When people learn that I'm from Kansas, they often say with an involuntary shudder, "Oh, God...my family drove across Kansas once." What American humorist (not a Kansan himself, but a columnist for the Miami Herald) suggested the following way to amuse the family on a long car trip? "Trans-Kansas Pie Eat--When you get to one end of Kansas, you open up a box of Stuckey's miniature pecan pies, then you see how many of them you can eat before you get to the other end of Kansas, a distance of 370,000 miles. The record is 11 pies, set in 1974 by my wife, Beth."
DAVE BARRY