La Grange

Fri, Jun 15, 2012

Highway 71 between Austin and I10 is America in all its glory. Things I saw:

• Teenager in a Joy Division t-shirt, walking on the side of the road toward Austin with sun-dazed eyes.

• Fresh deer carcass, ungralloched.

• A viewing stand constructed to survey, as far as I could tell, miles of excavation and burnt pine.

• A billboard for a resort just outside of Austin showing a roll of toilet paper on a stick.

• Country.

At a reception, a visiting British academic in Houston made a commiserative gesture about the ten-hour overnight flight to a supporter of the arts who was on his way to London, only to be told that it wasn’t that bad—his jet’s bedroom was quite comfortable. Just one of the jewels you can pick up in the handsome UT archive.