An update from the wife: she does not hate football. She hates the volume of football she's subjected to, which I'd alluded to yesterday.
Which is kind of funny, given that the "volume" of football I watch has actually gone down in the last 10 years. It's just that there's more football now at times you'd not expect it (like Arena games in April and college games on Tuesday nights).
So I guess it's kind of a break-even thing.
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The Bruce's recent swipe at three states gets my support, at least in two cases. Well, one and a half, really.
I can't talk full smack about New Hampshire, as I do have family there (though in a place where a surveyor's hiccup could have landed them in Massachusetts). And I do like most of the state from an aesthetic standpoint. I'll agree with the Bruce about the Hampton tolls (even worse, the state is getting rid of the toll tokens that you used to be able to get by the roll for half-price), and that their libertarian ethos may be undermined somewhat by having state liquor stores.
Though I suppose if it's a choice between getting people drunk or payroll taxes, New Hampshireites will take the former.
I do, of course, have complete and utter disdain for the UNH men's hockey program (and the women, too, I suppose, now that BU's made the jump to varsity).
Florida gets my full-on approval as a state to dislike. And if you idiots send Scarborough to the Senate, I will personally come down there and start kicking ass. I suppose winding up with Senator-elect Katherine Harris might motivate the same reaction, but it'd be less surprising given that you rewarded her performance in 2000 by making her a US Representative.
The only thing that primary race needs is for David Duke to file papers.
It doesn't help the state that they have weather that I can tolerate for about two months of the year.
Homer Simpson called Florida "America's wang" for a reason, folks.
I've never been to Oregon, so no comment there. I know at least one reader lived there for a while and perhaps will comment on it. After mulling things a bit, my short list of a third state to hate includes:
* Delaware, for supporting its tax-free status by making you pay $39.50 to drive their 4 miles of I-95.
* New York, just because. Though that might be a little on the nose (or perhaps redundant) for a Red Sox fan.
* Indiana, for being the Alabama of the midwest.
* North Dakota, for its idiotic quest to rename itself because north=cold. People were fooled by the name Greenland - in the 12th century. You can call yourself what you like, and it won't change the fact that you probably have the greatest temperature extremes of any state in the continental US. Though I'm sure there's nothing that takes the edge off of a 98 degree day like the thought of the coming -25 degree days.
So, with all this in mind, go vote.
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5 comments:
I voted for North Dakota just because it's by far the most esoteric. It's like having a burning hate for Breckin Meyer--I can understand why someone might dislike it, but it doesn't really seem important enough to elevate to the level of all-out hate.
Although, if you want something to hate on North Dakota about, their state beverage is milk.
I actually do have a burning hate for Breckin Meyer. Well, maybe not burning...
Anyway, I figure the college hockey thing gives some ground for the inclusion of North Dakota here. They did knock us out of the NCAAs last year, and did beat us to win the 1997 national title (not long afterwards, Grand Forks flooded - coincidence?).
I suppose Delaware has some BU sports link, too - we could never beat their football team, and they did abandon America East. Lucky them.
Unfortunately, the Bruce has seen fit to remove his state "trifecta" missive, but thanks to the power of google and cached web pages I was able to at least review the text. Since I can't respond to his rant, I'll respond here. Having lived in all three of the states identified (Florida, Oregon and New Hamsphire) I consider myself in a unique position to respond. Okay - technically when I was stationed at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard I was in Maine, but dammit we will take our fight all the way to the Supreme Court. Whoops, already did it...oh... it's still in Maine. Well, anyway I lived pretty damned close.
First and foremost, I will not argue against much of anything Matt wrote. True, they each have their charms, but by and large I agree wholeheartedly with his assessment that they are all basketcases. Then again, living north of the border I now consider pretty much every state a basketcase but that's another story.
I'm curious however whether or not there was some other underlying theme to Matt's rant. Perhaps a bit of taxpayer's envy, for if you look at his list closely: Florida (no income tax), Oregon (no sales tax), and New Hampshire (neither a sales or an income tax). Perhaps the tax happy practices of the Bay area have left him a bit unsettled, perhaps not.
Let me just say in defense of my state of legal residence (Florida) that any politician who opposes a state income tax has my vote. The rest of the state can rot in hell as far as I'm concerned so long as I save a couple of grand in state taxes each year. Okay, maybe a bit harsh, but I see no reason to pay taxes that I don't have to. As for Oregon, I have nothing really bad about to say about the state. They have pretty messed up politics with the legislature only meeting once every two years for 5 months to pass laws that the governor can simply kill by not letting them get to his desk before they disband and local laws that require 50% of registered voters (not 50% of the vote) to pass any fiscal ballot iniatives (they're lucky if they even get 50% of the voters to show up at the polls, so you can guess how many of these initiatives, no matter how worthy, get passed). But the state is by far the best state to raise a family in (the completely bankrupt education system aside) that I have ever lived in --- and I've been in a few! Hey, and where else can you go to legally off yourself when the Doc tells you you have terminal cancer and 6 months to live.
I voted for North Dakota. Not only is there the hockey hate, but the fact that UND lacked the stones to stand up to a Nazi sympathiser with wads of cash regarding the school nickname issue.
I also cast the first Indiana vote. It's not only the northernmost Biblebelt state, but I've had several driving mishaps there, and then there's the whole daylight-saving thing. The state would just be better off being divvied up amongst its neighbors.
Yeah, I voted twice. It's my right as an Illinoisan.
I have no qualms with multiple voting, though in the spirit of Mayor Daley, shouldn't Greg also be dead?
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