Weeds

The most hide-chapping part of this whole “briefly live in the middle of a swiftly moving river” experience is this: Places that were unweeded suffered little loss of soil, if any. Places that had been weeded and fretted over? That’s where I lost soil. Large amounts of it. I think this just proves that weeding [...]

Snerk

Times call for maturity. But, folks, I don’t have it. This is Ron Ramsey’s logo. I will wait here for you to stop snickering. I mean, it would be one thing if Ron Ramsey were Trace Adkins, you know, the kind of guy you could actually imagine kicking someone’s ass in a fight. But Ron [...]

So, Senator Ketron, If Your Constituents Told You to Jump off a Bridge, Would You?

You know, if you read me, that I used to have these elaborate and thoughtful theories about the bigots in our country–that, in part, because we’d never dealt with the underlying family trauma of the Civil War, we were repeatedly acting out these racist dramas, but often displacing their focus onto whichever minority was conveniently [...]

Henry’s Working on Something

Oh, god, y’all. I forgot to tell you about my mortifying trip to Bates Nursery. You may recall that this is where we purchased Henry the Magnolia, both because their plants are great (they are expensive, but damn, they go in the ground and perform) and because we wanted a tree old enough to bloom [...]

Um, I’m Going to Need Y’all to Put These Paper Bags on Your Heads around Me

I had to get SouthComm a head shot today. It sucked.  Not just because I had to take it myself, but because I am not that cute. I am bugged by how much my non-cuteness bothers me, but it does. It feels anti-feminist to be so shaken by this, but there it is. I would [...]

Ring-a Ding Ding Ding Dong

–You know, people dog on Wikipedia, but where else can you find an explanation for the Ding Dong/Ring Ding/King Don situation? –Also, would it be too nerdy to start referring to things that happened in April and before as antediluvian? –I should ask JR for a ruling on the antediluvian question… –…when JR is done [...]

Funny How, in a Crisis, Everyone’s a Little Liberal

If you didn’t know anything about Tennessee politics and you read this– “It is important for us to stand together as a state and ask the federal government to help us even more.” –would you believe it was said by a guy who has threatened, if elected governor, to meet Obama at the state line [...]

Liberal Blogger Day on the Hill

Well, more like Liberal Blogger Afternoon on the Hill, but fine. Two things were said that tickled the shit out of me. One, Mike Turner remarked on my lack of cussing! He said, “You write how I talk, but you talk how I write. I haven’t heard you cuss once today!” Shoot. But when I [...]

Us v. Them

The trouble with the Us v. Them format that’s taking over as the narrative structure through which we’re going to understand the flood is that, practically seconds after the dynamic is in place, the purity tests start. “Us” is a finite group, right? It’s the people who have suffered and whose suffering was ignored by [...]

That’s the Thing about the Internet–You Feel Like Crap and You Read Something that Makes You Laugh

Emily Evans delivers a history lesson to a Time writer. More embarrassing for the Time writer? She’s from Nashville, herself.

In Which I am Honest

I’m down. Everything that is still wrong around the yard is expensive. I’m just going to say, up front, that this is the drawback to blogging during a disaster. People have real problems, but I’m still going to complain about my crap. So, yes, everything that is still wrong is expensive. I need more good [...]

If You Like Things, You May Like This

I am loving the New Classics edition, and not just because I have a story coming up in it. Be sure, at least, to read the story about Frankenstein.

The Back Yard

It’s All Broken, at Least a Little Bit

There was a concrete block from the back yard in the front yard. And carpet wrapped around the willow tree. If you’re missing your carpet upstream from us, I’m sorry to report that it’s in no shape for you to have it back. The shelves in the grocery store are half empty. The trucks in [...]

Chapter 16 and The Flood

The folks over at Chapter 16 are writing about the flood. You can read it here.

So, Your House Got Flooded

The folks from the Tennessean put together this handy guide on things you should do next. They don’t include “Go ahead and have a good cry,” but I think you should just assume that’s the unspoken step one. This here PDF is their Flood Resource Guide.

The Clusterflood

If you’ve ever attended a family funeral, you know that there’s a great deal of family unity, usually for longer than you expected, but at some point, a cousin is scrounging through relatives’ cars looking for money to pay off the drug dealer an uncle and another cousin are violently dissuading from coming much closer [...]

This is a Real Song!

I heard a song, once, on the radio when I was little. The lyrics were simple. “I’m a neanderthal man. You’re a neanderthal girl. Let’s make neanderthal love in this neanderthal world.” Stupid, but they stick with you. But then I never heard it again. And I never met anyone who had ever heard of [...]

The Flowers are Undaunted

Newsweek?!

Here. Edited to add: If any of you conservatives can confirm that this just happened, I would appreciate it. Edited again to add: Apparently it was the hockey column. Whew. I didn’t want to have to make sense of that.

Links

I got nothing, folks. Just some links. JR mocks the Green Vest. Okay, not really “mocks,” but pokes fun of. And the Governor’s Green Vest is my happy place. I imagine the Governor slipping me in one of the pockets and carrying me to safety, all the while lecturing me about how I need to [...]

So, Your Town is Under Water…

I have been thinking a lot these past few days about the people of Keithsburg, Illinois, whose town flooded, in part, to try to save the whole town. The Corps blew a levee along a creek to try to take some pressure off the levee along the Mississippi. We moved near there the next year. [...]

The “Terror Gap”

Oh, god, liberals. Do not do this. I’m listening to Olbermann talk about legislators want to close the “terror gap” by making it hard for people on watch lists get guns. And it’s making me agree with Lindsay Graham. How the fuck? He doesn’t believe in Miranda rights. He’s a nutjob. But people on the [...]

John Rich Makes It Worse, Hilariously Worse

Um, yes. When you can’t resist ending your graceful explanation of a misunderstanding between friends with an insinuation that she’s a lying bitch, it kind of undermines the graceful explanation. Not that I buy the graceful explanation, but at least it was one.

If Only All House Joint Resolutions Were This Exciting!

HJR1217 reads more like an adventure novel than a piece of legislation, and it’s especially exciting because it features a regular Tiny Cat Pants commenter, Mike Turner, who, in real life, is a hero. Shoot, read this shit: WHEREAS, working well past his regular twenty-four hour shift this last weekend as unprecedented flooding swept through [...]