Archives for February 2006

Disclaimer: I have wonderful friends and family who are Rebel fans. But to see a story like this one in the newspaper and not mention it would cause me to develop some form of nervous tic. I’d twitch my way right out of my chair and down to the street, and I’d keep twitching and tic-ing until I finally had to say something in order to stop all the trembling.

So really, I mention these developments for health reasons as much as anything.

I’m just sayin’.

Plus, I have to gloat while I can…it’s just a matter of time before someone from my alma mater wields a gun in a public setting or decides that, if the cash runs out, counterfeiting hundred dollar bills is an acceptable solution.

We’ve all got our baggage, I reckon.

Paula Deen just took a hunk of bleu cheese and combined it with butter, put the cheese/butter mixture in between two ground beef patties, smashed the two patties together so that cheese/butter couldn’t escape, and then she fried the whole thing.

One of my arteries clogged just watching it.

For several weeks I’ve been looking forward to A Very Special Oprah featuring the beautiful Ms. Faith Hill and her handsome husband, Mr. Tim McGraw. Now I’m not normally one to put celebrities on a pedestal – I very much subscribe to the philosophy that celebrities, just like the rest of us, put on their pants one leg at a time and eat things that don’t agree with them and stuggle with real problems (on top of eluding the paparazzi and battling your various and sundry addictions).

But Faith and Tim – well, they’re special. They’re like homefolk who made it big – and even though they’re gorgeous and famous and all that stuff, you know deep down that they still eat cornbread and pound cake and the occasional piece of fried chicken. Faith probably eats baked chicken – she’s not big as a minute – but Tim, well, you just know that he loves him a good chicken leg every now and again. With some hot sauce on the side. And a biscuit.

Now we’re all aware that Coretta Scott-King died last week. I don’t know anyone – at least not anyone I could ever be friends with – who would argue that Mrs. and Dr. King lived anything other than heroic lives. They instigated great changes in our country in general and our South in particular, and I know we’re all grateful for that. It’s a debt we’ll never be able to repay, and I want to be very clear that I appreciate and admire what the Kings did with their lives and their calling.

So here is the thing, the evidence of the fact that I am not, as Mama would say, “deep as a thimble.” There was a televised memorial service for Mrs. King on Monday. There was a televised funeral for Mrs. King yesterday. A THREE HOUR FUNERAL that PRE-EMPTED the Faith and Tim Oprah. I’m not saying that Mrs. King didn’t deserve a three-hour funeral. Not at all. I’m just saying that maybe they could’ve scheduled it from 10-1 or even 1-4 but why oh Lord why from 2-5 when it cuts right through the heart of the Very Special Oprah that I’ve been anticipating for weeks?

Today I went to the TiVo, filled with hope that our local ABC station had decided to run yesterday’s Oprah episode today, hoping that I’d click “Play” and see Faith’s pretty Tammy-Wynette-ish-but-it-works-for-her hair. Instead, it was Matthew McConaughey, who is nice-looking and all but nowhere near, not by the longest shot, the same level as Country Music’s Superstar Duo.

Did one of y’all happen to tape Oprah yesterday? Please?

I think these sound like a little piece of heaven on earth.

Thanks, Diane!

I know I’m probably a day behind the rest of y’all, but I have to chime in about “The Bachelor” from last night.

As far as I can tell, Dr. Cutie McDreamy has no hope of a future with any of these girls.

The most likeable of the bunch – Sarah from Nashville – has zero chemistry with him. She is an adorable girl – cute as a bug – but they have about as much spark as a pack of matches left out in the rain. Not gonna work.

Sarah from Canada is cute enough, and they seem to have an attraction, but the look on his face when he realized that she still lived at home…pure horror. Bottom line: she’s just too young (and I just saw the end of the episode, so I know she didn’t get a rose. I’m telling you – it freaked him out that she lives with her mama).

Susan – fake fake fake fake fake fake fake. The whole “one person can’t fill another person up / cup of water” analogy? Somebody’s trying too hard, and it’s Susan.

Moana – Aside from the dreadful name, she’s a beautiful girl. But oooooh, is she troubled. Methinks someone struggles with insecurity issues…plus, if no one in the house liked her, there must be a reason. Where there’s smoke and all that….

He’s going to pick Moana because they have chemistry and because guys never see / heed the BIG FLASHING warning signs when a girl can’t get along with other girls. He’s going to give Moana the benefit of the doubt and decide that the other girls were just jealous. There is a term that Sister’s friend Shirley uses for situations where men fall for women like Moana, and while it is not necessarily appropriate for this type of forum, I do believe it would apply.

In the end, I fear, Dr. McDreamy is going to be decidedly unlucky in love. And I’m so tempted to do a medical pun right here (“He’s going to need some blind dates, STAT”), but I won’t because that would be really cheesy, wouldn’t it?

When I was a little girl, I was fascinated by old family diaries that Mama had placed around the house. My favorite was a little red one. The binding was torn, and the lock strap didn’t work, but I spent many an afternoon carefully turning through the pages and reading the daily activities of my great-aunt and great-uncle. Their names were Choxie and Herman, and Aunt Choxie liked to write down all the pertinent details of the day: what the temperature was, whether the rain came, what she picked from the garden, who came by to visit, and what she cooked for supper. Since I was born too late to know them, that little red diary created a connection, a frame of reference, so that I wasn’t completely out of the loop when Mama and her family started telling stories. And there were lots of Aunt Choxie stories.

That little red diary is still in Mama’s house, and the last time we were there, Alex discovered it. I know he can’t read it, but it was an oddly sweet, full-circle moment to see him thumbing through those pages, to know that one day those pages that I used to read will also give him a connection to relatives he’s never met. I guess on some level I hope this “interweb blog feed” will do the same thing.

So last night when Sister called, I certainly didn’t anticipate that our conversation would make me think about Aunt Choxie’s red diary and the butterbeans she put in the freezer back in 1952. But it did. Because Sister, in the midst of some random blog surfing, happened across a little gem.

Allow me to introduce you to Lena Diane Jennings. I think y’all will enjoy her down-home style just as much as we did. There’s something very sweet and charming about the way she describes her daily activities. From the details she shares, you can see that she has a grateful heart, a deep love for her family, and a real appreciation for “hearth and home.”

If you get a chance, click on the link above and head over to Diane’s blog. Leave her a sweet comment…and if she shares her recipe for homemade cinnamon rolls, I’ll pass it along to y’all.

In a world where we obsess over what an Olsen twin is wearing, Diane’s perspective is a breath of fresh air.