Humor involving border checkpoints

[mollyringle]

Me: I'm still hung up on the title. Maybe 'Heaven or California'.
Steve: Oh--and--the cover design can be those fruit checkpoints, at the state line, with the pearly gates right above them. As a sort of parallel.
Me: *cracks up*

Makes me want to use that title. (Though it is close to a Cocteau Twins album name.)

By the way, the California plant-'n'-produce checkpoints are Sign #543 that "Frasier" was actually filmed in LA, not Seattle. They had this exchange once:

Niles: I just got in the car and started driving.
Frasier: Well, I'm glad you ended up here.
Niles: Actually, I ended up at the Oregon border-check. I had fruit in the car so I had to turn back.

Problem being, there is no border check between Oregon and Washington. WA does have signs--going back as far as I can remember--saying "Apple maggot quarantine area; do not transport homegrown fruit." But nobody actually stops you to confiscate your apples. Which CA does.

Comments

South of the Border...

[thomas-a-kempis.livejournal.com]

Wisely, Oregon does check cars coming into Oregon from California. I don't blame them at all and I would be looking for more than fruit to keep out...

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Re: South of the Border...

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

Is that a new development? Seems like when we lived there (ending in 2003) we could just breeze past when going north. But, as you say, security concerns may have caused some tightening up.

Re: South of the Border...

[thomas-a-kempis.livejournal.com]

In-laws live in O'Brien, Oregon, right near the border. We get to meet the nice
Officer when we go to visit...

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[pith]

Yay for Cocteau Twins!

[bluesound.livejournal.com]

You're thinking of 'Heaven or Las Vegas'

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

Yes, I am. I didn't think it was necessary to spell it out, but I did remember it. :)

[pokeystar.livejournal.com]

Hey! Not just California! Hawaii shakes you down for agricultural goods twice !! in the airport, before you board.

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

That's true. They do a more thorough job than California, in fact.

[threemagisteria.livejournal.com]

Somehow, when I first looked through this, I misread the title as Maybe Heaven, or California rather than Heaven or California.

Made the title seem more like an assessment than a destination.

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

In my experience, the two are polar opposites, though. Just kidding. :) (Mostly.)

[dirae.livejournal.com]

I like someone's misreading of Maybe Heaven, or California for whatever reason, perhaps because I misread it as such too.

There is a line in a Judybats' song: "Or Hell, Maybe Even Tennessee"... perhaps you could manipulate that into: Maybe Heaven...or Even California.

On that note, too bad the setting doesn't take place in a fictional town called "Even" because I think Maybe Heaven or Even, California would be look nifty while still being a play on words.

Ramble. Ramble. Ramble.

-K. (of too little sleep)

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

I like those too, at least the way they look. For my story it might be hard to justify, though, since there's no "maybe" about it--it's quite literally heaven. (That is, my own weird rendering thereof.)

It *is* set in a fictional town, but you're right, it's not called "Even." :)