Category Archives: Southernisms

This Week’s Southernism, Monday, September 11, 2023

Posted on September 11, 2023 by Deborah Fagan Carpenter

“Louisiana in September was like an obscene phone call from nature. The air—moist, sultry, secretive, and far from fresh – felt as if it were being exhaled into one’s face. Sometimes it even sounded like heavy breathing.”   —Tom Robbins … Continue reading →

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This Week’s Southernism, Monday, August 21, 2023

Posted on August 21, 2023 by Deborah Fagan Carpenter

“Men’s stiff collars wilted by nine in the morning. Ladies bathed before noon and after their three o’clock naps. And by nightfall were like soft teacakes with frosting from sweating and sweet talcum. The day was twenty-four hours long, but … Continue reading →

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This Week’s Southernism, Tuesday, August 8, 2023

Posted on August 8, 2023 by Deborah Fagan Carpenter

“The month of August had turned into a griddle where the days just lay there and sizzled.” —Sue Monk Kidd, The Secret Life of Bees     Photo: Deborah Fagan Carpenter

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This Week’s Southernism, Monday, July 17, 2023

Posted on July 17, 2023 by Deborah Fagan Carpenter

“I have only to break into the tightness of a strawberry, and I see summer—its dust and lowering skies.” — Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye Photo: Deborah Fagan Carpenter

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This Week’s Southernism, Monday, July 10, 2023

Posted on July 10, 2023 by Deborah Fagan Carpenter

“I do not want to livein a world without butterflies.Without the intricate eyes and velvety wings,graceful splashes of color dancing on the breeze.Airy, delicate keepers of hope.Metamorphic symbols of change, growth, maturation.… I do not want this worldwithout the butterflies.I … Continue reading →

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This Week’s Southernism, Monday, May 22, 2023

Posted on May 22, 2023 by Deborah Fagan Carpenter

“It’s a shame that the only thing a man can do for eight hours a day is work. He can’t eat for eight hours; he can’t drink for eight hours; he can’t make love for eight hours. The only thing … Continue reading →

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This Week’s Southernism, Monday, May 15, 2023

Posted on May 15, 2023 by Deborah Fagan Carpenter

“I hadn’t been out to the hives before, so to start off she gave me a lesson in what she called ‘bee yard etiquette’. She reminded me that the world was really one bee yard, and the same rules work … Continue reading →

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This Week’s Southernism, Monday, May 1, 2023

Posted on May 1, 2023 by Deborah Fagan Carpenter

“Spring is made of solid, fourteen-karat gratitude, the reward for the long wait. Every religious tradition from the northern hemisphere honors some form of April hallelujah, for this is the season of exquisite redemption, a slam-bang return to joy after … Continue reading →

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This Week’s Southernism, Monday, April 17, 2023

Posted on April 17, 2023 by Deborah Fagan Carpenter

“Summer is only the unfulfilled promise of spring, a charlatan in place of the warm balmy nights I dream of in April. It’s a sad season of life without growth…It has no day.”   —F. Scott Fitzgerald, This Side of … Continue reading →

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This Week’s Southernism, Monday, April 3, 2023

Posted on April 3, 2023 by Deborah Fagan Carpenter

“The wrong people always worry. The people who are the real problem never worry about anything.” —James Lee Burke, Wayfaring Stranger Photo: Deborah Fagan Carpenter

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