Just before you go on the academic job market, everyone tells you that one of the most important things you can do is to figure out a way to distill and encapsulate your entire project into a roughly 2 minute soundbite, otherwise known as a “blurb.” This is a difficult, but immensely practical, endeavor. Chances…
Read MoreSo, I’m giving The Quotable South a break for a bit. This morning, I’ve decided to share with you some random bits that deserve, in their own perverse way, an award. Greatest News Headline This Week on MSN.COM: “Travolta Spurns Daylight” So, apparently John Travolta and his wife are night-owls. And Scientologists, in case you…
Read MoreA Southerner speaks music.–Mark Twain Southerners can probably say “shit” better than anybody else. We give it the ol’ two-syllable “shee-yet,” which strings it out quite a bit and gives it more ambience, if words can have ambience.–Lewis Grizzard If you are going to be underestimated by people who speak more rapidly, the temptation is…
Read MoreMy father would say that the only difference between Mississippi (which was a dry state) and its neighbor Tennessee, which was wet, was that in Tennessee a man could not buy liquor on a Sunday. –Willie Morris I’ve always been perplexed by the differences in blue laws from state to state. Blue laws are designed…
Read MoreI would venture to say that loudly denouncing Emmylou Harris will get you killed in any establishment that serves liquor south of Delaware. –Steve Earle Ahhhh, Steve Earle. For all his piss-and-vinegar-laden griping about Nashville, he still will stand up and pick a fight with anyone who hasn’t earned the right to criticize its ambassadors…
Read MoreIt means, “I love you. And I’m sorry for what you are going through and I will share as much of your burden as I can.” And maybe potato salad is a better way to say it. –Will D. Campbell, on the tendency of Southerners to bring food to families in mourning If someone asked…
Read MoreI think it is safe to say that while the South is hardly Christ-centered, it is most certainly Christ-haunted. –Flannery O’Connor First of all, if you aren’t familiar with Flannery O’Connor, by all means stop reading this immediately and go find yourself a copy of A Good Man is Hard to Find. Make sure you’re…
Read MoreEvery Southerner alive, at many, many points in his or her childhood, heard the words, “But what will people think?”–Julia Reed I love this quote by Julia Reed (author of The Queen of the Turtle Derby and Other Southern Phenomena). I used to say that the structure of the Southerner’s psyche is different from the…
Read MoreWell, I’m just about all settled in now. And, surprisingly, it’s neither hot nor humid. Or maybe I’m acclimating more quickly than I thought… At any rate, the weather is beautiful, the city is familiar enough to be comfortable but changed enough to be interesting and, most importantly, I am happy to report that my…
Read MoreRecently I read an article on the web entitled “Five Friends Every Woman Should Have.” It wasn’t well-written and it wasn’t particularly insightful–as a matter of fact, it was on one of those sites dedicated to “women’s lifestyle” that tend to be nauseatingly Oprahesque–but it did provide a very interesting list to consider. Here is…
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