THIS AIN'T NEWS, OR: WHY I LOVE OREGON, BIKING NUDE IS LEGAL, THE FAMILY THAT LIVES TOGETHER ROTS TOGETHER, AUTHOR RELEASES GREATEST HITS--BECOMES NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST

Here’s this week’s news for the weird.

My reasons for loving Oregon continue to pile up, despite the sagging job market and influx of hipsters.

While the rest of the country was debating whether or not they were ready for a black president, the small town of Silverton City, OR was busy electing the nation’s first openly transgender mayor.

In related news, a judge has ruled that biking without clothes in Oregon is not only totally within the realm of the law but ‘a well-established tradition.’

But enough about Portland, let’s turn our attention to the affluent suburb of Evanston, Illinois. Evanston is a beautiful lake suburb just north of Chicago where I also happened to work from 2006 to June of this year. The city is clean, overwhelmingly white, affluent, home to Northwestern University, and home to Daniel Valera. Who is Margaret Bernstorff? Well, I’m glad you asked! Margaret Bernstorff is a 94 year old woman who has been taken into state care after police found the bodies of her three siblings in the upstairs of her house. The first sibling died in the 1970s, followed by another in 2003, and the last sister died this May . All of the siblings died of natural causes, and it’s clear they were a close-knit family. I just wonder if they were also fans of William Faulkner .

Finally, a more light-hearted story that may only be of interest to my fellow writers out there. Controversy ‘rocked’ the literary world this week when it was announced that author Peter Matthiessen’s Shadow Country is a finalist for the National Book Award. Okay, there’s nothing strange about that I hear you say, except that Shadow Country isn’t technically a ‘new book.’ The book is composed of three early novels that Matthiessen combined, edited, rewrote, and published in this one volume. Matthiessen states that he was never happy with the second and third volumes of his trilogy and that he set out to rewrite the books for himself without knowing if a publisher would touch the new volume. Proof, once again, that when it comes to creative work sometimes you just have to trust your instinct.

Have strange news to share? Feel free to leave me a hyperlink in the “comments” below.





Comment?

  1. I loved Matheissen’s Snow Leopard – though it gets pretty depressing midway through when he’s not finding the leopard and his dead wife keeps haunting him… But gorgeously written!

    by bran at 11/14/2008 #

  2. I had no idea that you had read him. This ‘controversy’ around “Shadow Country” really makes me want to read it. I think the idea of an author in his 80s revisiting earlier work and “correcting” it is interesting. Although, one runs the risk of pulling a Tori Amos and sucking all the life out of what made you famous in the first place, but I still think it could be done with great success.

    by John at 11/14/2008 #

  3. Look at Whitmann and Leaves of Grass – revised it throughout his lifetime, regardless of the number of times it had to be reprinted to account for the revisions. Seems like Mark Twain did it, too. Of course, it’s not uncommon in Non-Fiction, either. But I’ve admired the authors who’ve done it well: Seems like, generally, if they’ve gone to the trouble of revising a peice, they have made it better. Now Tori…

    by bran at 11/14/2008 #

  4. Oh: Snow Leopard should be on the bookshelf in the dining room. Top shelf.

    by bran at 11/14/2008 #
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