The Twins Day Festival in Twinsburg, Ohio
The traveling doppelganger duo seen above — who are based on true-life itinerants I observed as I awaited an early morning commuter flight out of my local airport — would certainly fit right in at the annual Twin Days Festival in Twinsburg, Ohio.
I happen to live a mere two miles from the modest and quiet suburban community of Twinsburg, Ohio. Having near-identical twin sisters (who, at toddler age developed their own unique 'twinspeak' language, which I, as their elder and next closest sibling, was required to interpret for friends as well as the remaining members of the family), I have had a decades-long familiarity with the twin phenomenon. Not only were my sisters almost always identically attired for the first dozen years of their lives, but they could easily have served as impostors to one another as situations warranted. Even today, their infant grandchildren will sometimes be confounded as to who is Grand Ma and who is Grand Aunt.
For three days clustered about the first weekend of August each year, the City of Twinsburg, Ohio hosts The Twins Day Festival. Paired siblings — as well as some triplets, quads and, ever so rarely, quints — arrive to partake of games, concession foods, talent contests, picnics, tailgating and the ultimate look-alike competition and photo shoot. In near-identical attire, the many near-identical kin seek to draw the consummate double-take from the many gathered attendees.
The Twins Day Festival centers on Twinsburg, currently home to about 17,000 residents, renamed by emigrant identical twin brothers Aaron and Moses Wilcox (formerly of Killingworth, CT) back in 1819. The former Township Five of the Connecticut Land Company’s tenth range had been called Millsville for just a few years, when the Wilcox brothers offered a public square and the township’s initial school funding in exchange for the new name of Twinsburg. Now at rest in the local Locust Grove Cemetery, Aaron and Moses lived intertwined lives as lifelong business partners, marrying sisters, and dying of the same ailment within hours of each other. Reportedly only their best friends could distinguish between the two.
Twinsburg is a suburban, predominately residential community, situated roughly halfway between the cities of Akron and Cleveland. The Twins Day Festival in fact encourages attendance by all sorts of related ‘multiples’, though a welcoming event is limited to pre-registered twins and their families. Each annual festival now follows a given theme; that of the 2011 Festival was the circus, with many multiples dressing as clowns, high-wire artists and ringmasters. More than 1700 sets of twins registered for the event.
The Twinsburg Twins Day Festival has its own website, and is regularly sponsored by more than a dozen regional and national entities, often including such names as Cedar Point, The Home Depot, and Old Navy, among others. The Twins day Festival also draws a rather unique range of affiliated pursuits, ranging from medical researchers trying to unravel the subtleties of inheritable or genetic diseases to the developers of the FBI’s face recognition software.
- Voinovich Bicentennial Park, Cleveland, Ohio
Voinovich Bicentennial Park, Cleveland, Ohio East Ninth Street, one of the primary north-south business arteries of downtown Cleveland, runs all the way to Lake Erie’s southern shoreline. On its way, the busy street threads through the many... - Designing Parking Lots
With virtual seas of asphalt seeming to stretch from horizon to horizon, some would say we have sacrificed far too much of our world to the automobile. But the effective design of parking lots is essential to the proper functioning of 21st Century... - Crocker Park, Westlake, Ohio
Crocker Park, Westlake, OhioCrocker Park Boulevard, Westlake, Ohio Crocker Park Blvd, Westlake, OH 44145, USA An impressive lifestyle center with high-end shops, restaurants, bars, offices and apartments. Opened in 2004, Crocker Park in Westlake,... - Winthrop House, Harvard University
Courtyard of Gore Hall, Winthrop House, Harvard University Formally known as John Winthrop House, this pair of five-story brick colonial-style structures constitutes one of Harvard University’s twelve undergraduate residences. With school-term... - Create an Architectural Rendering
Come create this rendering along with me! Ever imagined yourself creating one of those 'artist's conceptions' of a new building, landmark or monument? Well, creating an architectural rendering may not be as difficult as you've imagined. Follow... - Devon Rex Cats
Classic Devon Rex Characteristics by rlz If you happen to be looking for a friendly, affectionate, intelligent, good-tempered and relatively maintenance free cat for a pet, you can't do much better than a Devon Rex. Pictured above is Miracle, a... - Nautica Pavilion, Cleveland, Ohio
Nautica Pavilion, Cleveland, Ohio Situated below the Cleveland skyline, on the western bank of the Cuyahoga River, the Nautica Pavilion offers a unique and enjoyable summer entertainment venue. The Nautica Pavilion was developed as a component of... - Cleveland's Justice Center
Cleveland's Justice CenterOntario Street & Lakeside Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio Lakeside Ave E & Ontario St, Cleveland, OH 44113, USA The City of Cleveland/Cuyahoga County Justice Center is a substantial development in neo-Brutalist... - Double Glass Walls in Architecture
Blue reflective glass, horizontally banded. by rlz We’ve all heard how important it is to use double-glazed or even triple-glazed windows in our homes and offices to reduce energy demand and improve interior comfort. But how many of us have... - Sam & Sim, The Siamese Watersnake
Meet slippery smiley social Sam & Sim — twins, sort of. Emerging simultaneously from the same egg, these playful guys actually inhabit only a single... - Uphill Pup
With my uphill pup, Chex, I go roaming among the many rolling hills of the surrounding South Dakota grasslands. As you might guess, Chex is particularly adept at climbing these knolls; he always seems to reach the top before me. And, over. - Unbalanced Woman
Now, wait just a minute! — Before you go accusing me of being condescending, or of making some sort of impolitic or pejorative or perhaps even misogynistic comment: I’m not talking about... - Whiskers Plots
I have seen this look before. And heard this ominous whistling, too. The thoughtful sequential tapping of claw after claw on linoleum. I can tell. Whiskers plots. Right now, he is planning some diabolical feline freakishness. That I... - You Can Caricature!
If you've got the will and the desire, you can caricature! Follow along as these simple guidelines show you how you can develop your drawing talent to draw out celebrities and the famous! First, you must observe and discern. You must study not only..