25 February 2012

Oxalis



In addition to the positive youth message (which we all hope will curtail many a beef start), I noticed the word "Oxalis" on the door header. According to the internet, there are two oxalises on earth; one is a plant genus and the other is Oxalis Atindriyaratri Suwaryono, an Indonesian woman.

According to the official website of the Oxalis plant, it is "the largest genus in the wood sorrel family, Oxalidaceae. The name is derived from the Greek word, OXYS, or sour and refers to the acidic taste of the foliage."

This did not clear up anything. Fortunately, I am a proud member of the Cincinnati Museum Center so I checked the Cincinnati History Library where I found Joseph James' "Catalogue of the Flowering Plants, Ferns and Fungi Growing in the Vicinity of Cincinnati" in the April 1879 Journal of the Cincinnati Society of Natural History in which he catalogs the yellow and violet wood sorrels. In 1904 Walter Aiken also submitted an article mentioning the same two.

It still doesn't clear up much, but my guess is that this building is named "Oxalis" because that's what used to grow there before it was uprooted to put up the building. It's the same system land developers apply to their developments (Sycamore Glen, Cherry Grove, etc.). I was surprised that the system has been in place for so long (this building was built in 1909).

23 February 2012

Van Hoardin'

17 February 2012

Streetcar Groundbreaking: It's Official Now

My crowd estimation ability is not that great but I do have a system: I visualize the crowd as a rectangle and estimate how many people are across and along. Based on this, the estimate would be around 600. That seems like a lot but "a few hundred to several hundred" should cover it. The Enquirer's system is the same as mine except they include the extra step of dividing by 10.

And there was 1 protester. COAST would have been there also but Chris Funney is busy drafting a reparations lawsuit against a Council member for wiping OUT OF CITY dirt from her shoes onto a city-owned doormat.



Part of the crowd waiting on Memorial Hall steps




Man wasting his breath on lone protester




Hundreds of supporters; one protester. Of course WCPO engages the fringe