Nineteenth Century E-Harmony

Thoreau the spinster-poet. In the year 1850, when Henry reached the age of thirty-three, Emily Dickinson in nearby Amherst became twenty. Somebody should have brought the two together. They might have hit it off. I imagine this scene, however, immediately following the honeymoon:

EMILY (raising her pen)
Henry, you haven't taken out the garbage.

HENRY (raising his flute)
Take it out yourself.

-Edward Abbey, Down the River

Ah yes, as if I needed a reminder of why I am an Abbey fan. His hilarity delights me. I was flipping through my old copy I had given to Alex as a gift and re-reading selections. Brandon was looking for a new book now that he is finished with The Host. I dug up Down the River and begged him to read it, telling him all about how it made me go into Oprah's "ugly cry". He goes downstairs for an hour with the book and comes back up and hands it back to me.


BRANDON (gesturing with book)
I think it's good but I don't really get it. I don't have a big enough... what do you call it when there are a lot of big words?

ALANA (furrowing her brow)
Vocabulary?

That, my friends, is a true story.

Never a dull moment.


While we're talking about Glen Canyon:

What a loss!
But what's done is done.
AND... It's how the West was won!
Well, that and the Winchester 30-30.
If you like your life here in the desert,
your Hollywood movies,
or your oranges from the San Joaquin,
THANK A DAM.