Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head were the synthetic vegans that rocked my childhood toy box. Like many children of the '70s I would sit for hours, probably picking my nose, while dressing the Mr. and Mrs. for various work and Happy Hour functions. It smelled all new and plasticity, a mixture that today would be called asbestos, PVC, and lead. Ahhhhhh. Catch a whiff of that retro spud love. It didn't matter that all the nose picking made me a bit of a preschool outcast. I had a plastic mustache to stick in the orifice of a fake root vegetable. I wanted for nothing. (And yes, I have always been just that spectacular.)
But my love for potatoes didn't end there. For years I have been a faithful consumer of nearly any potato product. Fried, mashed, baked, Au gratin, roasted, curly fires, tots, twice baked, chips. In soups, stews, pot pies, casseroles, shepherd's pie. With roast beef, lamb chops, baked chicken, fish, and pickled bologna. Potatoes with cheese, sour cream, butter, garlic, bacon, onions, olive oil, gravy, ketchup, salt, pepper, paprika. Need I go on? Friends, it's a love affair that won't be ending anytime soon.
And where do the best potatoes come from? Well, Idaho, of course. I have it on good authority that at least one of my thigh bulges represents about 2.6 farmer's yearly income from potato sellage. So, accounting for all the bulges, you'd think the entire state would be grappling to thank me. But, sadly, no.
It has been an entire month of posts for this little ol' blog. In that entire month I have heard from every state in The Union, save one: Idaho. That's right, not even one person from Idaho has stopped by Stacy From Louisville. But why?
This blog has been read in some crazy awesome countries. I gotta give a shout out to Tanzania, Uruguay, Egypt, Japan, Hawaii, Australia (a country and a continent all wrapped into one Aboriginal package), Mexico, most of the Canadas, France, England, and Fiji. Hey guys! I heart you!!!
But still, no Idaho. What do I have to do to get some Idaho love? Well, having a contest is probably the best route, so here we go.
The Stacy From Louisville Idaho Love Contest, or The SFLILC 2008.
There will be 3 winners, and 2 different ways to win. Here they are:
1) Leave a comment on my site listing what you love most about Idaho. Even if you've never been there I must believe you can come up with something. You can list up to 4 things you love about Idaho, even if it's completely nutty or unfounded. For every reason you love Idaho - that isn't already mentioned in another comment - your name will go into a hat. On Friday of this week I will randomly draw one name from the hat and that person will win. This is prize level I.
2) Now for the big guns. If you know someone from Idaho, have them log onto this post at my site. All they have to say is, "Hi Stacy. I live in Idaho. (your user name here) told me to stop by." Then, your name and your friend's name go into a hat (on the same piece of paper) and I will randomly select one set. Once the names are selected I will publish a post of the results on Friday by noon, eastern standard time. To verify that said person is actually from Idaho I will ask him or her to send a street address (I won't publish the address!) so I can send the gift. This is prize level II.
So what do you win?
Prize levels I and II will both receive what I call "The Trash Can of Terrific". Yes, I know that sounds super unbelievable, but just wait till I tell you what's in it. The trash can itself is about 8 inches tall, and every winner gets one. (Extravagant, I know.) Levels I and II will receive a package of Kleenex that has a nun printed on each tissue with a caption that says, "God Bless You" and some wicked sarcastic Happy Bunny Stickers. Level II winners will also receive 3 whole packets of Kool-Aid, 2 Fisher-Price Little People, a snack size bag of potato chips, and some other mind blowing amazingness that's too good to mention.
You have until midnight, eastern standard time on Thursday to play. Once the names are selected I will publish a post of the results on Friday by noon, eastern standard time.
So come on SFL fans. Let's love on Idaho.
On your mark...
Get set....
Comment!!!....
Posts
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29 comments:
i love that idaho passed a resolution in honor of the guys from napoleon dynamite.
http://www.snopes.com/movies/films/dynamite.asp
I like that I'm probably the person in Uruguay that was reading this. w00t!!!
- and I know nothing about Idaho. my apologies.
I love Idaho 'cuz my grandma's there.
I also love Idaho because several other family members are there.
I love that my grandparent's house is in the mountains of Idaho. I love it that NO ROAD leads to the house itself...so you have to whizz and whoosh through the air over the Clearwater River in a tram that resembles a flying outhouse.
And I love the pretend parade float I made in 5th grade to represent Idaho. It had a skiing potato on it.
I appreciate that there's a place in Idaho called Coeur d'Alene, 'cause my local newspaper uses it as an answer in the crossword puzzle at least every other week.
I love potatoes!!! You have no idea. I, too, have purchased many a potato product in my day. I just can't get enough.
But since you already used that reason in your post I will have to say I love Idaho because the capital is Boise...and that just sounds like it could be a cool "rap name." Also, there's a Paris, Idaho....and for some reason I enjoy finding American cities that share a name with European cities.
i love the shape of idaho, like you could hold on to the skinny [northern] end and use the big bottom part to whack moles in that whack-a-mole game, which would be awesome because it would cover more space than that little mallet thing, so you could actually win at whack-a-mole. (i suck at whack-a-mole, in case ou couldn't tell.)
I love Idaho because my best friend went to school there.
I love Idaho because it houses New St. Andrews, a classical Christan college, which is unlike any other Christan college I can think of.
I love Idaho because I think it's interesting that it's one of only a handful of states that, to my knowledge, has no professional sprots team. I love professional sports, but I still think it's interesting.
I love Idaho for having a senator featured in a West Wing episode: Season Five, "Constituency of One." (Incidentally, I can tie absolutely any topic to an episode of West Wing. Try me.) In the episode, the Senator's office has a bowl of potatoes on the receptionist's desk. That is awesome.
I love Idaho because it has a town named Moscow, but it is not pronounced the way it is in Russia. I can't remember how it's pronounced, but it's not "Moss-Cow." But that's how it's spelled.
I love Idaho because there is a law that forbids a citizen to give another citizen a box of candy that weighs more than 50 pounds.
I love Idaho because Soda Springs boasts the largest man-made geyser in the world.
Ok, I'm done.
1.I love skiing in beautiful Sun Valley, Idaho.
2.Post Falls, Idaho is the home of the best knives: Buck Knives.
I have no love for Idaho at all - oh wait, that's the OPPOSITE of what I'm supposed to be saying! My bad. It's not the state's fault, I guess...it's just the location of incidents that have extremely negative connotations in my life right now. I'm in counseling, so don't worry. I'm not going to try and take it off the map or anything.
I do know some nice people in Meridian, as my company owns a hosptial there. So I guess it's not all bad.
Plus, the potatoes produced there give me the deep fried , saltied yumminess of french fries to clog my arteries and get me to heaven faster than all those healthy people. Not a bad trade-off.
Hmm, I've never been to Idaho. What I love about it, though, is its shape. I imagine that if I had a US puzzle for my kids yet, I would like to pick up Idaho by its tall, skinny, stick-up part and just carry it around. Or pretend it was a gun or a hairdryer. I also like about its shape that the top and sides have unique curves and ins and outs, and then the bottoms and the bottom of the sides are just completely straight, and almost right angles. Like the person who drew the state lines just got tired and thought, "Who's really going to notice anyway? May as well go on and knock out WY, CO, NV, UT, NM, ND, SD, NE, KS, and the tops of AR and OK while I'm at it."
(PS - I'm awful at geography. I totally had to google a US map.)
I love Idaho because there is not a shortage of generators, window a/c units and gasoline.
I also love Idaho because hurricanes do not go there which is better than here.
Grace & Peace, daphne
Oh, I also love Idaho because I'm terribly immature and I always laugh when people say, "No, U-da-hoe!"
lol.
and to further prove my point, here's an awesome idaho tshirt
http://www.vintagecotton.com/shirt/idaho_no_udaho/male
One word. Canyons.
Okay, maybe more than one word. Gemstones, potatoes (though if you tell someone from Idaho about potatoes, they will sneer that it is the gem state and that most of the potatoes they buy come from Washington), Idaho jokes (they're like Arkansas jokes).
Oh, and I have been to Idaho on more than one occasion. Does that count?
1. I love Idaho because it's another state that starts with an I, and I'm from Indy.
2. I love Idaho because they're the solution to world hunger: Rejoice, Stacy--the UN declared this THE YEAR OF THE POTATO! http://www.potato2008.org/en/index.html. Yes indeed, I have had potato parties celebrating this fact and am in the middle of making twice baked potatos as I type this--still on bake 1.
3. I know Moscow was already mentioned, but I love that my poor friend Mindy, who goes to school in Idaho, always gets her luggage mailed to Moscow, Russia accidentally. Cracks me up.
From a man who lives in the Bluegrass State, I heart Idaho, because they have a football field with blue astroturf.
Coeur d'Alene, ID is my hometown. It is where my heart is despite the fact that I moved to Western Washington 3 years ago. Idaho is so beautiful! There are lakes, mountains to climb, trails to hike, skiing, and camping. I love that Idahoans are friendly and laid back. There was virtually no traffic and taxes are minimal! Plus my parents live there and I would give almost anything to have my kids grow up living in the same town as their grandparents. It also turns out that Sarah Palin is from Sandpoint, ID and went to school in Moscow (pronounced Moss-ko). Go Idaho!
I love Idaho because it's split into two different time zones. (How does that even work? Is it wierd when you're a kid and you're playing at your friend's house, and you have to go home because it's your 8:00 bedtime at your house, but it's still only 7:00 at your friend's house?)
I love Idaho because the official state dance is the Square Dance. (Do-si-do, friends, do-si-do. Now, promendade your partner left!)
I also love that Idaho has a "State Raptor" (sadly, it's the Peregrine Falcon, not the Velociraptor), which is more than I can say for my homestate (PA), or the state I currently live in (VA).
I also love that Idaho's state horse (something else PA and VA don't have) is the Appaloosa, which is tremendous fun to say.
I heart Idaho because it's name works backwards as well...Ohadi. I kind of like that better, but since no one asked me when naming the state what I thought, they clearly chose the wrong direction for spelling the name.
I guess Ohadi does sound a little on the tropical side, like you might find it in Hawaii or some place like that, and I GUESS it wouldn't do to have a Hawaiian sounding name out in the northern midwest(?), but I digress.
Ohadi rocks.
I Love Idaho because it has the world's largest factory for barrel cheese, the raw product for processed cheese is located in Gooding, Idaho... Mmmmmm Processed Cheese.
And, perhaps my display pic of a Mr Potato Head Hockey Player for the past several years might bring back happy childhood memories as your choosing the winner...
Stacy loves Idaho because it's even more in the sticks than Kentucky. She likes it because she uses the lowest form of humor (sarcasm) to beat up on those unsuspecting, such as the state of Idaho. Why did you have to drag poor Idaho into your blog. No one is safe, not even Idaho. Watch your back spuds.
I heart Idaho because I never rememebered it in gradeschool (got it mixed up with Ohio) and it drove my nutty teachers crazy!! Moohoohaw!
I recall reading a book by Frank Peretti called Monster in which they went to Idaho and found gorilla/men monsters.Does that count?
Alas, that is the extent of my Idaho (not Imaho--yes, thank God!)) connections.
I love Idaho because it has not only potatoes, but sugar beets. And who doesn't love sugar beets.
I love Idaho because it is home to the Idaho Spud Bar, which is quite possibly the greatest candy on God's green earth. Oh yes it is.
https://www.idahospud.com/products.htm
I love Idaho because when I was real little and I had a United States puzzle, it was my favorite shape, and I always knew where it went first.
I love Idaho because my favorite Professor from my freshman year [and possibly my favorite, period; certainly the only one I still keep in touch with] now lives in Idaho.
I love Idaho because it's name is a wonderful playground for inappropriate jokes.
And, finally, I love Idaho because it's northern border juxtaposes my favorite Canadian Province of British Columbia. Wahoo!
Idaho has a junior senator named Senator Crapo.
And on Teamstrand's lovely note, this ends the official Stacy From Louisville Love On Idaho Contest.
You all helped make history while feeding my ego.
Oh, how I heart you all!
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