columbusbestblog.com

A list on Forbes.com that came out last month said Columbus is the 19th Best City in the US for singles. 

 #19 Columbus

better than Miami? Orlando? Memphis? Portland? Tampa? (and Cleveland and Cinci… but of course we knew that!)

An article in The Other Paper that said gymnast Paul Hamm (24) is Columbus most eligible bachelor… according to the list on Forbes.com. The Other Paper said Hamm is Columbus most eligible bachelor in a sorta snarky way…

I will have to reread it… there are 40 cities ranked in various categories. 

Singles 14
Nightlife 25
Coolness 40
Culture 19
Job Growth 29
Online Dating 7
Cost Of Living Alone 8

Does being number 40 in coolness mean Columbus is the least cool of the 40 cities?  

Who is Central Ohio’s best builder?  Or was..  according to Business First Columbus “Centex tops M/I, Dominion in satisfaction study”    in  the J.D. Power and Associates’ annual ranking of “homebuilder customer satisfaction.”

…homebuilder customer satisfaction.   

“Centex ranked a 128 out of 160 on J.D. Power’s scale, which gauges scores based on consumers’ responses to nine factors including warranties, sales staff, prices and location.”

2. MI
3. Dominion

The results on the “New-Home Quality Study” makes no sense to me…Business First Columbus said

“For J.D. Power’s first-ever New-Home Quality Study, a gauge of customers’ experience with construction, Centex scored an 866 out of 900 with Central Ohio customers, followed by Dominion with an 839 and Maronda with an 816. M/I Homes placed third to last in the quality study with a 784.”

The third rating “New-Home Design Study”  I understand better…

1. Centex
2. MI
3. Beazer
4. Dominion

MI and Dominion are locally owned.

Centex is wrapping up business and leaving Central Ohio. 
Real Living HER’s New Construction Portal
Featured Central Ohio Builders
Inman News about Real Living’s New Homes Portal

In  Central Ohio news  this week:

Columbus Distpatch - Mortgage Fraud -  Wednesday

Columbus Dispatch - Mortgage Fraud -  Thursday 

“The questionable transactions were highlighted by The Dispatch in a September 2005 series called “Brokered Dreams.”

 I blogged about it  on the Original Columbus Best Blog (now Discover Columbus back in October 2005, when Contrarian Chronicles referred to it as the Bubble Bursting in Central Ohio… the news of trouble in Central Ohio came from the ”Brokered Dreams” series of articles in the Columbus Dispatch about flipping, mortgage fraud and more.   

It’s old news.  Mostly.  It’s all in the local newspaper.

My manager told me something on Thursday but he told me I couldn’t or shouldn’t  blog about it.  In fact he left me a very funny voice mail but I can’t tell you what he said in that message or what he said when we actually got to talk. 

It is a local real estate matter. 

He said something about “dirt” in his voice mail.  There is a new restaurant going in right near our office on High Street in Worthington.  He left me the message as he was leaving the office.  I thought it might be about the construction site (another agent and I talked about the site yesterday… why is it going so slow…??) I often ask my manager “the dirt” about what is happening when I see the blue signs pop up on High Street or in Old Worthington.  He always knows.  Wednesday his message was not about the dirt at the buiding site.

A Real Living song stars in a video about gossip “What Do You Think About That” (full length video) on CMT.  I wrote about the video here.  Columbus a little bit Country?

“little bit of gossip coming from loose lips”

I am not country, I am more classic Beatles… 

“Do you want to know a secret?

Do you promise not to tell?”

I hate to think that other people think I am a gossip.  I posted an entry about some local real estate gossip a little over a year ago.  I was not 100%  comfortable doing so.  I thought about running it by my manager (same fella who called me about dirt on Wednesday)  before posting it but I never had before so I figured why start now… no one was reading my blog, it was like yelling into a void so why not just post it… my muse.  Cartoonish behavior.

I posted Why are They Sitting in a Tree?  

In my usual convoluted manner the post is about style and about a local cyber squatting case.  It got read… not greatly but it got read.  It got no comments for a few days.  It was no secret.  It was in the Columbus Dispatch, yet it felt gossipy in comparison to what I usually write about.

On August  2006 Sellsius Blog posted The Top Ten  Women Real Estate Bloggers  of 2006    and what entry  did they mention? 

“Maureen McCabe [Columbus Best Blog] Why are They Sitting in a Tree?”

Is it gossip if it is published in the Columbus Dispatch?   

 ”Do you want to know a secret?  

Do you promise not to tell?” 

I am the kind of person that friends tell deep dark secrets to.

Or I was before I started blogging. 

Things go better with Coca Cola… Things like reticulated pythons.

The Other Paper has a story about Coca Cola donating ads on their local trucks to promote the celebrity snake visiting at the Columbus Zoo now. The problem is the Coca Cola trucks say the snake is named Kitty. Jack Hanna, the Central Ohio celebrity pictured on the Coca Cola trucks says the snakes name is Fluffy.

In “Zoo ad misidentifies Jack’s snake” Sara Smith of The Other Paper wrote:

“As Coca Cola vehicles circle the city with posters on the back that say, “Don’t miss ‘Kitty’ World’s Largest Snake in Captivity” one is left to wonder if Fluffy’s burgeoning modeling career will ever recover.”

The Other Paper about the name mix up as the Columbus Zoo explains it:

“The Columbus Zoo and Aquarium’s director of marketing and sales, Jeff Glorioso, said the zoo has been fielding phone calls from avid reptile aficionados about the embarrassing blooper.

Kitty is the nickname one of the animal collections people at the zoo gave her,” Glorioso said of the scaly diva on loan to the zoo until November from a private citizen in Oklahoma. “They call her that because of the cat like markings on her skin.”

It seems the snake had an alias before hitting Columbus though. When I wrote about the snake back in April before she showed up, I found an article from A West Virginia that called Fluffy, “Kitty.”

The scoop from Huntington Herald-Dispatch in a ColumbusBestBlog.com entry:

“OTHER STUFF: Cowtown is packed with stuff to do. The Columbus Zoo and Aquarium (614) 645-3550 is always a good call and by Spring Break week will be hosting Kitty, the world’s largest python in captivity.”

In “Super Size Snake to Slither into Columbus” I wrote:

“the other sites where I initially saw the story said the snake’s name is Fluffy….

Kitty, Fluffy whatever her name is she is big and she goes on display at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium next Saturday.”

I personally like “Kitty” better than Fluffy as snake names go.

Super Size Snake to Slither into Columbus
Columbus Cat Crisis
Kitty, Kitty, Kitty

The snake photo is from Geek Philosopher. It is not a python reticulated or otherwise.