Let's all give 2024 a warm welcome
Hit the bricks, 2023, and don't come back
Welcome to Flashlight & A Biscuit, my Southern culture/sports/music/food offshoot of my work at Yahoo Sports. Thanks for reading, and if you’re new around here, why not subscribe? It’s free and all.
Remember summer vacations when you were a kid? You bolted out of school at the tick of 3:00 and for the next 90 days or so, you lost total awareness of time. It could be Monday, it could be Thursday, it could be some day they hadn’t yet taught you about. Who knew? Your whole existence centered on getting up and doing exactly nothing. (Assuming, of course, that you were born prior to the we-must-schedule-every-instant-of-our-child’s-lives era.) It was glorious, like floating in a sensory deprivation tank playing nothing but cartoons.
The closest we get to that once we leave childhood is the week between Christmas and New Year’s. In my house, life is a steady procession of big family meals that leave lots of leftovers for tomorrow’s lunch, poking at presents still under the tree, thawing the brain long enough to write a column or two, trying to get up the energy to run one errand a day, sprawling on the sofa and watching bowl games and old movies … it’s not bad. Yes, it would be nicer if it lasted three months rather than six days, but hey, life rolls on.
Our Grand Disconnection ends tomorrow (if you’re reading this on New Year’s Eve), and we have to get to work on whatever resolutions we’ll pledge to keep until 2025 or Saturday, whichever comes first. Before then, let’s close the book on 2023.
Around these parts, I’m not going to lie: 2023 was a rough one, with way too much loss and pain. But let’s focus on the positive as we do our annual look-back at the year that was at Flashlight & A Biscuit. We doubled our subscribers from this time last year, and even if our summertime publishing schedule got a little dodgy thanks to [waves hands at the cold unfeeling universe], we still had fun pushing each one live. Here’s a look back at a few favorites:
Most popular post: A toast to Jimmy Buffett
Huh. So much for staying positive. Buffett’s passing was a sea change (nautical term) for entire generations of his fans. The parties don’t stop, but sometimes the music does. This one ended up being my second-most-read post to date. Here’s to ya, Jim.
Least popular post: The tale of Neuty the Nutria
Maybe it was the horrible photo of a red-toothed swamp rat, or maybe it was that nobody particularly cared about a Louisiana rodent, but people skipped right over this particular dispatch about a Louisiana family that kept a nutria as a pet. Sorry, Neuty.
Most inspiring post: Space barbecue!
The stories I love the most are the ones I stumble across, like this tale of Macon barbecue that ended up in space thanks to a local boy who became an astronaut.
Post that will remind you Dolly Parton is still the best
As if you could ever forget.
Post that will make you update your bucket list: Savannah’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade
I need to do the Running of the Squares one year. Who’s with me? Who can get me in?
Post that took the most work: Rama Jama’s
OK, technically the post didn’t take that long, but the mini-documentary that I did with my son on Rama Jama’s, a Tuscaloosa diner and a University of Alabama tradition, took several months. So that counts. One of my favorite creative endeavors … so far.
And there was much more, like the story of Augusta National’s Peach Ice Cream Sandwich, Chick-Fil-A’s misbegotten attempt at pimento cheese, the theft of a beloved West Virginia hot dog statue and the gun-shaped pool in (of course) Florida. Thanks so much for reading all these and more. Y’all are the very best.
Go enjoy the rest of 2023 and have a prosperous 2024. But before you go, please enjoy this incredibly disturbing French snowman wishing you a Bonne Année. Sleep tight!
Happy New Year, friends. Hope it’ll be your best ever. We’ll see you right back here next week.
—Jay
Land Cat, Georgia
This is issue #113 of Flashlight & A Biscuit. Check out all the past issues right here. Feel free to email me with your thoughts, tips and advice. If you’re new around here, jump right to our most-read stories, or check out some of our recent hits:
Our first documentary, on the famous Rama Jama’s diner in Tuscaloosa, Alabama:
What’s the best present you ever got?
The “you” in “All I Want For Christmas Is You” tries to explain himself on Christmas morning
A requiem for one of the truly great chroniclers of Florida Man
History hidden in plain sight in Williamsburg, Virginia
What does “Flashlight & A Biscuit” mean, anyway?
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So glad to have found Flashlight & a Biscuit this year, Jay, after Yahoo Sports Read and React ended. Happy New Year and I look forward to more of your wit and wisdom in 2024.