Adam Selzer: King of the Wild Frontier - Since you never see slugbugs anymore...

On the tour the other night, I invented a new game, which is entitled "Starbucks." You play by looking around for a Starbucks while driving - when you see one, you call out "Starbucks!" and buck the person next to you in the arm. I really must work this into the revisions of "Pirates of the Retail Wasteland." It was especially fun on a bus full of students last night.




Between tours today I picked up the new Bill Bryson book, which is memoir of growing up in Des Moines in the fiftied. I myself embarked on the adventure(?) of growing up in Des Moines, albeit some years later, so I've really been looking forward to this one. You can put me down for anything Bryson writes, really. In his first book, The Lost Continent, he mentioned the mall at which I used to hang out with the memorable phrase "Jack Kerouac, of all people, said the prettiest girls in the world are in Des Moines, but apparently he was never at Merle Hay Mall on a Saturday." My main hope for this would be some mention fo George the Chili King, a fine diner still in existenve, and he mentions it on page 21, this time with the memorable phrase "A George's chili burger was gone in minutes, but the farts went on forever."

No matter where I live for the rest of my life, I'll never be able to get away from being an Iowan. And that's okay.