Hometown reaction to big city writing coup

Being published in The New Yorker was a milestone for [James] Wilcox—an affirmation, of sorts—and he happily sent a copy of the magazine to his parents. But the piece didn't exactly cause a stir in Hammond, Louisiana. "Jimmy sure has good punctuation" was one neighbor's only comment.

James B. Stewart, "Moby Dick in Manhattan," in David Remnick, ed., The New Gilded Age: The New Yorker Looks at the Culture of Affluence (New York: Random House, 2000), pp. 247-48