Rex Kwan Do in German

I love to surf blogs. But please imagine with me just a moment as I describe my shock at just how small the world really is. I'm clicking along on the "next blog" button, and suddenly a scene from Napoleon Dynamite is staring at me and the words all around are in German. There is no way that should happen. Napoleon Dynamite was filmed in and around Preston, Idaho, where my dad grew up. No place on earth could be so insignificant and remote. No film on earth could be more of an insider's joke about Preston, and yet it's funny, and it resonates, and somebody in a real city in Germany found a picture of it to put on his blog (click the title of this post for the link).

Preston has been living it up since Napoleon came out. People actually come to see the stage he danced on at the high school, and my dad said that there was some kind of gathering there sanctioned by the city a few weeks ago. I don't know why anyone would want to set foot in Preston unless they were going to visit their grandmother. It's just not a place to go.

The Idaho legislature even passed a resolution commending the makers of the film. Here's the link: http://www3.state.id.us/oasis/HCR029.html If I didn't have even less respect for the way our national legislature wastes time in Washington, I might think that Idaho legislators had nothing to do. I would really, really laugh, except that the film really gave people from Idaho something to rally around -- something more recognizable than spudnuts and more germaine to the state than nuclear power.

And do you see the orange pillow sitting behind Napoleon in the picture? I swear that that pillow belonged to my grandma at one point. It used to sit on her couch. I have a theory about how it migrated from her couch through a series of yard sales and secondhand stores until it landed in Napoleon's room. You don't have to believe it (my dad doesn't), but I tell you, it's hers.