Vanity Fair: Really? No, really?

by julie on February 16, 2010

Geography lesson: The Creation Museum is in Kentucky. Cincinnati is in Southern Ohio. They are not the same place.

“It’s not in the nature of stoic Cincinnatians to boast, which is fortunate, really, for they have meager pickings to boast about.”

We have a lot to be proud of– if the writer of the above linked article spent time outside of the airport and the Creation Museum, he might know that.

“Here in Nowheresville, Kentucky, tennis is considered a game for Europeans and other sexual deviants.”

Oh wait– so we’re not in Cincinnati anymore?  That’s good, since Mason, Ohio (a good bit closer to Cincinnati than the Creation Museum is) hosts a major tennis tournaments.

Sigh.

Kate’s said it best, but I am darn tired of people assuming all of the “flyover” is worthless, backwards, and consisting of hicks.

Want to tell Vanity Fair how you feel?  letters@vf.com, if you please.

UPDATE: Wow, Kate started quite a thing. A.A. Gill responds, and it’s possibly even snarkier than before. I think it speaks for itself: he had no intention of doing anything that might allow him to enjoy the city.

  • AnnonGuy

    Geography Lesson I learned via google maps: a trip from the Creation Museum to downtown Cincinnati equals less time and miles than a trip from the Lindner Tennis Center in Mason to downtown Cincinnati.

    • http://winemedinemecincinnati.com julie

      Depends on which highway you take; from 275 it’s 4 miles further. Trying to figure out your point, Anon?

  • AnnonGuy

    C’mon now.. Yes, it is four miles further if you take a really dumb way to get there, but even that dumb way will get you from downtown to Hebron in less time (despite the FOUR miles) than you could get to Mason.

    My point is that Cincinnati deserves to take a little crap about the Creation Museum (especially if they are going to celebrate a tennis tournament that is in another nearby city). That part of KY is just as much a part of Cincinnati as Mason.

    I wonder why you don’t think so?

  • JA

    I just sent them a letter asking them to send a writer to CIncinnati and publish an article about the city. We should encourage others to do the same.

  • Sarah

    Regardless of the distance between downtown Cincinnati and the Creation Museum, there is no way that any writer worth his weight should write such sweeping generalizations regarding the whole of a city based on one museum, landmark, etc. To say we have nothing to be proud of as a city is completely unfounded. And as Julie (and Kate) mentioned, if he had taken a moment to actually VISIT the city he may have had a different experience. However, it seems as though his entire visit was based on his visit to the Creation Museum…and he should have kept his comments to that experience instead of indulging in snarky comments about the city and people of Cincinnati as a whole. Badly done VF.

  • http://amyl.tumblr.com Amy

    It’s classic A.A.Gill. He’s a jerk and a snob. He has made a career on sweeping generalizations and never having anything nice to say. He’s often offensive and always snarky. This is the man who shot a baboon last fall and wrote about it in a restaurant review for the Times. His career is fueled by outrage. I think he’s the type of critic that is best ignored. Anything else seems to give him power.

  • Cindy from Cincinnati

    It’s articles like this that made me give up my subscription to VF a few years ago. Once again VF believes only NYC and LA are cool, no one else. They lost me and they’ll continue to lose readers with this philosophy. Good riddens, VF.

    I’m sure they flew in to CVG, visited the Creation Museum and returned to the Airport to leave. My guess is that they spent no time in the area, and did no research on the area before writing this. Also, they are not real tennis fans, as all decent tennis fans realize that Mason /Cincinnati hosts a major tournament each year. Duh!

  • vudutu

    In general I like VF, I usually find it a more intelligent voice than most pubs. I do not recognize this author, I’ll have go back and read the article this eve. I must say I am embarrassed to reside in the same state as the Creation Museum. I honestly do not get that in the face of immense scientific evidence people just refuse to accept that God created evolution and move on. The world would be a better place if they would accept other cultures and take the Bible timeline with a little bit bigger grain of salt. This stuck in the primordial ooze thinking just astounds me, especially in otherwise intelligent people, if you want some insight read “Deer hunting with Jesus” by Joe Bageant.
    http://www.joebageant.com/

  • Agreed

    If you’re going to get uppity about “Northern Kentucky being a different place than Cincinnati,” please ensure that all of your posts on “Wine me dine me (in Cincinnati)” are within Cincinnati city limits. It seems only fair for you to follow the same standard you’re holding him to.

    • http://winemedinemecincinnati.com Julie

      If you read my “about”, it says “restaurants, food and dining (in Cincinnati and beyond). I happen to be based in Cincinnati.

      How exactly is that “uppity”?

      • AnnonGuy

        To avoid sounding uppity, you might want to clarify:

        What exactly was your point when you gave your geography lesson? Why doesn’t a museum in Kentucky count as Cincinnati when a tennis tournament in Mason does? Why is Mason (in your mind) “a good bit closer to Cincinnati than the Creation Museum.”

        Maybe you shoulda stuck with “Kate said it best.”

        • Agreed

          Exactly the point that I was trying to make AnonGuy. I spent a little time looking through some past reviews and saw several from “around Cincinnati” that were up in Mason. Yet I couldn’t find anything in Kentucky further away than Covington. If you’re going to embrace the entire Cincinnati area, then embrace the whole area. If you’re going to pick and choose, why would you be surprised when someone else does the same thing.

          • http://winemedinemecincinnati.com julie

            I also have posts from Boston, Paris and New York. I shouldn’t write about them because they’re not in Cincinnati proper?

            I’m trying to figure out what horse you have in this race– because it seems to me that you’re more into bashing the blogger than actually talking about the subject at hand.

  • Cathleen

    The part that I think is hilarious is “nowheresville KY” aka 4 miles from Cincinnati’s major airport. We didn’t ask that they build the wacko Creation Museum here and a majority of the people that visit the Creation Museum are from out of state, yet we are backwoods? You know why it doesn’t offend or bother me? Because if I’m not interested in the message, I don’t go there. Maybe he should embrace this way of thinking and be a little less critical.

  • Tom

    Perhaps I am reading your post in a way unintended, but I come away with the impression that because the Creation Museum is in Kentucky, it is Kentucky that is backwards. And that is okay so long as an outsider does not equate Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky.

    I also deduce from your statement “I am darn tired of people assuming all of the “flyover” is worthless, backwards, and consisting of hicks.” that perhaps some parts of the flyover is worthless, backwards, and consisting of hicks. Is not that the issue with A.A.Gill, making generalizations based on something specific that offended? I travel to many places, some are busy and bustling with lots of bells and whistles, some are sleepy villages, but the people are unique individuals in any locale. There are good and bad everywhere and our personal biases color that.

    Like I said, maybe I am reading your post wrong, but it seems like a case of the pot calling the kettle black.

    • http://winemedinemecincinnati.com julie

      I travel extensively as well, and there are “backwards” places and whacko people everywhere, just like there are nice, interesting people everywhere too. I’m not going to get into an argument about Creationism, and I’m sure the people there are very nice, but the whole place (the Museum) has become a huge joke to everyone else in the country. I’d prefer that Cincinnati be known as a metropolitan area for the positive stuff. It’s not a Kentucky-bashing post (Bourbon Trail! Derby! Louisville Sluggers!), but frustration with people who come into a city, judge it by one experience, and then write it off.

  • Tom

    Wow, ‘the whole place has become a huge joke to everyone else in the country.’ I think that is exactly what A.A. Gill was trying to say.

    • http://winemedinemecincinnati.com julie

      whole place= creation museum. Cincinnati is far more than the creation museum, isn’t it?

      I’m sure Petersburg, KY has other things going on for it than the Museum. I don’t argue a bit with A.A. Gill’s impression of the museum, I argue with his judgment of Cincinnati based on an optician, the airport, and the museum. It’s painfully obvious he never actually set foot in the city limits, or even Covington or Newport.

  • Cait

    I’m just surprised A.A.Gill didn’t see the Creation Museum for what it really is: a brilliant business idea. Although I’m not sure why he equates it with Cincinnati–couldn’t one argue it’s location was chosen because it was central, and people from all over the Bible Belt could easily travel there? They tapped a zealous and important market, and I think if anything, that reflects Cincinnati’s important role in the marketing field. That said, the NY Times article from last summer is a much better representation of our city (http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/07/19/travel/19hour.html), or at least the downtown area. I’m surprised A.A.Gill didn’t do his research–aren’t hip bars and morning brunch also big in NYC and LA? How did he miss this?

  • Cait

    I’m surprised A.A.Gill didn’t see the Creation Museum for what it really is: a brilliant business plan. As for the location, couldn’t one argue it was chosen because it’s central, and accessible by the Bible Belt masses? Either way, they tapped a zealous and important market, and if anything, that should reflect Cincinnati’s role in the marketing field. Remember this NY Times article from last summer: http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/07/19/travel/19hour.html? While it’s only representative of downtown, it gets me wondering…aren’t hip bars and morning brunch NYC and LA trends, too? How did A.A.Gill miss this?

  • Cait

    I’m surprised A.A.Gill didn’t see the Creation Museum for what it really is: a brilliant business plan. As for the location, couldn’t one argue it was chosen because it’s central, and accessible by the Bible Belt masses? Either way, they tapped a zealous and important market, and if anything, that should reflect Cincinnati’s role in the marketing field. Remember this NY Times travel article from last summer: http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/07/19/travel/19hour.html? While it’s only representative of downtown, it gets me wondering…aren’t hip bars and morning brunch NYC and LA trends, too? How did A.A.Gill miss this?

  • vudutu

    Lousy article, not up to VF standards, should have never gotten past the editor. If Mr Gill had done any research he would know that the center of the universe is actually 30 miles downriver.
    http://www.rabbithashthemovie.com/

  • dc

    Actually, I completely disagree with “Kate’s said it best”. Her letter (or post; unsure if she sent it to VF) was just as snarky, juvenile, and condescending. It’s rarely an effective way for your point to be seriously considered, for much of the same reason we are devaluing A.A. Gill’s article. However, Gill’s editor should have caught this. An opening line sets the tone for the article, and “meager pickings” is clearly an overarching defamatory conclusion about an entire city and its citizens located 26 miles from the subject of the article ( a wacky museum privately funded and built by a ministry with its roots in Australia), and is disjointed from the rest of the article. It’s a cheap shot, and substandard writing and editing. Most of the article is inflammatory rather than the author’s opinion mixed with solid reporting and research.

    • http://winemedinemecincinnati.com Julie

      You get us riled up, the snark comes out, I suppose, and though perhaps I could have been less snarky, I won’t apologize for the pride in our town that is behind the snark– and I forgot about the Australian roots. Still wondering why the Museum is in Kentucky (and not Australia), but I’m guessing that being in the buckle of the bible belt is a more attractive place than the Outback– at least if you want to attract a crowd.

      Now back to your regularly scheduled food blog– thanks for the comment, dc.

  • dc

    The Answers in Genesis (AiG) ministry began in Australia, expanded to include UK, and now has a U.S. arm. The primary reason Petersburg Ky, was chosen is location, location, location. Ken Ham, the founder of AiG, has been quoted as saying “it’s within one hour’s flight of 69 percent of America’s population.” And you’re exactly right – he wants his $27 million dollar message to be more accessible than it would be if located in Australia.

    None of us should ever apologize for boasting about Cincinnati. It has its quirks and weaknesses, but its gifts are abundant.

  • born and raised in cincinnati

    why is this such a big deal? why are you taking so much offense to this? it’s a snobby nyc writer being snobby. i think the fact that you and other bloggers are just making such a big deal out of it does nothing but call more attention to the article. i’m from cincy, i love the city, lived here all my life. this is not something to get all huffy puffy about. relax.

  • http://flypaper-makeitstick.blogspot.com/ KC

    Ham explained to an Australian reporter in 2007 that “Australia’s not really the place to build such a facility if you’re going to reach the world. Really,” he said, “America is.” Ham says that two-thirds of the American population live within 600 miles of Petersburg.

    http://flypaper-makeitstick.blogspot.com/2009/09/creation-museum-whole-lot-of-hooey.html

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