Author: Lauren

Friday, Oct. 4, was National Vodka Day. Yes – by the powers that be – vodka day for 2013 was blessedly put on a Friday. We’ve got a few ideas of things to do to celebrate this sacred day of clear, distilled goodness.

Czar Ice Bar in Buckhead is celebrating with $5 Russian Standard martinis from 7 p.m. – midnight on Friday. At 11:30 p.m., DJ Rapko from Q100 will be spinning cool tunes to accompany perfectly chilled cocktails. Czar is known for its homemade vodka infusions such as Krispy Kreme, cucumber, various fruits (we love the bluberry) and even candy! Guests can build their own flight with any of the distilled flavors, plus the sampling of four vodkas is served on a block of ice! Czar also serves tasty sushi in town to soak up the booze.

Want to play bartender at home? Our friends at Cathead Vodka have you covered. In addition to the wildly popular Cathead Honeysuckle Vodka, they’ve just launched Pumpkin Spice Vodka, as well as Pecan Vodka. Here are two recipes perfect for fall:

Orchard

• 2 oz Cathead Pecan
• .5 oz Peach simple syrup (1 cup water:1 cup sugar // cut up peaches and add to boil)
• Top off with ginger beer
• Garnish: peach slice


Horseman

• 2 oz Cathead Pumpkin Spice
• 4 oz Spicy Ginger Ale
• ice (small cubes)
• Garnish with a lemon twist

Click here to find a purveyor of this Cathead Vodka near you.

Alo, our pretty, Southern bartender lady — Arianne Fielder — as kind enough to share a few of her favorite vodka cocktails.

75 South

• 1 oz Cathead Honeysuckle vodka
• 1/2 oz strawberry syrup
• 1/4 oz lemon juice
• bubbles (we suggest prosecco)

Method: In a mixing tin add vodka, strawberry syrup and lemon. Shake with ice and strain into a champagne flute. Top with bubbly. Garnish with a lemon twist.

Captain’s Monocle

• 1.5 oz hangar one mandarin blossom vodka
• 1/2 oz of Monday Night Eye Patch IPA and honey reduction
• 2 oz black cherry juiceMethod: Shake ingredients with ice and strain into chilled cocktail coupe. Garnish with a sage leaf.
   
  If you have any additional suggestions for National Vodka Day, let us know via Twitter @Pretty_Southern or in the comments section below.

On June 29, 2011, PrettySouthern.com made SEO history by claiming the keywords “Words Only Southerners Say“. More than 65,000 hits, 419 Likes on Facebook, and 234 comments later from folks scattered around the world, we’re pleased to present our “Comments Southerners Make”. These comments come from the feedback we received from you, dear reader, and are just a sampling of some of our favorites. Y’all can read the original post here. PrettySouthern.com has been proud to support Julia Fowler and her Southern gal pals in Los Angeles in their endeavor to spread sweet accents across the World Wide Web through their viral hit Sh%t Southern Women Say.

Here we go with the things only Southerners say:

“My Yankee relatives make fun of me and my sisters any time we drop the ‘g’ off of words, like ‘fixin’ and ‘puddin’. Also, I don’t know if ‘Dumb as a box of rocks’ is only a Southern saying, but I had a college roommate from South Georgia who used it all the time.”

“Blackberry Winter”

“He doesn’t have a pot to piss in”

“Southern pride, and states’ rights re-born”

“We would always ask my Papaw what he was doin and his reply would always be ‘just mildewin’.”

“Most folks seem to agree, “G.R.I.T.S. are the bomb diggidy”

“My teacher in eighth grade was from East Tennessee, who said she was twelve years old before she learned that ‘damn Yankee’ was two words.”

“But if ya don’t like Southern Belles then well in that case, bless the hell out of your heart, honey.”

“It amazes me how a lot of Southerners do really judge and stereotype people just because they are not from the south (Yankees). I myself grew up in northern Mississippi, born in Mobile, and was the same exact way because I didn’t know any better. A lot of Southerners have never even left the South and I think that has a lot to do with it. I myself have lived all over the US from Alaska all the way to NYC. And through my observations, it’s not to different just slight cultural changes. But not in a million years would I trade anything for my mama’s fried chicken and cornbread.”

“I live in New Orleans and I totally agree with the Coke thing. I also say cold drink. Also, people from new Orleans really hate it when people say N’awlins. We never say that. Also, we say neutral ground, the grass in between streets.

“Who your people are.”

“Here in NC we say drop cord, not extension cord. We also say carry my car to the shop, not take my car to the shop. We also like soda, not pop. Barbecue is a noun (pork or chicken) not a verb.”

“Unless you are in Oklahoma or Texas (west says pop more than soda), but we mostly just say Cok…but here, we often mean Dr. Pepper, the nectar of the gods. Alas, Yankees didn’t get that drink until relatively recently, bless their soda-pop sippin’ little hearts.”

“Florida isn’t considered the South by the rest of the Southern states. Actually, most geographers claim that it isn’t apart of the South. It may just be where your mamaw grew up.”

“There are PLENTY of DEEP south Floridans! My family, both sides, have been in Florida for well over 100 years! True, we get more “snowbirds” (there’s a word for you, means yankee who comes to Florida to ride out winter, then goes back north, or eventually retires and stays here)than other southern states, but leave the cities, and you’ll be smack dab in the DEEP south!”

“My grandmother is from Lakeland, Florida and she uses words like “supper” to mean dinner and “fillin station” instead of a gas station. Also a “buggy” is a shopping cart. And “dilly dally” is the same as “lollygaggin”

“I live in San Diego, and have been here for almost 2 years, but I’m from Pascagoula, MS. I swear I could sell ice to Eskimos out here with my accent. I totally fell in love with Sh%t Southern Women Say. I just love hearing another Southern accent.”

“How’s ya momma an ‘em? Love it! (Mike Trammell, Easley,SC)

“Down here in Mobile, we don’t actually say “…Mom and them,” it usually comes out more like “Hey y’all! How’s your Momenim?”

“I hear lots of Southerners saying “You Guys” now. I thought it was only here in Virginia because we are closer to “the line”, but I was in TN, GA, NC, and SC- almost everyone said “you guys”. Now people in Virginia say both y’all and you guys, like most of the South, people are not saying “Y’all” as much. It’s changing.”

“I love how my Texan mama says, ‘Window and Potato.’ She says, ‘Winduh and potatuh.’ Then, there is a word like “tight.” It’s pronounced as thought the “I” were long. Tat?

“HELP YOUR PLATE. (Help it do WHAT, exactly?)”

“I’LL CARRY YOU TO THE STORE. (Are you sure you can lift me? Maybe you should just give me a ride there in your car.)”

“YOU CAN PUT ME OUT AT THE CHURCH. (Why would I do that? SoundS kind of rude. I’ll let you out of the car at church, though.)”

“We never had a lot of mosquito bites. Nor did mosquitos ever bite us a lot. We were always “Eat up.” Mama’d say, “You can’t out there or else you’ll get eat up. Also, let’s discuss exaggerations. When it’s cold outside, it’s never 30 degrees. It’s always “17,000 degrees below zero.” Same thing with heat. It’s not hot. “It’s 89 million degrees outside.” And your grandmother never made a lot of food. She made made enough to feed the entire world and anyone else who might drop by. Oh, and let’s not forget to take things to the most extreme. You are not merely irritated. You are irritated TO DEATH. Nor did something merely make you laugh. It tickled you TO DEATH.”

We hope this post tickled y’all to death. Read more of Words Only Southerners Say and you can also follow us on Twitter @Pretty_Southern. Feel free to share your two cents below.

Matt Foster is a true gentleman from Georgia. When it comes to looking at the next generation of leaders for the South, look no further than to Mr. Foster. He’s currently running in his first election for public office, as City Commissioner of Cedartown.

Born-and-raised in Cedartown, Foster graduated from Cedartown High School in 2002 to go on to the University of Georgia. He spent four glorious years in Athens where he majored in Political Science, and was fortunate to study abroad at Oxford University. After coming home from England, Foster knew more than ever he wanted to make a difference in the world.

After graduating from UGA, he signed on as a legislative aide at Georgia’s Capitol in the House of Representatives, yet he realized where his strengths could truly shine. After working at a summer camp in Quebec, he decided to pursue teaching, and for the past six years, he’s been in the classroom of Northside Elementary School in Cedartown teaching 4th and 5th grade Social Studies. Now he’s looking to his next endeavor in his own hometown.

PrettySouthern.com was privileged to catch up with Foster to talk about his campaign, his beloved town, and what it means to call the South home.

How do you define a Southerner?
I grew up in the New South, so my personal definition of a Southerner isn’t tied to who your ancestors were, or which Confederate militia your great great grandfather fought in. I think those stereotypes are outdated and don’t describe what being a Southerner really is all about. I think you can move to the South from just about anywhere in the world and still consider yourself a Southerner, so long as you’re the type of person who works hard and takes pride in being Southern, you care for the people around you, enjoy the small things in life, and don’t take “no” for an answer. We tend to be stubborn and set in our ways, but also very warm and outgoing to help out anyone in need. If this definition describes you, well then “Welcome South, Brother”.

How do you define a gentleman?
I was Atlanta last year, during the SEC game, UGA vs Alabama. As we were watching the clock run down on the best (yet most heartbreaking) football game I’ve ever watched, an old Crimson Tide guy, decked out from head-to-toe in Bama gear, walked up to me, and said “Roll Tide…but man, what a great, great game. Good luck to your Dawgs next year.” He extended his hand, I shook it, and thought, “now that’s a gentleman.”

How do you define a lady?
When I think of a lady, I think of someone who is smart and sophisticated, as well as fully-empowered and equal to any man. She may be reserved, or she may be a spitfire, but either way she’s got opinions of her own and doesn’t just bow down to the whims of others.

What are your favorite Southern foods?
When I lived in Canada, you would have thought I was some exotic tropical animal. All my Quebec pals wanted to take me to their favorite restaurants to see how their food was on my Southern palate. They aren’t big on BBQ, but they wanted me to try out a new restaurant called Bofinger, a BBQ joint downtown Montreal, to see if it was as good as what I was used to (apparently they think we eat BBQ every day in the South).
I wasn’t a huge BBQ guy back in Georgia, but something about the scarcity of it in Canada made it very appealing. It was so delicious, and reminded me of home. I ate there so much over the next several months. I literally could have perpetuated the stereotype that all Southerners eat is BBQ. I guess it’s like that Joni Mitchell song, when she says “don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.”

What was it like working at Georgia’s capitol?
It was very eye-opening because it was my first job out of college. I was still ‘green’ to the world. I was a legislative aide, but instead of just stapling papers all day, I got to be right in the action. I worked for a state representative who was a high-ranking member of the Appropriations Committee, and got to help sort out the state budget in 2007 before the recession hit big. I still lived in Athens, so I woke up every day at 4 a.m., drove to Atlanta, worked most nights until 7 p.m. (and later in the session till midnight or later), and then drove back to my apartment in Athens. It was the coolest and most exciting job I ever had, and yet I learned that I didn’t want to do that my entire life.

Did you ever meet Sonny Perdue while he was in office?
I had met Governor Perdue a few times as a young guy, when he was running against Governor Roy Barnes and the whole state flag debate was going on. When I was an aide, we met just a few times at fundraisers or photo ops in the Capitol. Perdue didn’t have the best working relationship with my bosses in the House, and the Senate — where he had served before becoming governor — had also felt alienated by him, so there was really no love lost between the governor and both chambers of the General Assembly. Anyway, in ’07, I had a bill that needed to be signed, and I thought since it was the last day of the session, the bill would die if the governor didn’t sign it by midnight. So on this last day, I busted into his office, skipped the line of people waiting with their own bills, and threw it down on his desk. It wasn’t even a big bill, just some local thing about rerouting a sewage line in some small town. I got my butt chewed up one wall and down the other, but then he signed it. By the way, my clock-ticking-Cinderella complex wasn’t entirely right. He could have signed it at any time several within several days, but I didn’t know that then. So in my ignorance I found courage: the courage to break protocol for a sewage line bill.

Ha! Ok then, other than your courage to ask for what you want, can you tell folks why they should vote for you to be the next City Commissioner of Cedartown?
I’m not running for this office because I want to be called ‘commissioner.’ I’m doing it because the city needs a healthy dose of economic common sense. For too long, we have just put-up with ‘doing okay,’ which I liken to “if you have a small hole in your boat, but you’re fine with it being only half-filled with water.” If I can at least start a meaningful conversation about how we can improve our current situation, instead of being content with slowly sinking, then win or lose the election itself, I’ll sleep well at night.

The election for Cedartown City Commissioner is on Tuesday, Nov. 5. For more information about how you can get out to support Foster, click here to “Matt Foster for Cedartown”.

This week, Atlanta residents can get free rides on Uber! Beginning Monday, Sept. 30, through Thursday, Oct. 3, take four FREE rides for up to $30 per ride. Yes, that means you and your pals have a DD all week! In addition, Uber is hosting a kickoff party tonight from 6 to 8 p.m. at Park Tavern. Unfortunately the event is sold out now, but there is good news. Uber has partnered with dozens of local businesses to bring y’all specials this week. Think free appetizers, discounted tickets, or even free drinks. Check those out here. For more information, follow Uber ATL on Twitter