Tales of the Panhandles

Book excerpt: This is a humorous collection of short stories that is not intended as a reflection on any particular geographic area. Please dont jump into conclusions attempting to guess which of the panhandles are obvious to your understanding of basic geography, such as Florida, Oklahoma, and Texas. Because there are more, many more panhandles! There is Maryland with a long onemaybe even three! Pennsylvania has a small one, along with Mississippi and Alabama. Louisiana has a fat one, while Delaware is practically all panhandle, and West Virginia has a couple of odd-looking ones. Missouri has a small bootheel, as well as New Mexico, with one sticking into Mexico. And theres Minnesotas knot sticking into Canada. Idahos panhandle is as long as or longer than Oklahomas. Each represents a geographic isolated blip, knot, or notch separating different religions, cultures, languages, customs, or way of life from the remainder of each of the particular states. They, too, have a certain indigenous population found nowhere else.