Defining “nearby” in Big Sky Country

Got a note from a Spokane friend who grew up in Montana.

He is a graduate of the University of Montana and he watched his alma mater’s basketball team playing in Missoula on TV last night.

“I was taken aback when the ESPN announcer was talking about Derek Selvig from ‘nearby’ Eastern Montana,” he wrote. “Selvig is from Glendive, 567 miles away. That’s farther away from Missoula than ‘nearby’ Salt Lake City and just little closer than ‘nearby’ Edmonton, Alberta.”