Salt Lake City is odd

Title says it all, really.

I just got back from a weekend trip to la Cite du Grand Mer du Sel. It wasn't quite what I expected. The city itself, with the obvious exception of downtown, is identical to every other sprawling city in the west. Standing on the average street corner you simply can't tell the difference between them. There's a shell on one corner, a strip mall on the other with an Applebee's and a Starbucks and a Radio Shack and despair.

It turns out it's easy to spot Mormons. They're disturbingly polite, well shorn, and they all want to introduce themselves, shake your hand, and give you their business card. However, they seem to lack distinguishing characteristics. They're like polite, well-dressed Borg.

If you ever find yourself in town, you simply must check out Sam Weller's Bookstore. Their rare book collection is an amazing thing to behold. While you're there, cross the street and pay a visit to Utah Book and Magazine. It's the polar opposite of Weller's. Books and random junk piled a mile high, some of them priced, some of them not so much. Boxes full of old cards and magazines and posters, denoted by pissy signs admonishing visitors not to get the books out of order. Not that they were in order in the first place. Unless the proprietor uses some obscure masonic version of the Dewey system that mere mortals are not fit to understand.