City Personalities

I just got back last night from a two day trip to Chicago. Well, I should say Elmhurst but it's all within the major metro area. Being in the business setting I didn't get much of a feel for the place so later on, after business hours, I decided to go out and get a bite and maybe a cup of coffee. Actually, the coffee was an afterthought until I ran across a Caribou Coffee (Yay Caribou! - Notation to my readers: If you have not had Caribou, find one and try it. It beats the pants off of Starbucks.) Anyway, I digress...

Image Courtesy of T Katch, U of British Columbia

Having been to a few big cities, I've noticed that every city has a very distinct personality. Lately I've been dealing a lot with Cincinnati, Indianapolis and most recently, Chicago. Upon interacting with the locals in Chicago is they are more aloof but not in a bad way. I was suprised to see that people in Chicago are very sure of themselves but without being mean or nasty. While Cincinnati is very nice it... well... the only way I can think to describe it is that it tries to hard. It's like when you were in high school and there was one kid who was very cool and self assured and there was another who was sort of a dork. He had the right act but it seemed real contrived. I would call this the difference between Chicago and Cincinnati. Lastly, you can lump Indianapolis in with Cincinnati but Indianapolis is just much more dumb. I've been calling Indianapolis "Cincinnati jr." as of late. Both cities have nearly their entire identity wrapped up in their sports teams and are full of truck driving, knuckle dragging yokels. Cincinnati just seems to be a little better educated.

There - that ought to get me a few death threats which will, of course, only reinforce what I just said.