New favorite authors

I picked up a copy of About a Boy by Nick Hornby a couple of weeks ago and enjoyed his writing so much I went to the library to get everything else they had with his name on it and devoured them. A straight writer, no long winding paragraphs with deep thoughts. He conveys his characters' messages through razor-sharp dialogue. He know his people. Funny, sad, but ultimately positive. Love him. Last weekend I stared at the fiction and nonfiction aisles trying to read myself out of a blue funk then decided Humor was the genre I was looking for. I discovered, based on the titles of her books, a great southern humorist/columnist: Celia Rivenbark. To give you an idea, her books are: Bless Your Heart, Tramp ; We're Just Like You Only Prettier; and the one I read:
Stop Dressing Your Six-Year-Old Like a Skank. Several belly laughs escaped while reading. Well worth it. She's about as real as it gets. Fast read, quick remedy.

From Lexicons to Lafayette - an education

On the way down to Jasper NPR featured an interview with Gene Owens, columnist and grammarian. He writes a column called Greasepit Grammar and has also written a book comparing Northern and Southern phrases and judging by the excerpts it's pretty d... funny so I'm going to get me a copy of that. Unfortunately, I didn't get to the library before my trip for books on tape which make the 11 hour drive a lot more tolerable. But at least I got to hear Gene and on the way back North I listened to Guy Raz, the little guy who used to jump on my couch in Tokyo. Have to say I really enjoyed his show.

Greasepit Grammar is a column of brief, simple, humor-laced lessons on grammar, usage, syntax and word meanings. Gene Owens’ grammar columns appear three times a week in the Oklahoma City Daily Oklahoman, twice a week in the Mobile Register in Mobile, Ala., and weekly in the Kingsport Times-News in Tennessee. The columns are based on grammar questions submitted by readers. They are from 250 to 260 words long. They revolve around life in Swampscum, a fictitious Southern town, and a gang of good ol’ boys who hang out at Wade’s Dixieco, the local gasoline station, and constitute the Redneck Academy of Linguistics. Bubba is their chief grammarian and Miss Prunella Pincenez, his eighth-grade English teacher, is his source of authority. The format calls for a simple discussion of the grammar question posed, with an anecdote at the end that illustrates the grammatical point.

Anyway, the visit was great as always, and I learned a new Acronym from my in-law Larry when he remembered he'd just missed his friend's annual catfish fry. ROMEO's. That's Retired old men eating out.

On Saturday, I got to see Karolina in her cheerleading mode. Miss K announced she isn't going to cheerlead next year, she'd rather PLAY football. I told her she needed to do lacrosse - she'd get to hit a lot of people with a stick. Max says not much lacrosse around Jasper. Football, though, is a very big deal in the South and the Jasper Dragons gave it a valiant effort but fell short. The Bulldogs on the other hand opened a big old can of whoopa** against University of Louisiana at Lafayette, beating them 55 to 7. Max says this opening season opponent very likely got a check big enough to pay for their road trips for the rest of the season from UGA. Didn't know that's how it works. For those of you who have never been to UGA, one of the biggest free standing buildings on campus for many years was its Trophy building. Some people have trophy cases. UGA gives them a building (alum assn). Football was introduced to UGA by a professor who had studied at Yale. Hence the Bulldog mascot. First game was against Yale and even then they thoroughly trounced the Eli's. You can read all about it in the trophy building. When I first brought Max to Georgia as a freshman, I dreaded having to go through long registration lines and was dismayed to see one line stretch for about a mile. However, 5 guys (not the hamburgers) stripped our car in 10 minutes and Max told me s'long. I asked one of the boys about the line... it was for football tickets. That's when I told Max the time he partied at school could equal but not exceed the time he studied. And then I said goodbye to my baby once and for all-- lost him to the South and never got him back. Can't blame him.

I also discussed my pizza blog with Max who suggested I try Big Pie in the Sky, a pizza place where one slice is 'bout the size of half a regular pizza. He's never tried it but says I should give it a shout out in my pizza blog. Might do that if my editor (Neil) allows it.

See, I come back an educated woman. Of course, the purpose of this visit is to see my kids and grandkids and that is always worth the 22 hours of driving for a 24 hr visit. Got some cheerleading videos and videos of cousin Sophie trying to make friends with baby Max who was only interested in separating Sophie from her pacifier.

Mini Max isn't so mini but he's a sweet baby with lots of smiles. Doesn't give his parents much time to sleep, though, and he's absolutely fascinated with big sister Karolina who is very very good to him.

I kept these videos short so they'd load up.