Oxford American # 33, May/June 2000

COLUMNS & DEPARTMENTS

Dealer's Choice
by Hal Crowther

Meditations for Bad Girls
by Vicki Covington

Gone off up North
by Roy Blount Jr.

Local Fare:
OUR DAILY BREAD
The biscuit, manna of the South, can be just as good coming through a fast-food window
by John T. Edge

A Southerner Abroad:
Learning to Be at Peace with War
War may be hell, but the “operations other than war” in Kosovo were sometimes disturbingly. . . fun
by Bob Shacochis

Legal:
Old Sparky
A brief history of Florida’s legendary electric chair
by Diane Roberts

Talkies:
Brother, Can You Spare the Time?
George Clooney, friend of the common man, comes to Mississippi as part of a new Coen brothers’ movie
by James Hughes

Comics
by P. Revess

The Writing Life:
Everyone's a Critic
Creative writing workshops are not for the faint of heart
by Andrea King Collier

Southern Music:
The Man That Rode the Mule around the World
North Carolina crooner Charlie Poole shone briefly in the spotlight
by Tom Piazza

SERIAL

A Painted House
Looking through windows and listening at doors, Luke is burdened with new secrets. Part Three.
by John Grisham

FEATURES

Diaries of a Country Priest
Thomas Merton’s seven-volume journals illuminate the spiritual journey of a truly modern monk.
by John Jeremiah Sullivan

My 50 Marriages
In Florida any employee of the Clerk of Courts can marry couples, even if like Steven Barthelme in “I Do, I Do” (pg. 54), they’re only doing it for the health insurance.
by Gary White

SHORT STORY

Reaffirmation
The hardest part of love is keeping the object of your affection from escaping
by John McManus

POETRY

Self-Portrait in a Borrowed Cabin, by Jane Hirshfield

In Horsehide Shoes, Fleur Hobbs Eats Cheese, Drinks Chinese Beers, & Laments the Nature of Her One Arrest
by R. T. Smith



Cover: “Eve" by Terry Rowlett