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Monday, March 26, 2007
Weird? Moderately Interesting? Eh.
Title: Weird Ohio
Authors: Loren Coleman, Andy Henderson, James Willis, Mark Moran, Mark Sceurman
I kindof skimmed this. It's large and heavy. The quintessential coffee table book.
So the weirdness is organized by category - like ghosts, cemetaries, funny statues, stupid-looking buildings, etc. Some entries are more interesting than others. As a native Ohioan, however, I was searching for an index of locations, because I really only wanted to see things from the area I'm familiar with. And that doesn't exist. The index in the back is by the titles of the entries and stuff. Hence the skimming. There's a lot of stupid stuff around what seems like all of Ohio except the Northeast portion - the area I was hoping to find the most in. Sigh. If you're familiar with Oxford, Springfield, and Muskingum, those areas seemed to pop up a lot.
Vaguely interesting - maybe I just wasn't in the mood for it? Labels: non-fiction
posted by ket at
4:28 PM
2 Comments:
You know, you can always take comfort in the fact that you come from the lone corner of Ohio that somewhat resembles normal existence.
Still, I'm rather irked as well. You'd think there'd be more weird stuff about Cleveland, like some awesome ghost stories connected to Lake View Cemetery, or bizarre drownings down by the Flats, or 99% percent of the student body at Case...
3/26/2007 6:20 PM
Hi,
I'm Loren Coleman, one of the co-authors and contributors to the Weird Ohio book. I appreciate your skipping through the book. Frankly, I have to agree with you on the index, which, of course, the authors had nothing to do with. I too find it is not too geographically sensitive.
If you are talking about the Akron to Cleveland region of the state, and perhaps the shores of and waters of Lake Erie, you might wish to give the book another look.
For example, in the sections I wrote, on cryptozoology, ancient mysteries, and unexplained phenomena, I certainly included those locations. For example, on page 87, I detail the Peninsula Python seen up and down the entire wooded valley of the Cuyahoga River. Bessie, the Lake Erie Monster, is covered on pages 94-96. For those interested in Arkon phenomena, there's the strange story of the Lizard Lady, pages 76-77. I could go on and on.
Give book a second chance, if you really are looking for strangeness in Ohio. This is no quickie knock-off or coffee table book that was mass-produced to put in stores. It is a summary of decades of research on strange phenomena collected in one place on one state by serious researchers of the unknown.
I can't believe that panthers in Westerville, the Frogman of Loveland, and mounds, crop circles, and spook lights anyplace in Ohio won't be intriguing to someone who is also interested in such bizarre things in the NE corner. :-)
I say this completely out of loyalty to the material, as the writers for these series of Weird books are paid a one-time fee. I am not trying to encourage you to buy to the book so I can make more money, but I won't. It doesn't work that way. I'm standing behind this book because I think it is a unique collection for anyone intrigued by Ohio mysteries.
Best wishes,
Loren
3/26/2007 7:58 PM
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