More Nook In Southern Ohio: Cincinnati and Columbus Are Sexier Than Cleveland

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- Apparently, Ohio is a good place to screw around. Men's Health magazine rates Columbus the second best city in the nation "where guys have the best sex lives." Cincinnati comes in fourth. Toledo is No. 25 and Cleveland is No. 31. Maybe with the jobless rate so high, Ohioans are using their downtime to light the woods on fire. They sure don't seem to be banging their foreheads in frustration.

The annual Men's Health Survey said Indianapolis is America's most sexually satisfied city. How did the magazine come up with its ratings? It blended factors like condom sales, STD rate, sex toy purchases and the birth rate to calculate its numbers. The magazine christened the 100-mile stretch of Interstate 74 from Cincinnati to Indianapolis America's Sex Drive. America's lowest level of libidic action is in Lexington, Ky., which is 85 miles south of Cincy on Interstate 75. That suggests Kentucky really isn't the land of beautiful horses and fast women.

Ohio Sex Surveys: Is Cincy Really Sinsy?

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- This notoriously blue-nosed metropolis on the Ohio River suddenly has two local tabloid newspapers trying to peek into its sacks and beneath the sheets. Even though Loveland, Ohio, is just up the road, the world of journalism -- or what passes for journalism these days -- wants to know if Cincinnatians are tarts at heart.

There are two sex surveys out in the competing alt/weekly tabs published in Cincinnati -- er, Sinsinnati.

First, there is this questionnaire from City Beat , which is itself at heart an independent-minded publication that likes a good fling. Then there is CiN's version, which the Gannett newspaper chain publication has floated online. That's a buttoned-down corporate survey.

Obviously, the tabs are racing for something racy to publish on St. Valentine's Day in a few weeks.

Cincinnati has never been known as a saucy spot on the map. The authorities chased Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt out of town years ago. They managed to keep the Playboy Channel off local cable stations for a time in the 1980s. They raided and prosecuted an art museum over an exhibition of Robert Mapplethorpe's photos. The vice squad even seized a Hollywood movie from a gay-oriented bookstore claiming it was obscene. And the community gave birth to Ohio's major porn-fighting organization, Citizens for Community Values, which is headed by Phil Burress.

How much s-e-x in Cincinnati? As much as people can lie (or is it lay) about.