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  • Checagou

    By Oronte July 30, 2007 5:31 pm

    Poet Rory commented on my previous posting’s line about “newcomer Chicago with her wild-onion breath,” only deepening what is probably a mystery, I now realize, for most readers. Rory grew up in what we call the American Bottom, a stretch of Illinois riverbank along the Mississippi River, which he wishes was Southern Illinois but is several counties too far north. Nonetheless, he understands the allusion.

    To know what Rory knows, have a look at this travel piece on Chicago I wrote a while back for Place: The Magazine.

    Before you go, here’s another picture of that saber-toothed spider that Starbuck and I found in a sandstone cave. I’m sure you understand why it’s blurry. When the thing is big enough to require red-eye reduction on your camera’s flash, you don’t want to spend too much time near it.

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Comments on Checagou

  • Poor Churm and His Maps
  • Posted by Rory on July 31, 2007 at 4:20am EDT

  • It's sad when a poet has to play his cartography card. Fun when he gets to whack it upside Churm's overlarge head. First, only a Little Egyptian would claim the mantel of southern Illinois as his and his alone. Predictable and predictably self-serving. Second, American Bottom is not "several counties north" of Churm's holy land. The northeastern most county on the Little Egypt map is Randolph. American Bottom is primarily the westernmost parts of Madison and St. Clair County, but St. Clair County and Randolph County share a border, which automatically means Churm has to pucker up. But it gets better. (Somebody wake up Churm and get his markers and construction paper out for him.) The Kaskaskia River marks the southern boundary of American Bottom. Guess what? The Kaskaskia River dumps into the Mississippi River in, yes, Randolph County, which means that American Bottom and Little Egypt share some land. Churm and I are practically brothers. Little Egypt, Bottom loves you.

  • Buttering the Churm
  • Posted by Rory on July 31, 2007 at 4:20am EDT

  • Despite my problems with Churm's crazy map, he and I are in full agreement that his Chicago essay--full of funny jabs, literary flourishes of the first order, and insights befitting a seasoned king--is a masterpiece. I won't be surprised if it wins this decade's Coalminer's Finger for best treatment of the new town up north.

  • Amendment to Churm's Maps
  • Posted by Rory on July 31, 2007 at 9:00am EDT

  • Before Churm, magic markers flying, gets all excited and writes 5000 words about cave markings that may or may not presage The Coming of the Whopper, Randolph County occupies the northwesternmost spot on the Little Egypt map, not the northeasternmost spot. That would something rubbing up against, yuck, Indiana.

  • Of course poets are profligate
  • Posted by Oronte on July 31, 2007 at 9:20am EDT

  • ...but do you stay drunk ALL day long?

  • That's it?
  • Posted by Rory on July 31, 2007 at 10:50am EDT

  • That's all you got, Tut? The answer to your question is no. Not all day long.

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