Before there was the University of Tennessee, there was Sewanee. There’s no denying it’s one of the prettiest places in Tennessee. Or the country, rather. What other college campus has a dining hall that looks like this? (Also referred to as Phallic Palace, with good reason.) Has Gothic architecture like this around every corner? A [...]
Song of the South
October 12, 2009 By 20 Comments
Even though she lives a solid 5,470 miles from me in Copenhagen, Helle Harbo is the friend who has likely visited me the most in the more than four years that we’ve been friends. Blame it on the mandatory six weeks of vacation time a year every Dane is required to take. Whatever it is, [...]
Signs I’m Back in the South
May 6, 2009 By Leave a Comment
—Instead of good-bye at—where else?—Nashville’s Pancake Pantry, my favorite place to eat in the whole state, our waitress bid adieu with a “be blessed,” just dripping with sugary sweet Southern goodness. —There’s American cheese on my omelet. (As Lemon would say, Not. Real. Cheese.) —Everything else on the table is processed and dispensed from a [...]
Just a Small Town Girl
November 20, 2008 By 12 Comments
When I met Marlene, a much older author, on my trip to Brazil in the spring, she couldn’t get fathom what it must be like to hail somewhere “foreign” like Tennessee. Marlene grew up in Czechoslovakia in the 30′s, and her family fled to New York when World War II hit. I can’t blame her [...]
Orange Crush
November 10, 2008 By Leave a Comment
Most of you regular readers know I’m a University of Tennessee alum and avid Vols fan. This is not the year to spout such bold claims. Take, for example, the empty Neyland Stadium (which used to be the nation’s second biggest sports stadium seats-wise, but thanks to renovations, has dropped to fourth). And I’ll be [...]
Don’t Rain on My Parade
May 8, 2008 By 11 Comments
All week long before my Nashville race, there were forecasts calling for thunderstorms Saturday morning, AKA Country Music Marathon Day. I kind of brushed this off and didn’t come prepared, considering the rest of the week was a hot-and-sticky 86 degrees, and despite my deep base tan, I still got fried from two afternoons spent [...]
Home Is Where Jeanie Cooks Your Meals and Does Your Laundry
April 29, 2008 By 9 Comments
(It’s where the heart is, too, in case you were wondering, but even I am not as sentimentally cheesy as to exercise that cliche in a headline. Since I have a rather large head—ego aside, I’m speaking in terms of circumference—and my mom insists I look like a boy when my hair is pulled off [...]
A House Is Not a Home…Except When It Is
April 24, 2008 By 8 Comments
The first house I ever lived in was a cozy three-bedroom, white-and-brown wooden house with a bricked-in backporch on Marbeth Lane. We lived there until I was seven, at which point my parents bought a home on the East Side—where I come from, there are only two sides of town; if you’re from the West, [...]
