Literature Humor

Nation Watches In Envy As 15-Year-Old Jots Notes In Margin Of 'To Kill A Mockingbird'
'God, Those Were The Days,' Longing Citizens Announce

FEBRUARY 16, 2012 | ISSUE 48•07 WACO, TX

—The nation gazed wistfully at high school sophomore Eliza Baker as she took notes in a dog-eared copy of Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird at a municipal bus stop Thursday. “What pure, tender joy—not to have a care in the world beyond identifying themes in a classic American novel,” said bystander Jeanne Copley, 24, adding that she envied the 15-year-old’s seeming engrossment in the book and the unrestrained eagerness with which the girl turned from one page to the next. “I think I just saw her write ‘Scout = American Dream?’ in the margin. Ah, I just want to tell her to cherish this moment. Cherish every last precious second of it while you still can.” Sources said Baker later wrote an emotionally laden breakup letter to her boyfriend of two weeks, hurtling the nation into a rapturous fit of fond reverie