As I drive around, go out on coffee dates and surf the internet, I come across so many little factoids about Cincinnati and Covington that simply amaze me and make me think, "Hey, it's not so bad here after all."
I figured, for those of you who are lucky enough to still be in Portland (Ahem, Pat and Coco and Dr. Brassard) or who've found sunny reprieve in California (Ahem, KG, Eli, Selena and Erin) with Jason's side of the family or who live elsewhere in Washington (Hi Mom and Dad!) OR anywhere else in the US (Megs, Jacob), that I'd let you in on my list of interesting facts about the area.
Caveat: You may not find them even remotely interesting. No fear, I'll continue to post about our experiences in non-list form.
So, here it goes:
1. The dude who wrote the song, "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" was born and raised in Covington, Kentucky. His name is Haven, making this fact doubly awesome.
2. Running around the perimeter of Covington is exactly a half marathon. Yep, that's how small of a city I now reside in. I'm looking forward to rocking that half while training for the Flying Pig Marathon next year.
3. Cincinnati chili is unique because it uses sweet spices like cinnamon, cardamom and chocolate (And no, I still can't bring myself to try it. I'm still smitten with the Laurelhurst Market chili Jason and I indulged in months ago back in Portland). One of these days, Jas and I are going to man up and go to Skyline Chili with Epipheo's other newest Portland transplants, Chase and his girlfriend Cat, to see what the ado is all about. Once we've patronized it, we will absolutely require all friends and family who visit us to dine there, too. You've all been warned.
4. Front license plates aren't needed. Jas and I first noticed the very obvious lack of front license plates when Epipheo brought us here in September to woo him/us into moving here. We are particularly sensitive to cars without front license plates after a small fender bender dented ours. We took it off and realized that putting it back on so that it didn't hang crooked was a bigger pain in the bum than giving birth will probably be (Okay, that's definitley hyperbolic, but let's just roll with it). While that may have been fine and dandy here in Ohio/Kentucky, it wasn't in Portland. Driving around sans front license plate in Oregon got us a lot of tickets. From the same cop. Yes, we should have learned our lesson -- and we did -- and tried to fix it, multiple times. Nevertheless, neither Kentucky nor Ohio require front license plates. I guess it's a nice karma atonement for all of the freaking money we've already doled out for that damn front plate.
5. Speaking of cars, there's the honking. We're learning that honking is an oft-used form of communication here (and not in just a "Meep meep asshole" type of way). It could be too soon to fairly declare this as a Tristate area truth, but it definitely is in our neighborhood. Whether it's 6:30 in the morning, 4 in the afternoon or past the wee hours of midnight, the drivers in our neighborhood honk. A lot. You know, just to say, "Hey, I'm here to pick you up," or "Hey move your car from behind my car so I can leave," or "Hey I forgot something can you get it for me?" Isn't that what a cell phone is for?
6. Cincinnati is called the Queen City. Well, technically it was once called the Queen City of the West. I read that the term "queen city" refers to the biggest city in at state that isn't a capital (So I guess you could say we moved from one queen city to another). Cincinnati has Henry Wadsworth Longfellow to thank for the nickname, thanks to the homage paid in his poem, "Catawba Wine." There's a square in downtown Cincinnati that has the line from this poem etched into a stone wall. I noticed it first back in September while celebrating a rare bout of non-nausea with some Graeter's sorbet.
7. You can still smoke in bars and other public places that are notoriously forbidden on the West Coast.
8. I'm also pretty sure it's legal to drive and talk on your cellphone at the same time. It only kind of scares me, mainly when I'm getting onto the I-75/I-71S bridge, jammed between four semis, one with a driver whose talking on his mobile.
9. "Please?" means "Come again?" I noticed this when I had to go into the hospital a couple of weeks ago for a non-stress test for baby (Everything turned out fine, no worries!). When the nurse came in after I had changed into my gown, I mumbled that I could move up to the edge of the bed. She responded with a quizzical expression and the simple question, "Please?" It took me a moment to understand. When I got home I Googled "Cincinnati Expressions" and found out, thanks to this awesome city dictionary, that it means, "Pardon me" and the like. I like it. I think it's a much more respectful way of saying, "What the heck did you just say?" like I normally would.
10. BOTH Proctor and Gamble and Kroger's (a/k/a Fred Meyer's to my Pacific Northwest peeps) are both headquartered in Cincinnati. You know what that means? Cheap toiletries. $1.00 toothbrushes that are typically $3 back in Oregon? For this OCD tooth brusher, I couldn't be happier. My bright white smile will tell you so.
Okie dokie, ten is a good, solid number. Go ahead and call me Letterman, because I'm stopping there.
Until next time!
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