2012 James Beard Semifinalists
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Smart: Rural Studio is considering a ‘safe room‘ for protection during tornadoes in its 20k homes.
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The Modern Library is reissuing six of Faulkner’s books (Short Stories and Snopes will be released March 13; As I Lay Dying on May 22; Absalom, Absalom and The Sound and the Fury on July 3, and Light in August on Aug. 7.) in commemoration of his 50th yahrzeit in July.
Faulkner wrote about the Derby in 1955, in Sports Illustrated, and his first hockey game in 1954, also for SI: Then it was filled with motion, speed. To the innocent, who had never seen it before, it seemed discorded and inconsequent, bizarre and paradoxical like the frantic darting of the weightless bugs which run on the surface of stagnant pools. Then it would break, coalesce through a kind of kaleidoscopic whirl like a child’s toy, into a pattern, a design almost beautiful, as if an inspired choreographer had drilled a willing and patient and hard-working troupe of dancers—a pattern, design which was trying to tell him something, say something to him urgent and important and true in that second before, already bulging with the motion and the speed, it began to disintegrate and dissolve.
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Paintsville, Kentucky post office becomes crazy-beautiful home.
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The Mississippi House passed a bill to name a 13-mile stretch of I-55 in Copiah County for Robert Johnson.
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Next month’s George Lindsey Film Festival at UNA in Florence will feature “I’m with Phil” about men named ‘Phil Campbell’ coming from across the country to help the town of Phil Campbell, Alabama after it had extensive damage after the tornado outbreak of April 27 last year.
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The NYT reports that the Brooklyn Museum is putting together 50 items for its “Furnishing Louisiana: 1735-1835” exhibit. “…She is also tracking down furniture with inlaid urns, vines and monograms and butterfly-shaped joints, typical of one unidentified woodworker known as the Butterfly Man. Various potential names have turned up in archives, newspapers and city directories.
“We have these suspects,” including free black émigrés from Haiti named Philippe Auguste and Jean Rousseau, Ms. Gontar said in a recent phone interview. She added, “If I do nothing else in my life, I’m going to find out who that person was.””
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The Smithsonian’s newest museum, the National Museum of African American History and Culture opening in 2015, will have in its collection (among 25k other items) a Spirit of Tuskegee biplane, Emmett Till’s casket, and a dress owned by Rosa Parks. The NYT writes about new civil rights museums and mentions the one to be built in Mississippi as well as the National Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta.
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In the NYT “What You Get For…” feature, they feature a home in Sardis, Alabama with 8000 sq ft for $650k. The listing is here.
I like Temple Heights in Columbus, MS right now — it was built in 1837, has 3650 sq ft, is on the Register, and has a pukah. Pics here.
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Google + state of Georgia = free websites for small businesses there.
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The Paris Review writes ‘In Miss Eudora’s Garden‘ Miss Eudora, as native Jacksonites affectionately call her, was a fixture in the capital city of Mississippi from her childhood until her death in 2001. Her presence is still inescapable. Visit the Mayflower Café, off Capitol Street, and you’ll hear about Miss Eudora’s fondness for plate lunches of fried catfish and butter beans. Dig through the waist-high volumes at Choctaw Books and, with luck, you can come across a volume signed in Welty’s bunched and looping hand. Ask an alumnus of Belhaven University about Welty, and they’ll tell you how she used to keep the window of her bedroom open to listen to the music department practice, her head just visible in the top floor window as she sat at her typewriter…
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Robert St. John is back home in Hattiesburg after months in Europe. He writes in a special to the C-L: Every morning for six months overseas, I ate pastries. Most mornings since my return I have eaten pastries baked by a Frenchman. I never once had a croissant in France or Italy better that the ones I eat at Cest la Vie Bakery on Hardy Street.
Steak? Beef is not one of Europe’s strong suits. I never once had a steak in Italy, France or Spain that was better than a chain steak over here.
Pasta? They’ve got us beat. In the Tuscan region it’s all about “local,” freshness and simplicity.
When it comes to seafood, there is no comparison. We live smack dab in the middle of the world’s largest honey hole for fresh seafood. The Gulf of Mexico is tops.
He goes on to mention bread, fruits and vegetables, and about restaurants, he says: We have it made over here. All one needs to do is walk into an independent, locally owned and operated restaurant. My little hometown has an excellent Thai restaurant, several steak joints, an Italian concept, six sushi restaurants, a couple of pretty good independent sandwich shops, an award-winning New Orleans concept, a great bagel shop, and a AAA-rated four-diamond white tablecloth restaurant.
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The Hornets’ king cake baby is creepy:
http://www.wwltv.com/templates/belo_embedWrapper.js?storyid=139670003&pos=top&swfw=470http://swfs.bimvid.com/bimvid_player-3_2_7.swf?x-bim-callletters=WWLTVhttp://www.wwltv.com/templates/belo_embedWrapper.js?storyid=139670003&pos=bottom
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Fritos has a stand-alone chili pie site, featuring people who change up the recipe. Some sound not-so-great (apple hash and pumpkin gravy Frito pie?). Others, better: chicken mole frito pie. Still, nothing sounds better than the original.
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In early April, American Masters on PBS will air programs on Margaret Mitchell and Nelle Harper Lee.
http://www-tc.pbs.org/s3/pbs.videoportal-prod.cdn/media/swf/PBSPlayer.swf