The Boston Diaries

Monday, January 22, 2007

Yes, I can say “intellectualizing things into the ground.”

You think that's bad? Just look at how my joke about Leni Riefenstahl and Snuggles the Bear has spawned this mega-crossposted thread about the differences between fascism and absolute monarchy.

Can you say, “intellectualizing things into the ground?”

Douglas Lathrop

Via Eric Burns is Visited States Page, where you can get a map highlighting the states you've visited.

[States I've visited, although “wierd” wasn't listed]

The red states represent the ones I've “visited” although I use that term very loosely.

For instance, while I have Texas highlighted, I've only seen the state while sitting in the Dallas-Ft. Worth airport, so to say I “visited” the state is a bit of stretch. Yes, technically I was in Texas, I was looking at plastic seats in an air conditioned terminal that could have been anywhere to tell the truth.

Arizona is also highlighted, but again, it's a technicality—albeit with a better claim of “visited” than Texas. Hoade and I actually saw the state when we parked our car on the Arizona side of Hoover Dam, but it wasn't much different looking than Nevada, and we only really ventured maybe a quarter mile into the state.

I can say with better conviction that I've “vistied” Wisconsin, but that was in Milwaukee, and even then, downtown Milwaukee at the Convention Center (and a few blocks west to the hotel). Actually, I feel better about saying I “visited” Milwaukee than I do about “visiting” Wisconsin. The same about New York—It was New York City I “visited,” not the state at large. Pennsylvania wasn't much better. Sure, I flew into the city, but I actually stayed in New Jersey.

Tennessee, Kentucky and Ohio only get mention because they were “drive through” states—back when I lived in North Carolina, my Grandma would drive down from Michigan to pick me up for the summer vacation. The route followed I-75 through those states.

Maryland was a “sail through” state—one summer I spent with my Dad sailing along the Chesapeake Bay, so was I really in Maryland, or just alongside it?

Really, about the only state I can say that I've “visited” is Florida (and yes, I live here). I've been along both the east and west coast, central and north Florida, and out through the panhandle.

The only other state I've seen significant portions of is North Carolina, and I've yet to actually see the central portion (having lived in both the mountainous western portion, and the coastal eastern portion).

Then again, I'm probably over intellectualizing a silly web meme.

You can't make this stuff up

Yes, the UFCW is outsourcing its picketing to non-union workers, at a sub-standard pay rate with no benefits, in unsafe conditions, with no transportation or means to leave the premises, in order to protest the poor jobs inside Wal★Mart, where workers make twice as much.

Via Right on the Left Coast, The. Best. Union. Story. Ever.

Wlofie and I have had several discussions about unions, how they work here and in Sweden, and I feel he feels that our unions are all smoking crack.

Yes, I would have to agree with him.