Don't get me wrong: I don't mind the fact that San Franciscans love to associate themselves with Mark Twain, even though he was just passing through town in the 1860s. It's just that, seein' as I am from an area bordering the Mississippi River known as Illinois, us folks tend to claim him more as our own than y'all have a right to. Now, folks from Missouri have an even bigger stake in his claim. (Sorry, I just lapsed into Tom Sawyer narration.) Point is, everyone wants a piece of this guy for some reason. It's the same with Abraham Lincoln, who we were told from kindergarten on was the father of Illinois. We learned that he was tall and honest, and there was nary a bed big enough to contain his lengthy, forthright limbs. Later in life I realized that Kentucky also claimed him, since he was born there. But Kentuckians have Colonel Sanders, so I don't see why they have to go and steal our one... More >>>