Pretty Southern

Category: Featured

Featured

  • Southern Nice Spreads the Love

    The best part about living in the South is our diverse culture. We’re a young region, like the rest of America, but we’ve had to rebuild after Civil War, Great Depression, multiple recessions and that darn Boll Wevil.

    Why not promote the nice things about living in the South? That’s what PrettySouthern aims to do, and now we have a partner in pleasantry: Southern Nice.

    Southern Nice is the brainchild of Jeff Burns: a native Southerner, graduate from Georgia Tech, and all-around gentleman. His company launched in March 2011 and has already received hundreds of orders for his products bearing the Southern Nice logo. They started out with two tee shirt designs and in their first week sold almost 100 shirts plus a bunch of koozies and croakies. To date, Southern Nice has sold several hundred shirts in just a few months.

    “This was something I always wanted to do,” Jeff explained. “I grew up with Southern hospitality, that sort of kindness, for me the South is about the people. I wanted to have one brand for everyone who calls themselves a Southerner.”

    Southern Nice proprietor Jeff Burns with Clark Howard

    What’s better is Southern Nice donates 50 percent of their profits from sales of their “city” shirts. The company has tee shirts dedicated to two great Southern cities, Atlanta and Nashville, with the proceeds going to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta plus Hands on Nashville. Southern Nice plans to roll out designs for Charlotte, Charleston and New Orleans by then end of 2011 with proceeds from the sale of those shirts also going to charity.

    “When we first started it was going to be for profit, a side business just for fun,” Jeff said. “It wasn’t until I started to realize how big the brand could be that we should collaborate with local charities.”

    The products are fantastic. Comfy, soft shirts (produced in part by local Atlanta company IceBox), plus nothing says “I’m a Southerner” like a pair of croakies or a coozy with the Southern Nice logo.

    “It doesn’t matter if your black, white, Asian, or Hispanic…it’s the way you smile we can tell you’re from the South. Our Southern history, our culture is enriched by diversity, and other regions can’t say that. Living in Atlanta especially, we want everyone to feel like they’re Southern.

    For more info on Southern Nice, check out their website or their Facebook page.

    Do you call yourself a Southerner? Are you nice? Then these shirts are for you! We’d like to present our first PrettySouthern Prize! The FIRST TWO people to comment on this post will get a FREE SOUTHERN NICE TEE! The NEXT 10 folks will get a FREE SOUTHERN NICE COOZIE! Good luck y’all!

  • Words Only Southerners Say

    Words Only Southerners Say

    Before we get to our favorite words only Southerners say, let’s hear it from the famous belles of
    “Sh%t Southern Women Say” on The Southern Women Channel.

    Down here, there is no Pepsi. Everything is Coke. Even Pepsi is called Coke. True Southerners don’t like going North because up there, if you ask for Coke, all y’all get is freaking Pepsi.

    In Northern states, iced tea is served with a box of sugar packets because Yankees are too lazy to actually blend sugar into the hot liquid to make sweet tea. Damn Yankees.

    Life below the Mason Dixon line is so sweet, just like our tea and Coca-Cola. Southern accents over time have developed their own vocabulary. These words tend to come out with even more zest if the Southerner has been drinking bourbon.

    Here’s a sampling of words only Southerners say

    Y’all: it’s never “you guys” but “y’all”. We’ll know you’re a Yankee, or that your parents were Yankees, if you say “you guys”.

    Fixin’ to: used to let your compatriot know what’s up. As in “I’m fixin’ to make me a drink”

    Lagniappe: a little bit of something extra (especially for those form N’Awlins and the Gulf area)

    Pocketbook: girls from the deep South’s middle-o’-nowhere areas are known to call it this instead of a purse.

    Mash: Southerners don’t push things, we mash ’em.

    Po’Boy: a long sandwich, usually served with fried oysters, shrimp or fish. But in NOLA, your po’boy could even have plain deli meat. Po’Boys are really defined by their good, long crusty bread.

    Buggy: it’s not a shopping cart, but a buggy

    Might Could: a polite way of presenting your options

    Caddywompus a.k.a. caddywonked: a more fun way to say sideways

    Access Road a.k.a. Main Road: screw the term “service road”. If the D.O.T. is working on the highway, there’s only one road to get back on your route again and it’s via an “access road” or “main road”. And by the way, if you live in the South, that construction is going to take five years just to pave two lanes. Especially if it’s I-75 in Georgia or Florida. Same thing for I-85 in the Carolinas. Because of this tragic lack of getting the roads fixed, Southerners do not call our interstates “freeways” but “highways”. There’s nothing free about our highways (see GA-400).

    Sweeper: as in run the sweeper referring to the vacuum

    Made: whether you’re referring to a test you aced, a photo you took, or a baby you birthed, “made” is the verb

    Changer or Clicker: you want me to pass you what? A remote control? Honey, that thing is called the changer or the clicker. There’s no controlling the remote in a Southern house. That darn thing will cause World War III, ‘specially in SEC football season.

    Yankee: anyone from the North. Even if you’re from Washington D.C., you’re a borderline Yankee. But stay here long enough, plant some roots, and you’ll grow up to become a Southerner.

    “Bless Your Heart”: if you’ve heard this, especially from a Southern woman, she doesn’t mean it. It’s her nice way of telling you to put on your grown up pants and deal with it. As said by one of our New York friends “I could shout a parade of Yankee-style expletives in your face and it wouldn’t be nearly as bitchy as bless your heart.”

    What are some of your favorite words only Southerners say? Y’all can comment below.

  • Pie Shop: Atlanta’s Newest Sweet Spot

    Everything about Pie Shop is as sweet as the label on their “Shugah”. Mims Bledsoe is one fabulous lady resurrecting the pure art of making homemade pies. To help her at Pie Shop, she recruited Kim Keene: a pastry chef with years of experience under her cute belt.

    “It was just fate.” Mims told PrettySouthern over coffee one morning. “Kim was best friends with my older sister. Who do you know better than who you grew up with?”

    Mims who has a background in research; however, she loved spending time in the kitchen working with her hands. “I decided to start my own business because it was intellectually challenging,” she explained. “You don’t see homemade pies anymore.”

    Our sampling of tasty treats at Pie Shop

    It’s a science to create the perfect crust (which took two months to perfect). The inspiration for Pie Shop’s pastries comes from many sources, including old cookbooks which Mims collects from bookstores, thrift shops, and other random places. On the day PrettySouthern visited, we noshed on several samples including Coconut Creme, Butterscotch, Grape and Strawberry Pies plus “bites’ including a Cheesecake topped with a fresh strawberry, crispy Fried Apple, Chocolate with Peanut Butter Creme and even a Vidalia Onion with Cheddar Cheese sauce.

    Pie Shop adheres to a set of standards when it comes to pie, which also coincide with Southern ideals: simplistic, rustic, unpretentious, and damn tasty. Come in here for a really warm, cozy experience and get served homemade pie.

    If location is everything, then Pie Shop has got it! For those familiar with the Barmuda Triangle in the Buckhead neighborhood of Atlanta, there’s now a Bakery Triangle comprised of Henri’s, Piece of Cake and Pie Shop. Located in the same strip containing Red Door Tavern and behind the bar Churchill’s, Pie Shop will be open until 1 a.m. come July to serve pie to late night party people. Y’all know pie is good any time!

    For more info on Pie Shop, check out their website or their Facebook page.

  • Our Southern Girl in South America

    My mother called me a bird. Last December, 18 days after I graduated college, I flew south for winter to sweaty Santiago, Chile, where the seasons are reversed and summer was just beginning.

    But warm weather wasn’t the purpose of my journey. It’s winter now (in late June) and thankfully my intentions and ideas have panned out. I’ve worked a TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language)- certified English teacher for almost six months now, and my Spanish skills have finally progressed beyond speaking in the present tense.

    The actual distance is the strangest thing. There are times I’ve stood on the coast, with my ankles in the freezing Pacific Ocean, staring up and imagining where I am, envisioning myself as a dot on globe, almost 5,000 miles away from home. Like many Southerners, my friends are also my family and detaching myself from them was one of the most difficult things I’ve ever done. How the inventors of Skype haven’t won a Nobel prize is beyond me as it is the best invention of the 21st century.

    But rarely do I feel lonely. I was thrilled to discover that Chileans believe in the same Southern hospitality we’re accustomed to back home. It is quite common to meet someone at a bar one night then have them invite you over for dinner the next. Encounters on the street don’t stop at, “Hi, How are you?” but “Where are you going? And, how is your mother?” Every taxi driver, server, bank teller and grocery-store check out girl is fascinated with my reasons for coming here. They are also incredibly eager to use any knowledge of English that they have. Either that, or my Spanish is so bad that they’re choosing to use English.

    Chile is 70 percent Roman Catholic and colorful reminders line the sidewalks and corners of the beautiful ancient churches in Santiago.

    Chile’s enterprises have a great need for learning English to further interactions with the U.S. and the U.K. This is why teaching English is such a lucrative opportunity. However, everyday citizens have very little need, so knowing and using Spanish is much more of a necessity than I imagined. This demand alone has improved my vocabulary, but I’ve had just as many slip ups as success stories.

    One night, a Chilean acquaintance invited my boyfriend and I over for dinner at his apartment. He has one of the most incredible views in the city – endless urban lights, surrounded by the Andes mountains – so, language insecurities aside, we accepted the invitation. As the evening progressed, several more of their Chilean friends arrived, and with them, bottles of Cabernet and Carmenere, Chile’s vino specialties. At one point, I dropped my wine glass, spilling the wine and breaking the glass.

    In an attempt to apologize to our neighbor, I stood up and said, in Spanish,  “I am so embarrassed.” Well it turns out, the word for “embarrassed” (embarazoso) and “preganant” (embarazada) are extremely similar. So I actually said, “I am so pregnant.” Without a beat, and in perfect English, one of their friends replied, “Well, then you shouldn’t be drinking!”

    Yes, it was a laugh at my expense. But it was also one of my favorite memories of this trip so far. Join me as I attempt to put into words my experience of living in Chile’s southernmost nation as a girl from the South. I’ve already taught several of my students how to use “y’all”, and I’m not stopping there.

    [author] [author_image timthumb=’on’]https://prettysouthern.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/ChelseaCook.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]Chelsea Cook is a journalist from Atlanta teaching English in Santiago, Chile. Check back each week to PrettySouthern for more of Chelsea’s adventures South of the Equator.[/author_info] [/author]

  • Native Southerner Hunts for Fossils

    Southerners are proud of their roots spanning back through eons. For Alan Stout, a native Southern gentleman, he’s translated his love of history into collecting and selling fossils. In Stout’s personal collection he also has multiple skulls belonging to Sabre tooth cats (though these are not for sale).

    Stout is most well-known for triceratops horns. He’s sold around 10 this year going for about $3,000. Another item in his collection was the tusk of a wooly mammoth, for $4,500.
“It’s a perfect piece, all solid ivory,” he said.  “It’s really nice. It even has the normal wooly mammoth shape.” He’s also got claws from the T-Rex, Raptor and other prehistoric predators. If you’re in the market for other collectible, check out Stout’s assortment of dino eggs, fossilized fish, and massive teeth.

    A tooth from the Megalodon shark, the largest fish in history!

    Stout said he can distinguish fossils from ordinary rocks because they’re typically lighter (although they’re heavier the more mineralized they are) and rocks tend to be more rounded. There are many who come to these areas with ar 15 parts and accessories to ensure their safety from harms way. He obtains most of his dinosaur bones by traveling out west and buying from fossil hunters.
 He also had a whole Keichousaurus hui, an extinct aquatic reptile from Central Asia. Thankfully he has a friend in Washington state who imports them, so Stout didn’t have to trek across the globe.

    About 70 percent of Stout’s business is done abroad, with 30 percent done in the United States. Yet with all his worldly knowledge, Stout declares the South as his home and he has a deep, abiding love for the region.
    “The South means beautiful countryside, nice people who are [laid] back and warm,” he said. “They have a sense of purpose and have strong religious beliefs.”

    For more information, check out Stout’s web site. He’s happy to speak with potential buyers regarding his fantastic fossils.

    Alan Stout, the gentleman of fossils himself, on a trip to Charleston.

    [author] [author_image timthumb=’on’]https://prettysouthern.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/MattQuinn.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]Matthew Quinn graduated from the University of Georgia in 2007. After nearly four years reporting for The Griffin Daily News, he became editor of The Johns Creek Herald in North Fulton. He is a published writer of science fiction, fantasy, and horror and blogs at www.accordingtoquinn.com.[/author_info] [/author]

  • Pretty Southern Puppy

    Now let, say it once all together y’all… “Awww! How cute!”

    Meet 1/2 Pint the Pup. At only two months old, he was hand picked to be our first Pretty Southern Puppy!

    Every Friday, we’ll be featuring a puppy available for adoption at the Atlanta Humane Society. We’re so excited to be working with our first philanthropic organization to help promote their adorable pets looking for owners.

    This super cute hound/retriever is marvelous mutt is ready for his new home. Deborah at the Atlanta Humane Society says this one is so well behaved.

    On his trip to visit the folks at CBS this past week, 1/2 Pint was such a good boy! He was so chill and just enjoyed his field trip (and tv appearance)! This little pup is just a baby and will need a loving family to train him in all the doggy dog ways.

    If y’all know anyone looking for a great puppy, please send over this link. His adoption fee is only $150 and (for reference) his animal ID #13383466. For more information, please call the AHS at (404) 875-5331 or visit http://www.atlantahumane.org/