Grapes of Wrath, Illinois

Grapes of Wrath is mostly about dust. Dust comes in many forms. Dust in your home is predominately made up of you, the dead you, the shed you. Grapes of Wrath is about dead people. Dead in the water, without water, yearning water. All stuck in a doldrums. Grapes of Wrath is also about the Bank. The liquidation Bank. And the dust soaks it right up and passes it through without a thought, like a gold-panners sieve. It leaves the characters and their kin in migrating death throws like ship sturgeon in the Aral Sea.

Oh, apparently the word "hubbub" is not commonly used in Illinois. And, in the hand state I have never heard anyone describe a half-gallon jug of liquor as a "handle". But, those Illini do. Weirdos. Their campus is bisected by the city limit of Urbana, IL on the east and Champaign, IL on the west. It is like Cold War Germany, or a ying-yang, but more amicable.

The most entertaining thing to hear is a person being described as a resident of either town. "You know Chet, right? Buzzed brown hair, glasses, from Urbana." And from that brief description another student of UofI could make an accurate assumption of their general behaviors, financial situation, social network, at least one movie from their top five all time favorites, and major of study as if they had already facebook stalked them. I have not noticed this as strongly on any other campus. Silly bunts, with their underground libraries, and the nation's oldest agricultural experimental farm plot.