More (yes, more!) on Indy

A few of you have questioned if Indianapolis could be quite as bad as I've made it seem and the Indy natives of you out there have demanded I point out some of the city's good points. So in fairness, here goes:

The unending flatness is good for your car mileage.

The lack of buildings and trees, combined with the flatness, gives that "big sky" feel.

You won't frivolously waste money on dining at fine restaurants.

It was recently named as host city for the 2016 Olympic games.

One day a year, you're allowed to drive like, 400 miles per hour (applies to professional racecar drivers, only)

It has never been the site of a terrorist attack (unless you consider the theft of the Colts from Baltimore a terrorist attack...which many in Baltimore do).

Peyton Manning will probably play for another six, seven years.

It's closer to Chicago than you probably are now.

There have been virtually no recorded shark attacks.


Today the city actually gave me a whiff of home (pun intended). When I first came to the convention center on Tuesday I was in a section of the building that was quiet and unoccupied, and I followed signs to a restroom that was pretty isolated. Upon entering the restroom I smelled something that I’m unfortunately familiar with from my Starbucks days….crack smoke. I glanced at the stall and saw a couple feet there and did my business and left. The libertarian in me doesn’t really care if this goes on if it’s not hurting me. I figured some facilities staff person was enjoying a break in his day.

Wednesday afternoon I entered the same restroom, which is still out of the way but more heavily trafficked now, with our sessions being not too far from it. Again, the tell-tale smell. This time no one else was in there but I looked in the stalls and saw the signs – ashes on the ground, used matches, etc. And the smell immediately gave me a headache, as it has every other time I’ve smelled it. I left the restroom and saw a guy wandering around…a guy that prior to then I had assumed was on staff but then I realized that I hadn’t seen him do anything over the previous couple days but wander around in his shabby clothes. With several points of entry it would not be hard for a homeless person to slip into the building, and I figured that he was the crack culprit. Only because of the public health issue presented by the smoke, the potential theft by someone driven to get cash to by drugs, and because I almost immediately saw a security guy, I stopped the security dude and told him about the issue....now, the odd thing is, he gave me a knowing look and seemed to know the guy I was talking about, as though he knew he hung out there and the security guy didn't seem to care, though he did thank me and told me he'd go look into it.

Come on Indianapolis...this is one of your major points of entry for outsiders (the convention center, that is) and you let homeless guys smoke CRACK in the bathrooms....?