Spirit of 76

For the second consecutive year, I’ve created a post specifically for my birthday. I didn’t expect to. I did it last year to note a milestone in age and a change in appearance. I’m doing it this year primarily to record some thoughts. I ended last year’s post with the observation that “birthdays are good occasions for remembering all the folks I’ve known who have been denied the privilege of growing older”. I intentionally used “older” rather than “old” without knowing the significance that the difference would hold this year. During the year since my last birthday, a very close friend of mine stopped growing older. John was born a few years before me so the privilege of growing old was something we shared. Sure, lots of people live to be much older but lots more don’t.

The day before John turned seventy-six, he commented about having that number of trombonists serenade him for his birthday. On the day. I shared a Youtube clip of The Music Man‘s signature song.

I recalled that as my own seventy-sixth birthday approached but thought of a couple of other things associated with the number 76. One was (Union) 76 gasoline and another was The Spirit of ’76 painting shown at left. Probably because I would like to think I have some spirit left at age 76, I felt more of a connection with the painting than with the gasoline, and I felt more of a connection with the painting’s title than with its appearance.

Archibald Willard, who painted The Spirit of ’76, was an Ohioan. Some of his more notable work is in the somewhat nearby Fayette County courthouse. Apparently, Willard also liked the word “spirit”. The three largest of his 1882 murals are The Spirit of the U. S. Mail, The Spirit of Electricity, and The Spirit of the Telegraph. While those were no doubt high-tech futuristic subjects in 1882, today all three would probably be combined in something like The Spirit of the Internet, and Willard would have to come up with a couple additional ideas to fill all three walls.

The image with the old phrase on an updated background at the top of this post should now make sense but in case it doesn’t, I’ll explain. A few days ahead of my 76th birthday, I sat on a bench in Washington Court House, Ohio, gazing at the Fayette County courthouse in which there are three “Spirit” murals painted by the man who created a painting in 1875 that he called Yankee Doodle but which was soon renamed The Spirit of ’76. Happy Birthday to me.

A more readable version of the sign in that last picture is here.

Short, Sweet, Wet, and Irish

It took place on March 17 so obviously it’s Irish. It’s wet because of the heavy rain that fell before it started and the light rain that fell later. It’s sweet because that’s what most short things are said to be and it’s short because that’s what Hamiltonians wanted. The title quite accurately describes the first-ever Hamilton Ohio Saint Patrick’s Day Parade which those Hamiltonians labeled Ohio’s Shortest. I think the parade route was about 575 feet long but the margin of error isn’t much less than the distance separating the piper leading the parade and the fire engine at its tail. I’ve since learned that the piper is Thomas Eickelberger and that the fellows next in line are Jim Goodman, from Municipal Brew Works, and Michael Ryan, Hamilton’s Vice Mayor. Hamilton’s Mayor, Pat Moeller didn’t actually march in the parade but I did get a shot of him chatting with Eickelberger during the staging.

Municipal Brew Works was listed as the parade’s starting point with the route ending around the corner and up a block at Tano Bistro. I got a full frontal of that bicycle leaning against the brewery before the big kickoff.

Here is the parade after turning the corner. The official end point is behind me but not everyone made it that far. Many departed the route when they reached The Casual Pint or The Pour House. Tano and Chick’nCone got a few of the marchers and would get more later but most initially headed to the adult beverage dispensaries including MBW back at the start point.

The city of Hamilton is no stranger to celebrating Saint Patrick’s Day or to promoting shortness. The parade was followed by the second annual O’DORA Dash. DORA stands for Designated Outdoor Refreshment Area where adults can carry alcoholic beverages and, as everyone knows, adding an ‘O’ will make anything Irish. Despite the word “dash” in its name, speed in covering the 0.1K course doesn’t seem particularly important. In fact, I saw no evidence of any time or speed-measuring devices anywhere near the event.

Much of the chatter about the event concerns not spilling your beer and I saw several participants meet that requirement by chugging their beverage at the beginning. But the official goal was to get as much liquid (either green beer or local Pahhni Water) as possible to the other end. True competitors were not deterred in the least by winds taking down the finish line marker. The Hamilton Community Foundation will benefit from the fundraiser regardless of who won or how much rainwater was in their cup.

I was already planning on attending the parade when I found out that someone I know would be playing at North Second Tap and Bottle Shop. When I got there, the new-to-me Bedel and Hibbard were on stage. Elijah Bedel and Sam Hibbard perform mostly American folk music on a variety of instruments. That’s a gourd banjo on the right side of the first picture and the banjo and fiddle on the picture’s left side are part of the mix too. Today’s song list was naturally slanted toward Ireland. Not only were they doing an afternoon set, but they would also be returning later to close out the night.

Although I’ve seen Rob McAllister do sets that would qualify as American folk music, that would not be happening today. Today it would be Dead Man String Band at full throttle. Usually checking out a guitarist’s pedal board will reveal an array of effects boxes with buttons. The Dead Man’s has real pedals and he uses them all. And somehow, replacing the tom rack on a bass drum with a microphone just seems to fit.

With the exception of the cold, I enjoyed everything about my day in Hamilton. I especially appreciated the sheer fun of the parade which kind of reminded me of the Cincinnati parade before all the sanctimonious family values posturing took over. The O’DORA Dash was fun to watch and I enjoyed a few malt beverages although none were green. And I appreciated hearing music in a place where others appreciated it too. Can there be any doubt that a place is cool when there is a wizard on the soundboard and a leprechaun on the bar?

Hearts and Blues Afire

I originally planned to do what I did for last year’s Inaugural Hearts Afire Weekend, and just attend the 2023 Hearts Afire Weekend on Saturday. By showing up mid-afternoon in 2022, I had been able to see some of the ice carvings in both darkness and daylight. Then I realized that Saturday was the day of the Cincinnati Winter Blues Experience and it wasn’t long until friends convinced me I should be there. So, without actually reading the schedule, I headed to Loveland Friday evening thinking I’d get to see at least some of those ice sculptures. Nope. There were plenty of festivities happening but no ice carvings. I told myself they were probably delayed because of the warmish temperatures but eventually learned that the plan had always been to have all the frozen art appear on Saturday.

So I headed over to Cappy’s where the Charity Date Auction was in full swing — inside. Outside, only a couple of teddy bears were hanging out with the roaring fire and the giant Chair-ity Date Auction chair. Inside the big tent, local TV and radio personality Ken Broo was MCing the auction. When a representative of auction beneficiary Women’s Health Initiatives Foundation came forward to talk about the foundation, she ended up getting auctioned off as part of the Saturday night group date.

Although I did pop into a couple more local businesses, I basically made it an early night with intentions of coming back on Saturday to check out those ice sculptures. As I headed home, I snapped a shot of this Loveland home decorated very appropriately for the location and the holiday.

I made it back on Saturday to see the ice carvings. I’m sharing photos of a few starting with these on or near the bike trail. I generally avoid posting pictures of children and really make an effort to avoid posting children’s faces even when I’m sure they are very happy ones.

Here are half of the six sculptures that Cappy’s, where last night’s auction was held, has this year. Some of them are sponsored by suppliers.

I did not have time to hang around for the ice carving demonstrations but I did get to watch one being started while a couple of future carvers looked on. I also spotted some blocks of ice being prepared for carving.


Remember that event that kept me from the ice sculptures tonight? There were eleven bands performing at the Cincinnati Winter Blues Experience and that included seven that I’d not seen before. I caught just the last few notes of The Mojo Blues Cats and got no picture. Here are the other six.

To be honest, I think I may have seen The Tempted Souls Band before but if so I don’t believe it was this lineup. Tullie Brae’s piano was initially missing in the mix but things were soon sorted and sounding good. Ivy Ford led her trio with good vocals and very good guitar work.

Gabe Stillman fronted his own trio as did King Soloman Hicks. Hicks might have been best of show. GA-20 is an unusual two-guitar trio. The band’s guitarists took turns playing bass lines on their fat strings while the other took the lead.

The Blues Experience was a one-night affair but Hearts Afire continues through today, Sunday, February 12.

Happy Imbolc Again

I’ve made it known that I use canned posts when my world is “too busy or too boring for a current events piece”. Although my life was neither this week, the things that kept it from being boring were not the sort of things that make interesting reading. I was on the verge of scheduling a Trip Peek when I decided to instead reuse this article from 2016.

gknob2010Groundhog Day has long been one of my favorite holidays. In fact, attending America’s biggest Groundhog Day event in Punxsutawney, PA, was among the first things I did with the newly available time that retirement brought. The photo at right was taken at 4:58 AM, February 2, 2010. Sunrise was more than two hours away and the temperature was four degrees Fahrenheit. I had a good time and I’m glad I went but the experience did not lead to plans for an annual return. Standing outside in pre-dawn single-digit temperatures is something I prefer to discuss in past tense only.

I credited my original fondness for Groundhog Day to a belief that it had no religious connections and was basically folklore that had been adopted by some Pennsylvanians largely to promote silliness. While both of those claims are sort of true, there is more to it. I started to doubt the “no religious connections” when I discovered that America’s Groundhog Day shares its February 2 date with Christianity’s Candlemas. But sharing a date does not a connection make and there are no direct ties apparent between Groundhog Day and any of the three events (presentation of the child Jesus, Jesus’ entry into the temple, and Mary’s purification) Christians attribute to the day.

February 1 is also a day recognized by Christians. It is the day that Saint Brigid of Ireland is reported to have died and is celebrated as her feast day. Before Saint Brigid was born (in 451 they say) a Gaelic festival was celebrated about this time to honor a goddess also named, perhaps by coincidence though probably not, Brigid. I have to say “about this time” because man-made calendars had not yet taken over and feast days were not yet tied to specific numbers on pages. Brigid’s was associated with a point halfway between Winter Solstice and Vernal Equinox called Imbolc which happens near the beginning of what we call February. In 2016 it occurs at 4:30 EST February 4. (See 2023 comments at end of article.)

Without donut shops and corner diners, it isn’t clear where ancient Irish farmers gathered to talk about the weather but it’s a safe bet that they did. Around Imbolc, the coming spring would have been a big topic. Farmers without donut shops and cable television are quite observant of their environment and they no doubt noticed that bright clear days in the middle of winter were usually a little colder than cloudy ones. With Imbolc being the most “middle of winter” you can get, giving some special significance to the weather on that day was likely fairly natural. That’s about as close to science that the groundhog and shadow story gets.

I’m guessing that making a determination at sunrise was also fairly natural. Even if those early farmers were capable of determining Imbolc’s exact moment — and I’m not saying they weren’t — in those years when it did not occur during the daytime they weren’t about to get up in the middle of the night to see if the sun was shining. The crack of dawn probably seemed about right.

So there really are no direct connections between Groundhog Day and religion and there is plenty of silliness in its fairly recent (1887) use to bring fame to a small Pennsylvania town but its timing is firmly linked to the workings of the solar system and there is a tiny bit of logic in it being a day to make weather predictions. If nothing else, the days around Imbolc are most likely the coldest of the year meaning there’s a good chance that it’s all up-thermometer from here.

My 2010 Punxsutawney visit is here. I will, as usual, celebrate Groundhog Day on Tuesday by consuming pork sausage at some point. I have no plans to be awake at 4:30 Thursday to observe Imbolc.

I don’t know where I got the time and date for Imbolc 2016 but I know I did not calculate either. This year, my first searches turned up the date February 1 but no time was given. I decided to calculate it myself and came up with 11:48 GMT February 3. Of course, I initially doubted my math but quickly found reassurance at the Farmer’s Almanac that February 3 indeed is the midpoint of winter and eventually found support for that being the date of “Imbolc exact” in the Witches Astrological Calendar at Patheos. I cannot say for certain why so many sites give February 1 as the date but am guessing that some have decided that Imbolc is just another name for Saint Brigid’s Day. Regardless, I now have some confidence in my calculations being reasonably close and there is even a possibility that I’ll be awake when Imbolc 2023 rolls around (at 6:48 EST) with the previous day’s serving of pork sausage completely digested and sunrise not quite an hour away. 

Boar’s Head Festival

Back in 2013, I posted an article about the four oldest Cincinnati Christmas Traditions after learning about them by way of a lecture at the Cincinnati Museum Center.  Three of the four were displays and I had seen all three multiple times and that year I saw them all again. The fourth was not something displayed for a period of time but was an event that required advance ticketing and scheduling that I never made work. I missed a chance to see it online last year when the pandemic caused it to go virtual. Guess I just wasn’t paying attention. This year the event is again live but ticket distribution was online and that really worked for me. I attended the 5:00 performance yesterday.

I’m talking about the Boar’s Head and Yule Log Festival at Christ Church Cathedral. It has been going on since 1940 and it was identified as the third oldest of Cincinnati’s big four Christmas traditions in that Museum Center lecture.

Humans have been eating pigs, including boars, for a long time. Their roasted and garnished heads had been the centerpiece at many a banquet centuries before Christianity was invented. Wild boars are ferocious critters and Christians probably weren’t the first to think of them as something evil. They may not have even been the first to equate the killing of one with the victory of good over evil but they do seem to be the first to make that connection formally and construct a ritual around it. That apparently happened in fourteenth-century England as explained in a legend. The legend says that a student at Queen’s College in Oxford, England, was walking through the forest on his way to Christmas Mass in 1340 when he was attacked by a wild boar. Lacking any other weapon, the quick-thinking student jammed the metal-bound volume of Aristotle he had been reading down the beast’s throat which almost immediately brought on the animal’s demise. The garnished head was presented at that night’s feast and people have been repeating and enhancing the festivities ever since. There is a fair amount of doubt associated with that legend but I hope it’s true. Having Aristotle even slightly responsible for the founding of a Christian ritual is certainly something worthy of deep contemplation.

I know there are hundreds of people involved in the production although I don’t have an actual count. In addition to the visible players, there is a sizable orchestra and choir mostly hidden from sight behind something resembling giant poinsettias. There are many non-speaking roles. The cast includes literal spear carriers although those are probably technically called pikes. But there are lots of singing roles and every vocalist was outstanding. The orchestra and choir were also outstanding meaning that if this was only a musical performance, it would be quite impressive. The lavish costumes and pageantry make it considerably more so.

The storyline is not the easiest thing to follow. It includes — among many other things — good King Wenceslas, the lord and lady of the manor, and the Nativity complete with shepherds and Magi.

At one point, and this just might be my favorite part even though I don’t quite understand it, cast members are climbing over and standing on top of the pews.

It is quite the spectacle and the music is superb. I can understand why it has drawn crowds for more than eight decades. There are just four performances each year. All four for this year have been “sold out” for some time. I put that in quotes for two reasons. One is that tickets are not actually sold; they are free. The second is that the performance I attended was far from full. I know that tickets have always gone quickly and I assumed that meant a full house at every performance. My crude guess is that nearly a third of the seats were empty Saturday.

Today’s (Sunday’s) performances are to be live-streamed. Maybe that’s the reason for the empty seats or maybe there have been empty seats every year. Maybe people who hurriedly scarf up the free tickets balk at putting out any effort to use them.

Posts of Christmas Past (2022)

This is the third time this blog has been published on Christmas Day. The first time apparently caught me unprepared. It was in 2011, just a few months after this blog was launched with a promise to post every Sunday. I was in the middle of a road trip but managed a short Merry Christmas post that consisted mostly of apologies for being caught off guard. I must have been ready when Christmas again fell on a Sunday five years later. I was again in the middle of a road trip on Christmas Day 2016 but the Another Christmas Squirrel post shows no signs of distress so was likely written well in advance of the holiday. This post is also being prepared in advance.

Soon after realizing that Christmas is on Sunday this year, I thought of Posts of Christmas Past that I put together for the stay-at-home Christmas of 2020. I first thought of simply pointing to it with a short explanatory post but decided to republish it with updates. What follows is a recounting of the sixteen Christmases when I’ve run — or at least tried to run — away from home. The opening picture is from the blog’s first Christmas post in 2011. It was taken just ahead of Christmas on December 22. All other photos in this post were taken on Christmas Day.

2006 — Natchez Christmas was organized around a drive of the Natchez Trace Parkway that began the day after Christmas. Christmas Eve and Christmas Night were spent in a room above the Under the Hill Saloon in Natchez, MS. It’s between the two white-fronted buildings in the picture.

2007 — I decided to go a bit farther south the next year for Crescent City Christmas. New Orleans had recovered sufficiently from Katrina’s 2005 devastation to welcome tourists to bolster the recovery effort, and it’s a pretty good place to celebrate anything. The tree and Joan of Arc statue are in front of the French Market.

2008 — My great-grandparents spent Christmas on the Alafia in 1920, and I tried to do something similar. I could not camp on the river bank as they did but I could stay in a nearby motel. On Christmas Day, I had breakfast at Showtown USA in nearby Gibsonton. At the time, Showtown still had plenty of carnival people as both employees and patrons.

2009 — My retirement in mid-November meant I now had time to drive to US-62’s West End from my most western contact with the route in western Kentucky. After spending a day snowed in in Altus, OK, I reached Lubbock, TX, on Christmas Day and stopped by Buddy Holley’s grave. Lubbock possesses no snowplows so most of the record five inches that fell the day before was still there although much had been blown from the area in the photograph.

2010 — My Chattanooga Christmas was also a white one. The depth may not have been a record but the fact that this was the first Christmas Day snowfall in Chattanooga in forty-one years meant it was something special. The Delta Queen had been forced to quit cruising in 2009 and was serving as a stationary hotel. I had spent Independence Day 2009 aboard her, and couldn’t resist the chance to spend another holiday on board.

2011 — Although my path reached as far south as Alabama, Nashville, TN, was the target for George for the Holidays. The title refers to George Harrison whose 1970 album All Things Must Pass was performed by The Long Players on December 23. Oven Master Mary had supplied me with a whole gingerbread family for the trip, and I photographed one family member on stage at Legends Corner.

2012 — The plans for Christmas Escape Repeat included New Year’s Eve in Raleigh, NC, and some time in Atlanta, GA, but were timed to allow me a second Christmas stay — this time without snow — on the Delta Queen in Chattanooga. It was the first of only two times I used the word “escape” in the title.

2013 — A Wild and Wonderful Christmas was spent at North Bend State Park in West Virginia where “Wild and Wonderful” is a slogan. After a fine holiday meal at the lodge, I went for a drive that took me to “America’s Oldest Five and Dime” in Harrisville. Berdine’s was not open on Christmas Day but was open the day after so I got to check out this delightful store on my way home.

2014 — Christmas Escape 2014 turned out to be quite the escape indeed. There was Christmas Eve with friends in Savannah, GA, Christmas Day with a friend in St Augustine, FL, (where the picture was taken), and some time with an uncle near Lake Alfred, FL, to start the new year. Plus a lot of Dixie Highway and a little time in the keys.

2015 — That WV state park had worked out well in 2013 so I tried out a neighbor on the other side for It’s a Wanderful Life. The holiday meal at Indiana’s Turkey Run State Park was fairly late in the day so I helped my appetite by doing a little hiking before dinner.

2016 — I stayed fairly close to home and used Ohio’s new tourism slogan for Finding It Here. Home base was the lodge at Burr Oak State Park. A Christmas Day drive took me to the town of Cambridge and a long stroll through the Dickens Victorian Village erected there each year.

2017 — With this trip, I proved that I Can Drive Twenty-Five. I followed the current US-25 from its beginning at the Ohio River to its other end in Brunswick, GA. Holiday dining options were somewhat limited and I ended up with a not-so-traditional Christmas dinner of crabcake, grits, broccoli, and cookies. In honor of the holiday, I named these four gingerbread men — a gift from Oven Master Mary, of course — Matthew, Mark, Luke, and Ringo.

2018 — The focus of Kitty Hawk Holidays was the 115th anniversary of the Wright Brothers’ first flight at Big Kill Devil Hill. That was on the 17th so I did a bit of running around before ending up in Knoxville, TN, on Christmas Day. A selfie in Worlds Fair Park let me show off the new mustache my grandson had given me for Christmas.

2019 — Finding (More Of) It Here had me back in Ohio at a park lodge. This time it was at Geneva-on-the-Lake State Park. The photo was taken just before dinner and just outside the dining room as the sun set to my left and illuminated the clouds over Lake Erie.

2020 — The COVID pandemic had me staying home for Christmas for the first time since 2005. Since there was no trip journal to document the day, I used the blog to post a picture of my Christmas dinner spot and a listing of Posts of Christmas Past.

2021 — After just one travelless Christmas, I was able to be Wild and Wonderful Again in 2021. The title comes from it being my second Christmas spent in Wild and Wonderful West Virginia. This time I stayed at three different state parks with Christmas dinner at Hawks Nest. The park isn’t far from New River Gorge which is where the picture was taken. The little red spot near bottom center is a fairy door.

Christmas MOP

I headed out on my Christmas Escape Run yesterday and now have the first day’s journal posted. Since my October Route 66 Miles of Possibility 2022 trip was cut short by COVID, I decided to finish it (and then some) for Christmas. The original draft of this post said if things go as planned, every night of the trip will be spent in a classic motel and classic restaurants will account for a high percentage of my dining activities. The classic motel and restaurant comment might still apply but things definitely are not going as planned. Dire weather forecasts for my intended route have me detouring to the south although I still hope to end up where planned for Christmas. The picture is of the winter solstice sunrise near Greensburg, Indiana.

This entry is to let blog-only subscribers know about the trip and to provide a place for comments. The journal is here.

Light in the Forest

I doubt anyone will be shocked to learn that Cincinnati Nature Center is not inside the official limits of its namesake city. It lies a bit more than fifteen miles east of downtown Cincinnati near the town of Milford. Some, however, might be a little surprised that I had never been there. The center has existed since 1967 but it wasn’t until the fourth night of the third year of the Light in the Forest event that I actually drove into the property. I drove to walk. There are several drive-through seasonal light displays in the area but I believe this is the only walk-through display anywhere near Cincinnati. It’s just over a mile long, pretty much level, and a real treat for the eyes and the other senses too.

The trail opens at 5:30 with entry assigned at half-hour intervals. I picked the first slot but, in hindsight, that might not have been best. Sunset was at 5:16  and the last rays of sunlight may have benefited the lighted elk by the lake but perhaps not so much the flowers in the Electric Garden by Golden Brown or the color-changing orbs in Owens + Crawley’s Shimmer.

The lingering light probably didn’t affect Polymath’s Fluere very much one way or the other. The projection really held people’s attention and many (including me) stood and stared for a complete cycle of the moving images of butterflies, birds, frogs, and plants.

I treated myself to a white chocolate mocha from Travelin’ Tom’s Coffee Truck just before entering the Krippendorf Lodge. It wasn’t really terribly cold but the hot drink and heated building provided a nice break before heading on down the trail.

Between the lodge and the Visitor Center, lights were descending from the sky and beyond the center, they were twinkling in the trees. I’m sure that many parts of the walk could be appreciated through a good video but the time dimension seemed so important to the twinkling lights that even I was prompted to attempt one. It’s here.

Before looping back to the Visitor Center, the trail continues to a small lake with Lake Lumineer by MDC Design Studio on the other side. The lake reflects the cylinder with its images of wildlife. A pair of Charlie Harper bluebirds can be seen through trees and even better here. The birds are on the side of the Visitor Center which I had erroneously entered earlier. The trail is designed to go past the center, to the lake, then back to the center, and through it. I had simply confused myself by popping into the center as soon as I saw it but eventually sorted things out and caught the big caterpillar as I exited the center as intended.

Near the Abner Hollow Cabin, there is another chance to get warm at a roaring bonfire. The trail forms a big circle with multiple points of entry. I had parked and entered the trail not far from the bonfire.

Even though the bonfire more or less marked the completion of a lap on the trail, I wasn’t quite done. I had been a little disappointed in my earlier look at the Electric Garden which others had cited as a highlight of the experience so I broke some of the oneway pedestrian traffic rules to get a true nighttime look. I was not disappointed at all this time and could now agree with some of the folks I’d overheard earlier. I had dawdled early and often so that many who had started later than I did had passed me long ago.

This was a most pleasant experience and definitely one I recommend. It continues through January 1 with the exception of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I think a 6:00 start might be a little better than 5:30 but there are pros and cons to both. I have enjoyed driving through holiday light displays and I’m sure I’ll be driving through some more. They are bigger with more spectacular displays and they are warmer. But Cincinnati Nature Center’s Light in the Forest offers some real advantages. I’m sure some are immune to it but I, for one, always feel kind of guilty sitting in a line of idling or slowly moving cars and unwelcome fumes are always a possibility when rolling down a window. There is none of that here nor are there any real problems with wanting to travel at a different pace than the guy in front of or behind you. And there’s no problem saying hi to him or her either. “Nature” is very much the operative word here and something I did not fully appreciate until I looked back on my experience is the complete absence of religious or commercial symbols in the displays; Just patterns of light and images of plants and critters. There was — naturally😁 — a touch of commercialism in the gift shop but even there the Santa Clauses were few and were far from prominent in an inventory of classier than usual, often handcrafted, items.

Play Review
Every Christmas Story Ever Told
Cincinnati Shakespeare Company

At just seventeen years of age, I don’t doubt that some will take issue with me calling this a tradition but that’s how I see it. Starting in 2006, the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company has mounted a production of Every Christmas Story Ever Told (And Then Some!) every year except COVID-ravaged 2020. CSC was not the first group to perform the play. That honor belongs to Cape May Stage in Cape May, NJ, which did the play in 2003. Apparently, there were no performances in 2004 then Cape May Stage and two other companies gave it life in 2005. Cape May Stage’s third and final production took place the same year as CSC’s first which means Cincinnati’s sixteen years of performances is the record.

I don’t know when I first became aware of it but it’s certainly been a while, and I long ago read enough about it to think it was something I would enjoy. Yet I somehow had not attended a single performance until this year. They clearly didn’t miss me. This very non-Shakespearean comedy has risen from its very humble beginnings in a downtown bar to become the most popular offering in CSC’s history.

That downtown bar was Arnold’s where the small stage in the courtyard normally might hold a musician or two. The most theatrical things I’ve ever seen there are Reds opening day readings of Casey at the Bat or Who’s On First. I am sure sorry that I missed that first performance and sorry I also missed the next fifteen years even though I don’t know where they took place. I do know, however, one of the actors that appeared in every one of them and this year’s production too. Justin McCombs has been in the cast from the beginning and with the same red Christmas sweater. Other 2022 cast members are Geoffrey Warren Barnes II, Colleen Dougherty, and Candice Handy.

Justin, Geoffrey, and Candice play characters named Justin, Geoffrey/Geoff, and Candice/Candy. Colleen plays Santa Clause who sometimes participates in the action center stage and at other times wisecracks from a stageside sleigh she slowly fills with empty beer — or maybe it’s hard seltzer — cans.

Following some opening remarks from Santa, Candy begins A Christmas Carol but Geoff and Austin aren’t having it. They’ve seen and performed the Charles Dickens story more than enough times and convince her to do every other Christmas story instead. She frequently attempts to return to the original plan with a somber “Marley was dead” but even more frequently participates in whatever story or stories are the focus of the moment.

As one online reviewer somewhat comically (IMO) complains, they don’t really tell EVERY Christmas story but they sure tell a bunch or at least little bits of them. And they sing bits of a bunch of Christmas carols and describe (none too accurately) a bunch of Christmas traditions from around the world. There’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas, It’s a Wonderful Life,  A Charlie Brown Christmas, and a ton of others and all are lovingly skewered. To deliver all those stories, Justin, Geoff, and Candy must each fill dozens of roles and they do so wonderfully. For the audience, identifying each character and story is a large part of the fun. Sometimes the roles are coordinated and sometimes things are something of a smash-up like when Clarence the guardian angel visits Ebenezer Scrouge. The script has obviously been updated over the years to include references to current events. This time around, Ye appears as a spokesperson for fruitcake and Santa admits to buying up all of the Taylor Swift tickets.

Every Christmas Story Ever Told (And Then Some!) runs through the end of the year and can provide some real laughs during a time that can be really stressful to some. Of course, those laughs will only come if you don’t take yourself or your Christmas classics too seriously. I did not see an official age requirement but maybe there should be one. Adult topics and humor are sprinkled about along with the tinsel and fake snow.


Playscripts handles licensing for this play and many others. It is where I learned of that first production in Cape May and other details. Most of what I learned there was not at all surprising but one accidental discovery was. The website provides full production history and allows it to be filtered by state. I filtered it by Ohio in order to more easily check Cincinnati’s history and was surprised to see my high school alma mater on the list. The Drama Club of Ansonia High School, which even now has just over 200 students, performed the play in 2014.

Horses on Parade

In the very first year of this blog, I attended a triple header of holiday horse parades and documented them in two posts. I wrote about a nighttime parade in Greenville here and nighttime parades in Springfield and Lebanon here. There was a fourth parade that I mentioned but did not get to see in 2011. The parade in Springfield was their first and I don’t believe it lasted much beyond that inaugural year. Greenville’s 10th annual Hometown Holiday Horse Parade took place a couple of weeks ago. The nighttime 33rd annual Lebanon Horse Drawn Carriage Parade took place last night and the daytime version, which is the parade I missed in 2011, took place yesterday afternoon. This time I made it.

Lebanon’s nighttime parade typically has well over 100 entries. The daytime parade is a bit smaller. The highest numbered unit I saw was 80 and there were a few gaps in the numbering. The pictures at left are of carriages carrying the parade’s Grand Marshal and the couple seen waving in the opening photo. The Grand Marshal was not identified on the carriage, I’ve found nothing online, and I didn’t recognize him. Maybe you can.

Some elegant horses followed including a pair sporting glittery blue hooves.

The number of small ponies in the parade kind of surprised me. I felt a little sorry for some of the tiny creatures pulling Santa Claus-sized individuals. I also felt a little sorry for some passengers who, although they looked quite cute, didn’t seem overly happy with the hats they were made to wear. The pony may deserve some pity, too.

Even though I know that the Grinch’s heart “grew three sizes that day”, I am still a little surprised every time I see him as a symbol; of Christmas. Given the parade’s name, I was also surprised to see one of those new-fangled carriageless horses.

There was certainly no lack of power near the parade’s end where a couple of six-horse teams appeared. Secure in the safety of both size and number, a member of one of those teams had no qualms about openly laughing at me as my cold hands tried to focus the camera on his face.