Like I could stop at ten

Craig Ceely has tagged me with this "10 Things I Love About America" meme. (Memes, incidentally, don't make the list.) But since I'm in a weird mood anyway, let's see what I can come up with:

1. The Dakotas, and all those other states with small populations and wide-open spaces. Some people are bored to death by them, but not I.

2. The Second Amendment, which makes the others more than just empty words.

3. Spectacularly-unhealthy regional cuisine. Reason enough for a road trip. If you're headed here, stop by Del Rancho for a Steak Sandwich Supreme.

4. The fact that the high school I attended has an entry in Wikipedia.

5. New Balance shoes. Even if fewer of them are made Stateside these days, they're still my brand of choice.

6. The fact that people will line up the night before for something absurd like attending a movie premiere or buying a game console, stirring testimony to the joy of having nothing better to do.

7. National Public Radio, less for its politics than for its sheer ubiquity: I don't have to lug dozens of CDs with me, and yet I can still avoid the screaming that comes with every car-dealership radio ad.

8. Two-lane blacktop, especially if it's none too straight.

9. Neither New York nor Washington is big enough to dominate the nation's culture.

10. We don't do apologies. The "world community" wants our attention? Fine. Let them catch up to where we are, and we'll see if we have time.

11. The Dairy Queen dipped cone, especially on a summer day in a small town.

12. Better Mexican food than in rather a lot of Mexico.
    

I could go on, and maybe one of these days I will.

(Feel free to pick up on this if you like; it's not my style to tag other folks.)