{"id":6908,"date":"2026-02-09T21:56:06","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T03:56:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/?p=6908"},"modified":"2026-02-09T22:00:23","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T04:00:23","slug":"rabbit-still-runs-in-pennsylvania","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/2026\/02\/09\/rabbit-still-runs-in-pennsylvania\/","title":{"rendered":"Rabbit still runs in Pennsylvania"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Toward the end of 2025 the Reading Eagle<\/em> published a piece of columnist kismet titled, “Guy walks into a bar . . . sees the rest of Rabbit, Run.<\/em>” That’s right. In it, Steven Henshaw talked about a column he wrote about Updike’s most famous novel after seeing the film version on DVD. “I had low expectations for the 1970 film starring James Caan. How could Updike’s prose translate to the screen? Still, I was curious because many scenes were shot in Reading, the author’s hometown.<\/p>\n

“That column<\/a> focused on how downtown Reading still looks much as it did when the movie was filmed a half-century ago \u2014 reason enough for hope after decades of decline. What I didn\u2019t mention was that I returned the DVD to the library without finishing it.” As it turned out, Rabbit may have run, but this columnist couldn’t run from Rabbit.<\/p>\n

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“On my way home from another event recently, I stopped at Mike\u2019s Tavern in Riverside for a beer. It was exactly 9 p.m. on a Thursday, and the place felt different. The lights were dimmer than usual, nearly every barstool filled.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s going on?\u201d I asked bartender Jon Owens.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m showing \u2018Rabbit, Run,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cIt was filmed in Reading.\u201d<\/p>\n

“That night, thanks to a chance stop at a neighborhood bar, I finally finished the movie I hadn\u2019t meant to. Call it coincidence \u2014 or, better yet, serendipity,” Henshaw wrote.<\/p>\n

Read his whole column<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Toward the end of 2025 the Reading Eagle published a piece of columnist kismet titled, “Guy walks into a bar . . . sees the rest of Rabbit, Run.” That’s right. In it, Steven Henshaw talked about a column he … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":818,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-performances","category-first-person-singular"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/818"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6908"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6908\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6910,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6908\/revisions\/6910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}