Have You Seen These?

I received an e-mail today from Dan D. that was too good not to share on my blog! There were a few more pics in the e-mail, but these are my favorites.

I love the broom!

And yes, this one is great too. I remember this year when Bruce and I went to our first Cards/Cubs game and we saw Fukudome's name on the scoreboard for the first time. We kind of looked at each other and said "what the......?" What the he!! kind of name is that? This picture is classic.

Not to keep dwelling on the Chicago stuff, but the comments made on my last post brought some more thoughts to mind:

J Rod.....our governor. He governs from his home in Chicago. When we were at the state fair this past summer, we wandered into the Republican tent and in there was an empty doll house that said "Governor's Mansion" on the front of it. Also on the front was a sign that read "Vacancy." I thought it was hilarious! I took a picture with my cell phone but it's not clear enough to put on the blog. Yes, he governs from Chicago. Wouldn't you think he might want to live and work in Springfield, the STATE CAPITOL? I don't claim to know much at all about politics, but through the years that he has been governor of our state, I do know of some education-related issues on which I disagree completely with his point of view.

When I became a teacher and began watching high school sports at the state level, I noticed that if a game was televised (usually football or basketball), the announcers always referred to the playing field (which was usually either Peoria or Champaign) as being in "downstate" Illinois. Huh? What the hell is "downstate"? Back then, in basketball in particular, the system was set up so that 8 teams would make it to the state competition. About 4 of them were from the Chicago area (and I understand that, based on population), 2 or 3 teams were from central or northern Illinois, and AT LEAST 1 (maybe 2) team was from southern Illinois. This team had to travel NORTH to get to the state competition. So why was it always referred to on TV by the announcers as "downstate"? I always hated that. Seriously, if you were to draw a horizontal line across the middle of Illinois, Peoria is definitely NORTH of that line and Champaign is close to the middle. So how can you say these cities are downstate??? For whatever reason, I think it sounds degrading to us southern Illinois folks. Maybe I'm crazy, but it's as if everything "important" happens "upstate" (in Chicago) and the rest of us should just follow their lead. Wrong.

And also.....I think maybe I have posted about this in the past.....I hate when you are traveling and begin talking to someone from another state and when you tell them you are from Illinois, they somehow automatically assume you are from somewhere near Chicago! That is an insult to me, honestly. Like I've said before, I really like visiting Chicago, but I would never want to be associated with living there. Uggg. This year and last year, when we were on vacation, when this conversation would start with a stranger, I began answering that question with "Illinois but nowhere near Chicago."