STUDY CLAIMS: Confident, resilient, self-reliant kids grow up to be liberals; Whiny children: conservatives...
I am just getting in from the road trip from hell with my boss. Thankfully, Tim and I are kindred spirits and these trips always turn out to be fun and gratifying in most cases.
Just leaving the comfort zone of the perimeter of I285 that surrounds Atlanta is an adventure for me nowadays.
I285 acts as the "Great Wall of Atlanta", and ultimately differentiates “us” from “them”. Here you are either ITP (inside the perimeter) or OTP (outside the perimeter). The terms are used interchangeably as derogatory or with a sense of self importance, depending upon your status as an ITP or OTP person.
An example: An ITP girl has a smart haircut and drives a foreign and extremely fuel efficient compact yet sporty car with a tastefully placed leftist bumper sticker... while her OTP counterpart has decidedly bigger hair and drives an SUV with a “W The President” bumper sticker. Another example: An ITP boy drives a sporty or vintage car with either a leftist, rainbow, or HRC bumper sticker…while his OTP counterpart drives a Hummer or truck with some variation of Nascar based allegiance, some cartoon kid pissing on an icon of some other automobile manufacturer, or some hackneyed Conservative slogan du jour adorning the backside of said vehicle.
“You are soooo 404”. You are “soooo 770”. This is another way we differentiate ourselves to make sure the divining line of I285 separates us and solidifies our distinction of being a “red” city in a “blue” state.
So anyway…I am rambling. Tim and I left the safety of the perimeter and traveled to some of the branch stores this week and had a jolly good time. We both have a carnal need to stop at every Stuckeys and every odd little side of the road souvenir traps that beckon you from the side of the interstate traveling from here to Nashville, down to Birmingham, and then back to Atlanta. We stop at them all and “eww and ahhh” at the 10,000 uses of peaches and peanuts in Georgia, the 15,000 references of hillbilly folklore, moonshine, and VOLS football in Tennessee, and the 20,000 applicable tourist product ramifications of NASCAR, Confederate flags, and yankee hating slogans to be found in the roadside tourist meccas of Alabama.
Tim and I spend an inordinate amount of time in these places, like amateur sociologists. All I know is, we walk up and down every aisle, holding up sweet examples of “Southern Culture on the Skids”, manufactured chiefly in China, for each other’s approval, amusement, and commentary. I am, in all fairness, not trying to paint the contemporary South in a negative way....
....as we do actually purchase these items and bring them back to our buds in the lair of ITP. We were both born and bred in the South that produced the consumer demand and stereotyping of these products. We both still love the South, wouldn’t want to live anywhere else, and relish all the schizophrenia of it.
I’m feeling very indignantly white trash and southern from my road trip through the hot spots of the dirty south this week. I’m also feeling very Darren Stevens thanks to my desire for the perfect martini served up by the perfect domestic partner upon my arrival from a hard business trip. I have it all and I am good.
We collected our hounds from their day spa visit to Inman Park Animal Hospital, where they were groomed, probed, coddled, inspected, “anal glands extruded”….(Gracie had been rubbing her butt around the lawn the past few days). They checked out fine and are healthy as they can be. All in all, a blissful time here at the Doghouse. I’m obsessive and content, Marc is centered and intense and full of love (and blogging again with some fascinating brain dumps), the hounds are healthy and hyper as shit…….life is good here.
I’m in a “I like what we make of it” kinda mood. I feel like Darren Stevens coming home to a tidy 1960's obligitory sitcom martini. Maybe it’s the martinis that are the source of my current bliss…the martini which I have been craving...and by the way…don’t try to order one in Athens, Alabama.
Oh yeah….that full article from the snippet at the beginning of the post is from the Toronto Star via the Drudge Report...
The Article
*****Rick James "You And I"