Happy Thursday morning, Columbus.
Before I became a Dispatch editor in 2000, I was a medical reporter. I covered all the hospitals in Central Ohio as well as the state and local health departments for much of the 1990s. I covered general medicine, specialty surgery, genetic research, the business of health care and much more.
It was a cool job that took me into operating rooms, scientists' labs and public health debates. I covered everything from trauma care and neurosurgery to medical ethics and cancer research.
Back then, Ohio State University, OhioHealth, Children's Hospital and Mount Carmel were good-size hospital systems, but nothing like the behemoths they are today.
(When I started, the Wexner name was not attached to Ohio State's main hospital and Nationwide had yet to sign on to Children's.)
Since then, it seems as if there is an announcement every year about a hospital project that dwarfs the one before it.
OhioHealth added its heart hospital and then neuro center at Riverside and is upgrading Grant. Nationwide Children's built out its campus and added research towers before announcing a psychiatric component that will go up on its campus. Mount Carmel is building its new site in Grove City as it prepares to pull its in-patient beds from Franklinton. And Ohio State built its $1 billion tower that includes the Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital.
That's a lot of work and a lot of hospital beds.
Despite all the recent additions, we aren't close to seeing the construction crews and cranes leave these hospital campuses. Not by a long shot.
And with that trip through our recent hospital history, let's get down to business.
1. Ohio State doesn't do small
You know that $1.1 billion hospital tower Ohio State University built not long ago? The one that houses the James Cancer Hospital?
Yeah, that's so yesterday.
Ohio State told reporter Carrie Ghose on Wednesday that it plans to build an even bigger tower in the space created by the work the university is doing along Cannon Drive near the medical campus.
In fact, by the time this project is finished, it will include an 840-bed replacement to the original University Hospital and a west campus urgent care and outpatient clinic.
OSU officials say it is the largest-ever project on campus.
How much will it cost? Who knows, but the projects will be funded through a combination of debt, philanthropy and operating income, and OSU President Michael Drake said he hopes the new hospital opens within 10 years, at best 2025. The outpatient clinic could be open within three years.
For much more, read Carrie's story.
2. Lobbing grenades
Remember when Mayor Andrew Ginther and Alex Fischer of the Columbus Partnership flew to New York to save the Crew SC?
The Nov. 15 meeting was with Crew SC majority owner Anthony Precourt, Major League Soccer Commissioner Don Garber; Gary Stevenson, president and managing director of MLS Business Ventures; Charles Altchek, vice president, commissioner's office; and Crew SC team President Andy Loughnane.
All Ginther and Fischer would say after the meeting is that Precourt and MLS officials showed little interest.
All Precourt would say after the meeting is that Ginther and Fischer didn't offer any concrete proposals.
Neither would elaborate.
But on Wednesday, Ginther issued a letter that said the city did provide some ideas to save the team.
Reporter Laura Newpoff writes that the mayor said he offered a few sites for a new stadium – something that Precourt said he wants in either downtown Columbus or downtown Austin, Texas.
The sites Columbus offered were: Berliner Park south of downtown, riverfront land in south Franklinton near Dodge Recreation Center, and redevelopment of the Ohio Expo Center around Mapfre Stadium. Ginther's letter also said a number of private sites could be used for a new stadium.
And it went on to say several potential ownership scenarios were offered, including a 50-50 ownership with local investors, crowdfunding with local investors and minority investments from strategic partners.
This all follows the back and forth the other day between Brian Schottenstein and Precourt's people over a site just west of the Arena District. Both sides say the other showed little interest in that property for a potential stadium site.
For more, read reporter Laura's story.
3. Of all the burger joints in all the world ...
There is an editor I used to sit across from at The Dispatch who often said he would never pay more than $10 for a burger. Ever.
He would say: Why pay so much for something you can make at home for so little?
I see his point, but I've had some pretty amazing $14 burgers.
Speaking of expensive beef, reporter Dan Eaton writes that Columbus is getting another burger joint.
The Rail, a Wooster-based restaurant, expects to open on Frantz Road at Karric Square in the Dublin area by late February. Dan writes that construction on the 4,800-square-foot stand-alone building already is underway.
Owner Mike Mariola told Dan that he opened in first restaurant in 2002 in Wooster after training with chefs in Cleveland, Washington D.C. and Paris. He added the City Square Steakhouse in Wooster in 2008.
It’s from that restaurant that The Rail was born.
“It was 2008, so we were in the recession,” Mariola said. “But our bar menu was a big success. It carried us through those early years.”
So, how much will the Ohio-sourced burgers cost? He told Dan $9.75 to $12.50.3.
For more, pour a little ketchup on Dan's story and take a bite.
4. Cincinnati's good soccer news
Our sister paper in Cincinnati reports that FC Cincinnati was named one of four finalists in Major League Soccer’s newly released list of narrowed-down expansion team candidates.
Good for Cincinnati, which was named by MLS a finalist along with Detroit, Nashville and Sacramento.
Wait. Doesn't Cincinnati already have two major league teams? How many does Columbus have? Is this fair?
Should we care?
I guess if the Crew packs up and leaves for Austin. It just wouldn't be right, right?
And one more thing – why the FC in front of the city's name instead of behind it? What's up with that, Cincinnati?
You can read more in the Cincinnati Business Currier story.
This day in history
2004, Ken Jennings' winning streak ends after 74 consecutive victories on the game show "Jeopardy!"
Jennings' steak was the longest in game show history and paid him more than $3 million.
"Jeopardy" is no easy game, although it might seem that way from your living room couch. Standing on that stage, buzzer in hand, can't be a picnic. You are playing against two really smart people who likely know more than you do about all those crazy categories.
But the software engineer from Salt Lake City knew enough about pretty much everything to dominate that stage and kill it game after game.
What was the answer that stumped Jennings? “Most of this firm’s 70,000 seasonal white-collar employees work only four months a year.” (The correct response was H&R Block.)
Who beat Jennings? Who cares. No one remembers any "Jeopardy!" contestants except for Ken Jennings.
Fun fact: In 1990, I got to take the test that weeds out prospective "Jeopardy!" contestants. I was working for the News-Herald in Mentor at the time and drove to Cleveland to write about what it was like to sit in an auditorium with hundreds of other would-be "Jeopardy!" champions and take a general knowledge quiz.
I can tell you this: I am no Ken Jennings. I failed miserably.
Dream scenario: I'm a contestant on "Jeopardy!" and Alex reveals these categories: Grateful Dead songs; Things made with peanut butter; Ohio college mascots; Famous hippies; 1980s new wave music; and Columbus craft beer.
"I'll take Grateful Dead songs for $1,000, Alex."
And in 1982, "Thriller," Michael Jackson’s second solo album, is released.
The album, produced by Quincy Jones, became the best-selling album in history. It has sold more than 32 million copies.
Whatever you think of Michael Jackson and the weirdness that swallowed him in the end, he was a hell of a performer and his songs got you moving.
That album contained these amazing songs, including "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'," "The Girl Is Mine," "Thriller," "Beat It " and "Billie Jean."
MTV was barely a year old when "Thriller" was released and Jackson already was a darling of the popular, video-driven network. I remember going to a viewing party in high school for the release of the title song's video – you know, the one in which Jackson turns into a werewolf and Vincent Price narrates.
I never learned the graveyard dance sequence from "Thriller," but know plenty of people who still could do it if pressed.
Craft beers to try
The other night, I was looking for a new beer to try at saloon near Victorian Village and a gentleman seated at the bar suggested a pecan nut brown ale he had just finished.
When I saw the name of the beer, I ordered it right away.
It's called Jean Luc Pecan and it's made by the folks at Land Grant Brewing Co. in Columbus.
Here is what the brewery says about its creation: "Brewed with 180 lbs of roasted pecans, this English style nut brown ale sets its phasers to stun with toasty roasty nutty caramel notes. Looking for the perfect beer for a fall afternoon in the universe, Captain Jean Luc Pecan will make it so."
You can definitely taste the pecans in this brew. It has a great flavor and a smooth finish.
Although I am more of Captain Kirk guy, I will boldly go where this limited beer is served.
"I'm a lumberjack DJ Adrock.
"If you try to knock me you'll get mocked. I'll stir fry you in my wok.
"Your knees'll start shakin' and your fingers pop; Like a pinch on the neck of Mr. Spock.
"Intergalactic, planetary, planetary, intergalactic." – "Intergalactic," Adam Horovitz; Adam Nathaniel Yauch; Mario Caldato Jr.; Michael Louis Diamond; The Beastie Boys.
News to me
OK, so I looked it up. The "Jeopardy!" champion who replaced Ken Jennings was Nancy Zerg.
The last word
I bet you that on nights when Ken Jennings has a few too many beers, he raises a fist to the heavens and yells out ZERG! ZEEERRRGGG!
Have a terrific Thursday.