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Surrounded

A2 isn’t the only town that’s described by cutesy slogans like “surrounded by reality” and “the People’s Republic of…” This column from the Capital Times (about a one-week-old CafePress store; clearly it’s not just A2 columnists who have trouble coming up with material) attempts to pinpoint the origin of the phrases as applied to Madison. Yeah, but we bet Madison doesn’t have any trees. And its name isn’t two words that begin with the same letter, so any exponentiation references are out.

9 Responses to “Surrounded”


  1. As a Madison resident and former Ann Arborite, let me assure you that I frequently call my town M^2.

    posted by RDS on May 16th, 2005 at 1:37 pm

  2. There’s only one People’s Republic, and it’s in Berkeley.

    posted by David on May 16th, 2005 at 2:42 pm

  3. Doug Moe: “Buy My Originally Titled Book. . . Please”

    posted by Joe on May 16th, 2005 at 4:33 pm

  4. As if Madison is that liberal. Walk five minutes from the capitol and you’re in red state territory. I mean, the whole state of Wisconsin is filled with Michigan hicks, only the Wiconsin variety is fatter and eats cheese curds and drinks leinenkeugel. I should start selling shirts, “The fat, drunk, balding, disgusting, boring, cheese-flavored, whorish people’s republic of Madison.”

    Give me a break. My ex is from Madison, and I have a particular hatred for the town.

    posted by DrMandrake on May 16th, 2005 at 4:46 pm

  5. Take THAT, Paradox!

    posted by Dale on May 16th, 2005 at 6:21 pm

  6. The runaway winner in my Lexis search…

    It’s a sign of bad writing when one describes in detail the brainstorming process. That article was a waste of a bunch of Lexis searches.

    posted by Random Person on May 16th, 2005 at 7:24 pm

  7. Was your girlfriend fat and cheese-flavoured, Mandrake? Got any pictures of her naked?

    posted by Joe on May 16th, 2005 at 10:20 pm

  8. I do in fact. She actually wasn’t fat, and not cheese flavors because she was lactosed intolerant - ashame for a Wisconsin girl. And it wasn’t paradox.

    posted by DrMandrake on May 17th, 2005 at 2:07 pm

  9. Dr. Mandrake,

    Couple things. According to the Center for Disease Control, 62 percent of Michigan adults are overweight or obese compared to 58 percent of Wisconsin adults. Both states are clearly way too fat but Michigan is fatter.

    As far as the redness of areas around Madison, southwestern wisconsin is one of the only remaining rural areas of the country that consistantly votes Democratic. In 2004, Michigan and Wisconsin both went for Kerry and were both very close but if you look at the County-level Red/Blue map you’ll notice far more blue counties in Wisconsin than in Michigan. And, many of the blue areas of are rural. Wisconsin hicks are a bit more enlightened than Michigan hicks.

    I’m sorry your girlfriend dumped you.

    posted by General Ripper on May 26th, 2005 at 2:57 pm