Letter From thenLower Rightn• by John Shelton ReednBeavers, Banners, and BullsnHere in Chapel Hill we’ve had thisnproblem with beavers. They’ve beenndamming creeks, as is their wont. Unfortunatelynin the process:they’ve beennturning great areas into) marsh andncreating a mosquito problem, so lastnyear the old boys of our public worksndepartment set out to kill the critters,nfiguring: no beavers = no dams = nonflooding = no problem.nWell, anyone who thinks you cannmurder beavers with impunity in ancollege town in the waning years of thenAmerican Century has been living onnanother planet. After the predictablenbrouhaha in the newspaper, in publicnmeetings, and so forth, the decision wasnsolemnly taken to capture the beasts,nsterilize the males, and return them tonthe wild, where the population is supposednto diminish gradually, by attrition.nBut wait. We are not simply to neuternthese hapless creatures, as one does withnsteers, or hogs, or geldings. No, suchntreatment could cause lasting psychologicalndamage, as one dear lady pointednout, and I don’t doubt that she wasnright. Rather than have distressed eunuchnbeavers on their consciences, mynfellow citizens have anted up their taxnmoney and mine to provide—are younready for this? — vasectomies for thenlittle fellows. So now we are to havenbeavers with futile but active sex lives,nsort of a rodent version of today’s collegenexperience.nThose of you who don’t live inncollege towns don’t know what you’renmissing. Count your blessings. Being anprofessor means I have to know.nOn the other hand, it also means thatnI don’t have to stick around in thensummers. Last June our family spent ancouple of weeks in and around Barcelo­nCORRESPONDENCEnna where (it probably won’t surprise younto hear) I had some thoughts about thenAmerican South.nTo begin with, what can the Confederatenflag possibly mean to Europeans?nI keep running into it. On this tripnI found it on a postcard at a snacknbar (French for “snack bar”) nearnMontpellier. A year earlier, outsidenConegliano, north of Venice, I’d runnacross a factory with an imposing arraynof flags out front: the Common Marketnnations, Japan, the US — and thenConfederate States of America. Later,nin the market, at a booth selling decals,nstickers, and lapel pins, I’d found, withnthe Grateful Dead, a picture of Elvisn— superimposed on the battle flag ofnthe CSA (on the back, the legendn”Made in Canada”). Later still, in thenAustrian town of Villach, near thenItalian and Yugoslav frontiers, an armynsurplus store obviously catering tonflaming youth flew, out front, the Starsnand Stripes with a Harley-Davidsonnroaring out of it — and the batfle flag.nBack in Italy, on the autostrada fromnVenice to Milan, I passed a tractortrailerncab wallpapered with — a giantnConfederate flag. In Paris, in the LatinnQuarter, I paused at a shop sellingncheap straw hats, pocket books, postcards,nand—the flag.nWhat’s going on here? Does any­nLIBERAL ARTSnON WOMEN WHO DO,nAND MEN WHO DO NOTnrn’.Unbody know? I suspect this displaynhasn’t much to do with the ConfederatenStates of America. (If it does,nthough, where were these allies whennwe needed them?) Rather, thanks nondoubt to a motley assortment of whitenSouthern musicians ranging fromnHank Williams Jr. and Alabama, tonLynyrd Skynyrd and the AllmannBrothers, on back (yes) to Elvis andnBuddy and Jerry Lee — thanks to thesenambassadors, for many good old Europeannboys emblems of the South connotengood^timing, beer-drinking, hellraisingnfreedom and rebellion. (ThenItalian factory is another story. I’ll betnthey just ordered up a couple of dozennassorted flags from a wholesaler.)nTo the point is a group we ran intonin Barcelona. At first glance “LosnHuevos” looked like your typical Euroscumnrock band: a half-dozen longhairednmusicians, Jaggeresque leadnsinger. But they were cooking in anparticularly down-home mode, featuringna fine harmonica player. No Confederatenflags were in evidence, but thenguitarist wore a Jack Daniels T-shirt.n* * *nTo an outsider, a newcomer, ofncourse, what is Spanish about Barcelonanis more striking than what is not. Onnthe television at our hotel, for instance,nwe encountered bullfighting, completenThese facts on fat just released from the Nutri/SystemnHealth and Fitness Information Bureau:n— Happily married women gain an average of 18.4npounds in the first 13 years of marriage, while unhappy wivesnbulk up on an average of 42.6 pounds during the samenperiod.n—Just about as many men as women go grocery shopping—96npercent of women shop at least once a month,nwhile 92 percent of men do. Women love shopping lists andndiscount coupons, while men tend to be impulse buyers andncan’t be bothered with coupons.n—from the Milwaukee Journal,nSeptember 6, J 989nnnDECEMBER 1989/41n