Cincinnati blogs you should be reading

The ABCs of Cincinnati on etsy.

The Cincinnati blogging scene is vast, varied, sometimes vapid and rarely violet, but fear not. I'm going to make this easy for you. These are blogs you probably aren't reading, but definitely should.

Make Cincinnati Weird
Yes, please! Let's do that already. Or maybe we already have? I love so much about this blog. The self-dubbed weirdos who write this blog routinely report on stuff that I had no idea about, as an out-of-touch suburban mom of very young children. And it's good stuff. They could so easily default to finding the most obscure or shocking examples of batshit crazy going on around town, but they don't. How could you not like a blog that was founded on the idea, "The single guiding principle is that diversity breeds strength?" I love that these people acknowledge that for all the criticism about the melting pot that isn't Cincinnati, that true diversity does exist here if you look beyond the oft-repeated narrative about the people here. 


Two Tykes on a Hike
One of the more original ideas I've seen for a blog in a long time, this is a fantastic resource, and not just for those wanting to take tykes on a hike. The mom who writes this blog explores local hiking options and gives you the scoop on things you can't really find out about on the typical trail or park map. Are there tons of excess branches that will snap your 2-year-old in the face? How steep and slippery are the slopes here, for shorter legs? Great information here, and it would useful for anybody looking for light hiking adventures (say, when your elderly aunt comes for a visit, or if launching yourself off the couch is a major event and you want to start slowly) that you've probably driven past a million times. I love that she finds so much woodsy adventure even in urban areas. It really highlights what a scenic, lush area we live in. 

The Cincinnati Monocle
This blogger covers things you've heard about in passing on what passes for network news around here with more depth than you'd see in a newspaper that still has a budget. Real scoops, man-on-the-street observation, allll the dirt. I feel like I'm in the know after time spent here, and I'm grateful that I don't also feel manipulated in some way. The vibe is newsy in that way that news used to feel before it was bought and paid for by corporations and politicians. There's opinion, too, but not in that I'm-an-asshole-with-a-platform vibe that is so common online today. I truly believe that places like this are some of the last remaining shreds of hope for real information in the modern age. For every ten obese, cigar-smoking cats lounging on Barka loungers, the internet gives us one Cincinnati Monocle, and that's far better than none.

Other favs
I could go on (and on), but I'll wrap this up with a short list of other notable choices that maybe don't get as much exposure round these parts. You should check out Downtownity, chickpeas please, and The City Flea. And while he is often mentioned, it's for a very good reason, so definitely keep reading City Kin.

Fill me in if you know of a great blog based in Cincy that I'm missing.

Google Image Search Wednesday

In which I share some of the more, let's go with "interesting" search results on seemingly innocuous terms. Images which have moved me. Scarred me. Confused the shit out of me. Which must be shared with those I love and those I have never even met. You're welcome, Internet.

Today's search term: Cincinnati Pants

Why: I wanted to find a place that sells those funky Bengals pants, like so:

 

And, I wasn't disappointed. Many a retail outlet is turning a profit on pants like this. Somehow. But then, something else caught my eye. This:

 The caption here read "Zubaz pants will never be cool again." These just look like... pants, to me and these people seem cool enough, really. I mean, not everyone can rock the real deal Cincinnati pants all the time, the attention would become cumbersome, but surely they are relatively cool by normal people measures. WTF are Zubaz pants?

Of course, there are those who have shunned pants altogether. Why this shows up under Cincinnati Pants I don't know, but it's a nod to our lazy-as-an-elderly- housecat, American sensibilities that there would be an obligatory Snuggie (a little concerned that my spell check knew it had an e on the end) shot in the mix:

Maybe it's the cheetah print? Welcome to the jungle? The one on my couch, with the remote control from 1983?

OK but then things got scary. From what I can discern, this had to do with something in the OSU student paper, and as a student paper alum, I get it to an extent. I've been awake at 3 a.m. with the completely annoyed printing press yelling at me on the phone while I desperately Photoshop together some kind of image to accompany a story about a new mailbox going up in front of the library. But while it may have come perilously close to something like this, well... let's just say I'm not sad that as a student journalist, I didn't leave this legacy for future generations to stumble upon:

Oh. And, my. Oh, my.

Finally, I leave you with this. It's not pants. It's not even tangentially related to Cincinnati, or pants, since squirrels don't generally wear them, but it's a super sweet orchestra-conducting squirrel so I feel compelled to share:

Kurt has since informed me that this is not a squirrel, which is pretty unfortunate because I already had a reputation for being unable to identify said species. That said, he didn't know what it is, exactly. Gopher?