likeafallenwomanwhositsaloneinadarkroomtry-ingnottothinkaboutherpast,

I’m trying to explain the way part of the horror of the Horror was knowing that whatever America the men in those planes hated so much was far more my own – mine, and F–’s, and poor old loathsome Duane’s – than these ladies’.

It always seems to be important to have at least one person to hate.

one couple almost seeming (unverifiable) to be hugging each other as they fell all those stories and shrank back to dots as the camera then all of a sudden pulled back to the long view

(long story)

Here, therefore, to have a home without a TV is to become a kind of constant and Kramer-like presence in others’ homes,

… …

– plus I suppose your basic parades, fireworks and a couple corn festivals –

To be honest, it can be a little creepy, especially in high summer when nobody’s out and all that green just sits in the heat and seethes.

(People here are deeply into lawn-care; my neighbors tend to mow about as often as they shave.)

The town itself in summer is intensely green – streets bathed in tree-shade and homes’ explosive gardens and area-code-size parks and golf courses you almost need eye-protection to look at, and row upon row of broad weedless fertilized lawns all lined up flush to the sidewalk with special edging tools.

which grows steroidically and stretches to the earth’s curve in all directions.

Bloomington’s a little like a seaside community except the ocean here is corn

“The flag is a pseudo-archetype, a reflexive semion designed to pre-empt and negate the critical function” (grad student).

Stealing one out of somebody’s yard is clearly out of the question.

it sounds the way light surf sounds when you’re two dunes back from it

some yards have dozens all over as if they’d somehow sprouted overnight

the kind whose brace takes four Phillips screws.

athwart