Looking California, feeling Arizona

"Standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona. Such a fine sight to see."

- Take it Easy, by The Eagles

OK, I had to get that face off the page. I haven't had much to stir the juices lately, and every time I open the blog I see that jackass looking at me. It's more than a little creepy.

I did read something about Arizonans being a little worried that the rest of the country will think that the state is a strange place, what with the illegal immigration issue they have been fighting over the past couple of years, and now a shooting.

Then I thought about the upcoming Martin Luther King Jr. holiday and remembered that it was Arizona that had a hard time with it. They still may not have come to grips with it, but I remember John McCain and some of the state's so-called leaders fighting the "legal holiday" status. I don't particularly care, since I don't live there, but it made me think that maybe there is something to the idea that the state is a little wacky.

I used to work with a guy who spent a lot of time in the state and for some reason we got to talking about that Eagles song. He asked me if I had ever been to Winslow, and said that "there ain't no fine sights to see in that place." He wasn't sure where Jackson Browne was when he wrote that line, but it probably just sounded good and had nothing to do with actually being in Winslow, Arizona.

A friend just came back from a business trip to Tuscon and she told me that the city is "nothing but pawn shops, strip malls and desert." Then she told me about the blimp constantly flying overhead, and how she got stopped a couple of times by the Border Patrol. We reasoned that a blimp made a lot less noise than a helicopter and the Border Patrol probably doesn't want to bring a lot of attention to itself - although a blimp flying overhead is a much more unique sight than it was in the 1940s, so maybe the Mexicans are hip to it?

I suggested she visit Sedona, which seems to be one of the few colorful spots in the state, apart from the Grand Canyon, lovingly referred to as The World's Biggest Hole in the Ground.

So maybe those Arizonans are onto something? Whatever, it provided me an outlet to get that creepy face off the page, so they have that going for them - which is nice.