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George Singleton

Today I learned George Singleton published a new book last year.

George Singleton came up in a text thread this morning with friends because he appeared on True South and mentioned Greenwood and Skin's hot dogs. I didn't know he had published a new book last year1, so I ordered it and reponded to the thread in what I thought was worth noting here 👇🏼

friend: "dude's awful folksy and a tad hyperbolic too"
me: hyperbole sells 💰

And the rest of the messages 💬:

Skins is now closed in Greenwood but still open in Anderson. Dad was a big hot dog fan. We always stopped at Edna's in Columbia but I was by there the other day and it's torn down. And likewise Fricks, we always got hot dogs from there on the weekends.

And on another depressing note ( maybe a b7 minor ). I drove back and forth a couple times yesterday between St. Andrews and downtown Columbia which is why I thought about Edna's. I took the back way down Bush/Broad River Roads and it was mostly raining. I was absolutely astonished how many people were just walking about in the rain and I'd imagine that many were homeless. Now I get the whole follow the money thing and I certainly didn't expect Dutch Square to survive, but it's now an absolute damn shit hole bordering on zombie apocalypse. We gotta figure out a way to make things more sustainable.

Edge isn't exactly my Ole Miss Southern Studies celebrity highlight though. My first roommate in college David Boyd's father did all the political cartoons for the AJC. He had just illustrated Jeff Foxworthy's redneck books. We went back to Newnan GA to hang and had lunch with Foxworthy and Lewis Grizzard at a small cafe.

I'll read the Singleton book. It seems like he's headed in the direction of Tom Robbins. Robbins is as southern as any of them without riding on the hyperbole. Blowing Rock NC... both of his grandfathers were Baptist preachers. It might be fun to convert a couple short stories into multi-media projects, send him a link, and meetup for a hot dog.

Edge headed up the Southern Foodways Alliance back when it was having a bit of rennaisaince. John Grisham brought Oxford American to life and put Edge in charge of food. Edge and I talked for hours about music with the founding editor - Smirnoff. It was at Matt Lee's mom's house on Meeting St because he had just published his cookbook with his brother. This was 97'-98' or so... pre-Oxford American Music Issues so I'd like to think I had a hand in them deciding to publish a music issue.

Louis' set the meeting up after I complied all the music for his spots. The music got a nod in a Los Angeles Times story after Steve Wynn set him up there. That's where Smirnoff picked up on it and came to Charleston to meet Louis. I made them mainly becuase I had all the files from setting up the radio stations for dad and Woody and we had gone deep recording old 45s. He used 20 disc changers on a timer. He got sued by ASCAP and won because we had pre-submitted all the masters and docs. Took me months putting those together but he paid me well for it. Here's the original track lists for those las vegas discs - mix of soul, bluegrass, jazz, and blues only tied together by thier relation to the south. And here's a rambing note from 2008 comparing him to Ignatious from A Confederacy of Dunces.

Louis and I used to eat hot dogs for lunch all the time. Another character tight in that crew was Christopher Dickey, James' son. He spent a lot of time with us and was working as the bureau chief of Time magazine's Paris office. I always liked drinking and talking with him. Got to meet and hang with a bunch of people with Louis mainly because he had become a bit of a southern celebrity. He's dead now. Got diagnosed with a bunch of cancer, moved up to highlands nc. Went up to hang out with him a couple times before he died. It seems like just a couple years ago but I think it was 10 or so. Prognosis was bad so he knew he was going to die. I strongly recommend talking with someone riding the pale horse ( expressions_related_to_death ) if you've never done it. It'll change your perspective.

Hope you boys have a great weekend 👊🏼

 

Footnotes​

  1. The Curious Lives of Nonprofit Martyrs by George Singleton - Dzanc Books - https://www.dzancbooks.org/all-titles/p/nonprofit-martyrs ↩