Category Archives: Event

Sign Museum Threefer

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I visited the American Sign Museum on Thursday. Technically, I visited it twice, once during normal hours and once in the evening for a special Tod Talk. The Tod Talk, “Acquiring and Restoring the Frisch’s Mainliner Sign”, was the reason I was there on this particular day, but I also wanted to see the freshly installed genie pictured at right and the museum’s first-ever special display. Ergo, a threefer.

The museum has owned a pair of the giant Carpeteria Genies since 2003, but one was held in off-site storage until last week. Wonderfully restored, it now stands beside the entrance to the museum’s parking lot. I failed to get a picture of the genie at the front door (which is admittedly looking a little faded these days), so I have included one from the museum’s 2012 grand opening at this location.

When the museum expanded last year (New Stuff to Look At), it was said that there was now enough space to potentially accommodate some temporary exhibits. The first such exhibit, Glow & Behold: Cincinnati’s Historic LGBTQ+ Bar Signs, is in place now. One panel supplies an introduction. Another notes that “…there were more drag queens and kings, known then as female and male impersonators, working on Vine Street in Cincinnati in the 1880s and 1890s than there are today.”

The exhibit includes photos of several businesses that no longer exist, along with retired signs (Remember where we are.) from both defunct and very active establishments. Saturday night’s “Signs & Spouses: A Sparkling Celebration of Marriage Equality” was inspired by this exhibit.

As closing time approached, I took advantage of the relatively empty museum to grab pictures of the Frisch’s Mainliner sign and its flying machine in pieces on the ground without humans milling about. I will be learning a lot more about this sign in a couple of hours.

Between the time that the Tod Talk was announced and when it actually happened, the sign was moved from the storage site to inside the museum, and so was the talk. The email announcing the move let us know that this would allow a cash bar, etc. To my surprise, “etc.” included a genuine Frisch’s hamburger from the still-operating independently owned franchise restaurant in Bellevue, KY. I had eaten during my time away from the museum, but I hadn’t eaten THAT much, and I didn’t want to appear unappreciative, so…

The talk began with Erin Holland, the museum’s Director of Education and Engagement, delivering a greatly abbreviated version of her March presentation on the overall history of Frish’s and its advertising. Then Tod Swormstedt, the museum’s founder and the Tod of Tod Talks, stepped in to share stories about acquiring and taking possession of the Mainliner sign.

The instant that hints of the Mainliner closing began to circulate, the fate of its incredible sign became a topic of concern for many locals and the ASM in particular. As restaurants closed and lawsuits opened, it wasn’t easy to learn just who owned what. It took some creative sleuthing by Erin to contact the owners of the sign. That resulted in a mid-December meeting with three men identified at the time only by their first names. Although they tried to imply that there were others interested in the sign, it was pretty obvious to Tod that not many would actually want a sign of that size, fewer still would have the means to remove it, and no one else could possibly accomplish that by the suggested end-of-year deadline. Even so, there was no additional contact until Christmas Eve, when the museum was told it could have the sign, and yes, that end-of-year deadline was real and very firm. In anticipation of that happening, Tod had sown some seeds in the ASM phenomenal community of helpers. Although the timing could hardly have been worse, the sign was taken down and transported to a museum storage area in a single day.

Every day is a big day at the ASM, but some are bigger than others. The museum is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays, so various projects are often scheduled for those days. Monday, May 19, saw two really big projects completed. The huge genie in the opening photo was erected in front of the museum, and the Frish’s Mainliner sign was moved inside it. Natalie Grilli, photographer for the upcoming book on the museum’s first twenty-five years, was onsite and busy bouncing between the two giants in motion. Natalie was also onsite Thursday evening. Pictures and some of the videos of the moves we saw on Thursday can be seen on the ASM’s Facebook page.

The group then moved out to where the Mainliner sign now stands, and I silently congratulated myself for taking those unblocked photos earlier. Tod now pointed out some of the sign’s features and described some of the plans for its restoration. Those plans are far from complete, but he said restoring the rotating propellers is definitely part of them. A printout of that photo displayed next to the sign was waiting on each chair, and I’ve included a scan of mine here. Note that the original chase lighting was incandescent and ran through the airplane. At some point, this was removed from the plane and converted to neon tubes on the sign body. The plugged holes can be seen in the picture of the airplane interior above. This is also something that Tod hopes to restore. The separate section with the Big Boy has been lost and will likely not be restored.

Something that may be obvious but still should be pointed out and cheered is that the restoration of this sign will take place in the middle of the museum in full sight of visitors. This will certainly present some challenges for those doing the restoration, but it is sure exciting for us mere spectators. Also in the realm of spectating, the sign can be seen at its original home during my own final visit to the Mainliner. A link to pre-order that 25th anniversary book I mentioned is on the museum’s support page

Sixty Years After

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Ten years ago, on the day following the fiftieth reunion of my high school graduating class, I posted “Fifty Years After“. It ended with a reference to the far-in-the-future sixtieth reunion and the line, “If I can, I will”. I did. So did another seven members of the Ansonia High School class of 1965.

Not surprisingly, that was considerably less than the nineteen who attended the all-alumni banquet in 2015 or the twenty-six who attended the our-class-only gathering the night before. There is a banquet every year that is open to all graduates with emphasis on the “5s”. I have gone to most, if not all, of those, but there wasn’t one for our fifty-fifth. That was the year of the COVID pandemic. The lack of a get-together at the five-and-a-half-decade mark was somewhat disappointing, but it is the class of 2020 that really deserves our sympathy. I thought there might be something a little special for them on their fifth, but there was not. Actually, there was not a single member of the class of 2020 in attendance. It’s hard not to try reading something into that, but it’s just as hard, as an outsider, to know what that something should be.

Ten years ago, I wrote that “We graduated smack dab in the middle of a decade that was about as turbulent and confusing, yet as filled with promise and potential, as any could be.” It feels like we just might be smack dab in the middle of another one. Of course, the decade we were born in held the horrors of World War II and was clearly even more turbulent, but that decade is outside of our personal memories. It is the 1960s and 2020s that more or less bracket our lives as adults.

By coincidence, a blog I follow published a piece a few days ago that makes some comparisons between today and the world of sixty years ago. It is here, and I encourage reading it in its entirety. Among the events of sixty years ago it mentions is the Social Security Act of 1965. That’s the act that established Medicare and Medicaid. Both are facing cuts today. Our generation also benefited from things like the 1965 Voting Rights Act, the Water Quality Act of 1965, and others.

What I have just written makes me aware that my and my classmates’ adulthood more or less aligns with the rise and potential fall of numerous efforts to make life better for the general population. That, in turn, made me think of the cringeworthy idea that “We got ours. Sorry about your bad timing, kids.” Oh, how I hope that’s not true.

Classes celebrating one of the 5s are provided with a room to gather in before meal time. Our room wasn’t overflowing, but everyone there had a good time studying old photos and sharing the memories those photos, and just being together, stirred up.

Of course, classes are seated together at the banquet. Yeah, we took up a lot less room than we did in 2015. I didn’t try very hard to get a picture of the group as a professional took a posed group shot of us, and I’ll share that here as soon as it is available. Most of our class is in the foreground of the second picture, but that’s not the target. The target is every past cheerleader in attendance, lined up to lead us in a spirited singing of the old fight song.

As usual, the banquet was followed by a dance. I always skip the dancing part, but this year I even skipped the going part. In the past, the dance was held at Eldora Ballroom on the Eldora Speedway property. The Ballroom was a weekend hotspot back in the day, and going there on alumni weekend always provided a little glimpse of the past. This year, it was at the American Legion, which would not have fed my nostalgia. It is at the same location I remember, but the building is a newer one. I’ve said I would have gone if it had been at Eldora, but maybe not. Starting the drive home before midnight seems a sensible thing to do these days.

The best information available indicates that we have lost a total of sixteen members of our class of sixty-five. That means that just about three-quarters of us are still around. In that 2015 post, I mentioned that the men who were living had already exceeded their at-birth life expectancy, and that the women were getting close. We are all in overtime now. A study I found online says that anyone turning 78 in 2025 can expect to live another 11.09 years. That would cover a 70th reunion. If I can, I will.

1950s Flashback

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The Cincinnati Museum Center has presented a 1940s Day or Weekend annually since 2011. I attended the third in 2013. Saturday was their first-ever 1950s Day. Asked on their Facebook page if this would also be an annual event, the museum said no. It is intended to be a one-time thing to mate up with the ongoing Julia Child and Barbie exhibits. “But,” they added, “it could come back!” I don’t really remember the 1940s, but I do remember the 1950s, and the rain on Saturday looked just like rain did when Ike was in the White House and Waite Hoyt was on the radio.

Individual information tables lined the rotunda. Pictured are King Records Legacy, Casablanca Vintage Clothing, and the American Sign Museum with a genuine 1950 NEON SIGN.

I stepped into the Newsreel Theater intending to watch a few minutes of the Moving Images presentation and ended up staying more than an hour watching clips of “Melody Showcase”, “Midwestern Hayride”, and commercials. I don’t remember “Melody Showcase”, but “Midwestern Hayride” was a staple at our house, and it’s even possible that I saw some of what I saw today when it was broadcast live.

1950s Day included quite a bit of live music. I caught the P&G Big Band, the Queen City Sisters, and Naomi Carman and the Bluecreek Boys. I do intend to check out the Barbie and Julia Child exhibits sometime, but the museum was far too crowded for that on Saturday. I’ll slip them in on a weekday when school’s in session and employed people are doing employee things.  

Living on the Air in Cincinnati

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I’m sure everybody is familiar with the joke about someone having “a face for radio.” It’s based on the idea that you do not have to look good to sound good. That’s an idea that often applies doubly to buildings. I’ve not been in a lot of radio stations, but I have been in enough to know that the people behind the microphones are frequently speaking in a dark cubicle far from prying and non-prying eyes, with little for their own eyes to take in as they work. That description has applied to Cincinnati’s WVXU and WGUC, but will no longer. Cincinnati Public Radio is letting the public see its new building this weekend. The bulk of personnel are already operating in the new space, and the plan is to switch broadcasting activity at noon on Tuesday.

I attended Saturday’s open house, which repeats today, April 27, 2025, from 1:00 to 5:00. Directions and other details are here. The cartoon in the opening photo stood not far from the entrance. The distance between speech balloons represents reporter Bill Rinehart’s signature pause when identifying debris on the roadway. I got my first view of the building from a drive by a few weeks ago, but this was my first up-close and stationary look.

And it was obviously my first look inside. That is the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra Woodwind Quintet on stage in an area dubbed The Gathering Space. There is also a Performance Studio. With spaces such as this, dare we hope that live music performances — possibly featuring local talent — might be in CPR’s future?

Pictures from the upper floor, including subjects from the preceding paragraph, show how open the building is.

The Instrument Petting Zoo, which seemed to be a big hit, was a new one on me. A more traditional petting zoo was also on the agenda, but the pettees had not yet arrived when I was there. After I walked to my car and worked my way back through the traffic to exit, I saw a Cincinnati Zoo van parked near the front door. I’m pretty sure that meant additional petting was happening or about to.

There are a number of smaller work areas, including some without windows. Most, if not all, of these are mixing and editing stations where a little isolation is a good thing.

As far as I know, the food trucks will not always be there, but they were certainly welcome on Saturday and will be there on Sunday if you want to grab a meal or some Graeter’s ice cream while checking out the building. The CSO quintet was piped outside to a nice park-like area, so I assume Sunday’s Gathering Space performances will be as well. That is where I listened while enjoying some black raspberry chocolate chip. The new place is finished, and the Welcome Weekend is half over. Cincinnati Public Radio is just about done packin’ and unpackin’.

ADDENDUM 29-Apr-2025: Although I was aware of the building’s forward-thinking mass timber construction and actually had it in mind as something to point out when I snapped the picture of the stairway, it completely got away from me during the writing phase. I was reminded of my glaring oversight as I listened to the official throwing of the switch at noon today. The core of this building is not steel or concrete. This is the first mass timber building in Cincinnati. Learn about mass timber here and watch a video about why Cincinnati Public Radio chose it here. 

Second Secular Season of Fish

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Yes, that image at right looks pretty much identical to the opening image in last year’s Lenten wrap-up post (A Secular Season of the Fish). In fact, this entire post looks about the same as that post, as well as every “season of fish” post I have ever done. It is simply a report on the seven fish fries I attended during the season. Six of them are new to me, and the seventh is a repeat I’ve had planned ever since I ate there last year.

The pictured map comes from the Cincinnati Fish Fry app, which I discovered and started using partway through the 2023 season. Anyone checking in at four or more fish fries through the app is entered into a prize drawing. I met the requirements in both years I have used it, but have won no prizes and expect the same this year. That’s not my goal in the least. I use the app to find fish fries, and it does a mighty fine job. I did not record the number of offerings in 2023, so cannot say whether this year’s drop from 87 to 73 is a trend or a blip. My guess is that, for commercial enterprises, it’s a trend. That is where most of the exits occurred. Participating commercial operations went from 16 to 4, while churches and others only dropped by one each, going to 53 and 16, respectively.

The first Friday of Lent coincided with the first day of Bockfest, and I had plans, weather permitting, to attend the Bockfest Parade at 6:00 PM. What could have been a scheduling dilemma was avoided by Pride of the Valley Masonic Lodge 95 and its 10 to 8 serving schedule. The pictured catfish meal, with coleslaw and a piece of cake hiding under the fries, was $12. Soda and water were $1. Some very good eating. And the weather did cooperate in allowing a dry parade. Check it out here.

I acquired the next week’s fish fix at Duwell VFW Post 7570 in Harrison, OH. The cod dinner was $15, and the iced tea was $2. Everything about the meal was good, but the standout to me was the inclusion of a human-sized portion of coleslaw. OK, maybe the amounts of both it and the same-sized mac & cheese were more than I needed, but it was a welcome change from restaurants that apparently think a little cup with a couple forkfuls of slaw is a serving.

I went outside the fish fry app for week three of Lent. I was in Darke County doing some chauffering for my stepmother, which allowed me to take in the fish fry in my old hometown. When I was five years old, we lived directly across the street from Ansonia American Legion Post 353, although the building has been replaced since then. $10 gets all the fish and fixings (there was applesauce, too) you can eat. Soda and bottled water was $1.

Week four saw me back within range of the app, though once again near its far western limits. Miller-Stockum American Legion Post 485, like the VFW of two weeks before, did not skimp on coleslaw.  This was the $12 cod dinner with a $1 bottle of water added.

I definitely got outside the lines on the fifth week of Lent. This is very much not a fundraiser for a non-profit. It won’t bother me at all if you count this as a complete fish fry miss. I was in Jasper, IN, and a search for fish fries revealed that one of the town’s most popular Lenten events was the Friday night seafood buffet at one of the town’s most popular restaurants. The restaurant, Schnitzelbank, was already on my radar, so it became my Friday fish find. It was a feast. At $28, it was decidedly outside the normal Lenten Friday budget, but that plate, which followed one from the well-stocked salad bar and preceded one with a couple pieces of fish and a dab of seafood alfredo, contains fried fish, baked fish, fried shrimp, steamed shrimp, new potatoes, scalloped potatoes, mushrooms, a mini crabcake, and a biscuit with apple butter. The Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier Dunkel was $5.50.

This was my second out-of-state fish Friday adventure for 2025. Florence, KY, Elks Lodge #314 is on the Dixie Highway, so I can claim a few historic auto trail miles this week. The tasty and filling cod dinner was $15, and the Yuengling was $3.25.

Here is the single repeat from last year. Gailey VFW Post 7340 is actually the only 2025 stop that was not entirely new to me. I was also here on Good Friday in 2024 when I ate beside a lady who had recently turned 100. The place was packed last year, but no more than half full this year. I was there very soon after it opened this time, so maybe it was my timing that made all the difference. Unfortunately, neither of the women I asked knew anything about the centenarian I had met, and one of them worked there as a bartender. The meal looked and cost the same — $12 — as last year. This Yuengling was only $2.

A Birthday in Hoosierland

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I set another personal age record yesterday. Even though the celebration was spread over three days and 300 miles, I am reporting it with a blog post rather than a multi-page trip journal for no particular reason although laziness could be a factor. The seeds were planted when I saw that Jason Wilber and Dave Jacques (John Prine’s long-time accompanists) had a concert planned in Chattanooga. I was interested, but before I could act on that, a date in Jasper, Indiana, was announced. When I realized that the Jasper concert was on my birthday and that a single front-row seat was available, I grabbed that seat and built the rest of the party around it.

Things got started on Thursday with breakfast at a favorite restaurant just inside the Indiana border. Folks at the State Line Restaurant make their own goetta (in and on the omelet) and strawberry jam (soon to be all over the toast), which makes it one of the best places ever to start a birthday party. The restaurant is not only on the state line; it is also on US-50, and that’s what I headed west on.

Although the trip was organized around a concert, this turned out to be the splurge of the outing. I visited the West Baden Springs Hotel with a group of friends back in 2007. At that time, it had only been open for a few months following a long closure and major restoration. I told myself I would stay there someday, and today, a little over seventeen years later, I did.

I stayed in this room and ate dinner at the hotel’s Ballard’s Restaurant, which uses a small section of the 200-foot diameter “Eighth Wonder of the World” dome as its dining area. The photos are from and of my table. That’s baked cavatappi on the plate and Trash Panda blonde ale in the glass.

Friday started with breakfast at Nila’s Place and ended with dinner at Schnitzelbank. When I began looking into Jasper eateries, Schnitzelbank consistently appeared as one of the best in town. I penciled it in as a likely spot for my birthday dinner. Then I went looking for a fish fry for the Friday night I would be in Jasper. It did not take long for me to discover that Schnitzelbank holds a very popular seafood buffet every Friday during Lent. So, a seafood buffet became my Friday fish fry, and I got rid of any problem I might have coordinating dinner at this very popular restaurant with the Saturday night concert. Here’s that buffet from one end to the other.

I definitely lucked out on my birthday breakfast spot. I’m pretty sure that everyone else at a rather busy Cranberries knew each other, and the waitress called me honey multiple times. I found a pretty good place for dinner, too. The fact that Pub ‘N’ Grub was about a block from the concert venue was a big plus. With the steady rain, I wished it were closer.

The Astra Theater is not exactly on the town square, but its entrance is accessed through an opening between two buildings at a corner of the square. It opened as a movie theater in 1936 and operated as a movie house until closing in 2002. After much refurbishing, it reopened in 2018 as a combination movie theater and performance venue.

That front-row seat was great for hearing and for seeing but not so great for photographing. Jason and Dave played a bunch of Prine songs and told a bunch of Prine stories. Sam Lewis and Andy West, both friends of John’s, joined them for a few songs and shared their own stories. This was a great kickoff to a tour they are doing, which will include a variety of guests at the different shows. Yeah, it’s a pretty good way to spend a birthday.

ADDENDUM 7-Apr-2025: Partially because they didn’t fit smoothly into the narrative and partly because I wanted to make sure the post was ready for Sunday morning, I omitted some of the things I did other than eating and sleeping. I doubt anyone is surprised that visiting breweries filled some of my idle time. I reached West Baden Springs way too early for check-in on Thursday, so I drove about fifteen miles south to check out Patoka Lake Brewing. On Friday, I tried out Saint Bebedict’s Brew Works in Ferdinand, and I also visited the Dubois County Museum in Jasper. I took no external pictures there and very few inside. A 1910 Sears Runsbout did catch my eye inside the large and impressive museum. Part of Saturday was filled with visits to the Santa Claus Brewing Company in Santa Claus and Yard Goat Artisan Ales in Huntingburg.

Cincinnati Celebrates Bock

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Predictions of rain or snow during this year’s Cincinnati Bockfest parade were on and off over the last few days, and with them, my own plans to attend. At the last hour, I decided to go, but at the last minute almost reversed course as a few drops of water appeared on my windshield on the way there. I ultimately put my trust in the weather reports and arrived at the parade launch point about forty-five minutes before launch time. The parade naturally took some hits during the COVID-19 pandemic, but I thought it had pretty much recovered when I was last here in 2022. In years past, this area has been filled an hour or more before the parade so maybe those rain predictions had succeeded in scaring off a number of attendees.

Even with what I thought was a slightly off crowd, Arnold’s was packed, and I didn’t even try to get inside. Instead, I joined this line at a booth where four local bock beers and pretzels from event sponsor Servatii were being served. The complete lack of sunlight and the slightly damp air made things feel quite a bit colder than the 46 degrees the thermometer registered.

Bock in hand, I roamed the staging area a bit and grabbed pictures of perennial favorites the Moerlein Goat and Arnold’s Pushable Bathtub. Sadly, Arnold’s Gas Powered Bathtub was nowhere in sight. The Clyffside float is new to me (I think).

I also got a shot of a self-propelled wheeled goat being interviewed and a group photo of the lovely but reserved ladies of the Monthly Parking Available dance team. This was one of three dance teams in the parade, but one of my longtime favorites, the Red Hot Dancing Queens, was not among them. Their Facebook page shows no activity since May 2023, so I fear they are no more. Bummer.

When the parade started, I missed seeing Jim Tarbell until he was directly in front of me and had to scurry up the street to get this shoddy shot of Cincinnati’s favorite politician, promoter, and parader. I’m not sure why I missed the 2023 parade. I missed — or at least mostly missed — the 2024 parade because of a concert scheduled for nearly the same time. The venue was right on the parade route so I did see a bit of it in passing. I even grabbed photos of Mr. Tarbell and the big goat.

I really didn’t do any better in capturing the 2025 parade than I did in 2024. I knew before I arrived I would not be following the parade to Bockfest Hall/Tent and sampling multiple beers as I’ve typically done. As it passed, I mostly watched and chatted with friends, with little effort put into recording it. Some of that was due to weather, but most of it was due to age. Though it seemed a little shorter this year than in years gone by, it is still one of Cincinnati’s coolest parades, and no doubt the four Official Bockfest Halls and eighteen Official Bockfest Venues were sites of great fun. I expect to be back next year, and maybe I’ll walk the parade route, but probably not. Bock on, young ‘uns. Bock on.

Cincinnati Chili Week II

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Cincinnati Chili Week is back. Today is the final day of its second coming, so you can still participate if you’d like. I’m taking the day off after participating in all six of the week’s previous days. Although there are no actual repeats from last year, the list of visited restaurants looks kind of familiar. Just one entry is 100% new to me, and I only avoided full on repeats by patronizing different locations of three restaurant chains. That is not the fault of event organizers. It’s mine.

There are several interesting restaurants on their list that don’t make my personal list of candidates because the only chili they serve is on cheese coneys or in bowls. I simply don’t care for cheese coneys, and although I don’t really dislike chili by the bowl, I can’t say that I really like it either. To be entirely honest, I guess what I do like is pasta and cheese, and I have learned to enjoy both chili and marinara toppings because I Iive in Cincinnati.

Monday: Chili Hut was not one of my stops during last year’s Chili Week, but I have eaten here before. Their primary mode of operation is as a food truck, but they do have a brick-and-mortar location in Loveland that kept regular hours for a short period and is now open on special occasions like Chili Week. Their chili is meaty and slightly on the spicy side. My only previous visit was during the summer of 2022 when the Loveland location was open full-time.

Tuesday: This is the only completely new to me restaurant on this year’s agenda. Since Cincinnati’s chili scene was started by a couple of Greek emigrants, having a 4-way at Mezedes, a restaurant started and operated by real Greeks from Greece, might be seen as going back to the beginning. The chili here is fairly meaty and definitely spicy but not painfully so,

Wednesday: This was my first time at Champions Grille, but I have eaten Empress Chili before, which is what they serve, so I can’t count this as a totally new experience. Empress is where Cincinnati Chili first began back in 1922, and at one time there were several Empress Chili parlors in the area. Just one remains, in Alexandria, KY, but there are other places like Champions that license the name and recipe. I feel that Empress is one of the mildest chilis in the area, so it might be a good one for noobies to start with,

Thursday: The rest of the week is filled with almost repeats. I included the original (but moved slightly) Blue Ash Chili in last year’s chili week. As many as three locations of this small chain have existed in the past. Now, there are just two. I believe I’ve eaten at the Tri-County location before, but it has been remodeled and was not at all familiar. The 4-way, however, was very familiar. It’s a personal favorite with what I consider just the right amount of spice, meat, and cheese.

Friday: The next almost repeat from the inaugural Cincinnati Chili Week is Dixie Chili. I visited the original location in Newport, KY, last year, and I know I have eaten at the restaurant on Dixie Highway, but the tiny chain has three locations, which means one remained for a first-time visit. This is the Covington store where I enjoyed a familiar and tasty 4-way.

Saturday: As I did last year, I made Gold Star the sixth and final 4-way supplier in this year’s run. Last year, I simply went to the nearest location which I guess could be called my “regular” Gold Star restaurant. I did not want to repeat that but had little criteria for selecting a different location from the 50+ partictpants in the promotion. The very first Gold Star was in the Mount Washington neighborhood of Cincinnati. It’s long gone but I decided to visit — for the first time — that neighborhood’s current Gold Star restaurant. I always think of Gold Star chili as spicy but it isn’t really hot spicy. It’s just flavorful spicy.

Happy Lupercalia

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Two weeks ago, I had nothing planned for this blog and was preparing to dust off an old Groundhog Day or Imbolc post when I spotted a notice for a motorcycle show on Groundhog Day Eve. That led to Beer and Bikes, and the Imbolc and Groundhog posts were left on the shelf for another day. When I found myself in the same situation around Valentine’s Day, I got to wondering if Valentine’s Day had the same relationship with older, often pagan, holidays that days like Easter, Christmas, and Candlemas have. After all, its full name is Saint Valentine’s Day.

For me, the answer is probably. Almost all online articles about the history of Valentine’s Day mention the Roman feast of Lupercalia but most stop short of firmly linking the two with phrases like “many believe” there is a connection or that a connection “has been suggested”. Count me among the many who believe.

Lupercalia comes from the Latin word lupus which means wolf. Theories about its association with the feast include a deity that protected herds from wolves and the wolf (pictured above) that kept Romulus and Remus alive so they could get Rome started. Some descriptions of Lupercalia imply it was a one-day event held on February 15. Others say it was a three-day affair that filled the 13th, 14th, and 15th.

Regardless of how long they say it lasted, everybody describes it as a quite raucous celebration. Participants were drunk and naked. Men sacrificed goats and dogs then whipped women with strips of the animal’s skins to increase fertility. At some point — which I assume was after the slaughter, skinning, and whipping — men and women were paired up by lot for the duration of the festival. Trysting with a possibly blood-splattered random lady after trying to make her more fertile doesn’t seem all that wise or even fun, but times were different.

That the Christian Church would want to replace that with something more sedate seems natural, but the origins of Valentine’s Day are not well documented. There seems to be no shortage of saints named Valentine. Two are connected to February 14 by virtue of reportedly being executed on that date in different years. The Eastern Orthodox Church celebrates a different Saint Valentine on July 6 and yet another on July 30. One of those guys executed on that special day in February was sentenced to die because he persisted in marrying Christian soldiers when the Roman emperor forbade it. That could be what initially got the day associated with love and romance, but I’m betting it was the Lupercalia lotteries.

Associating romance with the day really picked up steam after Chaucer published “The Parlement of Foules” in 1375, and a few Valentine cards were sent between lovers during the next couple of centuries. Then Cadbury came up with heart-shaped boxes of candy for the day in 1868, and Hallmark started printing Valentine’s Day Cards in 1913. It is predicted that Americans will spend $2.5 billion on candy this year and $1.4 billion on cards. Throw in jewelry, flowers, and romantic dinners, and the total bill is expected to reach $27.5 billion. I’m sure goats and dogs are also celebrating, but they’re doing it very quietly.

The opening photo is of the Capitoline Wolf in Cincinnati’s Eden Park, taken June 1, 2014. The statue has been admired, denounced, stolen, and replaced. Read about it here.

Beer and Bikes

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Descriptions of Cincinnati’s Rhinegeist Brewery often mention the size of the taproom. It is housed in the former Christian Moerlein packaging plant, and it is big. Knowing that whiffle-ball tournaments have been held there should give you some idea of just how big. Events I’ve attended here include the library’s Maker Fair and a birthday party that was one of about a half dozen that were happening simultaneously, but Saturday’s Garage Brewed motorcycle show was a first for me.

I had breakfast at nearby Dunlap Cafe, then dawdled until just a few minutes before the scheduled noon opening. A block-long line of attendees who hadn’t dawdled as long as I did greeted me when I arrived. The doors soon opened, and the line started moving, but there was a lot of sidewalk and three flights of stairs to cover, so the taproom was already hopping by the time I entered.

The FAQ on the show’s website said 55-60 bikes were expected, but I think the count was well above that. I won’t claim that I’m showing a representative sample, but it is a sample.

Putting two engines in a motorcycle involves some pretty impressive engineering in addition to some very impressive craftsmanship. There is a closer look at the Triumph from the other side here.

There were some bikes on an upper level I don’t believe I’d ever seen before. I snapped an “overhead” shot from the landing on the way there.

All those heavily modified motorcycles were pretty cool, but I liked the vintage stock entries — even those showing some patina — at least as much.  Of course, some of those vintage bikes looked even better than they did when brand new.