Fun Fact(s) Friday: Ohio & Scotland

 

As I am in Scotland today, thought it might be fun to share some quirky Ohio - Scotland connections.  There's strangely quite a few...so this may be the first post of many.

1.  For fellow craft beer drinkers, Brewdog, which originated in Ellon, Scotland, opened its first US brewery in Columbus, Ohio in 2017.

2.  The total area of Scotland is 77,933 sq km, and the total area of Ohio is 116,096 sq km.  So this humourous video is actually correct about Scotland being smaller than Ohio.

3.  The Scottish Highlands and the Appalachian Mountains were once part of the same mountain range. Much of eastern and southeastern Ohio is covered by the Appalachian mountains or foothills.

4.  Scotland and Ohio share a fascination with folklore and effigies of serpents.  Researchers from University of Glasgow and the Ohio state government have even worked together to study Ohio's Serpent Mound.

Happy Hogmanay!

Ohio: The Birthplace of Serial Killers? (TBT)

Ted Levine as Jame Gumb in The Silence of the Lambs

From January, 2011:

The other day I heard a snippet of news regarding the sentencing in a kidnapping and murder case that took place in Mount Vernon around the time that I returned to Ohio this autumn.   
Ohio is often lauded for its production of U.S. presidents and astronauts but it is unsettling how many serial killers have an Ohio connection, whether it be by birth or where they perpetrated their crimes.
Strangely enough, even fictionalized serial killers are somehow connected to Ohio.  The manhunt in The Silence of the Lambs leads investigators to the killer's fictional hometown of Belvedere, Ohio and the serial killer Jame 'Buffalo Bill' Gumb was portrayed by Ted Levine, who grew up in Bellaire, Ohio (also a filming location for the film).




Charles Manson - Self-styled guru and leader of the 1960s religious cult the Manson Family, Charles Manson is a convicted serial killer who never actually killed any of his victims himself.  Born "no name Maddox" on November 12th, 1934 in Cincinnati, Ohio.


Jeffrey Dahmer (Cannibal of Milwaukee) - (May 21, 1960 – November 28, 1994) was an American serial killer and sex offender. Dahmer murdered 17 men and boys – many of whom were of African or Asian descent – between 1978 and 1991, with the majority of the murders occurring between 1987 and 1991. His murders were particularly gruesome, involving rape, torture, dismemberment, necrophilia and cannibalism. On November 28, 1994, he was beaten to death by an inmate at the Columbia Correctional Institution, where he had been incarcerated.  Dahmer was born in Wisconsin but grew up in the affluent Bath, Ohio.


Neal Bradley Long - A native of Dayton, Ohio, born in 1927, Long was a violent racist who could not abide the specter of black progress in his home community.  Indicted on seven counts of murder, Long was found competent for trial in November 1975 and was eventually convicted of two counts, drawing consecutive terms of life imprisonment . To protect him from black inmates and vice versa - Long was confined at the U.S. Medical Center for federal prisoners in Springfield, Missouri, under conditions of maximum security.


James Oliver Huberty - Mass murderer who killed 21 people and injured 20 more in a shooting spree at a McDonald's in San Ysidro, California on July 18, 1984.  Huberty moved his family from Canton, Ohio to California after he was fired from his welding job and couldn't find new employment.


Larry Ralston - convicted for murdering four women in the 70s in southern Ohio (Cincinnati area)


Thomas Dillon - serial sniper/spree killer who shot and killed five men in southeastern Ohio from 1989 to 1992


Michael Swango (Doctor of Death) - intern and resident at OSU Medical Center, where one of his four admitted murders took place


Gary & Thaddeus Lewingdon - plagued the city of Columbus, Ohio and outlying areas with a series of indiscriminate and brutal murders that claimed the lives of 10 people in the late 70s.  


Alton Coleman & Debra Brown - carried out a six-state killing spree in 1984; Coleman was executed in 2002 in Lucasville's Southern Ohio Correctional Facility and Brown is still in prison in Marysville


Eric Elliott & Lewis Gilbert - responsible for cross-country crime spree, that included three murders and a kidnapping and began in Newcomerstown, Ohio (their hometown)


Moreland Baby Killer - Authorities in Dayton, Ohio, took four children from the custody of Regina Moreland's after the death of her 2-year-old grandson, the fourth child to die in her home in the past seven months. "The Morelands believe from the bottom of their hearts that no one is to blame for this tragic occurrence," said Jon Paul Rion, the family's attorney. In contrast, Sgt. Carl Bush said investigators believe Regina might be somewhat responsible for the dying children and plan to review the previous three deaths that, pointedly, were ruled as probable homicides. 


Anthony Sowell - strangled a series of women in his Cleveland home


William K. Sapp - sentenced (in 2004) to death for raping and killing at least three women in Springfield, Ohio


Donald Harvey (self-proclaimed 'The Angel of Death')


Cincinnati Strangler, Posteal Laskey - raped and strangled seven mostly elderly women in Cincinnati, Ohio between 1965 and 1966


The Cleveland Torso Murderer (aka Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run) - responsible for 12–13 murders in the Cleveland, Ohio area in the 1930s






Blog posing the question, 'Why are there so many serial killers from Ohio?'


What is it about Ohio and serial killers?


Another day, another Ohio serial killer

Fun Fact Friday: Dickens in Ohio

While nowadays, I encounter more Charles Dickens in Rochester and surrounding parts of the United Kingdom.  Yet, Dickens does have a history and left a lasting impression in the Buckeye State.  Plus, my mom is a huge fan!

Dickens called Ohio "all that America had been, is and would be" following his month-long visit in April 1842 to Cincinnati, Lebanon, Columbus, Upper Sandusky, Tiffin, Sandusky and Cleveland.
Drinking in Ohio with Dickens

Dickens in America

Fun Fact(s) Friday: They All Laughed

While watching an interview with Fred Astaire on The Dick Cavett Show, I was struck by the number of Ohioans mentioned in the Gershwin tune 'They All Laughed', which Astaire performed upon request. Although the only state mentioned in the lyrics is Missouri, at least five of the nine influential people cited have some connection to Ohio.  While I would love to count Fred Astaire as an Ohioan, he (like Dick Cavett) was born in Nebraska.  (Yet, it's now known that Cavett has a closer connection to Ohio than his work with Jack Paar and that's because he's married to Ohioan Martha Rogers.) Now, back to the song, the following names dropped do all bear some connection to Ohio:

Christopher Columbus:  Yea, yea, yea, I know he's an Italian that sailed for the crown of Spain, 'discovered' America and contributed to the spread of syphilis but he's also the namesake for Ohio's capital.   The world's most authentic and museum-quality replica of the flagship Santa Maria is docked in Columbus, Ohio.
(Ohio tree that predated 1492 falls)

Thomas A. Edison:  The man responsible for the phonograph, kinetoscope and the home-friendly light bulb was born in Milan, Ohio.

Orville & Wilbur Wright:  The brothers that taught the world to fly, owned a bicycle shop and lived nearly their entire lives in Dayton, Ohio.
Aviators:  The Wright Brothers by Bill Gates

Rockefeller Center is named after the philanthropist John D. Rockefeller, Jr., who was born in Cleveland, Ohio.

Update:  Was pleasantly surprised to hear this exact version of 'They All Laughed' played in a cafe in Islington last week.

Ohio Impromptu

I first stumbled upon this Samuel Beckett playlet months ago when I was gathering ideas for entries centered around poetry, which was suggested by my friend Jessica and cousin Eric.  These two have degrees in writing and literature while I, a biologist, recall being terrified by the prospect of presenting an analysis of Heinrich Heine's poetry for a German Literature class full of writing/literature majors in college.  I still would like to know whose brilliant idea it was to have the only science major in the entire class attempt that task when, to this day, the only poetry that actually 'speaks' to me is that of William Blake and Shel Silverstein.  So before I attempt more scary tasks in the realm of poetry, I'm going to go with something I feel a bit more at home with: prose, especially of the morose and existential variety.  
        

And now seems a more appropriate time than any to tackle this entry  as I look at the books belonging to the young man from whom I'm subletting.  This young German student has an apparent penchant for Beckett as three of the 12 volumes on his shelf are either about or by the Irish playwright.
         

The playlet 'Ohio Impromptu' was written in 1980 as a favor for S.E. Gontarski, who requested a dramatic piece to be performed at an academic symposium in Columbus, Ohio in honor of Beckett's seventy-fifth birthday.  While the location of the symposium most likely factored in the title, it has also been suggested that the title is very important in understanding the play (see Kesim):  

"Ohio" is the answer of an American children's riddle which goes "what is high in the middle
and round at the ends or high in the middle and nothing at the ends". The answer to both
versions is "Ohio". This gives the central theme of Beckett' s play: "two voids or "nothings"-birth and death- and between the high of life, the double inhalation and exhalation of breath that sandwich life" (Ben-Zvi, 175)

Yet, I always think it's best for people to experience and decide such things on their own so here is the playlet, in its entirety (approximately 10 minutes), performed by the amazing Jeremy Irons:   Ohio Impromptu

RIP "Macho Man" Randy Savage

After hearing the unfortunate news of "Macho Man" Randy Savage's death today, I stumbled upon the fact that he was actually born in Columbus, Ohio in 1952.  The professional wrestler, minor league outfielder, rapper, and Slim Jim spokesperson will always hold a special place in the hearts of many Americans of my generation.

'Macho Man' by The Village People

Slow Hand/God and the English/Ohio Countryside

I've often been asked what Ohio is like by folks in England and I typically reply that it's a lot like where they live. By most of their responses, I suspect that they oftentimes don't believe me. Perhaps they would believe Slow Hand/God/Eric Clapton, who has a home in Columbus, OH and has shared pretty much the same sentiments as I, although in an interview with Larry King: "I have a house in England. I have a house in France, a house in Columbus, and a house in Antigua. (Columbus) is great. Well, it is very much like England to me. It has the same sort of countryside, rolling hills, you know, small kind of civilized communities of people that all know one another."

From Sex and Drugs to Domestic Bliss

Sunshine of Your Love