Category: Guest Editorial

Polly Campbell: Cherishing traditions with a flip to something new

Polly Campbell

On the other hand, while I was writing a book about Cincinnati food history, I realized that the stubbornness pays off: We have our unique regional menu because the Graeters kept doing things the old way until the rest of the world caught up with them. Grandmothers and neighborhood butchers never stopped making goetta, though no one made it anywhere else. That’s to be treasured.

Arts patron Amy Katzman: Doing the thing she loves to the absolute max

Amy Katsman has attended 44 New Orleans Jazz Fests. Disappointed that it was COVID-cancelled in 2021, she celebrated with a friend on her front porch by listening to WWOZ’s Jazz Fest highlights online while wearing some of her old festival passes.

When my husband and I go to concerts or any performance, of course we look around for anyone we know. With amazing regularity, we spot a woman with a familiar head of long gray-red hair, wearing colorful glasses and a flowy dress, using a cane or maybe a rolling walker. Yep, there’s Amy, we’ve said for years, always with amused pleasure at her sheer omnipresence at the cultural events of the city. 

Creativity in the everyday

Polly Campbell asks "What's college for?"

Snarky political memes on Facebook, squirrel obstacle races and the guy on TikTok skating to Fleetwood Mac have all helped me in little ways to get through the pandemic. Other social media content, has of course, infuriated me. And there was one meme that popped up on my feed during the first few months that struck terror in my heart. 

Polly Campbell: On the ‘good-deed doers’ of Cincinnati

Polly Campbell asks "What's college for?"

My writing life in Cincinnati until now has been writing about food and restaurants, so this may seem like a swerve. But the people I covered, the restaurant owners and chefs, the farmers and food producers, are movers. They are also makers. They followed vision and passion into the difficult business of selling people something to eat.