> The next year, John Steinbeck, who grew up in Salinas, spoke of them in his short story "Flight." Ok, but "spoke of" in a short story in the same sense that

> The next year, John Steinbeck, who grew up in Salinas, spoke of them in his short story "Flight." Ok, but "spoke of" in a short story in the same sense that I'd buy a good luck trinket with a stone that has "healing vibrations" on a vacation. If Steinbeck thought anything more of the tale than a mere, "Heh, isn't that neat," he would have ruined the ending of Grapes of Wrath by having Dark Watchers show up and kick the plantation owners' asses. It reminds me of that Norm MacDonald joke about the difference between a hypnotist "convincing" someone on stage that they're a chicken and a person actually being convinced they're a chicken.