Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from F&AB!
In which I promise you the newsletter equivalent of a "Super Duper Backrub"
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. Trust me, they’re usually better than this one is gonna be.
‘Twas the week before Christmas, and all through the house
An illness ran that derailed pretty much everything, including this poem’s rhyme scheme
I was so close. Sooooo close to achieving that mythical Perfectly Organized Christmas. I had detailed the timing of everything for the holiday, from the decorations to the presents to the meals to the music, and it was all gonna be flawless … and then I went and got sick. Dammit! Maybe in 2023 …
Anyway, when I was a little kid and I ran out of time to buy presents — huh, we really never do escape our past, do we? — I’d fall back on the time-honored slacker tradition of The Coupon Book. A hastily-assembled assortment of crayon-scrawled pictures and vague promises (“1 Room Cleaning,” “1 Dishwasher Unloading,” “1 Super Duper Backrub”), I’d give these to my parents and bank on their goodwill allowing me to skate through the holiday.
So that’s what this is, a Coupon Book for you, my magnificent reader. This newsletter began as an occasional writing exercise during the early days of the pandemic, but this year I went and got serious about it, and the payoff’s been immense. There are more of you here hanging out here every week — well over a thousand now, which is just silly for a newsletter with a heavy emphasis on Waffle House fights — and I’m loving figuring out new ways to entertain you every Saturday.
Lots more to look forward to in the coming months — more music, more tales and legends, more interviews with cool people, more recipes, more strangeness from the glorious and maddening land that is the South. Keep in touch, either via email or the comments below, and let me know what you’d like to see down the line.
I so appreciate you spending some time here every week. Let’s do this again. A lot.
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and to all a lovely last few days of 2022. See you next week!
—Jay
This has been a mini-version 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:
Bootlegging moonshine in the hills of north Georgia
The joy of the perfect college bar
Dolly Parton, Dale Earnhardt and Shakespeare: Fun with Artificial Intelligence
Why Atlanta’s Varsity has the best burger ever. No, I’m serious.
Could you survive a Waffle House brawl?
What does “Flashlight & A Biscuit” mean, anyway?
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