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Sonoma named to ‘Best of the World’

(Editor’s note: Sonoma has been harvesting a growing crop of prestigious awards of late, having been named the nation’s first Cittaslow city, being named to the National Trust for Historic preservation’s list of “distinctive designations,” and being chosen this year as one of Forbes magazine’s “prettiest towns.”

Now we learn that National Geographic Traveler has named Sonoma one of its, “Best of the World 2012.” To be fair to Healdsburg, Petaluma and Cloverdale, when Nat Geo Traveler says “Sonoma,” they’re talking about all of Sonoma County. Our fair city is distinguished by the sobriquet “Sonoma town.”

What we have in common with the other 19 honorees is a little hard to fathom since they include whole countries (Iceland, Oman, Guatemala, Sri Lanka, Greece, New Zealand, Panama, Northern Colombia, Mongolia and Peru, along with an island (Koh Lipe, in Thailand), Africa’s Virunga volcanoes, the Costa Brava of Spain, and large cities such as Dresden, Germany, Muskoka, Ontario, London, Belfast and Pittsburgh – the one in Pennsylvania.

What Sonoma has in common with Pittsburgh, Pa., is anyone’s guess, but one person who should know is Sonoma native (he graduated from SVHS in 1972) Brad Fisher, who now calls Pittsburgh home and wrote the following response primarily for Pittsburgh eyes. Be forewarned that a full understanding of what follows requires at least a modest familiarity with Pittsburghese, also known locally as Yinz.)

 

By Brad Fisher

SPECIAL TO THE INDEX-TRIBUNE

 

What do you know, Pittsburgh finds itself at the top of yet another list: National Geographic Traveler’s “Best of the World 2012.” Sounds awesome. We Pittsburghers tend to accept these things, however, with our world-class sense of irony, born from two centuries of alternating between “City of Champions” and “Hell With the Lid Off.”

Pittsburgh is one of two U.S. cities that made this list. The other is Sonoma. Sonoma, California. Home of the Doobie Brothers, great medicinal weed, and orgasmic pinot noir. I guess this somehow makes us the West Coast of the East Coast. I can handle that.

That said, anxious world travelers must be agonizing over which of these two gems to put on their 2012 itinerary. They must be tempted by our legendary scenery, cuisine, culture and nightlife. As a newbie to Pittsburgh (just 20 years, or two Super Bowls by the local calendar), who also spent part of my life in Sonoma County, I have some experience in both worlds. And I would urge folks, if they must only visit one place, to head for the coast and resist the temptations of the Burgh. A shock, perhaps, but true. Here’s why.

1: The Weather.

It’s true we are second only to Seattle in the number of cloudy, gloomy, pretty much suicidal days per year. We have a larger vocabulary for describing snow than the Inuits. We have several seasons that aren’t even on anyone else’s calendar, including Slippytime, Mud Season, Playoffs (hockey, football, and when Halley’s Comet visits, baseball), and something known locally as “The Blooming of the Jaggerbushes.”

2: Sports.

Yes, the Steelers have won six Super Bowls. Yes, they crushed and humiliated the Oakland Raiders with Franco Harris’s Immaculate Reception in the ’72 playoffs, and no one in Pittsburgh or Oakland will ever forget it. (I know there’s a difference in latitude between Oakland and Sonoma, but due to a quirk of the California climate, the Raiders stench tends to spread as far north as Lake Shasta during football season.)

But let’s face it. In Sonoma, there are no sports, unless you count competitive grape stomping, and this is a beautiful thing. There is no playoff anxiety, no player peccadillos, no rowdy tribal tailgating, no ill-advised body painting, and no creepy costumed mascots firing T-shirts and hot dogs at you. Must be nice.

3: Beverage dispensing

My memory is that the pinot flows from public drinking fountains in Sonoma Square. Assuming this is still the case, wine aficionados visiting the Burgh will face a letdown worse than a Mogen David hangover. Our wine is dispensed by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in official State Stores (read “Soviet Era’). We recently experimented with grocery store sales using, I kid you not, room-sized vending machines with built-in breathalizers and a closed-circuit TV connection to the Politburo in Harrisburg for ID checks. Beer? You get that someplace else, I’m not really sure where.

4: Dialect

OK, we do say “duuuuude,” but only when tourists are in town. Our nativespeak is unintelligible to outsiders. If you must come, arrange for an interpreter. You have been warned.

5: The Furry

Convention

We have it. Sonoma doesn’t. Advantage Sonoma.

6: Batman

Yes, the Burgh stood in for Gotham City while they filmed the upcoming Batman installment last summer. But this is not the cool thing you might think it is. We are still trying to shake off the stigma of being the hometown of Hannibal Lecter.

7. The Igloo

Oh yeah, that’s gone. Never mind.

(Editor’s interpretation:

Slippytime follows the region’s frequent ice storms which bring all human activity to a crashing halt.

The Furry Convention (Furry Con) is also known as Anthrocon, and is the world’s largest convention of people preoccupied with humanlike animal creatures (or animal-like human creatures.) The concept originated, however, in California.

The Igloo, aka Civic Auditorium, or Mellon Arena, was the world’s first sports arena with a retractable roof and home to the Pittsburgh Penguins. It was demolished a few weeks ago, but that had nothing to do with Slippytime.)