Thursday, January 8, 2015

Marmots and marshmallows: Spokane hits The New Yorker

Posted By on Thu, Jan 8, 2015 at 11:04 AM


People love it when Spokane pops up in popular culture, whether it's movie scenes from Benny & Joon or VisionQuest, or on TV in Z Nation. 

The latest, if a bit more "culture" than "pop"? I'm talking about an appearance in a new David Sedaris essay called "Leviathan" in the Jan. 5 issue of The New Yorker. In a passage in which Sedaris talks with a friend about his pet turtles, we get: 

"And you're giving them bread?" I said to Paul. It made me think of my first visit to Spokane, Washington. I was walking through the park that fronts the river and happened upon people feeding animals that resembled groundhogs. 
"What are these?" I asked a man who was kneeling with his arm outstretched.
"Marmots," he told me.
"And what do they eat?"
He reached into a bag he kept at his feet. "Marshmallows."
Read the whole story right here — you won't be sorry. 

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Dan Nailen

Dan Nailen is the former editor of the Inlander. He's previously written and edited for The Salt Lake Tribune, Salt Lake City Weekly, Missoula Independent, Salt Lake Magazine, The Oregonian and KUER-FM. He grew up seeing the country in an Air Force family and studied at the University of Utah and University of...