Hell on Earth is still better than Provo

We should be used to it by now ... the insults, that is.

Go ahead, rest of the country, give it your best shot.

Laramie and Wyoming are a joke. We're all racist, cowboy hicks. We're stupid, we have no class and we're behind the times.

Did I say we're cowboy hicks? I did but I'll say it again.

Oh yeah, apparently Laramie is Hell on Earth.

We've heard it all before, especially with the media is town from other parts more sophisticated. It gets really old. When a national writer comes to town, the story will eventually mention cow town, tumbleweeds or high noon. Never fails.

Oh yeah, and the wind blows. So frickin what.

Is Laramie and Wyoming the perfect place to live? Not at all. In fact, we often complain about many of the same things that outsiders come in and make fun of us about.

We complain, but many of those things are why we live here. Personally, I like being about five minutes away from anything in town. I like knowing that I have neighbors I can count on. I like it when people in the grocery store smile at you and say, "have a nice day."  I like it that I don't read about violent crime every day in the local newspaper.

Is Laramie and Wyoming the right fit for everybody? No. But this is my home. I live here because I want to live here.

On Monday, Dick Harmon of the Deseret News in Salt Lake City tweeted on San Diego State head coach Steve Fisher's comments during the Mountain West Conference basketball teleconference. Fisher criticized the UW administration for firing Cowboys' head coach Heath Schroyer during the regular season.

Truthfully, I don't have a problem with Fisher's remarks. It's one coach sticking up for another coach. Coaching is a brotherhood, a fraternity. I get that.

I do have a problem with Harmon's tweet. It's kind of like the friend or relative who others complain about. I can call him or her an idiot, but if you do, I'm going to kick your ass.

Here's what Harmon tweeted:

"Until they get a major shopping mall in Laramie, a coach would be crazy to take his wife there for a job. Hell on earth."

Since when did a shopping mall define the quality of a community? Really, a shopping mall? We got the Super Wal-Mart and an Applebees, what more do you need? Of course, I'm just a cowboy hick.

Thank goodness Provo has a mall. Otherwise, BYU men's basketball coach Dave Rose would never coach there. Obviously, if not for a mall in Salt Lake City, Kyle Whittingham's wife would have left him when he got the Utah football job.

When UW athletics director Tom Burman interviews his first coaching candidate, his  first question has to be, "Can you live in a town that doesn't have a major shopping mall? Your wife says no. OK, thanks for applying."

I guess UW should have been in Casper all along. At least Casper has a mall.

Maybe not having a mall is a problem for some coaches' wives. I don't really know, nor do I care.

Oh, and Dick, I'll tell what Hell on Earth is ... not being able to buy a beer on Sunday.

Who would want to live there?