Bakin' in Macon...

Damn have I eaten well the last few days. It's been a fried chicken jamboree, as I've eaten my way through Georgia. I started on Thursday night in Atlanta at a super swanky place called The South City Kitchen. It was superb--the fried green tomatoes being among the best I've ever had (with the exception, of course of the FGT's at the now defunct Blue Plate...). Then there was some lecturing, a lot of drinking and then, today, at a place called Cutts, in a tiny town in South Georgia near my pal Pete's lake house, I had (along with the aforementioned fried chicken) a squash casserole that rivaled anything I've ever eaten. Just astonishing. Brilliant.

Why are you in Georgia you might ask? Well, it's that time of year again...
The time when I cruise down to Macon, Georgia to spend a week teaching at the National Criminal Defense College. NCDC, for those who may not know, is one of the preeminent trial training programs for public defenders (and some private criminal defense lawyers). It's held at Mercer Law School. best known as the place that spawned Nancy Grace.

The law school is beautiful of course:



But it's also a baptist school with a dry campus in a town in the middle of Georgia that smells like wood pulp and sports temperatures that make a sauna seem like the Antarctic. Why would I ever spend my time in such a place? Well, first of all there's the fried chicken, second of all there is some mighty fine bar-b-cue, and then, of course, though it's tons of work, it's also loads of fun, and wonderfully righteous. For two magical weeks a summer (four if you count both sessions), while I stuff my face, Mercer is transformed into a true believer conference. And what could be better than that?

So for the next week or so, while I'm bakin' in Macon, you please understand that my sweaty posts will be hastily composed late at night or between classes with a belly full of BBQ.