You know you are in Alabama when...

Corporate America has made the US suburban landscape look so similar that if you were to suddenly find yourself in a new state you would still be surrounded by the same stores, fast-food chains, gas stations.

Work took me to Birmingham Alabama recently and besides the humidity and the southern drawls there were more clues for me that I wasn't in Kansas anymore :)

Scene 1: A no-smoking sign outside a company building. Ok...the signs not out of place...its just the response to it!



Scene 2: Ordering lunch at the cafeteria.
Me: Do you have any vegetarian food?
Person on the other side of the counter: Are you moslem?

Scene 3: A post-lunch meeting with sodas to quench the parched throats...the pictures not clear but someone just got the sodas from a non-pc place.



Scene 4: A road sign flashes a 'Stage 3 Drought Alert' warning. Two houses away, a proud house owner waters his lawn (actually Rupert Murdoch did this to his Santa Barbara lawns during the drought as well...

Scene 5: People wearing hot pants...only they happened to be old men. (actually this is a common sight in San Francisco as well). Very gross.

Scene 6: A Sushi restaurant...also serving chinese and thai food!