Um....Normal?

We were greatly amused to see this article:

• Just what does it mean to be “normal”?

  Recently, the Washington Post used U.S. Census data to determine which U.S. state best represents “normal” America as a whole.

  The study was undertaken by Lenny Bronner, the paper’s political statmeister, crunching Census numbers on 30 socioeconomic factors such as race, religion, income, education, jobs, and social issues — and found that Illinois most closely resembled the U.S. average. As explained by WaPo, based on data overall, it’s difficult to tell the U.S. from Illinois when looking at the data on paper.

There's a reason the vaudeville persons of yesteryear always asked, "Will it play in Peoria?" seeing as how Peoria was seen as a bellwether for new material and later, political positions. It was "Everytown, USA."

But being the sarcastic types that we are, we have to ask:

• did this survey actually include Chicago?
  

Given the extra high tax rates of the Windy City, along with averaging over five-hundred murders annually and the still-climbing carjacking/car theft rates and non-prosecution of the same, we'd hope that that would make Illinois less normal.