Brave New World

When I moved to Raleigh it was the absolute most backward place in the universe. Our senior senator actually had advocated segregation (and had been quoted or misquoted in ways that made me suspect he still did; he certainly wasn't in favor of busing to integrate the schools, which is pretty much necessary in a place like Raleigh, where most neighborhoods are quite self-segregated), and...well, to put it gently, he was a homophobic dingbat crackhead. (Still is, but he retired, after getting himself re-elected for...36 years, something like that).

North Carolina's still awfully conservative, Raleigh not so much in a redneck way and more in a soccer-mom kind of way, but we actually had some French restaurants nearly go out of business during the whole "freedom fries" thing. I just don't notice it because I live in the hippie commune that is Carrboro.

And when I first got into manga, Ranma was available in English, and Maison Ikkoku, and some adult manga, and...that's pretty much it. Every month or so I would beg a ride to the comic store downtown so I could look at the half-dozen English and Japanese manga they had.

I have a point, really. This is my point:

They have Gravitation manga at the public library in Zebulon.
That is so weird. I can't even fathom it.