The Patch featured a lovely writeup today (June 24, 2013) on my favorite hashtag, #PorstmouthLOVE: Sharing #PortsmouthLOVE on the Web.
Jason Claffey contacted me for a history of the hashtag and why I started it. Here are my uncut #PortsmouthLOVE comments:
As a Portsmouth Enthusiast, #PortsmouthLOVE is a state of mind that I am in most of the time. I moved back to Portsmouth about 4 years ago, and fell in love anew with my hometown. I love being able to say that I was born where City Hall now stands—and so was my father. The hashtag preserves the city’s profound stories and frequent yet ever-fleeting moments of beauty. Appending #PortsmouthLOVE to various epiphanies here in prodigious Portsmouth makes it easy for myself and others to collect and browse through these snapshots, and my hope is that people new to the city and its many exceptional qualities would find the hashtag and discover what an amazing place Portsmouth is. For me, using the hashtag adds a level of permanence to an update that might otherwise get lost or forgotten in the social media ether.
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| #PortsmouthLOVE on Flickr |
It’s not uncommon for the sight of the light hitting the bricks a certain way, or the rooftop formations of the downtown buildings, or the newly-budding spring branches to cause me to actually well up. Portsmouth is incredibly unique and is as magical as a city can get—even the weather here is consistently more beautiful than it is just outside city lines on any given day in any season, further confirming my hypothesis that Portsmouth is in a magical bubble. I know some eye-rolling has gone on about the recent over-the-top Chicago Tribune article, but that’s actually a pretty accurate reflection of how I feel about Portsmouth every day! I dare any skeptics to move away for awhile and see if they don’t reach the same state of mind upon return.
I hope that other Portsmouth Enthusiasts will share their moments on the #PortsmouthLOVE hashtag and keep it filled with wonderful moments from around the City of the Open Door!
Related:
- PortsmouthLOVE.com (the #PortsmouthLOVE page on this site)
- #PortsmouthLOVE on Twitter
- #PortsmouthLOVE May 2013 recap on Storify
- Sign up for the #PortsmouthLOVE Letter, a weekly email newsletter
