Southern Bookman

Natchitoches meat pies and my mother's Christmas tradition

My mother made meat pies on Christmas Eve, when we opened our presents in a festive celebration.

Christmas brings memories of my mother’s meat pies, as well as the cakes and cookies she made for the big day.

I don’t remember how the Christmas custom began. My mother had grown up in Campti, La., near the old French city of Natchitoches, where meat pies were a local delicacy. Getting her home economics degree from Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, she’d come to love the old city’s special dish and learned the recipe.

To prepare the triangle-shaped pies, she wrapped ground meat in flour, frying them to a golden brown. She laid them on a plate covered with paper towels, which absorbed the grease. Seasoned with onions and pepper, the ground meat was spicy, especially when drops of Tabasco were added.

A few pies remained the next morning, when we awoke to discover what Santa had left for us under the tree. She warmed them up for a late morning snack, before our big Christmas feast.

Several years ago, I ordered meat pies from a place in Natchitoches, Louisiana’s oldest city, and the location of the book and film “Steel Magnolias.” Natchitoches is also known for its 96-year-old annual Christmas festival featuring more than 300,000 lights and 100 tableaus along the Cain River, an abandoned channel of the Red River.

This year, my sister sent me a package of meat pies from Natchitoches.

Savoring each bite, I'll remember my mother's gift of love each Christmas.

 

Zelensky speech marks a turning point of history

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky came to Washington Wednesday on a daring undercover journey, a brave man seeking vital aid for his small, embattled country.

Appearing before Congress, Zelensky sounded like the true leader of the free world. His speech was packed with historical references to Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the Battle of the Bulge, the Battle of Saratoga. 

While Valley Forge might have resonated more, Zelensky received numerous standing ovations in his appeal for continued support for his nation's resistance against Russian despot Vladimir Putin's stalled Russian army and its mounting attacks devastating Ukraine's infrastructure.

His broken English giving his words musical eloquence, the former actor and comedian thrilled the audience, delivering a memorable speech that cast the war in Ukraine as the crucial turning point in a global battle between freedom and autocracy.

He also spoke with pride and sorrow of the courage of the Ukrainian people, many without lights, heat and running water. Marveling how his fellow citizens forge on with their daily lives without despair, he asserted that "Ukraine is alive and kicking" and would not surrender.

Yet, on the winter solstice, the 300th day of Putin's effort to erase Ukraine as an independent nation, the Ukrainian plight grows worse, despite recent gains by Ukrainian forces. Russia's overwhelming artillery power, augmented by Iranian drones, will push Ukraine to the breaking point.

Without even more aid than President Biden committed  to Zelensky- a solitary Patriot missile battery and a smattering of more weapons - Ukraine is unlikely to defeat Putin's army, bolstered by mercenaries and convicts forced to the battle lines.

Military advisers see at best a long stalemate, if present conditions continue. The Russian leader Wednesday vowed to accelerate the war, launching a new offensive.  

Biden, drawing strange laughter at a White House news conference when acknowledging Zelensky's desire for a decisive delivery of weapons, said he wouldn't make a stronger commitment because of NATO fears of Putin escalating the war.  He has threatened the use of nuclear devices. .

New Yorker writer Masha Gessen in analyzing Zelensky's speech pointed out that if Zelensky had received more aid earlier, Putin might have already been defeated. Her piece made a convincing case for the United States boosting its aid, no matter the level of NATO opposition.

In his speech, Zelensky made a point to emphasize that he's not calling for American troops to aid Ukraine. He said Ukrainian soldiers will learn how to fire American weapons. But the Ukrainians will need training on how to operate the Patriot battery. Americans will tutor them in Germany.

In the most poignant moment of his speech, Zelensky said many of the heroic Ukrainian people will celebrate Christmas by candle light, not to be romantic, but because Russians have knocked out electrical power.

I will light a Christmas candle for the people of Ukraine.

 

Robert Pinsky poem "Soul Making" finds the joy in Keats' "vale of soul making"

Robert Pinsky's poem "Soul Making" in the current New Yorker engages with Keats' conception of human life as a "vale of soul-making."

In one of his brilliant letters, Keats sees life as a mansion with several rooms through which humans progress, developing consciousness. After the joy of youth comes an awareness of mortality, and a final room shrouded in darkness. In contrast to Wordsworth's "Intimations of Immortality in Early Childhood," Keats rejects the solace of eternal life.

Pinsky in contrast envisions the joy of soul making, dismissing Keats' dark view of human existence. Responding to Keats with several references to his poems "Ode to a Nightingale" and "To Autumn," Pinksy sees human soul making as heroic, reflected in the wonders of history and scientific discovery.

Drawing parallels between the galaxies photographed by the Webb telescope and the microscopic animals that live within us, the poet compares his wonder at the natural world to the pleasure experienced by an infant when his mother feeds him apples and apricots from a baby-food jar.

With a reference to Egypt, Pinsky links that small, private human ritual to the unfolding of history. The Egypt reference recalls Keats' allusion in "Ode to a Nightingale" to Ruth amid the alien corn. In the biblical story, Ruth, a Moabite woman, chooses to live in Israel, enemy territory. As a result, she becomes King David's grandmother.

Pinksy in the poem shows the life-affirming aspects of Keats' "vale of soul-making," the belief in beauty and human creativity that Keats affirmed in his life and poetry.

Soul Making

By Robert Pinsky

Galactic broth visible light-years away
Brews the first suns. Familial, I feel
I know these lights. I see their pre-biotic
Geometries of purpose the way I impose

Human, nearly literary intentions
Onto the microscopic animals, flexing
Bizarre mandibles, that patrol my eyelids
And guts. Brothers and sisters electronically

Revealed, arcane mute dynasties of being:
Darkling I too perform the turns and bits
Of my assigned proportions. Feigning
Rapt comprehension, I know you the way

An infant pretends amazement each time
The mother with a spoon tip searching
Under the jar’s rim finds more and yet
More of the strained Apricots and Apples:

Infant, the sunflower turns toward her, deep
Egypt of shared attachment and concealment,
Tangy preserved sweetness forging in turn
The courtly generation of—call it a soul.

William Rawlings' "The Columbus Stocking Strangler" a definitive history of complex murder case

When I arrived in Columbus, Ga., the fear over the "stocking stranglings" had subsided.

From September 1977 through April 1978, seven elderly women were raped and murdered in their homes in Columbus' middle-class Wynnton neighborhood. Two other women survived the attacks. During the same period, the predominantly white area experienced several burglaries. 

Fear and anxiety gripped the city as the murders continued. Columbus' police launched a task force, raised reward money, appealed for help from state and federal law enforcement agencies and began extensive 24-hour patrols. Yet, several more women were found slain in their beds, even after taking safety precautions. At last, the serial killings mysteriously stopped, and the city's terror receded.

Investigators found hairs at the crime scene linked to a black assailant, raising racial tensions in the city known as the home of Fort Benning and the insurance giant Aflec. The murders uncovered intense class divisions in a city changing from its textile mill economy.

Despite the frenzied police investigation, and mounting criticism from the Columbus Enquirer and Ledger, the then vibrant morning and afternoon newspapers, an arrest in the case was not made until 1984. After lengthy legal maneuvers and a grueling trial, the suspect, a black career criminal named Carlton Gary was convicted in 1986 of three of the murders and sentenced to death.

But repeated court appeals, including to the U.S. Supreme Court, resulted in Gary not being executed for the crimes until 2018.

Veteran author William Rawlings' "The Columbus Stocking Strangler," published by Mercer University Press, gives a comprehensive account of the stocking strangler murders, in which several of the women were strangled with their own stockings. The victims were also raped and brutally beaten.

Some readers might find Rawlings' detailed descriptions of the crime scenes too graphic, but they document for the historical record the brutality of the attacks. Although fingerprints and palm prints were found at some crime scenes, police were unable to make an arrest. Rawlings establishes that the suspect lived close to his victims' homes at the time of the slayings, eluding the police patrols.

Rawlings details how Gary was finally arrested through a chance link to a pistol stolen in one of the Wynnton burglaries independent of the murders. He closes the book with a thorough recounting of the 32-year legal battles that kept delaying Gary's execution.

With an in-depth account of the 1986 trial and Gary's subsequent appeals, Rawlings clearly explains complex legal issues. Despite a few awkward sentences and typographical errors, he delivers a compelling narrative.

Rawlings delves into findings by Vanity Fair investigative journalist David Rose that DNA and other evidence showed that Gary was not the killer. Rose made his case for Gary's innocence in the book called "The Big Eddy Club," named for an exclusive, all-white social club in Columbus.

While I plan to read Rose's book, Rawlings convincingly dispels Rose's claims and establishes that Gary was guilty of the murders.

When I came to Columbus for a job at the Columbus Enquirer, I lived in Wynnton, a neighborhood of charming architecture, family restaurants and small businesses similar to Atlanta's Virginia-Highland and Morningside.

Reading Rawlings book, I realized that I'd lived only blocks away from the Stocking Strangler's victims. The book made me regret that I never knew much about the case when I lived in Columbus, and deepened my understanding of the city where I spent several brief but formative years.

"The Columbus Stocking Strangler" gives a definitive history of the middle-sized Southern city's reckoning with one of America's most challenging murder cases.

 

 

 

 

Thomas Pynchon fans rejoice at his archive donation to Huntington Library

Reclusive novelist Thomas Pynchon has donated his literary archive to the Huntington Library in San Marino, Calif., exciting passionate fans who've long thrilled at periodic revelations about the mysterious writer.

The 85-year-old  author, who has largely shunned reporters and photographers and released few personal artifacts over the years, donated 48 boxes and 70 linear feet of material to the Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, according to media reports. 

Beginning in late 2023, scholars and Pynchon aficionados can visit the Los Angeles-area library to study typescripts and drafts of each novel, handwritten notes, correspondence and research material. After years of hiding from public view, Pynchon has decided to reveal his creative process.

Pynchon's early novels "V," "The Crying of Lot 49" and "Gravity's Rainbow" drew an intense following in the 1960s and early '70s among predominantly male readers, mesmerized by the author's historical references, encyclopedic scientific knowledge, conspiratorial plots and iconic characters. Like fellow counterculture novelists Joseph Heller, Kurt Vonnegut, J.P. Donleavy, and Philip K. Dick, Pynchon was venerated as much as rock stars.

Later novels like "Mason and Dixon" and "Vineland" received less acclaim, although hard-core followers heralded the books. Pynchon's 2009 comic detective novel "Inherent Vice" was entertaining, reaching a more popular audience.

Pynchon's son, Jackson Pynchon, said the author chose the Huntington because of its impressive math, science, aerospace and map collections. The library's literary holdings include Shakespeare, Chaucer and Joyce manuscripts, a Gutenberg Bible, and archives from modern writers.

The writer also has a California connection: He wrote much of "Gravity's Rainbow" while living in Manhattan Beach, the setting of "Inherent Vice."

Will Pynchon reveal himself further? While his archive will bring years of scholarly and biographical discoveries, Pynchon apparently will remain secluded in his private world.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Farewell, Book Forum, the latest victim of corporate greed

Book Forum's arrival in my mailbox always excited me, as was the case when the latest issue appeared last week.

My joy was crushed when I heard that the issue would be Book Forum's last.

Jay Penske's Penske Media Group, which recently purchased Book Forum's sister publication Art Forum, on Monday announced Book Forum's closure. Penske also owns Rolling Stone, which he is credited with reviving.

Book Forum's demise is a major blow to American literary culture. Founded in 1994, the quarterly like the New York Review of Books and the London Review of Books allowed its reviewers to expand their pieces into wide-ranging critical essays, bringing intense personal engagement to the books.

The publication's reviewers were younger, and somewhat hipper, than those at the august NYRB. They were more attuned to the art world, and had the younger generation's Brooklyn and downtown Manhattan sensibility. Yet, the reviews possessed an academic rigor as exacting as those in the Times Literary Supplement.

After supporting Rolling Stone, Penske reverted to a  distressing corporate callousness in shutting down Book Forum. Penske surely possesses the financial resources to keep publishing the prestigious quarterly. Instead, he silenced a vital literary journal.

Reading Book Forum's last issue, I was sad and angry to know that the publication would no longer arrive in my mailbox.

 

 

 

Farewell, Mike Leach, college football's mad pirate

College football fans like me felt a jocular connection with Mike Leach, no matter which school we root for.

The Mississippi State coach, who died Monday at age 61 after suffering a massive heart attack, always believed that football is a game. Unlike forbidding coaches like Nick Saban and Bill Belichick, Leach was like the guy next door who told jokes and would rush over to change your tire.

Leach's influential air-raid offense was based on a few simple concepts, emphasizing the impromptu creativity of his quarterback and receivers. It was a glorified version of back-yard football. With a few plays scribbled on a piece of paper, Leach changed the football world.

A law school graduate, Leach turned his fine analytical mind to coaching, without ever having played college football.

Unlike other coaches, he was curious about the world outside the gridiron, co-authoring a book about the Indian chief Geronimo and studying pirates. He was one of sport's comic geniuses, fascinating the sports world with his zany meditations on subjects ranging from marriage to Halloween candy.

His apparent devil-may-care attitude masked a fierce competitiveness. As the head coach at Texas Tech, Washington State and Mississippi State, he gloried at beating more glamorous schools. He mentored an impressive group of college and pro coaches.

Like Hal Mumme, his co-inventor of the free-form air raid offense, he'll be remembered as one of the game's great innovators.

A lifelong LSU fan who saw Leach as a feared rival in his three years at Mississippi State, I was surprised at my sadness at the coach's death.

I had to admire the air-raid pirate, even when his team was bombing my Tigers.

 

Douglas Brinkley, author of "Silent Spring Revolution," inspires Atlanta History Center audience to keep environmental flame burning

Historian Douglas Brinkley appeared at the Atlanta History Center Monday night to promote his new book on America's environmental accomplishments, speaking before an audience mainly composed of those who remembered the first Earth Day in 1970.

Sadly, that national event was the high point of the environmental progress detailed in Brinkley's comprehensive "Silent Spring Revolution: John F. Kennedy, Rachel Carson, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon and the Great Environmental Awakening."

A furious counterattack by American business, which saw environmental regulation as a socialistic threat to the free enterprise system, crushed the green movement.

Brinkley in his talk cited former Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell's memo to the American Chamber of Commerce calling for right-wing capitalists to take action against a perceived liberal takeover of the media, academia, the judiciary and Congress.

That led to the rise of conservative think tanks like the Heritage Society and the Cato Institute and soaring campaign funding by the Koch Brothers and other wealthy business leaders.

Brinkley cited Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin Delano Roosevelt for leading the first environmental wave, establishing national parks and preserving wilderness areas.

The movement gained momentum under the leadership of liberal Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, the major environmental mentor to the Kennedy family. Douglas influenced John F. Kennedy to author national seashore legislation when Kennedy was a U.S. senator.

Kennedy as president continued his environmental activism. After Kennedy's assassination, Lyndon Johnson stepped up the preservation of wilderness areas. Brinkley credited first lady Lady Bird Johnson for her environmental leadership during Johnson's administration, tragically ruined by his support of the Vietnam War.

President Richard Nixon, a reluctant environmentalist, compiled an impressive environmental record. After the devastating Santa Barbara oil spill pf 1969 in the early days of his presidency, Nixon signed the National Environmental Policy Act, which required environmental impact statements for construction projects, and established the Environmental Protection Agency, which banned the use of DDT.

Rachel Carson, whose monumental book "Silent Spring" in 1962 drew attention to the threat of DDT and other pesticides to animals and humans, was the main hero of Brinkley's talk.

Suffering from from the breast cancer that killed her in 1964, Carson was severely attacked by chemical companies until government scientists under President Kennedy confirmed the truth of her findings.

Before "Silent Spring," Carson wrote a pioneering trilogy of books on sea life. The books, recently republished in one volume by the Library of America,  predicted the current threats to the ocean from plastic pollution and rising acidification.

Most of those in the audience appeared in their 60s and 70s, members of a generation that witnessed the excitement of the environmental movement in the 1960s and 1970s, and its distressing demise after the massive corporate attacks, which are accelerating in today's Republican Party.

Brinkley, a professor at Rice University, expressed hope that a rising younger generation will launch a new environmental wave. He mentioned that his Generation Z students display an intense interest in combating climate change.

"Silent Spring Revolution" will  inform them about our generation accomplished, and let slip away. Its historical scope and optimism for the future will inspire them to not let it happen again.

 

New York Times shakes off 24-hour employee walkout

Our New York Times arrived on the driveway as usual Friday, unfazed by a 24-hour walkout of editorial workers.

The newspaper was packed with stories and columns, including the familiar bylines of Washington reporters Peter Baker and Michael Shear on a front-page article about NBA star Britney Griner's release from a Russian prison.

Baker and Shear didn't join the mini-strike of some 1,100 newspaper workers, which began at midnight Thursday. Star reporter Annie Karni also authored a front-page article, but she emphasized she had written it before the walkout, and fully supported it.

While I sympathize with the newspaper guild's effort to get a bigger share of the Times' millions in annual profits, I was relieved to see the newspaper in its distinctive blue bag.

I'm sure the Times' bosses had no problem producing stories for the media company's web site, where most readers now experience the Times. I am one of the dinosaurs who haven't strayed from the print edition.

As Politico media columnist Jack Shafer said this week, the walkout is unlikely to sway the Sulzberger family to meet the union's demands. In the online world, media companies are no longer crippled by labor actions, as Shafer pointed out.

If the walkout doesn't bring concessions from the newspaper, the union might try a more substantial walkout. But the Times will keep publishing.

Remembering Pearl Harbor on 81st anniversary

On the 81st anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, I listened to World War II-era songs like "In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening" and "It's Been a Long, Long Time."

Bing Crosby's old radio recordings bring back the era's war-heightened romanticism.

Now in their late 90s or more than 100 years old, a dwindling number of survivors of Japan's surprise attack on that quiet Sunday morning gathered at the site, where oil still rises to the ocean surface from the USS Arizona, its dead entombed below.

Japan's surprise bombing of American battleships docked at the harbor in Honolulu brought the United States into World War II.

In a speech to Congress, President Franklin D. Roosevelt called Dec. 7, 1941 "a day that will live in infamy." After years of neutrality, its armed forces small, the United States geared up for war.

Countless books, movies and oral histories give accounts of the attack, which stunned a nation coming home from church, gathering for family meals or attending football games. One of the best pieces was written by Washington Post sports columnist Shirley Povich, who described military officers attending a Redskins game being called to duty upon the stadium loudspeaker.

The last of those who actually experienced that momentous day will soon be gone. We succeeding generations owe them a great debt, and the vow that we will always remember.