We’re off on the road to Morocco…

[osprey_archer]

Watched Wall.E this afternoon. (It’s brilliant and wonderful and riveting and it has a quite touching love story, given that the main characters are robots.) Then went to Cairo.

No, not in Egypt, although that would be phenomenally cool. It turns out that there’s a town (read: a dozen houses that blackmailed the county commissioner into giving them a road sign) in Indiana named Cairo.

It’s pronounced Cay-ro, because that’s just the way we Hoosiers roll. We also have a Versailles pronounced Ver-sales, which was the state capital before the founding of Indianapolis.

Cairo boasts an old watchtower from the fifties. Once a roster of Cairenes took turns on the watchtower, searching the night sky for Soviet aircraft carrying nukes to Chicago. The watchtower still stands (although it’s tragically un-climbable), and it’s accompanied by a concrete statue of a heroic family staring off into the distance and a commemorative plaque that lacks both articles and coherency.

The road trip also encompassed the town of Fickle, which is a hundred yards from tip to tail, and the site of the first successful C-section performed in Indiana. It also had a plaque commemorating the event, although this one had correct grammar and complete sentences.

***

I decided I ought to hunt up an Indiana icon, because icon-hunting is a marvelous sport and, besides, it will be useful; I’ll probably be on a lot of mini-road trips this summer.

The problem is that Indiana is short on iconic images. It lacks famous architecture or natural wonders. We have some authors who used to be famous (the fellows who wrote Little Orfant Annie and Ben Hur, for instance) but aren’t really anymore. James Dean and Axl Rose are both Hoosiers, but the general public doesn’t associate them with the state.

I think this icon gets around the problem neatly. To me it very much is Indiana: sunshine, tall grass, unexpected wildflowers; the wonderful possibility of being absolutely in the middle of nowhere.

***

There ought to be a collective noun for icons. A museum of icons? A gallery of icons? A wardrobe of icons? Something more effervescent than a mere stash or collection.

Comments

[girl-called-sun.livejournal.com]

I want to visit Indiana now. I find other people's enthusiasm very contagious.

I don't think it counts as fame, but did you know Cairo is mentioned in Neil Gaiman's "American Gods", in the midst of a long road trip?

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Yay! I have spread my enthusiasm.

I will warn you, Indiana is not a very flashy place. You have to go into it with a benevolent eye and a fondness for gravel roads, because that's where all the good stuff is.

Are you sure Gaiman mentioned Cairo in Indiana? There's a very famous Cairo in southern Illinois, which was mentioned in Huck Finn and would seem like a more likely candidate. Taking nothing away from Cairo, Indiana, but it's about the size of a lily pad.

[girl-called-sun.livejournal.com]

*goes off and checks*
I am stunned by how many Cairo's there are in the USA, there were 9 on google maps anyway. I think the one in American Gods is in Illinois. I feel a little shame faced, but suitably illuminated.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Early Americans had gigantic naming inferiority complexes (or possibly just way too many places to name). We have stolen names dotting the countryside, jostling with one another in importance.

On a completely different topic, if you don't mind my asking: is there some food that parents always give their sick children in the UK? In the U.S. we use chicken soup, but I don't know if that's a standby on both sides of the Atlantic.

It's for a story; I'm not just asking out of random craziness.

[girl-called-sun.livejournal.com]

I don't think there is anything culturally specific for feeding to sick children in the UK...I was given tea and toast.

Actually, if tea can't fix you, there's probably no hope.

*thinks about nice cup of tea icons*

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

Tea icons are hard to find, especially compared to coffee icons which are EVERYWHERE. *shakes head* I do not understand this coffee obsession.

[visualthinker11.livejournal.com]

aargh i need to see this movie. sooo many people have been telling me this...

the wildflowers are gorgeous. if that's what indiana is like i think i want to go/live there. (i've never been)

if you create such a museum, or gallery, or wardrobe (er, insert narnia comment here) i would surely contribute. or be interested, or something.
(ooh, icons in little museum-frames! on wardrobe-hangers!)

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I'm becoming a one-woman Indiana tourism committee. O_O Kind of scary.

I have a mounting museum of icons stored in my computer, shuffling in and out of my userpics as needed. The unused ones are starting to cry piteously and beg for posts.

[visualthinker11.livejournal.com]

Probably good for Indiana, though.

I suppose you will have to post them then, huh? ; )

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I think I wasn't clear--the museum is made of icons I've garnered from other people, not icons I've made myself. I'm not sure my computer even has a graphics program (which is odd, given it came with video editing software).

The icons want to adorn long, discursive posts about something or other. Because they are demanding that way.

[visualthinker11.livejournal.com]

Um, no, I wasn't clear. By post I mean upload as icons. Your own icons.

If you want a graphics editing software, GIMP is downloadable and free and cool. Totally FYI.

What would they talk about though? ; )

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Oh, okay. The reason I don't upload them all is because I only have space for 15 icons, so they have to cycle in and out.

As to what the icons would talk about--that's the trouble, you see. It's easy to come up with an Inara post, for instance, but harder to match a post to an icon with, say, Venetian Carnivale masks.