The Intelligence Estimate

I feel like I am negotiating Chicago very well. So much so that I sometimes forget that I am in the third largest city in the United States. Occasionally things will happen that bring that back into stark focus.

Jen and I were out with some friends Wednesday night at a little local coffee place called Starbucks. It's a tiny mom and pop operation that looks like it's poised to take off like a rocket! We were laughing and carrying on and generally being polite coffee-sipping bohemians when in bursts a crowd of people and one of them exclaims, "Where's the midget?!" No one could even be bothered to look up from their coffee.

Now I come from a very small town. So small that everyone wants to see everything all the time because they never know when the next thing is going to happen. It's supply and demand. There is NO supply of excitement, some there is a HUGE demand. So if someone simply walks into a restaurant everyone turns around to see who it is and decide whether to talk to them or about them. If someone burst into the Co-op and screamed, "Where's the midget?!" there would be some reaction. Now, no one would say anything to the guy. They would just stare him down until he left. But his story would live on for YEARS! Or at least until some other earth-shattering event replaced it. The next time the high school basketball team went to state he'd be forgotten. But for the time being he'd be a legend.

So I feel like I owe it to the people of Grundy Center, Iowa to bring that excitement to them. For the sake of the community I will do just that. Because who knows when the next 6 foot 7 inch center with an outside shot will come to town?