Category Archives: Event

CincItalia 2024

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It looks like CincItalia came into being in 2010 so it is not an ancient Cincinnati tradition I need to feel guilty about not attending in years gone by. But it was something I was aware of and thought sounded interesting so I was kind of pleased when things worked out for me on Friday. Yes, it is a church fundraiser and that is something I’m trying to cut back on but I realize that my flesh is entirely too weak to completely avoid a little backsliding now and then.

One of my first stops at the festival was in a large building where some presentations take place and where a couple of culturally significant items are displayed. One is a Sicilian Festival Cart from Palermo, Italy, described by the sign propped against it. The other is a plaster cast used in replacing a bronze statue stolen from Cincinnati’s Eden Park in 2022 as summarized on a nearby sign. A fuller telling is here. A photo of the currently displayed statue is here.

I was here for my evening meal and thought of it as essentially just another dining-out occasion and not so much as a wild festival. With that in mind, I made one “browsing” pass through the area identified in the opening photo as “Little Eataly” and then selected my three-course meal.

Toasted ravioli made a great appetizer and lasagna was perfect for the main course. That’s CincItalia Pils, brewed by West Side Brewing especially for this event, in the cup. Mini-cannolis were three for the price of two. I forced myself.

Plus there were plenty of food and beverage choices that I did not get around to.

No self-respecting Cincinnati church festival would omit several raffles and other games of chance but that’s another thing I did not get around to. I did poke my head into one of the cooking demonstrations but it was full and I’m pretty sure it would have been over my head anyway.

I definitely enjoyed the many “Leonardo’s Fun Facts” that I spotted but I know that I missed a bunch.

Even though I was there, as I’ve said, only for the food, I did stick around for a bit of the Naked Karate Girls show. These guys are definitely entertaining and one or two of them may even know some karate. If so, that would mean their name isn’t a complete lie.

The festival is a three-day affair with Saturday and Sunday presented as family-friendly events. I assume that means, among other things, that the carnival-style rides I saw parked around the edges will be operating. Saturday runs 3:00 to 11:00 and Sunday runs 1:00 to 9:00. Friday’s 6:00 to 12:00 run was billed as adults only but I’m not sure whether that meant a wild Bacchanalia throughout the grounds, some dirty jokes from the bandstand, or old folks nodding off at sundown. I left before I found out and before I nodded off.

ADDENDUM 2-Jun-2024: These photos were not part of the original post but, after tagging a Facebook link to it with the line “There’s a party on the Buddy LaRosa side of town.”, I thought them appropriate. Yes, LaRosa’s Pizza had a trailer there and San Antonio Church had a booth. That’s the church where Buddy sold his first pizzas using sauce made from his Aunt Dena’s recipe.

Melee Day

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I’ve read a fair amount of Sword & Sorcery fiction and played a little Dungeons & Dragons but my medieval role-playing never made it beyond washing down a turkey leg with mead at the local Renaissance Festival. On Saturday I was a slightly out-of-place spectator where some sword-related role-playing was happening with people who take it very seriously and have the bruises to prove it. This weekend Cincinnati Siege 2024, “The biggest armored combat event in Ohio”, is taking place in nearby Mount Orab under the auspices of the Cincinnati Barbarians.

It is a two-day event which means it is half over. 1-on-1 duels are happening today. I attended 5-on-5 melees yesterday. I arrived just a few minutes after the 10:00 AM opening time and found a meeting in process. Most of the participants were wearing yellow shirts which I later learned identified the event marshalls so I imagine they were going over rules and procedures. I can’t say for sure that they put extra emphasis on the “No Stabbing” thing but it seems like a good idea.

The first combat was scheduled for 10:30 and would actually start a few minutes after that. I used some of the time to look over the small merchandise area.

When I returned to the arena, metal-clad fighters were gathering and it wasn’t too long before the first of them began entering the wood-fenced field of combat.

And in short order, contestants were merrily clashing, bashing, and slashing — but not stabbing — each other in groups of ten.

Combatants are not allowed to rise once they have fallen and toppling opponents is the single goal of of every contestant. Sometimes that is accomplished by sheer strength, sometimes by a well-placed blow from a blunt but heavy weapon, and sometimes by simply crashing into them. The run-and-crash technique was often effective if the target was caught off guard but, if not, a runner’s momentum could easily be used against them.

Teams included unarmored members who carried extra weapons, supplied water, attached and adjusted armor, and just generally handled all the tasks that people encased in steel plates and chain mail can not do.

There was a cease-fire for lunch with music provided by Toxic Nobility from Dayton, Ohio. I had been looking forward to some relaxing and period-appropriate Gregorian chants but that was not to be. I have a hunch you can guess what style of music these guys performed. They were pretty good at it as far as I could tell.

The smashing and bashing, of course, resumed in the afternoon. Event advertising said that there were eighteen teams competing and I read somewhere that the teams fighting their initial bouts in the afternoon were not the same as those appearing in the morning. I believe that but can not verify it as I could understand very few of the PA announcements and could identify very few of the teams.

Eventually, the top teams from the morning session reappeared to compete with the top afternoon teams. I did not understand the overall tournament structure and standings but I didn’t know anyone so just rooted for everyone. One of the few things I did know was that each contest was “best of three” and in the afternoon I verified my guess that a round was ruled a draw if the last members of both teams fell over at the same time. This was not uncommon since falling warriors frequently took an enemy or two down with them. I also learned that a battle ended when a single member of one team remained against three or more of the opposing team.

There were no real injuries as far as I know but there were a few times when a fallen fighter was slow to get up. Medics were called in a couple of times but in all the cases I was aware of the player eventually stood up and walked away.

Things got even more serious in the final rounds and there were a couple of protested calls. Of course, I have no idea what they involved since I didn’t understand the rule, the violation, or the call or the lack thereof. In at least one instance, the protest was resolved by viewing a smartphone video taken by an unarmored member or friend of one of the teams.

In the end, all protests were resolved and champions were determined. For women they were: 1st Rust in Peace, 2nd Ordo Obelios “Waffles”, and 3rd Order of the Pegasus. For men they were: 1st Warlord Combat Academy, 2nd Knyaz USA – Medieval Fighting Club, and 3rd Company of the Pale Horse. I don’t believe the fellow at right was on any of those teams but I really liked him and wanted to post a picture. I think that’s because he somehow reminds me of Monty Python’s Black Knight. I’m sure there are many excellent videos of the day out there but my own smartphone recording of a rather mild random battle of the day is here.

2024 Appalachian Festival

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I know I have gone to the Cincinnati Appalachian Festival before but I don’t know when. It was first held in 1970 so I could have attended fifty years ago. That seems ridiculous, of course. Surely I’ve attended more recently than that. I believe that I must have but the truth is that I have no clear memories to support that belief and I most definitely have no physical evidence. As crazy as it sounds, it seems at least possible that my visit on Saturday was the first in a half-century or so.

Like any good festival, there were food vendors. There were also crafts and other items offered for sale along with numerous displays with nothing for sale at all.

Demonstrations of various aspects of life in the area during past times were offered. Blacksmithing and weaving were both very important parts of Appalachian life.

Maybe I should have spent more time among the vendors and taken more pictures of the exhibits but I guess I was more interested in the music. Two stages presented a non-stop parade of Bluegrass and other forms of American Roots Music. The only groups I saw on the Up Close & Personal stage were Sherry Stanforth & Tangled Roots and the Forest Hills Bluegrass Band. I had actually seen FHBB earlier on the other stage but did not immediately recognize them because I’d not heard the Dobro earlier.

Here is the Forest Hills Bluegrass Band on the Appalachian Heritage Stage with the fellow at stage-left playing a banjo. The middle picture is of the Wayfarers (check out that bass) with Sammy Adkins and the Sandy Hook Mountain Boys filling out the panel.

I also checked out some of the non-stop action in the dancing tent. That’s the Country Steps Cloggers in red and two different lines of the Kentucky Bluegrass Cloggers in blue.

As much as I enjoyed the bluegrass and cloggers, I believe I spent more time watching the Native American dancers.

A skilled drum circle backed the dancers and often supplied singing and chanting too. When the dancers and drummers took a well-deserved break, a talented flute player (and maker) filled the space wonderfully.

A lot of energy went into the dancing but it was quite apparent that the dancers had also put considerable effort into their authentic dress.

I have many more pictures of the Native American dancing but will move on after these scenes from a dance depicting ritualized combat between two warriors.

Coney Island was the site of the festival. The former amusement park had been operating as a water park until it was sold in December to a group associated with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra for development into a concert venue. The giant Sunlite Pool has already been demolished and I’ve no idea what else will disappear soon. I’m hoping that this entrance where riverboats once delivered patrons to the park — and through which I once walked while on a dinner cruise during 1988’s Tall Stacks — will be spared.

The festival continues today, May 12, 2024, 10:00-6:00.

2024 Hollow Earth Fest

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Once upon a time, in a land very very near, there lived a man who declared that the earth was hollow. Among the man’s disciples was his son who eventually erected a tombstone topped by a 3D representation of the earth with entrances to its interior at both poles. On Saturday, April 13, that marker was the focal point of the first-ever (AFAIK) Hollow Earth Fest.

That very near land is southwest Ohio with the Hollow Earth Monument standing in the city of Hamilton. The man buried beneath it is John Cleves Symmes Jr., who served in the US Army during the War of 1812 before moving to Saint Louis, MO, then Newport, KY, and then Hamilton, OH. He was the nephew of a more famous John Cleves Symmes who fought in the Revolutionary War, served in the Continental Congress, and bought and resold a major chunk of southwest Ohio. The elder John Cleves Symmes had no male children. It was his nephew who was named after him with the “Jr.” suffix often used to distinguish the two.

John Cleves Symmes Jr. died in 1829 at the age of 48 and was buried in the Pioneer Cemetery in Hamilton. When that cemetery was replaced by Greenwood Cemetery in 1848, his body was left behind for some reason. His son, Americus, erected the hollow earth marker in 1873.

The marker’s original carvings have become nearly unreadable and have been reproduced on metal plaques mounted on a pedestal below. The monument was rededicated in 1991 as noted by a fourth plaque on its otherwise blank side.

Music at the festival included a fife (or maybe flute) and drum trio, native American drummers and singers with spontaneous dancing in the audience, and a father-son duo.

Food trucks and other vendors were present including Municipal Brew Works with a Belgian ale, Earth Donut, brewed especially for the occasion.

There were also some more formal ceremonies and presentations but I did not do a very good job of documenting them. I can, however, show that the Daughters of the American Revolution, Sons of the American Revolution, and Boy Scouts of America were all represented.

It goes without saying that this was absolutely the best Hollow Earth Fest that I have ever attended. It wasn’t huge but it had a blend of history, patriotism, civic pride, and debunked science that I can see leading to real growth in the future. It’s the sort of thing that people of all ages, from all walks of life, and from all over and within the globe can enjoy.

Twice in a Lifetime

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Planning is far too strong a word to describe what I have been doing since August 21, 2017, but I have certainly been looking forward to last Monday’s big event since that date. That date is, of course, when I experienced my first-ever total solar eclipse near Hopkinsville, Kentucky. Near the end of my post on that experience, I mentioned a couple of future eclipses and noted that there was “a decent chance I’ll be around in 2024”. I made it.

This time there was no need to leave the state or deal with unfamiliar territory to see the eclipse. 99.822% obscuration was available just outside my door and nearly four minutes of 100% obscuration less than a hundred miles north in the county of my birth. There were plenty of events large and small planned along the entire path of the eclipse but the events planned for the only Darke County in the nation may have had the best and most natural name.

I would be viewing the eclipse from my friend Terry’s backyard just a few miles from Greenville, the county seat. I headed north pretty early in case the predicted heavy traffic actually materialized and started causing problems. I did not see much traffic but I did see evidence that it was expected. For days media of all sorts had been sharing precautions such as gassing up before heading into the anticipated congestion of the eclipse path.

With time to spare, Terry and I headed into town to see what we could see. Some organized events had taken place over the weekend and more were planned for Monday afternoon but it was way too early for those and there was not a carnival-like atmosphere such as I had seen in Hopkinsville in 2017. That doesn’t mean that eclipse chasers were not in town and beginning to stake out their spots. The biggest gathering of visitors was at the fairgrounds where rows of trailers and RVs belonging to members of the Wally Byam Caravan Club were parked beyond the view of my camera. Attendants guarded all the fairground entrances as well as some other open areas around town with PARKING $15 signs posted.

After cruising the town (which we did in abundance during our high school days) we returned to our viewing area to await the eclipse. A week ago, rain was predicted for the day. Then the prediction was mostly cloudy then partially cloudy. Eclipse day started out sunny but there were still clouds around and a partially obscured 100% obscuration remained a possibility. That did not happen and Terry, his wife Sue, and I were treated to an incredible show.

In 2017 I wrote that it was “kind of ridiculous for me to even try photographing the eclipse” because of the many experts who were capturing and sharing photographs. I did it anyway and I did it again this year. I watched a video and did some reading about photographing the eclipse yet managed to take even worse photos in 2024 than in 2017. But I did not let it interfere with enjoying the eclipse and I am very much enjoying the marvelous photos the pros and near-pros have been sharing.

The length of totality I experienced in 2024 was nearly 50% higher than that of 2017 (159.7 vs. 235.4 seconds). The awe I felt may have been slightly different because I now had somewhat of an idea of what to expect, but it was in no way diminished. I believe that’s Venus visible to the right of the sun but I’m not certain. I also took a picture of a planet visible during totality in 2017 but I did not post it. Here it is. There was also an unused photo of the horizon taken during totality in 2017 but it is not nearly as interesting as the light on the clouds in 2024.

I headed home after a couple of hours and some pizza and didn’t initially find it too crowded. However, a few miles south of Dayton traffic on I-75 began to back up and I slipped off onto OH-741. I don’t know if that was a brief or long-term backup or what the cause was in either case. Traffic was flowing normally on OH-741, I easily reached home, and have my dark glasses tucked away until August 12, 2045.

A Secular Season of the Fish

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Partway through last year’s Lenten season, I decided that I no longer wanted to support the Catholic (or any other) Church by patronizing their Friday Fish Fries. I explain that decision at the end of Another Season of the Fish. I still like fish and therefore still like fish fries and I am more than happy to support the many non-religious organizations that take advantage of the season by operating their own piscatorial-powered fundraisers.

Between the first and second weeks of Lent 2024, I discovered a Cincinnati Fish Fry app, similar to the one I recently used for Inaugural Cincinnati Chili Week. My unaudited count of the listed sites identified 54 churches, 16 commercial operations, and 17 others. The “others”, of course, were my targets.

I began the 2024 season at American Legion Post 513 in Mt. Healthy, Ohio, where catfish and cod were both available. I went with the catfish. This tasty meal was $11 plus $2.25 for the Yuengling draft.

The second week’s fish was a bit more expensive than last week’s but the meal included one of the biggest pieces of cod I have ever seen. Everything in the picture plus a piece of chocolate cake was $17 at Cincinnati Shriner’s.

Plans for the evening ruled out a week three fish fry dinner so I decided to do lunch at a place I’ve frequently thought of visiting in the past. This is the McDonald’s location where the first filet-o-fish sandwich was served. It is also Ohio’s first McDonald’s and my only stop at a commercial restaurant this year. Although the location was listed in the Cincinnati Fish Fry app, the app refused to let me check in here. That original filet-o-fish sold for 29¢. My tab was $9.48 but I did get fries and a drink.

My second Americal Legion visit this year was at Post 318 in Anderson Township, Ohio. The pie added $2.50 to the total. Without it, my only baked fish (cod) meal of the season would have been an even $12 including the drink (iced tea).

Week number five had me venturing across a state line to the Wilder Fire Department in Wilder, Kentucky. Fish, shrimp, and chicken were available with no options other than white or rye bread (which I declined). The entire meal, including the green (because it was almost Saint Patrick’s Day) beer and an unphotographed piece of cake with green (because… you know) icing, was $14.

For the second week in a row, I was in Kentucky and drinking Bud Light. Last week’s green Bud was only $1. This week’s yellow Bud was $2. The rest of the meal at Newport Elks Lodge #273 was $13 and it just might be the best of the year.

Lent officially ends on the Thursday preceding Good Friday. Many institutions wrap up their fish fry operations before the Easter weekend is reached but enough don’t to make a seven-week season of fish easily accomplished. I finished my 2024 seven-week run with this $12 meal at Gaily VFW Post 7340. Food is ordered at a central location then hand-delivered so you need to find a seat before ordering to supply a table number. A couple sitting alone welcomed me to their table. A lady in a wheelchair soon occupied the spot to my left and she was immediately greeted by several locals who were delighted to see her. I never did catch her name but learned that she was 100 years old then learned through personal experience just how peppy and friendly she was. She told me she had been coming to the post since its founding in the 1950s. I admitted that this was my first time there but promised to come back to see her next year. Now I have something to look forward to.

Inaugural Cincinnati Chili Week

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Today, February 25, 2024, is the very last day of the very first official Cincinnati Chili Week. With all the noise that has been made about this iconic Cincinnati food over the years, it is really hard to believe that this did not happen long ago. While waiting, I had my own “Chili Week” in 2013. Because I was in control, I synchronized it with this blog’s schedule and got in visits to seven different chili parlors for Chili All Week and It’s Cold, Too. With the official Chili Week week running Monday through Sunday, one day remains when the Sunday morning post is published but that also means it can include only six days of chili.

Eleven years is a long time ago. Of the dozen chili parlors covered in that 2013 post and a follow-on 5 More 4s second chapter, four have closed and another has relocated a block away. Three of the closures were of a brand’s only location and three brands that were part of my 2013 dozen have chosen not to participate. The result is that exactly six of the dozen chili brands I wrote about in 2013 were candidates for visits during the six days of Cincinnati Chili Week preceding this post. Coincidence? Perhaps, but, despite being saddened by the closures, I’m happy to be spared the need for tough choices for the official version of my unofficial Chili Week.

Monday: In 2013, the Monday of my full week of chili saw me at one of the two Empress Chili parlors that remained. That location has since closed so this year I headed to Empress Chili in Alexandria, KY. Other restaurants in the area serve Empress brand chili but this is the only place where the restaurant itself carries the Empress name. Their slogan, “The first edition of a Cincinnati Tradition” comes from the fact that Cincinnati-style chili originated in the Empress Chili parlor on Vine Street in 1922.

Tuesday: An article that mentioned Price Hill Chili was the seed that led to the 2013 week of chili and it is where I ate on the Sunday that got that week rolling. That was my first time ever at the restaurant but I’ve been back multiple times since then and was happy to make it my second stop for the first official Cincinnati Chili Week.

Wednesday: The spread of Cincinnati chili across the region began when an Empress Chili employee set up shop in an 8 by 30-foot space across the river in Newport, KY. The original, but greatly expanded, Dixie Chili location is still in operation and two more restaurants have been added. Today, owner Spiros Sarakatsannis ate lunch (chili & salad) and conducted a little business at a nearby table while I enjoyed my third 4-way of the week.

I went overboard on Wednesday and indulged in dessert while in Kentucky. In the same spirit that area sweet shops have served macarons and beignets disguised as hamburgers during Burger Week, Frosthaus, in Covington, served this sundae disguised as a 3-way. I had no idea that spaghetti ice cream even existed but apparently, it is fairly common in Germany and it’s the perfect basis for a Chili Week dessert.

Thursday: Cincinnati Chili Week is wrapped around National Chili Day and this is it. I celebrated the doubly special occasion at Blue Ash Chili. In April 2021, the store where it all started in 1969 was closed and the operation moved about 500 feet away to this strip mall location. It’s not as photogenic as the standalone building was but it looks great on the inside and the chili is just as good as it ever was. My standard order is a 4-way with onions but that’s a stock 3-way in the picture because that’s their Chili Week special.

Friday: There’s a lot to like about Camp Washington Chili including the fact that it is just a few blocks away from the American Sign Museum which makes it the perfect stop before or after a visit to the museum. I followed my fifth Chili Week check-in with a stop at the museum where I could hear sawing or grinding on the other side of the wall as work on the expansion area continues.

Saturday: Even though Cincinnati Chili Week promotional materials say there are 50+ Gold Star locations taking part in the event, I had my sixth and final 4/3-way of the week at the same one I visited for that 2013 blog post. At around two miles distance from my door, it’s the closest.

Skyline Chili is the 140-store gorilla that’s not in the room. According to event organizers, “They opted not to participate as they did not want to discount or offer a $5-$7 special.” I doubt the absence does much harm to the company and it did simplify my schedule for the week. C’est la vie.

The First Day of Pompeii:
The Exhibition

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Pompeii: The Exhibition opened at the Cincinnati Museum Center on Friday. I would have been in the first group admitted and possibly even the first person admitted if a guard had not blocked the stairs and escalators until precisely 10:00 AM. That was the official exhibit opening time but an unguarded elevator a few feet from the stairs meant that a group of patrons were receiving their pre-entry briefing when I and the rest of the walkers arrived. It’s always good to begin the day with something funny.

Following our own briefing, we entered, received another short briefing beneath the screen in the opening picture, and were then treated to an introductory video on that screen. At the video’s end, doors opened on a life-size marble statue of the goddess Aphrodite. Much like the moon, this is the view of the goddess that we most often see although there is another.

Pompeii was a prosperous port city and art was plentiful. Public spaces and private homes contained decorative mosaics, frescoes, fountains, and more statues.

There were plenty of practical items too. Examples are scales used in the market, fishing hooks, and cooking utensils. I know I’m not the only one with a cast iron skillet that looks almost exactly like this bronze one from Pompeii.

I suppose these items are also practical in their own way. Gladiatorial contests were primarily held for entertainment but staying alive was definitely a practical concern for the participants. Next to the displays of weapons and armor, a holographic video about the various types of combat got its share of attention.

Also getting attention was a small room offset from the primary flow. Both entry briefings had described the special markings for this adult-oriented display in case parents wanted to make sure their charges avoided it. If any did, it wasn’t obvious. A sign begins with the astute observation that “Ancient Roman sexual customs were different from those of our contemporary society.” Back then arriving with bells on really meant something.

Theatrical entertainment was quite popular in all of Rome including Pompeii. Actors wore masks to establish their characters. Here is a fresco depicting a pair of masks and a full-size marble mask. Both of these were purely decorative as masks actually worn on stage were made of lighter materials such as linen.

Another set of warnings in those entry briefings concerned loud noises and bright lights in the “4D eruption theater”. I do not doubt that these could be disturbing for some but most will find them underwhelming. Same with the slightly moving floor which I assume is the fourth dimension. If you enter expecting a high-definition video of the eruption shown on a large flat screen you will see an extremely good one. Expect more and you might be disappointed.

Images of the casts of the victims of the eruption are the most familiar and also the most disturbing. These are not human bodies but shapes formed within the volcanic ask where bodies once were. The quote on the wall in the first picture is from Pliny the Younger who watched the eruption from a little more than a dozen miles away and then documented it. In this exhibit, many of the casts are displayed in front of large photographs which I assume depict the situation in which they were found.

Exit is, of course, through the gift shop where we are reminded that striking a good final pose will greatly increase your chances of appearing on a shot glass or refrigerator magnet in a couple of millennia.

Aphrodite’s butt and iffy shot glasses aside, this is an impressive exhibit that provides a detailed and accurate look at a real Roman city of two thousand years ago. Pompeii: The Exhibition runs through July 28.

Happy Imbolc (Again/Exact/Maybe)

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One of the few details I remember from Tracy Kidder’s 1981 The Soul of a New Machine is the note that one of the engineers left behind when, frustrated by nanosecond timing issues in the computer they were designing, he simply took off. The note read, “I’m going to a commune in Vermont and will deal with no unit of time shorter than a season.”

What a wonderful idea. Problems seem to just naturally appear in dealing with time shorter than a season even when the time in question is much longer than a nanosecond. There is a problem of sorts in simply measuring a season. Something that I must have known but which did not really register with me until recently is that not all seasons are equal. And by seasons, I mean the periods between solstices and equinoxes. A simplified explanation is that Earth moves around the sun in an ellipse rather than a circle and that it travels faster relative to the sun when it is closer to it. I was reminded of this when I tried to calculate the time and date of Imbolc and realized that dividing an exact fourth of a year in half just didn’t work. The actual lengths are approximately 90 days for spring and autumn, 94 days for summer, and 89 days for winter. Yeah, that doesn’t add up to 365 days but throwing in the word “approximately” makes it OK.

When I spoke of calculating the time and date of Imbolc, I meant the point halfway between winter solstice and spring equinox. I suppose I should quit calling it that. Even though Imbolc may have originally been linked to that point, many who celebrate it have more or less attached it to the calendar date February 1. Same thing with Saint Brigid’s Day. Similarly, Candlemas and Groundhog Day have been nailed to February 2 even though they too were once associated more tightly with winter’s midpoint. Of course, even before they were detached from astronomy and attached to calendar dates, these were seen as holidays rather than instants. Back when humans first started recognizing solstices and equinoxes and points halfway between them, they were no doubt happily dealing with no unit of time shorter than a day.

I first wished the world Happy Imbolc in 2016 then repeated it in 2023. Those posts used a photo of a sign at Gobbler’s Knob taken on my only Punxsutawny Phil visit. This time it’s a picture of Howdy Doody and Princess Summerfall Winterspring which I think fits better with all that talk of seasons.

By my calculation, the instant halfway between the most recent winter solstice and the next spring equinox is 10:47 on February 4, 2024. I am not 100% certain that is accurate and I’m not even sure what I should call it if it is. But it’s all I’ve got and, since it is a mere 4 hours and 47 minutes after this blog’s normal weekly posting time of 6:00 AM, I have decided to synchronize this week’s post with that cosmic event.

Happy Winter’s Midpoint! We’ve made it halfway.

Meltdown Winter Ice Festival

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The last weekend in January seems like a pretty safe time to have an ice festival in Richmond, Indiana. The average temperature there for both the 26th and 27th is 32°F which sounds just about perfect. But averages are not guaranteed. If the town’s Meltdown Winter Ice Festival had taken place a week or two ago, organizers might have wondered if people would brave the near-zero temperatures to attend. On Friday, their top concern was probably whether or not the ice sculptures would survive the day’s temperatures which were pushing fifty.

This is the Meltdown’s eleventh year but it somehow hid from me for the first decade. A significant part of it escaped me this year, too. I timed the hour-and-a-half drive to give me time for dinner before the first item on the schedule. I parked near Jack Elstro Plaza where big blocks of ice were being unloaded and food trucks were setting up. I ate at a local restaurant as I worked my way to the historic district. An online map indicated where sculptures would be but those I walked by were empty. It eventually sunk in that all carving was to be done on-site and was just starting Friday evening. All ice festivals I’ve attended had on-site carving but others also had some sculptures finished elsewhere and trucked in ready to display.

I continued along the path indicated by the map. It included several blocks of Main Street and it was on Main, in the vicinity of Jack Elstro Plaza, that I saw my first ice sculpture of the day. A fellow adjusting the sponsor tag as I approached told me it had just been finished a very short time before. There was already evidence of melting and I had to wonder if it would make it through the night.

Back at the plaza, things had picked up considerably while I was walking and eating. Several sculptures were nearing completion and perhaps would soon be positioned around town like the one I had seen on Main Street.

A couple completed sculptures appear to have already been moved from the carving area to display positions around the plaza. Or maybe they had been carved in place. I’m still not really sure how all this works.

The food trucks were all operating and the igloos scattered around the plaza area had a few occupants although I believe they had entered out of curiosity rather than a need to keep warm. I went through all of the food trucks looking for a cup of coffee but came up empty. Maybe if it had been fifteen or twenty degrees cooler, some enterprising vendor would have coffee or hot chocolate on their menu. And maybe those igloos would have been completely filled.

So I learned that showing up when the event first opens is not a wise move in terms of looking at completed sculptures. I had intentionally picked Friday over Saturday because I thought Saturday might be too crowded. I had only myself to blame for feeling a little disappointed when I started for home.

I was not disappointed enough to drive back to Richmond on Saturday but I did check in on things remotely. Rain might have reduced crowd size somewhat but there was still a good turnout and there was never any thought of canceling the festival’s main event, the Meltdown Throwdown, because of the rain. I was surprised to learn that this timed competition between two teams of carvers was being streamed live for the first time. The teams carve in three ten-minute segments. The screen captures are from the beginning of the second and third segments and after it is all over. The winner, selected by audience volume, was the iguana from Team Ice with a tongue carved separately and attached in the final moments. The guitar on Team Fire’s rocker was also a separately carved attachment. A second guitar was smashed in dramatic Pete Townsend fashion as time expired