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MacNfries said:
That's very interesting, Mac. People have no clue how big that television show was. It was a MONSTER. It's the only show to go off the air while being #1 in the ratings.
Years ago, I went to Pinehurst on a golf holiday. When you were right in Pinehurst, or at the resort, that was one set of people. However, when you got outside of Pinehurst (was it the "Kill Devil Hills" area? I don't recall) .. whew, man, the people really changed. I didn't know quite what to make of it. I had never been around people like that, anywhere. So, my only reference point was Andy Griffith and the vivid characters of that show. I didn't enjoy the golf at all in North Carolina. I'm an avid player of 30 years and a pretty fair scorer and just didn't care for it. So, I never went back to that area to play again. But I enjoyed the people. Very unique personalities.
There's some show on now, "Hot in Cleveland" that I never watch. However, when "The Drew Carey Show" was on, people were constantly laughing and questioning me about the people on there and Cleveland. It was pretty damn accurate, to be honest. I was born in downtown Cleveland, not a suburb .. right downtown. I graduated from a suburban Cleveland high school and Cleveland State University for my undergraduate. There's nobody more "Cleveland" than me. And I'm very proud of that. Very, very proud. I've lived in Austin, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Connecticut, etc. Nothing compares to Cleveland, though the people in Atlanta were great. Most especially the female people. WHEW! Wow. Southern Belles.
It's mostly the weather here that makes the experience very intense and the people interesting and not boring. There is a perception of being cold but .. we're not Minnesota or the U.P. of Michigan. We're about the same latitude as the South of France. Yeah, it does get intensely cold here. But, it does get intensely hot here, as well. All the seasons are striking and vivid. When spring comes here, people are in jubilation. Happy faces everywhere. When spring comes in L.A., people don't really care. They put out their green plastic plants to replace their brown plastic plants. In Austin, it just means it's that much closer to being so hot you can't go outside so they get depressed.
Here in Ohio, we feel like if you aren't living here, you're just dying somewhere else. Real ... damn ... slow. The experiences here are so much more fundamental and shade your perception of being alive in contrasting tones that can't be reached elsewhere. Case in point:
What's the most intense war in American history? Civil War. Grant and Sherman, Ohio boys.
What's the most intense thing mankind has ever achieved? Flight. Wright Brothers, two Ohio men.
First man from America to orbit the planet? John Glenn, Ohio boy.
What is the most intense action ever by mankind? Walk on the moon. Neil Armstrong, a great Ohioan.
What's the most intense form of art ever created? Rock and Roll.
What's the most intense sport ever created? Pro football.
Ohio. We are what intense is.
It's the weather. It maximizes the experience of being alive.
Doc
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