Possumblog

Not in the clamor of the crowded street, not in the shouts and plaudits of the throng, but in ourselves, are triumph and defeat.--Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

REDIRECT ALERT! (Scroll down past this mess if you're trying to read an archived post. Thanks. No, really, thanks.)

Due to my inability to control my temper and complacently accept continued silliness with not-quite-as-reliable-as-it-ought-to-be Blogger/Blogspot, your beloved Possumblog will now waddle across the Information Dirt Road and park its prehensile tail at http://possumblog.mu.nu.

This site will remain in place as a backup in case Munuvia gets hit by a bus or something, but I don't think they have as much trouble with this as some places do. ::cough::blogspot::cough:: So click here and adjust your links. I apologize for the inconvenience, but it's one of those things.


Thursday, April 15, 2004

Well, now, if yesterday was Wednesday…

…then that must mean it’s time for America’s hottest new drawing-room activity, the famous Axis of Weevil Thursday Three--Volume II!

Millions Most Many Some Several of the members of the Redneck Diaspora in the past seven days have grown to love this wholesome, nutritional, and sanitary method of providing filling and informative matter for your weblogs, and likewise your visitors have been thrilled to plumb the depths of your perspicacity and knowledge about things Southern. (That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.)

Now then, this week’s question set builds upon last week’s, which is either very clever, or not. In any event, as you recall, the Inaugural Posting dealt with the culinary arts.

Remembering especially the question about the good ol’ Southern food that you are able to prepare the very best, we ask you to imagine that you have prepared it for a very special supper, and then answer these three questions:

1) What three LIVING people from the South would you invite to your meal?

2) In recognition of Faulkner’s aphorism about the past not being dead and, in fact, not even being past, what three DEAD people from the South (aside from Faulkner) would you invite to your meal? (Assuming, of course, that they would not show up like extras from Dawn of the Dead, but rather would show up in the form they held before leaving their corporeal habitation and advancing to their ultimate reward.)

3) After the warm conviviality of your feast has been deeply shared by all, what sort of postprandial parlor games would you employ to entertain your guests?

Remember, although the Thursday Three is intended to spark discussion within the Alabama Needlepoint and Knife-Throwing Guild (aka, the Axis of Weevil), anyone is free to play along, even if you’re a furriner, or heaven forbid, a Yankee. If you have your own blog, if you wish, you are welcome to leave a link to your answers down in the comments. If you don't, remember that dumb old Haloscan has only a 1,000 character limit.

Okay--now as you go answer yours, here’s mine.

1) First, I am going to list famous people for the living ones, because I wouldn’t want to upset anyone I know who didn’t get invited. Not that I know any thin-skinned crybabies like that, but still, you don’t want to cause a stink.

SO, the three living Southerners I would invite to my meal would be A) Condoleeza Rice, so later I could say I knew her before she became President, B) Harper Lee, because even though she has a reputation as a recluse, she’s not really and would appreciate getting out for a nice meal with a fan and with some formerly dead people, and I think she also probably has a wicked sense of humor, and C) hmmm--probably need to go with a guy here, just so it doesn’t look like I’m trying to create some sort of harem atmosphere. Oh, the heck with that--it’s my derned dinner party. I would have to say then automotive writer Denise McCluggage, who was born in Kansas and lives in New Mexico. Obviously, this requires me to jiggle the handle on the question machine a bit to make it work, but so what!? I claim Miss McCluggage to be Southern because she is far too interesting to not be. And even though she’s at something slightly beyond 1.6 times my age, I sorta have the hots for her.

2) NOW, for the dead Southren folks. Well, for A), I pretty much have to say Thomas Jefferson. I think the world has seen precious few men with his genius and foresight. Although we might have to keep an eye on him so he doesn’t start hittin’ on Condi. For B), I think I would like to invite Louise Wooster. For those who don’t know her story, she ran a house of ill repute in Birmingham back in the late 1870s. Not that unusual back at the end of the 19th century in this particular place; her fame came not from that, but rather from her devotion to the victims of the 1873 cholera epidemic in Birmingham. She is entombed in Birmingham’s Oak Hill Cemetery alongside the city’s more reputable founders and scions. I imagine she probably would have some interesting tales to tell. Finally, for C) I would have to pick one of Jefferson’s contemporaries. A fellow born around 1740, who arrived in Abbeville District of South Carolina sometime in the late 1760s or so with a couple of brothers, and who despite having sentimental ties to the Crown, became an American. This would be my great-whatever-grandfather Sabert, who at the ripe old age of 36 found himself enlisted as a matross with the 4th SC Artillery. As someone who has done this just for fun, in the real world with lead flying around, it is not particularly an occupation designed to allow one to grow old at a leisurely pace, nor one that was made for anyone other than a youngster. But he did it, and managed to survive to the war’s end, and then some, and then reenlisted to fight the War of 1812. At the age of around 72 or so. Stubborn old cuss. Then he loaded everyone in his family up afterwards and set out for the territories, and got here just before the time Alabama became a state in 1819. I figure he would have some pretty good stories to tell, too. And could once and for all fill in the information on his ancestors--he’s the earliest we can find, but surely he had a mom and a dad somewhere back across the water.

NOW, Question 3, fun ‘n’ games for everyone--obvious choice, here folks: Giant Twister.

The other alternative would be to load everyone up in the van and go over to the FOP Range in Pleasant Grove.

So there!


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