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The partly cloudy patriot / Sarah Vowell.
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Vowell, Sarah, 1969-
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Vowell, Sarah, 1969-.
- Politics and government.
- United States--History--Anecdotes.
- United States.
- History.
- United States--Politics and government--Anecdotes.
- United States--Description and travel--Anecdotes.
- National characteristics, American--Anecdotes.
- National characteristics, American.
- Vowell, Sarah, 1969---Anecdotes.
- Vowell, Sarah.
- Travel.
- Genre:
- Anecdotes.
- History.
- Physical Description:
- 197 pages : illustrations ; 21 cm
- Place of Publication:
- New York : Simon & Schuster, [2003]
- Summary:
- Sarah Vowell travels through the American past and, in doing so, investigates the dusty, bumpy roads of her own life. In this insightful and funny collection of personal stories Vowell -- widely hailed for her inimitable stories on public radio's This American Life -- ponders a number of curious questions: Why is she happiest when visiting the sites of bloody struggles like Salem or Gettysburg? Why do people always inappropriately compare themselves to Rosa Parks? Why is a bad life in sunny California so much worse than a bad life anywhere else? What is it about the Zen of foul shots? And, in the title piece, why must doubt and internal arguments haunt the sleepless nights of the true patriot? Her essays confront a wide range of subjects, themes, icons, and historical moments: Ike, Teddy Roosevelt, and Bill Clinton; Canadian Mounties and German filmmakers; Tom Cruise and Buffy the Vampire Slayer; twins and nerds; the Gettysburg Address, the State of the Union, and George W. Bush's inauguration. The result is a teeming and engrossing book, capturing Vowell's memorable wit and her keen social commentary.
- Contents:
- What He Said There 1
- The First Thanksgiving 9
- Ike Was a Handsome Man 17
- God Will Give You Blood to Drink in a Souvenir Shot Glass 31
- The New German Cinema 43
- Democracy and Things Like That 47
- Pop-A-Shot 61
- California as an Island 67
- Dear Dead Congressman 79
- The Nerd Voice 87
- Rosa Parks, C'est Moi 119
- Tom Cruise Makes Me Nervous 125
- Underground Lunchroom 131
- Wonder Twins 141
- Cowboys v. Mounties 147
- The Partly Cloudy Patriot 155
- State of the Union 173
- Tom Landry, Existentialist, Dead at 75 177
- The Strenuous Life 181.
- Notes:
- Reprint. Originally published in 2002.
- ISBN:
- 0743243803
- 9780743243803
- OCLC:
- 664759649
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