Reading America: Main Street

My copy of Main Street is thoroughly dog eared from reading and rereading.

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 satire, both cruel and kind. The side-by-side descriptions of Carol’s assessment of her new home and that of her soon-to-be maid, farm girl Bea Sorenson, is a delicious lesson in perspective.

Main Street was my textbook and cautionary tale when I moved from New York City to Dallas, Texas. Of course, Dallas is no Gopher Prairie, but it’s all a matter of perspective.

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When Planning a Trip, Do Local Politics Matter?

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 me wondering how much local politics play a role in other people’s travel choices. Have you ever put the kibosh on a trip because you didn’t like the politics of the place?

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For the Love of Her State: A Kansas Day Tour

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.) So, to celebrate Kansas Day and the state’s 148th birthday today, I give you Jodi and her recommendations for the ultimate Kansas experience:

OK, let’s see. I think the best way to do this is, if I were planning a driving trip through the state, starting after you fly into Kansas City (Missouri), what three things should people see or do? I don’t know if I can limit it to three things, but I will try (I might cheat).

1) Oklahoma Joe’s Barbecue, Kansas City, Kansas. I think it is the best barbecue in the state. Plus it sits in a gas station.

2) Driving west, you’ll come to Lawrence. The downtown is historic for being burned down by Quantrill’s raiders from Missouri during the Civil War. Stop at the campus of the University of Kansas to visit famous Allen Fieldhouse, home of the National Champion Kansas Jayhawks and the Booth Family Hall of Athletics, celebrating famous Kansas athletes.

2a) If you’re not a sports fan, bypass Lawrence and head to Topeka. The Kansas History Museum has a lovely exhibit on the development of our state from prehistoric times through today.

3) Continue west to Hutchinson. It’s a nice central Kansas town. (On the way, you should stop to stretch your legs at the Eisenhower Presidential Library in Abilene.) In Hutch, visit the Kansas Cosmosphere, which really is almost as cool as the National Air & Space museum in D.C. Stay at the Hedricks Exotic Animal Farm and B & B, just outside of town—I have never seen anything like it anywhere else in the wide world, and the owners are super nice.

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Maybe Meteor Crater Deserves Another Look

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 cooler when we saw it from an airplane.

But the New York Times has exposed us us as philistines in this story about the crater’s wonders. Guess we’d better return with the proper attitude.

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Nevada's Brothels Only Want To Help

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 that while prostitution is legal in some Nevada counties, “no county allows brothels to have men who sell sexual services.” She calls this discrimination and a lost business opportunity.

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Nevada’s Brothels Only Want To Help

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 that while prostitution is legal in some Nevada counties, “no county allows brothels to have men who sell sexual services.” She calls this discrimination and a lost business opportunity.

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Reading America: The Scavenger's Guide to Haute Cuisine

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 Haute Cuisine is not new new new. I know that. Please don’t yap at me about how I’m acting like I’ve made some major discovery on my own. I admit to being unfashionably late on this one. But, as much as the magazine world I work in demands it, I’ve never been a big believer in it’s got to be new to be good (or to be written about) so, expect to see some aging titles get the spotlight here.

All too simply, “Scavenger” is the story of the author’s year-long quest to go around the U.S. hunting and gathering the ingredients necessary for a 45-course meal prepared from an old French cookbook. When I plucked “Scavenger” off my bookshelf, I knew enough about it to believe that I was in for a, most likely, good to really good foodie-ish read and that I’d learn plenty about hunting. I hadn’t really thought about the travel side of it, the place side of it. It was a forest/trees thing. Yet, place is exactly what author Steven Rinella serves up best (along with a you-are-there description of frog-gigging and plenty of humor to offset, well, the frog-gigging). In the book, he often talks about “glassing” the land to look for animals. That’s what I felt like I was doing as I read—I was taking a good close scan of a huge swath of land and figuring out where I wanted to go and what I needed to do next.

First up on my dream to-do list from the book: Meet the Eel Man.

So, did you read it? What did you think?

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Reading America: The Scavenger’s Guide to Haute Cuisine

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 Haute Cuisine is not new new new. I know that. Please don’t yap at me about how I’m acting like I’ve made some major discovery on my own. I admit to being unfashionably late on this one. But, as much as the magazine world I work in demands it, I’ve never been a big believer in it’s got to be new to be good (or to be written about) so, expect to see some aging titles get the spotlight here.

All too simply, “Scavenger” is the story of the author’s year-long quest to go around the U.S. hunting and gathering the ingredients necessary for a 45-course meal prepared from an old French cookbook. When I plucked “Scavenger” off my bookshelf, I knew enough about it to believe that I was in for a, most likely, good to really good foodie-ish read and that I’d learn plenty about hunting. I hadn’t really thought about the travel side of it, the place side of it. It was a forest/trees thing. Yet, place is exactly what author Steven Rinella serves up best (along with a you-are-there description of frog-gigging and plenty of humor to offset, well, the frog-gigging). In the book, he often talks about “glassing” the land to look for animals. That’s what I felt like I was doing as I read—I was taking a good close scan of a huge swath of land and figuring out where I wanted to go and what I needed to do next.

First up on my dream to-do list from the book: Meet the Eel Man.

So, did you read it? What did you think?

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State-by-State Home Improvement

Photo by Jenna Schnuer

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 home. This is some of it …

Factory-second Fiesta disc pitcher. Bear-shaped lamp carved by a chainsaw artist and shipped home from the Anchorage Saturday Market. Four fur-trimmed tiny dolls (which are nowhere as creepy or, even, as doll-like as that sounds). Promotional clock made from a buzzsaw blade (and purchased on a hot Alabama day along the route of the World’s Longest Yardsale). Lunchbox with a horse painted on the side. Yarn. More yarn. Yarn made from dog hair (also not as creepy as it sounds). Paintings by a Michigan artist who usually creates carvings. Pottery made in Tennessee. Pottery made in Kentucky. A box of prescription slips written in the 1950s in Gadsden, Alabama. A wooden figurine of a door-to-door salesman (and purchased at a Chicagoland swap meet). Six tiny boxes made in India but purchased in my favorite store in all of Nashville. Four handmade flint marbles. An Ulu knife. A bought-in-Anchorage but made-in-China plane model that looks like the float plane I flew to my first fly-fishing experience. A cherry wood bowl. Vintage (no, just old) bluebird-shaped salt-and-pepper shakers (one with the, I think, original cork plug). A used lobster buoy from Deer Isle, Maine (need to return there soon). A mermaid-shaped hook to hang the lobster buoy. Six old glass soda bottles. One old glass milk bottle. A 1940s laundry cart (retired from laundry, now it holds books). A wooden bottle carved out of Hawaiian driftwood. A basket woven from Hawaiian grasses. A gourd-turned-flour scoop. Some magnets. A Rock City spoon rest. Bear bells.

If I had any sort of singing voice, I’d try to set it all to R.E.M.‘s It’s the End of the World as We Know It and post some audio. (It’s the end of good taste as you know it?) Lucky for you, I won’t pretend I do. And, no, I’m not as crazy or tacky as my stuff makes me sound. Somehow, it all works. Or so my friends tell me.

So, what have you hauled home from our 50?

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When Is Gas Station Food Better Than Restaurant Food?

Photo by Editor B via Flickr

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 my digestive tract could tolerate. Any time anyone waxes envious about my glamorous travel writing life, I tell them about that trip.

The best advice I have, should you happen to find yourself dining in a Shreveport casino: Stick to the home cooking station. The next best advice: Avoid the pizza. The next next best advice: Ditto the Chinese food. The best best advice: Eat elsewhere. But you probably knew that.

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