Vowell: skepticism is patriotic!

The true American patriot is by definition skeptical of the government.

Sarah Vowell, The Partly Cloudy Patriot (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002), p. 158

Vowell sees her own hypocricies

My small life in the surface world is a contradictory,  hypocritical mess in which I scowl through newspaper articles about the abuses of the timber industry while sitting in my maple chair next to my maple bookcase. Isn't that how most of us live in this country?

Sarah Vowell, The Partly Cloudy Patriot (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002), p. 138

Nerdy even for nerdy Sarah Vowell

The political e-mail group might be the all-time nerdiest thing I've been involved in, and I say that as a person who had been involved in public radio and marching band.

Sarah Vowell, The Partly Cloudy Patriot (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002), p. 88

Messy US history

American history is a quagmire, and the more one knows, the quaggier the mire gets.

Sarah Vowell, The Partly Cloudy Patriot (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002), p. 156

Vowell ♥ research

For as long as I can remember, one thing that had always lifted my spirits is research. (In San Francisco, that sentence is supposed to end on the words "sailing," "gay sex," or "driving down to Carmel for the weekend.") I find looking things up consoling.

Sarah Vowell, The Partly Cloudy Patriot (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002), p. 69

Why Vowell likes French Revolution, Puritan New England & Civil War

The historical periods I like to learn about aren't so much costume dramas as slasher flicks. The French Revolution is a favorite because it features the beloved plot of carnage in service of democracy, but I prefer American history. And if I had to pick my pet domestic bloodbaths, nothing beats Salem or Gettysburg. I'm a sucker for Puritan New England and the Civil War.  Because those two subjects feature the central tension of American life, the conflict between freedom and community, between individual will and the public good.

Sarah Vowell, The Partly Cloudy Patriot (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002), p. 33

History of the New World in a mocha (Vowell)

The more history I learn, the more the world fills up with stories. Just the other day, I was in my neighborhood Starbucks . . .. I was enjoying a chocolatey caffé mocha when it occurred to me that to drink a mocha is to gulp down the entire history of the New World. From the Spanish exportation of Aztec cacao, and the Dutch invention of the chemical process for making cocoa, on down to the capitalist empire of Hershey, PA, and the lifestyle marketing of Seattle's Starbucks, the modern mocha is a bittersweet concoction of imperialism, genocide, invention, and consumerism served with whipped cream on top. No wonder it costs so much. 

Sarah Vowell, The Partly Cloudy Patriot (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002), p. 42

GWB: some doubt the promise & justice of the USA

While many of our citizens prosper, others doubt the promise, even the justice, of our own country. The ambitions of some Americans are limited by failing schools and hidden prejudice and the circumstances of their birth. And sometimes our differences run so deep, it seems we share a continent, but not a country.

George W. Bush, First Inaugural Address, quoted in Sarah Vowell, The Partly Cloudy Patriot (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002), p. 98; also available here.

LBJ wanted to library to include controversy

I tell Harry Middleton [the director of  the LBJ Presidential  Library] that I heard a rumor that in the initial exhibition at the LBJ library, there was little or no representation  of Vietnam and that the  president himself came to the  library and insisted that that part of the exhibition should be beefed up.

Middleton nods. "To a certain extent that's true. There was a representation of Vietnam. But nothing that showed the controversy of Vietnam. And when President Johnson walked through the library just before it was to open, one  of the things  that he  commented on was that the library did not indicate how contentious that time was. He said to me, 'That was a very  controversial period. We've got to make sure that people know that we understand that.' He said to me, 'I don't want another damn credibility gap.'"

Sarah Vowell, The Partly Cloudy Patriot (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002), p. 24

Vowell makes friends through nerdiness

Being a nerd, which is to say going too far and caring too much about a subject,  is the best way to make friends I know. For me, the spark that turns an acquaintance into a friend has usually been kindled by some shared enthusiasm like detective novels or Ulysses S. Grant.

Sarah Vowell, The Partly Cloudy Patriot (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002), p. 91

Vowell's motto: It could be worse

If I had to nail down the objective of my historical tourism, it's probably to collect evidence in support of my motto. And my motto in any situation is "It could be worse." . . . In my self-help universe, when things go wrong, I whisper mantras to myself, mantras like "Andersonville" or "Texas School Book Depository." "Andersonville" is a code word for "You could be one of the prisoners of war dying of disease and malnutrition in the worst Confederate prison, so just calm down about the movie you wanted to go to being sold out." "Texas School Book Depository" means that having the delivery guy forget the guacamole isn't nearly as bad as being assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald as the blood from your head stains your wife's pink suit. 

Sarah Vowell, The Partly Cloudy Patriot (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002), p. 40

Poor little TR?

"All little Teddy Roosevelt could do," my dad would say of the asthmatic rich boy, "was stay in bed and read." 

"Ew," said my sister. 

Sigh, said I. Getting to stay in bed and read all day was what I was shooting for.

Sarah Vowell, The Partly Cloudy Patriot (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002), p. 181