| OCR Text |
Show Blue Run/82 Dwarf-blood, humpback genes, probably, runs through my veins. Santa, my blood father, has a belly full of weed. I'm going home to bury my mama Welcome to the Natural State. The cupola of the Jefferson County Courthouse was shot off by a Confederate cannon during the battle of Pine Bluff of October 25, 1863, the nearest thing to an outright castration the commanding general could exact on the blue-balled Yankees whose flag had been hung there I know this because it says so on page 37 of Renee's Southern Accent: A Collection of Favorite Recipes by the Junior League of Pine Bluff which has somehow gotten packed in Lara's book bag The cookbook's signed and dedicated to Renee by the Honorable Congressman Anthony Cleopatra himself, whom she'd interned under after graduating from University of Maryland, and whose district included the grand cupola-less courthouse. In 1906 an addition was made on the rear~a clock and a bell tower were added My wife's spent a good amount of time around page 37 in the cookbook, the next page being Eggs Sardou, one of our absolute favorites because Renee's a genuine wizard with Hollandaise, switches off between Sardou and Benedict on Christmas mornings, my birthday breakfasts. Which all makes sense as we drift up 65 into Jefferson County, driving off-center into the late afternoon sun, hungry and thirsty with happy hour all but gone. Lara, our issue, cannot know how this town that stinks of paper mill and the unbelievably toxic Pine Bluff Arsenal where live human beings burn nerve gas to this day, is a nexus~a holy omphalos of sorts-between myself and her mother, between our families even, which seems as odd and serendipitous as any story Mama ever told; she'd agree with me on this one, and did so more than once in the company of strangers, once in underground Atlanta at a |
