaAAAAIBAJ&sjid=byYEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6728,2753828&dq=john-strauss&hl=en

Air Force jet crashes into the Indy Ramada Inn
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=S8ElAAAAIBAJ&sjid=qvwFAAAAIBAJ&pg=3981,1218087&dq=john-strauss&hl=en

Ryan White confronts fear and prejudice in his Indiana home townhttp://news.google.com/newspapers?id=2_QwAAAAIBAJ&sjid=l90FAAAAIBAJ&pg=1228,5382666&dq=john-strauss&hl=en

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=AL8MAAAAIBAJ&sjid=DWYDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5191,6472113&dq=john-strauss&hl=en

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=EQMsAAAAIBAJ&sjid=aG0FAAAAIBAJ&pg=2612,6166533&dq=john-strauss&hl=en

Fort Campbell ceremony to honor the Gander crash victims
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=6z4dAAAAIBAJ&sjid=nKYEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3440,5794334&dq=john-strauss&hl=en


Sent to a Klan rally in Tennessee: http://bit.ly/a96B1A
 
Horrendous Stan Fox crash at the start of the 1995 Indy 500
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=5MYRAAAAIBAJ&sjid=pOwDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5881,7401833&dq=john-strauss&hl=en

Plane crash that killed entire University of Evansville basketball team remembered
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=FUYjAAAAIBAJ&sjid=APADAAAAIBAJ&pg=6896,9644884&dq=john-strauss&hl=en

Two Crows Yates was a pretty cool guy. Remember the story of the frog sisters.http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=EIIyAAAAIBAJ&sjid=y-YFAAAAIBAJ&pg=7031,2674241&dq=john-strauss+associated-press&hl=en

Cookie Man, the cab driver
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=gyshAAAAIBAJ&sjid=BVMEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5029,1796323&dq=john-strauss&hl=en

0-0-0

Here's the Indy Star memo that Romenesko ran when I left the newspaper:


http://www2.poynter.org/forum/default.asp?id=Memos&DGPCrSrt=&DGPCrPg=11
7/9/2008 2:47:55 PM

John Strauss leaves Indianapolis Star for Ball State job

From: Jon Sweeney/INI
To: StarNewsroom
Date: Monday, July 07, 2008 08:46PM
Subject: The Star’s loss is Ball State’s gain...

John Strauss, an editor on The Star’s Online desk, is leaving the newspaper to join the journalism faculty at Ball State University.

John has worked at The Star for 10 years, including stints as City Hall reporter, metro columnist, nonprofits reporter and as an enterprise reporter and “super GA,” traveling to Texas and Florida for the narrative story of a young Hoosier soldier’s recovery from wounds suffered in the Iraq War.

He was part of the team formed three years ago to enhance The Star’s online coverage, serving as the group’s multimedia editor and now as a content editor and as Sunday day city editor on the print side.

John was previously a supervising editor and correspondent for The Associated Press in Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee and New York City, and before that worked in local television as a reporter and weekend anchor.

At Ball State he will teach writing and reporting, and serve as faculty advisor to The Ball State Daily News, the school’s independent, student-run newspaper.

John starts in Muncie on Aug. 25. We’re still working out the timing of his departure from The Star, as well as the specifications for his sheet cake.

(This post was published originally in January 2019)

Our Arts Podcast Gets Picked Up For 2026

So, fulfilling sort of a long-term bucket list thing, I completed a Master of Fine Arts degree in creative writing three years ago. 

Some former classmates and I now produce this podcast of readings by local writers in cooperation with Indiana Humanities. Kind of excited to be picked up for monthly episodes in 2026.

Real Live, Revised -- Episode 3, December 2025:

https://www.mixcloud.com/WQRT_Indianapolis/real-life-revised-december-2025/

Real Life, Revised -- Episode 2, November: 

https://www.mixcloud.com/WQRT_Indianapolis/real-life-revised-november-9-2025/

Real Life, Revised -- Episode 1, October:

https://www.mixcloud.com/WQRT_Indianapolis/real-life-revised-october-25-2025/

Flying, Riding, Podcasting, etc

A friend asked if I was available for a writing job. Used to hate to turn down work, but.... 

"Retirement has gotten a little more complicated," I told him,  "glider lessons, volunteering as a unit assistant at the hospital, producing podcasts with Indiana Humanities, motorcycle trips, aerial videography, and teaching video multimedia at Ball State."

 

It’s quiet at the firehouse—until it’s not: Six hours at IFD Station 17

                                               Capt. Jeff Muszar, Indianapolis Fire Department

 

You can drive by a place every day and never really see it. 

That’s how I felt about Indianapolis Fire Department Station 17, our local firehouse just a couple blocks east of 75^th Street and Shadeland Avenue. We’re lucky to have people like this so close and ready to help, and I wondered what their lives were like on a typical day.

 

A Night in the Life of IFD Station 17 C Shift

 

6:30 p.m. – “It’ll probably be a quiet night—but you never know,” 

I got to Indianapolis Fire Department Station 17 on a Wednesday evening in May as C Shift was eating dinner, and the firefighters insisted I have a plate with them. They were having barbecue, fixed in the station’s kitchen by Avery Lewis and Kyle Petroff, both “backsteppers” on the engine that night. They’re called that because in the days before enclosed cabs, firefighters would ride on the truck’s back steps, out in the open.

“It always happens when somebody comes out – things are slow,” said Dave Yeoman, the truck’s engineer. His job is to drive the Pierce fire truck to the scene, connect to a hydrant to supply water to the vehicle’s pump, and then operate the controls that send pressurized water to the hose lines.

7:14 p.m. – Things are slow…until they’re not. 

Suddenly, alert tones sound over the station’s PA system, and the four-member crew of IFD Engine 17 jumps in their truck. Yeoman is driving. Capt. Jeff Muszar, in the front passenger seat, is the officer in charge. 

The backsteppers and I are in the back of the cab in jump seats. A Tesla has slammed into a utility pole on Shadeland Avenue south of 75^th Street. The driver isn’t hurt, but the wooden pole is snapped in two, and police block the curb lane so the power company can clean things up. 

The fire department is called out to treat the driver if they are injured and to deal with the car in case it catches fire, which doesn’t happen this time. Electric vehicle battery fires are relatively rare, but are still a concern for fire departments because they present special technical and safety challenges.

8:58 p.m. – A Fire Near Eagle Nest

There’s a fire in the residential area along 75^th Street near the south entrance to Eagle Nest, which turns out to be someone burning wood from an old fence in a large fire pit. 

Indianapolis has an open burning ordinance, and this homeowner, whose blaze is crackling about 15 feet in the air, is out of compliance. Someone has called to complain, and Muszar, as the officer in charge of Engine 17, is cordial to the homeowner as he explains that the fire must be put out. “I’m not the fire police,” he says. “But there’s an ordinance, and someone around here is complaining about you.” The homeowner is friendly in return: “Well, it did get a little out of hand there for a bit.” 

9:26 p.m. – A House Fire Reported

We’re on a run to an actual reported house fire, assisting the Lawrence Fire Department on Stark Drive next to Fort Harrison. 

This is something of an event for the station because, by far, they handle many more medical runs than fires. 

Yeoman connects a hose and adds his water supply to help the Lawrence firefighters, who are attacking the blaze in a detached garage, preventing it from engulfing the nearby house. 

Flames are shooting high into the air when we arrive, and a building makes terrible sounds in a fire, the crackling, snapping blaze itself, and the weird pops and noises that sound almost like a thing in pain. 

Muszar checks with his Lawrence colleagues to see what they need while Yeoman runs the pumps. Lewis and Petroff are standing by in full gear in case other firefighters get trapped and have to be rescued. 

They are serious about safety. Seventy U.S. firefighters died in the line of duty in 2021, according to the National Fire Protection Association, and nearly 61,000 others were injured. An Indianapolis Star list includes more than 70 Marion County firefighters killed in the line of duty since Daniel Glazier, then the Indianapolis department’s chief, died in 1873 when a wall collapsed on him during a major blaze. 

This station lost a firefighter 35 years ago when it was part of the Lawrence Township department. David Edwards, age 28 and Lawrence Township’s EMS division chief at the time, was in a burning home when he fell through a collapsed kitchen floor into the basement. 

Muszar was with him on that run. “My best friend was Dave Edwards, who convinced me that I needed to be a firefighter,” he said. 

We were talking in his office, and the station – the house, as it’s called – was quiet between runs. It got quieter still as the captain talked about that February night.

“I rolled out with them on that fire,” he said. “We should have died as well, but we didn’t. It just changed my life in ways that you can’t explain.”

10:21 p.m. – Report of a Fallen Elderly Nursing Home Resident

Engine 17 is called out with the station’s ambulance to assist a fallen elderly resident of a nursing home. She is OK, but the medics take her in their ambulance to the ER. After about half an hour, Engine 17 is back at the station, where things are quiet for a while. Firefighters work 24 hours on, then 48 off. Though they can grab some sleep in the station’s dorm, a call can come at any time until their shift ends in the morning.

 

 Engine 17 Engineer Dave Yeoman

As Society Changes, Being a Firefighter Has Become More Dangerous

Muszar is the “house captain” for IFD Station 17, responsible for the facility. He grew up around here when 82^nd Street was a two-lane road, and his 92-year-old father still lives nearby.

“I’m from here, so I’m glad to be able to come back to protect this area,” he says. 

But changes in society affect everybody, including the rescuers.

“We’re not just going out on fires or hazmat or car wrecks or medical emergencies,” he says. “We have a massive number of mental health runs, and we’re going out on overdoses now. These can be volatile situations, and that puts our lives in danger.”

Muszar and Yeoman, best friends, both plan to retire in three years. 

Yeoman, on the job for 28 years, started with Lawrence Township before it merged with the Indianapolis department in 2011. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Purdue University and got his teaching license, but eventually decided to follow in the steps of his father, who had been a West Lafayette firefighter.

As the older veterans talk about their careers, they like what they see in the younger firefighters coming up. Petroff has two years on the job, and Lewis has one. They’re quiet, confident, very good at their jobs, and respectful toward the veterans. 

This Job is About Helping People

On the way back to the station from a run, everyone’s relaxed—no red lights, blaring horn and sirens now. 

Muszar and Yeoman are teasing each other over their headsets, with the backsteppers listening in over the background of radio calls. Muszar has a love of corny dad jokes, and the two younger guys in the back roll their eyes.  

Later on, as the clock nears midnight and members of the crew try to grab some sleep before the next call, Yeoman relaxes in a chair on the patio next to the station’s giant bay doors and says he’ll miss some of this.

“I look forward to coming to the firehouse,” he says. “This job is about helping people, and there’s a fun, family bond here.”

And evidently, no such thing as a “typical” day.

( May 2023, John Strauss)

 

 

 

 

 

I'm a former flight student who got my commercial drone license - this is more fun

 

 My friend Paul Stevens writes a newsletter for former AP folks. He saw my drone stuff on Facebook and asked me to write something for the newsletter. As this short writeup explains, it's nice to have a hobby that gets you out of the house and close to nature, especially now : )

Former AP news editor has a new passion as a remote pilot

(John Strauss, former news editor in Nashville and Indianapolis with a stint on the General Desk in between, left AP to join The Indianapolis Star in 1998. His post-wire work has included making news magazine shows for Indiana public television stations, which led to his current interest.)

       I learned to fly in a Cessna 152 with the tail number 757XB, so that when talking to the tower, I was “757 X-ray Bravo,” which sounded cool. The training included solo fights from South Bend, Indiana, to Michigan and Illinois, but I put flying on hold after moving to Indianapolis for a new job with the AP.

      Now, after moving from the wire to jobs in local news, teaching, and strategic communications, I’m flying once more, this time with a plane that fits in one hand but packs a startling amount of technology – and fun.

      My aircraft is a DJI Mavic Mini, which at $400 is only slightly more expensive than two hours of flight instruction these days in a tiny Cessna. It’s really a flying camera: I wrote and produced shows for public television, and often thought it would be good to become a licensed drone pilot and get nice high-angle views of the towns we visited.

       A license isn’t required yet for recreational, non-commercial flyers, but to shoot video for freelance video work, I needed to pass the FAA’s Aeronautical Knowledge Exam, which covers airspace classification, flight restrictions, aviation weather, emergency procedures, and other necessities.

       Here’s the short course: Don’t fly over people, near airports, or more than 400 feet above the ground. The FAA has jurisdiction over the skies, but there are a myriad of state and local regulations. The best advice: Don’t bother people.

      I love anything that flies, and the little drone fits the bill surprisingly well. Controlling it via a live video link over a central Indiana soybean field the other day, I swooped down between some trees and followed a winding creek, skimming 6 feet above the ground. In the historic southern Indiana town of Madison a couple of weeks ago, I flew out over the Ohio River for a scenic look back at the town and a cruise downstream.

      Most of the flying is done by microprocessors as the bird locks on to a dozen GPS satellites for stability. Press a button, and it lifts to about 3 feet in the air and waits for instructions. Push a stick and it climbs, descends, goes in any direction you point it, with the camera stabilized the whole time. For shooting, the challenge is making the kind of careful, precise control movements to produce smooth images.

      I’m still a rookie pilot, but the practice is fun. And these days, it’s good to have an excuse to get out in – and over – nature. Here are three of the pieces I’ve done for practice:

Madison Saturday
https://youtu.be/5cFPxqP7vPY

Hamilton County Country
https://youtu.be/kTsJIIcwzW4

White River and the GM Plant
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4MN9orwumY

(August 2021)

Good advice for job-hunting college students: Get out there

Photo: Evan Mach, UnSplash

College students are feeling anxious about the job market, and some have responded with strong interest in our recent conversations about building their networks.

Just wrapped up a sixth campus presentation at Indiana University in Bloomington and Butler University in Indy. These were with journalism students at IU and creative writing majors today at Butler.

My big advice, since most schools are headed toward spring break: Get out and talk with people--not necessarily as a job applicant, but in informational interviews to learn from leaders in their field.

Good things happen when students learn to handle themselves in face-to-face professional encounters, and the more practice they get in prepping for these interviews and talking about what they offer, the better.

There's a real need for coaching in this area, but some of the folks who have come up to me after class show they're on the way. I'll be working with a few, and if a college student asks you for a short meeting to talk about your field, I hope you'll make the time. Let's invest in them now so they do a good job running the world later.

"Show Us The Money" - The 2025 Outlook for New Grads

 I've been speaking before groups of college students recently and had some thoughts based on our conversations, particularly around the job prospects for this year's graduates.

Here's a slide from a quick slide deck, along with a link to the deck, below. I'd love to hear your thoughts, so please send me a note to johncstrauss@gmail.com.

Here's the Presentation

Blues-Playing Artist Returns To The Classroom

Video: Brad Holmes talks about his art and music

Brad Holmes retired after 34 years as a high school art teacher, but never left behind his passion for music-infused sculpting.

Holmes has played harmonica for years in blues bands. When sculpting a piece in his home studio, listening to music, he’ll pick up his instrument and play along.

“Sometimes, you’re just looking at your artwork (thinking), ‘Where am I going to go, what am I going to do next?’” he said. “For me, to play music while I’m working on this allows me to clear my head.”

A self-described Calumet “Region rat,” from northwest Indiana south of Valparaiso, Holmes grew up in farm country, the son of two teachers. After service in the Army, he came home to enroll at Purdue University. His first thought was engineering, but he realized that wasn’t his passion.

“I really wanted to be happy with what I was doing, so I had a heart-to-heart with my mom and dad and said, ‘Do you guys really like teaching? Because I wouldn't mind being a teacher if I could teach something that I really like.’”

What he really liked was art, which led to his three-decade career at Lawrence North High School. Holmes specializes in three-dimensional bas-relief sculpture, with his figures slightly raised from a flat background. For a show of his artwork last year, former students came from across the country to say thanks for his encouragement and inspiration.

Arts programs at some schools, from Chicago to Hawaii, have faced possible cuts from districts weighing their budget-trimming options. Holmes says cuts would risk taking something important from the students.

“I don't feel like the arts are going to be gone, but they can certainly be reduced--and that would be sad, because there are a good number of students who really need this sort of thing to have an identity of their own,” he said.

“Not everybody's going to be great in math. Not everybody's going to be great in in the sciences or English. So, this gives somebody else an opportunity to be great at something.” 

Holmes has a daughter in college, and to help pay those bills he’s gone back to work, teaching art at Marian University in Indianapolis. That connection between his career and dual passions for music and sculpting brings a sense of peace.

“It's really calming to me and it's relaxing,” he said. 

Holmes paused after a spirited blues riff on his harmonica, looking over his current sculpture and thinking about what to do next.

“It's about mental and physical well-being,” he said. “Playing music and marking art, all combined, make me the best version of myself I can possibly be.”

Story and video by John Strauss

 

 

Teens pursued by Killer AI's

 That's the concept of my first sci-fi radio show/podcast, "Flying In Our Sleep" -- a group of teens awakens to discover they've been kidnapped into an army of killer drones. 

We did a second show, "Countdown," and are writing a third. As the Indy Radio Players, we also perform the shows live in bookstores and coffeehouses.