I'm in Kingsport TN on 12/ 8 and it's Bill Bryson's birthday! It's also not quite 20F! He is my favorite travel writer and the only author who can consistently make me laugh out loud in public. His book a Walk in the Woods reminds me of this pix of Neillsville WI (great book). I also loved his book on the origin of American words/ slang and phrases. He's brilliant.

I recently read a list complied of the best innovations of the 20th century and Minnesota got on there for the honey-crisp apple. An apple? Really? There are so many things that top that. How about ALVIN? I mean without ALVIN we would never know where the current resting place of the Titanic is! And without that, we wouldn't have had the movie Titanic and just how could one be expected to go on without that life-changing 3 hour carthisis (sp?)?