Plummeting

Happy Saturday morning. And we’re baaaack! From a family visit in Michigan, so a state of normalcy returns. And it was a super great time, thanks to all for putting up with me (Marcia, they thoroughly enjoyed). Before this deteriorates, I’ll start with a bit of coffee.

You might have noticed that with coffee I have a lot of opinions. Having said that, I should be honest and let you in on the fact that on that, the coffee, subject I really am an ultracrepidarian.

Word of the Day: ultracrepidarian, “A person who expresses opinions on matters outside the scope of their knowledge or expertise.”

The day after we returned from Michigan it would have been Jim Morrison’s birthday (would have been a year younger than me). The last song he with the Doors recorded was for a long time one of my favorites; “Riders on the Storm.”

‘Tis the Season – at least according all the media hype it’s now the beginning of the season. Locally, underway is a push to continue to keep the Elf(vis)-on-the-shelf as part of the annual traditions. Personally, I am more attuned to the ‘Elvis’ fun.

It’s been said that Santa is forcing Elvis-on-the-shelf to follow his sled in a pink Cadillac convertible. Also, that the car’s 8-track sound system keep looping the song; “Return to Sender”, all to remind the thousands of little ‘darlings’ that they should ask mommies return their gifts and not Santa.

See, America is straining to jump into what is pounded in our heads as Christmas Spirit.

I’m going a different route. Tomorrow, I have a ticket to listen to my favorite Jazz trio in their Harmonies for the Holidays program, along with an ensemble of ten vocalists from Northern Kentucky University “performing timeless holiday songs in rich jazz arrangements.”

Really looking forward to what promises to be a wonderful afternoon.

It’s Snowballs – This past week, December 10, 1989, our Bengals coach Sam Wyche started yelling at fans to stop throwing snowballs onto the field. It was a home game, Cincinnati Bengals vs the Seattle Seahawks.

“Well the next person that sees anybody throw anything onto this field, point em out, get em out of here, you don’t live in Cleveland, you live in Cincinnati!”

Sometime during my career, I was returning home from overseas travel and was upgraded on my short leg back to the ‘Nati. That trip home found me sitting next to Sam Wyche. By then it had already been some time since he’d coached the Bengals. I remember that I thought he had lost weight (but then I was a good bit heavier). Nothing unusual, an enjoyable seatmate who was not averse to talking pleasantries.

Bodies galore – isn’t it strange that during the Victorian era Cincinnati was the hub of ‘grave robbing’ and ‘body snatching’. At the time, Cincinnati had a large hospital and mortuary science presence, and these facilities needed ‘volunteers’ on which to practice and perfect their trade.

The trade was profitable and had a multi-state presence. In fact, Cincinnati ‘retrieved’ cadavers were shipped to even places such as the Medical School at UM in Ann Arbor MI.

Luckily, this grave robbery business all came to a rather quick halt. Actually, it was the body of the son of a U.S. President which began a hue and outcry regarding the practice. It was the body of John Scott Harrison who was the son of U.S. President William Henry Harrison and was also the father of U.S. President Benjamin Harrison. The body’s ‘snatch’ was quickly spotted the morning after the funeral and a search began. It was his son who found the body of his father hanging in a closet at the medical school.

So strange – It’s almost storybook material, the uber strange research tower at the University of Cincinnati is so strange and overbuilt that engineers said it couldn’t be safely blown up.

We watched Crosley Tower being built floor by floor between 1968 and 1971. Named after Powel Crosley Jr., the founder of Crosley Radio – WLW’s “Nation’s Station,” historic Crosley Baseball Field, the Crosley car, and offering the first refrigerator with extra shelves (the ‘Shelvador‘) placed in a hollowed door (loved by the ladies).

This all-concrete blockhouse of a building has almost no windows, thick walls, and a shape that made it look more like ‘Phillip’s head’ screw than a campus research lab.

Inside, folk said that pipes could burst at will, and water dripped from ceilings – the building stank.

And they were right; the building was reinforced so that demolition crews must cut it apart piece by piece. And that is exactly how it’s being brought down.

I remember seeing it finished for the first time and was awed by both size, and how it was the oddest-looking building on campus. A few more million dollars and it’ll be a long-forgotten memory. See, shortly after next month will begin the UC Board of Trustees approved “$47.3 million remediation and demolition of Crosley Tower”. Don’t worry, it’s not their money!

Life is AMAZING!

Dirk

BONUS POINTS:

For most of humanity’s existence the norm was that you were born at home. Yours truly ditto. A midwife delivered me at home and our family doctor (family friend) stopped by later just to make certain all was well.
The question this week, which of the listed US Presidents was the first to be born in a hospital?

1) “Howard Taft”
2) “Jimmie Carter”
3) “Woodrow Wilson”
4) “Grover Cleveland”
5) “Dwight Eisenhower”
6) “Lyndon B. Johnson”
7) “John F. Kennedy”

Last week answer – #4, “cosmic fuel”