That’s the part of the story I can find funny. Columbus made four trips to the New World, set up colonies, and explored. He never set foot on the American mainland but he saw it with his own eyes, sailing up and down the Mexican coast looking for the Singapore Straight, which he obviously never found because it was busy being on the other side of the planet. He went to his deathbed believing he’d visited Asia. It wasn’t until Mr. Vespucci made it all the way to Argentina before going “Dudes…there’s no fucking way we’re in the Philippines. There isn’t a landmass thousands of miles long in the Philippines.”
I’ve only driven through Columbus Ohio once via highway, so I don’t have a complete picture of it, but all I remember about it is it had the worst highway layout of any I’ve experienced, and it had the ugliest, most souless corporate signage along the road that I’ve ever seen as well.
I also stopped to get some fast food, and immediately had a couple people loudly mock me for wearing a mask after I let them ahead of me while I was looking at the menu.
The place just left me with really bad vibes, honestly.
I lived there for a time and love it for what it is. I’ve had many a fun night in the old north and occasionally was able to afford some time in the short north. I love their main library and to this day onetwo three of my favorite bars of all time is there. Hell I got married at their lesbian bar. They’ve also got/had some other awesome and unique stuff in some alternative scenes.
But yeah, it ain’t a pretty city outside certain parts. They hid one of their rivers, the city is dominated by the highways, they’ve got abysmal public transit, and large portions of the city have strip mall feel. But also night time bike rides through the city with a group felt magical.
And yeah they’ve got some shitty folks but plenty of places do. I guess I partly love it because I had to work hard to get there from even worse parts of Ohio.
Thanks for sharing your experience there, glad to hear it’s much better than my very brief trip through it seemed. I guess it kinda stood out to me as negative from the highway, since other cities that I’ve been through happened to look really cool even passing through on the highway, like St. Louis (though they had the big Arch thingy right in view from the highway, which gives them a pretty unfair advantage :p).
That’s totally fair lol. It’s not a beautiful city, especially compared to Cincinnati or Cleveland, and there’s nothing about it that would drive a person driving through to think “I bet this city has been a long time hub of alternative lifestyles to the point it’s a destination for people in certain communities as far as Kentucky.” Even Peoria IL is more beautiful to drive through. But Columbus is a city where a lot of organizations refuse to address it by name and instead call themselves “central ohio” and where the state government keeps having to wash paint off the statue of the namesake.
Also it’s long been a meme there to want to rename it to flavortown after everyone’s favorite person from the city, Guy Fieri
Meanwhile the people of Ohio’s capital aren’t
I live in NYC and no one is actually pushing to get rid of Columbus Circle.
otoh, Trump has a Building right on Columbus Circle, so maybe we should ask Mamdani to rename it Obama Circle.
Meanwhile, Amerigo Vespucci, America’s namesake:
That’s the part of the story I can find funny. Columbus made four trips to the New World, set up colonies, and explored. He never set foot on the American mainland but he saw it with his own eyes, sailing up and down the Mexican coast looking for the Singapore Straight, which he obviously never found because it was busy being on the other side of the planet. He went to his deathbed believing he’d visited Asia. It wasn’t until Mr. Vespucci made it all the way to Argentina before going “Dudes…there’s no fucking way we’re in the Philippines. There isn’t a landmass thousands of miles long in the Philippines.”
And he was right, which is why AMERICA! FUCK YEA!
And then he’d sign an executive order, in the middle of shitting his pants, demanding it be renamed after him
I’ve only driven through Columbus Ohio once via highway, so I don’t have a complete picture of it, but all I remember about it is it had the worst highway layout of any I’ve experienced, and it had the ugliest, most souless corporate signage along the road that I’ve ever seen as well.
I also stopped to get some fast food, and immediately had a couple people loudly mock me for wearing a mask after I let them ahead of me while I was looking at the menu.
The place just left me with really bad vibes, honestly.
I lived there for a time and love it for what it is. I’ve had many a fun night in the old north and occasionally was able to afford some time in the short north. I love their main library and to this day
onetwothree of my favorite bars of all time is there. Hell I got married at their lesbian bar. They’ve also got/had some other awesome and unique stuff in some alternative scenes.But yeah, it ain’t a pretty city outside certain parts. They hid one of their rivers, the city is dominated by the highways, they’ve got abysmal public transit, and large portions of the city have strip mall feel. But also night time bike rides through the city with a group felt magical.
And yeah they’ve got some shitty folks but plenty of places do. I guess I partly love it because I had to work hard to get there from even worse parts of Ohio.
Thanks for sharing your experience there, glad to hear it’s much better than my very brief trip through it seemed. I guess it kinda stood out to me as negative from the highway, since other cities that I’ve been through happened to look really cool even passing through on the highway, like St. Louis (though they had the big Arch thingy right in view from the highway, which gives them a pretty unfair advantage :p).
That’s totally fair lol. It’s not a beautiful city, especially compared to Cincinnati or Cleveland, and there’s nothing about it that would drive a person driving through to think “I bet this city has been a long time hub of alternative lifestyles to the point it’s a destination for people in certain communities as far as Kentucky.” Even Peoria IL is more beautiful to drive through. But Columbus is a city where a lot of organizations refuse to address it by name and instead call themselves “central ohio” and where the state government keeps having to wash paint off the statue of the namesake.
Also it’s long been a meme there to want to rename it to flavortown after everyone’s favorite person from the city, Guy Fieri
They don’t have much to be happy about in general.
Well yeah, their days keep being ruined by a group of assholes who meet in their city