Democratic Women of Tennessee, It’s Time to Have a Little Talk

Let me say up front that, from what I know of him, I like Rep. Butch Borchert. He’s fighting for jobs in his district and that, really, is where every legislator’s priority should be. If he thinks he knows better than me what I should do with my body, I don’t like it, but I’ll [...]

The Animals Have Complaints

I have been laughing at Chris’s exploits with the cat and I was reminded of it this morning when I woke up to the dog barking in the kitchen and the new kitty standing on the edge of my bed, mewing at me with some alarm. Was the house on fire? Was Timmy in the [...]

Check out my park review!

It includes directions to go see the Tennessee coneflowers. I know many of you are not local and may actually be afraid of traveling to Tennessee, because our reputation precedes us. But it’s totally worth it to come visit to see these. And it’s too yucky this summer for us to actively be suspicious of [...]

Tired, Tired, Tired

I swear, my family is like a hurricane. The Butcher, I just want to tuck him into bed and leave him there for like three days. It’s funny, when he was gone, folks were like “Oh, but I bet it’s nice that he’s gone!” but it’s really not. It doesn’t suck or anything, but I [...]

Vampires All Evening

First, I watched True Blood. Am I wrong or was the scene where Eric was all overcome with bloodlust while he was eating the werewolf surprisingly hot? And then I just loved how he walked around with blood smeared all over him. Quite a contrast to Bill. I know other folks are kind of put [...]

Why I Now Support Bredesen’s “Prove Your Citizenship” Bill

I’ve changed my mind. I’m sorry this is going to suck, really hard, for some people, but I cannot wait to see this implemented. And I’ll tell you why. This is going to be hilarious. Here’s the thing. This is being sold as something like 287(g) for the whole state. Except communities that have 287(g) [...]

My One Way Late to the Game True Blood Comment

Those Darlins had a song in it and none of you thought to mention it?!

Bredesen’s Legacy, in no particular order

1. Cutting TennCare 2. The Green Vest 3. Telling Obama to go to Walmart 4. The Party Bunker 5. Denouncing the kinds of legislation he then signs into law

The Bell Witch Poster

Tell me this isn’t cool. I got it from these folks, if you’re looking to get a better look or to buy your own. I wish there were a place in Adams I could insist stock this. Oh well.

Nose-level!

More lemony and less musky than other magnolias I’ve smelled, but I’ll take it! I can’t wait for the day when the tree is covered in stinky blooms.

The Ghost Stories Consume My Life

In another pocket of things going on, I have been meeting with folks and trying to figure out the logistics of self-publishing the ghost stories v. hunting around further for an appropriate publisher. It’s kind of exciting and daunting. But the consensus seems clear that, in this day and age, a person can self-publish a [...]

Random Monday

–After two tire blow-outs, break issues, Bell’s Palsy, and other assorted misadventures, my family is back. –I haven’t watched True Blood yet! Thank goodness for On Demand. –Seeing the Tennessee Coneflowers yesterday really still blows my mind. It’s hard to believe there’s a place so unique so close to me. I also realized that I [...]

A Weekend of Parks–Port Royal and Long Hunter

Why I’m Tired of the Racist Argument from Democratic Politicians

Let’s say that it’s true. Just for this post, let’s say that the vast majority of Tennesseans are such huge racist fucks that anyone down ticket from a black man is going to suffer for it. Let’s say that I buy that. You still want to run for office, right? Why? There must be some [...]

Unbright Moves

I am completely ready for my family to be back on this side of the Mississippi. Hell, even if they were in Arkansas and something went wrong, I know I could count on some Memphis blogger to run over and rescue them (that’s “run over to them” and “rescue them,” not “run over them and [...]

Dad and Flowers

Oh, y’all, when I talked to my parents just now they were still so shook I couldn’t bear to even tease them a little bit about Dad being stricken by Bell’s Palsy by God for running over my flowers. Mom was all “It could have been so much worse. We’re so lucky… blessed, I mean, [...]

Two Months

I have been thinking about, if I wanted to do the ghost stories as a book, how to organize them. I love that they are a month’s worth of stories and that they lend themselves so well to be read one at a time, one per night (on a side note, didn’t we decide that [...]

Family Crap

The family is stuck in Albuquerque where my dad is in the hospital and the trailer is in the repair shop. The trailer needs new breaks. My dad, apparently, has Bell’s Palsy. Well, fuck me, Martha. I knew he was speaking strangely when he was here. I thought he had a sore tooth or something. [...]

Can We Have a Moritorium on the MLK Invoking?

Yes, I’m so sure that every day, Lou Ann Zelenik wakes up and thinks “Gosh, I wonder what a radical anti-segregation, anti-war, anti-poverty activist who regularly broke the law and social mores would say about anything?” I mean, please, it’s laughable to think that, if Zelenik knows anything about King’s work beyond ‘he was a [...]

An Update on the Ghost Stories

All first drafts are done. Which means they may be better than last year’s because I will have time to do other drafts! Woo hoo!

The Situation in Milan

Trace has a story about Milan, Tennessee, which is facing the loss of their main industry AND having being made a nuclear dump (even in the face of  just the regular industry there leaking crap into their water) bandied about as a possible thing that might happen to them. It’s depressing. Sometimes, I’m fairly certain [...]

Anti-obesity v. Anti-poverty

NM sent me this great post by Tom Colicchio from “Top Chef.” It’s pretty self-explanatory and I love the idea of making healthy and nutritious breakfasts and lunches available to all school children, period. And I love that he makes explicit that these “anti-obesity” efforts are more rightly framed as anti-poverty efforts. But here’s the [...]

Tennessee Democrats

The nice thing about writing about the Tennessee Democrats is that a gal can feel she’s always going to be second on their shit list after Woods. I like my post, but I actually think Woods has written as astute an insight into what’s going on in the party as can be written. I don’t [...]

The Dog and the Pool

I don’t know if y’all remember, but last year, I bought a kiddie pool for the dog and she did not get it. She circled around it and then, eventually, stood in it all dejected because, maybe, she was going to have to have a bath. So, we put it up and thought no more [...]

Shoot, It Looks Like My Parents Have an ICP Infestation