Weapon of Choice

What's up with t-shirts that say CCCP? They're following me everywhere! Of course, those are the Cyrillic letters for USSR in Russian, but why are they so popular now? Is no one afraid of the big bad soviets anymore? I also think that it's funny that we called them Soviets, since Soviet in Russian is like a town meeting. So essentially we called 1/4 of the world "meetings".

Last night Jeff and I went to see the Wizard of Oz at the Michigan in Ann Arbor. Very enjoyable. I forgot how gay the cowardly lion was. A true dandy lion. I also noticed that the munchkins voices were dubbed and had an "Alvin and the Chipmunks" thing going on. I want to see the Wizard of Oz again with "Dark Side of the Moon" playing. Also, I'm wondering what it would be like if you watched "The Wiz" playing DSOTM. I mean, The Wiz is already creepy enough, let alone with Pink Floyd dubbed over it. Or maybe you have to watch the Wiz while listening to Thriller. I wonder if there are other Movie/CD combinations. I personally like to watch "The Neverending Story" while listening to "NOW that's what I call music 5".

Afterwards, Jeff and I went to Macaroni Grill for dinner. Quite enjoyable. There was this song playing and it's one of those famous Italiany songs you always hear. I was wondering what the name was and Jeff said that it was "Funiculli Funiculla". And then we started talking about how they changed the word for the advertisement for the boardgame "The Grape Escape". You know, the game where there were boots and playdoh grapes that got squashed. I don't know what the point was, but I remember the cruelty of the killing of grapes. Most people know about my problem with anthropomorphization of food. Like, it makes me upset to think of the M&Ms getting eaten. (M&Ms are people too!) I felt the same way about that game. Why would I want to play such a murderous game!

I was wondering what the Midwest was the other day. Sure, the name is a misnomer to begin with, but I was wondering, what is considered the Midwest, and who considers themselves living in the Midwest. I just looked it up on Wikepedia and it says that traditionally the Midwest is Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa. All except Iowa touch a Great Lake. There are also areas that are on the periphery or may be perceived as midwestern: Dakotas, Nebraska, Missouri, Kansas, Kentucky, West Virginia and Pennsylvania. I agree with this in part. I think that western PA (around pittsburg and such) seems very midwestern. The same with Missouri and St. Louis. I don't think that the Dakotas, Nebraska, or Kansas seem like the Midwest. I think of that as Great Plains. Maybe Nebraska around Omaha, but that's about it. I always thought of the Midwest as predominantly farmland with large industrialized urban centers. But that seems to be changing.