Celebrating the Labrador, the Po Monkey’s auction, and a charcoal time-saver. Welcome to this week’s Talk of the South.
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“Yesterday I had two chili steaks, and I felt it, right before CrossFit. I didn’t plan to have two, but the first one disappeared so fast.”
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Po' Monkey's Lounge outside Merigold, Mississippi. (Photo by William Hereford)
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| What’s Next for Po’ Monkey’s
Founded in 1963 in a former sharecropper shack adorned with colorful signs and Christmas lights, Po’ Monkey’s Lounge was one of the last rural juke joints in the Mississippi Delta. Its proprietor, the late Willie Seaberry (aka Po’ Monkey), ran the joint out of his home just west of Merigold, drawing pilgrims the world over for his Thursday night parties before Po’ Monkey’s shuttered following Seaberry’s death in 2016. “Every Thursday there were hundreds of people there,” says Scott Barretta, a writer and researcher for the Mississippi Blues Trail. “Much of the appeal was Po’ Monkey himself. The whole experience was about being in that place with all that stuff.” Now, after two years of uncertainty and estate settling, the establishment’s many contents—interior and exterior signs, stuffed animals that hung from the ceiling, booths, sound systems, Mardi Gras beads—will be going up for auction this September, to be sold as one lot. “I think everyone wants to see some type of preservation,” says Will Jacks, a Delta photographer who spent nearly a decade documenting Po’ Monkey’s story. “Nobody wants to see it drift away and be forgotten.”
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| OUR STYLE DIRECTOR’S PICK OF THE WEEK
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For those who worship at the altar of charcoal grilling, this genius Looftlighter Charcoal Starter takes the tedious waiting time out of firing up the coals (no lighter fluid required). Translation: Even if it’s Tuesday and you’re in a rush after work, you can still get that amazing flavor in half the time. $80, williams-sonoma.com
—Haskell Harris
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Opening today, a new exhibition at the National Sporting Library & Museum in Middleburg, Virginia, pays tribute to the beloved Labrador retriever. The English artist Reuben Ward Binks (1880-1950) painted sporting dogs, primarily Labs, throughout England and America in the 1920s and 1930s, when the breed was rising in popularity around the world. More than forty of Binks’s original watercolors are now on display, capturing the dogs’ regal profiles and eager-to-please eyes, whether retrieving a mallard or carrying a newspaper. The exhibition runs through September 30. See a preview gallery here.
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| - Travel: A few weeks ago, I drove to Macon, Georgia, to visit some longtime friends (I freely admit the impetus was to watch Mamma Mia 2 together). But they also took me on a “greatest hits” tour of the town that made me eager to return: a hike up the prehistoric Ocmulgee National Monument mounds (followed by an IPA at Ocmulgee Brewpub); an afternoon in the Big House, a museum in the home where members of the Allman Brothers band lived together (I was most awed by handwritten lyrics to “Blue Sky”); a trip to Travis Jean Emporium to browse caps for the Macon Bacon, the brand-new collegiate summer league baseball club with perhaps the best mascot ever; and biscuits and deviled eggs at Dovetail.
- Drinks: I’ve used the sweltering Charleston summer as an excuse to experiment with cocktails. And while I love this Southern-inflected grapefruit, bourbon, and Campari sipper from G&G, I’ve also enjoyed reading about drinks on the other side of the Atlantic in two books by Southern authors. That’s meant plenty of Aperol spritzes inspired by Cocktail Italiano, Annette Joseph’s bright and breezy guide to the aperitivo tradition, and dry martinis perfected with the help of an advanced copy of Philip Greene’s A Drinkable Feast, a dive into 1920s Paris cocktail culture.
- Television: My latest binge-watch has been The Staircase, a gripping Durham, North Carolina–set documentary series recently released on Netflix. Without spoiling anything, the narrative centers around the 2001 death of a woman whose novelist husband is soon the prime suspect.
—Amanda Heckert, Deputy Editor
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| REMEMBERING THE THANK-YOU NOTE
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| When I don’t receive a thank-you note, I am not inclined to give another gift. A lack of gratitude, along with not RSVPing, are two of my pet peeves and I am not old. —Mary-Frances Albanesi Wood
My mom wouldn’t allow playing with or wearing gifts until thank-you notes were written. —Rusty Cohen
It takes so little effort to put a few thankful words onto paper. The receiver will always remember your appreciation for their thoughtfulness. —Carole Ann Bowen
My grandmother sends a thank-you note even after I drop in for a surprise visit (we live 4 hrs apart) and especially when she receives a gift. We joke that she sends the note the same day. —Kelly Golden Booker
One of my proudest moments was when my daughter, maybe 7 or 8, sat down to write thank-you notes on Christmas Day. —Holly Laffoon
Emails, texts, and Facebook posts do not count as thank-you notes. —Donna Tingen Beal
Almost a thing of the past! Nowadays, I very seldom ever get a “thank you” much less a handwritten thank-you note! —Janet Van Huss McClelland
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August 15Today is National Relaxation Day. What better excuse to treat yourself at one of our favorite Southern Spas?
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August 15The South Carolina Aquarium partners with Wild Dunes Resort near Charleston to host the Sea Life Safe Beach Sweep. Participants meet on Isle of Palms by 6 p.m. for an evening of hands-on conservation followed by food, drinks, and live music.
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August 16–18Get tips and recipes from some of the South’s top mixologists, shop cocktail accessories, and tour Athens, Georgia’s best bars during the city’s first Cocktail Classic weekend.
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August 18
Mississippi’s literary heritage will be on full display at the Mississippi Book Festival in Jackson, with more than 150 writers in lively panels and readings, including a number of G&G regulars. Rick Bragg will talk about his mama’s cooking over ham biscuits, John T. Edge and the Louisville chef Edward Lee will ponder the evolving nature of Southern food, and Julia Reed will sit down with G&G’s editor in chief, David DiBenedetto. Also on the bill: National Book Award winner Jesmyn Ward.
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