Remember when your cousins were your playmates, always close at hand or at least only a short drive away? In the New South, families are scattered across the country and even the world. It’s more likely you have cousins you have never met than cousins you see on the regular. I never lived in the … Continue reading Cousins
Theoretically, summer affords time to read. We have been programmed since childhood to make time to read during the summer to keep our minds sharp and to give our caregivers a moment’s peace. Publishers would certainly have us stock up for the summer, preying on our romantic notions of sitting waterside under an umbrella with … Continue reading My summer reading list
You can tell a lot about people by what you find lying around in their home. As was well documented in last week’s installment on lighting, (if you did not read that hilarious post, do yourself a favor and go back and do so now before proceeding. It’s OK, we’ll wait…) the gradual influx of … Continue reading Books, lip balm, reading glasses and toothpicks
On April 3, 2025, I enticed Carla and our friend Heather to join me in violating the no. 1 rule of our influencer-driven, celebrity-obsessed culture: Never meet your heroes. Landon Bryant and his lovely wife, Kate, are the rare exception. We were among the first to arrive at Eagle Eye Books in Decatur that night … Continue reading Landon talks… to me
On January 7, 2025, one of my longest and best friends will celebrate a milestone birthday. Words of appreciation have gone unspoken for too long. Today’s post attempts to rectify that. I met Robert I. Perkins Jr. in 1987. At the end of my junior year of high school, I interviewed for the high school … Continue reading Friends and milestones
A look back at the year that was in 2024 for New South Essays.
I spent Labor Day weekend with my folks in Lake Wales, Fla., and tried my best to complete as many projects as I could in three days. I don’t get down there as often as I should, and I mean no disrespect when I say this, they are at an age where they need assistance … Continue reading Projects and piddlin’
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Unless you have withdrawn completely from society in the last few months, it has been impossible to avoid hearing about ChatGPT and artificial intelligence. In my day job I work in higher education, and there has been much hand wringing about what it will mean to education if students can go online and asked a … Continue reading ChatGPT South Essays
Unusually warm February weather teased me with a taste of spring this week. The sun peaked out from behind the clouds, and I left my office and took a lap of the campus, basking in the warmth, smiling at the students and getting my blood flowing. It was bliss. Perfect happiness doesn’t exist, but my … Continue reading Perfect happiness
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