Author Archives: Robert

MEMPHIS— I am up here on a blow-in-race-out trip for business. After arriving at my hotel late on a Sunday evening, I was looking for something quick and close so I could get back to my room and watch “Mad Men.” I was also hoping to stay in the Italian genre. My first two choicesContinue reading “An Attitude of Gratitude”

POINT CLEAR, AL— In a journal on my bedside table, I keep of list of things I hope to see before I die. 1.) My children graduating from college with graduate-level degrees 2.) The Louvre 3.) Victoria Falls 4.) The Caribbean Islands by sailboat 5.) The Great Wall of China 6.) Fiji 7.) Canada byContinue reading “Jubilee”

Mississippi is moving up. For too long Mississippi has been last in the good categories and first in the bad categories. A few years ago, we topped the list in food insecurity. That’s definitely a bad one. No more. Today, Mississippi is No. 6. Granted, that’s still near the bottom, but it’s not the bottom.Continue reading “Extra Table”

This spring, we planted a two-acre garden to supply our restaurants with fresh, organic produce. We’ve had some wins and a few losses in the garden, so far. Almost 3/4 of an acre, in a second plot a few hundred yards away from the main garden, was planted in corn and cucumbers. They didn’t makeContinue reading “Garden Update III”

I am dieting again. Well, actually, I’m not dieting; I’m just eating clean for a while— very clean. Low fat, high protein, good carbs, no sugar, no starch, five meals a day, 2,500 calories, yada, yada, yada. Welcome to my world. Every time I have ever dieted, I reach a stage— usually three weeks in—Continue reading “The Earl of Sandwich”

I grew up in a woman’s world. Males tended to die young in my family. My father died when I was six-year’s old, my paternal grandfather, five years before that. For most of our childhood, my brother and I were the “men” of the family. My mother was a fanatic about manners. She was aContinue reading “Emily’s Gestapo”

For the fifth year in a row Mississippi has been named the fattest state in America. I guess there’s something to be said for consistency. While researching this development, I wound up at www.health.com where Sarah Klein wrote a piece entitled “The 50 Fattiest Foods in the States” where she selected regional high-fat content favoritesContinue reading “We’re Number One! (again)”

DESTIN— The kids are at camp so the wife and I headed to the beach. In another life, this was my playground. I lived down here during two brief stints of my misspent youth in the 1980s. I worked in restaurants and lived the life of a single guy in a beach town. During theContinue reading “What’s In A Name?”