What cities are the best for book lovers? Apparently Pensacola is one of them.

When you think of Pensacola, FL, you don't usually think of a hotbed of literary action. Let's assume they just have supper clubs run by people named Louanne and Karen where they comb the latest Jodi Picoult book.

According to ApartmentGuide.com, Pensacola lands at #3 on their top ten list for best cities for book lovers.

The website's criteria was fairly straightforward. They looked at 14,000 cities that had at least one bookstore or library of any sort. Then, they eliminated any city that didn't have at least 50,000 people. That left the site with 764 cities. They then calculated the ratio per 100,000 citizens to figure out the most book-saturated cities.

The Top Ten:

1.)  Cambridge, MA

2.)  Berkeley, CA

3.)  Pensacola, FL

4.)  Ann Arbor, MI

5.)  Chapel Hill, NC

6.)  Santa Fe, NM

7.)  Marietta, GA

8.)  Saint Louis, MO

9.)  Cincinnati, OH

10.)  Birmingham, AL

Some of these cities are understandable as towns with a massive university as its backbone (Chapel Hill, Ann Arbor). While Berkeley is a mix of a college enclave and former hippie extension of San Francisco.

And ApartmentGuide.com says about Cambridge:

"Make no mistake, in the end, Cambridge is the ultimate high-end university town. Smart people matriculate here and smart people live here. And as the best city in America for booklovers, that shouldn't change any time soon."

You probably envision walking the streets of Cambridge and seeing small and cozy mom and pop bookstores holding casual readings with new authors--some tea and cookies in the corner, while a cat yawns from a nap in a window. Later, you might dream of passing austere universities like Harvard and MIT, laced in ivy and dappled in sunlight, like a Renoir painting come to life.

As someone who was born in Cambridge (and raised in the adjacent city), all I can say is...yeah--no. Smart people don't matriculate in Cambridge. Well-connected and well-to-do people do. Not smart people.

There's a difference.

As for Pensacola, don't underestimate the power of Louanne's homemade green bean casserole and a good book.



Sure, this sort of list doesn't include book clubs or writing circles, but have you ever been to a book club or writing circle? At least 75% of those people potentially have a restraining order against them.

CBSNews: The ten best college towns to live in...includes a place in Nebraska?

These sort of list come around every few weeks, always with completely different outcomes. Each media outlet uses different metrics, weighs those metrics in varying proportions, and typically offers some random statistic to completely skew the results toward something entirely randomized.

Which brings us to CBSNews, which decided to create their own "scientific" analysis of the best college towns today. The results (with college in parentheses):

1.)  Princeton, New Jersey  (Princeton University)
2.)  Kearney, Nebraska  (University of Nebraska--Kearney)
3.)  Boulder, Colorado  (University of Colorado--Boulder)
4.)  Bozeman, Montana  (University of Montana)
5.)  Cedar Falls, Iowa  (University of Northern Iowa)
6.)  Cambridge, Massachusetts  (Harvard, MIT, Cambridge College, Lesley University)
7.)  Ann Arbor, Michigan  (University of Michigan)
8.)  Grand Forks, North Dakota  (University of North Dakota)
9.)  Ames, Iowa  (Iowa State University)
10.)  Madison, Wisconsin  (University of Wisconsin)

Don't rub your eyes. You're seeing that correctly. Something called "Kearney, Nebraska" is considered the second best college town in America. Nothing Nebraska-related is ever good news. Even Bruce Springsteen hit a low point in his career in 1982 by naming one of his albums Nebraska. Do you know how Wikipedia describes that album?

"The songs on Nebraska both deal with ordinary, blue collar characters who face a challenge or a turning point in their lives, but also outsiders, criminals and mass murderers, who have little hope for the future - or no future at all, as in the title track, where the main character is sentenced to death in the electric chair."




Mass murderers and the death penalty! Sounds like a real toe-tapper, get down with your bad self kind of album. Even the album is in a bleak black and white. But you know why it's so depressing? Because it's Nebraska, that's why.

And then there was that murky movie a few years ago filmed in black and white as well, called--you guessed it--Nebraska. You know why it was filmed in black and white? Because seeing Nebraska in color is too much of an offense to the eyes of the rest of America.

The movie was nominated for six Academy Awards. You know how many it won? Zero. Do you know why? Because it's...

Oh, but, hey. Let's all move there.

'Avocado' and 'pudding' are two words that shouldn't be associated with each other.

I like to think the large turkey and cheese sub with extra mayo, a bag of Wise's Crunchy Cheeze Doodles, a honeybun, and a bottle of Veryfine Fruit Punch I purchased from the local convenience store after every school day turned me into the model of peak physical fitness you see today.

But Family Circle Magazine disagrees on what constitutes healthy eating. They have 26 healthy after-school recipes that any nanny man servant personal chef parent can make!

These include:

Layered Hummus Dip
Rockin' Moroccan Snack Dip
Almond-Avocado Pudding
Peachy Keen Pops
Parmesan Kale Chips
Black Bean and Corn Quesadillas
Creamy Peanut Dip
Turkey Pinwheels
Granola, Yogurt, and Berry Parfaits
Hummus with Parmesan Pita Chips
Sweet Potato Fries with Roasted Garlic Ketchup

Little Debbie needs to work on these and punch them up with some trans fat deliciousness. Rockin' Moroccan Snack Dip accompanied by a Swiss Cake Roll? That's magic right there, my friend. Let's not deny this potential culinary dream.

For what it's worth, Maine is the most peaceful state in America.

The United States Peace Index came out today, which gauges a state's overall peacefulness on a variety of levels (violent crime, incarceration rates, handgun ownership, number of Peter, Paul & Mary albums owned, etc.). And no other state is channeling its inner Flower Child more than Maine* apparently.

All of New England fared well, too. Even the metro region report came back glowingly, saying the Cambridge/Newton/Framingham, MA, area is the most peaceful metro region in the entire country.

I assume my hometown of Somerville--which borders Cambridge--is included in that region, too, which is a little disappointing. I just lost a little street cred. Guess I'm going to have to get some temp teardrop tattoos on my face and pack a water gun to show I'm still hardcore, yo.



*That's because they're all dead from boredom.

Today is National Bookmobile Day.

Yup. There is such a thing.

I remember my hometown's bookmobile making rounds throughout the city when I was a wee lad. It looked like an abused school bus that just got out of a stint in rehab. Like it had scabies. Like a bad imitation of a predator van, minus the Dateline NBC camera crew in tow.

I never went inside that bookmobile. I like to think this is why I haven't needed therapy in adulthood.




(That's an old-timey photo from Nashville, TN, showing their bookmobile. Their bookmobile looks like it belongs to a prison, and the warden will walk out, sunglasses on, rifle over his shoulder, telling you in a thick, southern accent that what we have here is a failure to communicate.)

74 year old professor at Boston University and Suffolk University arrested for running a meth lab.

Seventy-four years old, too! You might think she was smuggling prescription blood pressure meds or something at that age. But, no. She's running a meth den. Some grandmas hand out a Werther's Original. Others hand out meth. To each their own.

Irina Kristy is her name, and she teaches math at both BU and Suffolk. Apparently teaching math doesn't take up as much time as you'd assume, because she's allegedly cooking up batches of meth in her Somerville, MA, home.

According to reviews on RateMyProfessors.com, she's a toss-up:

Her grading is pretty good, however, no one can understand what she is talking about...

NEVER TAKE A CLASS WITH HER NO MATTER WHAT it is a waste of your time!! [...] You don't know what she is ever saying and she looks confused on stuff all the time.

this lady has lost her cool

Well, hey, you don't want to market a homemade product without testing the quality first, right?

I, for one, have never been in a car accident.

Awhile ago, a website called Pleated-Jeans created a map of the United States showing something every individual state is worst at. Each state, according to Pleated-Jeans' research, is the worst at whatever they're labeled with.

Are some of these actually bad though? Ohio is "the nerdiest state"--which just means everyone goes to college for engineering and will have a six-figure salary soon.

By comparison, Maine is supposed to be the dumbest. As a fellow New Englander with traveling experiences in Maine, that seems entirely plausible. Having a conversation with some folks there requires pictograms and lots of hand gesturing.

Meanwhile, Massachusetts has the worst drivers, while Wyoming has the most fatal car crashes. Those two facts seem to negate one another, no? I would think that having the most fatal car crashes pretty much equals having the worst drivers, too. Sure, people from Massachusetts might be driving 40mph over the speed limit, but damned if we don't know how to avoid turning pedestrians into speed bumps.

You've probably been shaming the American flag for years and didn't even know it.

The Washington Post has a short little story on five myths about the American flag, all of which we're probably ignorant of.

Nothing says Happy Fourth of July like knowing you've probably shamed your country for years. And, to think, you've always thought you only shamed your family. Aim high, my friend!











As a side note: I was born and raised in Somerville, MA, which is where the American flag was first raised. Other places claim to be the first place to have this honor, too. But I think we can all agree they're liars.