NEWPORT, KY, September 20, 2007 - 17-year-old Erik Kloeker of the world-renowned Pickled Brothers Circus Sideshow has broken the Upside-Down Juggling World Record while suspended upside-down 35 feet up, atop the Ohio River. The record attempt took place on September 20th, 2007 in Newport, KY.The new Upside-Down Juggling world record as set by Kloeker is 4 minutes and 5 seconds quadrupling the old record of 55.9 seconds held by an Australian juggler.
A stone’s throw from Hamilton, some 25 miles from downtown Cincinnati, lies a public park with monumental sculpture and an underground house.Pyramid Hill sprawls over 265 acres of rolling hills, man-made lakes, thick woodlands and butterfly-filled meadows. Overlooking the Great Miami River, it is a contemporary art museum outdoors - a place where visitors can hike or drive through natural galleries filled with the splendor of art.
I forget where I read it - and I’m certain that I did - but did you know that the only statue of Abraham Lincoln in the world without his beard stands in Lytle Park? George Grey Barnard completed the statue in 1916.
To get to the labyrinth, enter Burnet Woods on the Ludlow side. Pass the Trailside Nature Center on your right. When you come to the three-way stop, take the road to your right. About a quarter of the way up the hill, three trails will be on your right. Take the middle path into the woods. The entrance of the labyrinth is a stone threshold with a cow painted on it.
Someone is planting bizarre messages on tiles embedded in the road surface. What the tiles are made of, who is placing them and how they get away with it — all of these questions remain unanswered. What is known is this: We are not alone. The mysterious tiles have been spotted in roads throughout the Western Hemisphere.
Photo courtesy of Alan P.
If you go to Fifth and Walnut streets or Sixth and Walnut streets, you will see, flush with the pavement in multi-colored stenciling, two tiles that declare, “Toynbee Idea in Movie 2001. Resurrect Dead on Planet Jupiter.” A third tile, at Main and Fourth streets, says, “Toynbee Idea in Kubrick’s 2001. Resurrect Dead in Planet Jupiter.”
But long before playing poker became the “it” thing to do, the U.S. Playing Card Company was supplying the world with decks, chips, shufflers and nearly any other accessory needed for a nice evening of cards with friends.”(People) come here because we’re the largest and oldest manufacturer of playing cards in America,” Flick says. “We make the best quality there is, and that’s why we’ve acquired all these other companies instead of being acquired.”
At first glance, I thought this was a popcorn cart. But in fact it is the Hillavator, an elevator / tram / stairwell-lift-for-the-elderly type thing in Mt. Adams. But I couldn’t get it to work - I mean - I didn’t see anyone using it.
If you have ever arrived later than the rest of the bar crowd that hits Mount Adams, you might have been forced to park on Hill Street. And when you are walking up that steep hill, you might have come across a strange elevator that looks like it came from the circus. The funny thing is, it’s attached to a three-story apartment complex.
When Neil Bortz was on a trip out West in San Francisco, in 1961, he came across a phone booth that looked out of the ordinary - it was a phone booth on tracks that went up a steep hill, much like a tram. Intrigued, he called the company that built these unique phone booths and was told they were called “Hillavators.”
Immediately, Neil knew Mount Adams needed one of these inventions, since it has that San Francisco feel to it anyway. Plus, his apartment in Mount Adams was up a few stories, and he didn’t want his wife - who was seven months pregnant - to carry groceries that far. The Hillavator was installed in 1962.
Hey there’s a unit for rent!
(Note the Immaculata spire in the background. Cool.)
Bonus! Up the hill from the Hillavator, there is this weird house.
