DAILY DIRT: Illinoisans among the nation’s most sports-loving people

July 9, 2025 | By Steve Eighinger, Muddy River News Minister of Culture and Doctor of Love

The SNL-skit "Super Fans" showed how much Chicagoans love their teams. And yes, Chicago is part of Illinois, despite what many around here don't like to admit. Without Chicago, Illinois becomes Nebraska (not that there is anything wrong with Nebraska). Artwork from Hairbrained

Daily Dirt for Wednesday, July 9, 2025

Missourians only rank No. 27… Welcome to today’s three thoughts that make up Vol. 1,337 of The Daily Dirt.

1. Americans love their sports.

“From watching Super Bowl-winning performances from home with friends to seeing the U.S. rack up medals in the Olympics, Americans can’t get enough of their favorite sports,” writes Luke Powers for smilehub.org.

Powers is not exaggerating.

Of the 100 most-watched TV broadcasts in 2024, 80 were sports-related programming, according to Nielsen data.

“Beyond television, how much Americans care about sports is reflected in the success of local professional and college teams, the access provided to youth and education opportunities in related fields,” Powers said.

Interestingly, SmileHub tried to determine the most sports-loving states based on 20 key metrics.

“The data set ranges from the number of sports charities per capita to the number of professional team championship wins to revenue from sports betting per capita,” Powers wrote.

Here’s what that SmileHub computer spit out in determining that the best states are for sports lovers:

1. Ohio
2. New York
3. Illinois
4. California
5. Indiana
6. Pennsylvania
7. Colorado
8. Massachusetts
9. Iowa
10. Virginia

Other states of note

15. Kansas

27. Missouri

50. Hawaii

2. Did you know (Part 420)

That arachibutyrophobia is the fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth.
That omphalophobia is the fear or belly buttons.
That phobophobia is the fear of phobias.
That arithomophobia is the fear of numbers.
That MLB goes through about 900,000 baseballs every year at a price of $72 per dozen. That’s about $5.5 million spent on baseballs each season.

3. Some of the craziest street food you’ll find being sold on the sidewalks of the world:

Pig intestine skewers, Taiwan: Marinated and grilled on sticks. Reportedly, perfect as a “light snack”.

Barbecued chicken feet, Japan: Deep fried, grilled or even mixed in soup. Apparently, the chewy texture is quite appealing. Key word is apparently, and don’t forget to spit out the bones.

Fried crickets and scorpions, Thailand, Cambodia and parts of China: They’re usually sprinkled with salt or drizzled in chili or soy sauce. Well, of course they are.

Pig brain soup, Vietnam: With green onions and fish sauce. The brain has a creamy, custard-like texture. Supposedly, piping hot is best. Is there any other way?

Silkworm pupae, South Korea: They’re steamed or boiled and sold in paper cups. They have a strong smell and a nutty flavor, or so I’m told. (By the way, pupae are the third stage in the life cycle of a silkworm moth.)

Steve Thought O’ The Day — The only one of those street foods mentioned in Thought No. 3 I might even consider would be that pig brain concoction.