Traveling

Took a little trip across the Savannah, and came across this interesting edifice. There's a particular feature above the steps leading to the front entrance door that caught my eye. I understand that the same creep that wrote The Da Vinci Code, which was admitted fiction, is now burning a hole in Washington DC and something of George Washington's affiliation with the fraternity of which the former owner of this home was also. Me thinks that would require more history than even a fiction writer can compile into one book. A history that goes back over 275 years, just here beneath the Carolina moon, is a history many times older than the nation itself.

Click the pic for the really large view.

Happy World Toilet Day

Insert your own off color pun here.

Yes Virginia there's a holiday for everything!

Another Inverse Lesson in Being Southern

The gentleman sitting in the center is not; a gentleman, nor is he a southerner. Given his smirk, my best guess is Californicator or Damnyankee. But, those are just my guesses. I suppose he could be a French Canadian. He's definitely not French. He isn't inhaling deeply enough to be French.

We know these things, here beneath the Carolina moon. I'm not going to explain how. Just take my word for it. We know.

Now back to our regularly scheduled program

It's Hog Killin' Weather!

In the rural south, that means the weather is cold enough to keep the meat chilled while you butcher the hog. When I was a kid growing up in the country, that was an exciting day with a lot of hard work, but looked forward to. Hams and side meat were salted and hung, fat rendered for lard to cook with for another year, and saussage and liver mush ground and packaged. If you were one of those families with a smoke house, there might be some hams, shoulder, and side meat that was smoked to put away for special occasions. You knew that cracklin cornbread would be on the table for the next few days, and that was a real treat.

Today, I don't know anyone who still raises and dresses out their own hogs. I'm sure there are still a few people who do, but not in numbers like when I was a boy. I miss that home made saussage and country salted/smoked ham too. My cholesterol is healthy, but I sure miss the big fluffy biscuits with the products of the hog.

Okay. Truthfully, I do splurge on a saussage and egg biscuit a couple of times a year. And, sometimes I even eat a buiscuit at Christmas with a piece of country ham in it. But, that's it. I don't eat cracklin cornbread at all now. I don't eat cornbread at all now. Nobody knows how to cook cornbread anymore that won't choke you.

I'll warn you ahead. If you come to the south and visit a restaurant for real southern cookin', then skip the cornbread. I doubt it's anything like what was once real cornbread. And greenbeans out of a can, swimming in grease aren't "southern" either, and besides they proabably will serve whipped margarine instead of real butter with it and that's just gross.

Anyway. The weather finally has cooled. It's a month late, and I'm not complaining, except for the bugs we had unti now, like mosquitos, wasps, jellowjackets etc. Now, you'll get to read my gripes about cold weather for another 4 months. Aren't you thrilled?

Posted by Dread, who also remembers pulling peanuts and boiling them at this time of year, only usually you also took into consideration the moon phase; at least we did here, beneath the Carolina moon.

Two Wrongs Don't Make a Right but Uglies Can Become Beautiful

No. Two wrongs can't make a right, but uglies can make for beauty, except in the case of the Clintons which generally proves if you take two halves of two uglies, you only get another ugly.

Last week William Jackass Clinton came to town, to campaign for the witch that pulls his puppet strings. That was really ugly. Then he left. That was beautiful.

Now, the dog above is ugly. The doggie bowel is also ugly. But, the statement he is inadvertently making; BEAUTIFUL.

It's November and we haven't even had a killing frost here yet, to knock back the insect activity. That's ugly. But, this afternoon the Divine Miss N and I toured around the lower mountains near Chimney Rock, and found that the autumn leaf colors, which usually would be gone by now, were still in full abound. That was beautiful, and so is she.

If you leave out the Clintons, which are ugly; and insects, which are ugly, and politics, which are ugly, life is good, and beautiful.

Miss N and I forgot to take the digi-cam with us this afternoon, so here's an autumn cuteness shot to make up for lost leaf beauty.

Posted by Dread who needs to relocate the justice for the alphabet.