Last week, we announced the winners of our contest to find the 10 best personal Web sites in Greater Cincinnati. Or half the winners.
Just to recap: we received 115 entries, and James Bottorff, a Web producer with GoCincinnati!, and I did the judging, with input from other GoCincinnati! staffers.
We looked for simple sites with clever, original content.
This week, we continue our list of the winners, adding to the five of last week:
Children with Diabetes by Jeff Hitchcock of Liberty Township
http://www.castleweb.com/diabetes . This site was so impressive that the judges wondered whether it was really the work of one person (it is). Probably the most thorough Web site about diabetes in children, it is the consuming passion of Mr. Hitchcock, who spends two to three hours a day and 12 hours each weekend updating the articles and links.
Mr. Hitchcock developed the site to find online resources for his 9-year-old diabetic daughter. Started in July 1995, it has 1,300 pages, three searchable databases, 12 chat rooms and a message board. Five doctors (five American, one Scottish), who found his site and offered their help, answer questions from visitors.
Flying Circle Graphics by Martin Speed of Mount Lookout
http://www2.eos.net/speed
. This site is a long, whimsical essay about World War I airplanes (with pictures and sounds). In retelling the story of the beginning of military aviation, the author flits from dragonflies to Teutonic symbolism to the origin of the BMW automobile emblem. A teacher and writer, Mr. Speed developed the site to impart a little history to a world he believes needs more understanding of the past. It's an online work in progress - he has seven chapters and is writing more.
The Fast Lane by Dave Schwiegeraht of Alexandria
http://w3.one.net
/~schdp/. This site, devoted to radio-controlled model car racing, has great potential. Mr. Schwiegeraht, a computer programmer, started the site in April 1996 and has visitors from around the world (he posts their e-mail). While the content is a little thin - it's really just about Dave and his r/c model racing friends - the clean design and obvious hard work on the site makes it worth visiting even if you couldn't care less about the subject.
World-Wide-Web Wiffleball by Tom Cummins of Highland Heights
http://www.wiffleball.com
. Wiffleball (and even real baseball) fans will enjoy this site, which includes information about the Hamilton County Wiffleball League. A page of links to sites of other Wiffleball fans, a link to the text of a Sports Illustrated article about Cincinnati's Wiffleball park and a tribute to Cincinnati's own James ''Pigmeat'' Jarrett. Mr. Cummins, a Web developer, also has other pages at his personal site, Serendipity (http://w3.one.net/~tdaniels/).
Wattyuwant's Home Page by Jeff Callan of Delhi Township
http://members.aol.com/wattyuwant/
. Mr. Callan has developed a site similar to those commercial sites that attempt to organize and rate the Web. He's found some of the better Web sites and combined them into subject directories. His eclectic mix is the best personal page of links among the entries.
Honorable mentions
And here are some more sites that, while we couldn't squeeze them into the top 10, we still think are worth recommending:
U.S. Historical Documents Archive by Matt Weiler
http://w3.one.net/~mweiler/ushda/ushda.htm
. A nice archive of important documents.
Love Poems by Gerrit Demik of Loveland
http://members.tripod.com
/~Poems/. Mr. Demik, a Milford High School student, has 150 love poems.
The Ultimate Star Wars Links Page by Dion J. Reid of Blue Ash
http://w3.one.net/~dreid/starwars/main.html
. A zillion links for Star Wars fans.
The Disney Song Collection by Adam Griff of Oakley
http://www.biology.uc.edu/adam/disney/
. Music and lyrics to famous Disney cartoon songs.
The Musicians Referral Service by Frank Gruber of Harrison
http://w3.one.net/~fgruber/musicref.html
A free resource for area musicians.
The Cincinnati Civil War Roundtable by Dave Smith of Cincinnati
http://members.aol.com/CintiCWRT/
. A nice site from a history club.
NCAA Hoops! by Brian Sullivan of Florence
http://www.redbay.com/ncaahoops/
. For March Madness fans.
E-mail Charles Brewer with questions, comments and suggestions at CBrewer@enquirer.com This column and Charles Brewer's past columns can be found at The Enquirer's Web site, http://enquirer.com/columns/brewer
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