Living in the Cornhole Capital

It turns out that Cincinnati is the motherland of Cornhole, an unfortunately named game similar to horseshoes in which contestants toss small bags full of dry feed corn toward a slightly angled wooden board with a hole in it. A bag in the hole counts two; a bag lying on the board scores 1.

Will it become the next popular-culture craze?

A recent article in the New York Times took note of the growing popularity of this “simple but addictive” game on the East Coast, along with its Cincinnati origins. And a followup article in the Enquirer said one of the organizations that has staked a claim as the sport’s governing body, the American Cornhole Organization, is located right down the pike from us in the town of Milford.

Cornhole boards are often brightly painted with football or baseball themes, and the bags come in all colors. You can even buy strings of LED lights to illuminate the hole so that bag tossing can continue long past sunset. In this part of the country, there are Cornhole tournaments, and the game has more lately spawned a “mini” version with tiny bags the size of Wheat Chex.

This is one of those rare instances where something literally corny has become “in,” at least for the moment. It’s particularly rare for Milford to be linked to anything even remotely cutting edge. An old town on the eastern side of the Cincinnati metro area, it’s widely considered by locals to be on the edge of hillbillyville. But hey, when you’re hip, you’re hip  – even if it’s for Cornhole.

A Further Note on Mexican Restaurants

An article in the Enquirer this morning notes that Ohio’s Hispanic population increased in the 2010 Census to 3.1 percent of the statewide population, up from 1.9 percent in 2000. The president of Cincinnati’s Hispanic Chamber of Commerce says that when he came here from Mexico in 1988, there were only two Mexican restaurants in the area. Today there are nearly 100, he says.

His comments support my view that there’s a strong relationship between ethnic population and the quality of ethnic eateries (although there are clearly other factors, too, including the affluence of the immigrant population. See my recent posts on ethnic restaurants in Cincinnati, including attention to the generally dismal Mexican food scene, here and here.) Maybe in another 23 years, when the Hispanic population in Ohio has doubled again, and there’s a more demanding Latino middle class, some of Cincinnati’s Mexican food joints will be better than mediocre.

Taking a Break

I’ll be posting less over the next couple of weeks as I try to finish off several home improvement projects. Here in Ohio the weather often prevents one from doing anything in the way of work outside — for the last few months, for example, the weather has either been too brutally hot or too rainy to work outside. Now that we’re into the late summer and fall, and the weather has turned clear and cool, it’s time to jump on those outside projects. So that’s what I’m doing in my spare time. I’ll be back posting regularly soon.