Why, O Ming...?

Back in our junior year of high school, some of my classmates and I, led by my best friend Beaks, went through what some might call a phase, though others might consider it a way of life: We started coming up with what we called "state jokes." I put that in quotation marks, because looking back, they weren't really jokes...more like anecdotes, or on a bad day, bad puns. The idea was to tell a little story that somehow incorporated a state name. Hard to explain, so here's an example: A farmer named Ming went out into his front yard and began to dig a hole. Another farmer drove by and stopped to ask him, "Why, O Ming, are you digging that hole?" Get it? After every class, we'd compare notes and see what everyone else had come up with. This actually went on for quite some time, though I don't even know if we finished all 50 states. My personal favorite was Nevada: A guy down south walks into a pet store and asks the clerk for a dog collar and chew toy. The clerk asks, "Don't you think you should get a leash with that?" And the guy responds (read this with your best Southern accent), "I don't know. Never had a dog before." When I think of the hours we spent on this, it makes me think the school year could really be much shorter.

Anyway, for whatever reason that "Why, O Ming?" joke popped into my head today as I drove from Rapid City to Cody, WY. The drive was mostly boring, then scenic towards the end when I hit the mountains. But though it was beautiful, I was really tired, and with all the winding up and down the mountain, I actually was feeling a little sick. I didn't even know it was possible to get carsick while driving! I have an interview here early tomorrow morning, then I head to Montana via Yellowstone, and I'm looking forward to a good night's sleep.