we live in a suburban area that isn't really near an urban area... it's just larger and smaller suburbs supporting themselves. the nearest urban stuff is well over an hour away, and that's if you're driving fast. there's a major inlet between here and the next county south, and the nearest "big suburb" like hours is south of that, so there is a lot of... not rural, but just undeveloped seashore stuff there. lots of huge strange beachside houses. some think they're on the Faubourg St-Germain and some think they're the Alhambra. Lots of bushy palmtrees and dry brown fields. so sometimes we go driving down there, because it's the closest we have to a lonely strip of desert highway and an american dream, and sometimes the weather compels that sort of behavior, right? :)

and your entries deserve a response so i feel bad when i've thought of one that i keep to myself! i like the articles. i read salon and plastic on my own - plastic is a good place to pick up new stories, but you usually get them even before they do.