And yet this song isn't about
The College of William and Mary at all. The events take place at
Bard College, in
Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, where the
Steely Dan boys met. The song describes a
marijuana drug bust incident where an equally culpable female friend of the bitter narrator turned state's evidence in exchange for leniency. The same notorious incident is actually described in
Dylan's
Subterranean Homesick Blues, and the sheriff that hauled away the Bard students was none other than
G. Gordon Liddy.
Oleanders are zone 7 plants that won't grow in upstate New York, unless aided by ultraviolet growing lights.