NOTE: I wrote this post week before last, right when all of the coronavirus business was starting. When it appeared that things were getting serious, the radio station where I work went into disaster preparedness mode, and I was sent home to work. When you work for a news agency and the blankety-blank starts hitting … Continue reading What not to say to a room full of Southerners…
Category: All About the South
Cuba and the Redneck
(I haven’t been posting here as much as I’d like because I’ve been working on a few other projects. Maybe you’ve seen this piece I did for It’s a Southern Thing on bean pie and how I learned there’s more to it than meets the eye … or mouth, as the case may be. Or … Continue reading Cuba and the Redneck
Alabama, Alabama, We will aye be true to thee …
Alabama is hard, y’all. It just is. It’s hard to be from here. It can be hard to live here. And sometimes — ok, a lot of the time — it’s hard to defend her. These last few weeks have been especially trying for those of us who were born and bred here, who love … Continue reading Alabama, Alabama, We will aye be true to thee …
The Ground Rules
Tomorrow in Atlanta the New England Patriots will be playing the Los Angeles Rams in the Super Bowl. That means a whole lot of folks from the not-South are descending on the South even as we speak. Now while I would posit that the love of football unites us all, there are certainly some things … Continue reading The Ground Rules
Mosquitoes love me. The feeling is not mutual.
A mosquito bit me on the eye the other Saturday evening. Not on my actual eyeball, but on the soft flesh just at the corner of my left eye. Unfortunately, I’m pretty allergic to the little blood suckers, so by the next morning, I looked like I’d been in a bar fight ... and lost. … Continue reading Mosquitoes love me. The feeling is not mutual.
Debunking Myths about the South (Part 3)
Betcha thought I was done debunking myths about the South with Part 1 and Part 2, but we still need to set the record straight on a few more. Excuse me for a minute while I pick this bit of ham hock out of my teeth with my pocket knife. Ok, that’s better. Now, let’s … Continue reading Debunking Myths about the South (Part 3)
Debunking Myths about the South (Part 2)
The other day, I started debunking popular myths about the South — fallacies that my Southern friends and I are constantly asked to corroborate. If you missed the first part, you can read it here. This is the second installment. Now let's go forth and speak a little truth! Myth: All southern accents are created … Continue reading Debunking Myths about the South (Part 2)
Debunking Myths about the South (Part 1)
Y’all, it’s time to dispel some myths about the South and Southerners. We’ve all fielded the questions, as dumb as they are, but enough is enough. Every single one of these misconceptions is a real-life example of something I, or someone I know, has encountered when they ventured either north or west. That’s why I’m … Continue reading Debunking Myths about the South (Part 1)
A Southern Spring Sonnet
To continue the theme of poetry month that I started on Tuesday with a series of limericks (if you missed them, you can catch up here), I thought that I'd attempt a Shakespearean sonnet. It was a little more challenging with it's iambic pentameter, which I'm quite sure I didn't always hit the mark on … Continue reading A Southern Spring Sonnet
I’ve got a trick up my sleeve!
If I said to you “I’ve got a trick up my sleeve” you’d probably think I was trying to be sneaky. Maybe I have secret plan. Maybe I’m going to try to pull a fast one. Now that it’s pollen season in the south — that wonderful time of the year when yellow dust floats … Continue reading I’ve got a trick up my sleeve!