No, I think it's just Los Angeles!

That puppy butt is almost as cute as Bob's toes !

I saw some war protesters in Raleigh a couple of years ago at a festival downtown but that was a first for me. I don't think you have too much of that in Charleston :)

Jennifer in SC

On my way home yesterday there were people on the highway overpass waving signs about the "9/11 conspiracy."

I live in Vancouver, Canada. It's not a daily occurrence, but it happens. I think the biggies here are the anti-abortion protesters and the dads who dress up as superheroes to protest unfairness in custody decisions etc.

Maybe it's a left-coast thing?

Oh, the irresistability of a Corgi! I work in DC just across Lafayette Park from the White House, so we see A LOT of stuff. It makes the work day more interesting!

In Memphis, it is not common to see protesters, unless you count people on strike. It IS very common to see a car on fire by the side of the road on one's way to work. There's never anyone around. I think this is the abandoned-car-on-fire world capital. Which is not saying much, I know.

I live in Santa Cruz. I think we're the capitol city of protesting. Some days it's hard to get home from work. But mostly I'm glad to live in a city where you can think how you want.

Having been born and raised in and near Des Moines - still live here - I can tell you that this is NOT a daily or even monthly occurrence here. Nor have I seen it in Kansas City the many times I've been there. I've only been to Charleston once, but I highly doubt it's standard behavior there, either. Boise...no idea.

If anybody tries to drape signs or bedsheets or anything on the overpasses (yes, we do have a freeway!), they are usually removed fairly promptly. And the only ones I've seen were birthday or graduation greetings with an occasional 'I Love So-and-So'. No protests at all.

I think it's safe to say that very little of what happens on a daily basis in LA is the norm in most of the rest of the U.S. :-)

Meow-rovia perhaps?

Nope. I can't remember seeing a lot of bedsheets hanging off overpasses here in Kansas City. Lots of signs advertising Bar-B-Q, though.

Well, since you specifically mentioned Kansas City, I had to respond. We have huge urban sprawl here, so it is sometimes harder to know if there is a protest going on. However, every Tuesday evening since the U.S. invaded Iraq, there has been a group holding sings, waving banners and dressing up like Uncle Sam at the corner of 63rd Street and Ward Parkway. During the Bush years, it was very pointed towards W. and now if focuses more heavily on war issues. Sometimes it is only 3 or 4 people, but at other times it can be up to 50. That they have kept it up for 9+ years amazes me. The J.C. Nichols Fountain on the Country Club Plaza is the favorite wedding photo/protest spot in the city. Most weekends, if you drive my there you will see a number of wedding parties snapping very posed pictures while some group is protesting or supporting something. That has been going on at that location since the 60s (Well, maybe longer, but I am not THAT old)

I love me some Soba!

Your puppy-brother is adorable! But I'm still lovin' the Tortie. =]

Love the flying frog feet on the bunny butt! He is so handsome. And of course, the Soba is very beautiful. She forgot to add No Dogs! to her manifesto.

I lived in Kansas City for years growing up, and didn't see a whole lot of protesting... however I also lived in the LA area, and didn't see a whole lot of protesting there either. Maybe I was in the wrong area. Currently I live in Lawrence, KS, which is 50 or so miles west of Kansas City and a liberal college town. There are lots of protests here.

I think it's so cool when dogs do that thing with their back legs all splayed out like that. As for protesting, I live in Bellingham, WA which is the macrame and pothead capitol of the state and most of the population seems to be out in front of our one Federal building - the otherwise quiet post office downtown - on any given lunch hour, protesting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Hey! Hi! You're back!

Here in repressed New England we don't picket or yell or honk, we just quietly seethe. (Well, all right, when driving in Boston some of us honk. And yell. And gesture. Not always politely.)

Kate Braverman - all her books are about people trying to escape from L.A. She's a good writer.

You mentioned Des Moines and Kansas City. I'm in Omaha (2-3 hours from both those cities)and can tell you the traffic is horrendous. I can say this as I have also lived in Southern California AND Chicago. The metro area has grown much faster than the DOT's anticipated. Now there are too many vehicles and not enough lanes. And if that isn't bad enough, we are near Fremont, Nebraska, where they are on the Arizona immigration bandwagon. Scary!

Glad to have you back...6 days! I was getting worried.

Here in Appalachia, if there's a bedsheet hangin', it's just tryin' to get dry before the dog gets to it!

BTW, I loved the pics of Bob's feet too! Super cutie-toes!

Me again. Went back to look at the aforementioned puppy butt and HEY! Where is that dog's tail?

I totally want to steal your parents' dog.... :-)

I love me some Soba!

Great DoggiePics :) My kitties hope that there is a place for them in Mistress Soba's regime.

We have regulars on a college campus. You know what day it is by who is yelling through a bull horn at the main gates. Monday = Honk to End the War Day, Tuesday = gospel preacher (wearing an Aussie hat) day, Wednesday = ROTC day (military branches rotate, but I like the Marines best, they are very polite), Thursday = Global Warming is Destroying the World Day...etc.

I live in St. Louis now and I see it more often than I ever did in Charleston. Although, I didn't take a highway that had overpasses when I was in Charleston.... Here, there are protesters probably monthly on one of the overpasses close to Washington University.

You have a Boise contingent here ... Funny thing is that today, the Mr. and I were walking home from getting a coffee downtown and laughing about the "protests" that take place on a somewhat regular basis on our beautiful capitol steps. The local news ALWAYS makes it look like a huge turnout, because they zoom in on the crowd. But when you see it in person, it's usually only about 20-40 people ranting and raving about some ridiculous (to me) issue. Plus there are the permanent protesters outside the LDS church. But no overpass banners, and definitely no honking.

Here in the foothills of SC we rarely if ever see protesters...our Southern manners keep us in the same boat as the New England comment above: we quietly simmer and seethe. We are (most of us) staunchly defending Arizona's right to block illegal immigrants from doing things that are harmful to Arizona's citizens: trashing the state on the path in, committing crimes while here, and protesting on the way out. Most of our protesting is sporadic, tied to crisis issues. Not an every day occurence. Love your kitty pictures!

I live in Fort Worth, TX, and as long as you don't mess with our Tex-Mex cuisine, BBQ or sports teams (college & professional), we're pretty much okay with what's going on out there in the rest of the world.

We had a whistler downtown once along time ago. He stood on a little stool in front of the newspaper building, arms stretched toward heaven, and whistled hymns. He always chose to stand in front of one of our ad sales manager's windows, which made me go, "Hmm, does he know Richard?"

There used to be a group who did the spray-painted-bedsheet-hanging-from-a-freeway-overpass every Friday morning in Minneapolis about a mile south of downtown. It was kinda fun to see what they were up to each week.

I live in Cambridge Massachusetts, when we are not protesting something it means that we are all out of town (LA?). I sort of like it that so many people have an issue or two.

We also are in the midst of visitors from out of town. I always am happy to see them and give directions.

Liza the blogless

Well, with all due respect to the other Des Moines poster, apparently she isn't going to the right areas of Des Moines. We don't usually do the bedsheet on the overpass thing but we have a few different places where there are often protesters milling around. Usually people standing on one of the university campuses and a small but devoted group who protest puppy mills outside one of the pet stores. Then there is Iowa City where the university kids there are just as likely to hold a sit-in as to go to class!

Sobaopolis... that would be a great city for Soba to found.

Love your puppy brother's behind!

And we get protesters in San Francisco too... I went to a school near the Civic Center... talk about protests.

Here in Northern Indiana we do not protest like that. We quietly whine and mumble in our own homes and then smile fakely outside... Will Soba allow other cats in her queendom? (Horrors, I can't remember, maybe Soba is male...) Moo is interested, but only if there are open doors with sunshine coming in and squirrels to watch, and cushiony places to nap.

The non-stop picketing/protesting was the thing that irritated me THE MOST when I lived in California. Honestly, I became numb to every single one of the issues except for the huge inconvenience when they blocked traffic or made me cross a picket line to go to the grocery store/dry cleaner/photo developers/etc. I wanted a bumper sticker that said "I hate whales".

I don't miss that, and no, it doesn't seem to happen anywhere else.

Well, come to NY and watch us ignore everybody.

Nope, that is not the 'norm' for Kansas City. lol

And our cats love Greenies too! In fact, it is the only cat treat that they like. They have learned to stand on their back legs before they get their Greenie.

In Charlotte the latest is that an athiest group bought a billboard on the Billy Graham Parkway and put up "One Nation, Indivisible" on it. This being North Carolina, and the Billy Graham Parkway no less, someone spray painted "Under God" on it. Not exactly the kind of vandalism you see every day.

If my memory serves, San Francisco is even worse with the picketing, traffic and smog than Los Angeles. I've found that ignoring everyone makes me feel like killing them a little bit less.

Ah, California. I'd be bored stiff living anyplace else (except Las Vegas - they're catching up).

Bedsheets on the overpasses is so not Boise. Groups mostly picket on the front steps of the Capitol building. Since LA is only the unofficial capitol of CA, you get overpasses. Our legislature is only in session Jan-March, so the protests this year have pretty much ended unless there's a new threat to the 2nd ammendment.

Miss Soba always looks like she's planning....I would be afraid to go to sleep with her around! We get some protests here in Music City, mostly when there's talk of a state income tax. Which is such a laugh; most of the folks protesting look like they don't make enough to worry about another income tax! I guess it depends on whether or not the income from the still is counted.

I live in Asheville, NC. We protest all over the place, including the One Nation Indivisible billboards, bed sheets on overpasses and antiwar people downtown. Last weekend was out big street party (bele chere) and there seemed to be religious SHOUTERS on every corner.

I live in Asheville, NC. We protest all over the place, including the One Nation Indivisible billboards, bed sheets on overpasses and antiwar people downtown. Last weekend was our big street party (Bele Chere) and there seemed to be religious SHOUTERS on every corner.

No, not many protesters hanging signs from overpasses in my neck of the woods... "Neck of the woods" being the operative phrase. Here we have large adolescent males congregating on the overpass above the canal (part of the old Erie Canal) waiting to dive bomb the passing pleasure boats with their large adolescent bodies as we make our way toward the locks. One wonders how they decided that this was sagacious entertainment, being that boats don't turn fast, and they could:
A. Go splat on the deck of a boat
B. Get sucked under and sliced and diced by the swiftly rotating metal prop.
C. Surface laughing and hooting and swim speedily away to save their heinies. Fortunately I have only witnessed option C.

I live just outside DC, and you'd think I'd see lots of picketing all the time, but it only happens occasionally. I see parades MUCH more often than picketing. I call my daughter in DC, and ask "What's that noise in the background?" and she says "There's a parade going down my street. The cat's hiding under the couch."

The last time I saw picketing was to protest us getting into a war with Iraq (before the fact).

But each area has it's own brand of craziness, and it sounds like you're enjoying LAs! Just like I enjoy DC.

Daily picketing in the Midwest? I live in Topeka Kansas, home of the infamous Phelps cult. They're usually out in force at busy intersections during peak drive times.

We moved to Topeka when my son was 4. Some of their signs have stick figures bent over as if having sex, ya know? And my kiddo asked me at the tender age of 5 what the heck is that on those signs? Not *quite* the timing I had in mind for that sort of discussion...

Some other NYer already mentioned how we ignore all protesters...including the ubiquitous Giant Inflatable Rat which gets moved around town to whatever union protest happens to be going on that day. There's a nice photographic rundown here: http://www.gothamcityinsider.com/2007/09/rat-patrol.html
There are usually a couple of these on my walk to work every morning...no one ever asks what's being protested, but I have seen tourists trying to take each other's picture with the rat's claws combing through their hair.
This town is never dull, that's for sure!

My town is tiny, so there are no overpasses from which to fly the bedsheets. But on any given day, you'll see people standing at the corner of the ferry dock with placards: for the troops, against the war, for the beaches, against BP for the new swimming pool, against the new swimming pool, wearing black, or white, red or blue, read my sign! Honk if you like it! Honk if you don't! Let me play you a little political song on my banjo!

Currently in Omaha, pace to the previous poster, but there are protesters all over the area and because of that rather odd religious group that protests homosexuality at soldier's funerals (I don't understand that either) which just won a court case saying their rights to free speech were curtailed when they were arrested, there will soon be more.

Protests are actually common here. But mostly a little scarey. Lots of loud and angry people. Don't go near the mayor's town halls. Tea-party-iers and antiabortionists are common too. The NRA has rallies, but they usually have BBQ and share if you smile.

There are a couple religious groups who take off their clothes about a couple issues when it's below zero. They usually hang bedsheets off the overpasses, but I think that's a good thing, considering and keeps traffic from getting backed up.

My family was in LA a couple of weeks ago. We were in (what was, to us at least) a huge traffic jam on the 408. I was delighted to discover it was caused by a naked man on the freeway. When we got to El Cajon, I told my BIL I was disappointed not to have my camera out. I felt I had had the quintessential California experience-a traffic jam caused by a naked crazy person in the middle of the freeway. My BIL replied "welcome to California".

Side note: when we went to Hollywood blvd, we saw people marching around with signs picketing Jesus. The hubby says they were pro-Jesus picketers, but I sorta fail to see how that was less weird.

At our Federal Building, which hasn't had any Federal offices in it since the '80's, the anti war protesters gather there religiously every Friday during "rush hour" which is just a crack up because half of the store fronts in the downtown area are vacant! There's no traffic downtown. Nobody works downtown, but yet the protesters are there. And we have the handful of regulars who picket outside the legislators office building. We're a strange town, some want to stay small, homey little town and others want a more modern place, with actual jobs and amenities. Who's to say?

Your parents' dog is so SQUEE. I just want to huggle him to death.

Nice to see Soba. She's a beautiful dictator. I am sure she will pull off her plans for world domination some day.

Protesting is not common here. Well, it wasn't until the school board in the neighboring county started reversing things - now they are being picketed a LOT. I read their security budget went from $400 last year to $14,000 this year.

Here in Madison, WI we have the same thing every day. There's a group that's been standing outside the courthouse every day for the past 8 years protesting the war. (Which war? Which one do you got?)

The way I see it is: If you're living in Madison and you're not outraged about something, you need to move to the suburbs.

Olympia has regular anti-war protests and occassional arrests... most of the protests are non-violent, but not all of them. We also have some ever-present support the troops signs along with anti-war signs. I think it's pretty widespread at least on the west coast!

Love the puppy pictures.. he does look like he thinks he doesn't get quite as much attention as he deserves...

I wandered back over to read some more comments and I just had to mention that I now have that "bow wow wow wow" song in my head.

Rock on :)

Hey -- I'm pretty new to your blog, so I have a lot of catching up to do. It's awesome! I love to see pics of your Soba. I have a reverse calico who looks very much like Soba and who seems to harbor very similar schemes in her pretty little head. :)

I would like to take this opportunity to compliment you on the fine job you did working a George Clinton song into your blog. Bravo!

Hey, this is why the innernet is so much better than other forms of entertainment, I feel like I just learned a little slice of life from all over the country!

As I was reading all these comments it struck me how fortunate we are to live in a place where we get to hold signs and play banjos of protest and do any old thing we want in support of our many causes. And like ya'll said, it's never dull!
--laurie

It's crazy here. Protests all over the city.....most of them peaceful, a few arrests. I have never lived in a state that is so full of hate. The tension, hate and aggression is palpable. It's sad and frightening. If it were not for a job that I not only need, but also love I would high-tail it right back to Oregon.

Madison Wi. The midwest's version of San Fransico and Los Angles, 30 miles of weird surrounded by normal. We have protests of different varieties , Quiet, peaceful , to noisy and disturbing

oh! that sweet little dog watching th neighborhood dogs : so so sweet! his little back feet are perfect.

someone down my street [that i do not know] has 2 dogs like that + they look so much alike. i often see them in their fenced yard as i walk. as i do not know their names, i call them "th brothers".

th boy part is an assumption. they could be "th sisters". or "th one of each"s.

as for th honking + protesting, i happen to live in des moines! there have been protests for one issue or another -- sometimes in solidarity for a national issue, sometimes local issue. nothing giant or scary, though -- no mobs. people here seem to save their anger for city council + school boards.

there isn't much honking unless th first driver doesn't move fast enough when th light turns from red to green. perhaps some mutterings under breath...

if there is a sheet [sign] hanging from an overpass, it is likely wishing someone a happy birthday or cheering a sport team [especially when high schools from all over th state come to th big city (dang! look -- stoplights!) for state tourney].

des moines is like most mid-size cities : best of both worlds : stuff to do + not so small that everyone knows your business yet small enough to maneuver + feel like you can make a difference.

we could use more yarn stores, though.

something to protest!

This was a fun comments thread. And your posts sound more relaxed now, too.
How's your dad?

hmm, that reminds me of back in the mid-seventies There was this very handsome weathered fellow, 'the waver'...thick dark close wavy hair and a sort of johnny-appleseed outfit who walked up/down 395. He was nice to wave to. But here in Norcal we have a town with an intersection where awareness people walk with signs or just wear black. But not all over the place. Corgi dogs are so incredibly heart-warming. I liked those books about the Corgi too.

The hind legs of that dog are the cutest things I've seen since my son's pudgy baby thigh when he was 6 months old. Hands tingling with desire to squueeze ahhh :)

I really love your stories of Los Angeles lore just because there is so much wonderfully random about this place we need as many historians as we can get! Just the other day I saw what appeared to be a perfectly good fairly new TV out on the curb-- the kind of thing usually snapped up-- when I drove by later it was still there but a tagger had scrawled taggage on the screen with some sort of yellow marker, not paint or a Sharpie-- do they have tagger kits now? The right implement for every occasion? Tagger for "this TV s*cks- don't bother"? Yes, these are the things I ponder as an inhabitant of this crazy place. .

Yesterday I saw a Sobakawa "Cloud Pillow" at Walgreens and thought of her cuteness

Nope...not a whole lot of protesting going on here in Oklahoma!

Always love the pix of the cats and stories about them. The Corgi is adorable:)

There's generally protesting of some sort or other going on here in Sacramento. I wouldn't expect otherwise since it is the Capital and there's a fair number of protests at the Capitol. They used to protest at the Federal Building across the street from the building I work at but I haven't seen anyone there is a long while but then, they opened up a new Federal Building somewhere and I'm betting that's where those protests take place.

The only protest signs we have here in rural Wisconsin are at the Tea Parties, and our Tea Parties are huge!! I am also in favor of the Arizona law. I live in a city of 7000 people and the police just raided an entire apartment complex that the illegals were running cocaine out of. Speaking as a nurse, it also worries me that all of these people are coming into our country with no immunizations!

I live in Philly, and we get picketers ALL the time in front of city hall, independence hall, anything historic and visible.

I'm sure it happens in Boston, but not so I would notice. The protesters are not on the subway, picketing the MBTA's practices or schedules where I would see them.

comments closed now, thanks!