Contributed

Greater Cincinnati Restaurant Week returns this spring to bring a unique dining experience to the Greater Cincinnati Area. During the week of April 7-13, participating restaurants will offer $26, $36, $46 and $56 three-course prix fixe menus.

Greater Cincinnati Restaurant Week provides the opportunity for locals to be immersed in the culinary talents of the Cincinnati area, while restaurants are able to create new customer relationships, and reward existing ones. Seven days of delicious dining provides for an opportunity to be a culinary tourist in your own backyard. 

Select restaurants will also be offering options from beverage sponsors : MadTree Brewing, Maker’s Mark, Saratoga Still Water, and SWAY by MadTree. Earn points on the app while indulging in the divine three-course meals, beer specials, and seasonal-inspired cocktails.

In addition to great deals at participating restaurants, Greater Cincinnati Restaurant Week directly benefits Cincinnati Children’s hospital with $1 from every meal going directly to Children’s.  Additionally – Restaurant Week Organizers match the first 1,000 meals served by donating $1 per meal. 

In the last 5 years, Restaurant Week has raised more than $100,000 to support Cincinnati Children’s greatest needs. Those donations help provide care for families whose insurance does not cover the cost of treatments, lay the groundwork for life-changing research and allows Children’s to grow the programs most in demand.

With the return of Greater Cincinnati Restaurant Week comes the return of the Greater Cincinnati Restaurant Week app! This will provide access to the list of participating restaurants, the menus being offered, locations, hours of operation and more – all in the palm of your hand. Guests will be able to map out their culinary tour for the week, check in to earn points, view Maker’s Mark drink specials, participate in contests, and receive real-time updates through the app, available now on the App Store and on Google Play. Download HERE.

The list of participating restaurants currently includes: 20 Brix, Agave & Rye, Alcove Kitchen + Bar, Artemis Mediterranean Bistro, Bakersfield, Baru, Benihana, Bourbon’s Craft Kitchen & Bar, BrewRiver Creole Kitchen, Brown Dog Cafe, BRU Burger Bar, Butcher and Barrel, Cap City Fine Diner and Bar, Chart House, Ché, Condado Tacos, Coppin’s, Council Oak Steaks and Seafood, Cowboy Sally’s, Eddie Merlot’s Steakhouse, Eighteen at The Radisson, Embers Restaurant, Frosthaus, Gyu-Kaku Japanese BBQ, Hawkers Alley, Ivory House, Jag’s Steak & Seafood, Kona Grill, Krueger’s Tavern, Lalo Chino Latino, Le Bar A Boeuf, Libby’s Southern Comfort, Livery Montgomery, LouVino Over-The-Rhine, MadTree Brewing, MadTree Parks & Rec, Maki Mono, Matt The Millers, McCollums’ on York, McCormick & Schmick’s Seafood & Steaks, Metropole, Moerlein Lager House, Montgomery Inn, Nicola’s, Padrino, Pennyflower Bistro and Bar, Primavista, Prime Cincinnati, Ripple Wine Bar, Sacred Beast Diner, Seasons 52, Shires’ Rooftop, SOB Steakhouse, Somm Wine Bar, Sorrento’s Italian Joint, Stone Creek Dining Company Montgomery, The Capital Grille, The Davidson, The Golden Lamb, The Green Line Kitchen and Cocktails, The Melting Pot, TRIO Bistro, Truva Turkish Kitchen, Via Vite, Vintage On Race, W Bar + Bistro, and Youyu. Restaurants subject to change.

For more information about the event and to view menus, visit greatercincinnatirestaurantweek.com.

Event Info:

• April 7-13, 3-course prix fixe menus for $26, $36, $46, and $56
• Age: This is an all-ages event. Some locations may be 21+
• Menus will be available at www.greatercincinnatirestaurantweek.com
• Greater Cincinnati Restaurant Week App: Check in at three or more restaurants to be entered for a grand prize drawing
• Follow @CincinnatiRestaurantWeek On Instagram 
• RSVP to the Facebook event for updates
• Media contact : Chanell Karr, ckarr@citybeat.com

The post Experience local culinary talents at Greater Cincinnati Restaurant Week appeared first on The Cincinnati Herald .

Springtime is fast approaching and quick light meals are in the forecast. Most of us are watching our money and our waistlines.

Pacific Foods is the top tier of canned organic soups by “CAMPBELL’S SOUP”. which most of us grew up eating. Pacific Foods has several flavors of soup. They make for a delicious lunch or dinner. A single can of soup is two servings. Found in local area grocers and prices are terrific. Pair them with a glass of wine and enjoy the simple life.

Chicken and noodle with tender cuts of chicken, veggies, and a savory broth. Pairs perfectly with a chilled glass of chardonnay and a spicy Gewürztraminer.

Chicken and wild rice nice chunks of tender white chicken and elegant wild rice with a rich broth. Will pair with an unoaked chardonnay, pinot Blanc, and organic prosecco.

Plant based split pea has a creamy base with plenty of whole peas, and carrots. This is how I like a split pea soup to taste, and the texture is great. Very nicely paired with Pinot Nero and Frappato.

Harissa and lentil a new flavor with exotic spices. Very hearty and filling with lots of beans and veggies. I enjoyed my bowl with a glass of tempranillo from Spain, also would pair well with a glass of cab franc.

Chicken style-tortilla with rice is also new and my favorite of the line up. Packed full of chicken, beans, perfectly cooked rice, and a spicy red broth. A nice soup for a glass Nero ‘d Avola, and sweet red sangria would be awesome to temper the spiciness.

Add a few crackers, left over proteins, left over veggies, and a slice of cornbread to the soups to round out the meal.

Pacific Foods offers many flavors of soup, low sodium bone broth, and plant-based milks. All non-GMO and certified organic products. Campbell’s soup acquired Pacific Foods in 2017 and practices DEI in 2025.

https://www.pacificfoods.com

The post Pacific Foods’ soups paired with wine for a quick, delicious meal appeared first on The Cincinnati Herald .

By Michael Elliott, Towson University

Picture a packed stadium of fans in extreme weather, all clad in their favorite jerseys, cheering and cursing at their favorite American football team or European soccer club. Or a crush of screaming fans, singing and dancing in unison at a Taylor Swift or K-pop concert. Or a sea of costumed “Star Wars” fans, lightsabers aloft, filling up movie theaters on opening night of a new movie.

Plenty of people like to watch sports, attend concerts and go to the movies. But what about those fans – the die-hard ones, if you will – whose dedication goes even further? The fans whose daily lives are deeply intertwined with their interests?

Die-hard fans tend to have a detailed, intricate knowledge. They collect, display and cherish memorabilia. They flock to iconic “pilgrimage” places: King’s Cross Train Station in London for “Harry Potter” fans, or Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee, for Elvis devotees. Their interests inspire them, shaping how they behave and view the world.

This level of devotion seems to go well beyond entertainment. Indeed, it may seem, well, almost religious.

Since 2018, I have been studying the realm of “comic-con culture”: fandoms built on comic books, superheroes, science fiction, anime and manga, gaming and cosplay. Based on my surveys and follow-up interviews, I have found that many dedicated fans describe something sacred about their experiences, something beyond entertainment and escapism.

Defining ‘sacred’

What does “sacred” mean, exactly?

A popular starting point is French sociologist Emile Durkheim and his 1912 treatise, “The Elementary Forms of Religious Life.” One of Durkheim’s most enduring legacies is how he defined religion in terms of beliefs and practices about “sacred things” that unify a community. The sacred, he explained, is something a group sets apart as powerful, transcendent and holy, clearly distinguished from the mundane world of everyday affairs.

This conception of religion includes gods or the supernatural, but it is not exclusive to them. Other beliefs and practices can be sacred, too. Durkheim’s insights have inspired many scholars, including those who study fan behavior.

In my own work as a sociologist, I organize this concept of the sacred into seven specific dimensions. For example, the sacred is powerful: a potent force that garners respect, fear and awe. The sacred is transcendent: revered and dignified beyond everyday affairs. And the sacred provides meaning: a source of essential values and purpose.

Comic-con culture

For several years, I’ve been distributing surveys at comic conventions on the East Coast of the U.S. and conducting follow-up interviews. The questions gather a variety of data, but also measure whether fans experience their interests as sacred, and in what ways.

The results are striking. While fans certainly enjoy entertainment and escape, their responses also highlight several aspects of how I define “sacredness” – particularly its ability to instill moral values, provide creative inspiration and reinforce communal bonds.

Many fans describe comic-con culture as a source of principles – such as inclusivity, compassion and self-development – that guide their behavior.

Comics “have always focused on issues of justice, inequality, power dynamics, and the ethics around things like use of force, etc., all of which have affected my own feelings and beliefs about ethical behavior,” one respondent shared. Other fans highlighted quotes from “Spider-Man” – “with great power comes great responsibility” – and “Harry Potter”: “We must choose between what is right and what is easy.”

Another respondent spoke about the Jedi: the ancient order of monklike warriors who channel forces of good to help others and maintain peace in the “Star Wars” universe. This universe “personifies how to go about treating the world around me and trying to do ‘the next right thing,’” the fan explained. “The Jedi, though not perfect, help me have a personal code in how I treat people. … If ‘Jedi’ were a real religion I’d probably be an active participant.”

Comic-con culture sparks passion and enjoyment; it is a wellspring of inspiration and creativity. The Japanese genres of anime and manga are “an art form of self-expression and it creates an [outlet] for individuals to express themselves freely,” one person wrote. In particular, they mentioned cosplay, which is short for “costume play”: the faithful recreation of a favorite character from a game, movie or comic, both in dress and mannerisms. Cosplayers are a mainstay of comic conventions, as are cosplay contests.

Another remarked, “being a fan of tabletop RPGs [role-playing games] allows me to create collaborative stories with others. I consider this storytelling powerful and important.”

Comic-con culture enables people to connect with like-minded individuals and forge meaningful relationships around these interests. It can also inspire a strong sense of fellowship.

Highlighting the power of these connections, one respondent said, “as an atheist, there’s not much I believe in. Being a fan has inspired me to believe in people, and that there is some purpose to my life.” Fandom groups “have given me decades-long friendships that span the globe,” another said.

Finally, comic-con culture is a sanctuary; it provides space for fans to be themselves, helps them cope with personal struggles, and inspires hope.

This was a prominent theme. For example, one attendee from Philadelphia divulged mental health issues but explained how his involvement in board-game tournaments and the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons offered a safe space from anxiety: “I feel like when I’m doing these things, I can really be me. So, it’s more about letting myself be my true self and not feeling, or not caring, about the others around me that are judging me.”

Given these findings, I believe that social scientists need to consider popular culture more seriously as a fundamental feature of society that people can make sacred in different ways.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Michael Elliott, Towson University

Read more:

• America’s postwar fling with romance comics
• Luce, a cartoon mascot for Catholic Church’s 2025 Jubilee, appeals to a younger generation while embracing time-honored traditions
• ‘Across the Spider-Verse’ and the Latino legacy of Spider-Man

Michael Elliott has received funding for this research from the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion. 

Feature Image: An attendee dressed as Dvalin from the video game ‘Genshin Impact’ poses during New York Comic Con in October 2024. Charles Sykes/Invision/AP

The post Comic-con culture: Fans’ devotion transcends entertainment appeared first on The Cincinnati Herald .

By Rae Robertson-Anderson, University of San Diego

Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskidsus@theconversation.com.

Is ranch dressing a liquid or a solid? – Gabriel, age 8, DeLand, Florida

Imagine you’re eating dinner. You try to pour some ranch dressing onto your plate to dip your veggies into. You tip the container upside down, but nothing comes out. Seems like a solid.

So you shake the bottle up and down, and a big blob of dressing plops out and hits your plate. Seems like a liquid.

But the dressing doesn’t spread all over the plate, like milk or any other liquid would if you spilled it. Rather, it maintains some shape, kind of like the veggies on your plate. Seems like a solid.

But every time you plunge your solid carrot or celery into the blob of dressing, it distorts the shape of the blob a bit. You can even smear and spread the blob around, but the shape and stiffness of the celery isn’t affected by this game. Seems like a liquid.

So, is ranch dressing a liquid and a solid? Or is it neither?

I’m a professor of physics and biophysics, and my research focuses on understanding squishy materials that have both liquid and solid properties. Physicists call these materials soft matter. In my lab, we investigate what makes biological materials such as skin and snot squishy – and how we can create bio-inspired materials that have the same fascinating properties. I also host a social media channel, Physics Mama, where my two boys and I ask and answer questions about the physics of everyday life.

The basic states of matter

To figure out what’s going on with ranch dressing, you need to understand what the different states of matter are and what makes each one unique. “Matter” is just the scientific word for “stuff,” and it is anything that is made up of the microscopic building blocks called atoms and that has mass.

You probably learned in school that there are three states of matter: solid, liquid and gas. Think ice cube, a puddle of water and fog. Maybe you also learned about a fourth state, known as plasma.

These different states are defined by how the extremely tiny molecules making up the matter interact with each other. These molecules are so small that you can’t see them with your naked eye. But their invisible interactions determine the properties of the materials that you can see.

Molecules in a solid are physically attached to each other in a way that keeps them from moving around relative to each other. This is what makes solids rigid and able to keep a fixed shape.

The molecules in a liquid, on the other hand, are not connected to each other. They can move around, slide past each other and mix themselves up. This freedom of movement is what allows a liquid to take the shape of whatever container it is in.

The molecules in a gas are completely free to move around without really bumping into the other molecules in the gas too much. Like a liquid, a gas will take the shape of any container it is in and has no fixed shape. But unlike liquids and solids, gases can also change their size or volume.

A plasma is similar to a gas but has much more energy. This energy causes the electrically charged parts of the molecules, called protons and electrons, to break apart. The Sun and stars are examples of plasma, as is the material that makes neon signs glow.

Elasticity and viscosity

While solids hold their shape, they are not completely rigid. The connections between the molecules behave like tiny springs, which makes solids elastic. If you push on a solid, it will deform – but it will bounce back to its original state when you stop pushing, kind of like your mattress when you bounce on your bed. Of course, this happens at the molecular level, so you can’t see it happening.

And even though liquids easily change shape, they do resist this change due to the friction between the liquid molecules as they try to move past each other. This friction is called viscosity. Liquids such as honey or syrup are much more viscous than liquids such as milk or water, making them harder to stir. Imagine trying to swim in a swimming pool of honey – delicious but difficult.

A fifth state

Ranch dressing is actually a fifth state of matter known as soft matter. Soft matter can have properties of both liquids and solids, so materials scientists say it is viscoelastic – a combination of viscous and elastic. Other common examples of soft matter include yogurt, cookie dough, shampoo, toothpaste, silly putty, snot, slime and frosting.

These substances aren’t quite solid and aren’t quite liquid – they’re a little of both. You can pour shampoo out of a bottle, but if you put a bit between your fingers and pull them apart, it will stretch between your fingers. Cookie dough can hold its own shape, but if you push on it, it deforms and doesn’t bounce back.

Many viscoelastic materials exhibit shear thinning, which means that their viscosity decreases the more you agitate them. This is why shaking your bottle of ranch dressing or ketchup allows you to pour it out – even though before shaking it was too solid-like to leave the bottle. It’s also why yogurt that seems quite solid and able to maintain its shape becomes more liquid-like when you stir it quickly.

Squishy materials can also exhibit shear thickening – they become more rigid the harder you try to deform them. This is how Oobleck, a simple mixture of cornstarch and water, works. You can slowly pour it and submerge your hand in it, like any other liquid, but if you squeeze it or shake it up it solidifies.

A different kind of molecule

The reason these squishy materials have both liquid and solid properties is that they’re made of polymers: long, chainlike molecules. These long chains get all tangled up, like a bowl of spaghetti, so they are sort of connected, like the molecules in a solid, but also sort of free to move past one other, like molecules in a liquid.

Most store-bought ranch dressing contains xantham gum, which is a natural polymer used to thicken and stabilize many foods.

So the next time you try to pour your ranch dressing out of the bottle, you can imagine the xantham gum polymers all tangled up with one another, making the dressing act like a solid. When you shake the bottle, you’re disentangling the polymers so they slide and flow past each other, allowing the dressing to flow easily out of the bottle and onto your plate.

Hello, curious kids! Do you have a question you’d like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com. Please tell us your name, age and the city where you live.

And since curiosity has no age limit – adults, let us know what you’re wondering, too. We won’t be able to answer every question, but we will do our best.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Rae Robertson-Anderson, University of San Diego

Read more:

• Peanut butter is a liquid – the physics of this and other unexpected fluids
• ‘Dancing’ raisins − a simple kitchen experiment reveals how objects can extract energy from their environment and come to life
• What’s that microplastic? Advances in machine learning are making identifying plastics in the environment more reliable

Rae Robertson-Anderson receives funding from the US National Science Foundation, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, and National Institutes of Health.

Feature Image: It pours like a liquid but maintains its shape like a solid. Jack Andersen/Stone via Getty Images

The post Is ranch dressing a liquid or a solid? A physicist explains appeared first on The Cincinnati Herald .

By Gustavo Morello

Holy Week and Easter are perhaps the most important days in the Christian calendar. Many associate those celebrations with church services, processions, candles, incense, fasting and penances.

However, there is another tradition that many Christians follow – that of tattooing. Historically, Easter was an important time for tattoos among some Christian groups. Today, Christian tattooing happens in many parts of the world and all year around. Some Christians visiting Jerusalem around Easter will get a tattoo of a cross, or a lamb, usually on their forearms.

As a sociologist of religion and a Jesuit Catholic priest, I have long studied tattoos as religious practices. I have interviewed tattoo artists in Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Loreto in Italy who have been continuing and recreating the tradition of Christian tattooing. Evidence is clear the practice started shortly after Jesus’ crucifixion and spread across Europe in later centuries.

The first Christian tattoos

The Romans, like the Greeks, tattooed slaves and prisoners, usually with letters or words on their foreheads that indicated their crime. Soon after Jesus’ death, around the year 30 C.E., they started enslaving and tattooing Christians with the marks “AM” – meaning “ad metalla,” or condemned to work in the mines, a punishment that often resulted in death.

Almost at the same time, Christians who were not enslaved got tattoos of the early Christian signs such as fish or lambs in solidarity and to show that they identified with Jesus.

There were no specific words in Latin or Greek for tattooing, so the words “stizo,” “signum” and “stigma” were used. The word stigma also referred to the marks of nails on Jesus’ hands and foot, as a result of his crucifixion. Christians often got their own “stigmas”: a sign – usually a cross – in Jerusalem to honor Christ’s martyrdom.

The beginning of a tradition

There are several documented accounts of the tradition.

One from the third century mentions Christians in present-day Egypt and Syria getting tattoos of fish and crosses.

Another tells about the commentary that Procopius of Gaza, a theologian who lived between 475 and 538 C.E., wrote on the Book of Isaiah after he found that many Christians living in the Holy Land had a cross tattooed on their wrists. “Still others will write on their hand, ‘The Lord’s,’ and will take the name Israel,” he noted.

When a plague hit the Scythians, nomadic people living around the Black Sea, in 600 C.E., tattoos were believed to provide protection from the deadly disease. Theophylact Simocatta, one of the last historians of late antiquity, mentioned that missionaries among them recommended that “the foreheads of the young be tattooed with this very sign” – meaning that of a cross.

Many testimonies mentioned Crusaders and pilgrims returning from the Holy Land with a tattoo during the Middle Ages – a tradition that continued in early modern times, between the 16th and 18th centuries.

Christian tattoos in Great Britain

Other cultures used tattoos in different ways. When Romans came in contact with the Celts tribes that inhabited the British Isles in 400 C.E., they called them Picts because they were covered in body art.

Pope Gregory the Great sent envoys to convert the Celts to Christianity, followed by a visit from another Vatican delegation. While missionaries were against “pagan tattooing,” both delegations agreed that tattoos done for the Christian god were fine. The members of the second delegation in the late 700s even said, “If anyone were to undergo this injury of staining for the sake of God, he would receive a great reward for it.”

Similar was the conclusion of the Northumbria Council, a church gathering in Northern England in 787: Tattoos done for the right god were acceptable. At that time, the Anglo-Saxon elite also had tattoos; the bishop of York, Saint Wilfrid, for example, got a tattoo of a cross.

Tattoos in Italy

Around the 1300s, as the Christian kingdoms in the Holy Land were losing control with the coming of the Ottomans, there appeared in Italy shrines called “Sacri Monti.” These shrines were placed on “holy mountains” where devotees could pilgrimage safely, instead of risking their lives going to Jerusalem, which by then was under the control of the Ottomans.

These shrines were established in cities such as Naples, Varallo and Loreto. Pilgrims could get tattoos in some of these shrines. One place was Loreto’s sanctuary, established in the early 1300s. A relic from the “Holy House,” which, according to the Christian tradition, is the house where the Virgin Mary is believed to have received the news that she will bear God’s son, was brought to Loreto’s sanctuary.

Tattooing in Loreto’s sanctuary was a communal activity, done by carpenters, shoemakers and artisans, who brought their stalls and tools to the main square
during the days of celebrations and tattooed whoever wanted to get a mark of their devotion. These tattoos typically used wood planks for transferring the design on the body, like a stamp. However, the city of Loreto banned tattooing for hygienic reasons in 1871, according to Caterina Pigorini Beri, an anthropologist, who was one of the first to document the practice.

But people kept getting them. A shoemaker, Leonardo Conditti, was among those who kept doing tattoos in hiding during the 1940s.

Present but unseen

From the 1200s to the 1700s, the custom of Christian tattooing was prevalent in Europe among peasants, seafarers, soldiers and artisans as much as among nuns and monks. They were getting crosses, images of the Virgin Mary, the name of Jesus, and some sentences from the Bible.

Following the Renaissance, however, European culture came to associate tattoos with those considered “uncivilized,” such as peoples in the colonies, criminals and poorer Catholics. Many European intellectuals viewed Catholicism as a superstition more than a real religion.

The word “tattoo” came to the Western languages after the French admiral and explorer Louis de Bougainville and British explorer James Cook returned from their trips to the South Pacific at the end of the 1700s. There, they saw local people getting marks on their bodies and using the word “tatau” to name those drawings. However, it does not mean that tattoos came back at that time. They had never left.

The practice today

These days, some churches in the Middle East, such as some Coptic Christian churches in Egypt, incorporate the practice of getting a tattoo into the baptismal rituals.

Indeed, Holy Land tattooing has never stopped. Wassim Razzouk, whom I interviewed in 2022, is a 27th-generation tattooist – his family has been marking pilgrims in Jerusalem since 1300. Razzouk claims to have some of the 500-year-old wood planks his family used for tattooing.

Another tattoo artist whom I interviewed, Walid Ayash, does pilgrimage tattoos for those who visit the Nativity church in Bethlehem – a beloved custom among Arab Christians. He said that tattooing happens all year around, as long as there are pilgrims visiting the Nativity church. Although this year, as a result of the war in Gaza, Israeli authorities have restricted access to Jerusalem and Bethlehem.

In Italy, artist Jonatal Carducci is working on recovering the tradition of religious tattooing in Loreto. In a 2023 interview with me, he explained how he has painstakingly replicated the designs of the wood planks, which are both in the Museum of the Holy House and the Folkloric Museum of Rome. In 2019, he opened a parlor where Leonardo Conditti used to work. Visitors to the parlor can choose among more than 60 designs for their tattoos, including the Virgin Mary of Loreto, crosses and representations of Jesus’ heart.

This Easter, as some Christians get tattoos, this history might serve as a reminder of tattooing as a legitimate Christian practice, one that has been in use since the beginnings of the Common Era.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Gustavo Morello, Boston College

Read more:

• Scorsese’s gods of the streets: From ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ to ‘Silence,’ faith is rarely far off in his films
• Tattoo regret: Can you make it go away?
• What Ötzi the prehistoric iceman can teach us about the use of tattoos in ceremonial healing or religious rites

Gustavo Morello does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Feature Image: Christian Palestinian tattoo artist Walid Ayash draws a tattoo on the arm of a Coptic Egyptian pilgrim on April 28, 2016, at his studio in Bethlehem. Thomas Coex /AFP via Getty Images

The post Easter marks the revival of Christian tattooing tradition appeared first on The Cincinnati Herald .

Pinot Noir and Pinot Nero are the same grape variety, the former is the French name, and the latter is the Italian name.

I’ve always loved a glass of Pinot Noir due to the elegance and earthiness of the wine. Low in tannins, dry, and light enough to pair with a hearty fish dish, seafood, tender cuts of beef, and fat rimmed pork chops.

Kaltern Saltner Pinot Nero Riserva DOC

The history of Cantina Kaltern goes back to the beginning of the 20th century, a century that separated Alto Adige from Austria. The winery cooperative has 650 members and 450 hectares of vineyards.

A plush palate with flavors of mixed berries, savory herbs, dried cranberries, sweet baking spices, field wildflowers, and a deep garnet hue. The finish is long with elegant tannins, mild acidity, and a silky mouthfeel. This wine was my favorite of the three and more of a medium bodied Pinot Nero. A half golden cap and embossing makes for a beautiful bottle. Pairs well with vegan dishes, turkey meatballs with gravy, fried chicken, Mexican fried rice, and baked trout almondine.

Castelfeder Pinot Nero Alto Adige Riserva DOC

Since 1989 the Burgum Novum label represents the premium wines of Castelfeder. After a careful aging process in small oak barrels for 18 months, Riserva wines age for an additional 12 months in the bottle before being released.

The Pinot Nero Riserva stands out with a bold nose of red berries, rich earth, cranberries, and vanilla. Lovely flavors of pomegranate seeds, mild tannins, soft oak, refined acidity, and a long earthy finish. Pairs nicely with grilled salmon, stuffed mushrooms, garlic infused mussels, and broiled pork chops. Castelfeder has a magnificent portfolio of wine.

Girlan Patrica Pinot Noir

Grapes for this wine derive from Girlan, Mazon, and Pinzon. The vineyards are located at an altitude between 380 and 530 meters.

The grapes are picked by hand and placed in small containers to prevent excess pressure on the grapes. Placed into steel tanks where the alcoholic fermentation takes place. After malolactic fermentation, the wine is aged for 12 months in large wooden barrels. Then stored for 6 months in the bottle. A pretty nose of sour cherry and flirty raspberry. Flavors of dried raspberries, crisp pomegranate, and a fresh acidity.

This is the Pinot Noir to pair with cheese and dense wheat crackers. Soft white cheeses, herbed goat cheese, drunken goat cheese, vegan gouda, Havarti, smoked provolone, fresh mozzarella, and blueberry cream cheese.

https://www.kellereikaltern.com

https://castelfeder.it/wine

https://www.girlan.it

The post Pinot Noir and Pinot Nero: Same grape, different names appeared first on The Cincinnati Herald .

It’s time to honor the first African American who hand carved a working wooden clock.

Benjamin Banneker was born in Maryland November 1731. He was a land-owning tobacco farmer of modest means.

In 1751 Banneker borrowed a pocket watch. He was fascinated by its mechanisms. Drawing each component and creating pieces out of wood. Circa 1753 he constructed the first wooden clock in the United States. It disappeared in a mysterious fire and has never been recovered.

Banneker published an almanac offering weather data, recipes, and medical remedies. As a noted astronomer and mathematician George Washington appointed Banneker to a surveyor team. The goal was to select sites for the White House and other federal buildings. In October 1806, Banneker died in his sleep.

Banneker’s Legacy continues to this day as Banneker, Inc. Founded in 2003. Headquartered in Denver, Colorado and black owned.

Personal interview with Banneker founder and CEO Derrick Holmes.

What timepiece collections have been the most popular?

“The most popular current watches have been the Baller collection, the Poise, and the Nice. In the past we had an extremely popular limited edition Black Eagle watch that sold out quickly. Three of our most popular original collections are the Power, the Imhotep, and the Me which we want to bring back at some point in 2025”.

What new products and designs are in store for 2025?

“In 2025 we are hoping to launch a new version of the Poise and a series of stainless-steel mesh bracelets. A new series in the Camelot family named “the Fire” promises to be exciting as well”.

Any new materials being used from the African Continent to produce timepieces?

“Currently, we source many of our exotic woods from the African Continent. Black sandalwood, red sandalwood, wenge wood, and ebony wood from Mozambique, and zebra wood from Congo. We are always looking for additional collaborations with African manufacturing partners”. 

That concludes the interview, enjoyable, insightful, and a pleasure.

As a young professional living in Cincinnati the 43mm Camelot Gold Watch is unique and of exceptional quality. It helps deliver my personal swagger.

Remember to change clocks and watches for daylight saving time on Sunday March 9^th.

Cartoon character Aljay is created by Sterling Haynes.

https://bannekerstore.com

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By Dan Ketchum

Language is constantly evolving, but when you get to be of a—let’s say parental—age, it sure feels like it starts evolving a lot faster than it used to. Add in the instantaneous speed and informational overload of online culture, and it becomes a whole lot to keep up with. It might even start to feel like you need a translator to be able to engage with your kid. And that’s exactly why Spokeo created a guide to current online and offline slang.

That’s not to say you should try to deploy this slang too much if you’re over a certain age, but a little fluency definitely helps if you want to be part of the conversation—especially if you’re a parent.

Gen Z Slang 

Some slang is a whole lot more online, and some of it is a whole lot more cutting-edge, but before diving into the deep end of current teenage slang phrases, let’s start with some of the more general slang you might hear from Gen Z nowadays. 

This is the part where we’re supposed to make a cute joke using Gen Z slang, but we’ll spare you and get to it. Here goes:

• Bae: from “baby,” significant other
• Basic: vanilla or boring, garden variety
• Bet: a form of “yes,” or a confirmation
• Cap: A lie, e.g. “no cap,” meaning “no lie”
• CEO: technically, this still means “Chief Executive Officer,” but in a teenage slang phrase like “[person] is the CEO of [thing],” it means that person is the boss or the master of something
• Cheugy: dated or uncool, especially in regard to millennial culture. e.g. “This article is cheugy”
• Cringe: weird or off-putting behavior, often refers to trying too hard
• Cook: the verb “to cook” means that someone is preparing something good. See also: “let them cook,” which translates to “hold on, let’s see what they’re going to do”
• Dead: a state of being used to exaggerate or emphasize a reaction, usually to something funny. e.g. “I’m dead”, simply “dead,” or some variation of 💀. See also: “I’m weak”
• Delulu: shortened form of “delusional”
• Drag: to make fun of or roast someone
• Drip: swagger, especially of the fashionable sort
• Extra: over-the-top
• Fam: short for “family,” used in the same way as the archaic “dude” or “bro”
• Fire: very cool or on-point (think “hot,” like … fire). See also: lit
• Fit: short for “outfit”
• Flex: to show off. e.g., “That new car is a flex”
• Function: usually “the function” or the “func,” a gathering or party
• Glow up: basically, a makeover—including an image makeover—that makes something a lot more attractive or cool
• Gucci: implies that something is good, cool, or going well
• Hits: a verb. When something “hits,” it lands well with or affects someone. Alternatively, if something “hits different,” it affects them in a way outside the norm or expectation
• Low-key: a modifier that downplays something. e.g., “low-key, I like it.” See also: high-key, low-key’s antonym
• Rizz: short for charisma
• Salty: bitter or angry, especially implying jealousy
• Slay: a verb or adjective meaning to be stylish or exhibit lots of swagger. Also used as an imperative in the same vein as “go off,” e.g., “Slay, queen!” or “Go off, king!”
• Serve: the act of looking good, e.g., “she’s serving”
• Shade: negative talk. See also: to “throw shade” or talk negatively about someone
• Ship: from “relationship,” the act of willing people (often fictional characters) into romance
• Shook: to be shaken up or shocked by something
• Simp: to crush on someone to an embarrassing or degrading level. One can simp as a verb, or they can be a simp as a noun
• Sleep on: to ignore or underrate something. The passive “slept on” means something has been ignored or underrated
• Snatched: looks good or is fashionable
• Stan: as a verb, to stan something means that you support or stand for something. e.g., “We stan Spokeo People Search.” As a noun, one can also be a stan for something
• Sus: from “suspicious,” meaning shady or sketchy
• Tea: a noun meaning gossip or news, the latest. e.g., “Spill the tea on your date”
• Thirsty: desperate for attention, or horny
• Yassify: to make something over. Online, this is used ironically in reference to pictures that have way too many obvious filters applied; it can also mean that someone’s face looks filtered IRL
• Yeet: to throw something
• Yikes: see cringe

Chronically Online Slang 

A lot of contemporary slang is a result of, to use a teenage slang phrase, being chronically online—which means very closely engaged (maybe even obsessively so) with internet culture.  Especially in 2024, it’s a two-way street; real-world slang finds its way onto the internet, and online slang just as quickly finds its way into IRL speech. 

In this era of culture wars, you’ll hear a lot of ironic and unironic use of canceled and woke. The act of being or getting canceled gained popularity during the “Me Too” movement; when bad actors were outed by victims of sexual assault or misogyny, they were “canceled,” which essentially means to de-platform or stop supporting someone, especially a public figure. Someone can get canceled, for instance, for making a racist or sexist comment. As a teenage slang phrase, it’s often used ironically to support something inconsequential, like “I got canceled because I don’t like pizza crust.” 

Similarly, while woke was originally slang for being politically or culturally aware, it has been appropriated by far-right movements to degenerate progressive culture, especially cultures of inclusion and diversity. In response to the right’s adoption of the phrase, many people now use it ironically (e.g. “I don’t like paper straws, saving the planet is too woke”).  

Also in the terminally online category, to ratio someone means to gain more support with an opposing stance (it refers to Twitter culture, when a response to a tweet gets more likes—usually opposing or making fun of it—than the original tweet). Next, you have e-girl or e-boy, which is a person who builds a flirtatious presence on the internet. The millennial pause references the short delay before a (usually older) person starts recording themselves in a selfie video. Fittingly so, brain rot means that someone is a little too online, or a little too into something to the point of mindlessness.

Gen Alpha Slang 

The lines are a little blurry and the language is still developing quickly, but if you’re a parent of a child born from roughly 2010 to 2024, your kid is considered part of Generation Alpha (Gen Z is generally considered 1996 to 2010-ish). Broadly speaking, Gen Alpha slang leans even more heavily into absurdism, which may or may not be a coping mechanism for life in the 2020s.   

So far, these (pre-)teenage slang phrases have come to define the Gen Alpha parlance—expect the list to grow quickly as they age into the most marketable and marketed-to age group. Sorry, Gen Z, it happens to everyone eventually.

• Aura: an updated version of “vibe,” but often more personal. Someone or something having an “aura” might mean they have charisma, but they can also have a negative aura
• Fanum tax: stealing food from a friend, named after the food streamer, Fanum
• Gyatt: an exclamation, the shortened version of “God damn!” as in “gyatt damn!” Usually used to compliment one’s butt
• Looksmaxxing: to put an extreme focus on maximizing one’s looks, such as through exercise, diet, or wardrobe makeovers. Maxxing can also be used as a suffix, meaning to maximize something 
• Mog: related to looksmaxxing, to look dominatingly more physically attractive
• Ohio: a synonym for cringe or cringey
• Rizzler: someone who has rizz
• Sigma: a play on Gen Z’s Alpha, which refers to an “Alpha” male or dominant figure. A Sigma is more of a loner
• Skibidi: a nonsense word from the surreal YouTube short series, “Skibidi Toilet.” It’s inspired by the nonsense sounds of the show’s theme song and can be used pretty much however the speaker wants, often as a malleable adjective, interjection, or exclamation

TSAA (The Section About Acronyms)

Because so many Gen Z and Gen Alpha teenage slang phrases come from online culture, a ton of them are abbreviations, like you might see in a text, DM (direct message), chat, or tweet. So many, in fact, that they warrant their own category (so you don’t have to go Googling “ngl meaning”).   

While these citations are in uppercase because that’s the AP style rule for acronyms, remember that most young people use lowercase for these.

• AF: As F**k. To emphasize something, e.g. “Spokeo’s cool AF”
• LFG: Let’s F**king Go!
• GOAT: Greatest of All Time, usually as “The Goat”
• IRL: In Real Life. As in, the offline, non-virtual, real-world space
• IYKYK: If You Know, You Know
• L: stands for a Loss, e.g. “to take the L”
• NGL: Not Gonna Lie
• ONG: “On God,” as in, “I swear.” Not a typo for OMG.
• TBH: To Be Honest
• TFW: That Feeling When, e.g., “TFW you get a good hit on Spokeo People Search”
• W: as in “a W,” also a “dub,” meaning a win
• YOLO: You Only Live Once, mostly used ironically 

Potential Red Flags

On a more serious note, especially as a parent, some slang can indicate that your child isn’t in the best place, emotionally or mental-health wise, or might be getting into spaces that are a bit too adult for their age. 

As a parent, you don’t want to find yourself asking “what does KYS mean?” or Googling “asl meaning slang” unprepared for a potentially deep conversation, so keep these in your back pocket. 

• 53X: sex
• ASL: an abbreviation for “age, sex, location,” usually used when trading info for romantic or sexual purposes. Alternatively, this is sometimes used as a short-hand way to say “As Hell,” e.g. “That video was cool asl.” For this one, context is key
• Body count: the number of people someone has slept with
• CU46: an abbreviation for “see you for sex”
• KMS or KYS: “kill myself” or “kill yourself.” Often used darkly ironically, but can also indicate bullying or being bullied, or legitimate depression. It never hurts to check
• LMIRL: “let’s meet in real life”
• Plug: a drug dealer or drug hookup
• WTTP: an abbreviation for “want to trade photos?”

While it’s true that a whole lot of teenage slang phrases in 2024 are deployed in a funny or darkly ironic way, here’s another, more meaningful truth: it never hurts to check in.

This story was produced by Spokeo and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.

Feature Image: Drazen Zigic // Shutterstock

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A wine is sealed until someone opens it and how it was sealed can be interesting.

Wine corks are an important component of a wine bottle. They have been around for thousands of years and serve as a protective barrier to wine.

Wine corks are typically made from either synthetic or organic materials, namely cork oak tree and polyethylene. Natural corks are the most common and popular type of cork used in wine bottles because of their superior sealing ability. They are obtained from the bark of cork oak trees.

Synthetic corks have been used for many years to replace the natural cork. The synthetic resin corks are a lighter alternative to natural cork.

One of the benefits of synthetic corks is that it minimizes the risk of cork taint. Cork taint is an off-flavor in wine and caused by the chemical compound 2,4,6-trichloroanisole, which is found naturally in cork oak trees.

Champagne corks are designed to be more elastic and flatter at the bottom part of the cork. When carbon dioxide combines with a high amount of pressure, they expand and form into a mushroom-shaped cork.

Agglomerated cork closures are made from a mass of granular or powdered corks. These closures are formed by a method that includes the following steps: mixing cork granulates and an adhesive to form a mixture, forming blocks of the mixture. This style of cork is tightly held together that no oxygen can get in and spoil the wine.

How is the cork harvested?

The cork tree should only be harvested by qualified people called “extractors”, who will guarantee that the procedure does not harm or damage the tree. Harvesting should only be done between the end of May, and the beginning of June. Cork may be harvested from the tree without harming it under these conditions.

I recently saw a documentary where the cork trees are harvested, and it was fascinating to watch. It’s terrific to know that the trees aren’t destroyed during the process. Wine corks can be used for making wreaths, jewelry, wall art, and filling large glass containers for decoration.

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By Joycelyn Wilson, Assistant Professor of Ethnographic and Cultural Studies, Georgia Institute of Technology 

Rhere was a time when artists representing two of America’s biggest homegrown musical genres wouldn’t get a look in at the Grammys.

Hip-hop and house both have their origins in the 1970s and early 1980s – in fact, they recently celebrated a 50th and 40th birthday, respectively. But it was only in 1989 that an award category for “best rap performance” started recognizing hip-hop’s contribution to U.S. music, and house had to wait another decade, with the introduction of “best dance/electronic recording” in 1998.

At this year’s awards, taking place on Feb. 2, hip-hop and house artists were among the most talked about. House duo Justice and Kendrick Lamar, a hip-hop superstar who incorporates elements of house himself, were among those looking to pick up an award. Meanwhile, a nomination for a collaboration between DJ Kaytranada and rapper Childish Gambino shows how artists from both genres continue to feed off each other.

And while both genres are now celebrated for their separate contributions to the music landscape, as a scholar of African American culture and music, I am interested in their commonality: Both are distinctly Black American artforms that originated on the streets and dance floors of U.S. cities, developing a devoted underground following before being accepted by – and transforming – the mainstream.

The pulse of the 1970s

The roots of hip-hop and house music both lie in the seismic shifts of the late 1970s, a period of sociopolitical unrest and electronic experimentation that redefined the possibilities of sound.

For hip-hop, this was expressed through the turntable manipulation pioneered by DJ Kool Herc in 1973, when he extended and looped breakbeats to energize crowds. House music’s innovators turned to the drum machine to create the genre’s foundational four-on-the-floor dance rhythm.

That rhythm, foreshadowed by Eddy Grant’s 1977 production of “Time Warp” by The Coachouse Rhythm Section, would go on to shape house music’s distinct pulse. The track showed how electronic instruments such as the synthesizer and drum machine could recast traditional rhythmic patterns into something entirely new.

This dance vibe – in which a base drum provides a steady four-four beat – became the heartbeat of house music, creating an enduring structure for DJs to layer basslines, percussion and melodies. In a similar way, Kool Herc’s breakbeat manipulation provided the scaffolding for MCs and dancers in hip-hop’s formative years.

Marginalized communities in urban centers like Chicago and New York were at the forefront of these innovations. Despite experiencing grinding poverty and discrimination, it was Black and Latino youth – armed with turntables, drum machines and samplers – who made these groundbreaking advances in music.

For hip-hop, this meant manipulating breakbeats from songs like Kraftwerk’s “Trans-Europe Express” and “Numbers” to energize b-boys and b-girls; for house, it meant extending disco’s rhythmic pulse into an ecstatic, inclusive dance floor. Both genres exemplified – and continue to exemplify – the ingenuity of predominantly Black and Hispanic communities who turned limited resources into cultural revolutions.

From this shared origin of technological experimentation, cultural resilience and creative ingenuity, hip-hop and house music grew into distinct yet globally influential movements.

The message and the MIDI

By the early 1980s, both genres had found their feet.

Hip-hop emerged as a powerful voice for storytelling, resistance and identity. Building on the foundations laid down by DJ Kool Herc, artists like Afrika Bambaataa emphasized hip-hop’s cultural and communal aspects. Meanwhile, Grandmaster Flash elevated the genre’s technical artistry with innovations like cutting and scratching.

By 1984, hip-hop had evolved from its grassroots beginnings in the Bronx into a cultural movement on the cusp of mainstream recognition. Run-DMC’s self-titled debut album released that year introduced a harder, stripped-down sound that departed from disco-influenced beats. Their music, paired with the trio’s Adidas tracksuits and gold chains, established an aesthetic that resonated far beyond New York City.    Music videos on MTV gave hip-hop a new medium for storytelling, while films like “Beat Street” and “Breakin’” showcased the features and tenets of hip-hop culture: DJing, rapping, graffiti, breaking and knowledge of self – cementing its cultural presence, and presenting it to a world outside the U.S.

But at its core, hip-hop remained a voice for the voiceless that sought to address systemic inequities through storytelling. Tracks like Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five’s “The Message” vividly depicted the reality of living in poor, urban communities, while Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power” and Tupac Shakur’s “Keep Ya Head Up” became anthems for social justice.

Together these artists positioned hip-hop as a platform for resistance and empowerment.

Becoming a cultural force

Unlike hip-hop’s lyrical storytelling, house music focused on the physicality of rhythm and the collective experience of the dance floor. And as hip-hop moved away from disco, house leaned into it.

Italy’s “father of disco,” Giorgio Moroder, showed the way with his pioneering use of synthesizers in Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love.” Over in New York, Larry Levan’s DJ sets at Paradise Garage demonstrated how electronic instruments could create immersive, emotionally charged experiences as a club that centered crowd participation through dance and not lyrics.

By 1984, Chicago DJs Frankie Knuckles and Ron Hardy were repurposing disco tracks with drum machines like the Roland TR-808 and 909 to create hypnotic beats. Knuckles, known as the “Godfather of House,” transformed his sets at the Warehouse club into euphoric experiences, giving the genre its name in the process.

House music thrived on inclusivity, served as a safe space for Black and Latino members of the LGBTQ+ communities at a time when hip-hop was severely unwelcoming of gay men. Tracks like Jesse Saunders’ “On & On” and Marshall Jefferson’s “Move Your Body” celebrated freedom, love and unity, encapsulating its liberatory spirit, as rap music and hip-hop culture embarked on its mainstream journey with songs like Run DMC’s “Sucker M.C.s (Krush Groove)” and Salt-N-Pepa debuted their album “Hot, Cool, & Vicious.”

As with hip-hop, by the the mid-1980s house music had become a cultural force, spreading from Chicago to Detroit, to New York and, eventually, to the U.K.’s rave scene. Its emphasis on repetition, rhythm and electronic instrumentation solidified its global appeal, uniting people across identities and geographies.

Mainstays in modern music

Despite their differences, moments of crossover highlight their shared DNA.

From the late 1980s, tracks like Fast Eddie’s “Yo Yo Get Funky” and the Jungle Brothers’ “I’ll House You” merged house beats with hip-hop’s lyrical flow. Artists like Kaytranada and Doechii continue to blend the two genres today, staying true to the genres’ legacies while pushing their boundaries.

And technology continues to drive both genres. Platforms like SoundCloud have democratized music production, allowing emerging artists to build on the decades of innovations that preceded them. Collaborations, such as Disclosure and Charli XCX’s “She’s Gone, Dance On,” highlight their adaptability and enduring appeal.

Whether through hip-hop’s lyrical narratives or house’s rhythmic euphoria, these genres continue to inspire, challenge and transcend.

As the 2025 Grammy Awards celebrated today’s leading house and hip-hop artists and their contemporary achievements, it is clear that the legacies of these two genres are mainstays in the kaleidoscope of American popular music and culture, having come a long way from back-to-school park jams and underground dance parties.

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