Author Archives: Denny

Book Review
Cincinnati Curiosities
Greg Hand

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Greg Hand has been a man of letters — or at least a man of words — his entire adult life. He began as a newspaper reporter, moved up to editor, left to head up a university PR department, co-authored three books about the university while he was there, then retired. I was not even slightly aware of any of this as it was happening. I only became aware of Hand’s existence when I stumbled upon the blog he started post-retirement. His knowledge of local history and ability to dig up information to augment that knowledge was immediately apparent and I’ve been an ardent reader of that blog ever since that happy discovery. The blog’s name is Cincinnati Curiosities and it can be found here. That the blog would lead to a book by the same name seems pretty natural.

The book borrows more than its name from the blog. I recognize some of the book’s subjects from the blog and I suppose it’s possible that all have appeared there although I don’t believe that’s the case. Of course, there is a good chance that any topics appearing for the first time in the book will show up in the blog sometime in the future.

Cincinnati Curiosities (the book) begins with a definition of Cincinnati taken from Urban Dictionary. When I visited the source, I discovered that the definition was just one of more than forty that individuals have contributed. Most are simply excuses for hurling insults rife with misspellings and such but a few, including the one that Hand chose, make some attempt at being insightful. The Hand-picked quote begins, “A pleasantly bland and annoyingly conservative city…” Although there are some that disagree, I believe that’s a fair representation of the view that most non-residents (and many residents) have of Cincinnati. Hand goes so far as to state that, “We deserve this reputation.” Then, after agreeing that Cincinnati’s “bland” reputation is probably justified, he proceeds to show us that it wasn’t always so.

In fact, later in the book, Hand offers another very different capsulated view of the city. On December 12, 1890, he tells us, “The Palace Hotel had elephant steak on the menu because an elephant was executed by firing squad that morning at the Cincinnati Zoo. Hundreds of people watched. That pretty much summarizes Cincinnati in 1890.”

The book is not just some blog posts strung together. There are, in my opinion, two big differences between blog and book. One is simply the physical difference between holding a book and flipping through pages versus scrolling through items on a screen. The second is grouping. The book organizes the writings in groups so that a subject can be looked at from multiple angles or related stories can be read as a collection. The previous comment about the well-attended elephant shooting begins the chapter titled “The Sensational and the Senseless”. In addition to the tale of a pachyderm’s public demise, the chapter tells of the zoo’s annual Butcher’s Day, people leaping from bridges for profit, musclemen demonstrating feats of strength, and other assorted entertainments.

“The Sensational and the Senseless” is the fourth of ten chapters. Other chapters tell of monsters in the Ohio River (“The Old Weird Cincinnati”), Fanny Trollope’s visit during the “Porkoplis” period (“Tales From the Old City”), the possibility that striptease was invented in Cincinnati (“Freaks, Flesh, and Footlights”), and a large variety of other topics. The striptease claim is based on Millie De Leon’s orchestrated removal of several garters in 1901, and Hand cites the claim in suggesting that a Striptease Hall of Fame might be an “appropriate addition to our Over-the-Rhine neighborhood”. 

Hand’s usually light-hearted reports are often accompanied by contemporary illustrations. At left is a Pears Soap advertisement based on Lillie Langtry’s famous bath in Apollinaris water at Cincinnati’s Grand Hotel in 1883. It’s in the chapter titled “Nudity, Naughtness, and Negotiable Affection”, and if that doesn’t get you interested in the book I don’t know what will.

In addition to authoring this book and the aforementioned blog, Mr. Hand is a founder and mainstay of Stand-Up History which I reported on here. His stand-up presentations typically also fit in the Cincinnati Curiosities category. In a wonderful coincidence, the troupe is appearing at Muse Cafe on the same day that this review is being published. In a not-wonderful coincidence, I am committed to doing something else at the exact same time. Happily (for you, not me), my absence will mean more room for attendees. There is more info here.

Cincinnati Curiosities: Healing Powers of the Wamsley Madstone, Nocturnal Exploits of Old Man Dead, Mazeppa’s Naked Ride & More, Greg Hand, The History Press (November 14, 2022), 6 x 9 inches, 160 pages, ISBN 978-1467152822
Available through Amazon.

Hearts and Blues Afire

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I originally planned to do what I did for last year’s Inaugural Hearts Afire Weekend, and just attend the 2023 Hearts Afire Weekend on Saturday. By showing up mid-afternoon in 2022, I had been able to see some of the ice carvings in both darkness and daylight. Then I realized that Saturday was the day of the Cincinnati Winter Blues Experience and it wasn’t long until friends convinced me I should be there. So, without actually reading the schedule, I headed to Loveland Friday evening thinking I’d get to see at least some of those ice sculptures. Nope. There were plenty of festivities happening but no ice carvings. I told myself they were probably delayed because of the warmish temperatures but eventually learned that the plan had always been to have all the frozen art appear on Saturday.

So I headed over to Cappy’s where the Charity Date Auction was in full swing — inside. Outside, only a couple of teddy bears were hanging out with the roaring fire and the giant Chair-ity Date Auction chair. Inside the big tent, local TV and radio personality Ken Broo was MCing the auction. When a representative of auction beneficiary Women’s Health Initiatives Foundation came forward to talk about the foundation, she ended up getting auctioned off as part of the Saturday night group date.

Although I did pop into a couple more local businesses, I basically made it an early night with intentions of coming back on Saturday to check out those ice sculptures. As I headed home, I snapped a shot of this Loveland home decorated very appropriately for the location and the holiday.

I made it back on Saturday to see the ice carvings. I’m sharing photos of a few starting with these on or near the bike trail. I generally avoid posting pictures of children and really make an effort to avoid posting children’s faces even when I’m sure they are very happy ones.

Here are half of the six sculptures that Cappy’s, where last night’s auction was held, has this year. Some of them are sponsored by suppliers.

I did not have time to hang around for the ice carving demonstrations but I did get to watch one being started while a couple of future carvers looked on. I also spotted some blocks of ice being prepared for carving.

Remember that event that kept me from the ice sculptures tonight? There were eleven bands performing at the Cincinnati Winter Blues Experience and that included seven that I’d not seen before. I caught just the last few notes of The Mojo Blues Cats and got no picture. Here are the other six.

To be honest, I think I may have seen The Tempted Souls Band before but if so I don’t believe it was this lineup. Tullie Brae’s piano was initially missing in the mix but things were soon sorted and sounding good. Ivy Ford led her trio with good vocals and very good guitar work.

Gabe Stillman fronted his own trio as did King Soloman Hicks. Hicks might have been best of show. GA-20 is an unusual two-guitar trio. The band’s guitarists took turns playing bass lines on their fat strings while the other took the lead.

The Blues Experience was a one-night affair but Hearts Afire continues through today, Sunday, February 12.

Book Review
Red Dirt Girl
Katie Laur

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This was one of the most flat-out enjoyable reads I’ve had in a long time. I have seen Katie perform many times, heard her talk on the radio several times, and even chatted with her personally a few times. I knew her as a talented musician and entertaining storyteller but I did not know her as a writer. Others, it seems, have been aware of Laur’s writing skills for some time. It’s my impression that nothing other than the foreword, an introduction, and Katie’s acknowledgments was written specifically for this book. In one of the book’s essays, Katie talks of selling her writing and says she sold everything she wrote. From that, I assume that each of the essays and stories that make up Red Dirt Girl has previously appeared in print somewhere. Where I don’t know and regret that where ever it was, it was outside my field of vision. That I am only now seeing the literary side of Katie is very much my loss. This gal can write.

She writes about growing up in Tennessee, Michigan, and Alabama and the family and music that was so important to her. She writes about the Cincinnati music scene, and many other scenes in the city too. She writes about life as a touring musician traveling by van to regional bluegrass festivals and national radio shows. She writes about staking out her own spot on radio with nearly three decades of Music From The Hills Of Home. And she writes about all of those things with insights that show she was never just singing or talking; she was also listening and watching.

Laur and I arrived in Cincinnati within a year or so of each other so I’m familiar with many of the people and places she writes about. I remember Caledonia, Mister Spoons, and Johnny Rosebud. I remember Aunt Maudie’s (where I almost certainly first saw Katie perform) and the still-thriving Arnold’s. But I remember these things as a customer or audience member while Katie remembers them as an insider. Her memories not only wake up some of my own but also augment them and maybe make me appreciate them even more.

She also writes about people and places I’ve had no personal contact with at all. In fact, that applies to most of the book’s subjects. While those writings don’t awaken any of my own memories, they are every bit as entertaining as those that do and more educational too.

Being a resident of southwest Ohio during the last third of the twentieth century certainly makes some of the subjects of the stories more familiar but I don’t know that it makes any of the stories better. Laur made her living as a musician so a goodly portion of the book’s content is music related but far from all of it. Bluegrass was her forte so many of the writings that are music related concern bluegrass musicians, venues, and festivals — but far from all of them. I’m fairly confident that reading this book will be flat-out enjoyable no matter where you live and even if you’re not a fan of bluegrass or any other sort of music. Of course, if you did spend some of the last four or five decades in or near Cincinnati and are a bluegrass musician or maybe even a bluegrass fan, you just might be in the book.

Red Dirt Girl: Essays and Stories, Katie Laur, Orange Frazer Press (2022), 6 x 9 inches, 309 pages, ISBN 978-1949248-593

Available direct from the publisher, Orange Fraser Press, and at local bookstores, Iris Book Cafe and Urban Eden.

Stand Up History Live

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Historian Greg Hand and mixologist Molly Wellman dreamed up Stand-Up History a few years back but, due to a combination of ignorance and conflicts, it took me until January 2023 to actually make it to a performance. I liked the concept the instant that I heard of it, and the reality did not disappoint in the slightest. That January event was at the Muse Cafe on Harrison Avenue. The subject of this post, my second Stand-Up History experience, took place at the Mercantile Library in Cincinnati’s downtown. Not only would Molly be one of the evening’s presenters, she had made and was serving a big bowl of her Ginger Punch.

Stand-Up History is a wonderful learn-while-you-laugh program. As you no doubt guessed, the name came from “stand-up comedy”. In fact, searching for “stand-up history” will result in a bunch of links to the history of stand-up comedy pushing hits for this operation well down the list. The name isn’t all that’s borrowed, of course. A program consists of individuals standing up and talking. The subjects are all historical and the presenters are all experts but the presentations have a decidedly humorous focus and the subjects are chosen to assist in generating smiles, grins, chuckles, and guffaws. 

First up tonight was astronomer Dean Regas. Regas was also a presenter at that January show I attended. I’ve heard him on radio many times but that was my first time seeing him in person. Tonight’s topic was “How to Teach Grown-Ups About Pluto” which happens to be the name of Regas’ latest book.  It was a good use of his wonderful wit and his knowledge of both science and history.

Author and blogger Dann Woellert was up next with “Our Badass Sister of Charity and the Creation of Cincinnati Pizza Pie”. Sister Blandina Segale’s long life included serving her church in Colorado and New Mexico, dealings with a lynch mob and Billy the Kid, and establishing institutions such as Saint Rita’s School for the Deaf and San Antonio Parish in Cincinnati. One of the first places in America where pizza was served was at San Antonio festivals. It’s pretty amazing where the history of food will lead you if you let it.

As Cincinnati’s favorite mixologist, Molly Wellmann is an expert on the history of Cincinnati’s adult beverages and the places that served them. She sort of ventured out of her comfort zone tonight by telling the story of “How Hyde Park Became a Village Without Having a Tavern”. It was long ago annexed by the city of Cincinnati and now has taverns aplenty.

Greg Hand, of Cincinnati Curiosities, finished things up by poking holes in “Myths Cincinnatians Dearly Want to Believe”. There were myths about hills, chili, ketchup, and more. The final myth addressed was that Mark Twain quote about Cincinnati and the end of the world. “When the end of the world comes, I want to be in Cincinnati. It is always ten years behind the times,” has often been attributed to Twain but, as Hand pointed out, there is absolutely no evidence that he actually said it. I’ve always thought the quote presented Cincinnatians with a dilemma. On one hand, it’s kind of nice to have someone as famous as Twain notice your city but, on the other, very few people really want to live in a place that is ten (or, in some versions, twenty) years out of date. I don’t believe that Hand mentioned it but I’ve turned up a claim that the first reference to the quote in print was in 1978. A similar quote about the end of the world and Bavaria being fifty years behind appeared in print in 1886 and probably existed earlier. By 1978, Twain had been dead for 68 years and the Bavarian comment was 94 years old. That makes being one or two decades “behind the times” appear not so bad.

So here’s the whole crew including MC Mike Perrino in the middle of all the presenters. Having been founded in 1835, the Mercantile Library has lots of history. Perrino reminded us of that by noting that this was the 165th anniversary of an appearance by Herman Melville that local papers reported as “Earnest, though not sufficiently animated.” Tonight’s presenters seemed to be well aware of the importance of being animated. Some of them will be doing this somewhere on the third Thursday of every month for the foreseeable future. Next month, Molly, Greg, and Mike will be joined by Ann Senefeld at Muse Cafe. Details here.

Happy Imbolc Again

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I’ve made it known that I use canned posts when my world is “too busy or too boring for a current events piece”. Although my life was neither this week, the things that kept it from being boring were not the sort of things that make interesting reading. I was on the verge of scheduling a Trip Peek when I decided to instead reuse this article from 2016.

gknob2010Groundhog Day has long been one of my favorite holidays. In fact, attending America’s biggest Groundhog Day event in Punxsutawney, PA, was among the first things I did with the newly available time that retirement brought. The photo at right was taken at 4:58 AM, February 2, 2010. Sunrise was more than two hours away and the temperature was four degrees Fahrenheit. I had a good time and I’m glad I went but the experience did not lead to plans for an annual return. Standing outside in pre-dawn single-digit temperatures is something I prefer to discuss in past tense only.

I credited my original fondness for Groundhog Day to a belief that it had no religious connections and was basically folklore that had been adopted by some Pennsylvanians largely to promote silliness. While both of those claims are sort of true, there is more to it. I started to doubt the “no religious connections” when I discovered that America’s Groundhog Day shares its February 2 date with Christianity’s Candlemas. But sharing a date does not a connection make and there are no direct ties apparent between Groundhog Day and any of the three events (presentation of the child Jesus, Jesus’ entry into the temple, and Mary’s purification) Christians attribute to the day.

February 1 is also a day recognized by Christians. It is the day that Saint Brigid of Ireland is reported to have died and is celebrated as her feast day. Before Saint Brigid was born (in 451 they say) a Gaelic festival was celebrated about this time to honor a goddess also named, perhaps by coincidence though probably not, Brigid. I have to say “about this time” because man-made calendars had not yet taken over and feast days were not yet tied to specific numbers on pages. Brigid’s was associated with a point halfway between Winter Solstice and Vernal Equinox called Imbolc which happens near the beginning of what we call February. In 2016 it occurs at 4:30 EST February 4. (See 2023 comments at end of article.)

Without donut shops and corner diners, it isn’t clear where ancient Irish farmers gathered to talk about the weather but it’s a safe bet that they did. Around Imbolc, the coming spring would have been a big topic. Farmers without donut shops and cable television are quite observant of their environment and they no doubt noticed that bright clear days in the middle of winter were usually a little colder than cloudy ones. With Imbolc being the most “middle of winter” you can get, giving some special significance to the weather on that day was likely fairly natural. That’s about as close to science that the groundhog and shadow story gets.

I’m guessing that making a determination at sunrise was also fairly natural. Even if those early farmers were capable of determining Imbolc’s exact moment — and I’m not saying they weren’t — in those years when it did not occur during the daytime they weren’t about to get up in the middle of the night to see if the sun was shining. The crack of dawn probably seemed about right.

So there really are no direct connections between Groundhog Day and religion and there is plenty of silliness in its fairly recent (1887) use to bring fame to a small Pennsylvania town but its timing is firmly linked to the workings of the solar system and there is a tiny bit of logic in it being a day to make weather predictions. If nothing else, the days around Imbolc are most likely the coldest of the year meaning there’s a good chance that it’s all up-thermometer from here.

My 2010 Punxsutawney visit is here. I will, as usual, celebrate Groundhog Day on Tuesday by consuming pork sausage at some point. I have no plans to be awake at 4:30 Thursday to observe Imbolc.

I don’t know where I got the time and date for Imbolc 2016 but I know I did not calculate either. This year, my first searches turned up the date February 1 but no time was given. I decided to calculate it myself and came up with 11:48 GMT February 3. Of course, I initially doubted my math but quickly found reassurance at the Farmer’s Almanac that February 3 indeed is the midpoint of winter and eventually found support for that being the date of “Imbolc exact” in the Witches Astrological Calendar at Patheos. I cannot say for certain why so many sites give February 1 as the date but am guessing that some have decided that Imbolc is just another name for Saint Brigid’s Day. Regardless, I now have some confidence in my calculations being reasonably close and there is even a possibility that I’ll be awake when Imbolc 2023 rolls around (at 6:48 EST) with the previous day’s serving of pork sausage completely digested and sunrise not quite an hour away. 

Two Tours in Champaign County

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After talking about it for quite some time, my friend Terry and I finally headed off to Ohio Caverns on Wednesday. Since touring the caverns would only take an hour or so, we decided a stop at the Champaign Aviation Museum in nearby Urbana would help make the trip worthwhile. As we looked over items displayed in the lobby, Pat appeared and offered us a guided tour. In addition to filling us in on each of the airplanes on display, Pat explained the extensive restoration work that goes on here and took us into areas where that work was taking place. Later arrivals joined us, and at one point there were six visitors in our little group. What we thought would be a brief interlude turned out to be a two-plus hour stop that was both entertaining and educational.

I had visited the museum in 2012 during the Doolittle Raid’s 70th anniversary celebration at the Air Force museum in Dayton. In the blog entry associated with that report, I mentioned that I had taken some pictures here but did not use them because I was more focused on the events in Dayton. At that time, the C-47 pictured at left was a rather new acquisition. Here‘s a picture of it that was taken then.

Champaign Gal is the museum’s fully restored B-25. I saw her fly in 2012 along with about twenty others. The Stinson 10A is one of several such planes used to scout for submarines during WWII. Although there is no absolute proof, there is strong evidence that this plane was responsible for sinking a German submarine using the small single bomb that the scout planes carried. The third plane is a Viet Nam era Grumman C-1A from the carrier Lexington.

A phenomenal amount of restoration takes place here with the biggest current project being this B-17 named Champaign Lady. The engine nacelles have been completed and are literally waiting on the shelf for future mounting. The ball turret is also ready for installation. It was one of the items we looked over in the lobby. This is a massive project that was begun in 2005. Here is a picture from my 2012 visit.

Restoring an airplane like the B-17 involves salvaging parts from other airplanes, fabricating many other parts, and lots of volunteers working lots of hours. Pat told us that more than 80% of Champaign Lady will have been fabricated here when she is complete.

It didn’t take long to get to the caverns from the museum. They are open year-round but this is not their busiest season. When tour time came around, we were the only paying customers so we basically had a personal guide.

Discovered in 1897, Ohio Caverns is the largest cave system in Ohio and bills itself as “America’s Most Colorful Caverns”. Color does start showing up early in the tour.

During the summer, a choice of two tours, Historic and Natural Wonder, are offered. The Winter Tour includes highlights of both. We passed many interesting rock and mineral formations before entering this narrow passage but they became more abundant once we were through it.

This is the Crystal King, the largest stalactite in Ohio. Our first view of was through a passage blocked by chains then the winding passage we were following passed quite a bit closer to it.

I admit that I was not very attentive and don’t remember the names of any of the “rooms” we passed through or the formations they contained. Names might help with History but they really aren’t required to appreciate Natural Wonder.

The website says there are 38 steps going in and 60 coming out. The path between them is close to level and the distance below the surface is affected mostly by variations in the height of the hill above the cave. The guide had to tell us when we reached the maximum 103 feet below ground because there’s really nothing distinctive about it. Going down those entrance steps barely registered. Going up those exit steps, however, definitely did. Guys our age just seem to naturally notice things like that.

A Return to the Cavalcade

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I spent my freshman year at the University of Cincinnati in an on-campus dorm. My high school buddy Dale attended college in Indiana that year. During the following summer, Dale decided to transfer to the Ohio College of Applied Science in Cincinnati, and the two of us decided to share an apartment. The OCAS school year started a little ahead of UC’s so Dale was already settled in when I drove down to join him. Following my drive, I was ready to relax in my new home but that was not to be. Dale and a newly met classmate were waiting at the door. They had plans and basically turned me immediately around. The three of us headed off to Cincinnati Gardens and the 1966 Cavalcade of Customs.

They say this year’s Cavalcade of Customs is the 63rd annual event. I think that means that the show I attended in ’66 was probably the seventh or eighth. The Gardens was demolished in 2018 but the Cavalcade had moved on well before that. It’s now held downtown at the convention center. I was there on Friday. Although I don’t remember much about that earlier show, I do recall that there were mirrors on the floor beneath quite a few cars. I probably remember that detail because I think it was the first time I’d ever seen such a thing. Of course, I simply was not used to being around cars with undercarriages worth looking at. Here is one of the mirrors beneath that 1940 Willys in the opening photograph. It reflects the chromed oil pan which reflects some lights that are reflected in the mirror. At least that’s what I think is going on.

I know there were some trucks at that 1966 show but I’m pretty sure they were all smallish pickups like George Barris’ Ala Kart. (Which I think may have actually been there.) Americans’ attraction to great big haulers that do very little hauling is something that has developed in the six decades since, and it is certainly in evidence at the Cavalcade.

This 1946 Chevrolet is my personal favorite of all the trucks on display. It’s not very big and it’s not really a custom but it doesn’t seem like the organizers were all that hung up on having only customs in their Cavalcade of Customs so I’m not either. It is a great-looking restoration/recreation and those miniature gas pumps surrounding it don’t hurt.

These definitely qualify as customs although none are in the same class as the previously mentioned Ala Kart. Truly radical George Barris-style customization just might be a thing of the past.

There are several customized motorcycles in this year’s show and at least one of them might be considered radical. I’m pretty sure both of those statements were true of the 1966 Cavalcade as well.

Some of the displayed cars brought back memories beyond attending that show back in the 60s. I have owned a second-generation Corvair, a Chevy Vega, and a C6 Corvette. My cars were not identical to these, however. My ‘Vair was red, my Vega green, and my ‘Vette blue.

More cars are on display on the third floor which is reached via two very long escalators. There are some very interesting automobiles here but few if any could be called customs. I’m guessing that the theme is sports and performance cars, and the mix includes some slightly exotic vehicles.

The long line is not for a car. Several celebrities are slated to appear at the Cavalcade and — for a fee — autograph something or pose for a selfie. I’d spotted a line of folks on the first floor waiting for Henry Winkler to show up. That was a respectable line of thirty or forty but this line is considerably longer (There were at least twenty people behind the point where I took the picture.) and the celebrities it led to were already in place and hard at work.

Having nothing with me that I wanted signed, I avoided the line, exchanged knowing winks with a Miata, and started down the escalators.

Today, January 15, is the 2023 Cavalcade of Customs‘ final day. It opens at 10:00 and closes at 6:00.

2022 in the Rear View

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The year in numbers with 2021 values in parentheses:

  • 6 (4) = Road trips reported
  • 67 (65) = Blog posts
  • 35 (51) = Days on the road
  • 1675+ (1895) = Pictures posted — 748 (449) in the blog and 927 (1399) in Road Trips

For the third year in a row, the first topic mentioned in the year-end review is COVID-19. On one hand, its grip on travel was loosened a bit and some postponed trips and events were allowed to take place. On the other, the virus had its most personal impact on me yet. In the middle of a trip, I tested positive for COVID-19 myself and, although the symptoms were quite mild, the trip was effectively over at that point. I drove directly home and isolated. Evidence of the loosening of COVID’s grip is the increase in my personal trip count but none of those trips were particularly long so days on the road and the number of photos posted from road trips both decreased. None of the 2022 trips generated enough traffic to make the top five non-blog posts and none of last year’s top five non-blog posts returned this year. A personal post noting my own birthday was the most visited new blog post of the year.

Top Blog Posts:

  1. Book Review A Good Road from Plymouth Rock to Puget Sound
    This is the first book review to ever appear in the top five and it is pretty obvious why it is here. It was published in October 2021 and got a decent number of visits on its own but the vast majority of visits in 2022 came from the YellowstoneTrail.org website which added a link to the review as part of its information on the book. That led not only to the review becoming one of the year’s top five posts but to YellowstoneTrail.org becoming the number three (behind Google and Facebook) source of visitors to this blog. There are aspects of that “captive” relationship that might mean it should not be considered in the rankings but other posts have received boosts from aligned websites with no ramifications so I’m ignoring them for now.
  2. Twenty Mile’s Last Stand
    For the third year in a row, this post about a nineteenth-century stagecoach stop turned roadhouse and then destroyed comes in at number two.  Before the three consecutive seconds, it had three firsts (2012, ’13, 19), one fourth (2014), and one fifth (2018).
  3. Scoring the Dixie
    After two consecutive firsts, this post about tracking driven portions of the Dixie Highway drops to third. It was also third in 2015 as well as fourth in 2012 and 2017. Although I’ve made other posts on the Dixie Highway, search engines seem to like this one best. “Dixie Highway map” brings some of the searchers here and some are looking for information on the historic Dixie Highway. Sadly, I know that some folks arrive here because they think Dixie is a dirty word. I don’t know what they think when they leave.
  4. I 75
    The fourth most popular post overall was the most popular of new posts for the year and that makes it the one from which the opening image is taken. It was created for my seventy-fifth birthday. Proving, in a bizarre way, that skin sells, it seems all but certain that its popularity was due to that photo of my freshly shaved head. At the time, I was using a 2015 photo taken at The Bean in Chicago as my Facebook profile picture. I decided I would try to produce a hairless version of that photo using the same shirt and sunglasses and attempting to copy the angle and position. Although it may not always be obvious, images in these Rear View posts are reversed from the original so that they appear as they might in a rearview mirror. That is how the 2015 photo already appeared as it was of my reflection in the stainless steel sculpture. Since my attempt at reproduction did not involve a reflection, I reversed the image in the I 75 post to more closely match the original. So, when it came time to put the image in this year-end summary, I had to unreverse it. I can only hope that this attention to detail is appreciated appropriately.
  5. Cincy Burger Week Plus
    I ate seven hamburgers on seven consecutive days for this post. Since my blog week is skewed from Cincinnati Burger Week by a day, my seven ‘burgers included one from outside the city. This post barely edged out the 1960 J. C. Higgins Flightliner post for fifth place ending the Flightliner’s unbroken run in the top five since its publication in 2013. I could have included it by booting the Yellowstone Trail book review based on its cozy relationship with the YT site but I was far from comfortable with that.

Top Non-Blog Posts:

  1. Lincoln Highway Conference 2011
    After waiting a decade for its first appearance, this Lincoln Highway conference outing is back in the top-five list for the second time in three years. It ranked third in 2020 but takes the number one spot this time. Of course, I have no idea why, but I do know it has a lot to like. It’s twenty-five days long and includes, besides considerable Lincoln Highway, some time on CA-1 along the California coast, bits of Historic Route 66, and the entire length of US-36. 
  2. Sixty-Six: E2E & F2F
    My third full-length drive of Historic Route 66 is back for its sixth top-five finish. It has previously achieved two firsts (2012, 2021), a fourth (2018), a fifth (2015), and another second (2019). The abbreviations in its name stand for End to End and Friend to Friend.
  3. Lincoln Highway West
    This 2009 trip was my first documented travel on the Lincoln Highway beyond Indiana. It ranked fifth in 2014 and fourth in 2020.
  4. Kids & Coast
    This 2008 fly-and-drive is making only its second top-five appearance after cracking the list at second in 2020. It’s a good one with a drive on the west coast between Seattle and San Francisco where my sons lived at the time.
  5. Wild and Wonderful Again
    After a stay-at-home holiday in 2020, it was good to make an actual Christmas Escape Run in 2021. As I did in 2013, I targeted a West Virginia state park for Christmas Day but it was not the same park. The six-day trip drew enough attention over the next year to earn a top-five spot.

Both blog visits and overall website visits continued or renewed declines that had briefly paused. Overall visits dropped from 112,255 to 102,804. Blog visits dropped from 5,201 to 4,187. The decline in visits makes the increase in page views surprising to the point of being shocking. Last year’s all-time record of 832,848 page views was surpassed by this year’s 924,495 page views. It seems that fewer visitors are enjoying (I sincerely hope so) it more.

I finished up last year’s Rear View by mentioning a book that had been published during the year based on a trip made the previous year. I’m now doing it again. Amazingly, both the journal and the blog post for the trip on which 20 in ’21 and the YT Too is based appeared in their respective top five lists last year. Neither made the cut for 2022. The book was published in May, and “reviewed” here.

In case your seeing of DennyGibson.com posts is haphazard and you’d like it not to be, email lists and RSS feeds are available. Descriptions and links are provided in the website FAQ under How can I keep up with it? 

Boar’s Head Festival

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Back in 2013, I posted an article about the four oldest Cincinnati Christmas Traditions after learning about them by way of a lecture at the Cincinnati Museum Center.  Three of the four were displays and I had seen all three multiple times and that year I saw them all again. The fourth was not something displayed for a period of time but was an event that required advance ticketing and scheduling that I never made work. I missed a chance to see it online last year when the pandemic caused it to go virtual. Guess I just wasn’t paying attention. This year the event is again live but ticket distribution was online and that really worked for me. I attended the 5:00 performance yesterday.

I’m talking about the Boar’s Head and Yule Log Festival at Christ Church Cathedral. It has been going on since 1940 and it was identified as the third oldest of Cincinnati’s big four Christmas traditions in that Museum Center lecture.

Humans have been eating pigs, including boars, for a long time. Their roasted and garnished heads had been the centerpiece at many a banquet centuries before Christianity was invented. Wild boars are ferocious critters and Christians probably weren’t the first to think of them as something evil. They may not have even been the first to equate the killing of one with the victory of good over evil but they do seem to be the first to make that connection formally and construct a ritual around it. That apparently happened in fourteenth-century England as explained in a legend. The legend says that a student at Queen’s College in Oxford, England, was walking through the forest on his way to Christmas Mass in 1340 when he was attacked by a wild boar. Lacking any other weapon, the quick-thinking student jammed the metal-bound volume of Aristotle he had been reading down the beast’s throat which almost immediately brought on the animal’s demise. The garnished head was presented at that night’s feast and people have been repeating and enhancing the festivities ever since. There is a fair amount of doubt associated with that legend but I hope it’s true. Having Aristotle even slightly responsible for the founding of a Christian ritual is certainly something worthy of deep contemplation.

I know there are hundreds of people involved in the production although I don’t have an actual count. In addition to the visible players, there is a sizable orchestra and choir mostly hidden from sight behind something resembling giant poinsettias. There are many non-speaking roles. The cast includes literal spear carriers although those are probably technically called pikes. But there are lots of singing roles and every vocalist was outstanding. The orchestra and choir were also outstanding meaning that if this was only a musical performance, it would be quite impressive. The lavish costumes and pageantry make it considerably more so.

The storyline is not the easiest thing to follow. It includes — among many other things — good King Wenceslas, the lord and lady of the manor, and the Nativity complete with shepherds and Magi.

At one point, and this just might be my favorite part even though I don’t quite understand it, cast members are climbing over and standing on top of the pews.

It is quite the spectacle and the music is superb. I can understand why it has drawn crowds for more than eight decades. There are just four performances each year. All four for this year have been “sold out” for some time. I put that in quotes for two reasons. One is that tickets are not actually sold; they are free. The second is that the performance I attended was far from full. I know that tickets have always gone quickly and I assumed that meant a full house at every performance. My crude guess is that nearly a third of the seats were empty Saturday.

Today’s (Sunday’s) performances are to be live-streamed. Maybe that’s the reason for the empty seats or maybe there have been empty seats every year. Maybe people who hurriedly scarf up the free tickets balk at putting out any effort to use them.

Posts of Christmas Past (2022)

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This is the third time this blog has been published on Christmas Day. The first time apparently caught me unprepared. It was in 2011, just a few months after this blog was launched with a promise to post every Sunday. I was in the middle of a road trip but managed a short Merry Christmas post that consisted mostly of apologies for being caught off guard. I must have been ready when Christmas again fell on a Sunday five years later. I was again in the middle of a road trip on Christmas Day 2016 but the Another Christmas Squirrel post shows no signs of distress so was likely written well in advance of the holiday. This post is also being prepared in advance.

Soon after realizing that Christmas is on Sunday this year, I thought of Posts of Christmas Past that I put together for the stay-at-home Christmas of 2020. I first thought of simply pointing to it with a short explanatory post but decided to republish it with updates. What follows is a recounting of the sixteen Christmases when I’ve run — or at least tried to run — away from home. The opening picture is from the blog’s first Christmas post in 2011. It was taken just ahead of Christmas on December 22. All other photos in this post were taken on Christmas Day.

2006 — Natchez Christmas was organized around a drive of the Natchez Trace Parkway that began the day after Christmas. Christmas Eve and Christmas Night were spent in a room above the Under the Hill Saloon in Natchez, MS. It’s between the two white-fronted buildings in the picture.

2007 — I decided to go a bit farther south the next year for Crescent City Christmas. New Orleans had recovered sufficiently from Katrina’s 2005 devastation to welcome tourists to bolster the recovery effort, and it’s a pretty good place to celebrate anything. The tree and Joan of Arc statue are in front of the French Market.

2008 — My great-grandparents spent Christmas on the Alafia in 1920, and I tried to do something similar. I could not camp on the river bank as they did but I could stay in a nearby motel. On Christmas Day, I had breakfast at Showtown USA in nearby Gibsonton. At the time, Showtown still had plenty of carnival people as both employees and patrons.

2009 — My retirement in mid-November meant I now had time to drive to US-62’s West End from my most western contact with the route in western Kentucky. After spending a day snowed in in Altus, OK, I reached Lubbock, TX, on Christmas Day and stopped by Buddy Holley’s grave. Lubbock possesses no snowplows so most of the record five inches that fell the day before was still there although much had been blown from the area in the photograph.

2010 — My Chattanooga Christmas was also a white one. The depth may not have been a record but the fact that this was the first Christmas Day snowfall in Chattanooga in forty-one years meant it was something special. The Delta Queen had been forced to quit cruising in 2009 and was serving as a stationary hotel. I had spent Independence Day 2009 aboard her, and couldn’t resist the chance to spend another holiday on board.

2011 — Although my path reached as far south as Alabama, Nashville, TN, was the target for George for the Holidays. The title refers to George Harrison whose 1970 album All Things Must Pass was performed by The Long Players on December 23. Oven Master Mary had supplied me with a whole gingerbread family for the trip, and I photographed one family member on stage at Legends Corner.

2012 — The plans for Christmas Escape Repeat included New Year’s Eve in Raleigh, NC, and some time in Atlanta, GA, but were timed to allow me a second Christmas stay — this time without snow — on the Delta Queen in Chattanooga. It was the first of only two times I used the word “escape” in the title.

2013 — A Wild and Wonderful Christmas was spent at North Bend State Park in West Virginia where “Wild and Wonderful” is a slogan. After a fine holiday meal at the lodge, I went for a drive that took me to “America’s Oldest Five and Dime” in Harrisville. Berdine’s was not open on Christmas Day but was open the day after so I got to check out this delightful store on my way home.

2014 — Christmas Escape 2014 turned out to be quite the escape indeed. There was Christmas Eve with friends in Savannah, GA, Christmas Day with a friend in St Augustine, FL, (where the picture was taken), and some time with an uncle near Lake Alfred, FL, to start the new year. Plus a lot of Dixie Highway and a little time in the keys.

2015 — That WV state park had worked out well in 2013 so I tried out a neighbor on the other side for It’s a Wanderful Life. The holiday meal at Indiana’s Turkey Run State Park was fairly late in the day so I helped my appetite by doing a little hiking before dinner.

2016 — I stayed fairly close to home and used Ohio’s new tourism slogan for Finding It Here. Home base was the lodge at Burr Oak State Park. A Christmas Day drive took me to the town of Cambridge and a long stroll through the Dickens Victorian Village erected there each year.

2017 — With this trip, I proved that I Can Drive Twenty-Five. I followed the current US-25 from its beginning at the Ohio River to its other end in Brunswick, GA. Holiday dining options were somewhat limited and I ended up with a not-so-traditional Christmas dinner of crabcake, grits, broccoli, and cookies. In honor of the holiday, I named these four gingerbread men — a gift from Oven Master Mary, of course — Matthew, Mark, Luke, and Ringo.

2018 — The focus of Kitty Hawk Holidays was the 115th anniversary of the Wright Brothers’ first flight at Big Kill Devil Hill. That was on the 17th so I did a bit of running around before ending up in Knoxville, TN, on Christmas Day. A selfie in Worlds Fair Park let me show off the new mustache my grandson had given me for Christmas.

2019 — Finding (More Of) It Here had me back in Ohio at a park lodge. This time it was at Geneva-on-the-Lake State Park. The photo was taken just before dinner and just outside the dining room as the sun set to my left and illuminated the clouds over Lake Erie.

2020 — The COVID pandemic had me staying home for Christmas for the first time since 2005. Since there was no trip journal to document the day, I used the blog to post a picture of my Christmas dinner spot and a listing of Posts of Christmas Past.

2021 — After just one travelless Christmas, I was able to be Wild and Wonderful Again in 2021. The title comes from it being my second Christmas spent in Wild and Wonderful West Virginia. This time I stayed at three different state parks with Christmas dinner at Hawks Nest. The park isn’t far from New River Gorge which is where the picture was taken. The little red spot near bottom center is a fairy door.