Where the golden grain dwarf the lovely flowers

Cincinnati international airport is not, in fact, in Cincinnati. It's not even in Ohio. It's located in Boone County, Kentucky It's not owned or operated by Boone County, Kentucky. Kenton County, Kentucky, which owns and operates the airport, makes a boatload of money off of this strange arrangement.

It's a pretty country, and it reminds me in many ways of the outskirts of Ithaca, NY. Still, there is something depressing about rural America, and its homogenized stream of endless car dealerships, fast food restaurants, strip malls with cheap plastic and metal objects, supermarkets with 60 different types of processed everything, small farmyards, and churches.

This is just the outside. Inside, most everyone is polite and kind. Even the no-nonsense monotonous troopers at the BMV (Bureau of Motor Vehicles) were polite. Thick-headed, but polite.

Rachel tried to get her photo taken for an American driver's license, but their policy is that everyone has to have uncovered hair for the photo. As a religious Jewish woman, naturally she objected to this. To which we were told that there is an exception for Muslim women, but not for Jewish women.

Way to turn respecting a religious difference into a case of religious discrimination, guys.

Any idiot could see that the same principle should apply here and get on with the photo, but the clerk had only heard of Jewish people putting head coverings on in synagogue, and so wasn't convinced that this was an actual religious problem. She still wasn't convinced after being shown both an Israeli driver's license and a Canadian passport, all with pictures of Rachel with her hair covered.

Four phone calls later to various supervisors, and she was given the go-ahead to let Rachel take the picture with her hat on.

Rachel's car insurance was willing to cover my driving the car under my Israeli driver's license (which I can do so legally for 1 year), but only if I got an Ohio driver's license as soon as possible. No problem. I scheduled the first available driving test at the BMV, which will be on December 2. I'm leaving Ohio November 18.

I'm hoping to hit the Miami University strategy game club this evening.