I’m foaming at the mouth about Kris Allen.  I can’t help it.  It’s the general enthusiasm that people have in Arkansas about other folks from Arkansas that does it to me, every time.   I could give a rat’s ass about boxing, for example.  I never watched a match in my life until Jermaine Taylor got famous, and then I found I couldn’t be a good citizen and remain ignorant.  Everyone was talking about him, and no one would shut up about it.  I had to watch Taylor fight just so I could have grocery line conversations.

I have to keep up with football, entirely against my will, for the same reason.  When the Razorbacks are on a good tear, the air is lighter here somehow.  People are friendlier; they are more likely to offer you beer and a place to sit for awhile.  A good portion of my life, I have lived within earshot of War Memorial Stadium here in Little Rock.  The Razorbacks play there only a few times a year, but when they do, the entire city shuts down for those few hours.   The games sell out well in advance, and an equally large crowd hangs out outside, tailgating.   When things go well, you can hear the crowds roar, echoing down the empty streets like thunder.   You can feel it in your bones.  

That’s what I thought I heard last week they announced Kris would face Adam Lambert for the final AI showdown.   There was much whooping and hollering in our house.  It doesn’t matter if Kris is any good or not, really (although I think he’s the most authentic of the two, but that’s another story).  What matters is that he’s from here, and by god, we stand by our folks.  

Apparently, Jacob over at Television Without Pity thinks we’re rather precious while we’re doing it too.  He writes, “.  .  . in addition to being the most beautiful place in the universe, Arkansas also has really cute people. Like all of them are adorable. I didn't know that, that's great! Strike one for my weird biases. Big old hug from Dad, total tears-falling meltdown whenever he and his dad are in like ten yards of each other while "Falling Slowly" plays, and I'm undone. I love you, Kris's dad! I love you, Arkansas! Thank you both for Kris!”

You are so welcome Jacob!  Is there anything else we can do for ya while we’re at it?  I’m pretty sure we’ve got some unknown writers or actors around here somewhere.  Maybe we could try to get Billy Bob Thornton to go back to his Slingblade milieu and quit being an asshole about his music?  I am certain that if enough of the state signed a petition asking him nicely as a representative Arkansan, he’d drop the prissy bullshit. 

Kris Allen probably would, right?  It doesn’t matter.  Right now he’s the hometown golden boy.  I think Jacob is right, we are extremely adorable.  I mean look at this crowd in this video.  20,000 people showed up to a park in a city where only 50,000 people live.  Another 15,000 showed up in Little Rock to see him play, on a Friday morning at 10:45 a.m.  

Tonight, after the  Ryan Seacrest announced Kris as the winner, I knew it had to be mostly due to the crazy people in Arkansas texting like mad for the hometown boy. Tonight, the local news confirmed it.  38 million of the votes were from Arkansas alone.  There’s only 2 million people in the entire state.  In case you can’t quite get your brain around the math, that more than one third of all the nearly 100 million votes.