"Quincy: Life is Good." Discuss.
There are many ways in which life is good in Quincy. First, downtown Quincy has a variety of businesses, ranging from a tattoo parlor and pleather goods shop to an authentic German bakery and the town's only sushi restaurant (owned and operated, naturally, by Chinese immigrants). Second, Quincy has a history remarkable for hosting a Lincoln-Douglas debate, maintaining a deep channel for Mississippi River trade, being a documented stop for folks utilizing the Underground Railroad, and winning the Illinois Dept of Transportation Aeronautics Division "Best Heliport" award (Blessing Hospital Heliport) in 2000. Finally, Quincy has many family-friendly events scheduled in the summertime, such as a hot air balloon rally, music festivals, town barbecues, and Quincy Gems baseball games, where the team mascot - the Gem Bird - happily stands for photos with adoring fans.
But life can also be not so good in Quincy. First, if one does not own a car in Quincy, getting one's basic needs covered can be very difficult. For example, the only places to get food within immediate walking distance of my neighborhood are the hospital cafeteria and a Dairy Queen. And sometimes the Dairy Queen's soft serve machine breaks down. Second, while Quincy itself is on a bluff, the immediate surroundings are prone to flooding, as was seen in 1993 and earlier this summer, when waters reached the 500-year flood stage. Third, no one seems to know why Quincy is called the "Gem City," and when asked if there's anything here in town that an out-of-towner should not miss, most people recommend going to a different town: Hannibal, MO (Mark Twain's hometown). Finally, when an adoring fan stands next to the Gem Bird to get her photo taken, she quickly realizes that the Gem Bird looks really bored and smells like wet dog.
Some parts of Quincy support the idea that "Life is Good," while other aspects suggest that life may not be so good. Determining whether or not life is good in Quincy depends upon how you define a good life. A car owner who values pleather goods, an award-winning heliport, and fun events for the entire family would probably say that life in Quincy is pretty good. On the other hand, a lactose-intolerant non-driving hydrophobe critical of Mark Twain's work may not enjoy living in Quincy.
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3 comments:
For fun you might try walking through the 'drive through' at the DQ. We did that in high school a few times. Seemed hilarious at the time.
Thea, you crack me up. I miss you. When are you coming to Seattle? Also, when are you going back to Chicago?
The main source of inspiration for this posting is a billboard located along the highway near Springfield, IL, about an hour and a half's drive from Quincy. The sign proudly proclaims: "Quincy: Life is Good."
The secondary source of inspiration for this posting is the MCAT writing sample. For those of you who have never taken the MCAT, I pity you - not only because you have been deprived of a first-hand appreciation of some of the strangest social behaviors one could ever see; but mostly because you have not had the pleasure of doing the MCAT writing sample.
The MCAT writing sample is the second most fun timed essay I have ever written. The top spot is held by an essay I once had to write in 30 minutes about the contents of my fridge (this was in order to gain admission to junior high).
MCAT essay prompts are of the form: "Here is a statment. Discuss," and most commercial test prep courses will teach their students to use the following formula to write the essay. Step 1: Agree with the statement; use an example. Step 2: Disagree with the statment; use an example. Step 3: explain the difference between a scenario in which one might agree versus disagree. Finally, write legibly (this dates me; yes, the MCAT was taken with pencil and paper back in my day).
Within the formula, really anything goes. As long as your examples would pass primetime network TV censors, and as long as the arrangement of the rest of your words resembles common syntax, you can argue just about anything. I can't remember what my prompt was, but I'm fairly certain that I was able to use MLK Jr and the Apple iPod as my examples. Funtimes.
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