Well hello there, 2023, come on in and have a seat

Get out and stay out, 2022, we're done with you

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.

I love New Year’s Eve. I love the promise it brings, the opportunity to wipe the slate clean and start fresh, unburdened by the psychic and physical baggage of the previous year. I love making resolutions, I love planning out reading lists and meal plans and exercise regimens, I love looking to the future with anticipation and expectation and the hope that this time next year, I’ll be a better version of me.

Please note that nowhere in the previous paragraph did I actually say I would do any of that shit. I just like having the opportunity to do it, is all.

I’ve spent New Year’s Eves in hospital cafeterias and in street parties, in houses and bars and rooftops and cellars. I’ve been alone and I’ve been among friends and I’ve been in the midst of strangers. This year, I’ll be on the job, in downtown Atlanta covering the Peach Bowl, and if the general plodding timeline of a nationally televised college football game plays out as expected, I’ll probably be on the field when midnight hits and confetti falls on exuberant Georgia fans and despondent Ohio State fans (or vice versa). There are definitely worse places to count down the final seconds of the old year.

Here’s hoping that wherever you are, it’s where you want to be, around at least some of the people you want to be around. And if you want to just sack out early, skip the whole ball-drop thing, and tap out on 2022 altogether, hey, I won’t tell.

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Let us know: What are you doing New Year’s, New Year’s Eve?

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Now, when New Year’s Day hits, if you’re like me you’ve probably gone a little hard last night, so around here we’re going b-a-s-i-c with the dining. One of our traditions in this house is to wake up and whip up some sweet, sweet biscuit bits that some call Monkey Bread, some call Jumble Loaf, and some call Dad I Want More Of That Right Now Dad Now. As a general rule, I’m in favor of naming dishes the creative, evocative way we name drinks, rather than a boring literal list of primary ingredients, and this easy-to-make bad boy deserves this label:

Resolution Destroyer

Ingredients: 3 cans of biscuit dough
Sugar, cinnamon, butter, brown sugar (go by feel, you really can’t get this wrong)
Raisins, and walnuts or pecans if you’re into that sort of thing

Steps: This ain’t no 40-weird-ingredient, intricate-directions New York Times recipe. Quarter the biscuits and throw ‘em in a bag with cinnamon and sugar to coat. Layer them in a Bundt cake pan, stacking in raisins and/or nuts as you go. Dissolve brown sugar in butter and pour it over the biscuits. Bake for 35 minutes at 350, then have at it.

Later in the day, we’ll go traditional — black-eyed peas, collard greens, ham. When making the peas, I like to throw in whatever’s still around the fridge at the moment — cherry tomatoes, diced red peppers, bacon, new potatoes, it’s all good — and sauté the collard greens in garlic and absolutely douse ‘em in good hot sauce. Again, this is a “can’t-go-wrong” combo, perfect for days when you don’t feel like doing a damn thing but still want to shore up some good luck for the year ahead. Serve with corn bread and more hot sauce. Resolve to call your friends and family more, complain less, listen to music more, doomscroll less, and generally enjoy this fine life. It’s a strong way to roll into the new year.

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2022 in F&AB

This was the year we turned this newsletter from an occasional exercise to a weekly feature, and I learned a few things along the way. Let’s take a quick look back at the stories of the year, shall we?

Top post: “Diablo Sandwich: The true story of a Smokey & The Bandit legend”

Diablo Sandwich: The true story of a 'Smokey and the Bandit' legend

Sometimes everything just comes together perfectly. I was watching “Smokey & The Bandit” one Friday night, I had a free Saturday afternoon, and so I went driving to see what I could learn about one of the iconic lines in Southern film. The result was my most-read post ever … and a couple good meals, too.

Least-read post: The Atlanta Braves’ golden boys

Freddie, Chipper, Murph and the saga of the Braves' 'golden boys'

Lesson learned: Y’all don’t much care for the exclusively-sports stories here. Duly noted.

Story that returned from the dead: Sneaking alcohol into college games

Best practices for sneaking alcohol into a college football game (Flashlight & A Biscuit, No. 39)

This 2021 entry, which pound-for-pound ranks right up there with “One-Star Waffle House reviews” for maximum laughs-per-square-inch, saw new life when it was linked in a Wall Street Journal story about sneaking drinks into games.

Story I was proudest of: “Lost beneath the waves”

Lost beneath the waves

I write a lot of really dumb ideas here, but this one from Memorial Day, about my great-uncle Sam and his World War II sacrifice, was very much the exception. Glad it went over as well with readers as it did in my head. And it gave me some karmic goodwill for stupid stuff like this.

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Tune of the Week: “New Year’s Resolution,” Otis Redding & Carla Thomas

Surprisingly, there aren’t many uplifting New Year’s songs — there’s “Auld Lang Syne,” which doesn’t make a damn bit of sense, and U2’s “New Year’s Day,” which is Bono at his most painfully earnest, and Ella Fitzgerald’s pleading version of “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?” For whatever reason, most New Year’s tunes are downbeat, contemplative, tales of survival rather than anticipation. Here’s one that fits into that reminiscent category but still manages to hit you where you live: the collaboration between soul legend Otis Redding and Stax queen Carla Thomas. Told from the perspective of two lovers who know that the only thing worse than being together is being apart, this will have you resolving to do right by your loved ones, one way or another. Stream it above or as part of the ever-growing Flashlight & A Biscuit Spotify playlist.

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Have a Happy New Year, friends, whether you spend it alone or together, drunk or sober, watching football or watching botoxed lip-syncing celebs. Y’all are the best, I’m lucky to have you as readers. See you in 2023!

—Jay

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This is issue #86 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:

• 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?

If you dig this newsletter, share it with your friends. Invite others to the party, everyone’s welcome.