Something Wicked This Way Comes

Posted by on May 12, 2013 in dish | 1 comment One Sunday morning lo, these many years ago, I went to youth group at the church and met up with my friend Scott. We had horrifying news to discuss. Daddy had gone on a date the night before–with Scott’s MOTHER. After sharing mutual teenage ick over the thought of parents dating, one of us hazarded the unthinkable: “What if they GOT MARRIED?!” Well, they did. I inherited...
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Battle of the Bulge

Posted by on Mar 28, 2013 in dish | 0 comments My grandmother was a formidable Southern woman. She was the kind of woman who would rise well before dawn (she was a farmer’s daughter, after all) and get to work, put in a full day of driving, entertaining, cooking, baking, running the family business, and what have you, then repair to her room to freshen and change before my grandfather strolled in. After he retired from his...
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Jane Austen, Fanny, Emma, Elizabeth Bennet, and Me

Posted by on Jan 28, 2013 in dish | 0 comments Today marks the 200th anniversary of the publication of Pride and Prejudice. Originally titled First Impressions, it was the first manuscript Jane Austen wrote, but not the first to be published; the first edition title page reads “by the author of Sense and Sensibility.” When I was in college, my fabulous advisor, the inimitable Dr. Jim Skinner, was the departmental expert in all...
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Digging for the Pony

Posted by on Feb 23, 2012 in dish | 0 comments Most of us have heard the story about the man who wanted to teach an optimist a lesson. He’d finally had enough of the optimist’s good nature, sunny outlook, and buoyant spirit. Frankly, the optimist bugged the living daylights out of him. So, he filled the optimist’s room with manure. Instead of freaking out (as most people would), the optimist grabbed a shovel and got to...
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You Ain’t No ‘Lectric Elephant

Posted by on Jan 8, 2012 in dish | 0 comments I grew up in awe of my maternal grandmother. A farmer’s daughter, she rarely had idle time. Nearly every hour of the day, she was busy—cooking, managing the books for the farm, making phone calls, volunteering at the church—and that was when she was retired! This is a woman who woke every morning at the ungodly hour of 5:30 am (so I thought then; I’ve since discovered I share her love of early...
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