Among my introductions to the flyover states was Sinclair Lewis’ 1920 novel Main Street, which is my all-time favorite book. I reread it at least every other year.
The story of urbane Carol Kennicott’s grudging adjustment to Gopher Prairie, Minnesota after she marries the town’s doctor (and the town’s grudging adjustment to her) is pitch-perfect social [...]
Monthly Archive for January, 2009
No, you didn’t imagine that loud (and long-lasting) yay coming from Nashville on Jan. 22. It was the sound of the city’s English-only? seriously? contingent celebrating after the ridiculous measure was defeated in a (costly) special election.
While nothing could come between me and my Nashville (cause it’s a pretty damned fantastic city), it did get [...]
For the Love of Her State: A Kansas Day Tour
Posted in Do, Eat and Drink, Go, Kansas, Meet on Jan 29th, 2009
Nobody loves Kansas the way my friend Jodi Rosenberg loves Kansas. At least, nobody I know. She grew up there. She moved away for some years. She moved back. And she’s been talking Kansas up to me from the moment we met at college, 20 years ago. (And, yes, Jodi—I’ll be there soon. I promise.) [...]
Meteor Crater in Arizona seemed a very long way off the highway. By the time my husband and I reached it and paid our $15 each admission, we could only agree with the little boy who, standing crater-side with us, turned to his mother and said accusingly, “It’s just a big hole.” Truly, it looked [...]
Tourism and other forms of revenue are dropping off in Nevada and so the state’s brothels are offering to help out by paying their fair share of taxes, the New York Times reports. The state is not jumping to accept. Over at “The New Republic,” Michelle Cottle read the story and was intrigued to note [...]
Reading America: The Scavenger’s Guide to Haute Cuisine
Posted in Read on Jan 26th, 2009
I’m a cliché. I admit it. No matter how many other America-related books I read, Travels with Charley in Search of America remains my favorite. But, this week, a young upstart gave Mr. Steinbeck a little butt pat, a little hey I’m here on my yeah, I like this one list.
Now, The Scavenger’s Guide to [...]
State-by-State Home Improvement
Posted in Alabama, Alaska, Buy, Discuss, Hawaii, Kentucky, Maine, Tennessee on Jan 22nd, 2009
Yeah, there are a few things here and there from places far, far away but, looking around my apartment, I realized that most of my art/knickknacks/stuff was hauled home in my carry-on, checked baggage or the trunk of a rental car from a trip to one of the 50. OK, I shipped the bear lamp [...]
When Is Gas Station Food Better Than Restaurant Food?
Posted in Eat and Drink, Louisiana on Jan 20th, 2009
Next time I go to Louisiana, I’m bringing along this article, by writer Nathan Stubbs, about great Cajun cooking in Acadiana gas stations and convenience stores. Sounds like I’ll eat a thousand times better than I did on my last trip to Louisiana, when my assignment was to sample as many Shreveport casino buffets as [...]
I live in Texas and every now and then I get nostalgic for real winters. “I miss snow,” I’ll say to my husband, who grew up in Illinois and knows from snow.
And he always says the same thing: “That’s because you never had to shovel a driveway.”
Yes, OK. I grew up in a New York [...]
“You the lady from New York?”
A loaded question if ever there was one. It’s drenched in the expectation that I’m some sort of big city snob out to prove that life outside NYC is no life at all.
But, once again, the question. This time it came in the Monroe County Marble Super Dome in Tompkinsville, [...]
