Westerville is not Nirvana
Monday, July 30th, 2007“Load up on guns
Bring your friends
Its fun to lose
And to pretend
Shes overboard
Myself assured
I know I know
A dirty word”
Those are the lyrics to Nirvana’s hit song ‘Smells like Teen Spirit’ from the early 90’s.
After making a CNNMoney.com list as one of the top US small cities recently Westerville made the news (at least locally) for two troubled teens plans to bomb, burn down and kill everyone in two unidentified local restaurants and St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Church.
I read about “the plot” Thursday online. I was Googling for Westerville and I saw a discussion about “the plot”, which made me go find what the Columbus Dispatch had on the story.
Wednesday in the Columbus Dispatch
I forgot all about the Westerville story until Sunday morning, walking into church.
It would be real easy to get on the roof of St. Paul the Apostle Church. I never noticed that before. I wonder if teens have done it before. Climbed up on the roof of the church. I am sure the planting pipe bombs idea was novel.
The Nirvana song ‘Smells like Teen Spirit’ was inspired by graffiti about the smell of a deodorant… the song written by Kurt Cobain however was about teen age angst though, anarchy, rebellion. I had heard that he did not realize there was a deoderant named ‘Teen Spirit’ until after the song was recorded…. Wikipedia has that story… including:
“The song was dubbed an “anthem for apathetic kids” of Generation X.”
The two boys were born about the time Nirvana recorded the song… The Wikipedia has files where you can hear snatches of the song, first as recorded by Nirvana, then a Tori Amos cover and then a Paul Anka recording of it… talk about generations.
There is no connection between the song, ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’, the group Nirvana and the Westerville boys. ‘Smells like Teen Spirit’ is just was a song that popped in my head at church Sunday morning. That was not one of the songs the St Paul the Apostle organist played.
I’ve heard the lyrics to ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ changed when Nirvana performed live and they were hard to make out….
“Police: Teens Plotted To Bomb Church | July 25, 2007″ - Channel 10 Slideshow of the story
The boys families are members of St. Paul Church, one went to school at St. Paul (the school goes through eighth grade.) I did not read the Thursday article in the Columbus Dispatch, which says the boys families belong to the parish. I read the Thursday Columbus Dispatch article on Sunday night. Thursday in the Columbus Dispatch
”Robin Miller, director of communications for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Columbus, said both boys and their families are parishioners at St. Paul’s. “
The statement at church surprised me, it was hard to make it sink in, reading it in the Columbus Dispatch convinced me.
Two kids reading about the plot on MySpace.com reported it to the police. Whatever it was, a real plot or troubled teens trying to get attention the story is it was planned for August 2007. Westerville is a great place… but like all communities there are troubled individuals, in this case teens. Westerville is not Nirvana.
Westerville and Gahanna in Top 100 US Cities (Small Cities)
A video about Westerville from Real Living HER.
