What Town Named 'Armpit' of America? Once a year, Money magazine publishes a list of the best places to live. But what about the worst place to live? What about a town that is so awful it's been dubbed "the armpit of America" by The Washington Post?
That town would be...ta-dum: Battle Mountain, Nevada. (To find it on a map: Look for Interstate-80 and then go about 220 miles east of Reno.)
Battle Mountain, whose residents really do call it BM for short, were a bit miffed by the recognition at first. After all, THEY don't think of their hometown as the armpit of this great country. But this is America! The land of the free, the brave, and the public relations gurus. The land where even bad press can be turned into something lucrative--or at least fun.
Exhibit A: Old Spice deodorant has agreed to sponsor Battle Mountain's "Festival of the Pit" from Aug. 15-17 and will spend $75,000 on the festivities, reports The Associated Press.
Exhibit B: The national news media are reporting it.
Hey, if you can't beat a bad rap, then celebrate it! That's what they're doing in Battle Mountain with this quirky festival. Instead of an old-fashioned egg toss, there's a deodorant toss. Instead of a wet T-shirt contest, there's a sweat T-shirt contest. And you wouldn't want to miss the armpit beauty pageant or the "quick-draw" antiperspirant contest.
It may be the armpit of America, but Battle Mountain has a sense of humor we should all envy. The town has erected billboards along I-80 reading "Battle Mountain, Voted the Armpit of America by the Washington Post," and "Make Battle Mountain Your Next Pit Stop."
The dubious honor was bestowed on Battle Mountain by The Washington Post in December 2001 by humor writer Gene Weingarten. (It was a joke. Of sorts.) He citied the Nevada town for the armpit award for its "lack of character and charm," its "pathetic assemblage of ghastly buildings and nasty people," and its location "in the midst of harsh and uninviting wilderness."
But Weingarten got told. Specifically by Shar Peterson, executive director of the Battle Mountain Chamber of Commerce. When he told her what The Washington Post was going to say about her little mining town, she thought for a minute and then retorted: "Okay, maybe we're an armpit. If so, we're shaven and clean and sweet-smelling because out here in the desert, we're arid, extra dry."
She's so good at spin, she could work in Washington.
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