Everyone in Cleveland has Irish roots (well they did yesterday)
As we waited for the 19 bags of kit to come out at Cleveland鈥檚 airport yesterday, a man cheerfully told me that we鈥檙e lucky that it鈥檚 only minus four degrees outside, we narrowly missed the freezing fog, plummeting temperatures, a tornado, blizzards and even an earthquake of last week. It鈥檚 spring in London but it hasn鈥檛 made it across the Atlantic to Ohio.
What has made it over the Atlantic is the spirit of St Patrick鈥檚 Day. Spirit being the key word here 鈥 whilst trying to locate a place for dinner last night 鈥 we ran in to lots of Clevelanders dressed in green T-shirts and hats, Guinness, whiskey and dodgy green cocktails in their hands.
With everyone in the city adorned with shamrocks and Guinness memorabilia, there wasn鈥檛 a taxi to be found, so the three of us trudged two miles across the river to a recommended hotspot for beer and dinner. It was worth it. The boys had burgers, but I nodded to my Irish ancestry with some potato soup. Your recommendations always come in handy.
Just days after David said "Hello Cleveland"on our blog and told you all about the first programme of our week long trip to the US, we had a bit of a staffing crisis and as a senior member of the team he stepped in, and cancelled his trip, to bolster our London team. I miss him, not least because I鈥檝e picked up his work as well as my own responsibilities for Portland on Thursday and Friday. Still I鈥檓 sure I鈥檒l find time for souvenir shopping.
I鈥檝e just been to see our friends at Ohio鈥檚 broadcaster 鈥 鈥 who are helping us put together tomorrow鈥檚 programme. After some general shop talk, we鈥檙e straight on to the editorial agenda,
Not for the first time, Iraq is dominating the international news. The 大象传媒 website has been asking for your , as the Iraq War enters its fifth year. And 大象传媒 World Service is dedicating part of their output to the discussions around the issues. Will WHYS be part of that? As ever, you set the agenda, you decide.
I show our colleagues two messages sent in by our listeners wanting to discuss 鈥
Kristen explains in her email
鈥淲e Clevelanders want to discuss the racist name and mascot of Cleveland's baseball team: the Cleveland Indians and their Chief Wahoo.鈥
Well you can see him on the site (the 大象传媒鈥檚 travelling laptops don鈥檛 cut photos do hopefully Richard will do the honours) so you can see what were talking about. What do you think?
A few more calls and it transpires that this is always a controversial topic and fair game for discussion. But it鈥檚 a long standing debate not a particular hot topic at the moment however, Opening Day of the baseball season comes up in April so it is likely to flare up again.
It seems that perhaps it鈥檚 one to throw to the audience, if they want to talk about it, we will. After all, it鈥檚 our listeners that set our agenda.
Which is exactly what you can do, by posting a message on our blog below.
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