I got this card for my birthday last month

I laughed so hard I almost had to pee my pants. Not that anyone who would be reading this doesn’t already know, but:

A – I am from Topeka

B – My brother is a forensic chemist for a law enforcement agency (and no his life is not nearly as glamorous as CBS would like us to think....'geeks in lab coats' would be his take on their job.)

So when Susan, my groovy friend in Iowa, found this card and sent it to me for my birthday I really did just about spit beer laughing.

Apparently the folks in my hometown do not see the humor.

And the best is that due to this quote….

"I find it offensive," Mayor Bill Bunten said Thursday. "It's probably drawn up by somebody from West Virginia who hasn't been here."

…West Virginia has now demanded a public apology from the mayor.

Maybe Kansas are just sensitive.

Several years ago I was sent this hysterical magazine article about someone born and rasied in NYC moving to Iowa - not even to Des Moines, but to Pella or Story City or something like that....they wrote about all the humor they found moving to a small rural town after being used to a metropolis.

There were some amusing observations.
Some pretty obvious about people loving the Olive Garden and driving pick up trucks.
Some were things that I, having lived in cities - but cities in rural dominated states, might not have noticed as strange or amusing until someonw else pointed them out. Then I thought - wow - that is kinda funny. I never noticed it before because I'm used to it.

So I forwarded this on to several fellow former and current Kansans and Iowans who I thought could also see to laugh at themselves. I received scathing replies from two such friends. Telling me that if I wanted to forwarded them jokes, or good luck wishes, or personal stories that was fine - but if I was going to just tell nasty mean things about our wonderful place of childhood then they would rather not hear from me.

Of course one of these messages came from someone who - when her husband was offered a temporary job in another state - in a beautiful part of the country where his company would:
- raise his salary
- pay for the move and storage of anything they didn't take with them
- pay for their housing & living expenses during the two years they wanted him there
- pay for their transportation during the two years they wanted him there
- pay for he and his family to fly back to visit their family twice a year for those two years
She did nothing but complain about how horrible it was going to be.

Whaaa.

Funny thing is - he works for Hallmark.