Governor Ted Strickland held a news conference Tuesday to address the severe winter weather hitting the state of Ohio.The National Weather Service says snow could fall at a rate of up to two inches per hour in some spots, and northeast Ohio could get as much as 20 inches by tomorrow night.
A blizzard warning is up for several counties in the state’s northwest corner, where winds are expected to kick up later today and bring whiteout conditions.

In a stunning turn of events Kirsten’s sister places a phone call to her infoming her that she has “a crazy idea.” Despite the fact that the largest snow storm of recent history currently has Northeast Ohio in its icy grip she wants to take a few gallons of paint to her house, currently being refurbished. Asking Kirsten if she’d like to ride along she informed her sister that “unfortunately I still have full mental capacity and don’t think going out in this weather is an idea that a sane person would entertain.” The sister-in-law could not be reached for further comment.

(Well actually she could but I just didn’t want to get into it, so I didn’t call. Besides, this post will probably get me in enough trouble as it is.)

So I was reading my entry on July 31st and clicked over to their site to see a menu item that said “Enter the Contest” so I clicked it and saw their newest contest focused on Akron suburbs. I had put together a design last year that focused on Fairlawn and the fact that when you’re driving north on Route 77 entering Fairlawn you cross under a bridge that proudly states AKRON AKRON AKRON AKRON AKRON AKRON AKRON AKRON AKRON AKRON. That’s ten times for those of you that didn’t count. Since I had submitted a design that was getting some good attention I decided to hold off on this design to avoid cannibalizing my other entry and risk losing attention for that design. So I never really finished the Fairlawn design.

When I read the contest theme I realized that the Fairlawn design would fit perfectly but then I also realized that the final date for submissions was the same day I discovered they were having a contest. So I very quickly cleaned up the design and submitted it, guessing that I wouldn’t hear anything from them since I had submitted it at the 11th hour. So I waited for a few days and didn’t see any changes to the site or announcements of a winner. Then last Thursday there it was.

You see up until that point there were only four designs and 10 comments – so I thought, well, they’ll pick one of those and call it a day – or maybe, just maybe they’ll extend the deadline and get some more entries and comments. As of this writing they haven’t changed the contest entry page to say that they’ve extended the deadline or picked a winner so I’ll assume that they’re still accepting comments. Seeing that they have added quite a few more submissions I spent a little more time and finalized my design – here it is in all its two-color glory. (As of 11:26 on 8/21 they still haven’t updated my design on rubbercityclothing.com – hopefully they’ll change it to this soon.)

I always thought it was a little weird that as you enter Fairlawn you drive under a bridge that proclaims Akron¹⁰ – with some of the ugliest san serif block lettering this side of K-mart.

So do me a favor wouldja! Comment on my design – then review the others as well. Tell your friends, tell your neighbor – heck, tell your mom to comment on the entries in this contest and support a cool Akron business. And me too. If you’ve got an idea for a cool Akron suburb shirt – submit your design to Contest@RubberCityClothing.com

UPDATE – 8/21

For those of you that haven’t seen it here is what you see as you travel Route 77 in Akron.

Getting close to Fairlawn.

What does that bridge say and why does it say it ten times?

Get up close with Akron¹⁰.