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!

John Denver and a Saturday Night in Toledo, Ohio

Another topic of conversation during Christmas with a friend's family in London was John Denver.  I think he came up because we watched 'The Muppet Christmas Carol' (1992), which I apparently had never seen before, and discussed other Muppet ventures.  It was needling me that there must be some sort of Denver connection with Ohio and a little searching provided confirmation. 

There's a great write-up about Denver's song 'Saturday Night in Toledo, Ohio' in Toledo History Box.

Goosebumps

While staying with a friend's family over Christmas, I was introduced to the charming programme Between the Covers and we had some nice discussions about books that we love and would like to read.  Interestingly, it popped up in discussions that many churches in the UK had raised concerns about the Harry Potter books when they became so popular with young readers.  This was particularly interesting as the parents in this family have worked their entire adult lives with the Salvation Army, which was a church that raised concerns, while their son met his wife through competitive Quidditch.  As we discussed that so many previous children's books and tales have featured witchcraft and fantastical characters, it was mentioned that it was strange that these books were a concern while the series Goosebumps didn't seem to ever be.  This seemed odd to them as they consider the books to be very scary but I honestly don't know myself as I have never read any.  The only thing that I really know about Goosebumps is that their creator/author R.L. Stine is from Ohio and went to The Ohio State University.

History of No-Dig Gardening (a crossover with my other blog 'Canterbury Tails & Herbs')

My first introduction to no-dig gardening was on the first community farm where I worked in east London.  A large patch of the farm where work vehicles had been parked when the trainline was worked upon meant that there was a large disused area of compacted earth.  With the help of permaculture garden designers, a no-dig garden was constructed and is now very productive.  Just as it sounds, it is a process of gardening without reliance on cultivation of the land but rather adding organic matter to the top and allowing nature to take its course.  Today's most wellknown promoter of no-dig gardening is Charles Dowding but the origins of the philosophy or practice, as well as actual technique, are still debatable.  

While trying to learn more to experiment with and start a no-dig patch on my new community farm site in west London, I came across an excellent episode from Empress of Dirt podcast: Empress of Dirt's 'A Brief History of No-Dig Gardening Through the Years'.  According to their research, the first no-dig gardening influencer was Edward H. Faulkner of Elyria, Ohio.  His book Plowman's Folly (1943) was written for farmers and is now considered a milestone.  Faulkner was a county agent in Kentucky and Ohio, a Smith-Hughes teacher of agriculture, and a soil and crop investigator.

"Probably no book on an agricultural subject has ever prompted so much discussion in this country."--Louis Bromfield

Tracy Chapman...I had a feeling I could be someone

Yesterday, walking through the shopping centre between work and my train, I heard 'Fast Car' by Tracy Chapman and tears, as usual, came to my eyes as I heard the refrain: 

And I-I had a feeling that I belonged

I-I had a feeling I could be someone, be someone, be someone

Chapman was born in Cleveland, Ohio and like 'Fast Car' has always written music about poverty, human rights, and other social issues.  As a social activitst, she has done significant work for Cleveland City Schools, including an essay contest called 'Crossroads in Black History'.  

AAREG entry for Tracy Chapman:  From Ohio to the World

Unexpected but happy reference

In my mind, science fiction and fantasy have always been the best creative genres to metaphorically explore the truths of the human condition.  This is incredibly true for Wynonna Earp, which not only addresses nearly every familial and interpersonal relationship imaginable with sensitivity, wit, and honesty, but had the guts to make a healthy, endearing, and sexy queer love story front and centre in its imagined world.  The beauty of this inclusive storytelling built a tremendously loyal fan base of Earpers, who provide love and support to one another much like the characters in the show.  #WayHaught

While collectively fighting the good fight against demons, your favourite characters don't always get along; they have arguments, misunderstandings, and sometimes betrayals whereby you think there may be no remedy or turning back.  Yet, they always eventually work through those differences and actually grow through heartfelt but imperfect communication.  It's all a bit messy but obviously full of love.

This may be a shitshow, but its our shitshow. 

- Wynonna Earp

Since the series is set in the American west (think OK Corral), filmed in Canada with a mostly Canadian cast, it simply didn't seem possible that Ohio would ever get a mention and I was okay with that because of all of the amazing elements that the show provides as mentioned above.  You can't have everything, can you?  Yet, to my surprise, when Doc says he has a list of places he wants to visit now that he is leaving Purgatory, moving on, and wants Wynonna to join him, on the top of his list is the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio!  Wynonna queries if they can visit Miracle, Montana on their way to Cleveland to visit their daughter Alice, who was sent away for her safety.  ❤

While I hope the fan effort is successful to #BringWynonnaHome for another season, it is heartwarming to know that Ohio will play some part in her journeys. 

Academic article about Earper fandom by an Ohio State University PhD candidate

Great recap/review of the episode 'Old Souls'  

Wynonna Earp came at a dark time for queer women (LA Times) 

Billy Wilder & the American Image

I have loved Billy Wilder films since childhood and was intrigued how often Ohio is mentioned.  Why does Billy Wilder love the state of Ohio?  Perhaps the Austrian-born screenwriter/director envisaged the state as quintessentially American (right or wrong).  Perhaps, we may never know.

Some of Wilder's interesting references to Ohio in films:

Love is the hardest thing in the world to write about. So simple. You've got to catch it through details, like the early morning sunlight hitting the gray tin of the rain spout in front of her house. The ringing of a telephone that sounds like Beethoven's "Pastoral." A letter scribbled on her office stationery that you carry around in your pocket because it smells of all the lilacs in Ohio.  - Don (Ray Milland), The Lost Weekend

Don (Ray Milland) also deduces that Helen (Jane Wyman) is from Toledo, Ohio by looking through her coat and finding that its maker's mark is from Alfred Spitzer.   Well, and I guess since she's from Ohio, it shouldn't be surprising that one of the presents she gives Don is 'the new Thurber book'.


The character of Sugar, played by Marilyn Monroe in the film Some Like It Hot, hailed from Sandusky, Ohio.


In Stalag 17, the cynical POW Sefton (William Holden) drills the German-speaking Price (Robert Graves) about his self-proclaimed Ohio upbringing since he suspects that he is a Nazi spy planted in the prisoner barracks.     SEFTON

Shut up!
                              (slaps his face)
                         Security Officer, eh? Screening 
                         everybody, only who screened you? 
                         Great American hero. From Cleveland, 
                         Ohio! Enlisted right after Pearl 
                         Harbor! When was Pearl Harbor, Price? 
                         Or, don't you know?

                                     PRICE
                         December seventh, forty-one.

                                     SEFTON
                         What time?

                                     PRICE
                         Six o'clock. I was having dinner.

                                     SEFTON
                         Six o'clock in Berlin. They were 
                         having lunch in Cleveland.
                              (to the others)
                         Am I boring you, boys?

                                     HOFFY
                         Go on.

                                     SEFTON
                         He's a Nazi, Price is. For all I 
                         know, his name is Preismaier or 
                         Preissinger. Sure, he lived in 
                         Cleveland, but when the war broke 
                         out he came back to the Fatherland 
                         like a good little Bundist. He spoke 
                         our lingo so they put him through 
                         spy school, gave him phony dogtags --

My absolute favourite reference:  In the beginning of Sunset Boulevard, Joe Gillis mentions in a voice-over how embarrassing it would be to move back to Dayton and work again for the Dayton Evening Post if he is unable to make it in Hollywood as a screenwriter.


The Fortune Cookie Jack Lemmon and Walter Mattheau their first movie together was filmed at St Vincent Charity Hospital as well as the old Cleveland Stadium.  CBS cameraman Harry Hinkle (Jack Lemmon) gets injured when football player Luther "Boom Boom" Jackson (Ron Rich) runs into him while he is covering a Browns game at Cleveland Stadium.   Saint Mark's Hospital is in reality St. Vincent Charity Hospital. In 1966, the scene was filmed on East 24th Street in an older section. In 1966, St. Vincent Charity had completed a then-ultramodern curved Hospital building.

Terminal Tower was the base for the law firm used. In one image, one can see Erieview Tower and construction of the Federal Building's steel skeleton.  Scenes were filmed at the Cleveland Browns vs Minnesota Vikings game at Cleveland Municipal Stadium on 31 October 1965.

Text originally from 2011.