美国国家公共电台 NPR A Throwaway Line Led 'Washington Post' Reporter To Call Rural Midwest His New Home

 

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Washington Post writer Christopher Ingraham made a fateful comment in an article he wrote back in 2015. He called a certain Minnesota community, quote, "the absolute worst place to live in America." Now he lives there. The community is Red Lake County, Minn., which is in the northwest part of the state. And how he got there is the subject of his new book, titled, "If You Lived Here You'd Be Home By Now."

CHRISTOPHER INGRAHAM: I stumbled across this really cool dataset made by the USDA called the Natural Amenities¹ Index. And what it did is it essentially² ranked all 3,000-some odd counties in the United States on their natural beauty. So I wrote it up, and one of the interesting things is that the county that ended up dead last in this ranking was this little place I'd never heard of called Red Lake County in northwest Minnesota. It seemed like one of those classic middle-of-nowhere places, miles from the nearest highway.

So I just kind of mentioned that they were last place in this article - threw in a snarky little line about the absolute worst place to live is Red Lake County, Minn. - and sent it out and called it a day. And I thought that would be the end of it. But it was not.

MARTIN: It was not. So the people in northern Minnesota were not so pleased with your story. What happened?

INGRAHAM: They were very upset. And it wasn't just northern Minnesota. It was all over Minnesota. And they were sending me pictures of the county. You know, the state's representatives and U.S. senators got in on the action, the media in the state. It was just crazy. It was a frenzy³.

MARTIN: But then someone finally convinces you. Someone actually issues an invitation. Like, if you're going to make this grandiose⁴ statement about our community, why don't you come visit? So you did.

INGRAHAM: That's exactly what happens. And it's - to my surprise, I ended up loving the place. It was just - you know, the people were so great, and it was so different. It was so different from what I was living with my family in D.C. that it just made this huge impression. At the time, I had 2-year-old twins. I was commuting⁵ three hours a day to get back and forth⁶ to work.

So we literally⁷ felt stretched to the breaking point. And during this time in our lives, I ended up taking this trip to this - what ended up being a very bucolic⁸ little community in the middle of nowhere.

MARTIN: How do you go from, oh, this is this amazing community and wasn't that a cool experience to let's upend our entire life and move there?

INGRAHAM: (Laughter). Yeah. So after I got back from this trip, I'd start daydreaming¹⁰, right? You're like, man. You know, I'm sitting on the train to D.C....

MARTIN: Slippery slope, the daydream⁹.

INGRAHAM: I know (laughter). I'm like, man, you know, if I was just - I would love to be, you know, just out in the country right now, just driving down the country roads, not another car in sight. You start maybe looking up home prices...

MARTIN: Yes.

INGRAHAM: ...And looking up schools and looking up data, looking up numbers on the community. And finally, we were just like, you know what? It would be financially irresponsible of us to not move to Red Lake County, Minn.

MARTIN: (Laughter).

INGRAHAM: And we were like, this is the solution to all of our problems. The housing's cheaper. I could work from home, eliminate the commute¹¹ entirely¹². We can spend more time together. This is the exact thing that we need. This is what's been missing from our lives.

MARTIN: So you get there. I would be nervous that it just didn't live up to my own internal expectations about the perfect life that I was going to walk into. What did you walk into? What were the first few months like?

INGRAHAM: The thing that really stood out to me was - like, I was worried that people would assume that there's just these D.C. carpetbaggers coming out here to exploit us for the sake of a story, or something like that, right? Like, I was worried about skepticism. And I'm sure there was, but people in northern Minnesota were nice enough, perhaps, to not, you know, show that skepticism to my face.

But they were very welcoming, you know, people coming to our house and dropping off, you know, vegetables from the garden and hot dish. And that kind of - for my wife, at least, that made her feel a lot better, that, OK, this is - you know, this is a place - we can make this work because they're compassionate¹³ people here, and we might be able to make this work.

MARTIN: And your wife got more connected to local politics, right?

INGRAHAM: She really - she did, yeah. I mean, and that was one of the things she absolutely wanted to do. As it turns out, Red Lake Falls, they were in need of a city council person. And she ran, and she ended up getting (laughter) elected. So now she's - you know, we just - as a result, as an indirect...

MARTIN: You guys are in deep.

INGRAHAM: ...Result of a...

MARTIN: You guys are in deep.

INGRAHAM: Yeah. You know, as a throwaway line I wrote four years ago, she is now (laughter) making decisions that guide the future of this community. And, you know, just, I feel like that really captures how enmeshed we are here. This is home now. You know, I think a big problem with a lot of coverage¹⁴ of rural and small-town places is we often just send reporters in, and they go on these kind of safari¹⁵ expeditions - right? - and they come back a day or a week later with this, you know, the secret knowledge of these long-lost rural tribes.

And I think that kind of reporting and storytelling, it really enhances these supposed divisions between small-town America and everywhere else. And I hope if this book does anything, it demystifies small towns and rural America.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

MARTIN: Christopher Ingraham - his new book is titled "If You Lived Here You'd Be Home By Now."

1 amenities   

n.令人愉快的事物；礼仪；礼节；便利设施；礼仪( amenity的名词复数 )；便利设施；（环境等的）舒适；（性情等的）愉快

参考例句：

• The campsite is close to all local amenities. 营地紧靠当地所有的便利设施。
• Parks and a theatre are just some of the town's local amenities. 公园和戏院只是市镇娱乐设施的一部分。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

3 frenzy   

n.疯狂，狂热，极度的激动

参考例句：

• He was able to work the young students up into a frenzy.他能激起青年学生的狂热。
• They were singing in a frenzy of joy.他们欣喜若狂地高声歌唱。

4 grandiose   

adj.宏伟的，宏大的，堂皇的，铺张的

参考例句：

• His grandiose manner impressed those who met him for the first time.他那种夸大的举止给第一次遇见他的人留下了深刻的印象。
• As the fog vanished,a grandiose landscape unfolded before the tourists.雾气散去之后，一幅壮丽的景观展现在游客面前。

5 commuting   

交换（的）

参考例句：

• I used the commuting time to read and answer my mail. 我利用上下班在汽车中的时间来阅读和答复给我的函电。
• Noncommuting objects are as real to the mathematicians as commuting objects. 对于数学家来说，不可交换的对象与可交换的对象是一样真实的。

6 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

7 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

8 bucolic   

adj.乡村的；牧羊的

参考例句：

• It is a bucolic refuge in the midst of a great bustling city.它是处在繁华的大城市之中的世外桃源。
• She turns into a sweet country girl surrounded by family,chickens and a bucolic landscape.她变成了被家人、鸡与乡村景象所围绕的甜美乡村姑娘。

9 daydream   

v.做白日梦，幻想

参考例句：

• Boys and girls daydream about what they want to be.孩子们遐想着他们将来要干什么。
• He drifted off into another daydream.他飘飘然又做了一个白日梦。

10 daydreaming   

v.想入非非，空想( daydream的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Stop daydreaming and be realistic. 别空想了，还是从实际出发吧。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Bill was sitting and daydreaming so his mother told him to come down to earth and to do his homework. 比尔坐着空想， 他母亲要他面对现实，去做课外作业。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

11 commute   

vi.乘车上下班；vt.减(刑)；折合；n.上下班交通

参考例句：

• I spend much less time on my commute to work now.我现在工作的往返时间要节省好多。
• Most office workers commute from the suburbs.很多公司的职员都是从郊外来上班的。

12 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

13 compassionate   

adj.有同情心的，表示同情的

参考例句：

• She is a compassionate person.她是一个有同情心的人。
• The compassionate judge gave the young offender a light sentence.慈悲的法官从轻判处了那个年轻罪犯。

14 coverage   

n.报导，保险范围，保险额，范围，覆盖

参考例句：

• There's little coverage of foreign news in the newspaper.报纸上几乎没有国外新闻报道。
• This is an insurance policy with extensive coverage.这是一项承保范围广泛的保险。

15 safari   

n.远征旅行(探险、考察)；探险队，狩猎队

参考例句：

• When we go on safari we like to cook on an open fire.我们远行狩猎时，喜欢露天生火做饭。
• They went on safari searching for the rare black rhinoceros.他们进行探险旅行，搜寻那稀有的黑犀牛。