Word: plaines
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Cities of the Plain (Knopf; 293 pages; $24) is the concluding novel of Cormac McCarthy's Border Trilogy. Like All the Pretty Horses, winner of the 1992 National Book Award for Fiction, and The Crossing, published two years later, Cities tells the story of cowboy John Grady Cole and his trailmates as they drift south of the border to find respite from modern encroachments. The time is 1952, about when pickups started looking prettier than horses. The starting place is New Mexico, nursery to the atomic...
...movie's emblematic sequence, a horse named Pilgrim and an actor-director named Robert Redford stare at each other--the former nervously, the latter reassuringly. They're both handsome creatures, and the high Montana plain where this confrontation takes place is pretty too. But really, folks--endless minutes of screen time devoted to this silent, essentially motionless sequence? You get the feeling that someone is indulging himself and that his name isn't Pilgrim...
...Food Beirut" differs in that the cups are filled with semi-edible leftovers from the freezer mixed together in a blender. Plain "Beirut" is played by everyone; "Food Beirut" is played only by pledges who must engage in the activity until they all puke...
...nicotine and tar apparently makes some students nervous. While some smokers are eager to discuss tobacco culture, most are reluctant to reveal their names. They give different reasons for requesting anonymity, among them a fear of mothers who read FM, fear of harassment by health insurance companies and just plain embarrassment. Some didn't want their friends to read about their smoking habits; others were simply ashamed...
Appearances matter--and mostly due to wardrobe. "Pretty" or "plain," "skinny" or "plump," changing how one dresses will do much to radically shape the reactions of others...