Carson Vaughan > Quotes

“I should like to stress the idea that if you know and understand the story of your community you will know and understand a great deal about the story of man, anywhere. —Mari Sandoz,”
― Carson Vaughan, Zoo Nebraska: The Dismantling of an American Dream

“Cousteau loved sports, Kumi the soap operas, Chewy the Clint Eastwood films, and Reuben the cartoons.”
― Carson Vaughan, Zoo Nebraska: The Dismantling of an American Dream

“two million kids graduated from the Royal school: Emma Hergert Million in 1930 and brother Fred Million in 1932.”
― Carson Vaughan, Zoo Nebraska: The Dismantling of an American Dream

“The Zoo’s history of compliance with the AWA reveals a consistent disregard for, and unwillingness or inability to abide by, the requirements of the AWA and its regulations and standards . . .”
― Carson Vaughan, Zoo Nebraska: The Dismantling of an American Dream

“very hillbilly-ish up there, in a way.”
― Carson Vaughan, Zoo Nebraska: The Dismantling of an American Dream

“Ripley would remain at Savannahland until Zoo Nebraska could find a buyer. “We would have to give away the chimp, which has a clear cash value to us,” he told the Lincoln Journal Star.”
― Carson Vaughan, Zoo Nebraska: The Dismantling of an American Dream

“Ripley would ultimately end up at the Center for Great Apes, the facility PETA and others had originally recommended.”
― Carson Vaughan, Zoo Nebraska: The Dismantling of an American Dream

“a $55,000 check from the Johnny Carson Foundation had recently landed in their PO box, accompanied by a note from the King of Late Night himself: “It is important to help the area kids to have the same advantages and education that larger cities’ kids already have and also help the rural area.”
― Carson Vaughan, Zoo Nebraska: The Dismantling of an American Dream

“lifted a gas grill from the yard and hurled it with one arm at the van like a pissed-off baggage handler.”
― Carson Vaughan, Zoo Nebraska: The Dismantling of an American Dream

“My own view of the world is that until you risk things, you don’t get there.”
― Carson Vaughan, Zoo Nebraska: The Dismantling of an American Dream

“many believe the Rwandan government ordered the hit.”
― Carson Vaughan, Zoo Nebraska: The Dismantling of an American Dream

“One afternoon, he told his would-be constituents, he sat in a monthly safety meeting and listened to his coworkers complain about runaway road signs. “‘Hey, Joe,’ I say. ‘I got an idea. We’ll go ahead and raise those legs so they can’t collapse. We’ll put a hook up above, a top strap, and let it down to the ground, and get a spike with a hook. It’ll hook onto it, and it’ll be like a punching clown. Hit it, it’ll fall over, come right back up again.’ ‘Yeah,’ he says, ‘go ahead, put it together.’ So I did. I received an award for that from the state. And I was surprised—I got another letter. They sent my design to Chicago for the national convention, and I won there too.”
― Carson Vaughan, Zoo Nebraska: The Dismantling of an American Dream

“The 1990s passed in a haze of fog and feces.”
― Carson Vaughan, Zoo Nebraska: The Dismantling of an American Dream

“the USDA noted that Zoo Nebraska lacked “an adequate number of employees to carry out this level of husbandry and care” and that “the supervisor on premises . . . had no or limited background, knowledge, and experience in the proper husbandry and care of nonhuman primates.” Despite all this, Zoo Nebraska remained open.”
― Carson Vaughan, Zoo Nebraska: The Dismantling of an American Dream

“The wind bolted for open doors and whistled through windowpanes. It stole crumpled Powerball slips from the gutters—feed sacks and greasy napkins and leftover baling twine. It rolled cigarette butts down Main Street. It whipped the dust—fine and buff—from the hoods of worn-out pickup trucks.”
― Carson Vaughan, Zoo Nebraska: The Dismantling of an American Dream