The Onion was based in Madison, Wisconsin until they moved to NYC in 2001. The next state over is always dumb.
I don’t know. The part on Illinois was surprisingly accurate.
I was flipping through it last night ( Best Secret Santa gift EVER!) and at the bottom of the Antarctica entry was a photo of an asteroid labeled “so scientific 60% of the world’s Christians can’t even see it”
I’m still laughing, twelve hours later.
This is undoubtedly in error, as they’ve been an English-speaking colony since 1664.
Sooo, what do they have to say about Connecticut?
I love their entry on (my home state of) Alabama. I don’t have the book in front of me so I’m paraphrasing, but it’s to the effect of “Snuck slavery back into their constitution as part of a school funding bill and it passed by a landslide vote of 212 to 3/5.”
Alabama’s been called racist and backwards before but that was brilliant! One short sentence but it works in political corruption and historical allusion.
Of course the picture that made me mad at myself for laughing my arse off was of a smiling Sierra Leone girl holding up her stumps (her hands were cut off during the carnage there) and the caption to the effect of “We think she is waving”.
Whimper. Don’t…have…book…
The maps they have are filled with funny little asides.
F’r instance: At Land’s End, the most southwestern point of England, they point out the spot “where the lazy pilgrims ended up”.
OK, I’m sold. I just bought it on Amazon.
The Onion’s book titles reminds me of an old Frank Zappa quote: “Stupidity is the building block of the universe.”
“For over 300 years, Connecticut has upheld a proud tradition of being next to New York. The state was founded in 1636 by settlers who wanted to live in a small quiet colony, but also enjoyed the convienence of being able to catch the 7:27 wagon and be in New York by early next week.” Connecticut is also home to the highest sweater-to-person ratio in the country.
“Since nothing is within walking distance in the entire state, residents of Illinois spend most of their lives in their cars, trying to navigate the endless stream of identical concrete landmarks to find their way home in time to hop in the car for the morning commute. In fact, it is not uncommon for an Illinois father to make a wrong turn onto the wrong Woodbury Heights Avenue, park in the wrong driveway, kiss the wrong wife, and spend the rest of his life raising the wrong family. Most of the state’s rich, fertile farmland has been paved over to construct new strip malls, which are immediately abandoned in favor of newer, more conveniently located strip malls 50 yards to the left.”
If anyone else wants to hear about a certain state or country, I’d be happy to oblige.
Sure sounds better than Our Dumb Century, which I found tiresome and tendentious.