A big, global thanks to all of you who took a minute to reply to our recent “Hey! Where You At?” post. After a record 290 replies as of 7:00AM on November 1, I thought I’d take moment to compile some results.
First, as best as I can tell, for around 125 of you, this was your first time to post a comment here. Welcome! Please feel free to chime in on anything any time you want. It’s a big room and you never need to dress up for us.
Second, I’d be remiss if I didn’t give a special shout to all you long, tall Texans out there making Lyle Lovett proud. Though many of the regular Rabbit Room contributors live in the Nashville area, at the time of this writing, Texas had the same number of replies as Tennessee. To the rest of you non-Texans, let that serve as a reminder. You don’t mess with Texas. Hook ‘Em, Horns. And God Bless the TNG.
Third, I’m working on a theory as to why the following connected states– Utah, Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota– were collectively silent. It is just a theory though. And I’m gonna keep it to myself. Still, the radio silence is curious.
Which brings me to Canada.
Oh, Canada. I know the Rabbit Room has some loose connections to Andrew Osenga and I know he has written and delighted in performing a song about you, but I can assure you the views expressed by certain independent, and I might add, generous songwriters are not necessarily those of the Rabbit Room. (It is a good song, though. Eh?)
Alberta (1), British Columbia (1), Ontario (3) and Manitoba (2), you’re represented by those who have replied.
But to New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Quebec, Saskatchewan, Yukon and the fine folks of Prince Edward Island and the Northwest Territory, here’s what we’re going to do to let the healing begin. I’m going to assign one Rabbit Room Ambassador specifically to each of your provinces, and we’re going to open the lines of communication.
From here on out, any comments you might wish to make, you can direct them to the following people and they will be happy to answer your questions, address your concerns and say good things publicly about your homeland.
– Prince Edward Island, address your comments to Evie Coates. She’d love to hear from you. And I think she’d like to visit sometime.
– New Brunswick, you get Randall Goodgame. He’s worked with Osenga quite a bit, so he could be very insightful about that song. I’m not sure Osenga mentions you. You may be wondering why.
– Newfoundland, Curt McLey has a special place in his heart for you. He remembers the original Foundland from back before you were established.
– Northwest Territories, Jason Gray is, I believe, our northern-most contributor, so you will find much in common with him. He is very familiar with, for example, snow.
– Nova Scotia, you get Matt Connor. I believe he’ll even come out and meet with you face to face if you cover his costs.
– Yukon, your name sounds like an adventure, and Eric Peters is all about adventures. Drop him a line. Like Matt, he’ll come to you.
– Quebec, you get Ron Block because if you say his name really fast, it sort of sounds like Quebec.
– And finally, Saskatchewan, I’m assigning Jonathan Rogers to you because he is a professional writer, and probably, of all of us, has the best shot at consistently spelling your name correctly without looking it up. You’ll like him. He has a nice family, and that says something.
Now, before we get to the USA, how about a summary from the rest of the globe? We’ve covered Canada. Here are the other international replies we got:
Germany (4) Singapore (4) United Kingdom (3) South Africa (2) Sweeden (2) Mexico (2) Brazil (1) Belgium (1) South Korea (1) Jamaica (1) Switzerland (1) Morocco (1) France (1) Turkey (1) Romania (1) Ireland (1) and Indonesia. (1)
Now, on to the United States of America. First, the silent states. If you are from one of the following states, you can still become the first to represent. Alaska, Hawaii, Deleware, Maryland, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming. Again, I ask, where you at?
For those we did hear from, here are your results:
Tennessee (29) Texas (29) Nebraska (17) Florida and North Carolina (12 each) Missouri and Indiana (11 each) Ohio (10) Virginia, Georgia and Minnesota (9 each) Colorado and Pennsylvania (8 each) Michigan (7) Alabama and California (6 each) South Carolina and New York (5 each) Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky and New Jersey (4 each) New Hampshire, Oklahoma and Wisconsin (3 each) Arkansas, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Oregon, Vermont and West Virginia (2 each– although after initially compiling this draft, SD Smith, who has access to unposted entries, saw this ranking and staged a late rally among his West Virginia constituents through his personal blog, raising that number from 2 to a whopping six. You leap-frogged Oklahoma, Wisconsin and New Hampshire and grabbed for yourselves Alabama kind of numbers. Well played, West Virginia. Well played.) Arizona, Connecticut, Idaho, Louisanna, Mississippi, New Mexico and Washington (1 each)
Still, as we tell our kids at the dinner table, “Its not a contest.”