In case you missed it, last week’s episode of This American Life was all about our bizarre neighbor to the west, State College, PA, and more specifically, the main campus of Penn State, which was recently named America’s #1 Party School. And the episode, which was also called “#1 Party School,” revealed something we’d never before considered about the old adage about Pennsylvania being Philadelphia and Pittsburgh with Kentucky in between — the fact is, there’s something else in between, and it’s Penn State, which is neither fish nor fowl, a trance-like, beer-ponging, drunk-at-8AM hall of learning that’s somewhere between a movie set and a Hollister nightmare. Over one hour, the TAL gang reveals the most intimate details of what makes Penn State tick, and the unique travelers who settle there — the drunk kids who wander into the children’s rooms of perpetually perturbed townies, the tampon on the lawn that is always accompanied by a used condom not so very far away, and multiple generations of folks drinking in parking lots as the sun comes up. It’s a magical place, this State College, PA. We hope we get to visit there someday.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 29th, 2009 at 1:31 pm.