Month: June 2012

I have a love affair with the neon Pancake House sign in Selma (minus the Pepsi part):

But my favorite of all time is my friend Glenn House Sr.’s Moon Winx:

Other faves (this Nelva isn’t around anymore):

We spent part of the weekend in Florence, and stayed at the Marriott Shoals.  I promised the boys we would go swimming, because I remembered that they have a fun/nice pool there, and mentioned that we would try to have supper at the 360 restaurant, because it’s a revolving restaurant and neither of the boys has been to one of those yet.

We had a great view of the Wheeler Dam and the boys thought that was just awesome.

Which is good, because it rained Sunday night and Monday morning, and 360 was closed on Sundays!  But we still had a great time.  The boys played great in the hotel while Daddy was working, and Monday morning, we were treated to biscuits at Trowbridge’s which is so perfectly retro (since 1918):

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A week or two ago, Atlanta Fresh had a sample tasting at Whole Foods and while I almost always pass grocery store tastings up, the boys got to it before I did, and turns out that was totally okay because the flavors were delicious (Tropical Sweet Heat!) and we brought home a small container of vanilla.  It’s frozen Greek yogurt, made small-batch with Atlanta-local milk that’s scary-stuff free.  So yummy.

And looking at the listing of revolving restaurants in the US, so many of them are closed now!  Wow.

Last week, we went to Montgomery to pick up some things at the Curb Market (which is like a farmers’ market with everything you expect, plus canning, houseplants, and cakes/pies/etc.  Oh, and there are a couple of sellers there who will slice up a rutabaga for you, which is fantastic because the boys and I love rutabagas but cutting them frightens me), then drove over to Selma.

On the way, we stopped in Lowndesboro, home to 115 people according to the latest census.  It really is one of the loveliest communities anywhere.

1856 Lowndesboro Presbyterian:

1830 St. James Christian Methodist Episcopal — and the steeple here was once on the capitol building in Old Cahawba.  It was brought here by an ox team after the capitol moved:

1888 Lowndesboro Baptist:

1888 United Methodist:

1857 St. Paul’s Episcopal:

1853 Meadowlawn, which is on the National Register:

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In Oakview Cemetery there, some of the most beautiful monuments:

The sculptor of many of these was H.W. Hitchcock of Montgomery:

There’s a woman in Arkansas who studies cemetery lamb sculptures, and this has to be one of the largest proportionally for the overall base that I’ve seen.  It’s for two siblings, Orline, and Starke:

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I read recently about a company called MonuMark, that makes QR codes to be placed on small plaques on monuments so that visitors can scan the code with their phone and be directed to a website about the person’s life.  Really, anyone could do this on their own, just setting up an account to pay for hosting any site you build in perpetuity…  Hollywood Forever is doing their own thing in this genre with some of its more famous residents, like Douglas Fairbanks.

Interview with Lee McCarty from Ole Miss:

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Big Bad Breakfast coming to Birmingham.

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Jim ‘n Nick’s is opening their own processing plant, and they’re specifying a particular heritage breed (cross) of hog from area farmers.  Ah, supply chain management.  JnN is really pretty good.  Oh, and I can admit this now — for…forever…I thought that the restaurant was named in honor of Jimmy and Nicky at Bright Star.

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Mr. Imagination passed away this week in Atlanta.

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Discussion of a Slave Ship Museum being built in Mississippi.

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I brought this home to Av just because I liked the name and image — Snake Handler 2x IPA from Good People:

In unrelated snake handling news, the WSJ reports that Pastor Mack Wolford joined the ancestors after he was bitten by one of his rattlesnakes during a service last weekend.

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A Moon Pie store is going to open in Lynchburg, and legislation has been passed so that the distillery will soon be able to give out samples of Jack Daniel’s.

Oh, and since 2008 (2008, I think) Moon Pie has been making specially branded MPs for the Masters.

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PBS: why Louisiana is sinking.

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Opinion column in the Sun-Herald about the staggering decline in population in the Delta.  What to do, what to do?

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This week, Atlanta Journal Constitution discusses the Mississippi Culinary Trail, which I helped with some.  Yay!

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Brett Anderson writes about pastry chefs; mentions the red beans and rice pudding at Red Fish Grill.  From the menu description: “Louisiana rice pudding served with red bean ice cream and honey butter corn bread.”

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USA Today writes that “The South Rises Again” at Cannes with Mud, The Paperboy, Lawless, and Beasts of the Southern Wild.

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It isn’t every day one of your friends gets asked to make something for the Smithsonian!  WTG, Stephanie!!  Bottle trees forever!!

Archibald’s in Northport

Yes.