12.23.2007

The Other Queen City

My holiday travels are in full swing. It began with a trip, first, to PA on Wednesday for a couple of days of work. I fly out of CLT often and always enjoy seeing this sculpture - not bad artwork for an airport! It is symbolic of Queen Charlotte, as Charlotte is the Queen City. When I moved to Charlotte this summer, I had a couple of moments of sheer confusion: Why would someone from NC order catering services from a Cincinnati bakery? Why would an obscure Cincinnati hobby shop have a second location in Charlotte? Having just moved from Cincinnati, the Queen City, I was surprised to learn that Charlotte, too, was regarded the Queen City. In the case of Cincinnati, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow referred to the city as the Queen of the West; in the case of Charlotte, the city was named in honor of the wife of King George III of England.

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