Why I Hate The Wizard of Oz

Imagine having the land of your birth, a place about which you feel complex and wildly ambivalent feelings, reduced to a banal cartoon. You meet someone, and out of nowhere, this well-meaning stranger flashes a hideous smile and asks, Where\u27s Toto? Oh, that\u27s right, we\u27re not in Kansas anymore ..

Dragging Wyatt Earp

Publisher's comments: "In Dragging Wyatt Earp essayist Robert Rebein explores what it means to grow up in, leave, and ultimately return to the iconic Western town of Dodge City, Kansas. In chapters ranging from memoir to reportage to revisionist history, Rebein contrasts his hometown’s Old West heritage with a New West reality that includes salvage yards, beefpacking plants, and bored teenagers cruising up and down Wyatt Earp Boulevard. Along the way, Rebein covers a vast expanse of place and time and revisits a number of Western myths, including those surrounding Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, the Cheyenne chief Black Kettle, George Armstrong Custer, and of course Wyatt Earp himself. Rebein rides a bronc in a rodeo, spends a day as a pen rider at a local feedlot, and attempts to “buck the tiger” at Dodge City’s new Boot Hill Casino and Resort. Funny and incisive, Dragging Wyatt Earp is an exciting new entry in what is sometimes called the nonfiction of place. It is a must- read for anyone interested in Western history, contemporary memoir, or the collision of Old and New West on the High Plains of Kansas.

Horse Latitudes

The worst month of my life was spent in an unairconditioned hotel room in Kairouan, Tunisia, September 1989. I had no friends and no money, an unfinished Master\u27s thesis hanging over my head, and a case of dysentery so bad I might have died had the hotel staff not forced me to drink cup after cup of salted rice water. Throughout my weeks-long illness, I could hear the sounds of horse-drawn carts echoing in the cobblestone streets just beneath my window. Clippity clop, clippity clop, clippity clop . . . Sometimes, when a cart was parked directly in front of the hotel, I could hear the horse snort or shift in its traces. These sounds, so otherworldly and yet so familiar, never failed to comfort me. Gradually the desire to get well again got mixed up in my mind with the need to stroke the withers of these animals which I could hear but not see. The horses, I would murmur in my delirium, I\u27ve got to get down to the horses . . . Entire days were spent in this hallucinatory state

PACES: Promoting Advancement through a Culture of Encouragement and Support

This poster describes the progress and lessons learned as a result of newly implemented Faculty Mentoring Program in the School of Liberal Arts (IUPUI

Hicks, Tribes, and Dirty Realists: American Fiction after Postmodernism

Robert Rebein argues that much literary fiction of the 1980s and 90s represents a triumphant, if tortured, return to questions about place and the individual that inspired the works of Hawthorne, Melville, Twain, Faulkner, and other giants of American literature. Concentrating on the realist bent and regional orientation in contemporary fiction, he discusses in detail the various names by which this fiction has been described, including literary postmodernism, minimalism, Hick Chic, Dirty Realism, ecofeminism, and more. Rebein’s clearly written, nuanced interpretations of works by Raymond Carver, Cormac McCarthy, Don DeLillo, Louise Erdrich, Dorothy Allison, Barbara Kingsolver, E. Annie Proulx, Chris Offut, and others, will appeal to a wide range of readers. Robert Rebein is assistant professor of English and creative writing at Indiana University-Purdue University. Looks at some of the most important works of the end of the 20th century in light of what they do, rather than how they fit into any particular movement. —Book News Rebein singles out realism and regionalism as the exciting and enduring strains in US literature, a focus that is keeping the American tradition alive. —Choice Rebein claims that after postmodern fiction, American writing (since 1980) has returned to the fundamentals of realism, but with a broader range of perspective and techniques. Hicks, Tribes, and Dirty Realists delivers everything you might think the title promises. —Journal of Appalachian Studies I urge anyone still puzzled by what has been happening in recent American literature to read this book. Rebein writes clearly and convincingly of recent books which moved him deeply. —Leslie Fiedler, SUNY-Buffalo A shrewd topographical map of contemporary American fiction. —Mark Shechner, SUNY-Buffalo This is the best guide I know to contemporary American fiction—thorough, incisive, coherent, readable. —Wade Hall A book worth reading. —American Book Reviewhttps://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_english_language_and_literature_north_america/1017/thumbnail.jp

Activity and movement of free-living box turtles are largely independent of ambient and thermal conditions

Abstract Background Ectotherms are assumed to be strongly influenced by the surrounding ambient and environmental conditions for daily activity and movement. As such, ecological and physiological factors contribute to stimuli influencing navigation, extent of movement, and therefore habitat use. Our study focused on the intensity of activity (from acceleration data) and extent of movement (from GPS and thread trailing data) of Eastern box turtles (Terrapene carolina carolina) in a fragmented landscape near their northern population limit. First, we quantified the thermal performance curve of box turtles using activity as a measure of performance. Second, we investigated ecological factors that could influence activity and movement and characterized the movement as extensive (exploration) and intensive (foraging). Results In contrast to previous lab work investigating effects of temperature on activity, we found no relationship between box turtle activity and temperature in the field. Furthermore, box turtle activity was consistent over a wide range of temperatures. Cluster analysis categorized movement recorded with GPS more as intensive than as extensive, while thread trailing had more movement categorized as extensive than intensive. Box turtle activity was higher during the morning hours and began to decrease as the day progressed. Based on the microclimate conditions tested, we found that box turtle movement was influenced by precipitation and time of day, and activity was most influenced by absolute humidity, ambient temperature, cloud cover, and time of day. Conclusions Our model ectotherm in this study, the Eastern box turtle, had activity patterns characteristic of a thermal generalist. Sampling resolution altered the characterization of movement as intensive or extensive movement, possibly altering interpretation. More information on the resolution needed to definitively identify foraging and exploratory behavior in turtles is needed. Activity and movement were nearly independent of environmental conditions, which supports the overall interpretation that turtle performance is that of a broad environmental generalist. Future studies of movement of other turtle and reptile species are needed to determine the generality of these findings