Hanover Anti-Defamation League

From the ages of about 22 to 24, right after I first moved to D.C., I tried to defend the proposition that Hanover, N.H. is cosmopolitan. "It's like Georgetown!" I would protest, "except it's just like a random five or six blocks of Georgetown thrown in the middle of New Hampshire! And how regularly do you, proud Georgetown dwellers, actually venture beyond a five-block radius of your townhouse to try different shops and restaurants in the vast metropolis in which you live? You eat at the same Thai restaurant over and over, I bet! So living in Georgetown and going to the same neighborhood Thai restaurant over and over is not actually different from living in Hanover and going to the same single Thai restaurant over and over!"

Some of my friends who are sticks in the mud had to concede this point. But others who are more adventurous did not. They in fact tended to look at me as though I suffered from lack of imagination and smallness of spirit -- two of the few vices of which I am rarely accused. So, after about two years as a one-woman Hanover Anti-Defamation League, I gave up trying to defend its cosmopolitanism.

Comes now news that we have inspired a chic designer handbag. Referring to the city's dream winters is perhaps optimistic, given that Hanover's population was around 10,000 the last time that I checked. But we are sporty and sophisticated, and I am glad to see that the designer noted that cider carried in it should be spiked. I wouldn't have anything Hanover-inspired any other way.