Crazy Baptists and BBQ

There had been rumors that they were coming and it proved to be the case yesterday on a sunny Tuesday morning. The crazy people from Westboro Baptist Church were continuing on their crusade to share their bizarre and pretty offensive rhetoric about gay people and how dead US soldiers were struck down by God for representing such a depraved nation. Louis Theroux spends some time with them in two documentaries he has made, the first part of one is here.

Apparently they had decided that OSU was a particularly gay friendly institution and were therefore worthy of their attention. So there they were on the corner of 12th and High Street, police behind them, across the road from them and a few more down the road for good measure.
There were only four of them. There always seemed to be a lot more of them when Louis made his films. Maybe times are getting tough and they couldn't afford the vehicles or gas to drive over from Missouri. I reckon there were probably about 200 OSU students counter-protesting and generally doing their best to drown out the crazies. It seemed that it was too good an opportunity to miss for some Michigan bashing. The idea that the Westboro folks were Michigan alumni was pretty good. I have to say that I'm looking forward to how "Beat Michigan Week" pans out later on in November; yes that's right, a whole week dedicated to beating another college football team. There were also plenty of signs suggesting that Shirley (the leader of the gang) was a certain number of things that I won't repeat now...

On Sunday K and I decided to put her vegetarianism to the test by heading to what has been called the best food truck in Columbus by some people. I went for the grass fed brisket with a side of mac and cheese and baked beans. The beef was pretty amazing, lightly smoked, just breaking to pieces and served with homemade Dogfishhead ale barbeque sauce. I ate it quickly and didn't waste too much time with the Baked beans which were also smokey and had little chunks of pork in between too. K had mac and cheese and greens, not the best of choices for her. Will be going back.

A Sandwich and the World Series

Having previously outlined my intention to check out the Pickled Swine food truck on an earlier blog I made good on that promise after one of my (not quite daily) trips to the local supermarket when I saw that the truck was just one block down the road. After a bit of deliberation I went for the “Angus Young”. Made on rye bread and with roast beef, goats cheese, spicy bacon aioli, tomatoes, greens and braised red cabbage making up the generous filling, and at $9 it wasn’t cheap but could certainly have been shared. I didn't though. Just so you know, I am getting exercise playing soccer three times a week, not just eating.

The world series started on Wednesday and the St Louis Cardinals took the first game; evening it up for the series last night though, the Texas Rangers won 2-1. It's pretty exciting and close stuff and having read my “Watch Baseball Smarter” book I'm pretty much on top of what is going on. I am, though, still finding the physique of some of the athletes that whack it into the stands and trot around for a home run pretty funny. Look out at some stage for a top 5 of Steve's chunky baseball stars.

Watching quite a bit of baseball, it was only a matter of time until I felt it necessary to have "a team". A couple of issues affecting this decision are, firstly: K's family. Her dad is a big LA Dodgers fan, but I can't really get behind that as they're never on TV here in Ohio and LA is pretty far away. K's uncle and cousin are big Cardinals fans. They are a bit closer to here and I do happen to know a bit more about them (and they have a player named Albert Pujols! That's pronounced "poo holes"! - ed.), but they are in the World Series and reaching for that potential glory so quickly seems a bit much to me. Being here in Columbus, the local team, the Clippers, are the feeder team to the Cleveland Indians. Having watched a few of their games and being amused by the fact that one of their players was called Carlos Santana wasn't quite doing it for me. The team hammering them now and again though was the Detroit Tigers. I'm sure they'll be pleased to know that they've got my vote. They have the best pitcher in the game (Justin Verlander) and a good few people that can smack it into the seats; Detroit is also pretty local being just a 3 hour drive away...

Cycle Paths and Sky(kind of)scrapers

With K wrapped up in grading papers, Sunday afternoon seemed as good a time as any to check out the cycle path that runs close by. I decided that I would head south towards downtown rather than north to Worthington. Mostly this was because it was closer, but also I hadn't been to see the river and the tall buildings next to it.

Most of the Olentangy trail was fairly dull and involved lots of cris-crossing over the river and under the highway and back again and in some cases back again. With downtown in sight the trail ended and the Scioto Greenway began. I kind of just followed it until it stopped, taking in as I did some pretty nice views of kind of tall buildings and a good few birds. Is this a Heron? Possibly.

I kept going and there was a bird viewing area and there were a fair few to see. It was all pretty pleasant and then I ended up on a pavement crossing the river. In my mission to make up some sort of loop, I tried pretty hard to work my way back along the other side of the river. The lack of any discernible path held me back somewhat, so I turned, retraced my steps and kept going until I found another bridge to try my luck with. This time it worked and I was able to follow the river on the west side for a while. It didn't last long, and after a while I was back on the original trail heading home.

My journey was, though, briefly interrupted when a cop on one of the bridges above called me over to stand beneath him while he shouted at me. Fortunately he was just enquiring as to whether I had seen a car on the cycle path that he had had reports of. I hadn't. With that he thanked me and I was on my way.

Pumpkins and Other Food

They started to appear a couple of weeks ago or so, now they are everywhere. I'm talking about pumpkins. I have never seen them in so many different shapes and sizes as outside the local supermarket (above). They are even available in small, just-for-a-pie sizes and at 89 cents it seemed rude not to. The guy on the checkout didn't seem to know about the smaller, cheaper size though and when I got home, I realized he had charged me a big fat $4.99. I took my pumpkin and receipt back the next day and got my $4 back, thanks very much Giant Eagle.

As well as the pumpkins themselves, all manner of pumpkin-themed and -flavored goods are available. Back in the UK, the window in which K was able to get her pumpkin latte always seemed pretty narrow. Here though, if a coffee shop doesn't have a pumpkin option they are very much the odd ones out. I don't know much about coffee, but K was particularly excited to pick up 1/2 a pound of pumpkin blended beans at our local Cup 'O Joes. My personal favorites so far are the "mini pumpkin bobbs" we picked up the other day. They're kind of mini whoopie pies and very good indeed.

On Sunday at our first slightly trendy flea market, as well as there being lots of vinyl and thrift store type clothing stalls, there was also a couple of places for lunch. I can't remember what it was called, but my sandwich was made up of: pulled pork, fried plantain, pinto beans, lettuce and a lovely avocado sauce. I took up the option of (vegan) homemade hot sauce and creamy garlic aoli. It was very good. It didn't come from a food truck, but there are plenty of them around. They seem to offer good, interesting food from a van, rather than the usual cheap, boring, bad food you get from a (burger) van. I am particularly keen to try "The Pickled Swine" offering all sorts of lovely pork goodness. I'll be sure to let you know how it is.

We stepped into the nearest convenience store and chose a couple of candy bars for dessert. I went for a Zero. Not sure exactly what it was about the candy that made it a Zero, but there it was. It was pretty good, although the nougat was covered with white chocolate, not fudge as I understand it. I will have another soon enough.

Old Beer and (new to me) Old Beer

We had gradually been noticing more and more signs in the bars and bottle shops around where we live talking about the impending arrival of a new (to Ohio) beer. It was Yuengling and it was going to be coming all the way from.... Pennsylvania. That'd be the same Pennsylvania of about 140 miles away. It seemed pretty strange to us that in the beers's 182 year life it had never been available for sale in Ohio.

It is America's oldest brewery and we know this as we had stopped one time in Pottsville to check it out (above). According to the weekly Columbus Alive, Ohio is going to be the fourteenth state in Yuengling's national distribution network and the last state bordering PA to get the beer. We're hoping that it'll fall into the lower of the seemingly two tier beer pricing that seems to exist in bars here. In that, if you order a "domestic" draft (Coors, Bud light or Pabst Blue Ribbon) you'll be looking at about $3 a pint. If you think of yourself as more of a connoisseur and don't want to be drinking five or six pints you might opt for a "craft" beer and pay more like $4-$5. That Yuengling is domestic but has discernible taste might mean being able to afford more than two pints!

I'm also keeping an eye out for beers that feature in my "300 beers to try before you die" book when we are out and about. As well as providing me with good cheese, Trader Joe's also came up with Anchor Steam Beer. At $10.99 for 6 it wasn't all that cheap, but when faced with a box to tick and a new beer to try it seemed rude not to. Though not quite as old as Yuengling, the label tells us it has been brewed in San Francisco since 1896. My book tells me Steam Beer is unique to San Francisco and that it "refers to a style where both ale and lager techniques combine to produce a beer with the richness and fruitiness of an ale with the quenching character of a lager."

More beer and cheese news soon, maybe.

Guns in Bars and GOOD cheese in Easton

I hadn't thought to buy the Columbus Dispatch before but the above headline made it impossible not to part with $1. Apparently here in Columbus you were already allowed to carry a concealed weapon if you have the appropriate license. This new law means that you could now carry your weapon into a bar. The one caveat... You can't drink alcohol. That's OK then, as long as when you take your gun into the bar and ask for a beer you tell the bartender that you have a concealed weapon and so you can't have a beer. Hmmm.

After the usual Saturday morning (Everton and Bath City both losing) our friend Molly, who had a car for the weekend took us off to the much talked about Easton. My favorite description prior to our visit was; "it's like a Disneyland for adults". It was. Les Wexner a local billionaire ($3.2 if you're interested) along with help from Arnold Schwarzenegger and some other friends had developed the area into a town centre made to look like a "Classic American Main Street". There were fountains and an excellent old school style trolly bus to help you between the different bits of the "town". It probably looks a lot like regular town centers used to before the idea of an out of town mall with loads of free parking came about and everyone headed out of main street to the mall.

The chance to do some food shopping with a car to take home some heavy stuff was good and we tried another new (to me) store. Trader Joes was pretty great, there were plenty of free samples and lots of stuff seemed cheaper than the places we had shopped so far. Of course whenever we try a different store we need to give the cheese fridge a good going over. It didn't take long to find the English Cheddar. This time though it actually was English, from the Dorset coast apparently. The signs were good, some salt residue at the ends and a good looking color and shape. What about the price? Well, for some reason it was a few dollars cheaper than the stuff from Vermont. I cracked it open when we got home and we weren't disappointed. It was tangy, creamy and crumbly. I now have my supplier.