MYSTERY SOLVED, OH MAN!

I know about the Mississippi, and the people who work on it. No matter how many people work on it, or for how long, it’s never finished. Like a hit musical, it just goes on and on.

What I never could locate was the Oh Man! River. First I thought it must be near the Mississippi, no luck. Then I scoured maps of places with English speaking inhabitants on the theory that “Oh Man!” doesn’t translate. Then, I gave up, looking, even hoping.

Until George Bush started democratizing the mideast, and I started paying more attention, and, there it was all along, southeast Arabian peninsula.

Hardly anyone has seen the river. It exists only for brief periods—after rainstorms. And it doesn't rain too much in Oman. We are reminded that a river is actually a land formation along which water runs if there’s running water.

Come on, just one chorus: “Oman River, dat Oman River, he must know…”