CINCINNATI — There is no easy explanation for this place.
Cincinnati is a cocktail of contradictions, a town too conflicted for easy labeling. Its outside doesn’t readily match its inside, making this a real-life Wisteria Lane: What looks like quintessentially normal America seems to have a ragingly weird undercurrent sluicing through it.
It is famously conservative and proudly prudish, yet it launched the porn career of Larry Flynt and once elected Jerry Springer as its mayor. (Springer later ran for governor, and part of his campaign was a TV ad wherein he admitted paying for a hooker — with a check.)
It counts among its most famous women residents both Harriet Beecher Stowe, who wrote “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” and Marge Schott, who once referred to two African-American Cincinnati Reds as “my million-dollar n——.”
I was born and raised in Cincinnati. I love the place. I love the Bengals. But, I live elsewhere.
Recently, I was trying to explain the crazy dichotomy that is Cincinnati. It is one of the safest placest in the world to raise children. It is also one of the most quietly segregated cities in the nation. Considering that Cincinnati was a key junction in the Underground Railroad, this fact is cruel irony.
In any case, the article quoted above appears on the front page of ESPN.com. While primarily written in response to the spate of Bengal arrests over the last 18 months, Pat Forde’s article succintly captures the schizophrenic nature of my hometown. It is well worth the read.
“I presented my credentials from the Marine Corps to a very polite clerk for American Airlines. One of the two people to whom I talked asked a question and offered a frightening comment: “Have you been in any peace marches? We ban a lot of people from flying because of that.” I explained that I had not so marched but had, in September, 2006, given a lecture at Princeton, televised and put on the Web, highly critical of George Bush for his many violations of the Constitution. “That’ll do it,” the man said.”
A college professor and retired Marine Colonel added to the terrorist watch list because he called Bush out on his constitutional breaches. Read the entire post. In a word, chilling.
With each passing day, Bush’s America looks more and more like the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany or even, dare I say it, Saddam-era Iraq.
Yes. I know this post makes me a contributer to Hollywood’s viral marketing via YouTube. However, this particular clip includes two former co-workers … Melissa (the bride) and Robyn (the mark). Enjoy!
Rarely do you find a product that, after the pre-sale hype and after you’ve plunked down your money and got the new product home and some time goes by and you find yourself 100% totally happy with a product. Well, it’s happened to me with my Samsung Blackjack phone.
Everything Hawk says is accurate in my experience, with the exception of Internet access. 3G (Cingular’s Cellular Broadband service) performance has been sketchy for me. However, I think that could be due to the fact that I live in a relatively new area of Las Vegas and the 3G network may not yet have full coverage. And, Bubble Breaker is an addictive phone game. So from a productivity point-of-view, the phone is awful.
Bottom line, until Version 2 of the iPhone next year, the Blackjack is my biznitch.
