Maybe It Isn't All Bad

Friends,

After following Tom's link to Narrative Magazine and Robert Olen Butler's short short theory on the short short story, I learned something damned interesting.

See the little bio under Mr. Butler said he was born in Illinois. Whenever you see "born in Illinois" in a bio, that's shorthand for "someplace that's not Chicago that you, the general public, never heard of." So I was intrigued because, well, I like it when Illinoisans who are not Chicagoans make it big.

And, well, at least according to the irrefutable wikipedia and their page on Robert Olen Butler he was born in Granite City, Illinois. My home town. I'll be damned. I never knew that. A Pulitzer Prize winning author born in my back yard. I know! Who knew? Granite City?! No shit, right? There's not a sign anywhere or anything. I think there should be and while a majority of my town could give a shit, there's still a sign up concerning how Ed Schroeder won that Disney Teacher of the Year award in the early 90s...so why not a Pulitzer sign someplace?

Of course, it does say "born in Granite City" so the actual length of stay in Granite City may have been quite brief and he may not have put in the 20 plus years I did kicking around there. But still, it's pretty cool that he was born in my home town.

viva el mustache