from a friend's blog.

She posted something by another author I thought was so true. So here it is:

"We who live out in the frozen cornfields of the Midwest ... are a modest people with much to be modest about, self-effacing, anxious to efface ourselves and not wait for others to do the job. We could, if we chose to, despise New York, especially if we thought about former Mayor Giuliani's curled-lip, bared-teeth speech at the 2008 Republican convention, sneering at Barack Obama as a city slicker. But we do not think about that. We admire New Yorkers for many, many things, for their excellent transit system that gives you close encounters with interesting individuals, their handy street-corner hot dogs, and also their ability to express personal preference, which we dirt farmers lost a long time ago. It was frowned out of us when we were children.

"It seems so simple -- say what you want, say what you think -- but we gave up the ability in order to be unselfish and sociable and not be monsters, and so if we're asked what we want to do, we say, "Hey. Whatever you want. Makes no difference. Suit yourself." And having suppressed our likes and dislikes for so long, we are not sure what we want, or even who we are."
--Garrison Keillor.

That and those of us who grew up in the heart of Illinois should be able to attest to the yumminess of horseshoes. I've been craving a horeshoe with turkey, and then Dustin informed me that they make a dozen different kinds of horseshoes down the street at the local restaurant. Dustin said I am such a mid-Western girl, but I do not make a good one. How many times has a piece of farm equipment driven down the road, and I cannot tell Lara what it is, so we must wait to ask Daddy later? I simply had a lot of horseshoes when I was little-little because we lived so close to Springfield. I am also craving deer sticks. I am having a lot of cravings with this baby.