People made fun of Mitt Romney for saying the trees are the right height in Michigan, but I think there's something to it -- the general environment where you grew up feels correct in some undefinable way, I think.

So true. K hates going to Ohio and Michigan because she feels like all the driving is in shrubbery -- too dense etc. I feel like the wide half-circle skies of Idaho feels oppressive.

People made fun of Mitt Romney for saying the trees are the right height in Michigan, but I think there's something to it -- the general environment where you grew up feels correct in some undefinable way, I think.

I do feel like the sky is smaller in NC than in northern Michigan. And I miss my wide sky. Sometimes the hills and whatnot blocking my view makes me feel claustrophobic.

I was scared driving across a mesa in Arizona -- too open! Too exposed!

the general environment where you grew up feels correct in some undefinable way, I think.

Agreed. That's why I feel more comfortable in the mountains. Places where the land is flat and the horizon is far far away are beautiful, but they also make me feel a little exposed. I wouldn't be happy living in Big Sky Country.

Despite growing up in Wisconsin, I love Big Sky Country, especially driving through it.

I think it'd be really fun to drive from IL to CA in my convertible. Why haven't I done that yet? Oh yeah, for a trip that long I should probably have the engine and transmission rebuilt first. Just gotta scrape together $8,000 for that....

The shades of green in places not Jamaica are a bit off, I find. I don't know how you cope.

Right. I was gonna find a rape joke. I don't believe there are no rape jokes, but I suspect this is not one of them. It's just a feeling I have, along with the feeling that I don't really want to have an opinion, but these are the things I do for my sister.

Without my moral guidance, she'd clearly be lost.

I enjoy being in wide open spaces on occasion, but I am happy to have the mountains at my back. I grew up in hill country, tucked down among trees and big humps of earth. Every now and then, though, I need a wide open horizon.

Okay, homework done. I think I'm pretty much of the opinion that you don't need to make even the funniest rape joke at the expense of a stranger who paid money to see you. And you can remove a lot of qualifiers from that sentence and still...you don't need to make the joke yet.

Argh, people are annoying.

I'm trying to send a set of drawings to someone, and the only file-share service I can use is one run by the DOD, and the email notice keeps getting spamfiltered. Or the woman is too unfamiliar with the idea to understand what she needs to do...

My summer place in Canada has trees that are exactly the right height (in the woods), a big sky (over the lake), and most importantly water. Being there recharges my soul in a way I can't adequately describe.

ita, if you must know, Daniel Tosh's rape joke.

[eta: I see I'm too late.]

I racked my brains trying to think of an actual funny rape joke last night (FB made me do it!) and the only one I could come up with was the old SNL Jeopardy skit (Alex, I'll take "the rapists" for $500.) And even that's not really a rape joke, just a joke with the word "rapists" in it.