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Posts Tagged ‘midwest’

High And Dry

Posted in Columbus, weather, tagged , , , , on July 17, 2012 | 1 Comment »

Here in the Midwest, we’re in the enduring a serious heat spell and drought.  We’re not alone; much of America is experiencing significant drought conditions.

The prevailing color of the world around us is brown.  The grass is brown, the parched, cracked, dusty earth is brown, and the dessicated creek beds are brown, too.   When we do get rain, as we did on Sunday, it’s in the form of a violent gully-washer that comes down in torrents, bounces off ground baked rock-hard by 90-degree temperatures and bright sunshine, runs briskly off to the storm sewers, and leaves as quickly as it came.  We’re way overdue for a long, soaking rain; the kind that replenishes the water table, lets the earth become moistened, and returns the blades of grass to some semblance of greenness.

The weather is the weather, but when familiar streams begin to run bone dry you start to anxiously scan the cloudless skies, listen carefully to the weather report, and consciously root for rain.  At times like this, I’m glad I’m not a farmer and dependent on the fickle heavens for my livelihood.

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A View From A Bourbon Street Balcony, April 18

Posted in America, Photography, Travel, tagged , , , , , , on April 18, 2012 | 1 Comment »

Bourbon Street is a pretty amazing place.  An endless stream of humanity flows past, checking out the bars and strip clubs and oyster bars and other places to take a load off and sip an Abita and suck down an oyster with some lemon juice.  Loud music, mostly from cover bands, floods out into the night air.  Most of the passersby have that bright alcoholic sheen and stumbling step, and many are clutching an outsized beer bottle or a daiquiri glass.

Coming from the buttoned-down, Bible-thumping Midwest, it’s a culture shock to be in a place where people flout open containers of alcohol and a fine restaurant can be found right next to a sleazy strip club.

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When Darkness Season Falls

Posted in Columbus, Ohio, weather, tagged , , , , , , , , on December 6, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

Some people celebrate the extra hour of sleep we gain when we “fall back” every autumn.  Other people dread that day, because the simple act of turning back the clocks ushers in a season of seemingly constant darkness.

It’s dark when we get up in the morning, dark when we drive to work, and dark when we sit at our desks and turn to our work.  It’s dark when we we leave at night, dark as we drive home, and dark when we walk into our front doors.  When you couple the shroud of darkness with the unrelentingly overcast, wet, and cold weather that characterizes a Midwestern winter, you have concocted a powerfully grim brew that many people find difficult to handle.  There’s a reason why seasonal affective disorder has been defined by health care professionals.

I think there are two keys to successfully handling the darkness season.  First, maximize your exposure to daylight.  Get out of the building and into the open air for lunch and on weekend days, and if the skies are clear turn your face sunward.  Even the shriveled intensity of the winter sun is better than no sun at all.

Second, during the dark hours at home, always have a project to work on.  It might be reading a collection by a favorite author, or baking Christmas cookies, or updating your iPod.  One winter Kish and I decided to watch The Sopranos from beginning to end, and it was a very enjoyable exercise that helped to make the days go faster.  The projects will help to occupy the idle hours and leave you with a feeling of accomplishment — and perhaps even an appreciation for the darkness season and the opportunities it offers.

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Help Needed In Showcasing Columbus

Posted in Columbus, Ohio, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on May 28, 2011 | 1 Comment »

We’re being visited for the weekend by a friend who is new to Columbus.  They are from an urban, East Coast location and have never been to the Midwest, so they already are enjoying the charms of backyards, green grass, white fences, and rolling countryside.

But what distinguishes Columbus from other Midwestern towns that have those same features?  How do we showcase our fair city?  Having never been to Columbus as a tourist, I don’t have the slightest idea of what tourists do when they visit.  We’ve suggested Easton Town Center, the Wexner Center, the Short North, and German Village.  It’s not football season, so an OSU game is out.  The Ohio State Fair hasn’t started yet.  What else?  The Ohio Statehouse?  The Arena District?  The Park of Roses?  It makes me realize that so much of what I really like about Columbus is not showy landmarks, but instead the people and the pace.

Am I missing anything?  I’d appreciate any suggestions!

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In The Midwest, The Civil War Is Never Very Far Away

Posted in America, tagged , , , , , , , , on April 29, 2011 | 1 Comment »

The recent commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the attack on Fort Sumter and the start of the Civil War brought that horrible conflict back into the consciousness of many Americans.  In many of the cities and towns of the Midwest, however, the reminders of the Civil War are ever-present.

I was in Indianapolis recently, and the gigantic Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument at the heart of Monument Circle is a good example.  Although the monument recognizes the contributions of soldiers and sailors from many conflicts beginning with the Revolutionary War, the portion of the monument that deals with the Civil War is the most memorable.  The devastating statistics of Indiana’s contribution to the Civil War effort, noting the hundreds of thousands who served and tens of thousands who died, are set forth in simple, precisely carved numbers on the facade.  The statistics appear under the heading “War For The Union.”

As one Hoosier mentioned to me on my visit, it is no accident that the numbers appear on the side of the monument facing due south.

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S.A.D. Dance

Posted in Humor, Ohio, weather, tagged , , , , , , , , on February 28, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

This is the time of year when everyone in the Midwest tries to figure out whether they have Seasonal Affective Disorder — S.A.D. for short.

S.A.D. is a condition that is associated with the winter.  The symptoms will sound familiar to anyone who has experienced a Midwest winter:  weight gain, depression, increased sleep, lack of energy, withdrawal from social activities, and feeling sluggish and irritable.  They think that S.A.D. may be caused by a lack of ambient light and changes in body temperature.  Given these symptoms and causes, how in the world do they distinguish people who have S.A.D. from people who just hate the winter and grimly plug ahead through the cold, and the wet, and endless sunless days?  How many people out there love icy blasts and revel in the overwhelming greyness of a Midwestern winter?  Are there people who are actually excited about a day when the overcast sky is battleship grey rather than slate grey or platinum?

I sometimes wonder about the “discovery” of these new emotional conditions.  After all, people were dealing with winter for millennia before somebody decided there was a condition called S.A.D. Centuries ago, when native Americans toughed it out during the harsh Midwestern winters, were braves and squaws afflicted with S.A.D.?  If so, how did the chief react when Brave Eagle overslept and wasn’t able to take down a deer or buffalo because he felt sluggish?  And did the tribes perform some kind of traditional S.A.D. dance to try to convince the Great Spirit that it was high time to bring an end to the dim, frigid days?

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Water Wealth

Posted in Environment, World, tagged , , , , , on August 19, 2009 | 1 Comment »

This story about dropping water table levels in India, apparently due to excessive groundwater pumping, just reaffirms what I think will become an increasingly obvious fact: one of the greatest attributes of the American Midwest is an abundance of water. According to the U.S. EPA, the Great Lakes hold more than one-fifth of the world’s supply of fresh water, and the only bigger source — the polar ice caps — aren’t exactly accessible. In addition to the water stored in the Great Lakes, the Midwest is home to large rivers, like the Ohio and the Father of Waters itself, the mighty Mississippi. Our winters aren’t exactly filled with brilliant blue skies, but they do feature lots of rain, and snow, and sleet, and freezing rain, and other forms of bone-chilling precipitation that cause us to cinch our overcoats tighter and mutter under our breath.

The Great Lakes, shown from space

The Great Lakes, shown from space

The question for the Midwest is how to maximize this resource and put it to best use. To their credit, the state governments of the eight Great Lakes states, including Ohio, have been proactive on the issue. They have entered into the Great Lakes Compact, which provides for management of the fresh water in the lakes and, for the most part, bans diversion of the waters to locations outside the Great Lakes basin. The Great Lakes States therefore have said to the world, if you want our water, you’ll need to come to the American Midwest to get it. I think people ultimately will do just that.

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The Long, Cool Summer

Posted in Columbus, weather, tagged , , , , on July 19, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

Our summer in Columbus has been delightful so far — cool, crisp mornings and days that, for the most part, have stayed in the 70s and low 80s. We’ve managed to avoid the kind of stifling, muggy weather that you would expect to find in the midwest in the middle of July. This weather data for Columbus for July confirms this perception and shows that, for the most part, our high temperatures and our low temperatures have stayed below, and in some cases well below, the average temperatures for this time of year. It makes taking the morning walk with Penny a very pleasant experience.

I understand that the theory of global warming does not hold that the temperature every day, in every part of the world, will be higher than the historical average and constantly increasing. Still, it is hard to accept the concept of increasing global temperatures that require draconian changes in our activities when our summer nights are in the 50s and people dining outside are wearing light sweaters to stay warm.

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Buy American?

Posted in Politics, The Economy, tagged , , , , on April 5, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

I heard this piece on NPR – www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102728244 — recently and it made me laugh. The point of the story was interesting; it noted that many of the people involved in supervising and monitoring the actions of GM and Chrysler drive cars built by foreign-owned companies, and as a result there is an element of hypocrisy when those individuals, and the Administration and Congress generally, urge everybody else to “Buy American.”

(Of course, “Buy American” itself is a bogus concept for two reasons. First, free people should buy the goods that they think are best for them, regardless of the ultimate ownership of the company that manufactures those goods. “Buy American” is the battle cry of a company that does not sell competitive products. Second, how do you determine what is an “American” company? Many companies that began overseas have significant plants and investments in America. Honda of America Mfg., Inc., which has plants in Marysville, East Liberty, and Anna, Ohio, is a local example of this reality. Those Honda plants employ thousands of people, purchase component parts from other companies with plants in America, and build excellent cars, engines, and other products. Given those facts, why should I feel compelled to buy an ugly, gas-guzzling Chrysler sedan when I can buy a well-made, less expensive Acura that gets great gas mileage?)

The moment that really made this piece memorable, however, came as the story noted that people who live in the midsection of the country are much more likely to buy cars manufactured by Ford, Chrysler, and GM than are those who live on the coasts. The piece then speculated that this discrepancy might be due to differences in “education.” What a great example of the condescension that many East Coasters feel for those of us in the Midwest! We’re just a bunch of ignorant hayseeds out here in the heartland, ready to be gulled by any ad campaign! I was glad to see that some of the internet comments to this piece pointed out this little example of East Coast bias.

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