Underrated Dates For Geeky People
Go to a big, fabulous library and sit next to each other reading. Itís totally hot. Really. My boyfriend and I spent Saturday afternoon in the downtown LA Public Library, a majestic place. I wrote my column (or rather, started writing my column) and he researched 1930s ìOklahombresî -- a nifty name for outlaws in Oklahoma from that time -- plus other old-time bandits. The most interesting looking books I saw in his stack were Oklahombres, Particularly The Wilder Ones, by Evett Dumas Nix, as told to Gordon Hines, and The Bandit Kings -- From Jesse James to Pretty Boy Floyd, by Roger A. Bruns.
From the ìya learn something new every dayî file: Apparently, the U.S. Army experimented with camels (riding them, not slicing them up and putting them on lab slides) just before the Civil War. I donít think it ended well, but youíll have to read the book after my boyfriend returns it to know for sure: Noble Brutes, Camels On The American Frontier, by Eva Jolene Boyd.
Full disclosure: There were some serious scenic issues, most notably, the well-dressed guy with a salami-width, three-and-a-half foot dredlock sprouting out from behind each ear; the two, elasticked together into one disgusting, matted tail at butt-level. Dreddo kept strolling back and forth, back and forth, the entire time we were there -- despite the telepathic messages I directed his way, suggesting I was eminently capable of long-distance projectile vomiting.