Ahem. I'm a little behind. (I need a maid the week of this event.) Back to you soon on the cookies.

UPDATE: These gingersnaps are pretty yummy. The orange adds a slight edge of bitterness that might not go over with some folks. Easily left out.

The recipe made just on 4 dozen approx. 2-1/2 inch cookies. Seven minutes didn't get them anywhere in my oven. I settled on 15 minutes.

They're so flavorful I can't eat more than two at a time. And I wish I were serving just these with vanilla ice cream for dessert tomorrow. That would be plenty fine.

If I've heard "What you doing, Sweet Baby?" once in the past few days, I've heard it a thousand times.

Do parents of young children ever have the impulse to say, "It's none of your d**m business, and you can't help anyway"?

I'll be baking gingersnaps this evening:

GINGERSNAPS

1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 cup sugar
2 sticks unsalted butter
1 egg
1/3 cup molasses
2 teaspoons powdered ginger
1/2 teaspoon powdered cardamom
1/2 teaspoon powdered cloves
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
2 1/4 cups flour
1 cup coarsely chopped candied orange peel

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a medium bowl, cream together the brown sugar, 1/2 cup of the sugar, and the butter until light and fluffy. Add the egg and molasses, and incorporate well. Sift together the dry ingredients and add to the creamed mixture. Mix well, then gently fold in the candied orange peel.

Place dough in the refrigerator until chilled. Shape dough into 1-inch balls, dip the top half of the cookie in the remaining 1/2 cup sugar, coating them well. Place 2 inches apart on a greased cookie sheet. Bake for 7 minutes, or until golden brown. Use a spatula to remove the cookies from the sheet and let cool.

Makes 12 to 24 cookies. (Beats me. It's what the recipe says.)

Diane says it's time for cookie exchanges. This is a good cookie that Lyman likes to bake:

OATMEAL PEANUT BUTTER CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

1 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
3/4 cup peanut butter
2 large eggs
1 12 ounce bag semisweet chocolate chips
8 ounces semisweet chocolate, grated

In a food processor pulse 1 cup oats until ground fine. In a large bowl stir together ground oats, remaining 1/2 cup whole oats, flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

In another large bowl with an electric mixer beat together butter and sugars until light and fluffy and beat in vanilla and peanut butter. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition, and gradually beat in flour mixture. Add chocolate chips and grated chocolate, beating just until combined. Chill cookie dough, covered, at least 2 hours and up to 1 week.

Preheat oven to 325°F.

Form rounded tablespoons of dough into balls and arrange about 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets. Flatten balls slightly.

Bake cookies in batches in middle of oven 15 minutes, or until just pale golden.

Cool cookies on baking sheet 5 minutes and transfer to racks to cool completely.

Makes about 60 cookies.

Dr José A Bowen: Hook, Hants, England

Tonight's recipe: bread machine kneaded French bread

UPDATE: When baking these two loaves I used the same trick the authors use in Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. I put a shallow baking pan on the rack underneath the loaves where I poured a cup of hot water just before closing the oven door.

The crust was much crisper.

Tonight's recipe: Simple Candied Orange Peel

UPDATE: Very good alone with hot tea, would make a nice gift

Why, yes, I did wash windows the day before a downpour. That or play in the water outdoors in 50 degree weather.

Cleaning this house is thankless and hopeless.

"Charles Gore! Quit chucking bird pellets!"

UPDATE: Ahem. I toddled into the 21st century with a $3 purchase of microfiber towels from Family Dollar. These are better than Magic Sponges.

Busy week of the Christmas luncheon.

MENU
Traditional shrimp cocktail
Susan Spicer's garlic soup
Mixed greens with Bobby Flay's chipotle Caesar dressing
Susan Spicer's shrimp with tasso cream over green-chili grit cakes
Pumpkin chiffon with gingersnaps

Off to the store. Not to forget the vitamins.

At least we have decor:

A picture of Lucy always makes the place look better. This was taken today after cleaning her cage:

UPDATE: Lucy says, "Hey, muscle boys, there's more than one kind of champ from LSU."

I took ten dozen freshly cut satsumas to Magnolia House today. We're finally making a dent in the produce from the loaded satsuma tree. That brings the picked count on that tree to 320.

Little guy is no better a sharer than the birds, but cuter about it.

Teddy Bear is a North American porcupine at Zooniversity.

(Thanks, Viral Footage.)

And so the Byzantine Empire comes to a violent end.

Brought to a close largely because of differences between the western and eastern Christian churches. Not to mention the ongoing trade war between Genoa and Venice.

So where to take the reading next?

The Papacy?

Venice?

More Byzantium?

Medieval theological disputes?

Beats me. Time to return these books and see what else my brother has on his shelves.

UPDATE: For kicks, Tony, I found Justinian by Turteltaub for $4 used.

Blogger James Joyner lost his wife early this morning to an unknown cause. She was 41.

Last trip to the library, I picked up Cleopatra the Great: The Woman Behind the Legend, written by Egyptologist Dr. Joann Fletcher.

Apparently, there's a resurgence of interest in Cleo. There's a touring exhibit in the US now, focusing on underwater excavations in coastal Egypt.

There's another biography by Stacy Schiff.

What I learned from this book: If you wish to wear your snake arm bracelets in the manner of Ptolemaic and Roman ladies, the one on the right curls up the arm and the one on the left curls down.

And, as I haven't read a lot of Roman history of the period, the Fletcher biography does a good job of elucidating the politics surrounding the death of Julius Caesar and the aftermath.

World history has been charted by a murderous bunch, including Cleopatra VII, Living Isis, Female Horus, the Great One, Lady of the Two Lands.

Can't we just skip all this and go straight to the turkey gumbo Lyman plans for tomorrow?

The boys are fans of the classic green bean casserole.

I'm not. As a compromise, today we're trying Cheddar Green Bean Casserole. I'm sure it will go over well. Son1 will eat boot soles with cheese on them.

Now, I like fried turkey as much as the next Louisianan, but look at these costs:

3 gallons cooking oil $25.00
Refill butane gas $25.00
Injection kit $ 4.00
13 lb. turkey $13.00

Total $67.00

Happy Thanksgiving!

I am tempted to try Homesick Texan's recipe for Sweet Potato Salad with Cranberries and Pecans this Thanksgiving.

I registered for the free features of the Financial Times a while ago.

A few days ago the magazine offered a few headlines that might be of interest. I followed one and came upon this odd story about an art forger who creates pieces to donate to museums.

The forger, who sometimes passes himself off as a Jesuit priest, claims that his motivation is to honor his deceased parents. He feels that they weren't suitably recognized in life.

Of course he's southern. We do eccentric.

Reid Stott's granddaughter Cecily revels in "princess power."

Isn't she a hoot?

All right, then. Dessert is settled.

I tried Dave Schuler's recipe for Pumpkin Chiffon Pie. It whips up into a light, fluffy, spicy pumpkin treat. I plan to serve the filling only in dessert glasses. Dave recommends gingersnaps as a garnish.

Anyone have a good gingersnap recipe?

Nix the satsuma tarts. Flat-tasting for my purposes.

I do not like this part of planning the luncheon. I don't even like sweets.

A standard Owari satsuma:

And so Charles isn't jealous because "You put Lucy's picture on the Internet but didn't put mine," here's one of him:

Here's Lucy today:

No headline from today. I use papers our friend G. collects for us.

Here's the crazily generous dwarf satsuma tree:

Here is Lucy last month:

And today is a housekeeping day. I ran across this quote from Phyllis Diller:

Children are allowed to write their names in the dust, just not the year.

No tarts today. I've been bird wrangling, bribing, intimidating and watching.

Once a month, I roll the cages onto the back patio to give them a good cleaning and disinfection with a garden hose and Pet Focus.

Charles is not a cage-bound bird but, like the other Gore boys, he resents any disruption of his fun for something as vulgar as cleaning. It took two hours for him to come out of and off his cage and into the lexan cage (which he happily lived in for years) so I could roll the big wire cage out.

Idiot child, I planned to give it back.

It took half an hour to clean the cage.

Because Lucy is so much more tractable, she spent most of the overcast but warm afternoon outside.

A couple of cats turned up at a safe distance. Their brains must have been working overtime: bird, bird, bird, water, water, bird, water. I said loudly, "I like kitties fine but I ain't never met one that deserved an $800 dinner."

A NOTE: The other day Charles said, "I want a bath. ::snicker, snicker, snicker::"

Birds.

I tried Cleo Coyle's Colonial Cranberries a couple of days ago. Lyman said, "I would not order this twice from a menu."

And I agree. Perhaps as an unusual side dish. So that's that.

But in e-mail we have Satsuma Tarts.

The trees are loaded with fruit just about ripe. The Christmas luncheon is Dec 9 this year, so they will be available.

LSU 9. Alabama 6.

The boy makes a difference.

Look at that.

Yikes. The jury was given the case at midday on Tuesday.

The case.

Check out the second comment:

"Thirty-six of the 45-person jury pool answered a questionnaire that "they believe that Mr. Bordelon is guilty, that public officials who have been indicted are probably guilty "

Uhhh, Mike, 45 of the 45 jurors , if asked, would believe the person guilty because they hired you.
A dubious distinction to be sure, but nonetheless factual.
You're that good.

That's too true. I thought the most prejudicial thing in the courtroom was Mr. Small's appearance there.

On the other hand, Lyman says it's best to have a good lawyer before you tell the Feds more than your name. There are too many traps they can lay which can result in conflicting testimony and perjury charges.

Back to the case, that 16-month delay before the report to the Louisiana Board of Ethics looks funny.

Yesterday was another long, boring day. The selection process continued all day long, most of which we spent waiting. The jury was finally announced at about 4:30.

While it's still running 85 degrees in the afternoon, the courtroom was as cold as a hospital. After the day before, when I'd worn a sleeveless pullover under a heavy cardigan and boat shoes, I wore a wool blazer over a long-sleeved top and ankle boots with heavy socks and was still uncomfortably cool.

The court clerk shuffled the seating arrangement after lunch, and I was moved from my padded armchair to a bare bench. Next to me sat another middle-aged woman who was a deputy clerk of court in another arena that I don't remember. She was much concerned that work was piling up back at the office. Of the three women who work together, she was out for jury duty, and another had called in sick, leaving only one to handle the workload.

When the jury was announced, she quietly, desperately said, "They called my name."

We didn't finish voir dire. I have to go back to Alexandria tomorrow. But I can start in daylight. I report at nine. Starting at seven should get me there with time to spare.

One of the best defense lawyers in the state is defending the accused. If it weren't a daily 150-mile round trip, I'd welcome the chance to watch him work.

The prosecuting attorney is African-American. One of the general questions to jurors was "Have you ever been a juror in a trial. What type of trial was it? What was the outcome?"

One potential juror said, "It was a state trial. A black man raped a white woman. He got off." Won't they call that a strike for cause?

LATER: Lyman says the prosecutor might try, but to remember that the juror thought the defendant was guilty, and that's what a prosecutor wants.

My luck ran out. I report at 8:15 tomorrow morning in Alexandria for jury duty.

Rats.

Oh my. Another oversexed parrot:



Does the parrot look owl-like to you? Around the face? And the shape of his body? The markings on his feathers?

(Thanks, Daily Dish.)

I welcome that. Potential jurors are required to call the evening before their reporting dates for instructions.

The recorded voice told me to call again next Sunday. No drive to Alexandria at the crack of dawn this week.

Oh, my. A film crew is in Natchez. My brother has been cast as a Southern planter in a vampire-zombie film.

How about that for your resume?

I don't understand the culture of "papering" trees, never have. You do know what that is? You fling rolls of toilet paper over the high branches of trees and make a mess of a yard.

That happened last night to the empty house next door. Usually, it's a statement of some sort. "We hate you" or "Whoa, so you're a cheerleader?"

This time, it was what? Pretty much petty vandalism, I'd say.

I walked over and picked the stuff off the ground. Funny thing was, it was not Charmin, but good quality toilet paper. They left the plastic bag in the yard. "Maker's Mark."

I hope this isn't a new advertising scheme.

I have been summoned as a potential juror for the US Western District Court in Louisiana. It meets in Alexandria.

Let me tell you, if I have to wake up several mornings in a row and leave home at 6 to drive a two-lane highway to arrive at 8 am, I can guarantee that someone is guilty. Now whether it's that poor defendant in the dock, I'm not ready to say.

Now that was a fun, jubilant wedding ceremony. First of all, the program was a church fan. It was an outdoor wedding on a glorious autumn day.

First procession was a black gospel choir singing Down by the Riverside.

A more solemn hymn was sung while stragglers were seated, and the bride walked to "Love Me Tender."

Ceremony.

The newly-married couple exited to "O, Happy Day."

The bride's maids were dressed in the same teal color, but in styles flattering to their figures. The bride wore a gorgeous beige dress with train. No veil.

That's what happens when you've been seeing the same guy for seven years and you're 36.

I've never had so much fun at a wedding. But I like black gospel music.

I'm going to another niece's wedding this weekend, so I stopped by the hairdresser for a cut.

I was put aside for a while and happened upon Martha Stewart's version (which is not this recipe) of Broken Glass Cupcakes.

Scares me.

A newly discovered James M. Cain novel.

I spent $5 in gas today to find $2 shoelaces. And didn't.

Thirty-inch tan shoelaces are not to be found in this town. Thank goodness for ShoeLacesExpress.

I ran across this story about online custom shirt-makers while pursuing something else.

Just putting it out there. One of my brothers in Texas has shirts made by a tailor in Dallas.

LATER: Comments to that article provide some other sources:

EPIC -- good prices
Modern Tailor -- $19.95 introductory offer for fit
My Tailor -- large selection of ties and cufflinks (I like the handpainted coins), luxury fabrics

Gentlemen, a good quality soft shirt makes you touchable.

Good news on a Monday morning!

The thief was caught driving the car. The car is back, in all its laughable glory. The stepson took it to the repair shop to replace a side window and check out an exhaust leak. The mechanics guffawed at the thought that someone would steal it.

I guess crackheads will do anything.

Thanks, Natchez Police Department!

I am channeling Mama.

Just after school started, she'd take after the housekeeping. It was always as close to immaculate as a mother of many can keep it, but once we were outsourced to the schoolroom she'd go after the pantries, cabinets, closets and light fixtures. She'd move furniture to dust and sweep and mop and clean baseboards. Then rearrange it to give a new prospect to old furniture. Wash windows.

For me, it started with the office, proceeded to our bedroom, then to the pantry. Tomorrow begins the outdoor storage room, as the weather has broken.

Before tropical storm Lee we had summer, now we have fall. It feels good.

Well, nothing on the car. I'm afraid it's a goner.

We all liked that car. It was a good size and shape, you could put $5 worth of gas in it and run for two weeks.

On a better note, we had three days of lovely slow rain (about 5 inches), and predictions are that we won't break 90 degrees for the next week.

This recipe for General Tso's Chicken from Chef Tony is a keeper. We reduced the sugar to a 1/2 tablespoon.

Do tell. Someone stole my 1997 Ford Escort Wagon. It was parked outside the Bienville Apartments.

After my son took it, I wouldn't drive it. I have some hygienic standards.

Ferals.

I was running around yesterday doing errands.

After I'd walked into the house for the last time, Charles Gore the grey asked, "What you doing, sweet baby?"

Irish writer John Banville, writing under alias Benjamin Black, uses an Alvis TC108 Super Graber Coupe in Elegy for April.

He doesn't treat it well.

I'm not crazy about sweets. If I have three cups of grated zucchini, I prefer to put it in a colander with some salt and let it sit for half an hour, then squeeze the liquid out.

Meantime, I've sauteed onion and garlic in a dab of butter and olive oil until tender. Add the squeezed zucchini, toss it around until it's hot and serve it as a side with nearly anything.

Hmmm. I think I'd like that tomorrow.

Chef Tony sent me this cake recipe a while back.

I rustled up the gumption to shop for ingredients this morning. It's in the oven now.

I'll let you know.

LATER: I baked it for 60 minutes. Were I to do it again, I'd stop at 55 min, even if the tester shows a little underdone.

The tender crumb melts in your mouth. I used Ghirardelli Bittersweet chocolate chips. It's rich. Needs a cold glass of milk on the side.

So I'm reading a bit of fluff by Laurie Moore, Couple Gunned Down: News at Ten.

A character describes another as mean and bitchy -- "a couple of terrorists short of a jihad."

Shelling a bushel of pink-eye purple-hull peas. We're feeling lucky. Most of them went underwater around here back in the flood.

Someone trucked these in to the Natchez Farmers' Market.

LATER: Okay. Those are all blanched and packed away in their blanching liquid in freezer boxes -- about 14 meals' worth.

Heretofore, we've packed whatever we'd prepared in bags. Boxes make much more efficient use of space and are reusable. Easier to fill, too.

Did you notice that I'm posting again? That's what happens when you treat the drought-stricken rural folk with four inches of rain. It's taken three weeks of scattered showers, but we no longer feel so sere.

Oh, Diane, what is the name of the writer who writes the coffee-shop mysteries? The one with the lovely chocolate-covered cherry recipe?

A few chocolate-covered cherries with a side of ice cream and a cup of coffee would make a good dessert at Christmas, no?

UPDATE: Cleo Coyle

Colonial Cranberries with ice cream?

Shouldn't somebody step up and do noir cozy mysteries about the Hummingbird hash house in New Orleans? They'd read like Tom Waits lyrics, but they'd have some characters.

Oh, look. Here's a Baldwin County phone book from 2006.

And a Cook's Illustrated mag from 2007.

A friend sent me an email with the results of the Bulwer-Lytton bad prose contest. A comment from the the writer of the article and the entry follow:

To take the prize for best purple prose, Mike Pedersen of North Berwick, Maine, relied on a thesaurus'-worth of synonyms:

"As his small boat scudded before a brisk breeze under a sapphire sky dappled with cerulean clouds with indigo bases, through cobalt seas that deepened to navy nearer the boat and faded to azure at the horizon, Ian was at a loss as to why he felt blue."

Those are not synonyms, darlin', those are different shades of blue.

Umm.

My SIL Karen has a point. Though she doesn't do it, and keeps a spotless house, she advocates moving every five years so we go through all our "collectibles" and discard those without use or meaning.

Now, we renovated our house in around 2000. In the lefthand cabinet under the counter in the office, I found a stack of Southern Living magazines from 1999 today.

What can I say?

No more experimenting. That way, we get to eat the rest of the grits ourselves.

So I'm looking at the luncheon this way:

Traditional shrimp cocktail
Ms. Spicer's garlic soup -- just a few sips
Caesar salad -- light and subject to change
Ms. Spicers Shrimp etc.
And a cool, fruity dessert -- perhaps a fruit compote over ice cream

So, the deal went down in the parking lot as expected.

Figuring out how to cook and cut this product is something else.

Ain't that cool?

I need some stone-ground grits to do Susan Spicer's recipe properly. I found a listing for the Louisiana Pride Grist Mill in Pride, LA, up the road from Fred. (Gotta love that -- I live in Fred, or Alice, or Nancy, or Thomas.)

The upshot is that I am going to meet the miller at the local McDonald's for delivery of freshly milled stone-ground grits around 7 am on Saturday. He and his wife will be on their way to a camp at Larto Lake near Jonesville.

While we're at it, let's add Lisa Fain's Homesick Texan to the blogroll. She offers lots of tempting recipes.

Let's put this here.

Now we may be getting somewhere with proper Tex-Mex enchiladas outside of Texas.

Adding this cookbook to my wish list.

Mmm. Mmm. Mmm.

Today I lost a nearly brand new pair of shoes. I'd worn them once (and they are comfortable), and thought I'd tucked them under the bed (since son 2 is living in the big guest room where my closet is).

I remembered taking them off and changing into cloppers, then nothing. I looked high and low, under chairs and sofas and counters and tables, in cabinets and drawers, on shelves and mantels. Nothing. They were gone.

Lyman said, "Don't tell me they were walking shoes."

I was sitting on the edge of the bed wondering who would do me such a dirty trick when it occurred to me that I had put them in the shoe sleeve hanging on the inside of the foyer closet door. Voila!

It's gonna be a long middle age.

Now is the time to reach into our can of tricks and start seriously considering the annual Christmas luncheon. These recipes need testing, and tend to be costly.

I'm for Susan Spicer's Shrimp and Tasso in Cream Sauce with Chili-Cheese Grit Cakes.

The first comment beneath this article is one of the best I've seen:

My mom always gave me a choice...between what she wanted me to do, and something much, much worse.

Thanks, Mr. Sullivan.

I'm working with a local framer to have this sweet Christmas gift shadow-boxed for the coast:

Does the Eurostile font look okay to you? I need something legible and compressed. It also looks '30ish to me.

The size of the text block is 2-3/4" by 1" for scale.

Happy Father's Day to you pops out there!

Dave Schuler has posted pictures of his grandmother's wedding dress, from the early 20th century.

It is romantic and innocent. Just lovely.

All right. I used King Arthur's bread flour and saf-instant yeast in the bread machine to combine the dough for French bread. The dough is light and pliant.

It's resting right now, then I'll form it into loaves and let it rise for an hour.

We'll see.

MORE: We won't be killing any fatted calves, but we are talking alligator scallopine.

My sister, the Harley girl, is here!

She came with her beau, and there is a $25,000 motorcycle parked under the carport. Don't touch it. He's a police detective.

The menu tonight is shrimp maque choux with corn fresh from the field, Caesar salad and French bread.

We're doing a second crawfish boil today.

Quoth Lyman: "These are the meanest crawfish I've ever seen. They drew blood."

Well, %^&$&!

Yesterday, I changed my order of the fridge part from two-day to overnight delivery. But they didn't ship it last night, which means that the part will come when we expect to be on the road.

Maybe Sandy will save the day.

I ordered paint from Sherwin-Williams, but you can't get there from here, not without waiting a half-hour for the stoplight at Canal Road. Maybe things will settle down tomorrow.

Am I just snotty crazy, or do you find it odd that the plastic veg bin cover in the fridge down at beautiful Orange Beach has a big chunk out of the side? The glass is fine.

What y'all been throwing in there? Whole hams? Large turkeys? Small children?

The river has crested here at 61.8 feet, according to NOAA.

The expected crest of the Mississippi here has been revised downward to 62.5 feet.

The Mississippi is rolling.

The estimate for the crest here has been revised downward to 63', still due on May 21.

(Thanks, Natchez Democrat.)

The Morganza Spillway is to be opened this afternoon.

It's a big river on a good day. Here it's at about 59.5 feet, topping both '27 and '37 levels. It's expected to grow.

The mighty Mississippi. The Army Corps of Engineers is expecting the "Father of Waters" to pass here at approx. 2,720,000 cubic feet per second at 64 feet.

I haven't seen a Blogger glitch in some years.

The oyster fishermen on the Louisiana coast can't catch a break.

Huh. Email that is not idiotic.

My concern with the southern floods? I live five blocks from the Vidalia levee.

Oh, c'mon y'all cynics, you have to love the South:

"I want to say this: Graceland is safe. And we would charge hell with a water pistol to keep it that way and I'd be willing to lead the charge," said Nations, the county emergency official.

Great-nieces, 4 and 19 months. Lyman and I went up together to cook rehearsal dinner when their parents were married eleven years ago.

I didn't take many pictures on the trip, and none were good, but this gives you an idea of the view from my brother's house. The zoom is too strong on this one. That's the Columbia River, where you can glimpse it.

A somewhat interesting article in Christianity Today about the predominance of the King James version of the Bible in history.

(Thanks, Real Clear Politics.)

Of the three airports I used on this trip -- Baton Rouge, Dallas and Portland -- only one (Baton Rouge) had such a clearly marked facility for nursing mothers. And it was a small, separate room with a comfortable chair. That's all I took in at a glance.

There are frogs on the banks of the Columbia River that actually say "ribbet."

Around here we mainly have bullfrogs that "croak" -- sounds more like a belch, really.

The original:

Here's a story from the Baton Rouge Advocate about the flood of '27 and current fears.

Greenville is about halfway between here and Memphis, TN.

The Natchez Democrat has plenty of stories describing the activities and mood here.

Hey, y'all!

That was a good visit to the northwest. That sister-in-law of mine is just the same -- and a wonderful hostess. We picked up right where we left off eleven years ago. If I'd eaten as much as she tried to cram down me I would have put on ten pounds.

She still treats me like a baby.

Here at home, people are packing up precious belongings and taking them to higher ground. They worry that the levee will break under the stress of handling waters that have never been so high in recent history. The expected river crest will be higher than that of the floods of 1937 and 1927.

The mayor and the sheriff are trying to calm people's fears. They are in constant touch with the Corps of Engineers, who assure us that the levees will hold.

If not, Charles has offered us his spare bedroom in Natchez. One of my other big brothers in Dallas has offered his home as sanctuary should it come to that. But that is too far away. I appreciate the thought, though.

Y'all can get rang'upped stupid any day you want, but I'm going to see my big brother.