Southern Literature

I got a wonderful surprise in the mail the other day. A package of goodies from a recent trip my parents took to Charleston, SC. Now I've never been to Charleston, but within the first two chapters of the book, "Mrs. Whaley and Her Charleston Garden," it is now an official destination on my list.

I didn't realize how much I love southern literature until this book. In William Baldwin's introduction, he describes Emily as a "grand Southern matron" with "an opinion on everything." And that in her tales he would find the same elements that are in her garden: "a seemingly leisurely delivery would lull me into a complacent enjoyment and then suddenly I'd be faced with a moral. Emily is not just a poet and a gardener. I suspect she would have made a good trial lawyer." I just love sassy storytellers, and tales dripping in families and histories and the seemingly mundane attaining mythical proportions.

That is why I was so ecstatic to find a copy of the Ya Ya Sisterhood (for a quarter!) at a little book sale. Another sassy southern sally.

The funny thing is, I went to one of the great writing schools of the south, and I have never read Lee Smith. Nor have I read Annie Dillard's "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek." Though it is quite probable that I have copies of both somewhere... They will be there for one of those great days when you approach your library and look for nothing in particular, just a rainy day date with a book you forgot you had.

Cold Turkey

I was catching up on some morning news and read about a woman in Normal, IL who has chosen to go car-free for a month and blog about it. Others have posted attesting to how they too are experimenting an automobile-less life. I think this is fascinating and I commend them, but I must ask, does it really help to go to the extreme? My gut instinct is that getting hundreds of people to drive less (say just walking to lunch if they normally drive, or to the store when its only a backpack of groceries they need) gets us a lot further than two people who don't drive at all. I suppose I could sit down and work out the math of it. But in my experience people burn out.


Did you see An Inconvenient Truth?

The Kitchen Garden

Egad, I will have to post a photo of the mammoth winter squash that is taking over my yard. I saw the first baby fruit this morning... someday soon it will be a 20 pound pumpkin. I look forward to storing them and using them in recipes all winter long, when my garden has gone to sleep.

For you other avid garden cooks out there, I wanted to share one of my favorite resources for recipes: Mariquita Farm, a CSA out in California. They have a wonderful newsletter chock full of stories, info and recipes in addition to the comprehensive listing (sorted by produce! yay!) on their website.

Ham Radio is Back

I've taken on a new guilty pleasure: reading freebie, cast-off business mags at the gym. Oh, what a lovely addiction. First it was Inc., then Business Week, and this morning - Fast Company. They had a fabulous article called "Revenge of the Nerds" on how the nexus of cheap, high quality consumer goods and the boundless viral marketing potential of the internet let the no-name hack give a shout-out to the world.

It is occasions like these that make me very happy. And I can't help but give a smug mental smile to the folks that believe advertising is just Big Brother brainwashing us. Because we are advertising. It is a reflection of us. Because we wanted cheaper, better digital camcorders, we got them. Because we would trip over ourselves at the chance to network socially on a large scale, we got Friendster. And MySpace. And YouTube. And now even major corporations are trolling blogs in order to find out what we think about it all, so that they can be the first to provide it.

But back to the happiness part. Ham radio is back. You want your own station? Make a podcast. And the framework is there that millions may listen to it. And, like in this article, if you want to make and promote your own movie, your own band, your own art, your own business, you can do it. And do it without breaking the bank. All you need is a computer and an idea. Then tell a few people about it online and watch the message spread.

Where would you live?

Today I got an ad in my inbox about a magazine called "The Progressive Farmer." Since Deb and I have talked at length about how happy we would be living on a farm, I jumped on the chance to check out their article on their picks for the Top 10 Places to Live. And the awesome part is that a county in VA made the list!

The article is a short read, but I really wanted to point out the link mid-article called "We Got Nailed By the Cops." It's a great read in comparison to a chilling conversation I had with friends last night about local crime!

Go to article