From California, the next stop is Idaho. I admit I’ve never read a book that took place in Idaho. And it’s not that Idaho is right next door to California, because, well, it’s not. But the perception of Idaho is that it’s on the opposite side of the same coin as California. If California goes all the way to the left, then Idaho goes all the way to the right.

The rock band Train recorded a song on their first album called, “Idaho,” and it’s all about that isolationist perception. The idea is that the fearful (racist?) people from the outer states seek solace in the safety of inland (white as the inside of a potato?) Idaho. California is not mentioned by name, but we know what state they’re talking about when they sing, “Mother nature shakes, what then what then?” Their answer to the question is, “She’ll shake you to Idaho, that’s what she’ll do.”

What I’d like to do is rise above this one-sided perception of Idaho as a haven for neo-Nazis. It’s time for Idaho to get a new image. Are you ready for it?

In 2004, the MTV studios released a pop culture phenomenon set in Idaho. It was all about embracing your individuality and accepting people for who they are. Let us now embrace a new image of Idaho. Let us embrace Napoleon Dynamite.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 20th, 2006 at 9:14 pm and is filed under US and Canada. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.