[untitled #432]

By Todd Stadler · Wednesday, September 18, 2002 10:36am

My friend Jerry recently returned from a trip back home to Indiana. I enjoyed his encapsulation of the culture there:

Everybody (everybody) has an electric can opener. And when the electric can opener breaks, which they always do, the only sensible thing for a self-respecting Hoosier to do is to go to Target and buy a new one. Duh! Recycling is to be found nowhere, and I only accidentally stumbled on to one of just a handful of organic food stores in the entire state of Indiana, Wild Oats. The TV is always on, and you wouldn't be caught dead without a soft drink in hand on a hot day. Oh, and it's diet, of course!

What's funny is that, as vastly different as this sounds from the culture here in Portland, it's more or less the same culture I grew up with in Richardson, Texas. Mind you, Richardson has come a long way since then. Still ... electric can openers, huh?