Bloomington, Indiana

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My friend Korin lives in Indiana. She said that people there are always talking about going to "track-meets" and "cook-outs" and going to the "mall" and using "shopping carts".

A boy with eighty pairs of shoes asked her out, but he had some doubts about the relationship "on account of her drinking".

There is a restaurant called "The Cracker Barrel". There is another restaurant called "Steak 'n' Shake"

Last weekend when I was talking to Korin on the phone, I heard an American in the background say "...yeah, we're just going to play some ball", it sounded like TV!

I also heard some American birds chirping, they were about ten times louder than New Zealand birds.

― rainy, Wednesday, 12 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

in Preston, Lancs there is a restaurant called "curry in a hurry". i like the sound of this restaurant.

― katie, Wednesday, 12 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

when i first visited america i bought and ate a hershey bar and a processed muffin with great anticipation => they were both horrible and i learned a valuable lesson

― mark s, Wednesday, 12 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Overwhelmingly foul nature of Hershey Bar = most damning evidence that (US = Great Satan)

― RickyT, Wednesday, 12 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

hm well yes, or at least that americangs are a leeetle crazy!

― katie, Wednesday, 12 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

YES when I went to America I was the most Americang out of anyone in the world ... evvah because I got in a YELLOW NYC CAB and ate a TWINKIE! Twinkies aren't very nice. My friend Christiaan (gosh I have not heard from him in ages, he is probably being happy and busy somewhere whereas I am just rub) sent me lots of Kool-Aid once! I was very impressed!

― Sarah, Wednesday, 12 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Not that I tried it, the packaging was too good.

― Sarah, Wednesday, 12 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Bloomington has far better music options than a town its size (50,000) deserves. Thank-you, Indiana University! There are some fine music stores (TD's CDs and LPs r0x0r2). Many small record labels are located here, including Secretly Canadian. Tours that usually ignore small towns often pass through Bloomington. Bloomington is easily the best music town in Indiana, the only better option for a Hoosier is a drive to Chicago.

And if you get hungry, you can go to Steak 'n' Shake.

― Fred Koser, Wednesday, 12 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

wow the best writer around, such a nice change from obscure in -joke threads that go over my head. The mundane becomes the magnificant, please write more,... anything. More vacuum cleaning or phone calls, whatever, as Phil Collins might say "let it rain down me".

― kiwi, Wednesday, 12 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

the birds rainy heard loudly chirping were spissant grackles

― mark s, Wednesday, 12 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I've been to Bloomington, IN FACT I rode my bike there from Muskegon, MI. It took a week. But it was fun. The Midwest is as American as it gets.

It's kind of early here and I've only had accidentally frozen champagne slushees for breakfast so please excuse...*hic*.

― Pyth, Wednesday, 12 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I think you'll find the kinsey museum is there as well = lots of sexy sexcrazed academic mentalists

― Queen G of the lamenting anal labias, Wednesday, 12 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

haha ok challenge: find a single foodstuff in the us as awful as marmite/ vegemite

― geeta, Wednesday, 12 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Easy: Hershey Bars!

― RickyT, Wednesday, 12 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

the "real" fans aren't eating it rickyt

― geeta, Wednesday, 12 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Geeta == indieist

― RickyT, Wednesday, 12 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

(I have an excellent proof of this but it is too long to write here)

― RickyT, Wednesday, 12 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

head and/or string cheese

marmite promotes itself by bigging up its hardcore hataz

― mark s, Wednesday, 12 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

marmite mixed w/ nutella = crisis of authenticity

― geeta, Wednesday, 12 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

haha ok challenge: find a single foodstuff in the us as awful as marmite/ vegemite

Scrapple. *shudder* It's not that it's made from pig organs or "variety meats" or whatever the latest euphemism is, it's that it tastes like the worst aspects of liver to the nth degree.

― j.lu, Wednesday, 12 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

beef jerky at least 80000x worse than marmite (and I really hate marmite)

― RickyT, Wednesday, 12 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

j. lu yr supposed to be on my side - i am the crusader for justice here

mark, string cheese is glorious as long as it is manufactured american pop cheese and not that dreary brit-indie stilton

― captain america, Wednesday, 12 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

uh-oh geeta, you've really done it now! re. cheese you will have a FITE!!! with RickyT and re. Marmite you will have a FITE!!! with ME!! FITE!!

― katie, Wednesday, 12 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Bbbbut all cheese in manufactured! And string cheese is equiv to Dido (not eg Mis-teeq) as both are bland and preferred by people with poor judgement.

― RickyT, Wednesday, 12 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

haha FITE oh no FITE cheese FITE bring it on however the ODDS ARE STACKED because no americans are awake besides me i think!! and i have to leave ILE soon to go do work because here it is morning!! and j.lu has embraced the other side (nme.com address=secret brit sympathizer! i SHOULD HAVE KNOWN!!!)

also i don't believe in "GMT" - from now on it will be called "EST + 5"

― geeta, Wednesday, 12 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

san fran dick cheese is pretty bad

― Queen G of the lamenting anal labias, Wednesday, 12 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

actually i don't mind of other people hate Marmite cos then it means there's more for me numnumnumnum! :):)

― katie, Wednesday, 12 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Don't worry . Soon enough your countries will be american colonies. We already are taking over your fast food businesses and entertainment. Soon you will use dollars instead of New Zealand "clams"

― mike hanle y, Wednesday, 12 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

But the exchange rate for clams is wonderful!

Now I worry that when I visit Dunedin I'll sound like TV. ;-)

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 12 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Among the things I had to do on my first visit to America was trying Twinkies. They appear to be made of bathroom materials: sponge (not as in cake, oh no) and shaving foam. Utterly foul.

My first base was in Brooklyn. Only comic fans will get this: I kept thinking that it looked like a Will Eisner comic.

― Martin Skidmore, Wednesday, 12 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

The entire appeal of eating a Twinkie lies in its complete and total artifice. It's yummy because it's deeply processed and tastes like chemicals. Yes, I am insane.

― Dan Perry, Wednesday, 12 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I like all of the food mentioned in this thread (except for vegemite and SF dickcheese, neither of which I've tried.) The one time I was in Indiana I felt like I was on another planet; if that's America that's the only time I've ever been to America.

― Kris, Wednesday, 12 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Indiana is my ancestral home. I don't know if that says anything about me--I like Indiana, especially Bloomington. People are nice and relaxed, there is much carbohydrate-intense food, and HELLO John Mellencamp. Oh, and there's no tidal waves. I'm deathly afraid of tidal waves.

― adam, Wednesday, 12 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Steak 'n Shake frickin' rules. The Cracker Barrel... not so much.

― bnw, Wednesday, 12 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

oh, this thread is great!

Ned, when you get here, it's possible that I will actually mistake you for a TV! So please be sure that you don't wear any antennae or glass plating, or I might sit crosslegged in front of you and stare at you for five hours every night.

Actually I might do that anyway, if that's okay.

― rainy, Wednesday, 12 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

England is not the place to sit and judge other's cuisine. "Yorkie" bars are ass mess.

― mike hanle y, Wednesday, 12 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

btw, what is all this hatred of Hershey bars? Hershey's Kisses are lovely, and so are Hershey's cookies and cream chocolate bars... they're like, all creamy and chocolately and nice, aren't they?

― rainy, Thursday, 13 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Actually I might do that anyway, if that's okay.

*blush* Whatever works best!

― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 13 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Hersheys kisses are GRATE, Hershey's chocolate syrup is GRATE, it's the plain milk chocolate bars that no one eats because they are all powdery and awful. People who really dig chocolate here buy imported stuff, which is readily available in American stores (I might add that the Brits do as well, as better chocolate is made in mainland Europe than in Britain. If you had the choice between the godlike miracle of German precision engineering that is Milka and that dreadful 'Cadburys' crap that the Brits have the nerve to pass off as chocolate the way we Americans do with Hersheys, which would you pick?)

― geeta, Thursday, 13 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I love Hershey bars! No-one eats them my ass!

― Kris, Thursday, 13 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Correction: no one except Kris eats them

― geeta, Thursday, 13 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Marmite is horrible, as is Bovril, as is Horlicks. Ribena is nice, Yorkie's are okay. Mr Kipling makes exceedingly good cakes. But, then I've not eaten a Twinkie or a Hershey, I drank Gatorade once, and drank some Jolt Cola. Actually, I kept the Jolt Cola bottle, but it went all mouldy because I never washed it out, so I had to throw it away. The birds aren't singing this morning, but I wouldn't be able to hear them anyway as I am listening to Christmas songs.

― jel --, Thursday, 13 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

"better chocolate is made in mainland Europe than in Britain" = !!!!!!!!!!!!!! (unless you mean like specialist expensive bows-and- ribbons-in-a-shiny-box chocolate) => ordinary chocolate bars in the UK contain NO CHALKDUST AT ALL!!

exception: ferrero rocher = posh french chocolate as eaten by the upper classes of all lands

― mark s, Thursday, 13 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

bovril is best on gingerbread w.saltless butter (= MY RECIPE AGED 8); marmite is good w.nutella; horlicks you shd use five tspns-fl to every one they suggest, so the malt goes into little sweet yellow blobules

― mark s, Thursday, 13 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

mark s: I must admit being distrustful of yr opinion on chocolate ever since your revelation that you think polluting innocent nutella with loathsome marmite is a good thing - your idea of the best chocolate bar probably = one that already has marmite and bovril mixed in!!!

ph34r the britz0r and their marmichocobovril concoctions!!!

― geeta, Thursday, 13 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

a single bar of twix inserted into a gherkin = num num also

― mark s, Thursday, 13 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

mark: either you are pregnant or you have just invented true culture-jamming

― geeta, Thursday, 13 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

MArk: Are you preggers?

― Dan Perry, Thursday, 13 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

anchovies and lemon sherbets in porkpie jelly!

― mark s, Thursday, 13 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Lets face it, the Swiss skewer us all at Chocolateiring anyways. I toured the Hersheys' factory in Hershey Pennsylvania. It is macabe and as good as CHarlie's Chocolate facotry. There are animatrons

― mike hanle y, Thursday, 13 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Skipping 32 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

God I love the dime.

― g.cannon (gcannon), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 15:11 (twenty-two years ago)

I actually lived in Bloomington for four years while my Mom got her doctorate. It was 5th-8th grade. I didn't make many friends but spent hours perusing the great local library and the many record stores downtown. I even wrote an article for the Ryder, a free arts-magazine, about MST3K (13 year old's shouldn't be allowed to do that...they'll undoubtedly hate the work later). It's a great town, and it seems like its only gotten cooler and indied-up since I left.

I heard it called the liberal oasis in the conservative desert that is Indiana, and they're right (the sea of crackers line is a little harsher, but still true). I look forward to visiting it again some year.

My favorite restaurants there were The Trojan Horse (a greek restaurant, but I always got hamburgers there), Western Sizzlin' and Mustard's, which was a hamburger restaurant with a giant toppings bar!

The local Morgenstern bookstore was destroyed when Borders moved literally next door. It sucked, but I'll admit Borders had a beter selection.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 23:52 (twenty-two years ago)

three years pass...

what is the area to the south of bloomington like. around beford or seymour.

late summer, passing through indiana. we could forget our cares in southern indiana

― Storefront Church (688), Wednesday, 10 January 2007 13:29 (eighteen years ago)

I think you'll like it, maybe it's because I'm familiar with it but it seems quite different than the rest of the rural midwest. Late summer would be fantastic, it'll be lush and green and you can have some great corn. Take a swim in the old quarry. Have breakfast with the farmers at the diner.

― teeny (teeny), Wednesday, 10 January 2007 14:32 (eighteen years ago)

thats pretty much exactly what i was thinking! green and lazy, just on the turn

― Storefront Church (688), Wednesday, 10 January 2007 14:36 (eighteen years ago)

http://www.flickr.com/people/cindy47452/

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Wednesday, 10 January 2007 15:37 (eighteen years ago)

Bloomington and southern indiana: excellent spelunking.

― mikef (mfleming), Wednesday, 10 January 2007 15:41 (eighteen years ago)

five months pass...

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TRAVEL/DESTINATIONS/06/18/west.baden.springs.ap/index.html

― gabbneb, Monday, 18 June 2007 21:33 (eighteen years ago)

Seriously, people, hands up if you think the dime should have the number "10" somewhere on it. It's fucking ridiculous.

― nabisco, Monday, 18 June 2007 21:43 (eighteen years ago)

what about quarters and nickels, don't leave them out

― Mr. Que, Monday, 18 June 2007 21:50 (eighteen years ago)

Nickels say Five Cents on the back at least. Quarters say Quarter Dollar and no 25 in sight (I only have one of those new Georgia peach quarters though, ymmv)

― Jaq, Monday, 18 June 2007 22:34 (eighteen years ago)

Thomas Jefferson has been credited with proposing the names for the coins of the new nation. Among them was disme, based on the French word for "tenth," dixième. He suggested that disme be pronounced as if it were spelled deem. But the s was dropped by Congress, and the adopted spelling dime suggested pronunciation in keeping with time and rime.

― teeny, Monday, 18 June 2007 23:21 (eighteen years ago)

I thought it was weird that this thread existed at all, but the content has totally out-weirded the thread's existence.

Lived in Bloomington for 5.5 consecutive years, moved to Chicago 4 months ago, haven't looked back wistfully once.

The West Baden Hotel is pretty HOTT, but it ain't quite Bloomington. Sorry.

― Deric W. Haircare, Tuesday, 19 June 2007 02:57 (eighteen years ago)

i could go for some fucking cracker barrel right now

― Jimmy The Mod Awaits The Return Of His Beloved, Tuesday, 19 June 2007 03:04 (eighteen years ago)

I don't think there's even a Cracker Barrel in Bloomington. I don't know where that came from.

― Deric W. Haircare, Tuesday, 19 June 2007 03:29 (eighteen years ago)

Why did this thread even happen at all?

― Deric W. Haircare, Tuesday, 19 June 2007 03:29 (eighteen years ago)

I've got family that lives in Bloomington. IU's a good place.

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Tuesday, 19 June 2007 03:38 (eighteen years ago)

Why did this thread even happen at all?

Because Rainy was talking about her friend Korin.

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 19 June 2007 03:39 (eighteen years ago)

three years pass...

Did you know that we have two threads called "Bloomington, Indiana"?

― Tolaca Luke (admrl), Monday, 9 August 2010 18:56 (fifteen years ago)

Just to reiterate the above - I know this state has a bad rep but Southern Indiana at the end of July was totally beautiful

― Tolaca Luke (admrl), Monday, 9 August 2010 18:57 (fifteen years ago)

went camping once in Bloomington in early August - it was very beautiful, but it rained.

― sarahel, Monday, 9 August 2010 19:00 (fifteen years ago)

got hassled by the cops for sleeping in my car in the library parking lot in bloomington. moved car, resumed sleeping on university lawn.

― not everything is a campfire (ian), Monday, 9 August 2010 19:04 (fifteen years ago)

IU?

― Tolaca Luke (admrl), Monday, 9 August 2010 19:05 (fifteen years ago)

ex-bf gave me brief tour of university buildings and a lecture on the superiority of Indiana limestone

― sarahel, Monday, 9 August 2010 19:06 (fifteen years ago)

Sounds like a catch!

― Tolaca Luke (admrl), Monday, 9 August 2010 19:06 (fifteen years ago)

TBF, it is fucking good limestone. You could fry an egg on it

― Tolaca Luke (admrl), Monday, 9 August 2010 19:06 (fifteen years ago)

we then went and saw a play that a friend of his from high school directed - it was pretty dull until the guy in the lobster costume showed up near the very end.

― sarahel, Monday, 9 August 2010 19:08 (fifteen years ago)

locusta ex machina

― Mr. Que, Monday, 9 August 2010 19:13 (fifteen years ago)

Bloomington IS "Breaking Away," even all these years later. Great film worth renting.

I was ther a lot in the '80s and '90s, loves Roscoe's Discount Den, The Daily Grind, Spaceport arcade; later the Bluebird, and of course BW3s. . . . great college town.

― thirdalternative, Tuesday, 10 August 2010 15:45 (fifteen years ago)

Wow, I don't know any of those place but I would love to know them.

― Tolaca Luke (admrl), Tuesday, 10 August 2010 15:48 (fifteen years ago)

I will seek Breaking Away. It appears to be a bike race movie

― Tolaca Luke (admrl), Tuesday, 10 August 2010 15:48 (fifteen years ago)

Yeah, it centers on the "Little 500," which still happens every year, and tensions between the kids of the town and the frat boys at I.U. Great early performances by Dennis Quait, Jakcie Earle Haley, Daniel Stern . . . and Paul Dooley as the Dad is classique. I think it's a very influentual movie too, it kind of set a template that held for 20 or more years.

― thirdalternative, Tuesday, 10 August 2010 15:54 (fifteen years ago)

Quaid

― thirdalternative, Tuesday, 10 August 2010 15:54 (fifteen years ago)

beef jerky at least 80000x worse than marmite (and I really hate marmite)
― RickyT, Tuesday, June 11, 2002 7:00 PM (8 years ago) Bookmark

Can't believe no one contradicted this. Maybe not everyone LOVES beef jerky, but it seems impossible that anyone would hate it 8000 times worse than another food that they "really" hate. Or even that anyone would hate it at all.

― next person tries to teach me about JOY IN LIFE gets a tubgirl in return (Jesse), Tuesday, 10 August 2010 16:05 (fifteen years ago)

one month passes...

So I'm back in Indy next week it seems. I should get the key to the city or something, way I'm going.

Actually I am thinking about maybe buying property out there in a couple of years...

― Tweeker Bongdanovich (admrl), Thursday, 7 October 2010 03:39 (fifteen years ago)

two months pass...

Going back today!

― a verbatim quote from AdamRL! (admrl), Tuesday, 21 December 2010 20:25 (fourteen years ago)

goddamnit i wish i could find a job in bloomington.

― Lazarus Niles-Burnham (res), Tuesday, 21 December 2010 20:34 (fourteen years ago)

really?

― a verbatim quote from AdamRL! (admrl), Tuesday, 21 December 2010 20:36 (fourteen years ago)

yes. it is an awesome place.

― Lazarus Niles-Burnham (res), Wednesday, 22 December 2010 01:22 (fourteen years ago)

two months pass...

really?

― puff pastry hangman (admrl), Friday, 18 March 2011 03:16 (fourteen years ago)

Bloomington and southern indiana: excellent spelunking.

― mikef (mfleming), Wednesday, January 10, 2007 7:41 AM (4 years ago) Bookmark

yes

― sleeve, Friday, 18 March 2011 03:19 (fourteen years ago)

really ?

― puff pastry hangman (admrl), Friday, 18 March 2011 03:24 (fourteen years ago)

Never been there (never been within a single state of IN) and never will, but Bloomington will have a permanent place in my heart for giving MX-80 Sound to the world.

― Myonga Vön Bontee, Friday, 18 March 2011 06:24 (fourteen years ago)

in this thread, convince me to move to bloomington

― not everything is a campfire (ian), Friday, 25 March 2011 00:23 (fourteen years ago)

cheap houses to rent/own

very nice deciduous national forest just to the south

no interstate or train line or real airport can be kinda nice

only 2 hours to Louisville, only 4 to Chicago

cool local labels, record stores, radio, and music history. can't vouch for current bands.

good farmer's market

cheap w33d

mindboggling purple lightning thunderstorm skies

very distinct and intense seasons (not necessarily a plus but can be amazing)

huge international college means more variety in population, grocery, and dining options than yer average midwest town of similar size

― sleeve, Friday, 25 March 2011 00:29 (fourteen years ago)

i mean i've lived in Oregon for a long time but this is really the only other place I think I would consider settling down in. or Louisville which has similar things going on.

― sleeve, Friday, 25 March 2011 00:31 (fourteen years ago)

fireflies everywhere on summer nights
not too far from Paoli Peaks, for southern IN skiing action

― Jaq, Friday, 25 March 2011 00:51 (fourteen years ago)

okay guys, thanks. i'm actually considering this. new york is getting to me lately. too crowded too fast..

― not everything is a campfire (ian), Friday, 25 March 2011 01:55 (fourteen years ago)

too expen$ive

― not everything is a campfire (ian), Friday, 25 March 2011 01:55 (fourteen years ago)

i spent two days in bloomington in 2004 and really liked it, fwiw. i didn't get much beyond the downtown/college area but it was nice enough.

― not everything is a campfire (ian), Friday, 25 March 2011 01:56 (fourteen years ago)

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