Shawshank Redemption Hollywood Tour

The Shawshank Redemption is a 1994 American drama film written and directed by Frank Darabont and starring Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman.

Do you know where the movie was filmed?
Mansfiled, Ohio! Yeah, at the historic prison Ohio State Reformatory.

The Reformatory was built between 1886 and 1910. The  facility remained in full operation until December 1990. In 1995, the Mansfield Reformatory Preservation Society was formed, and they bought the Ohio State reformatory for $1. The OSR is now open for tourism with three Shawshank Trail tours available:

1. The Shawshank Hollywood Tour
2. The Reformatory East Cell Block Tour
3. The Reformatory West Tower Tour

The oak tree under which Andy buries his letter to Red is located at 40°39′14″N 82°23′31″W / 40.65400°N 82.39195°W / 40.65400; -82.39195 (Shawshank tree), near Malabar Farm State Park, in Lucas, Ohio.   The tree was heavily damaged by straight-line winds in a thunderstorm on July 29, 2011. The broken trunk is now laying on the ground of The Ohio State Reformatory next to a pond.

Other movies filmed at the Ohio State Reformatory:

• Harry and Walter Go to New York (1975)
• Tango & Cash (1989)
• The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
• Air Force One (1997)
• Godsmack "Awake" music video (2000)

We visited the Reformatory yesterday after we were done fishing in the nearby Mohican State Park. The Reformatory is open Monday - Saturday from 11am o 4pm and Sunday from 1 to 4 pm.

How to Find Federal and State Employee Salaries Online?

How much do you earn in a year, in a month, in a week?

Salary is something very private in the United States you better not ask your friends in your community or your colleagues in your companies. However, salaries of federal and state employees including people working  for higher education colleges and local schools are matter of public records. If you want to know and know how to search online, it is all one-click away at your fingertips.

Want to know how much your fellows earn working for Uncle Sam? Want to know how much your scientist and professor friends earn? Here is Data Universe providing a database of federal government employee salaries, searchabe by name, agency, job title, or location. IIf you are an Ohioian resident looking for a job or thinking of changing your position, you are probably more interested in searching for Ohioians' salaries, BuckeyInstitute.org is the online searchable database for federal, state and local employee salaries, higher education salaries, and your child's teachers' salaries.

Whitney Houston Died Today Feb. 11, 2012 - Sad!

How sad and shocked when I search Reddit and found that Whitney Houston died today at the age of 48. When Whitney Houston was one of the world's best pop singer at her peak from the middle 1980s to the late 1990s, I remember loving her powerful voice along with Barbra Streisand's.

So sad her majestic voice and regal image were tarnished by drug use, erratic behavior and a tumultuous marriage. "The biggest devil is me. I'm either my best friend or my worst enemy," Houston told ABC's Diane Sawyer in an infamous 2002 interview with then-husband Brown by her side.

Here is "Saving All My Love for You", which brought Whitney Houston her first Grammy for best female pop vocal.

Deeply sad!