Here is the first few paragraphs from an article in today's Seattle Times. Sorry, the pictures would not transfer and the complete article was probably too long to place here. This is one demolition derby I would like to see.<br><br>Combines on a collision course <br> <br> <br>LIND, Adams County — Josh Knodel waited four years — working over an old John Deere harvester with his friend Matt Miller, souping up the engine, rebuilding the rear end, putting a big shark fin on top and calling the beast &quot;Jaws.&quot; Finally he was 18, smooth-skinned, with pale, girl-killer eyes and sharp features, and old enough to drive his 2-ton creation into the rodeo arena. <br><br>And wreck it. <br><br>He would wreck other combines in the process. And if he survived any of about a dozen possible catastrophic failures, he would guide his mangled machine out of the ring $1,000 richer and the proud winner of the Lind Lions Club Combine Demolition Derby. <br><br>More mundane things can mark one as a member of the farming world: White's boots, a lip thick with dip, tight jeans dark with dust and grease. But in this town of fewer than 600 people an hour southwest of Spokane, driving in the derby is something of a rural pinnacle. <br><br>&quot;Realistically, these guys are practicing skills they would use in harvest, only in a different time frame,&quot; said Jed Bauermeister, head referee and part of the derby since Bill Loomis, a farm-equipment dealer, started it in 1987. <br> <br>After the first heat, Justin Martin's pit crew push together to get the rear end of his John Deere 6600 back into place and ready for more competition. <br> <br> <br><br>The derby is now so popular the Lions are thinking of doing away with the Lind rodeo, the 60-year mainstay of the weekend. <br><br>More than 3,000 people paid $10 apiece Friday night to watch the combines, filling the grandstand and beer garden. <br><br>National Public Radio and CBS Sunday Morning have visited, and USA Today has listed it among its &quot;10 great places for a kooky contest,&quot; right up there with the Manitou Springs, Colo., fruitcake toss and the Montpelier, Vt., Odor-Eaters Rotten Sneaker Contest. <br><br>The rules are straightforward: Don't reinforce the rig too much, obey the judges, wear helmets, keep moving, keep hitting. The combine — a term describing the machine's combined roles of cutting and threshing — has to be 20 years old. <br><br>Of course, that's academic when a new hillside combine costs as much as a house in Kenmore. <br><br>

 

Does that mean your a redneck? We have those at our fair ever other year. They are great. ALMOST as good as the superstock tractor pulls where IH always wins ;D<br>DM01

 

First time anyone has thought that I might be a redneck. Not sure if this is a compliment or an insult. ??? ;D

 

[quote author=Mexstan link=board=10;threadid=15916;start=0#149463 date=1055685072]<br>First time anyone has thought that I might be a redneck. Not sure if this is a compliment or an insult. ??? ;D<br>[/quote]<br>I was not calling you a redneck. I was calling people who go to see combines smash into each other rednecks. I know I'm one so it has to be a bad thing : <br>DM01

 

Mexstan, <br>Here's One I found. My grandkids love to call the town by it's iinitials, &quot;B.M.&quot;. <br> <br> <br> <br>What Town Named 'Armpit' of America?<br><br>Once a year, Money magazine publishes a list of the best places to live. But what about the worst place to live? What about a town that is so awful it's been dubbed &quot;the armpit of America&quot; by The Washington Post?<br><br>That town would be...ta-dum: Battle Mountain, Nevada. (To find it on a map: Look for Interstate-80 and then go about 220 miles east of Reno.)<br><br>Battle Mountain, whose residents really do call it BM for short, were a bit miffed by the recognition at first. After all, THEY don't think of their hometown as the armpit of this great country. But this is America! The land of the free, the brave, and the public relations gurus. The land where even bad press can be turned into something lucrative--or at least fun.<br><br>Exhibit A: Old Spice deodorant has agreed to sponsor Battle Mountain's &quot;Festival of the Pit&quot; from Aug. 15-17 and will spend $75,000 on the festivities, reports The Associated Press.<br><br>Exhibit B: The national news media are reporting it.<br><br>Hey, if you can't beat a bad rap, then celebrate it! That's what they're doing in Battle Mountain with this quirky festival. Instead of an old-fashioned egg toss, there's a deodorant toss. Instead of a wet T-shirt contest, there's a sweat T-shirt contest. And you wouldn't want to miss the armpit beauty pageant or the &quot;quick-draw&quot; antiperspirant contest.<br><br>It may be the armpit of America, but Battle Mountain has a sense of humor we should all envy. The town has erected billboards along I-80 reading &quot;Battle Mountain, Voted the Armpit of America by the Washington Post,&quot; and &quot;Make Battle Mountain Your Next Pit Stop.&quot;<br><br>The dubious honor was bestowed on Battle Mountain by The Washington Post in December 2001 by humor writer Gene Weingarten. (It was a joke. Of sorts.) He citied the Nevada town for the armpit award for its &quot;lack of character and charm,&quot; its &quot;pathetic assemblage of ghastly buildings and nasty people,&quot; and its location &quot;in the midst of harsh and uninviting wilderness.&quot;<br><br>But Weingarten got told. Specifically by Shar Peterson, executive director of the Battle Mountain Chamber of Commerce. When he told her what The Washington Post was going to say about her little mining town, she thought for a minute and then retorted: &quot;Okay, maybe we're an armpit. If so, we're shaven and clean and sweet-smelling because out here in the desert, we're arid, extra dry.&quot;<br><br>She's so good at spin, she could work in Washington. <br><br>Armpit of America