There is no place like Nebraska

"There is no place like Nebraska" is the first line of the University of Nebraska's fight song, so it's a huge tag line in the state. And it applies in all sorts of ways.

I e-mailed a local indie bookseller in Lincoln to say hey, I'll be in town on October 17, promoting my book that's set in Central Nebraska. Would you like a guest? They wrote back and said nope, it's a home football game that day, nobody would come.

And they're right, of course.

It's been 17 years since I've had to check the Husker calendar to plan my Saturdays. People don't get married on game day Saturdays, either. Ten years ago, my brother had to rearrange the date of his wedding based on the football schedule. On any football Saturday, Memorial Stadium qualifies as the third-largest city in the state. A very red, very focused city.

It's a crazy place to grow up. And I like football, actually, absorbed it when I was there and never gave it up. And had I been thinking, I would have looked at the FB schedule before I queried the bookstore. But Morgan hates football with a passion--it's just another example of the provincial place she lives. And this particular exchange with the bookstore would sum it up for her. Where are people's priorities??