Surveys such as those that rank cities’ boredom quotient need to be taken with a grain of salt or, perhaps, a pile of manure.

A website called Movato Blog has rated Lubbock the most boring city in America.

http://www.movoto.com/blog/top-ten/most-boring-cities-in-america/

OK, that snickering and chuckling you might be hearing is coming from Amarillo residents who might tell you they’ve known all along that Lubbock is as boring as the drive between the two cities.

I would caution my fellow Amarillo residents to resist poking too much fun at our southerly neighbors. It might be that the Movato Blog “researchers” never had heard of Amarillo — which might tell us all something about where we rank on people’s attention meter.

My sense is to stick up just a bit for Lubbock. I have some good friends who live there. I do not want to denigrate their city any more than I would them to do the same for mine.

As one good friend said in response to a column by my pal Chip Chandler’s recent piece in the Amarillo Globe-News, in which he called Lubbock the “seventh circle of hell”: “Lubbock gets first-rate concerts, while Amarillo gets first-rate tractor pulls.”

Ouch!

Lubbock did lure a pretty fair musician to play there in a few days. Perhaps you’ve heard of Sir Paul McCartney, who’s opening the U.S. leg of his world tour in Buddy Holly’s birthplace; Sir Paul wants to pay tribute to someone who had such a huge influence on his own pretty fair music career.

But I digress.

Movato said Lubbock’s dining stinks. Its nightlife is just OK. Entertainment venues are lousy.

I would encourage you to scroll through the Top 10 Boring Cities list for yourself. Determine whether you agree with Lubbock’s characterization as a boring place.

Me? I like the city. What’s more, during college football season, you can feast on excellent barbecue outside of Texas Tech’s stadium on game day. Ask any West Texan you know: That ain’t boring.