Category Archives: Uncategorized

The older I get the less enamored I am with inanimate objects. As a kid, I loved “stuff.” I could spend 30 minutes on the 15-foot long toy shelf at the neighborhood Ben Franklin store. The “stuff” obsession didn’t end in childhood. As an adult I went through several phases— a compact disc phase, aContinue reading “Toast and Stuff”

My lifelong love affair with sweet potatoes has been shaken and I have a confession to make.   First understand that, as a kid, I ate more sweet potatoes than white potatoes. They were a staple in my home. A baked sweet potato topped with butter alongside a serving of chopped spinach was the go-toContinue reading “Sweet Potato Confessions”

  It’s prom season. Thousands of high school kids have been waiting years for their big night. Thousands of parents have been dreading it since their kids entered school. As the father of a 16-year old, 11th grade daughter, who just fed 43 of her tuxedo-clad and chiffon-and-satin laced friends in our back yard, I speakContinue reading “Prom Season”

  It’s greening up around here. The first stage of pollen has fallen and been washed away. Leaves are greener, days are warmer, and everything is in bloom. Spring is Mother Nature’s coming out party. I always fall victim to EPS, early pollen syndrome. It’s similar to the first cold snap in the fall. InContinue reading “Spring Forward”

  We lose people every day. It’s the natural cycle of life. Many pass without noticing. Though as William Faulkner once said to a young Shelby Foote while the two were walking though a cemetery, “There’s a story behind each of these stones.” One of the greatest stories now lies behind a new stone. ThatContinue reading “A Life of Passion & Love”

  I love Mississippi. Sure, there are other states that might be prettier. It’s hard to top the mountain vistas of North Carolina and Virginia. The redwoods of Northern California are majestic, the craggy cliffs that overlook the Atlantic on the northeast coast have inspired hundreds of writers, and the colorful autumn foliage of NewContinue reading “At Home With Hospitality”

  I grew up mainly Methodist in a mostly Baptist world. I was raised in a neighborhood that was filled with Protestants. In my little notch of the Bible Belt, there were a few Jewish families scattered about, but the Hillendale section of Hattiesburg was as WASPy as any neighborhood could be. Nevertheless, I hadContinue reading “Oh How I Love Wheat”

I once had an aunt and uncle who lived in France for several years. They eventually returned to the States but kept an apartment in Paris and a country cottage in Normandy. The two were devout Francophiles. As far as they were concerned, all that was beautiful in life began— and ended— at the FrenchContinue reading “Dreaming of Tuscany”

  Bacon is good. Bacon is popular. Bacon gets a lot of press. I love bacon. Bacon gets the prime slot on grocery store shelves— front and center, eye level in the breakfast meats cooler. Sausage, bacon’s redheaded stepbrother, is relegated to a few shelves next to the pressed luncheon meats and water-filled hams. It’sContinue reading “For the Love of Sausage”