The Quilt

I got my hair cut! And I can’t stop feeling it, since so much is gone. The woman who cut my hair at SuperCuts was amazing. I told her what I wanted and she just whooped it up. And then I came home and worked on the quilt. I now have all the single pieces [...]

Prove How Bad It Was

So, by now, you’ve heard of the national efforts to allow funding of abortions only in cases of forcible rape, though “forcible rape” has no legal definition. I want to stress what McEwan says in her post–”The proposed law effectively, if not by design, gives veto control over terminating pregnancies resulting from rape to the [...]

Dear Governor Haslam, Please Don’t Be Stupid

Oh, lord, I was prepared for Governor Haslam to be Republican (obviously) and I was prepared for him to be pro-business on some things and wishy-washy on others. After he was kind of blind-sided by that gun crap, I had even steeled myself for him being woefully unprepared. But I never considered that he might [...]

Marrowbone Creek or Ancient Alien Sidewalk?

The Butcher will watch the heck out of any TV show about ancient aliens. I try not to laugh because I have my ghost shows, but it is hilarious, how mad he gets about how stupid the shows are, and yet he watches and watches. One show we watched talked at great length about this [...]

Pick-a-Part

Holy cow, people of Nashville! Have you been to Pick-a-Part? We went today to see if we could get a part for the Butcher’s car and it’s like… I don’t even know. You pay a dollar and you go in and you have to bring your own tools, but there are rows and rows of [...]

Don’t Have a Job? Maybe You Just Need to Make Friends with the Mayor

I feel like I should give you some kind of warning, especially if you are unemployed or under-employed, that what I am about to tell you is kind of disgusting. The city has hired Jim Fyke, the former Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation commissioner, to work part-time for the city, doing some stuff they [...]

Here’s a Little Story I Got to Tell…

As I said, I’ve been mulling over “Devil’s music” in relation to the book. When I was growing up, it was, in my communities, taken for granted that there was indeed Satanic music and it was heavy metal. Not the hairband heavy metal. Parents hated Guns & Roses, but no one thought they were Satanic. [...]

What Are They Doing?

I am now intensely curious about what people mean when they say they are writing. I read something the other day about Nicholas Sparks talking about writing The Notebook and how he worked from 9 in the morning until midnight for six months writing it. I will refrain from writing snarky things about The Notebook [...]

The “Lilith”

I thought a huge red flag that the Marie Claire article is bullshit should have come when Lee says Miller says “This means that nearly every Sunday, at the First United Methodist Church in Huntsville, Alabama, you’ll find me mounting the pulpit in a collar and cassock, my black ankle-length robe.” Because I know no, [...]

The Marie Claire Article about Reverend Miller

Thanks to a FoTCP, I’ve seen the now-infamous Marie Claire article. I do think that Miller got done mildly wrong–that the article, even if it is an “as told to…,” puts words in her mouth in ways that makes her seem kind of gossipy and silly in ways that could undermine her authority as a [...]

Chapter 5

Whew, could it get any more depressing around here? Now you see why I had to write in the Satanic menage a trois into chapter 5. If you can’t reward people with some hot, transgressive devil sex, they’re not going to do the work of slogging through all the church nonsense, because it’s fucking depressing. [...]

Inheritence

I slept like hell last night. I kept waking up to find I was crying. The thing that was running around all night in my brain like some loose animal is, “Do I do this, too?” And I think the answer is yes. It has to be yes. You can’t know such a large cross-section [...]

Why I Dance Out the Church Door

Every time I think that I never have to step foot in a church again, except as a favor to my poor father, it makes me smile. I feel such great relief, such relief I can’t even begin to express. Maybe it’s not that interesting to you why a minister’s daughter would leave the church [...]

Is It Too Early to Start Drinking?

This day is just a quicksand of stupidity. Do they even have quicksand any more? When I was growing up, it seems like people, real and fictional, were constantly falling into quicksand and then I remember there was a news story about how you should just float on your back until help got there and [...]

Oh, Damn It. There’s More Snow.

Here are the series of questions I ask myself. Why aren’t other people trying to go to work? Is it because schools are out or because conditions are too bad? Is there ice? Is it worth it to even try? I’m going to try to go to work. The snowplow has been by twice, it’s [...]

Liveblogging the State of the Union

Ha, just kidding. I have it on in the background just so I’m not the last to know when the Kenyan Muslim liberal take-over is announced. But I was working on the quilt instead. I received the older Methodist hymnal in the mail. None of the songs have titles and “O For a Thousand Tongues [...]

The Deer, An Update

I think Mrs. W. was pissed at me for not letting her go over and smell the deer up close. I’m all “You have a great nose. You can smell from right here.” But what do I know about how things smell? Maybe even dogs want to get right up in it, examine how a [...]

I Feel Vindicated about Taco Bell!

I never had actual Mexican food until I was in grad school. I grew up in the rural Midwest, which was predominately white in some places and exclusively white in others and, even though our parents would diligently take us to ChiChi’s, I believed “Mexican food” was what you got at Taco Bell and I [...]

When They Know You

I read both of these posts today, which, weirdly enough, cover similar ground–the dangers of being known beyond your boundaries. Here and here. The meditation on the ribbon pretty much blew me away. And the idea of folks coming after your commenters? That’s a nightmare I never even considered.

So Much to See

Lots interesting on the internet today. 1. I like the idea of trying to revitalize that strip of Charlotte along the 12 South lines. There’s no reason for it not to be and there are a lot of cool buildings there. I linked to the blog instead of the actual story because the comments cracked [...]

Seriously Unserious

The thing that just does me in about politics, especially at the state level, is how deadly serious it should be–the state legislature’s ability to help or fuck people over is enormous and that responsibility should not be borne lightly–and yet how, over and over again, you learn how unserious they are about it. Think [...]

In Which I Learn Two Things

Lesson 1. If you’re walking the dog and for some reason, she wants to get way up into the bushes and won’t come out and yet won’t poop, she’s probably eating something. Look around you and notice what there might be to eat. Like, say, the huge deer right over there. Could the dog be [...]

“Distaff Elvis”

Peter Cooper has a great article on Wanda Jackson in which he refers to her as “like a distaff Elvis.” I actually think, as far as turns of phrase go, that’s really an amazing one. Those two words–”distaff” and “Elvis” carry so much weight. But, when I read it, it was like nails on a [...]

Stewing Again!

Ha, I was just rereading last night’s post when I realized that I am making stew this afternoon. So, how can I pass up the chance to point out a whole weekend devoted to stewing? Other than that, I have nothing to add. I only had one carrot. I think I’m going to be sad [...]

Stewing

It’s hard, but I am letting my draft stew. If I feel like I must work on it, I open up my outline and make notes. Right now, all I want to do is sit down and work on it, but instead, I’m going to write this post and work on the quilt. One thing [...]