Somewhere in North Dakota or South Dakota
It is possible to grasp just how enormous a country the United States is with the use of an atlas. And yet, without traveling across it outside of an airplane, one is hard pressed to translate that understanding into anything concrete. I am reminded often of an English friend of mine who, upon discovering that I would be spending the summer in Washington, D.C., said, casually, “I’ll be in America, too. My first time! We must get dinner.” I later learned that he was set to work in Los Angeles. He never called.
Attempts to …
This article appears as “Consider the Varmint” in the July 29, 2019, print edition of National Review.