NewscomaGot A Two-Pack Habit And A Motel Tan

Lizzie linked to this last week and I hadn’t seen it before.

[youtube=[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXktwZ0RY10&hl=en]

As you know, I dig penguins.

Incidentally, I adore reading Lizzie on Twitter. She is so enthusiastic and it gives me a happy.

I don’t know if you have ever dealt with sleep disruption but it’s a bear. I’ve been going through it since the first of the year. I had a bout with it last year as well but it was a bit different.

Have you ever read the book “Insomnia” by Stephen King? Yeah, it’s sort of like that. I keep imagining I’m going to see little odd men with big scissors cutting the life lines of folks. (You have to read the book to get that reference.)

With that said because it’s just something I’m having to deal with and I’ll be fine. Things tend to work themselves out.

Yesterday, SQ and I went out for some ribs, a few brews and basketball. Of course Tennessee lost which sort of blew but it was the experience as much as the game. We sat in a small juke joint in Fulton which had so much charming character that it is hard to explain. On the walls are such odd items as posters of Scarface, pigs (it’s a BBQ place), Nascar (which I don’t get) and sports memorabilia. People’s ages ranged from their late 70s to 18 and everyone was concentrating what was on their plates and the game.

The restaurant has a small bar in the back with five tables and about six stools where the most unusual bunch of barflies were sitting watching the SEC tournament. We got there early and sat down at one of the tables planning our weekend in Nashville next weekend. (Full Moon Tattoo and Horror Festival, campers.)

And here is one of the finest things about living in Hooterville that makes me smile.

When was the last time you were able to buy a 16 oz. NY Strip medium rare cooked in a butter sauce with ground pepper that was absolutely tantalizing and a rib plate, three beers and picked up a pound of pork BBQ and another rack of ribs to take home to a puny Homer (laryngitis) for 50 bucks which included a couple of beers? As we ate our food there, people were talking to each other about the game, laughing and visiting. As this isn’t a place we go to very often yet we were welcomed.

And the food was awesome. Big Daddy calls it pool room food (although this place doesn’t have a pool room) but the word applies. It is what it is.

You know, I might not be able to sleep but I’m not complaining. I realize this post makes no rhyme of reason but for some reason, as I sat up in the middle of the night I felt pretty blessed.

Sometimes it’s the small things that make life worthwhile.

There is a special kind of joy of finding a diamond in the rough where no one knows your name and doesn’t care, they like you just fine anyway.

And, that my friends, is the joy of a juke joint.

I can’t help but be somewhat pleased about stories regarding moonshiners in this day and age. I have no idea why it engages me but there is something very oddly comforting and giddily rebellious about a modern day man making “mountain dew.”

And his name is Popcorn. (There is a guy named Popcorn here, incidentally, but he doesn’t do the ‘shine.)

Here’s the money quote from the story:

“This is the first time we’ve ever hauled moonshine stills,” said Supreme Towing owner David Brooks of Dandridge. “We’ve hauled cars, dead cows, stuff like that, but never a moonshine still.”

WBIR has the story with picturey goodness. 

H/T to Knoxville Talks.