The Dubious Joy of Routine.

[greygirlbeast]

So, here I sit. At my desk. in Atlanta. Beginning the usual sort of entry at the usual time. And, all in all, it's a relief to have things returning to "normal

Comments

[sovay]

Somewhere near Scranton, after stopping for gas at a scary convenience store where everyone had shaved heads and pro-bush stickers on their Great Big SUVs and trucks, Spooky dubbed everything south and east of New York to be Pennsyltucky

It was a little terrifying, when we were in the Philadelphia area and saw a billboard that read "Exposure to the Son Can Prevent Burning." I'd never really thought about Pennsylvania as part of the South before. That sort of cleared it up . . .

[greygirlbeast]

I'd never really thought about Pennsylvania as part of the South before. That sort of cleared it up . . .

In 2028, when the Immaculate Order of the Falling Sky finally takes control of New England and I am crowned Grand High Queen of Cephalopodians, the New York/Pennsyltucky state line is where I shall order that the Great Wall be built. Henceforth, until the impact which will wipe the Earth clean, everything north of the Wall shall be known simply as The Maritime. So mote it be.

[sovay]

Henceforth, until the impact which will wipe the Earth clean, everything north of the Wall shall be known simply as The Maritime. So mote it be.

Works for me.

(Belatedly, is The Man Who Fell to Earth a new icon?)

[greygirlbeast]

(Belatedly, is The Man Who Fell to Earth a new icon?)

Yep. Just made it this morning. It's the cover from Bowie's Low (1977).

[greygirlbeast]

Weirdly, Pensyltucky is exactly what my whole family has always called ... pretty much everything that borders the state of Maryland. My grandmother's called it that for as long as I can remember. My mom says my grandmother's called it that for as long as she can remember, too.

Wow. Cool. Spooky just said it might be something she once heard her father say. He's from Pittsburgh.

[sovay]

Spooky just said it might be something she once heard her father say.

The name also just cropped up in this essay. It's a conspiracy.

[lesser_celery]

My father, who was from Maine, used the term Pensyltucky all the time. I never made it that far from home during my youth, so it didn't seem geographically inappropriate.

[ellyssian]

[frankiemouse]

personally i think you should wall off allegheny county and make it like west berlin was initially after WWII. though before doing that, or maybe after would be better, you should administer some kind of test to weed out the interlopers who pretend that they're really not bush loving rednecks.

[elmocho]

"At least the mountains in northern Pennslytucky were pretty, great Appalachian ridges and road cuts exposing sandstone and coal and shale beds of the Pottsville Formation, along with Silurian-aged beds of hematite and shale. After all the Avalonian igneous rocks of southern Rhode Island, at the least the geology was becoming familiar again."

I just passed through large swaths of north-central Arizona, where the geology tugged at forgotten knowledge from my favorite lab course. I've always enjoyed it when such passages pop up in your writing.

[greygirlbeast]

I just passed through large swaths of north-central Arizona, where the geology tugged at forgotten knowledge from my favorite lab course. I've always enjoyed it when such passages pop up in your writing.

See, I always just worry that they'll bore people...