Cincinnati has the distinction of having had four ships of the US Navy named in its honor. That's more than any other Ohio city. But then, Cincinnati got an early start. The story of the four ships to bear the name of Cincinnati starts with the Civil War.

The first Cincinnati, shown in the picture, was an ironclad river gunboat. It was built in 1861 and served on western rivers throughout the course of the Civil War. The vessel was one of the few ships that sank and was raised, not once, but twice. The Cincinnati took part in the Battle of Vicksburg, in 1863. After four years of being under heavy fire in combat, the first USS Cincinnati was sold for scrap in New Orleans.

The second USS Cincinnati didn't come along until 1892. It was much larger, a cruiser, in fact, and was a sea-going vessel. The Cincinnati saw action in the Caribbean during the Spanish-American War, in 1898. After that it was used for goodwill missions around the world. The ship was decommissioned in 1919.

In 1921, the third USS Cincinnati was launched. It was another heavy cruiser. She spent most of her career in the Atlantic and Caribbean, before being decommissioned in 1945.

Finally, there was the fourth USS Cincinnati. This one was a nuclear powered submarine, built in 1974. The fourth Cincinnati once played host to former President Richard Nixon for an overnight cruise. That was in 1980.

I'd have to say that four US Navy ships is a very good record for a city so far inland.

Cincinnati is a rather unusual name and a challenge for spelling classes. Just where did it come from? Well, the answer comes in two parts. It goes back to January 4, 1790. That's when Arthur St. Clair, the first Governor of the Northwest Territory, renamed the settlement of Losantiville Cincinnati.

Why? Just what is a cincinnati, anyway? Well, that goes back to the fact that St. Clair had been a general in the Revolutionary War. He was also a distant cousin of mine, but that's neither here nor there. He, along with a lot of officers of the revolution was a member of the Society of the Cincinnati. The Society was open to a select group of veterans and to the French officers who had helped the USA achieve Independence. It had one curious feature that was very controversial. It was set up to be hereditary. The membership was to pass to the eldest son of the original member. You can imagine that didn't go over well in some circles, but the Society was close-knit and, at the time, influential. So the City of Cincinnati was named in honor of the organization and its members.

But that still doesn't explain how they got to be called Cincinnati. Simple. Cincinnati is the Latin plural for Cincinnatus. Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus, to be exact. In the early years of US history, there was a lot of interest in and fellow-feeling for the ancient Roman Republic. Cincinnatus was a well-born, but poor Roman. He was respected by the whole city for his wisdom and virtue. One time, Rome was about to be attacked by the Aequi and the Volscians. The Senate decided the city's best hope for victory was under Cincinnatus' leadership. They sent a delegation to offer him the position of dictator with absolute power. Cincinnatus, who was plowing a field at the time, knew he could defeat Rome's enemies, so he accepted. To make a long story short, Rome won. Cincinnatus immediately resigned his power and went back to plowing his fields.

Cincinnatus was regarded by the officers who founded the organization named in his honor as the perfect example of the "citizen soldier". He was a role model for the whole generation that founded the USA. And that's how a city in Ohio came to be named after a Roman farmer.

I do not like guinea pigs. Or hamsters, or mice, or rats - really, anything with little grabby, claw-like hands. Yeah. They're quite gross. So the thought alone of a guinea pig rescue house is weird, but now I'm also visualizing it and it's creeping me out...

My distaste for their job makes me believe that Karen and Steve Oehlerts of This Little Piggy and Me are quite brave. TLP&M is a rescue and adoption house for guinea pigs, located in Forest Park, Ohio, near Cincinnati. It's a not-for-profit, run out of their actual home (bless their hearts, the place probably is starting to smell a bit ripe), and is dedicated to the rescue and adoption of the little animals into good homes. Such good homes, in fact, that adopting parents have to sign a contract starting they won't feed the guinea pigs to another animal or eat it themselves. And now I am thoroughly grossed out.

The Oehlerts bought a pregnant guinea pig back in 2003, and had to start giving away babies. Karen became known as Guinea Pig Lady, people began calling to have the guinea pigs taken in or to ask where they could find some, and the whole process was born. In 2006 alone, they had 193 adoptions. I am amazed that so many people want guinea pigs, but thank goodness the Oehlerts are there to help!

Writing can be soul work. There is no where I've found in Ohio where this is truer than at Women Writing for (a) Change. This is an organization, a writing center of sorts, in Cincinnati. I met its founder, Mary Pierce Brosmer a few years ago upon the recommendation of a friend. Since then, I attended last year's spring writing retreat for women across the Ohio River in northern Kentucky. I'm signing up for this year's too. It's terrific to have time to develop my craft while nurturing my spirit and connecting to others.

Women Writing for (a )Change was initially started with the idea that, through writing and sharing their work, women might make systemic changes in their lives, and thus, the world. Over the past 15 plus years, it's grown beyond that. There are writing workshops for families and men as well. In the summer, there are writing camps for girls. The biggest focus remains women.

My only beef is that this terrific place is in Cincinnati. That's no one's fault. That's life. I'd love to sign up for a semester class or two. In the meantime, I'll keep telling people about it and look forward to that retreat weekend.

By the way, you don't have to see yourself as a writer to go to classes or on a retreat. The point is that you are interested in writing. A love of words is a bonus. If you don't have this love now, afterwards, you will. You will most certainly find yourself enjoying how you are in the company of women.

Women Writing for a Changes's motto says it best:

Bringing women to words and the words of women to the world.

Say what you like about eclectic designs, the mid 19th century wasn't afraid to use anything from any source to satisfy their taste for elaborate and unusual buildings. Greek, Roman, and Gothic weren't enough for them. In the quest for something new and different, architects experimented with a variety of "Exotic Revival" styles. Cincinnati has one of the best examples of this trend, the Plum Street Temple.

The Temple, also known as the Isaac M. Wise Temple, is one of the best-preserved examples of the Moorish Revival. This style was developed in Germany and mixed elements from the Moorish buildings of Medieval Spain with Byzantine influences and a dash of Gothic to achieve an interesting mixture that stands out from the crowd.

In the 1860's the Congregation B'nai Yeshurun, led by Rabbi Isaac M. Wise, commissioned James Keyes Wilson, of Cincinnati to design a new synagogue. Keyes used the new Moorish Revival to give the Congregation something truly unique. Even now, it's almost literally unique. There's only one other surviving synagogue in this style. It's even been made a National Historic Landmark in recognition of its architectural importance and of the Congregation's role in the formation of Reform Judaism.

From the carved stone decoration through the minaret-like towers, to the perfectly preserved interior with its thirteen domes, the Wise Temple is one of Ohio's most interesting buildings. My favorite part is the treatment of the entrances. Look at those soaring stone arches set in brick walls. Then at the stonework over the doors. Never seen anything quite like it.

For more on this wonderful building and its history, see their website, at the link below. Be sure to click on "About" and check out the history of the congregation and of the Temple.

Buying chocolate, flowers, or those little message heart candies are fine if there's no time to plan ahead for Valentine's Day, but consider some other options. If you use your senses to lead the way, you might come up with some interesting ways to celebrate love. Or a deep like. Or an "I kind of like you." Here are some starting places:

Sense of smell- With Ohio's botanical gardens' conservatories creating a haven against the freshly arrived winter's chill, head to one of them. Breathe in the fragrances of the jungles, orchid gardens and mountainous regions of the world. So, what if you can't go to a tropical island with your honey this year? At Krohn Conservatory, Franklin Park Conservatory, and Cleveland Botanical Garden you can pretend.

If eating is a way to your loved one's heart, head to a cooking school where you can spend time together--plus taste your efforts. Dorothy Lane Market Cooking School in Dayton has wonderful options. Many restaurants, like Handkes in Columbus also have classes. Here is a Shaw Guides website with links to several of them.

If the sense of sound is your fancy, head to a symphony concert. You can engage your sense of sight as well since many of Ohio's symphonies perform in the most beautiful buildings in the state. In February, the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, the Akron Symphony , The Youngstown Symphony and the Toledo Symphony have concerts.

For the soothing sense of touch, get a couple's massage. The Marengo Institute, a mind body spa that originated in California but now has Cleveland and Columbus locations, has a Couples Delight Package.

Another option for the sense of sight is an art museum. Here is the botanical garden and art museums page of Ohio Travelers.com to find one you may not have thought of before.

When you see Fountain Square, in Cincinnati, you'd never guess it was once the site of a market for butchers. It was, though. That was before 1871. In that year, Henry Probasco was looking for a way to present the city with a memorial to his brother-in-law, Tyler Davidson. His solution was Fountain Square.

Probasco wasn't the sort of person who just pays the bills. He actively participated in selecting William Tinsley to design the square. He even traveled to the Royal Bavarian Foundry, in Munich, to commission the square's centerpiece, a massive bronze fountain. At the foundry he met Ferdinand von Miller and August von Kreling. The pair had collaborated on a design for a fountain called "The Genius of Water". The work was to be forty-three feet tall. The base would have reliefs of the many uses for water, surmounted by allegorical figures. The whole thing was to be topped with a nine-foot tall figure of a woman, the genius of water, with water pouring from her outstretched hands. We're talking nineteenth-century public sculpture at it's most characteristic. Probasco loved it, but he had a condition. Remember, he was a hands-on sort of patron of the arts. He insisted on the addition of figures of animals, one on each side, to be used as drinking fountains. The artists, lacking another client, acquiesced.

That's how Cincinnati lost it's butchers' market and gained one of its favorite landmarks, the Tyler Davidson Fountain. Since then, it's been moved around a bit and the square completely redesigned a couple times, but forty-three feet of bronze and granite exuberance remain as a memorial to Tyler Davidson and a symbol of Cincinnati.

I just had no idea! I was literally just at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, and I even visited the polar bears (what, it was really cold out, and I especially like to visit the polar bears on those kind of days, because then it's like I'm seeing them in their natural habitat).

Little One, the only male polar bear in residence in Cleveland, is being loaned to the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden for at least two years. And why? Breeding! Yes! We are desperate for more young polar bears in Cleveland, apparently, and we certainly couldn't mate Little One to his sisters here in Cleveland. It's actually even bigger than that, because polar bears are being considered for the threatened species list. I shouldn't mock too much - I would be really saddened to see the polar bears go. But I am seriously surprised - I feel like I should run back over to the zoo and figure out if there's anything else there that I missed. Are they shipping out the tigers? The rhino? Anything?

No one seems really certain, but the Union Terminal, in Cincinnati may be the biggest half-dome in the world. Let's be realistic, here. Half-domes aren't all that common. When it's 138 feet high with a diameter of 180 feet, I'm not going to argue the point. Any way you look at it, it's big. It had to be big. When the Union Terminal was built, in 1933, there were 216 trains passing through each day.

A union terminal is a station built to be used by more than one railroad company. For almost a century, let's say from 1850 to 1940, railroads were a town's lifeline. Without a railroad passing through, a town could just waste away to nothing. Some did just that. A city, like Cincinnati, that had several rail lines passing through, would usually build a massive station as a show of civic pride. First impressions are important and the first sight a visitor would have on arriving in a town was usually the railroad station. In this one, Cincinnati still has something to be proud of.

The New York architects Alfred Fellheimer and Stewart Wagner started out with a Neoclassical design, until Wagner's friend Paul Philippe Cret signed on as a consultant and encouraged them to simplify the structure to reflect the increasingly popular Art Deco. It's hard to believe the result could be so massive but look so light. The facade is like a triumphal arch, which must have pleased the city leaders and railroad executives. The interior was a riot of light and color, with the great windows of the facade illuminating Winold Reiss' glass mosaic murals. There was even one of the first LED clocks ever made. It still works. In the four decades of it's life as a transportation hub, Union Terminal was the first contact for hundreds of thousands of visitors had with Cincinnati. The contact was memorable.

The trains stopped running in 1972. For years Union Terminal stood vacant and was in danger of demolition. We're lucky that didn't happen. Today, the place is full of visitors again, but they come to see the three museums that share the space. New life has come in the form of the Cincinnati Museum Center, which includes the Cincinnati History Museum, the Duke Energy Children's Museum, and the Museum of Natural History and Science. There's also the historical society's library, a theater, and more. That's a lot to see in one building. Maybe it's a good thing that it may be the biggest of its kind in the world.

As a person whose is not the most savvy when it comes to Reality TV, (I have never watched Survivor, although I did get hooked on the first Average Joe) I originally wrote this post thinking that Jerry Springer is still in Dancing with the Stars. I've learned that's sort of true and not true. The Dancing with the Stars season Springer was on is over. But, he is touring with the Dancing with the Stars national touring company which is on a 38-city sweep across the U.S. Here's a Columbus Dispatch article about that.

This past weekend Columbus was one of the tour stops. I sure was looking forward to watching Jerry on Dancing with the Stars. I wonder if there will be reruns? I guess that's like watching reruns of a football game.

In the midst of football Buckeye fever, it's neat that another Ohioan is gaining notoriety for his fancy footwork. I'm glad Jerry Springer can dance. The season of Dancing with the Stars on Tuesdays on ABC showed off Springer's smooth moves. It seems like he wasn't half bad. Not that I'm a Jerry Springer fan, but I'm not a not fan either. I'm always curious to see how people do when they cross out of their comfort zone to learn new things.

I have to think one must be a fairly good sport without a big ego to be able to have yourself shown on national television and in a tour doing something that is not your usual thing. Being that he is an Ohioan and the former mayor of Cincinnati, its good that he's doing us proud in a different capacity. Despite the low-brow version of society he shows during the week, he's showing he can do high-brow with a sense of flair.

Here is an article a Jerry Springer a former sceptic wrote about him in BlogCritics Magazine. Basically, there's something about Jerry you have to like.

A couple summers ago I found out about Neil Jacobs and headed to a concert he was giving in a park in Upper Arlington. He is a friend of a friend of mine so my initial reason was just to check him out. At the concert I thought, "Wow! this is a guy worth following."

Jacobs plays the 12-string guitar like nobody's business with Gypsy music as one of his current interests. The fusion of old world music with his brand of jazz, classical and modern thrown in is pure pleasure. Besides his finger strumming skills, Jacobs is fun to watch. This is a person who knows how to play to an audience. He's glad you're there and you're glad you're there. Jacobs must like playing because he's one busy guy who plays all over Ohio and once in awhile will wander outside the state's borders. He's performing at First Night in Columbus at 8 and 9:30 in the Main Lobby of One Columbus but there are chances to see him a-plenty in 2007. If you check his website, you'll see the other dates. He'll be in Bexley, Geneva, Covington, KY (close to Cincinnati), Athens, Dayton, and Cleveland before the end of February.

From his website you can also listen to his music and buy CDs.

I mean, forgive me for being childish, but come on! Do you think we've not noticed the incredibly balmy (for Ohio in late December) weather? It was 45 degrees today. I wore a spring coat! It's just crazy. According to the National Weather Service, both Cincinnati and Columbus have seen only a "trace" of snow, as opposed to their usual December averages of 3.6 and 5 inches of snow, respectively. The Boston Mills and Brandywine ski resorts are both temporarily closed, and they have yet to announce an opening day. We are in for a warm, wet winter. And that just sucks.

So sad, and yet so true. The twelve days of Ohio are over. In case you missed them, here they are again!

On the first day of Ohio, the bloggers gave to me: a state bird (by Jamie)!
On the second day of Ohio, the bloggers gave to me: a Twinsburg festival (by Tom)!
On the third day of Ohio, the bloggers gave to me: sports museums (by Katherine)!
On the fourth day of Ohio, the bloggers gave to me: women astronauts (by Jamie)!
On the fifth day of Ohio, the bloggers gave to me: great actors (by Tom)!
On the sixth day of Ohio, the bloggers gave to me: art museums (by Jeffrey)!
On the seventh day of Ohio, the bloggers gave to me: baseball World Series Championships (by Tom)!
On the eighth day of Ohio, the bloggers gave to me: presidents (by Jamie)!
On the ninth day of Ohio, the bloggers gave to me: doubled cities (by Katherine)!
On the tenth day of Ohio, the bloggers gave to me: famous Ohioans (by Jeffrey)!
On the eleventh day of Ohio, the bloggers gave to me: Native American tribes of Ohio (by Tom)!
On the twelfth day of Ohio, the bloggers gave to me: trivial Ohio facts (by Jeffrey)!