Liberal Arts Blog — Ohio (Part One) The Rivers, The US Presidents, The Wright Brothers, The Astronauts (Glenn and Armstrong)
Liberal Arts Blog — Sunday is the Joy of Humor, Food, Travel, Practical Life Tips, and Random Stuff Day
Today’s Topic: Ohio (Part One) The Rivers, the US Presidents, the Wright Brothers, the Astronauts (Glenn and Armstrong)
Are you from Ohio? Have you ever lived there? What do you know about Ohio that the rest of us might delight to learn?
This is the 39th post in a zigzagging cross-country tour of the United States. So far we’ve been to Biloxi, Mississippi, Mobile, Alabama, Asheville, North Carolina, St. Louis, Missouri, and Madison, Wisconsin. We’ve been to Kansas, Kentucky, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. More recently we’ve been to Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Pennsylvania, Michigan, New York, Georgia, Tennessee, Maryland, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Alaska, Hawaii, Oklahoma, Virginia, Rhode Island, Montana, Oregon and last time, Washington.
Have you been to the National Air Force Museum in Dayton? Have you seen Picasso’s “La Vie” in the Cleveland’s Museum of Art ? or Monet’s “Weeping Willow” in the Columbus Museum of Art? How about Van Gogh’s “Wheat Fields with Reaper” at the Toledo Museum of Art?
Did you ever stay at the Golden Lamb Inn in Lebanon, Ohio? Past guests have included 12 US Presidents, not to mention Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Daniel Webster, and John McCain.
Experts — please chime in. Correct, elaborate, elucidate.
A LITTLE GEOGRAPHY: Lake Erie (Cleveland and Toledo), the Ohio (Cincinnati). the Miami (Dayton), the Scioto (Columbus), the Cuyahoga (Cleveland)
1. The Ohio River was the boundary between slave states and free states before the Civil War. One of the most famous passages in American literature is that describing Eliza’s crossing of the partially frozen Ohio River clutching her child.
2. The Cuyahoga River that bisects Cleveland caught fire at least 14 times because of industrial pollution but has since been cleaned up.
3. The Miami River is named after an Algonquian people that were forced to relocate west.
NB: The Scioto, a tributary of the Ohio, is the longest river entirely within Ohio and runs through the state capital of Columbus, the second most populous city in the Midwest after Chicago. and the third most populous state capital after Phoenix, Arizona and Austin, Texas! Who knew! This is why I love writing these posts!
A LITTLE HISTORY — became a state in 1803. Original capital: Marietta (named after Marie Antoinette the last Queen of France prior to the French Revolution, but don’t forget that if was not for France we’d still be a British colony)
1. Ohio claims to be the home state of 8 US Presidents. But Virginia disputes the claim. The key issue is whether what matters is the state in which you born or the state in which you were living when elected. By the former Virginia gets William Henry Harrison (above) By the latter Ohio does. Ohio officially uses a “hybrid standard” — counting both those born in or living in when elected to get to 8. But using that metric Ohio is in a tie with Virginia. The metric by which Ohio beats Virginia is using the living in the state when elected standard. But this reduces Ohio’s count from 8 to 6 (versus Virginia’s 5). Isn’t math fun? Is there a metaphor here?
2. Ohio’s official list of Presidents from Ohio: William Henry Harrison (1773–1841), he only served for 31 days, the shortest tenure of any US President, Ulysses S. Grant (1822–1885), the leading Union commander during the Civil War, Rutherford B. Hayes (1822–1893), James A. Garfield (1831–1881), Benjamin Harrison (1833–1901), grandson of WH, William McKinley (1843–1901), assassinated by Leon Czolgosz, an anarcho- socialist, William H. Taft (1857–1930), and Warren G. Harding (1865–1923).
THE “BIRTHPLACE OF AVIATION” (Wright Brothers) and Don’t Forget the Astronauts (Neil Armstrong and John Glenn)
1. “In 2003, Congress officially declared Ohio as the “birthplace of aviation” over North Carolina, because Dayton was the home of Wilbur and Orville Wright….Historians believe the Wright Brothers conducted research, drew up design plans, and created their aircraft inside their bicycle shop on the west side of Dayton. All Ohio license plates now display the words, “birthplace of aviation.”
2. “According to NASA, 23 Ohio natives have gone on to become astronauts, more than any other state. Of these numerous astronauts are Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, and John Glenn (the first astronaut to orbit the earth in 1962, who later served as US Senator from Ohio from 1974–1999).”
3. “Dayton, Ohio is home to the National Air Force Museum, which displays over 300 aircrafts and missiles.”
FOOTNOTES — the flag, the seal, the motto (“With God all things are possible”) Flag: the only non-rectangular US state flag
Seal
5 reasons why Ohio will always be the state of aviation
Columbus Museum of Art — Wikipedia
Cleveland Museum of Art — Wikipedia
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
“Make your own Bible. Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your readings have been to you like the blast of a trumpet.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
My spin — then periodically review, re-rank, and exchange your list with those you love. I call this the “Orion Exchange” because seven is about as many as any human can digest at a time. Game?
LAST FOUR YEARS OF POSTS ORGANIZED THEMATICALLY:
PDF with headlines — Google Drive
ATTACHMENTS BELOW:
#1 A graphic guide to justice (9 metaphors on one page).
#2 “39 Songs, Prayers, and Poems: the Keys to the Hearts of Seven Billion People” — Adams House Senior Common Room Presentation, (11/17/20)
NB: Palestine Orion (Decision) — let’s exchange Orions, let’s find Rumi’s field (“Beyond all ideas of right and wrong, there is a field. Meet me there” Rumi, 13 century Persian Sufi mystic)
YOUR TURN
Anything miscellaneous to share? Best trip you ever took in your life? Practical life tips? Random facts? Jokes?
Or, what is the best cartoon you have seen lately? or in the last 10 years? or the last 50?
Or what is your favorite holiday food? Main course? Dessert? Fondest food memories? Favorite foods to eat or prepare?
This is your chance to make someone else’s day.
Or to cement in your mind a memory that might otherwise disappear. Or to think more deeply about something dear to your heart. Continuity is key to depth of thought.
