The Onion

The Onion is a very funny newspaper that spoofs the news--basically a print edition of the The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, except that the The Onion was around first, by more than a decade. (Also, being a little less mainstream, The Onion gets away with a lot of stuff that The Daily Show would never touch.) What you might not know is that The Onion got its start in the Midwest--at the University of Madison in Wisconsin--and that the Twin Cities are two of the few cities in which the print edition of The Onion is widely available for free. (The others are New York, Chicago, Madison, Milwaukee, San Francisco, and Boulder). So when we go out to a coffee or sandwich shop, there are often stacks of The Onion sitting by the entrance along with local independant newspapers and ad sheets. Which is very cool.

The Onion print edition's "A.V. Club" section, which reviews movies, music, video games, and books, also has a cool local food and entertainment reviews, but that doesn't seem to be in the online edition's A.V. Club section.

Anyway, in the July 7-13 print issue (July 6 online issue) there is a story that is very approriate for this blog (and of course very funny): 'Midwest' Discovered Between East and West Coasts.

Though the Midwest territory is still largely unexplored, early reports describe a region as backwards as it is vast. "Many of the basic aspects of a civilized culture appear to be entirely absent," said Gina Strauch, a Los Angeles-based anthropologist. "There is no theater to speak of, and their knowledge of posh restaurants is sketchy at best. Further, their agricentric lives seem to prevent them from pursuing high fashion to any degree, and, as a result, their mode of dress is largely restricted to sweatpants and sweatshirts, the women's being adorned with hearts and teddy bears and the men's with college-football insignias."

Check out the full article.