Well.
Clearly I’m quite shy talking about myself, so with arm twisted, I shall oblige.
And to keep it going, I’m tagging two of my favorite people in the known universe -- Ann at Extra Ordinary Beauty and Caroline at Six Word Biography. Can we hear (or see in photos) 7 facts about you, please?
Thank you for asking, Jackie, and here goes…
1. I write for a living, and I write every day. But sometimes a simple email can paralyze me with self-doubt. What’s up with that?
2. I think I lived a past life in the 1940s while embroiled in a mad love affair. Songs like this one make me feel good/sad from the ends of my hair to the edges of my toe polish. I especially love this music on weekend mornings while I’m taking my time to wake up and drinking a good cup of coffee.
3. I wish I could throw a dinner party and invite Paul Reubens (but only if he came in character as Pee Wee Herman), Cyndi Lauper, Amy Sedaris, Vivienne Westwood, Johnny Depp, Patricia Field, Tom Robbins, Erykah Badu and David Lynch. We would eat only Dr. Seuss-ish foods like green eggs and ham….and purple sweet potatoes. I waltzed into Whole Foods one day to find these – whipped with just ginger and coconut milk (no food coloring!) – and I just about died.
Come to think of it, I’d want Dr. Seuss to be there, too.
“I learned there are troubles
Of more than one kind.
Some come from ahead
And some come from behind.
But I’ve bought a big bat.
I’m all ready, you see.
Now my troubles are going
To have troubles with me!
-- I Had Trouble in Getting to Solla Sollew by Dr. Seuss
4. I can twirl the baton, like, kinda well. It’s a skill I spent a major portion of my youth through college perfecting. Now at age 35 with no immediate plans to join the circus, it’s not something I put into practice. Ever. It was fun while it lasted, but if I have kids some day, I’ll probably steer them toward piano lessons. Or the circus.
5. If I could be a character from literature – for, oh, just a few months -- I’d choose Brett Ashely from The Sun Also Rises.
Yeah she was a troubled little minx, but I like her eccentricity and charisma. I like that she was a guy’s girl in the rambling tough-yet-also-fragile sort of way. Plus she got to hang with the fellas in Paris and Pamplona.
“Oh, Jake,” Brett said, “we could have had such a damned good time together.”Ahead was a mounted policeman in khaki directing traffic. He raised his baton. The car slowed suddenly pressing Brett against me.“Yes,” I said. “Isn’t it pretty to think so?“-- Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises
6. Six Feet Under is the last show I truly loved. This is one of my favorite scenes. And I’d say it’s apt for a food blog. Look at all the types of folks that came together over the table.
And here’s another Alan Ball classic from American Beauty. But I don't guess coming together over food guarantees understanding. Been there, yeah?
7. At work I’m responsible for a little column every week called Chef du Jour, a Q&A with a Nashville chef. I always ask the chef to tell me what he’d eat for his final meal if he could choose it. But of course I’m always asking. I never get to answer. So here’s what I would say….
A pimento cheese sandwich
A plate of my dad’s collard greens (simmered long with ham hock, honey and hot pepper)
My grandmother’s green beans
My brother’s wife’s sweet potato casserole
Squash casserole from Arnold’s on 8th
A couple slices of homegrown summer tomato
A wedge of my grandfather’s cornbread (cooked with onions) and generously butter
And for dessert, blackberry cobbler with my mom/dad's homemade ice cream
...and a piece of lemon icebox pie out of a casserole dish like my brother used to make it
