Feeling mad love for Small Town Misfit and BeeNews.com. They’re two of the best stand-ins around for those times you can’t indulge in the ultimate on-the-road entertainment: a gander at a community newspaper’s police blotter while drinking a cup of coffee at the local diner.
Monthly Archive for February, 2009
For spectators, dog mushing is a hard sport. There’s no loop de loop on a race track. There’s no back and forth on a court. Once the dogs go by…they’re pretty much gone. Dog mushing as spectator sport takes patience, dedication, and a lot of reading (internet and newspaper updates of days-long races are key). [...]
A Presbyterian at the Peabody: Cocktails Across America
Posted in Eat and Drink, Go, Tennessee on Feb 20th, 2009
Cocktails are nice. So nice. David Farley’s marathon drinking session in India got me thinking: what U.S. cocktail-drinking experience would I like to relive? Some may laugh but, after a crapola week, I’m craving the simplicity and sweet ease of drinking a Presbyterian while watching the Peabody Hotel ducks march their way into the lobby [...]
There’s a gaping evil awful hole in my collection of travel experiences: not only have I never been to Mardi Gras, I’ve never even been to New Orleans. (OK, while I’m admitting to things, I’ve never seen The Godfather either but I guess that’s an issue for another website.) While I won’t be able to [...]
I don’t know what became of my Nebraska sweatshirt. It vanished many years ago and I still mourn the loss.
I bought the bright red (go Huskers!), short-sleeved sweatshirt in a thrift shop and wore it for years after my first (and so far only) visit to Nebraska in the late 1970s.
Granted, I was there in [...]
Regional American Words: Is That a Pork Steak in Your Pocket or Are You Just Happy to See Me?
Posted in Discuss on Feb 16th, 2009
Pop? Soda? Coke?
Hoagie? Grinder? Sub?
They’re about as basic as it gets when it comes to American regionalisms. Yet they’re still very entertaining to discuss. Just watch what happens in the comments sections (hopefully it happens) when I declare the answers to be soda and sub. (Please, if you disagree, just don’t hurl your hoagie at [...]
Would You Rather Live in a Big City or Small Town?
Posted in Discuss, Illinois, Montana, Nebraska, Texas on Feb 13th, 2009
I keep a file titled “Good Reads,” into which I tuck stories and articles that I enjoyed reading and like to revisit from time to time. The other day, I pulled the file out and found a photocopied page from the book O Pioneers!O Pioneers! by Willa Cather.
I copied the page for a particular speech, [...]
A long day of flying wiped out the peace and relaxation I thought I’d stored up during two days of horseback riding and mountain biking at Tanque Verde Ranch in Tucson, Arizona. So, while there are stories to tell, they’ll have to wait. For now, with apologies to The Daily Show for the slightly more [...]
Have you ever had one of those dreams, where you open a door in your own house and find a whole wing you never knew was there?
That’s the way I feel about Oklahoma.
It’s been sitting right there all this time and I was so busy exploring Texas, I never even gave my neighbor, just [...]
Thanks to the must-see series and must-read companion book, Make ‘Em Laugh: The Funny Business of America, I’ve got 50 states worth of ha ha on the brain. The series’ creators offer up six genres of American comedy; some are riffs on humor birthed in lands far far away and others are distinctly American. Until [...]
