A Life of Letters

If you had told me last year that I would have more fun at this year's Savannah Book Festival than I did at last year's, I probably wouldn't have believed you. But I did. This year's festival was even more fun and already I'm looking forward to going back next year. The Festival just keeps getting better and better. This year everything was contained to Telfair Square, which made it much easier to go between the different venues.

There is so much energy about the festival. Everbody is in such a good mood and there's such a positive vibe. I told Mr. Daddy that I always feel so invigorated when I'm around people who love words and books and authors as much as I do. And I know the Festival organizers had no control over this, but the weather was absolutely gorgeous. It seems that every year the sun comes out and shines on this Festival. And there are few things more wonderful than Savannah with the sun dappling through the live oaks and a warm breeze blowing.

Friday night started with the keynote address by Roy Blount, Jr. I had not read anything by him so I wasn't really sure what to expect, but the man is brilliant and hilarious and as Julia Reed noted in her introduction, he is the master of the digression. Even his digressions had digressions -- but they're so funny you don't mind and you don't even necessarily care if he ever gets back around to his original point. He had the crowd in stitches the entire evening, though he did draw some astonished gasps when he admitted that he didn't care for Lewis Grizzard's work. For those of you who don't know Lewis Grizzard, saying that you don't like Grizzard while you're in Georgia is akin to standing up in church and saying you don't like Jesus. But, in Blount's defense, someone DID ask him about Grizzard and I guess his mother never told him that if you can't say something nice don't say anything at all. Anyway, I fully intend to check out some of his books.

Following the keynote event, Mr. Daddy and I were invited to a lovely soiree for authors and the Festiva'ls patrons. We had a great time chatting with Dr. Ferrol Sams, who recounted the time he saw a photograph of Patton "pissing in the Rhine," after Patton made good on his promise that he was going to beat the Russians to the Rhine and piss in it. Dr. Sams said it was a back view photograph but it was clear that Patton had no prostate problems!

We also ran into Dr. Edwards, my former obstetrician whom I credit with saving Bubba's life. We had to remind him who were were, but then we had a great conversation with him and his wife. As it turns out HE has a women's healthcare blog and he promised to link me if I would link him, so here he is Dr. Joe Edwards . I told him that there are a lot of hot button issues with "mommy bloggers" (and I put that term in quotation marks on purpose!) so he might get more than he bargained for! Mr. Daddy and I marveled at the fact that Dr. Edwards did not immediately remember Bubba's birth -- an event that was so frought with terror and joy and is one of the key moments of our lives. But I suppose he's delivered hundreds of babies since Bubba and some perhaps in more distress than Bubba was.

After we left the party, we went to Wild Wings and had hot wings and cold beer. While we were there we saw a man buy a hamburger and fries for a homeless man. In fact, while in Savannah, I saw more people doing more things for those less fortunate than I've seen in a long time. Savannah is a good town, with good people.

On Saturday we woke to a gorgeous day. After our obligatory Starbucks stop, we headed to the Festival where we heard Ferrol Sams say "sum bitch" in Church, where Bailey White admitted she stole a lot of her ideas from public restrooms, where Mary Kay Andrews made us all take an oath, where David Bottoms compared buzzards to angels, and where Natasha Trethewey made me cry.

Intrigued? Then come back tomorrow!!