Thanksgiving 2011

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, I think. Christmas is great, but I like Thanksgiving a bit more just because of the weather. Most of the foliage has fallen but you can shuffle around in the some of the stubborn oak leaves in my backyard - and it is still warm enough for Cousin Todd to throw the football around with my kids. We burn some wood, watch too much football and smoke some fowl.  Most of all, it is just a great time to be with family around the dinner table. We had a nice one this year here in the Carolinas. We hope you did, too. 

jesse and papa jack

Over the Weekend, it also happened to be my parents' 45th Anniversary. Jack and Sharon Luther. A remarkable love story.

My father has written this on every card he has ever given my mother...

And he gives her roses - one for each year since their first anniversary.

Metrolina Expo : Statesville, NC : November 2010

This is the biggest country fried flea market you will ever see in your life. It's here where the Yankee Peddler first met Colonel Littleton. If you need a beat up coke bottle from 1947, this is your place. (I actually saw one vendor selling used lip balm...)


But it also attracts a good number of very accomplished artists and craftsmen. Working with reclaimed materials, wood, stamped metal, found objects and the like, many of their wares are quite beautiful. I bought a broken fridge from 1952 that someone had painted red. It's pretty much the only place on the planet where this type of transaction could have taken place.

Chicago : October 2011

I went to Chicago last week for a restaurant conference and to do some research on a new restaurant project. Subject matter? Hot dogs. Fascinating research, really. Long history (no pun intended). I had been to Chicago many times before, but there was something about this visit that was different. I was sober, for one, but that wasn't really it. I think this was the first time I visited Chicago with a real desire to take pictures and to document my experience there. It is jaw-droppingly striking city to look at. I don't think I ever really noticed that before. Especially at night. Go there as many times as you can. Just not in the winter.

Looking down from the 95th floor of the Hancock Tower