If I Ever Get Back to Georgia, I'm Gonna Nail My Feet to the Ground


Book Description

Lewis Grizzard got his first newspaper job when he was ten years old. Thirty-odd years later (thirty-very-odd years) he's still in the newspaper business--and he's still infuriated by it, still tickled by it, and still very much in love with it. If I Ever Get Back to Georgia, I'm Gonna Nail My Feet to the Ground is all about that anger, that great humor and that even greater passion for something that affects every single one of us: the daily newspaper. Grizzard begins with his first writing job (covering a Boy's Church League team in Newman, Georgia), and continues through his college years in Athens, Georgia, where he learned how to do such things as prepare a front-page headline and layout in case Jesus Christ ever returned to earth. (Headline: HE'S BACK!) He examines the great Atlanta years and the cold Chicago winters--as sports editor of the Sun-Times, during which Grizzard lost his second wife, his cool, and very nearly his sanity, but also learned an awful lot about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This is Grizzard's funniest--and his best--book yet.




Chili Dawgs Always Bark at Night


Book Description

In Chili Dawgs Always Bark at Night, Lewis Grizzard once again confirms his reputation as the "William Faulkner of just plain folks" using colorful storytelling to tackle such Grizzardian subjects as: Fashion: "Don't wear anything that features a picture of a pelican, a pink flamingo, or a beer can." The Future: "I'm predicting the world isn't going to come to an end anytime soon. There's too much unresolved, like whether or not Elvis is still alive, Jimmy Swaggart can stay on television, and if there will be another Rambo sequel." Dating: "Any single white female who has to resort to taking out an ad to find a boyfriend would take a SWM who's into yodeling, Hustler magazine, Ripple, and robbing convenience stores." People Who Cheat in the 12-Items-or-Less Lane: "Previously, I have dog-cussed these people and put curses on them, like, 'May your children grow up to be liberal Democrats.' I'm not going to be that mean-spirited anymore. What I'm going to do is go to the vegetable bin, grab a large cucumber, and beat them about the head and shoulders with it." Lewis Grizzard offers his views on everything from politics, religion, sex, and golf to the largest condom heist in history, wittier and more outrageous than ever. Chili Dawgs Always Bark at Night shows why the South's most popular humorist continues to be America's most popular funny man.




Elvis Is Dead and I Don't Feel So Good Myself


Book Description

The 1950s were simple times to grow up. For Lewis Grizzard and his buddies, gallivanting meant hanging out at the local store, eating Zagnut candy bars and drinking "Big Orange bellywashers." About the worst thing a kid ever did was smoke rabbit tobacco rolled in paper torn from a brown grocery sack, or maybe slick back his hair into a ducktail and try gyrating his hips like Elvis. But then assassinations, war, civil rights, free love, and drugs rocked the old order. And as they did, Grizzard frequently felt lost and confused. In place of Elvis, the Pied Piper of his generation, Grizzard now found wormy-looking, long-haired English kids who performed either half-naked or dressed like Zasu Pitts. Elvis Is Dead and I Don't Feel So Good Myself is the witty, satiric, nostalgic account of Grizzard's efforts to survive in a changing world. Sex, music, clothes, entertainment, and life itself receive the Grizzard treatment. In this, his sixth book, Grizzard was never funnier or more in tune with his readers. He might not have felt so good himself, but his social commentary and humor can still make the rest of us feel just fine.




My Daddy Was a Pistol and I’m a Son of a Gun


Book Description

Lewis Grizzard always makes us laugh. But this time, when he tells us all about his father—a certified war hero and a shameless passer of bad checks . . . a charmer of men and women and a consummate con artist . . . a man of great courage and an alcoholic destined to drink himself to death—he’s going to make us cry, too. And he’s going to give us a hilarious, moving account of that “tender, spooky territory: that country of the heart inhabited by fathers and sons.”




Cheryl’S Poems


Book Description

Cheryls Poems range from the autobiographical, with a touch of Southern gothic, to the unknown future and a little bit of everything in between (aliens, animals, coaches, crazy aunts and uncles, brothers and sisters, drugs, drunks, Elvis, the famous and infamous, geniuses, grandparents, hackers, heroes, hunters, hypocrites, judges, lawyers, lovers, players, preachers, presidents, prisoners, prostitutes, refugees, robots, royals, scientists, singers, soldiers, teachers, and so on). Have you ever been infatuated, in love, and/or in lust? Might you be interested in life in the rural South during segregation? And the deaths of President Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., Robert Kennedy, or Che Guevara? Has anyone in your family ever been involved in conflict or divorce? Are you interested in adventure, family history, any history, -isms, literature, mythology, nature, peace, politics, pollution, religion, science, sports, or war? Have you wondered about the supernatural? Are you concerned with justice and rights? With the environment? With the future of the earth? Have you ever felt abused, bullied, depressed, discriminated against, sexually harassed, or insecure? (Who hasnt?) Every emotion and something for everyone are in this collection of poems. Cheryl was a ridge runner as a girl growing up in the mountains of North Carolina but has since been around the block. She has lived in seven US states and on the island of St. Lucia. For a year, she crossed the border from El Paso, Texas, to work in a hospital in Juarez in Mexico. She called Atlanta home for fifteen years when she saw and met several famous people she tells about. She lives back in her small North Carolina hometown, which has never been like Mayberry (and her daddy wasnt like Andy). She is a committed activist for the environment and justice and is interested in history, literature, people, and sciencethe past, present, and futurewhich are all reflected in her poetry.




Explorer's Guide Atlanta


Book Description

A resource for travelers features tips on dining, lodging, transportation, shopping, recreational activities, landmarks, and cultural opportunities.




Dixie Rising


Book Description

Vivid reportage about why the South is increasingly dominating American life in public and private.




It Wasn't Always Easy, But I Sure Had Fun


Book Description

The book Grizzard was working on when he died, and contains what he thought represented the best of the last decade of his writing.




My Home Team


Book Description

In this poignant memoir, a legendary sports journalist writes about the team that changed his life: the Morton High School Lady Potters basketball team. Dave Kindred has covered dozens of Super Bowls and written about stars like Muhammad Ali, Tiger Woods, and Michael Jordan. But a high-school girls basketball team—the Lady Potters of Morton, Illinois—stands apart from the rest. In this moving and intimate story, Kindred writes about his rise to professional success and the changes that brought him back to his hometown late in life. As he dealt with personal hardship, his urge to write sustained him. For years, he has recapped the games of the Lady Potters, including their many runs to state championships. He attended game after game, sitting in the stands and making notes, paid nothing but Milk Duds. And the team and their community were there for him as he lost a grandson to addiction and his wife to long-term illness. Tender and honest, Kindred’s story reminds readers what sports are really about. He trades in the exhausting spectacle of Super Bowl Sunday for the joy of togetherness, the fire of competition, and the inexhaustible hope for victory tomorrow.




Where’S Opie?


Book Description

Five years of hope and frustration, beginning in November of 2006, filled the pages of Wheres Opie? Vanished in Chicago, story of our family and our missing son Jesse Opie Ross. Wheres Opie? Life goes on beginning in January 2012, takes you on a year long journey inside our lives, day by day; A chance to feel what we felt; do what we did. An opportunity to sense the reality of a missing loved one, without the terrible sacrifice our family has had to endure in order to make this journey. A journal, a book of verse, a soul searching chronicle of finding value in an incomplete life. Meet those who have made our lives fuller, and those who have made our lives frustrating and tragic. Make your own judgments as to what is right and what is wrong. My name is Donald Ross, Jesses father. I make no apologies for the contents of this book. It is life as my family has lived it, uncensored and uncut. My hope is that it will reach someone with a heart and motivate them to help us write the last great chapter, when Jesse is united with his family once more.