I be Studpid

I know I promised a story from the files of The Life of Howard, but an old high school friend sent me this little piece about Ft. Wayne, Indiana being the dumbest city in America. Here's the full report.

Why do I care? Because I grew up in Ft. Wayne, stupid. OK, so I now live in the Cincinnati area. Really, Kentucky. Ok, here. That's downtown Cincinnati due 500 yards due west across the river so I say I live in Cincinnati.

So I moved from a city that was 101st to a city that is 27th. Coincidence? Not really. After reading the article, some things rang true.

For instance, this piece:

"I always thought we were the fattest, not the dumbest," says Angela Jurczak, 26, a junior at IPFW (Indiana University-Purdue University at Fort Wayne).

The elementary education major says it's hard to believe her hometown came in dead last in the smarts department. "I would have guessed we're at least a C. Not an F. That's kind of sad."

I don't care what this chick said. She a 26-year old junior....majoring in elementary education! Whenever I speak with people in Ft. Wayne they are always working on some degree. 4-year degrees are never completed and 2-year degrees take 5 years. Everyone is working on their degree...they are just taking this semester off...and that semester off.....Look people, you got out of high school at 18. You could have picked up a couple of credits there. If you're 26 and still getting a degree - unless its' your grad degree-, what have you been doing? I have a feeling Angela can't tell me.

Here's another:

Dan O'Connell of the Fort Wayne/Allen County Convention and Visitors Bureau concedes that Fort Wayne is "sort of a vanilla city" but says he was "floored" by the study. He cites the museums and universities that call Fort Wayne home. "We're spending $40-million-plus ($64 million, actually) on a new library. That says something about our citizens. We're building a library, not a stadium."

The Visitor's Bureau guy doesn't know how much the new library costs? He's off by over 1/3? By the way, the old library was - I'm sure - fine. I remember it. But I do think Ft. Wayne has what I call a very 70's attitude. Everything old sucks. Tear it down and build new. Yes, they are building (re-building) a library and not a staduim, but that has more to do with there not being a sports team in town. Except for this...and this place where I think the Komets still play. Oh, wait, they did already build stadiums.

I don't want to pick on my hometown, it's so un-Springsteenlike. But I looked up the address of a few high school friends who I recently got in touch with last year and, well..

Hetal..Surgeon in Atlanta #49
Federico...works for Citibank in Manhattan #32
IV...works for a think tank in Chicago #11
Mike...professor in Denver #3
Amy R...musician in Nashville #15
Amy P...publishing design, e-bay entrepreneur in Seattle #5
Christine...does something I don't know what....in Chicago #11

and my best friend from high school Mike who just moved back to Ft. Wayne to be near his son. Now that's smart no matter what Men's Health says. Ft. Wayne was a good place to grow up and a good place to go visit family

Stay You.

Back to Main Page