5 Reasons Why I Love This Video:

Mad Men On Trains from Rich Sommer

1. I love trains. Traveling throughout Europe, sipping wine while zipping through the countryside, watching storybook villages and fields of sunflowers go by, then arriving right in the middle of Amsterdam, Paris, Florence, Barcelona, Prague, Salzburg, Heidelberg, etc is by far the best way to travel. We did that right here in the US of A a couple of years ago, taking the Amtrak train from downtown Portland to downtown Seattle to downtown Vancouver, and it was incredible. You don't have to arrive an hour before hand and get strip searched by a TSA agent, either. Our friends P & M dropped us off in downtown Seattle about 3 minutes before our 7 am train was scheduled to depart for Vancouver. We bought our tickets, hopped on the train, showed our passports as the train was leaving the station, grabbed a coffee and bagel on board and settled in to our comfy seats, enjoying the beautiful scenery the whole way there. I could not agree more that this country needs a high speed rail system, ASAP.

2. Gas will soon be $4.50 a gallon in MN,  more than $5 in San Francisco. That's expensive. Especially if you're dumb enough to drive a gas guzzling SUV and live in bumblef*ck suburban town USA. Also, we are going to run out of oil at some point. There is a limited supply. And all those annoying wars we're in with the Middle East? No matter how much W and/or Fox News might have duped you into thinking it was for other reasons, we are there fighting for oil.  My brother spent a year in Iraq doing just that.

3. How awesome would it be to take a 3 hour high speed train ride to Chicago for the weekend? Or go from LA to SF for the night? Pretty awesome.

4. Traffic is the worst. I'd probably live in LA if it weren't for the horrendous traffic there - it is way too stressful and just not a healthy way to live. Plus you get the lovely visible layer of yellow smog to breathe into your lungs since millions of people are driving around all day, every day, creating traffic jams, car crashes, freeway shootings, drunk driving episodes, high and low speed chases that seem to happen there at least once a week, etc. Good times.

5. I love "Mad Men," and this video is genius...especially the kicker, "Now fix me a strong drink. I've got a long drive home." And MN Connection: Vincent Kartheiser aka Pete is from Apple Valley, has been spotted hanging out at Club Jager and a little bird told me he's been looking to buy a loft in the North Loop, so he could be my sometime neighbor soon. I'm sure Jon Hamm can't be far behind.