A Curious Little Blog

I visited Niagara Falls last week with my family.  Apparently, not many people travel from Virginia to Niagara Falls, because there isn't anything like an interstate connecting the two.  We travelled on seven interstates:  70, 80, and 90, 76, 81, 86, and 99.  If we had taken the directions prescribed by Mapquest, we would have add 66, which would have given a nice symmetry to the numbers (70, 80, 90; 66, 76, 86).  Ninety-nine is actually kind of interesting, because it is the highest-numbered interstate.  I didn't know it existed before this trip.  The longest stretch of one road was US-219, but we had to make a dozen turns (more or less, depending on what you count as a turn) just to stay on it for about 130 miles We were unable to go in the Cave of the Winds because it was closed for reconstruction, but we did ride on the Maid of the Mist -- which we re-christened the Maid of the Deluge, because "mist" did not do justice to the amount of water we...

The South has done a lot of bad things in the cause of racism.  Segregated schools and lunchcounters are the least of it.  Some of the things I have heard about are sickening. The South has also taken a lot of vitriol for its racism.  When I moved to Georgia in 2008, a friend of mine asked, quite seriously, "Are they all Neanderthals down there?" No wonder there is a feeling of Southern pride.  The South is viewed with scorn and contempt by much of the country, so it is not surprising that some Southerners react defensively and tout the positive aspects of their culture. It is also important to remember that this is 2013, not 1963.  Blacks and whites live and work side by side in the South, the same as they do in the rest of the country.  Is racism completely eradicated?  No.  There is always room for improvement.  But it is important to think about progress, too, about how far we've come.  I've never seen a segregated school or lunch...