We all grew up, those of us who took On the Road to heart. We came to cringe a little at our old favorite poet, concluding that God was likely never Pooh Bear, that sometimes New York and California could be just as isolated as our provincial hometown, and that grown men didn't run back and forth all the time bleeding soup and sympathy out of sucker women. But those are just details, really. We got what we needed, namely a passion for unlikely words, the willingness to improvise, a distrust of authority, and a sentimental attachment to a certain America....

"annexed Hawaii Puerto Rico and Guam and invaded Cuba and then the Philippines becoming a meddling self-serving militaristic international superpower practically overnight. Her writing has been publiSarah Vowelld in The Village Voice Esquire GQ Spin The New York Times Los Angeles Times and the SF Weekly and Sarah Vowell has been a regular contributor to the online magazine Salon. In 2005 Vowell served as a guest columnist for The New York Times during several weeks in July briefly filling in for Maureen Dowd.

Sarah Jane Vowell (born December 27 1969) is an American author journalist essayist and social commentator. Often referred to as a "social observer" Vowell has written six nonfiction books on American history and culture most recently Unfamiliar FiSarah Vowells which was publiSarah Vowelld in 2011. She was also the voice of Violet in the animated film The Incredibles.