East STL

East St. Louis Rated 'Number One City In America By Poverty Magazine
EAST ST. LOUIS, IL—The December issue of Poverty magazine, featuring its annual "Top American Cities" poll, hit newsstands Monday, and for the second year in a row, East St. Louis topped the list. "East St. Louis dominated our poll yet again in 2004, topping such categories as unemployment, hubcap availability, and liquor-stores-per-capita," Poverty editor Felicia Banks said. "The city's educational system also rated high, boasting a student-gun ratio of 1:1." Rounding out the top five, in descending order, were Flint, MI; Newark, NJ; Compton, CA; and Gary, IN.

Ironically, this is from The Onion and is fake news. Surpsingly, ironically, whatever you want to call it, it seems true. And I may note that during roadtrips with Mary, we drove through the other 4 cities and I can confirm that they all suck. A lot. I personally think Gary is the worst but who am I to judge. PS Is it strange that I've been to all of these cities? Considering I've never been to such jewels as Rome or Barcelona, it seems kinda sad I've been to this top 5 list.

Thanks for asking, my birthday turned out well. John's gift that he needed the last 4 of my SS# was adding HBO to our cable package for the next 4 month - the cable is set up in my name so he had to access the account. Mystery solved. I also got flowers from Chrissy (thanks) and an espresso maker I'm stoked to try out. And from today forward, all my "wish list" items are racked up for next Dec 25 and 27 :)