Human Remains in Mulch?

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Compost Me, Columbus

Ohio has two official exit strategies right now: burial or cremation. Very traditional. Very “choose your fighter.” But a state senator is trying to add a third option that sounds like a campfire story your weird uncle tells at Thanksgiving: human composting.

Senate Bill 323, introduced by Sen. Louis Blessing III (R-Colerain Township), would legalize natural organic reduction, aka “terramation,” aka “turn me into dirt, respectfully.” The process uses a specialized vessel to speed up decomposition into soil in about a month. Families can keep the soil, or donate it for conservation work, because nothing says “legacy” like becoming a small but meaningful contribution to reforestation.

Blessing’s pitch is basically: this is a personal choice, it’s already legal in 14 states, and Ohio’s funeral laws are stuck in an era when “innovation” meant a nicer casket handle. The bill wouldn’t force anyone to do it or require any town to build a facility. It would just set rules for licensing and operation, and yes, it includes the very Ohio sentence: facilities must be kept “clean and sanitary,” and humans and animals have to be reduced in separate chambers. (We cannot believe we have to clarify that either, but welcome to legislation.)

A human-composting company called Earth Funeral told lawmakers they’ve already heard from 2,000+ Ohioans who want this option, and that families are currently having to drive bodies across state lines to fulfill final wishes. The estimated cost is $5,000 to $7,000, which puts it right in the same “expensive but somehow still cheaper than a full funeral” zone as everything else related to dying.

The Catholic Conference of Ohio reportedly has concerns, tied to beliefs about keeping remains whole, which is fair. Meanwhile, the rest of us are just trying to process the reality that the state is debating whether your final form should be urn, box, or bag of premium garden soil.

Anyway, if you’ve ever wanted to haunt your enemies as a ficus, Ohio might be getting you closer.

Scarlet Letter Trivia

Question: How many countries are competing in this years Arnold Festival

A. 80
B. 102
C. 96
D. 37

The Arnold: Columbus’s Annual Invasion of Biceps and Hotel Bookings

The Arnold Classic: Columbus’s Annual Reminder That Humans Can Be Forklifts

Every March, Columbus hosts the Arnold Sports Festival, which is basically what happens when you combine the Olympics, a bodybuilding show, and a Costco sample aisle, then drop it all inside the Convention Center and say “good luck.” It’s loud, crowded, and full of people who look like they were carved out of granite.

Here’s the part that always surprises outsiders: this whole thing is deeply Columbus.

Arnold’s relationship with Central Ohio traces back to 1970, when he competed here and later called that contest “the most important event of my life,” because it was the first time he beat Sergio Oliva on neutral ground. From that trip, he built a friendship (and eventually a business partnership) with Worthington’s Jim Lorimer, and the handshake logic was simple: keep bringing big bodybuilding to Columbus, then eventually build a Columbus-based event that became the Arnold.

Now it’s not just bodybuilding. It’s a full-on sports festival with competitors and fans pouring in from everywhere.

How big are we talking?

• 105,000 attendees came through in 2025, with visitors from all 50 states and 80+ countries, according to Experience Columbus.

• The event is expected to generate around $15.6 million in direct visitor spending (that is, money spent by visitors in the local economy).

• It’s also a hotel monster. Reporting around the event has cited 8,400+ hotel rooms booked for the weekend.

• On the “this is why restaurants love it” front: Experience Columbus pegged the 2024 festival at $16 million in direct spending and anticipated 100,000+ people in town.

And that’s the Arnold as a single event. The really funny part is how it lands in the city calendar like a wrecking ball.

In early 2025, Columbus hosted the Arnold the same weekend as the NHL Stadium Series at Ohio Stadium, and Experience Columbus said the two events combined for nearly $40 million in direct visitor spending in that first-quarter window. Axios framed it as a roughly $35 million weekend overall, with the Arnold contributing the familiar $15.6 million chunk of that.

What makes it feel even bigger than the numbers

• The Arnold is not just “come watch something.” It’s also “come buy something.” The Arnold Expo has been known to hit 1,000+ vendor booths in recent years, according to the Convention Center’s own event notes.

• The official Arnold site describes the 2026 expo as “hundreds of booths” and positions it as the heart of the weekend.

• If you ever wonder why downtown feels like it’s running at 1.5x speed that weekend, it’s because you’re not just hosting spectators. You’re hosting competitors, coaches, vendors, brands, and entire friend groups who think “vacation” means “bulk creatine and a posing oil budget.”

So yes, Columbus gets its annual economic boost, its annual congestion headache, and its annual reminder that somewhere inside the Convention Center there is a person warming up to lift something that should legally require a forklift.

And outside, the Arnold statue just stands there… quietly judging your posture and your choices.

Bogey Inn: The Dublin Golf Fantasy That Got Sent to the Rough

Remember that big Rise Brands plan to turn the old Bogey Inn site in Dublin into a shiny, golf-themed entertainment campus? The one with the renderings, the optimism, and the implied promise that Memorial Tournament week would become an even bigger carnival?

Yeah. That plan is dead.

Rise Brands has scrapped the redevelopment concept for the property at 6013 Glick Road, pulling the plug on a proposed 3-acre entertainment destination that was supposed to include indoor and outdoor bars, live entertainment, food options, and a 36-hole putting course (27 outdoor holes + 9 covered holes), plus a covered bar.

And the biggest plot twist: it wasn’t killed by a lack of imagination. It was killed by math and logistics.

The company’s new CEO, Hana Hesselgesser (who stepped into the role in January 2026), told The Dispatch the project simply wasn’t feasible at that location. The issue wasn’t demand, or branding, or “people don’t like fun anymore.” It was the unsexy stuff: significant site-related hurdles, including the fact that the property spans multiple municipal jurisdictions, which turned “let’s build a campus” into “let’s spend a great deal of time and money trying to make the land itself cooperate.”

That’s the part worth underlining: Rise didn’t just shrug and walk away. They apparently burned real time and cash trying to finalize site improvements, then finally looked at their business model and said, “Not here.”

Which is a very grown-up move, and also extremely disappointing for anyone who enjoys the idea of Dublin becoming a year-round festival of putting, patio beers, and Memorial Tournament overflow energy.

Because this was supposed to be timed perfectly. Rise’s plan had the redeveloped site opening during the 2026 Memorial Tournament in June, leaning into the location’s proximity to Muirfield Village and the property’s history as a Memorial week party spot.

So what now?

Officially: Rise says they’re no longer moving forward with the golf concept at that particular location, and the future of the site is unclear. Hesselgesser did say she’s still excited about bringing a golf-related concept into the Rise Brands family somewhere else, so this might not be the end of “Rise does golf,” just the end of “Rise does golf here.”

In other words, the Bogey Inn didn’t get revived. It got value-engineered out of existence by zoning gravity.

And if you’ve ever wondered what Columbus-area development looks like in 2026, it’s that: everyone has a dream, then the site says, “Cool. Now do it across three jurisdictions.”

A. 80! The Olympics have 96 countries that compete!