The Shire

During a conversation I had a week ago with a coworker contemplating a move to the US, and wondering what city would suit him best (he was leaning towards Los Angeles)

COWORKER: “So what is the Pacific Northwest like?”

PAUL: “Do you remember in LORD OF THE RINGS the place the Hobbits live in?”

COWORKER: “So it is pretty like that, with lovely farms and pubs?”

PAUL: “Yes but we walk around barefoot and wear waistcoats and spend all our time drinking beer and smoking ‘pipe-weed’ and gardening and have no interest in almost anything else, because the Shire is self-evidently the very best place in Middle Earth, so why bother thinking about any place else?”

COWORKER: “I always thought, ‘their feet must be very dirty.’”