Ellen DeGenere’s Wish You Were Here tribute to towns. Add yours.

by Jamie Rhein on

The Ellen DeGeneres Show Web site has an AOL feature called Wish You Were Here. This is where people can enter details about the towns where they live. Sure, you can add in the best places to eat, scenic attractions and best activities, but to add some extra flavoring, there are catagories like unusual talents, facinating characters and most talented pets. There are also photos.

I did some poking around on the site and here’s what I found out so far, there are 25 states that have a town or city called Columbus. Columbus, Ohio is listed first which makes sense since it’s the only one that’s a state capital and also the largest of them. After typing in Columbus, Ohio to see what came up, I tried Hindman, Kentucky, my mom’s hometown–a small place in southeastern Kentucky. This brought me to Kentucky’s page. (There’s also a Hindman, Texas.) Nothing is on Hindman, Kentucky’s page, but a map showing where it is. On the Kentucky page there are 10 different listings in Kentucky. (Ohioans have been busier filling in details I have to say) One person, though waxes poetic about Northern Kentucky where I have two aunts. Once you get past the malls and suburban sprawl of Northern Kentucky, I’d say there are some interesting places to go. One of my most favorite is the Dinsmore Homestead.

With some further link clicking, I also found out that Morro Bay, California has an man with an unusual talent. He stands by the ocean every day trying to fly pieces of trash as if they were kites. Napkins, soda cans, whatever he can find, gets attached to a stick with string.

In a way this site reminds me of a gigantic scrapbook photo album which is probably the point. As people from around the U.S. add to it, it has the potential to make the U.S. look like an engaging, diverse place that is more than just the latest McDonald’s that’s opening. Clever idea. I like it.

10-Day Sausage Fest in Texas

by Catherine Bodry on

New Braunfels, Texas, has been holding “Wurstfest — The 10-day salute to sausage” for 46 years. While the rest of the world celebrates Oktoberfest, New Braunfels’ residents wait a bit longer in the fall to honor another German favorite besides beer: sausage.

The fest kicks off with the traditional “biting of the sausage” (see photo) and continues with plenty of accordion music, and the chance to sample different types of wurst. There’s bratwurst, of course, but also apple wurst, jalapeno wurst and more.

This year 125,000 visitors are expected.

[via Msnbc]

Looking for some more Oktoberfest fun? Check out Gadling’s coverage of the festival!

Where on Earth? Week 17: Austin, TX

by Justin Glow on

Well, I was right — this was too easy of a Where on Earth. It only took reader Dave 21 minutes to come up with the correct answer of Mt. Bonnell Park in Austin, TX. What looks like a large river is actually Lake Austin. This is usually considered Austin’s highest point at 775 feet, and it’s popular among tourists and locals alike. I’ve made my way to the top several times, usually to take in the horizon and ogle the multi-million-dollar houses down below.

“The peak is named for George Bonnell,” according to the Austin Explorer, “who served as Commissioner of Indian Affairs for the Texas Republic. He first moved to Austin in 1839.” The Explorer also offers up directions for those of you interested in seeing this site in real life:

“From MoPac Expressway in Central Austin, take the 35th Street exit and head west. Proceed past Camp Mabry on the right and veer left in the fork on the road onto Old Bull Creek Road. Turn right onto Mount Bonnell Road and lumber up the the hill and look for parking on the left when reaching the crest.”

We really need to start making these tougher.

The Best U.S. Cities for Singles

by Justin Glow on

You may recognize this “Singles” map from the February 2007 issue of National Geographic. It ranks the number of single women versus the number of single men in metropolitan areas, and you may be surprised at some of the results.

Girls, looking to travel to a bachelor-heavy area? The Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana metro area, for instance, has the highest population of single males, with 40,000 more than single women. On the flip side, guys, the New York-Newark urban area has 185,000 more single women than men.

What I find particularly interesting is Texas. Dallas, Austin, and Houston all have more single men than women, while San Antonio has more single women. With the influx of military personnel in San Antonio, I would have figured the opposite.

One for the Road: Keep Austin Weird

by Kelly Amabile on

Did you hear the one about the librarian who once played a cadaver in a movie? No joke actually, and I got your attention now, right? In 2000, said librarian and Austin native Red Wassenich coined a phrase that stuck like glue. The locals embraced it and now he’s written a book to back up what has become a motto for the city: Keep Austin Weird: A Guide to the Odd Side of Town.

As he explained in this recent Library Journal interview, “It’s kind of a skewed version of a traditional guidebook to a city, as the subtitle says. Probably every town has two or three odd events. There just seems to be an inordinate number of them here in Austin.”

Wassenich serves as tour guide to some of the wackiest folks and things that make Austin such an oddity — events like the Spamarama and O’Henry Pun-Off; spots like the Cathedral of Junk and the Polka-Dot Lawn; and a whole lot of other weird stuff. Local bookstore BookPeople made the Weird guide too, and Wassernich will be there at 3 PM today chatting about the colorful people and places that make the Texas state capital such a terrifically bizarre city.