OOooooh! Pretty Colors!

Which can only mean ONE THING--it’s the Autumnal Equinox Edition of the Axis of Weevil Thursday Three!

Okay, right off, I know that yesterday was the first day of Fall. But yesterday was Wednesday, and we can’t have a Thursday Three on a Wednesday without messing everything up, unless there’s a hurricane on Thursday. Which there isn’t this week, at least where I’m sitting.

Then again, there was that breakfast burrito I had this morning…

ANYWAY, no matter--today is Thursday, and you are getting your dose of three questions whether you like it or not!

Now, seeing as how this little exercise began so long ago as being something at least tangentially related to things of the South, and seeing as how Fall has fell on us here in Dixie, I thought maybe we could explore something like this:

1) What are three things you love about the South in the autumn? To make this extra-special hard (in order to promote deep thought and insight) your answers CANNOT be a) football, b) hog-killing time, or c) perky, rosy-cheeked cheerleaders in clingy white sweaters. Sorry.

2) What are three of your favorite places in the South in the autumn? (No restrictions on this one.)

3) And finally, what is one thing you dislike about Fall in the South?

Now, I know some of you don’t live here, or have never visited here, but don’t let that stop you from participating. Just use your imagination and lie-up something convincing. Leave a link to your blog in the comments below, or just leave your comments if you don’t have a blog.


SO, on to my answers.

Well, one of my favorite things about the South in the autumn, ASIDE from football and barbecue and barbecue-eating football cheerleaders in sweaters, is the weather. Right now is perfect--cooler temperatures, lower humidity, bright sky, still some leaves on the trees. Hard to beat, unless it’s springtime.

Another would be the smell of wood smoke in the air. I don’t know what it is, but that first whiff of someone burning leaves really is quite nice. I was driving home the other day and smelled it (I guess someone was burning off some of Hurricane Ivan’s windfall) and, as smells sometimes do, it triggered all sorts of odd childhood memories. We never burned leaves or anything when I was little, but just that smell and the excitement of going to school and the arrival of the Sears Wish Book have all somehow conflated into one big happy smelly memory.

There is also a certain smell this time of year that I occasionally catch a sniff of--the smell of old vines or something. It’s earthy and almost unpleasant, like old vegetables, but every time I smell it, I am immediately transported back to Mrs. Bryant’s 2nd grade classroom. The closet in the back of her room had that EXACT same moldering viney odor, and I never could figure out why. It was always a great mystery to me, although in retrospect I think she might have been keeping snuff in there.

Third favorite thing would be one of two things--either the new television season, or the introduction of the new model year of cars. Neither one of which is what it used to be, so I’m sorta running on nostalgia for what it used to be like. New cars are introduced all throughout the year now, so the big buildup isn’t really the event it used to be. And there’s nothing I watch on television on a regular basis anymore, but it is sorta fun to see everyone else get so worked up over the season premier of The Apprentice. (For what it’s worth, I wouldn’t hire Donald Trump for anything. Well, maybe as a lightning rod holder.)

Next set of questions! Favorite places--Little River Canyon--at its best during the mid-fall when the leaves have changed but are still on the trees; any football stadium anywhere; and having lunch at any of the places here in downtown that has a sidewalk eating area. Summer is just too hot to try to act like you’re all European and sophisticated, and winter is too cold. Spring and fall are just right, and fall is nice because of all the leaves showering down on the sidewalks. Of course, there are still the occasional persons of indeterminate permanent mailing address who shower down on the sidewalk, too, but that’s really during any season.

Finally, my least favorite thing about the South in the fall, at least nowadays, is that no one seems to be sticking to the old etiquette about not wearing their summer clothes and white shoes after Labor Day. It’s such a small thing, but you know, civilized people just don’t do such things! No white bucks, no white patent leather, no white linen, no seersucker, no straw boaters. Is that too much to ask!? Yes, I realize it’s still hot as blazes until November, but common decency demands that we pay attention to the putative seasonal norm--we spray paint snow on store windows just to make us think shivery Christmas thoughts, don’t we? Well, no white shoes, then. Of course, I blame liberals for this. They are well known to be gauche and ill-bred and coarse. Bless their hearts.

SO, there you go.

Oh, and by the way, in the interest of full disclosure--I’m not actually in the office today. And I didn’t really have a breakfast burrito. Through the miracle of the computer, I posted this earlier--on Wednesday (!), so that I could have time to go to the ultra-ritzy Wynfrey Hotel at the Galleria Thursday morning to partake of 2 1/2 hours of continuing education and food eating.

It promises to be awfully exciting.

Or excitingly awful--I’m not real sure.

Something about electrical stuff. In any event, I won’t be back in until later on in the afternoon, so don’t think I’m being stuck up or anything for not chiming in with comments or filling up the screen with silly stuff. Enough time for that after while, you know.

Now then, get to work on your own answers!
posted by Terry at 8:00:00 AM