Blogcritics The critical lens on today's culture & entertainment
Recently I was listening to Sarah Vowell’s brilliant new non-fiction book, Assassination Vacation, while driving. She said so many things that are funny and insightful, but I particularly perked up when I heard her say this: “I can never decide if Maryland is off-beat or off-putting.”
She went on to explain that the Maryland state song “Maryland, My Maryland!”contains references critical of Lincoln and the union and favorable to confederates. Oh, and she says the “despot” it refers to is Lincoln. And yet the song wasn’t adopted until the 1930s.
Perhaps it’s time to get rid of the song.
You can listen to an excerpt from the book where she talks about this issue here.
Meanwhile,here’s Vowell’s bio and some samples of her writing. Reading those, it won’t be hard to understand my crush on this woman. She’s funny, she’s eloquent, she’s fascinating, etc.
Oh and she played Violet in The Incredibles as well as doing amazing radio essays for This American Life.
Ed/Pub:LM
