Evan and I checked out our Google analytics out for the first time since PBOM started, and we were quite impressed. Google analytics is an elaborate hit counter which tells us how many people come to our site, and from where (don't worry, it only tells us the city).

200 people visit our blog- not bad considering we're still pretty new- from 25 different countries-- places as unlikely as Uganda and Vietnam. But right now we'd like to honor our readers from Grand Forks, British Columbia (Canada) with a new series inspired by Stephen Colbert's Better Know a District-- Better Know a Readership. First up: Grand Forks.

With a population of just 4,000, Grand Forks is a little town on the Canadian-American border. Many of its inhabitants are descendent form the Doukhobors, a Russian religious minority persecuted by the Tsar. 

The Doukhobors believe that all humans can access God from within, and therefore reject all intermediaries, including the literal bible, the clergy, and the state. Under the rule of the Tsar, they vehemently rejected the opulence of the Russian Church and became committed pacifists. The Tsar tried assimilating the group through military conscription, and then by relocating them to what is now Georgia and Azerbaijan. These efforts failed, and in 1897 the Tsar agreed to let them leave the country.

With financing by Leo Tolstoy and the Quaker movement, the Doukhobors set sail from the Georgian port of Batumi first to Cyprus (climate was too pleasant) and then finally to Canada (more like Russia). They abhorred private land ownership, and eventually purchased land for communal living in Grand Forks, BC where they currently have their headquarters. Despite internal conflicts and protests (their preferred method: public nudity) against the state, by the close of the 20th century the Doukhobors seemed pleased with their new home in Canada. 

Here is to the good folks of Grand Forks! Thanks for reading.