Fugitives
‘Aunt Sally she's going to adopt me and sivilize me’
From Huck Finn to Pretty Boy Floyd, H. Rap Brown and Abbie Hoffman, their home is the road
‘Don’t look for us, Dog. We’ll find you first.’
The English word “fugitive,” which has been around for centuries, was adopted as a noun and as an adjective in the 14th century from the Latin adjective fugitiuus, which comes from the verb fugere, which means to flee. Notorious 14th century criminals include Adam the Leper, Eustace Folville and Robert de Hellewell — who refused to fight with England against the Scottish, went into hiding and on the “lam.” H. L. Mencken included the phrase, “on the lam,” which was used by criminals, in his book about the American language.
In the early 1970s I lived a kind of split-level life: I taught literature at a university, wrote essays and books, including an autobiography Out of the Whale, and kept an apartment in Manhattan; I also hung out with fugitives, including my wife, Eleanor, in New York and California.
I helped Jennifer Dohrn, Bernardine’s younger sister, disguise herself …
Everybody's Appalachian Protest Novel
Demon Copperfield is a phony
“I don’t know nothin’ ‘bout birthin’ babies,” says Barbara Kingsolver
NPR listeners are suckers for this crap
As Oscar Wilde and T. S. Eliot both wrote, “Talent borrows, genius steals.” To write her most recent novel, Demon Copperhead, her tenth in the past 35 years, Barbara Kingsolver didn’t exactly steal, but she turned for inspiration to Charles Dickens, whom she calls her “genius friend.” She turned specifically to his 1850 autobiographical fiction, David Copperfield, a Victorian rags-to-riches tale that exposed the plight of children who toiled in factories and women who labored in what's now called “the sex industry.” In doing so, she set herself up for a comparison in which she was bound to come out on the shitty end of the stick.
Dickens’ novel features a notorious villain named Uriah Heep. For ages, high school readers have learned to despise this antagonist who epitomizes malice. In the acknowledgements to her new novel, Kingsolver writes, “I’m grateful to Charles Dickens for …
Good-Golly, Glenn Annie!
The Lemon Twigs meet Harry Nilsson
Surfing big waves while drinking White Russians
Big Monkee Energy
The Glen Annie Golf Club bills itself as a “championship golf course with first class amenities situated in the rolling foothills of scenic Santa Barbara.” It’s “challenging,” with “breathtaking panoramic views.” With lush, rolling greens and charming wooden bridges, it sums itself up by promising “Exceptional Golf... Exceptional Service... Exceptional Value!”
The members of the band Glenn Annie think this description is pretty funny, which shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that’s heard them. Evan Blix, the band’s lead singer and songwriter, has worked near the golf club for years. Driving past its sign over and over again, Blix found that the name became “detached” from the course, he told County Highway. Eventually, it became a band (with an extra N tacked on).
Glenn Annie the band is about as detached from a stuffy golf course as any group of people could possibly be. They’re surfers who …
