All The Same Old Haunts

All right, so how this will work is that every evening for the whole of October, you will find one fake ghost story that I have completely made up. Even the ones that seem based on actual hauntings have been embellished and fictionalized. I think it will be good fun. I got a kick out [...]

Random Things, Because I’m Vaguely Incoherent Today

Honestly, it’s only been a day and a half, but I don’t understand why anyone would take steroids recreationally. First of all, yesterday, I sweated all day like a motherfucker, they taste like shit, and I’ve been vaguely nauseous since I started them.  Everything is improving, but seriously, who needs butt-sweat when just sitting at [...]

On “Not Rape-Rape”

On Twitter this morning, folks were talking about all the Hollywood folks who have come out in support of Polanski.  Even Whoopi Goldberg trying to claim this wasn’t a “rape-rape.”  Even, allegedly, Sharon Tate’s sister trying to draw some distinction between rape and rape.
Dude drugged and raped a crying thirteen year old girl who begged [...]

Our Quest to be the Home for Wayward Architecture Continues!

Okay, the proposed convention center hotel is beautiful. Stunning, even.
You know, if it were in my bathroom.
Seriously, if I walked by this as a toilet in Home Depot, I would have to buy it.

Oh, Walt Whitman, And Jeans, and Walt Whitman

I’m just going to say up front that I thank the gods I am too fat to buy Levi’s jeans, because, no matter how much I think with my brain that these new commercials are stupid and pandering and I am embarrassed for America that the poet of our soul is reduced to shilling jeans [...]

The Rainmakers

You may recall, if you are old enough, how traveling con men would come into a community desperate for rain, make all kinds of vague statements and pronouncements, and take everyone’s money, and then leave town?
A lot of people in Cooper’s district are desperate for change.
But even if you never, ever listen to podcasts, even [...]

At Least I Won’t Get Whooping Cough

Today I went to the doctor. Not for the big scary doctor’s appointment, but just for a physical and to bring my primary care physician up to speed on where I stood with stuff.  It was very comforting to hear her say that she thinks that my course of treatment is right and that she [...]

The Earth-Scorching Begins

I’m not liberal enough; I’m not feminist enough; I need to be more considerate to history.
Never mind the nonsense of taking Kleinheider’s tongue-in-cheek description of me and trying to hold me accountable to it.  This is exactly what I meant by bullshit.  Oh, we’re going to have a blog war about Cooper, let’s all rally [...]

There’s a Saying in Tennessee, It’s “Most Things Folks Say Folks Say in Tennessee are Not Actually Said by Anyone in Tennessee.”

I have a lot of jumbled thoughts about the Cooper primary, which have become more jumbled in the course of the past day or so.
1. I don’t believe that Cooper should be safe from being primaried. He’s a politician and part of life is hearing from your constituents.  A primary challenger is, at the least, [...]

A Real Garden Post

A Fake Gardening Post

I got laundry done. I got dishes done. I did a quick edit on the ghost stories and got them all scheduled to churn out one at a time across the month of October.  It was weird, to think that, no matter what happens next month, they will appear on your screen.  I don’t know. [...]

Ooo, Pith Stuff

I saw that fucker with the SS tattoo again yesterday.
And I wrote about football, with my woman brain.

We Promise Not to Worry Our Pretty Little Heads about a Challenge to Cooper

The Butcher and I both heard about this challenge to Cooper yesterday, me from Southern Beale, him from a friend in Baltimore who was wondering if there really is any local opposition to Cooper. And today Gilgamark is talking about it.
This is very weird. I mean, maybe it’s not. I know when I get emails [...]

TSLA Raises the Stakes

The fine folks at the TSLA have seen our monkey and dog on a pig and risen with a mule with a crown and a queen.

TSLA, The Gauntlet Has Been Thrown!

Sure, the Tennessee State Library and Archives has some fun stuff, but does it have a picture of a dog riding a pig?!
(You know what the best part is? Even before you clicked, did you not smile to know that you were going to get to see a picture of a dog riding a pig? [...]

Oh, Coyote

Yesterday afternoon, I was out with the dog on a leash. Our neighbor opened her back door and her two dogs took off running towards the back of their yard.  Something large and with a kind of golden brownish black back came shooting up the creek between our houses. Mrs. Wigglebottom went silent, ears straight [...]

The Side Flower Beds

I was complaining today about the beds between our house and Bobby’s, which are completely overgrown with weeds and which kind of got destroyed in the great flood of 09. Whenever I go out to look at them, I think, you know, I could just mow everything down and let it go to grass.
But there [...]

It’s Almost October!

I’ve been working on the fake ghost stories and I finally have a rough draft of every single one. You, my friends, will be seeing those rough drafts roll out one at a time over the month of October (as nm’s husband said, “you can have it fast or you can have it good” and, [...]

The Staffordshire Hoard

I saw this story on Yahoo and then, mere seconds later, as if she sensed my delight, nm sent me a link to the official website and the official flickr account.
I am really speechless in the face of this.  But wow.

Back in My Day…

I have a lot of sympathy for Grant Alden, though at this point, I read him primarily to see if he can keep up his “I’m a 95 year old man” impression clear until he’s 95. I like to wonder if there was some guy in the 1930s who sat around bemoaning the rise of [...]

Tiny Cat Pants Could Go to Kindergarten!

Today Tiny Cat Pants is five years old. I think it’s suffice to say that I would not have near as rich and exciting a life as I have if not for blogging and the great people I have met through it. I know I get mushy on y’all all the time, but I really [...]

Are We Being Blackmailed by Senator Henry?

I kept waiting to see if other bloggers would write about this, but no one has.  The gist is this–our legislators are considered part-time and they are paid a paltry amount, less than $20,000, which might not be that bad if they really only met for three months a year or something. But being a [...]

Okay, Who Do We Know Who’s a Folklorist?!

I’m innocently watching NCIS, working on the baby blanket for my cousin, when all of a sudden they start singing a song about a goat.  And I about fall over.
Now, I’m looking through the archives and I see I have never told you about The Old Woman and the Pig.  Grandma Avis used to sing [...]

Random Things That Caught My Eye

–Roger Abramson is moderating a panel on drug legalization next week.  Looks like fun.
–This column raises such a good point about calling liars “sluts.”
–Preachers’ kids love the Devil? This explains why I have be unable to refrain from teasing my dad about my mad plumbing skills, which practically require me to chase girls and show [...]

Constitution Day

I know I’ve been a little remiss in not talking about how Constitution Day went.  It went fine. Casey kind of scared the shit out of me when about the second thing he said to me was, “Don’t worry. We have security on notice and I have a couple of big guys who can handle [...]