And Facebook alerted me, today is the birthday of my second favorite state–Indiana! Check out my mother’s in-depth reporting here.

I just want to post a pic of DePauw.

It’s funny, growing up in St. Louis, people used the word ‘Hoosier’ as a derogatory term. As in, people from South St. Louis are such Hoosiers–meaning low-rent, tacky, daughty-ferry-pronouncing, hillbillies. When I found out Indiana University’s mascot was the Hoosier, I thought it was the strangest thing. Then, my mother, wise counselor that she is, told me that a Hoosier is simply a person from Indiana. And then I spent four years living in Indiana and I found that calling someone a Hoosier is really saying something nice about them. I love Hoosiers. But people from South St. Louis? Well, they still fit the description I gave for what I thought Hoosier meant. Just kidding.