COLUMNS & DEPARTMENTS 

Editor’s Box 
by Marc Smirnoff

Local Fare:
My Cheesy Passion
A food writer reflects on his evolving taste for Southern cheese.
by John T. Edge 

Food:
Taste Buds
An email friendship devoted to culinary delights.
by Beth Ann Fennelly 

Food:
In Your Language
After traveling the world, a food writer comes home to an Alabama market.
by Kim Sunée 

Sport:
The Working Man's Race
In North Carolina, some lawnmowers are leaving stock cars in the dust.
by Leigh Ann Henion 

Outdoors:
Is the Environment Croaking? (Is Anyone Listening?)
On the ground, ears open, with one of Florida’s leading ecologists.
by Lyn Miller 

Travel:
Our Side of Paradise
The quest for eternal youth leads to Florida.
by Kimberly Meyer 

Romance:
I Love You in Twelve Languages
Sex, letters, and cassette tapes—remembering the one that got away.
by Wendy Brenner 

Southern Lit:
A River Runs Through It
Eudora Welty’s antic depiction of young love in the Mississippi woods.
by William Caverlee 

Writing on Writing:
Recession Blues 
A dream career—as a travel writer and editor—goes bust in the economic downturn.
by Thomas Swick 

Dealer’s Choice:
Home from the Hills
It’s time to fight the destruction of nature underway in Appalachia.
by Hal Crowther 

POETRY 

The Flâneur, by Billy Collins

Small Ugly God, by Eric Nelson

FEATURES

A Man with My Number
One scam artist meets another.
A story by George Singleton 

The Deer of Virginia 
So many days seem to end this way.
A story by Lincoln Michel 

The Long Weekend
In the wake of the Kennedy assassination.
A story by Rebecca T. Godwin 

FOURTH ANNUAL BEST OF THE SOUTH ODES 

Daisy Dodge welcomes you Home

Alan Grant hits the Highway

Ander Monson plays Disc Golf

Sarah A. Strickley loves a Toy Store

Lauren Groff learns to love a Duckpond

Joni Tevis watches a Demo Derby

Lolis Eric Elie eats a Pecan Pie

Keith Pandolfi recalls The Last Gentleman

Emily Raboteau encounters a Civil Rights Heroine

Mark Winegardner raises a Toast

Andrew Hood relives his Phobia

Sam Eifling profiles a great Bull Rider

Michael Gills escapes to a Beach

Matthew Vollmer partakes of an Ice-Cream Parlor

Michael Parker admires Merry Clayton

Sean Rowe restores a Farmhouse

David Taylor meets an Outsider Artist

Wright Thompson attends a BBQ Funeral

Matthew Pitt perfects a Scream

Marion Field slips into a Perfect Coat

Brandon Reynolds salutes the potency of Meat-Juice

Susannah Felts falls for Waterskiing

Cover: photograph by Charity de Meer