Odds and Ends from the Miscellaneous File

This post originally appeared June 21, 2018, on the Chile Today Hot Tamale! website. (www.chiletodayhottamale.net)

Last week I left out the most useful household hint of all. I hate ironing, and don't really want to know anyone who enjoys ironing. In the course of my bachelorhood, I examined every possible avenue to avoid ironing. First runner up is, use a steamer. This works very well, but it requires that you buy a steamer. So the very best way to take wrinkles and whatnot out of your clothing is to throw the wrinkled piece in the dryer with a wet hand towel. Let the dryer do your steaming for you. Take it out immediately upon the end of the drying cycle.

My dirty clothes bag has a hole in it. It isn't a very big hole, but start with a small one, and sooner or later it becomes a big one. This is the second problem I've had with that clothes bag. A bit ago, the tie cord dry rotted, so I no longer had a way to close the bag. Now this. Why don't things last anymore? I received that clothes bag as a high school graduation gift, in the spring of 1971.

Kathy gets a little irritated with me because I seldom write about our excellent line of chile pepper sauces and pepper jams. Every now and again I do sneak a little advertising into the blog. Last week I cleverly mentioned George's Gourmet Pepper Sauce in the blog (and it is a truly delicious, reasonably mild, sauce), and I may have mentioned recently that we will be at the Highlands Village Square Arts and Crafts Show in Highlands, NC, this weekend. I decided that a good compromise would be an article on food and food preparation. We have used a couple of the food delivery services, and I am very high on Blue Apron. So my plan was to do an article on my experience as an in-home Blue Apron chef. But then I changed my mind.

Summer has now officially arrived, and I write this on what will be the longest day of the year. I freely confess that summer is my favorite season. In addition to exposure to beautiful weather, I have, in theory, some time off from work. I haven't actually seen any time off from work yet, but hope springs eternal.

There is a fair amount of history in this state, some of it fairly close by. On my list of places to visit this summer are:

(1) Andalusia Farm in Milledgeville, just about 40 miles from here. This will be a tough one, as it is only open 4 days a week, and then for only 2 hours each day. But I do want to see the home of Flannery O'Connor, so I will figure a way to sort this out.

(2) Warm Springs, about 100 miles away. I'm not sure what there is to see there other than Roosevelt's Little White House, but I want to go nonetheless.

(3) Crawfordville, about 40 miles from here. I've actually been to Crawfordville, but that was just driving through one day on my way to Beaufort. (I was avoiding interstate highways that day.) Crawfordville is in Taliaferro County (named for Benjamin Taliaferro), and in keeping with the family pronunciation, it is pronounced “Tolliver” County, as in “Oliver.” According to the database “Georgia's Biggest Ticket Traps”, the county pulls in around $1614.33 per capita in revenue from speeding tickets. (The statewide average is $105.48; the average for the five county metro Atlanta area is $116.97.) According to the Census Bureau, and the University of Georgia, the largest employer in the county is government, and the largest component of the government is the Taliaferro County Sheriff's Department.

But I am not interested in visiting there because I need another speeding ticket. Taliaferro County was home to Alexander H. Stephens, who, among other things, once taught school here in Madison “for four months of misery”. The “other things” include being a Congressman, an appointed Senator (though the Senate refused to seat him), a Governor, and the only Vice-President of the Confederate States of America. Not too far from Crawfordville is Robinson, GA, home to Henning Murden, gunsmith to the Confederacy.

While we are on the subject of Georgia, its towns and counties, I have a question. Why are the cities that have the same names as counties NOT in those counties? Examples: Clayton is in Rabun County, not Clayton County; Decatur is in DeKalb County, not Decatur County; Madison is in Morgan County, not Madison County; etc. There are a few exceptions (Greensboro is in Greene County), but these are quite rare.

Oh, did I mention that our Georgia Peach Pepper Jam is perfect for this summer weather?