Jeff

^ yeah, I do think it would be cool too. But whats the deal with that World Peace Bell?

Cutting through Z-ville on the interstate it looks smallish..but the town is actually not too small..but strung out north-south in that valley. Also, sort of different as the interstate cuts right through town rather than bypassing it. (nice pix, too...esp of that big chuch just east of downtown). A real nice drive is following the Muskingum River from Zanesville to Marietta....late fall...overnight in Marietta. I did that after 9-11. Nice trip. Nice history. Also explored Parkersburg a bit.

goof grief...a space needle for Newport? Why?

I thought the exhibit was interesting, especially some o fhe park proposals.

Has anyone here ever been to the Rankin House? I went, one clear cold late fall day, c ..up on a hill it is..way up...overlooking Ripley (which is an interesting little town), the Ohio and Kentucky. Great site.....

"Classic Trains" magazine had a great cover story on this service. I think it was actually transcontinental...using the Santa Fe on the western leg. link BTW, thanx for that Gary pix. That Gary airport is sometimes discussed as a site for a new "third airport" for Chicago, to relieve O'Hare congestion.

Does this go past the Piatt Castles and the villiage of Zanesfield? Yes, the countryside around there is suprisingly hilly. I think there is (was?) even a ski resort there.

Bellefontaine is actually pretty sucky compared to Urbana, which has some excellent old architecture, including a grand social row running east of downtown.

y'all should check out FerrariEnzos links. Cleveland has a really aggressive planning effort underway for its waterfront. If they pull it off Cleveland should easily equal Chicago and Milwaulkee for a nice parklike lakefront (I see they are using Milwaulkee as a model a bit).

Center City is only 15 years old and already in trouble? I recall as being pretty upscale in the early 1990s...esp the top floor. They also had that nice Marshall Fields in it too.

How is that new Lazarus doing in downtown Cincy? I actually like that store. Nice houswares dept, and the menswear is pretty good, too. I recall the old Lazarus, or "Rikes", in downtown Dayton, from its last days..1988-89 or so, when I first moved to Dayton. The store had a gourmet food section (sold wine and champaigne), a small bookstore, a bakery, furniture and consumer electronics, an art gallery, as well as the the usual clothes. ****** I guess this type of retail is now history. Yet, if anyone here wants to experience a traditional downtown deptarment store..from the "bargain basement" to the nice restraunt on the top floor.... go to Marshal Fields in Chicago, in the Loop.

Gillian Welch...Miss Ohio... Oh me oh my oh, look at Miss Ohio She’s a-running around with her rag-top down She says I wanna do right but not right now Gonna drive to Atlanta and live out this fantasy Running around with the rag-top down Yeah I wanna do right but not right now Had your arm around her shoulder, a regimental soldier An’ mamma starts pushing that wedding gown Yeah you wanna do right but not right now Oh me oh my oh, would ya look at Miss Ohio She’s a-runnin’ around with the rag-top down She says I wanna do right but not right now I know all about it, so you don’t have to shout it I’m gonna straighten it out somehow Yeah I wanna do right but not right now Oh me oh my oh, look at Miss Ohio She a-runnin’ around with her rag-top down She says I wanna do right , but not right now Oh I wanna do right but not right now

Heres a beer tray from before the Prohbition from Christian Morlien, courtesy of the "The Trayman.net" website I like that slogan.."crowned wherever exhibited"....

I thought it was based out of Lex.

I really like that gritty, "alternative" urban feel of Clifton...specfically the part of Clifton on McMillan, near Duttonhofers Bookstore (one of my usual stops when I'm in Cincy). This area is maybe more scruffy/student and less yuppie...yet those apartments over the stores look like they'd be neat to live in. The part of Clifton over on Ludlow by that theatre seems to be more upscale or yuppie.

LOL..actually I share your opinion on this.. live-and-let-live ...(there isn't really any rational reason to be opposed to the concept as far as I can see) ... but am playing a bit of the devils advocate here. The point I'm making is that arguments based on rationality and fairness (as in maydays 1:20 PM post above) don't work with this issue.

...perhaps. But I would think people moving from culturally different parts of the world..iike Asia and Africa...would find opposition to homosexuality and other forms of immorality something positive, demonstrating that Buckeyes share traditiional notions of sexuality and family. This could be a "niche" for Ohio..perhaps a new slogan.."Ohio: the family freindly state, where we share your values".

...and when you arrive in your new destination you can tell all the people you meet how backwards Ohio is. And perpetuate the stereotype. Why would hostility to gay rights make Ohio backward? Maybe this is the wave of the future.

wow..four to eight daily trains from Chicago....to Quincy? ...a run like that to the Quad Citys might make more sense. I see from that map they are thinking of extending proposed service to Rockford. That could be done right now by extending one of the commuter services from Chicago west to Rockford.

There is a musuem up in Milwaulkee that focuses on the dark side of slavery, racism, and Jim Crow...America's Black Holocaust Museum. It was founded by the survivor of a lynching in Marion, Indiana.

Portsmouth is pretty urban for a small town...somehow it has more of a "city" feel to it than other small towns in Ohio like Chillicothe or maybe Xenia or Piqua. The "saving the facade" strategy is actually pretty much "high-design", (it was used by some failry high-profile projects in 1970s, maybe earlier) and its neat to see it being used in Portsmouth. I love those murals!..someone should publish a book of them.

Well, this is a democracy after all, and peoples values and morals are reflected in their politics. In Kentuky, for example, faith-based adversion to alchohol has resulted quite a few dry countys, or countys in various degrees of dryness..where liquor by the drink may be prohibited but pacakage sales are OK in certain towns and precincts in dry countys. The gay marriage thing is the same, its a faith-based opposition to something alot of folk feel is just not right from a moral standpoint, as well as maybe a scientific or sociological standpoint. Now the polygamy issue, well, why not? In the US the issue was wrapped up with the LDS, where it was OK in Utah, but Utah was prohibited from becoming a state long after its population met the threshold for statehood, largely because of the polygamy issue. "One of the conditions to granting Utah's statehood was that a ban on polygamy be written into the Utah Constitution. This was a condition required of other western states that were also admitted later into the Union."

Has this been done before? Here are two that come to mind. ...from Bruce Springsteen, a cut off the "Ghost of Tom Joad" album, based on the photojournalism book "Journey to Nowhere": Youngstown Here in north east Ohio Back in eighteen-o-three James and Danny Heaton Found the ore that was linin' yellow creek They built a blast furnace Here along the shore And they made the cannon balls That helped the union win the war Here in Youngstown Here in Youngstown My sweet Jenny, I'm sinkin' down Here darlin' in Youngstown Well my daddy worked the furnaces Kept 'em hotter than hell I come home from 'Nam worked my way to scarfer A job that'd suit the devil as well Taconite, coke and limestone Fed my children and made my pay Then smokestacks reachin' like the arms of god Into a beautiful sky of soot and clay Here in Youngstown Here in Youngstown My sweet Jenny, I'm sinkin' down Here darlin' in Youngstown Well my daddy come on the 0hio works When he come home from world war two Now the yards just scrap and rubble He said, "Them big boys did what Hitler couldn't do" These mills they built the tanks and bombs That won this country's wars We sent our sons to Korea and Vietnam Now we're wondering what they were dyin' for Here in Youngstown Here in Youngstown My sweet Jenny, I'm sinkin' down Here darlin' in Youngstown From the Monongahela valley To the Mesabi iron range To the coal mines of Appalacchia The story's always the same Seven-hundred tons of metal a day Now sir you tell me the world’s changed Once I made you rich enough Rich enough to forget my name In Youngstown In Youngstown My sweet Jenny, I'm sinkin' down Here darlin' in Youngstown When I die I don't want no part of heaven I would not do heavens work well I pray the devil comes and takes me To stand in the fiery furnaces of hell and, from the days of Punk/New Wave, there is the Pretenders...Chrissy Hind singing about her native Akron... with that great opening riff.... My City Was Gone I went back to ohio But my city was gone There was no train station There was no downtown South howard had disappeared All my favorite places My city had been pulled down Reduced to parking spaces A, o, way to go ohio Well I went back to ohio But my family was gone I stood on the back porch There was nobody home I was stunned and amazed My childhood memories Slowly swirled past Like the wind through the trees A, o, oh way to go ohio I went back to ohio But my pretty countryside Had been paved down the middle By a government that had no pride The farms of ohio Had been replaced by shopping malls And muzak filled the air From seneca to cuyahoga falls Said, a, o, oh way to go ohio Headingsouth...there is this great honky-tonk lament from Ohio native Dwight Yoakums excellent "Guitars, Cadillacs" album: South of Cincinnati f you ever get south of Cincinnati down where the dogwood trees grow If you ever get south of the Mason Dixon to the home you left so long ago If you ever get south of the Ohio River down where Dixieland begins If you ever get south of Cincinnati I'll be yours again She pulled the letter from the pages of her Bible And a rose pressed inside the Book of Luke For fourteen years she'd write each day but keep it hidden Refused to even speak his name, but still she wrote Chorus: If you ever get south of Cincinnati down where the dogwood trees grow If you ever get south of the Mason Dixon to the home you left so long ago If you ever get south of the Ohio River down where Dixieland begins If you ever get south of Cincinnati I'll be yours again At a cold gray apartment in Chicago A cigarette drowns inside a glass of gin He lies there drunk, but it don't matter drunk or sober He'll never read the words that pride won't let her send Chorus: If you ever get south of Cincinnati down where the dogwood trees grow If you ever get south of the Mason Dixon to the home you left so long ago If you ever get south of the Ohio River down where Dixieland begins If you ever get south of Cincinnati I'll be yours again Then I'll be yours again

I see this is todays..Sundays..NYT. Thats real good publicity as this is almost a "national" Sunday newspaper, read well beyond New York. Its interesting reading about the genisis of the concept, from that Mr. Harrod.

Oh heck that clock is so decontexualized l, so what if it goes to Huber Heights. The building it was originally on was a neat little skyscraper. The replacement building by IM Pei was & is an urbanistic disaster.