You know that incredibly defensive guy who is immensely territorial of where he lives? Bob Dyer of the Akron Beacon-Journal is that guy. Dyer spent his Saturday night monitoring the twitter account of golf writer Stephanie Wei, who tweeted to a friend, “No, I’m in the arsehole of America still, Akron.” Not only did this ruin Dyer’s Saturday night, but it sent him into such a rage, he milked an entire column out of it. You will not call Akron a dump and get away with it!

You come to our town to cover one of the biggest and best golf tournaments of the year …

I approached her in the Firestone Country Club media building on Sunday, where she was pecking away on her laptop.

I held up my cell phone, displaying the tweet in question. She looked as if she been nailed in the back with an errant tee-shot.

I turned on my tape recorder.

Dyer, doing his best, “GOTCHA!” impression, grills Wei about the tweet (he even had his paper’s photog take a picture of her). If you didn’t fall asleep reading the column, then you certainly did when Dyer put on his Welcome Wagon hat and began boasting about the virtues of lovely Akron, which was once the dubbed the “Rubber Capital of the World:”

Maybe Wei just needs to get out more.

Maybe she should drive her rental car to the Cuyahoga Valley National Park and hike through some of the breathtakingly beautiful 33,000 acres open to anyone who wants to enjoy them.

Or maybe she could just walk across the street from the Firestone media building into Firestone Metro Park, one of many lush oases found all over Greater Akron.

Maybe she could take in an Aeros game at one of the nicest ballparks in the minor leagues.

Maybe she could take a ride through Glenmoor, the Jackson Township neighborhood where Tiger Woods stays when he’s in town. Or drive through some of the other spectacular neighborhoods in places like Bath, Richfield and Granger townships.

Maybe she should talk to CBS’ Jim Nantz, who was singing the praises of one of our many great local restaurants, Vaccaro’s Trattoria, on national television.

What, no mention of how Akron is the methamphetamine capital of Ohio? I’m shocked that little fact was omitted from his column. Guess it didn’t fit into the narrative. What’s really puzzling is that Dyer was covering one of the “biggest and best golf tournaments” of the year and felt compelled to write a column about someone who tweeted about Akron. [Ohio.com]