I’ve never had a mullet, and other Things I Can Brag About [...]*

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* The full, real title is I've never had a mullet, and other Things I Feel I Have the Right to Brag About and also Things I Cannot Stand. Just, you know, FYI. You should know that what follows is a) a partial list only, and b) they’re not in any particular order of Cannot Stand vs. Brag. I would say to put your Big Boy Panties on and read carefully, but it’s odd how similar the things I can’t stand and the things I want to brag about actually are. I’m not sure what that says about me, but anyway – to be safe –...

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That’s how we bring up all children in our family: by ear.

October 19, 2009 by · 1 Comment
Filed under: Deep South, Everyday, family, health, life 
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I like to think I'm a good uncle. Even though, I don't really know my "real" nieces and nephews. I've seen Millie, once; I've seen Auden, once; I've never meet Vinnie. So, to make up for this: I give all my grand uncle-ness to a series of young cousins, whose mothers I grew up with, as my nieces, being the baby of the adopted family I claimed with their grandmother, who I took as my--- You know what, let me scratch that. It's too confusing. My family tree, you know, is really just an assortment of random branches that were blown down during a storm, and happend to fall around...

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I can't die here, not this close to the Mennonite bakery.

September 22, 2009 by · 4 Comments
Filed under: Deep South, faith, family, food, health 
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I think I almost died last Friday morning, right outside of Macon, Mississippi. The weather was atrocious, as it has been for the past two solid weeks; the rain was torrential (FYI: that's a word on My Favorite Words List, which I keep in my glove compartment), the wind was ridiculous, and the roads held pockets of watery vengeance...but that's not what I thought was I dying from. Because I'm a fairly safe driver. It's one of the good qualities I inherited from my father. I kept my cruise control right on 60 mph, stayed in the slow lane, and I'd successfully...

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"I hope you're not wadding," she said.

June 6, 2009 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Everyday 
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Here is a list, far from exclusive, of things that aggravate me: people on cell phones behind the wheels of cars; vomit; I cannot stand pudding, at all, and other things that fall in that category include meringues and Cool Whip; individuals who misuse (or use at all) the conveyor belts in line at the grocery store, except when absolutely necessary; and cheap toilet paper. Again, this is far from an exclusive list. Of the things listed above, several have affected me in the last 24 hours. Last night I dreamed I couldn't quite get up this rather large hill. It was exhausting,...

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Last night, my ankle had an out-of-body experience.

May 30, 2009 by · Leave a Comment
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It's a crying shame Shakespeare didn't write a character who had an almost broken, badly sprained ankle. He didn't, did he?  I mean, I'm only peripherally familiar with the hunchback of Richard III. (I think it's the III, it's Richard plus some number, that much I know). I still have two more gruelling performances of this play left and last night I...well...I may have compromised my 1000% commitment to my role in this production:  I now possess a badly sprained ankle. That's never happened to me before, in my entire acting career. Truth be told, and gladly, I used to have really good balance and coordination....

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The Parable of the Good Alcoholic.

May 5, 2009 by · Leave a Comment
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I figure there are two ways to burn a bridge:  whiskey, and everything else. I admit it: There's something beautiful in a martini glass; something so achingly elegant in the way a champagne flute plays its score.  And I know it must be in my blood because I wasn't brought up to drink, it was never glorified, and certainly not encouraged, not in a Baptist household.  (At least the Jews in my family drank wine, but I didn't know them very well, and they always seemed to be committing suicide or losing a few children in Oklahoma or some such dramatic thing...

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All they could do was "talk the fire out."

April 29, 2009 by · Leave a Comment
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Part of my nightly ritual is calling U.L., checking in with him before I go to bed.  He's a very nervous and worried man, and has a slight addiction to mayonnaise, like the rest of us in Mississippi, despite believing that it causes him great anxiety.  It's gotten a little better now that he's on his "nerve pill." Which took every preacher south of God to convince him to take.  This side of my family is very old, very superstitious, maybe a little Christian Scientist but registered as Southern Baptist... And it never fails that each night our phone conversation goes a little...

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She could smell me, couldn't she?

April 28, 2009 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Everyday 
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I don't mean to brag,  but my hometown has what appeared to me, yesterday, to be the cleanest and most organized landfill ever in the entire world.  At least from inside the truck. I'd taken the day off and driven home because, ironically, I'd not managed to make it there on Sunday for Nana's cooking. I intended on staying an hour at most, a quick lunch, a few updates, etc. but instead, I found myself at the landfill. Here's how it happened. I was making myself a sandwich from porkchop leftovers.  Nana and U.L. were under the carport cleaning.  I have never...

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