Monday Morning Cage Match XXI:The Battle of Georgia commences.

So the big move went off more or less without a hitch, and here I am, back in Columbus, Georgia, occupying space at my parents' house and charging full speed ahead into the process of trying to figure out what to do next. I suppose I can fool somebody into offering me a job eventually, but for right now I guess I'm kind of like the unemployed, living-with-my-parents version of Don Draper from "Mad Men."

Living at home and desperately searching for work is, with all due respect to my fine parents, not quite where I'd hoped to end up at age 31. But there is something comforting about being back in the familiar, warm embrace of Columbus, Georgia, where most of the front license plates bear the UGA logo as opposed to Alabama or Auburn and the civic corruption has a lean, efficient air of professionalism that Birmingham just hasn't mastered yet. To some extent that warm embrace is kind of like the illusory feeling of warmth you get right before you fall asleep and die of hypothermia, but I'm going to try not to think about anything quite that morbid for the time being. Instead, it's time to take stock of my new (or at least certified pre-owned) surroundings and compare my home state to the other entity claiming its name: State of Georgia vs. Former Soviet Republic of Georgia. Lets git 'er done, or as they might say in Tbilisi, სამაგიეროს მისი გადახდა:

	(State of) Georgia	(Republic of) Georgia
Founded	January 2, 1788	April 9, 1991
WINNER: State
Land area	59,425 sq. mi.	26,916 sq. mi.
WINNER: State
Population	9,685,744	4,260,000
WINNER: State
Ever been invaded by Russia?	No	Yes
WINNER: State
Ever been dominated by Florida?	(sigh) Yes	No
WINNER: Republic
Folk hero	Herschel Walker, Heisman Trophy winner	Kakutsa Cholokashvili, leader of the guerrilla resistance against the Bolshevik regime in the 1920s
WINNER: Tie
Representative cuisine	Barbecue, chicken fingers, beer	Muzhuzhi, khinkali dumplings, homemade vodka
WINNER: State

FINAL SCORE: State of Georgia 6, Republic of Georgia 2. Nothing against our namesake neighbors to the east, but this one wasn't really close.