BBQ Thursday: Fincher’s

Fincher’s Bar B Q

This past weekend the wife and I made a short trip south to see Corbin and his new “pup” and let me say to everyone and especially BuyPropertyUcheeDawg, she is as sweet as her mother and did not cry once while we were there.  But back to the reason why everyone came to visit us from Dawgbone; if I was going to be meeting up with Corbin we had to have some barbecue for lunch.  I had planned the trip earlier in the week to get to Macon around 1:00 and stop for BBQ at Holcomb’s in Greensboro but Mrs. Corbin asked that we come a little earlier so I had to save Holcomb’s for another day.

Once in Macon and after visiting with the pup, Corbin and I ventured out to pick up BBQ and bring it back home to the ladies.  Our first stop was at Satterfield’s but they are only open during the week so Corbin suggested that we try the Macon favorite of Fincher’s.  Now, either because he was looking out for his guest or values his own life, he took me to their location on the Gray highway and not the original location on Houston Road.  Fincher’s has the look of an old fast food diner with the kitchen in the back, counter at the front and a few tables to the side.  Not too much inside seating but that’s okay.  We got the family pack which was two pounds of pork, a pack of buns, stew, and a side of slaw and headed home.  This was very reasonably priced at $25.

The stew was good, as you can see from the picture it was a little runny but if I would have had it in a bowl with balls of white bread it would have been great.  Poor planning on my part.  Now to the BBQ.  As my wife says, I was way too harsh on this que.  It was moist, had some smoke flavor but not too much, pulled nicely but they killed it in sauce.  They didn’t smoke this pig, they drowned him.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s a decently good sauce with vinegar and mustard flavors but I hate when restaurants sauce their meat before serving it to you.  All in all we enjoyed the BBQ.  Fincher’s is the type of place that is good, I would eat again if offered to me but I would not drive from Athens just to try again.  It’s BBQ that I would eat for lunch on Friday but I can’t in good faith crown it the best of Macon.  So Macon readers, how far off was I in my assessment?

Granite

Lewis Grizzard Wednesday: Don’t touch my popcorn

Don’t Touch My Popcorn

NEW YORK – This is incredible. Here I am in the entertainment capital of the world, and I go into a movie theater on Broadway, the entertainment street of the world, and I can’t buy popcorn.

There was popcorn in the movie theater. There was just nobody behind the counter to sell it.

“I would like to speak to the manager,” I said to the man who had taken my ticket. “There’s nobody to sell the popcorn.”

“The manager’s not here,” said the man, “but I can tell you why there’s nobody to sell the popcorn. The popcorn girl didn’t show up for work.” All the kids have zits

“What’s the problem with her?” I asked. “She has a new zit?” (Ever notice that all kids who work for movie theaters have terrible acne.)

“No,” the ticket taker replied, “her boyfriend, Julio, lost his earring in a gang fight and she’s helping him look for it.”

“Why don’t you sell me some popcorn,” I asked.

“No way,” he answered. “The union won’t let me.”

I’m dying for a bag of popcorn and I have to run into Samuel Gompers.

The reason I go to movies in the first place is for the popcorn. A movie without popcorn is like a punkhead without an earring.

I always buy the largest container of popcorn available, so if the movie is long and boring, like Amadeus, I still have a good time eating all that popcorn.

I’m also very stingy with my popcorn. If I take a date to the movie, I always ask her politely, “Will you have some popcorn?”

Most women answer that by saying, ” No, I’ll just have some of yours.” Nobody can eat a little

I never fall for that. Nobody can eat just a little popcorn, so what happens when a woman doesn’t have her own is she starts eating yours, and pretty soon, it’s all gone.

I say, “Listen, you can have as much, or as little, popcorn as you want, but you must carry it to your seat in your own personal container. Try to get some of mine, and you’ll draw back a nub.”

I rarely have a second date with a woman I take to a movie, but a man must have his priorities in order.

The movie I saw sans popcorn was Rob Reiner’s “Stand By Me.”

It’s about four twelve-year-olds who go looking for a dead body, and nearly get eaten by a junkyard dog, run over by a train, drained dry of their blood by leeches, and sliced by bullies’ switchblades. It’s a comedy.

But that’s about all I remember. I was too busy thinking about popcorn to pay much attention to the movie.

As I was leaving the theater,the popcorn girl finally was showing up for work with Julio and his relocated earring in tow.

You’re both a disgrace to the good name of Orville Redenbacher,” I said, wishing on both the dreaded curse of large, red zits on the ends of their noses.

Harsh, perhaps, but popcorn is my life.

The New Normal

I have been absent from the Grit Tree over the last month. There are topics I have wanted to talk about on the blog, but haven’t had the opportunity to discuss. I have been able to Tweet, but some topics over the last few weeks I have been itching to opine about: National Signing Day, Grantham, Alabama’s players getting arrested, the Braves newest acquisition in Justin Upton, the Braves in general, and the 5 game winning streak and the 3 game losing streak of our men’s basketball team. I’ll get around to it, but time has passed and it won’t be topical. I know you have missed my opinions on these matters and hope, reader, you have found a way to survive without them.

Work has been very busy and I have been traveling a lot out of town, and have had a lot of night and weekend commitments. But something else more important has kept me off the blog.

On February 6, 2013 at 4:56 pm, Mrs. Corbindawg and I welcomed a new “puppy” in the world.

Our baby girl was born healthy and happy. She is a tiny little thing; she weighed 5 lbs. 9 oz. and was 19” long. There was only one problem; she strongly resembles her old man, and I guess that is one obstacle she will have to overcome. Of course, like I told my brother, I have gone through life being an ugly dude, and maybe a girl that looks like me will be pretty.

All along my wife’s pregnancy, folks told us that having a kid would be the best thing that would ever happen to us. Men told me that having a little girl was special for a daddy. I listened to all of this, and kind of thought, “Well, people just say that because it is what they are supposed to say.”

After holding my baby for the first few times, I know now what people meant when they told me about this feeling. There is nothing in this world I love more than that little girl. She is a sweet and precious blessing. My wife and I are blessed with more than we deserve with this new little addition. The best part of my day is feeding her at 6:00 a.m., and rocking her back to sleep before I get ready for work. The second best part of my day is coming home and seeing my two girls.

Another part of this experience has overwhelmed me. I relate it to the end of It’s A Wonderful Life, when the people in the community show an outpour of support for George Bailey. Our family, friends, co-workers and neighbors have been so kind and generous to our growing family during this whole experience. We have more food than we know what to do with, and our baby will not want for any new clothes. The only thing we have had to buy of any significance was a crib, a new chair for the nursery, and some pink paint for the walls. For the most part, anything we could need or want up to this point has been given to us.

When you graduate from high school, people do nice things for you. When you get married, friends and family throw showers and give you nice stuff. But with the birth of our first child, the outpour of support we have received from our loved ones has been a very humbling experience for me. Our little girl doesn’t know how good she has it, by having so many people around who love and care about her.

Our daily routine has been out of whack over the last two and half weeks. Life has changed. My wife and I are adjusting to what I call the new normal. And we wouldn’t have it any other way.

Corbindawg

 

How many ‘almost victories’ can a team have?

Based on the state of this team earlier in the year, it’s pretty easy to excuse Georgia’s losses on the basketball court as close losses. The only problem with that is that this is major college athletics.

Tossing out phrases like ‘screwed by the refs,’ ‘life is hard on the road’ or played ‘good enough to win’ are ok if you are a program in transition. That, however, is not the case for this basketball program. Moral victories are something the unwashed masses at South Carolina and and Georgia Tech believe in.

If this team had pretty much everyone back next year, that’d be one thing. But without KCP, this team is in sad shape – and one could not blame KCP for leaving school after this season. In other words, the logic of close losses building to big things next year holds zero water..unless KCP returns.

Here we are, in year four of Fox’s regime. Is there a lack of talent on this team in some areas? Yes, without question. Other than KCP, this is for the most part an average basketball team in terms of talent.

This team simply needs to find some ways to win. It’s easy to blame refs for close road losses. The fact of it is what a high school football coach from South Georgia would often say, that ‘we’ve got to play well enough to take advantage of the breaks we get, and we have to play well enough to make up for the breaks we aren’t going to get.”

This is big-time college basketball. Things of adversity happen. Teams have to find their way through it.

Lugnut Dawg

Trailer for 2008 SEC Basketball Tournament Documentary

One of the most memorable weekends in Georgia athletics history is coming to life Sunday via ESPN’s SEC Storied series (the same one as the Herschel documentary last year).

Yep, the 2008 SEC Tournament that became defined by a tornado ripping through downtown Atlanta. Here’s a link to a preview

The best part of the weekend? Not only earning a trip to the Big Dance, but doing it in Tech’s house.

 

BBQ Thursday: Pulaski Heights Edition

 

 

Pulaski Heights BBQ

Saturday the wife and I had some time to kill before a full day of running around town and neither one of us wanted to fix lunch at home.  So I thought that was a perfect reason to get out and try the new BBQ joint just off downtown in Athens.  Honestly, anytime is a good excuse to go eat BBQ but it makes the sale easier if I can come up with a reason.  Pulaski Heights BBQ is located on Pulaski Street just north of downtown and St. Joseph’s Church.  Go down through the little neighborhood until you reach the train tracks and the Leathers Building will be on your left.

A little background first.  Pulaski is owned by the former executive chef at Five and Ten but does not have a coat and tie feel to it.  The restaurant is located in the Leather’s Building which used to factory so the inside has an open feel with exposed beams and wood, concrete floors and just the right amount of Athens townie.  They also have a nice area outside for when the weather gets warmer and a nice large bar.  The wife and I got in just before any of the lunch crowd so we decided to sit upstairs which has huge glass and a nice view.

We both decided to go with the pulled pork and I got mine with a very large fresh baked roll and she got her’s with a corn tortilla.  Honestly, the roll was so large and the bbq so good it didn’t need to be on a sandwich but she said the corn tortilla was just the perfect amount of bread to meat ratio.  Now the BBQ was great.  I’d say the best in Athens.  Nice burnt edges.  Great smoke ring.  Very moist, and really doesn’t need any sauce.  If you want any, doesn’t need it, they have two sauces; one a sweet ketchup base with just a little kick and a oil and vinegar sauce with spices.  The two combined are good but once again, not needed.  As for the sides we got smoked cauliflower which wasn’t great, potato salad which was pretty good and the stew which was just tomato based with pulled pork and corn.  Not bad but would choose something else next time.  This place does meat and does it well and when I’m looking for bbq that’s all I really care about.  Now they do serve all the pork with a few house made pickles which are great.

So all in all, the best BBQ I’ve had in Athens, I’d recommend it to anybody and as soon as I can I plan on going back to try their ribs.

Granite

If you want a more complete write up, check out the Banner Herald’s take.

Keep Them Fish A Frying, Tech

As we’ve documented a time or two here on TGT, having a weak in-state rival is a tremendous enabler of the college football program. It’s not a fluke that Urban Meyer elevated the Florida program at the same time that Florida State’s fortunes slumped.

Here in the Peach State, Georgia Tech, for various reasons, is sticking for our good ole fish frying pal, Paul Johnson and his bass-ackwards offense that works great if you are Georgia Southern but not so well when you face top-caliber athletes on defense each week and referees that have the gonads to call cut-block penalties.

The fact of it is that if you are a top-line offensive player, the last place you want to go is Georgia Tech. It does little, if anything to prepare you for the NFL. Remember Jonathan Dwyer and how great he made CPJ look? Playing in that offense was so impressive that he was drafted in the sixth round.

And now we have this – 

That’s right- come to Tech and choose us over powerhouses like Alabama State. Run our offense and we will prep you for the next level where hopefully you will find a new position. 

The current state of Tech football? It’s very good for Georgia.

Some UGA fans don’t care for Paul Johnson. I for one hope he stays there forever.

Keep on frying them fish, NATS!

Lugnut Dawg

Lewis Grizzard Wednesday: Sitting Up With the Dead

We’ve got some audio of this Lewis classic of what happened back when folks had to ‘sit up with the dead,’ namely when Weyman C. Wannamaker Jr., A Great American had to sit up with his Uncle Cleve.

Moral of the story – don’t put Tech graduates in charge of anything important. 

 

But, but…that doesn’t happen at Alabama!!

The national and regional media in addition to the Jerry Springer rejects on Paul Finebaum would have us believe that nothing bad ever happens with Alabama’s program, that no players ever, ever run afoul of the law, because when you play for the great Nick Saban, you just don’t want to even think about doing anything close to breaking the rules.

These players, I guess have forgotten that they are not allowed to get arrested 

I pity the lowly student assistant who had to break the news to Saban…I can imagine a scene from Star Wars of Darth Vader using the force to neck-choke someone. 

As we know all too well in Athens, you can instill all of the good things in 18-22 year olds you  want, but at the end of the day they are just that, 18-22 year olds. 

I’m waiting on outlets like the AJC to plaster across the front of their home page that Alabama players have been arrested and for columnists decrying the like of control of the program under Nick Saban, and accusations that the program is nothing but thugs running wild out of the control.

It’s ok, we’ll wait. We have plenty of time.

Lugnut Dawg

 

The biggest key to this year’s signing class?

On paper, Georgia brought in a solid class. Good, but not spectacular – at least for now. What will make this group spectacular won’t be known for at least a year. All the four and five star rankings are great, and all. But for every Todd Gurley and Keith Marshall, there are also some guys like Marquise Elmore and Darius Swain.

At least in the short term, one of the biggest keys to this signing class may very well be Chris Mayes. Georgia’s defensive line depth, especially in the middle is a mixture of raw, inexperienced and unproven. Sure, there is potential with a handful of freshmen or sophomores, but that potential is about as useful as toilet paper. 

And then there’s Mayes. As far as experience goes, he’s further along thanks to time within the JUCO ranks. And with his 6-4, 315 pound frame, he could be the key in Georgia’s rebuilt defense being great rather than so-so. Montravius Adams would have been a nice get, but if he’s intent on playing for Rodney Garner, more power to him (it’s debatable whether or not he’d have gotten into UGA anyway).

As we saw with Todd Grantham’s arrival, strong play in the middle of the defensive line makes this 3-4 defense go. 

The case can be made that as defensive tackles develop, so goes this team’s defense. 

And Chris Mayes is right there in the midst of it.

Lugnut Dawg