It's odd enough that a Bedford father would actually call police after arguing with his son about cleaning his room.

Stranger still, the sloppy son is 28 years old and serves on the Bedford school board.

"I know this looks bad," said school board member Andrew Mizsak, who lives with his parents and works as a political consultant. His mother, Paula, is a Bedford councilwoman.

Mizsak's dad, also named Andrew, called 9-1-1 on Thursday after his son threw a plate of food across the kitchen table and balled his fist up at his dad when told to clean his room.

The senior Mizsak wouldn't press charges and told police, "I don't want to ruin his political career." According to the report, he said: "Andrew is 270 pounds and he can't fight him, that they do everything for Andrew and he doesn't even pay rent."

The elder Mizsak said Saturday, "I overreacted. No big deal."

According to the report, "Andrew was sent to his room to clean it. He was crying uncontrollably and stated he would comply."

Mizsak said he was embarrassed to take police away from more important work.

"My dad and I love each other very much," he said, promising to keep his basement room clean. "I'm lucky to be living in their house."Still waiting for her key

Elizabeth Warner Thomas, everybody just calls her Betsy, earned admittance to Phi Betta Kappa, the nation's oldest academic honor society, at the College of Wooster in 1945.

But she never got the key that students receive upon membership because the shipment didn't arrive as expected.

"They said they would mail it to us in the near future," said Thomas.

She's 87 and still doesn't have the key.

So much for "near future."

Thomas, who now lives in Oberlin after spending many years in Grafton, finally got recognition last week for her achievement when she was the keynote speaker at the induction of this year's Phi Beta Kappa class at Wooster.

Her son, Dr. Roy Thomas, an ophthalmologist in Elyria (one of three doctor sons of Betsy and her physician husband, Robert Thomas), called the school to alert them to the decades-long oversight. When they confirmed it, she was invited to campus.

She told the kids in her speech not to lose their sense of humor. Like her energy (she walks a mile a day) and her smarts, she still has hers.

"The kicker is, I got down there and they still didn't have my key," she said. "They had a form to fill out and send away and you could get it as a ring or on a chain. And you get to pay for it!"

She chose a $25 key on a chain she'll wear around her neck.

She jokes about checking the mailbox daily and about how she's so lucky to have her health and her wits.

Really, that's the key.

Catch and eat

The Cleveland Metroparks Zoo gave us a chuckle when it used an unusual twist on a common phrase to advertise the return of its Dinosaur exhibit this summer: "Lions and Tigers and Bears.

Yum. Yum."

Meat and greet

Michael Symon's celebrity was the sizzle as he served as official greeter in the VIP Martini Lounge Thursday for a big Arthritis Foundation fundraiser.

But Symon was as interested in the steak as the sizzle. Or, rather, the beef cheek pierogi.

Symon frequently excused himself from greeting duties to join his crew preparing the signature, gourmet pierogi dish, one of many served by the 30 restaurants participating in Cleveland Magazine's Silver Spoon Awards Party.

Cooking, plating and greeting the VIPs? That's easy for an Iron Chef.

The event raised nearly $134,000 for the Northeast Ohio chapter of the Arthritis Foundation.

Enjoy the beans

Sometimes, a sponsor provides the perfect name for an event. As planning continues for the annual "Taste of Cleveland" event in September, please allow Tipoff to thank the sponsor for the spontaneous smile and chuckle: "The Ohio Natural Gas Taste of Cleveland."

With a name like that, do any of the food vendors stand a chance against the chili?

Fond rememberance

Ohio State University researchers have concluded that Americans, particularly women, have become more biased toward youthful appearance.

They gleaned this by reading the obituary pages of The Plain Dealer, which showed that the photos appearing with 36 percent of people who died were taken at least 15 years before the person died. In 1967, it was only 16 percent.

And women were more than twice as likely as men to have an obituary photo from when they were much younger, according to the report, which appears in the current issue of Omega-Journal of Death and Dying.

"Our findings suggest that we were less accepting of aging in the 1990s than we were back in the 60s," concluded researchers, who noted family members prefer photos showing their loved ones at their best, which usually meant younger.

"Ageism seems to be increasing over time, despite our growing awareness of the issue."

Then again, weren't there simply fewer cameras around before 1952, the cutoff for "young" photos for the 1967 obituaries.

A fine apology

The Washington Post ran a story Monday about a woman who returned a book 31 years overdue to the Arlington Public Library. At Washington and Lee University recently, a book checked out by a Union soldier in 1864 - yes, that's 1864 - was returned to its library. After being passed down through generations, the first volume of W.F.P. Napier's four-volume set, History of the War in the Peninsula and in the South of France, was returned to the library, the school said, after an absence of 52,858 days. (Which makes Tipoff feel far less guilty about the book we've held hostage for a month or so.) The guy who gave it back did so only if they waived the customary dollar-a-day fine.

The folks at the Cleveland Public Library got a kick out of the stories and posted a couple of unusual tidbits on itsWeb site.

In 1995, someone mailed in a picture of Greta Garbo, torn from a library copy of a magazine eight years previous, with an apology note saying it had been stolen "when I was young and stupid."

Then there was another note apologizing for having misplaced a book for more than a decade. Not wanting to be slapped with a fine, the note read: P.S. The return address is fictitious.

Sarah Crump, John Luttermoser and Grant Segall contributed.

Listen to Tipoff on WTAM 1100 AM as we chat with Bill Wills each Monday at 8:35 a.m.

For previous columns visit cleveland.com/tipoff