Vol. 7, No. 8 | Ponce Never Dies
Hey Ya’ll!
Some weeks I feel like I don’t have much to say and then others I have a random thought at every turn. This week was the latter. However, I wrote this intro after I wrote all my bullet points and I realized that all of my thoughts were centered aroung culture and culutures changing. Here’s what’s been on my mind:
Atlanta is a weird place. The other day, someone did a drive by bow and arrow shooting. It’s inappropriate to laugh so I won’t tell you that I did. I also don’t want anyone going around saying that I condone bow and arrow violence. I do not. Can you image if we get guns under control and then we have to worry about bows and arrows? (Is that even the right way to pluralize that?) What’s even wilder is that I did a quick search to find the original article only to find out that there was another bow and arrow shooting in Atlanta in the past few months. This bullet point has no links because at that point I just closed my computer and walked away from the Internet.
I was in an Uber and the driver was telling me that she had a passenger from Ethiopia the other day and he said that he moved to Atlanta because of the thriving hookah industry. He told her that Atlanta sold the most hookah in the US. I didn’t have time to fact check this, but it sounds pretty accurate to me. In her words: This guy was sitting on his couch in Ethiopia and said ‘There’s money to be had, I’m moving to Atlanta.’
Ponce Never Dies. I was hosting a brunch in West Midtown on Sunday and the bartender created a cocktail named “Ponce Never Dies”. It was a reminder that the announcement that the businesses on that corridor are closing is really impacting the entire city. I’ve been bummed about it for weeks but then I read an article where one of the owners of the building said that he wasn’t being pushed out. After years of owning property there and enduring when it wasn’t so pleasant, he’d earned the right to cash out. I can’t fault that. I can only hope that future developers care about making a space for the young authentic businesses that this city currently thrives on.
I was shopping in Whole Foods on Ponce the other day and when I walked in they were playing trap music. Ugh. I don’t want to hear trap music while I’m buying groceries. I was convinced that someone had brought in their own speaker and was walking around with it. I know this is Atlanta, but I’m drawing the line at the grocery store.
I sat at a bar and before I started my normal frantic search for a bag hook, I realized that the hook was conveniently placed at the edge of the bar. No need to tap around to find the hook and also lots of ease to pull stuff out of my bag when I needed it. It was also done in a way that it didn’t interfere with the seating. Why aren’t all bag hooks placed at the edge?
If you see me on the news protesting oxtail prices in the near future, don’t be surprised. Oxtail is too damn high. They used to throw this part of the cow away and now it’s almost $20 a pound. I understand that inflation has raised everything, but nothing has increased in price the way that oxtail has and I’m about to cause a ruckus about it.
I might also protest “Rasta Pasta”. It popped up on a restaurant menu and my boyfriend asked how was it rasta pasta if it had chicken in it. And I realized he was correct. Rastas eat a vegan diet and I don’t think they would approve.
I needed some curry powder and went to Kroger the other day. I remember a time when I wasn’t able to do that. To have a taste of home, my mother would pack suitcases of stuff to take back with us when she went to Jamaica. I still have to tell her in the year 2022 that there is no reason to stuff her suitcase with fried fish and Stone’s Ginger Wine on return trips. (This doesn’t mean that I won’t go get it when she brings it back though.)
I hope you’re all doing well.
Shannon
P.S. - I think the pluralization might be ‘bow and arrows’ because you only need one bow. Is that right?