On Davis

It has been brought to my attention that the only full-time “real” doll repairman hails from my current hometown: http://machochip.com/2009/01/slade-fiero-fixes-real-dolls.php

Does that say something about my quiet little burg?  I’d like to think so.  I’ve often spoken lovingly of my liberal Mayberry.  I won’t go on and on about how cool it is, I’ll just give you some facts and you can make up your own mind.

1.  We apparently have a plan in place to start giving the squirrels birth control because there are too many of them.

2.  We have a vital, vibrant downtown that’s walking distance from campus.

3.  We will soon have the world’s only “green” target.

4.  We apparently abhor billboards, high signs, and excess night light–there are laws in place to keep our skies visible.

5.  We have been on The Daily Show multiple times.  We have been made fun of for having a professor study (and create) Asian male centered porn, for our whiny Republicans on campus having their own “coming out” day (they feel oppressed!), and for our toad crossing (which didn’t work until it was redesigned).

6.  We have also been in national news for the gang of wild turkeys who loiter in the graveyard (which is my backyard) and for a neighbor calling the police on another neighbor for disturbing the peace by snoring too loud.  The latter, by the way, was a weird piece of performance art, designed to make fun of what makes national news.  The snorer was not in on it and was terribly embarrassed.

7.  We have a really cool university with amazing faculty, but maybe the best thing is that we have one of the few wine making degrees in the world.

8.  Our tallest building is nine stories.

9.  We usually can’t feel the earthquakes that happen around us.

10.  Our schools are really good (because our housing costs are atrocious).  Most of the parents of children in this system have higher education degrees, so we’re demanding, too.

11.  There are no traffic jams, but we’re close enough to big cities like Sacramento and San Francisco to go right to them if we miss being angry drivers.

12.  We have almost as many bikes per capita as China.

13.  We have the only running London double-decker buses in the world now that London doesn’t use them anymore.

14.  We have a great micro-brewery.

15.  Julie, Julie was filmed here.

Finally, of course, I live here, as do many of my friends.  And while it’s great to be in Davis, I have to admit that I’m kind of bitchy today because it looks like I might not get my workload class for this Spring (as I didn’t this Winter) and thus I have to have income loss-induced panic attacks.