Alt Focus:This.... Spoiler A Winona man was convicted Wednesday of disorderly conduct for a dispute with a neighbor over a pile of dirt, Assistant City Attorney Brian Glodosky said. Judge Mary Leahy found Phillip James Bronk, 56, guilty of the misdemeanor after a court trial. Glodosky said he dismissed a theft charge before the trial. Officers were called Sept. 23 to a residence in the 200 block of North Baker Street after a woman there said workers had been digging on her property when Bronk came over, filled his wheelbarrow with her soil and carted it back to his house down the street, police said. Bronk used the dirt to fill a hole in his yard, Winona Police Chief Paul Bostrack said at the time. Officers tried to resolve the dispute without making an arrest or writing a ticket by urging Bronk to return the dirt. Bronk said a worker who was digging the hole for the woman told him he could have the dirt and even placed it in the wheelbarrow for him. Eventually, Bronk dug up the dirt he had taken, placed it in the wheelbarrow and brought it back to the woman's house, Bostrack said. Instead of putting the dirt back in the pile, he dumped it into the hole. Fed up, officers arrested Bronk, who was booked at the county jail and later released. Property must be given a value to charge a person with stealing it. Officers estimated the dirt was worth between $3 and $4.
I really don't see how Cincinnati made it to number one. I can't attest for the per capita psychiatrist but it seems the mix of rankings don't seem to add up to the top spot. Drinking wise we aren't really known for any particular event or area that would put us ahead of a number of other towns. Yes we have a decent Oktoberfest but I say the amount of drinking would be on par with a zillion other cities. As for eccentric people we only have two major neighborhoods with proud to be bohemian weirdos, the Ludlow/Northside area and Hyde park. These two places make up the bulk of our "keep Cincy strange" hippy crowd. 98% of the city live pretty conservative lives. The port-o-potty bathroom entrance mentioned in the article is a lot more puffery on the part of the patrons of Jungle Jims grocer. I think Cincinnati could have a similar district comparable to the French Quarter in New Orleans if they put some serious time and money in rehabbing Over The Rhine. This will never happen because of the racial issues facing the city but at one time the area was the home to over a hundred or so beirgartens in a 15 block radius. Much of the architecture still reflects the German influences of the late 1800's and early 1900's. It really could be a diamond in the rough.
Have lived in LA, Berkeley, Seattle, grew up in Phoenix, and now live in Cincy. Have also spent a significant amount of time in Portland. Cincy isn't even close to being as crazy as any of those cities, except maybe Phoenix. Other than the Cincinnati Chinstrap beard phenomenon, and being home to the most racially homogeneous bunch of white people I've ever been around. It's just kind of....mundane. Granted I've only lived here a month and some change, but I see nothing really out of the ordinary. Portland has Pedalpalooza. Seattle has Fremont, and Hempfest. Berkeley is home to aging hippy throwbacks and Asian FOB's. LA, shit where to start with the weird there, I'll just leave it at Venice on a Saturday afternoon. Cincinnati as #1 is puzzling...
The cities here in NJ suck, with little or nothing to recommend them. I don't know about crazy, more like worthless. But the rest of our fine towns and hamlets are certainly no worse than most other places in the country. If that ain't a ringing endorsement, I don't know what is. My vote goes to Lexington, N.C.. The good folk of Lexington are outright delusional, seemingly convinced that this dry town (as in no bars) is the epitome of culture, referring mostly to their dry, shitty barbecue, which they serve in high class, scooping it with an ice cream scoop onto a recycled cardboard platter.
Alt Focus: What makes where you live particularly crazy? A guy saw a fucking leprechaun in a tree. A LEPRECHAUN. <a class="postlink" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nda_OSWeyn8" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nda_OSWeyn8</a>
Richmond, Va is your typical mix of old southern money and rednecks, but some people are into their CFA Capital heritage. The funniest thing to me is a couple of blocks from where I work. Across the street from the Racial Reconciliation Triangle... ....is the strip club Velvet owned by a rumored neonazi. Certainly he has no love for Obama given the large and quite unclever sign he's hung from his club... Our new attorney general felt it was necessary to point out to our universities that we have no legal basis for NOT discriminating against homosexuals. I think this is getting political, and since I am drunk I should probably shut up now.
How did they not mention the fact that Jerry Springer was at one point the mayor of Cincinnati?? You can't rank a city like Cincinnati #1 on this list without at least mentioning it. (JERRY! JERRY!)
Whoa whoa whoa back it up there fella we cannot attribute the chinstrap to the entire city, just like we can't attribute the small hippy population to the weirdness of the whole. We all know that the chinstrap beard is a prevalent West Side phenomenon, thus able to be written off as a white trash minority problem.
Alt Focus: I live in Huntsville, Alabama, the only city in the US with active nuclear bomb shelters. Also, we're the only city to have back to back school shootings. ...And the only Division I college hockey team south of the Mason Dixon line, which is going on to its second appearance in the championship tournament (only one of the 16 teams in the tournament with a losing record). WTF? And last but not least, Egg Beater Jesus: