I assume that second sweater is in the Smithsonian now

Hey there, Augusteers! I'll bet the stifling heat, world events, and six-week absence of any mention whatsoever has combined to make you forget that we are right in the middle of a very exciting Book Lover's Cookbook extravaganza, but we are. Randomly-attended-to blog projects don't take summer breaks! I mean, unless they do! Let's hurry up and cover Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe before all the tomato plants in the land are just burnt to a crisp, which from my personal back window I estimate to be in three or so more days.

TITLE RECIPE, FEAST YOUR EYES. Those green tomatoes are from my very own garden/impending plant graveyard.

Chicken and dumplings. In the cookbook they're called "Catch 'em to Eat 'em" due to the supposed lightness and ensuing flight-risk of the dumplings. My dumplings were very dense. Intensely. Indense.

Did I like this book, going in with only vague memories of enjoying the movie? Look, I have a soft spot for a quirky small town. Give me a Tuna, Texas or a Stars Hollow any day of the week. Throw in minor characters with names like Lulu Butterfork and BoWeevil Jake, as Flagg does here, and I can overlook basically any flaws. Also, I know for an absolute fact that my calling in life was to be the Dot Weems-style amusing-newsletter-author for some little burg, which is why I am here, doing my best approximation of such for you. I will warn you, though, that reading the sometimes-smug "oh, people in history" amusement of a book written fifty years after many of its main events take place through a similar filter thirty years on from the writing of the book itself can be slightly dizzying.

In conclusion, Fannie Flagg is very good at wearing clothes and I am a fan.

Now is the time that we hunker down indoors, only acknowledging the season at hand by doing our pretend-food-eating in picnic form and going about daily activities in swimwear.

And in Glamour Shots news, here is the latest bit of horror to besiege my inbox, in case you guys know of any childhoods that could use some destroying.