Neal Brautigan's essay, "An Excuse to Drink at Tybee"

"At the end, the applause was great, as O'Neil asked, 'Is this country great or what?'"

One thing I really like about Neal's essay is his attention to the apparant subject and the larger subject. It's about pirates on the beach, but it's about our country. It's about why pirates are so popular, it's about how ties and sports jackets currently equate parrots on shoulders. It's an interesting social commentary. And I think part of the reason this works so well in Neal's essay is through the dialogue that he's included. It's very real, natural dialogue--and yet it speaks directly to a social theme. One thing about this, though, is that I'd like to see the paragraph near the conclusion (which begins "As I drove home") broken up and woven into the essay. Like, what about putting some of it directly after the line I've just quoted? I think that way it would feel less like summing up in the end. Nice essay, though. I especially appreciated the family in matching green shorts, eating, and segregated "by gender" at Arby's. That's just a cool observation (like the storm trooper and the woman saying "May the force be with him" into her camera)!