Best Barbecue
A Piece of the World, American Legion, Jake Armerding, Jayden Daniels, Toddler Tower
Welcome to my weekly newsletter. This week’s issue features five states where you can get legendary barbecue, a novel based on a famous painting, a great place for an inexpensive dinner, a quarterback’s record-setting day, and a monument in the making. I hope you like the picks and pics.
Fave Five 59: Best Barbecue. Prose Portrait (A Piece of the World), Bargain Basement Burgers (American Legion Slider Night), Fantastic Fiddler (Jake Armerding), Sensational 600 (Jayden Daniels), and a Toddler Tower.
Fave Five List: Great States for Great Q
Here are five states known for their excellent barbecue, a recommended restaurant in each state, and the BBQ specialties each state in known for.
Texas: Franklin Barbecue - Brisket and Links
Kansas: Joe’s Kansas City Bar-B-Que - Pulled Pork
Missouri: LC’s Bar-B-Q - Burnt Ends
North Carolina: Lexington Barbecue - Chopped/Sliced/Coarse BBQ (Pork) and Red Slaw
Tennessee: Rendezvous - Pork Ribs
Honorable Mention: California: Goodland BBQ: Tri-Tip
Book Best Bet
A Piece of the World by Christina Baker Kline
This is another book that combines fact and fiction. I found it intriguing.
From Amazon: From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the smash bestseller Orphan Train, a stunning and atmospheric novel of friendship, passion, and art, inspired by Andrew Wyeth’s mysterious and iconic painting Christina’s World.
"Later he told me that he’d been afraid to show me the painting. He thought I wouldn’t like the way he portrayed me: dragging myself across the field, fingers clutching dirt, my legs twisted behind. The arid moonscape of wheatgrass and timothy. That dilapidated house in the distance, looming up like a secret that won’t stay hidden."
To Christina Olson, the entire world is her family farm in the small coastal town of Cushing, Maine. The only daughter in a family of sons, Christina is tied to her home by health and circumstance and seems destined for a small life. Instead, she becomes Andrew Wyeth’s first great inspiration, and the subject of one of the best-known paintings of the twentieth century, Christina’s World.
As she did in her beloved bestseller Orphan Train, Christina Baker Kline interweaves fact and fiction to vividly reimagine a real moment in history. A Piece of the World is a powerful story of the flesh-and-blood woman behind the portrait, her complicated relationship to her family and inheritance, and how artist and muse can come together to forge a new and timeless legacy.
Reviews
“The novel evokes the somber grace of [Wyeth’s] paintings … Christina’s yearning, her determination, her will to dream, occupy the emotional center in both the novel and the painting. A Piece of the World is a story for those who want the mysterious made real.” — New York Times Book Review
“Another winner from the author of Orphan Train. In this beautifully observed fictional memoir, Kline uses Andrew Wyeth’s iconic painting Christina’s World as the taking-off point for a moving portrait of the artist’s real-life muse. Book of the week.” — People
“Fans of Kline’s phenomenal 2013 best seller Orphan Train will recognize the way the new novel...brings to vivid life a little-known corner of history...Avoiding sentimental uplift, A Piece of the World offers unsparing insight into the real woman behind the painting.” — USA Today
“The novel provides gorgeous, complicated answers to all the questions the painting stirs, beginning with the day a young painter appears on her porch. Kline has created a memorable and unforgettable voice for Anna Christina Olson, the girl in the field.” — Portland Tribune (Oregon)
“Kline herself is an artist, drawing on the real history of Christina Olson and Andrew Wyeth to conjure up her own haunting portrait.... Kline’s deep research into characters, place, and time period provides the outlines of a compelling story, which she then expertly brings into three dimensions.” — Christian Science Monitor
“Like Wyeth’s paintings, this is a vivid novel about hardscrabble lives and prairie grit and the seemingly small but significant beauties found there.” — Minneapolis Star Tribune
A #1 New York Times bestselling author of eight novels, including The Exiles, Orphan Train, and A Piece of the World, Christina Baker Kline is published in 40 countries. Her novels have received the New England Prize for Fiction, the Maine Literary Award, and a Barnes & Noble Discover Award, among other prizes, and have been chosen by hundreds of communities, universities and schools as “One Book, One Read” selections. Her essays, articles, and reviews have appeared in publications such as the New York Times and the NYT Book Review, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The San Francisco Chronicle, LitHub, Psychology Today, and Slate.
Kline was born in Cambridge, England, and raised there as well as in the American South and Maine. She is a graduate of Yale, Cambridge, and the University of Virginia, where she was a Henry Hoyns Fellow in Fiction Writing. She has taught fiction and nonfiction writing, poetry, English literature, literary theory, and women’s studies at Yale, NYU, and the University of Virginia, and served as Writer-in-Residence at Fordham University for four years. She is a recipient of several Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation Fellowships and Writer-in-Residence Fellowships at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Kline lives in New York City and Southwest Harbor, Maine with her husband, David Kline. They are the parents of three sons, Hayden, Will, and Eli.
Restaurant Recommendation
Northville American Legion Post 147 100 W. Dunlap, Northville MI, 48167
This is not a restaurant, but if you are looking for a decent meal at a low price, it’s hard to beat its weekly Slider Night. Every Tuesday from 5:30 to 8 p.m. at the American Legion in Northville, you can get two sliders and a large basket of fries for only $5. A single slider is $2, soda is $1, and beer is $3. They also offer occasional Coney Nights and Taco Nights.
Marvelous Musician
20 years ago this month, we hosted our first house concert in our home in Northville, Michigan. The performer was Jake Armerding, who has been a favorite of our family for over two decades. He is no longer the regularly touring singer-songwriter he was back then, but he still releases new and innovative music for his Patreon supporters.
He appeared with his string quartet, Rosin, on November 8, 2023 at Club Passim in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He will return to Club Passim next month for the annual Under The Covers shows with Mark Erelli, Rose Cousins, and Zachariah Hickman. There will be five 20th Anniversary Shows, December 8-10, 2023.
I first heard Jake’s music on WUMB Radio and loved his voice and songs. My friend Jerry Oljace and I went to a Take a Chance Tuesday show at The Ark in Ann Arbor to see Jake play with his dad, Taylor. I bought Jake's first two CDs, and soon my daughters Tracy and Kathy confiscated them and listened to them all the time. When I told them that Jake would be performing in Grand Rapids, Michigan on a Tuesday night in November 2003, they wanted me to take them to the show. I didn't relish driving two hours each way on a school night, so I declined. They were very disappointed, so I decided to pursue an idea that I had read about but not yet tried — hosting a house concert.
I wrote to Jake to see if he might have an off night after the Grand Rapids gig, and he wrote back telling me that he was playing in Indiana on Wednesday and Ohio on Friday but had Thursday free. I booked him for our first house concert, and we have been hosting shows ever since. Jake performed on November 20, 2003, and returned on October 24, 2004, the only artist to appear twice in our home. Kathy sang a duet with him on "Lullaby in E Minor" at both shows. Kathy sang "Ithaca" with Jake and Mark Erelli at The Ark in 2005.
Other performances I have seen:
With Rachael Davis at Bell's Eccentric Café & General Store in Kalamazoo in May 2007
A house concert in Avon Lake, Ohio on October 4, 2009
With Mark Erelli at the Cantab Lounge in Cambridge, Massachusetts on June 15, 2010
With Rachael Davis at The Ark on January 20, 2011
At the Under The Covers show with Mark Erelli, Lori McKenna, and Zack Hickman at Club Passim in Cambridge on December 16, 2011
I support Jake through his Patreon page where he releases new music every month. Most of Jake's older music is not available on Spotify. Here is where you can find his current projects:
From Wikipedia: Jake Armerding (born February 24, 1978 in Boston) is an American folk musician and multi-instrumentalist. He plays mostly acoustic string instruments like the mandolin, acoustic guitar, and fiddle. Jake started to play fiddle with his father's bluegrass band, Northern Lights, occasionally at the age of 12 (in 1990). He joined the band full-time in 1992 and was a member until 1999 when he left the band to pursue a solo career. Jake attended Wheaton College in Illinois where he received a degree in English literature. In 2001, Jake won the Best New Artist Award from Boston's folk-radio station, WUMB.
In addition to his solo efforts, Jake makes up half of a duo, The Fretful Porcupine, along with saxophonist Kevin Gosa. Armerding is also a member of Barnstar!, a "bluegrass [band] for people who hate bluegrass." He is on the faculty of the Traditional Music Project housed at the Real School of Music in Burlington, Massachusetts.
Videos
Color You In
Ithaca
Destiny's Flight
Graceland (with April Verch and Taylor Armerding)
Faith (with Mark Erelli, Zack Hickman, and Jesse Armerding)
My Playlists
Sports Star
On November 11, 2023, Daniels passed for 372 yards and three touchdowns and ran for 234 yards and two touchdowns in a 52–35 win over the Florida Gators. He became the first player in FBS history to record at least 350 passing yards and 200 rushing yards in the same game.
From Wikipedia: Daniels was born on December 18, 2000, in San Bernardino, California. He was a 4-star recruit out of Cajon High School in California. He was ranked number two in the nation for dual-threat quarterbacks.
Daniels committed to Arizona State on December 13, 2018. In 2022, Daniels transferred to Louisiana State University to play for the LSU Tigers.
Jayden Daniels is having a Heisman-worthy season, regardless of LSU's record by Nick Bromberg
Daniels was unstoppable in the Tigers’ 52-35 win over Florida on Saturday night as LSU improved to 7-3 on the season. Daniels accounted for 606 of LSU’s 701 yards against the Gators as Florida was hopeless to stop him through the air and on the ground.
The former Arizona State QB was 17-of-26 passing for 372 yards and three touchdowns and rushed 12 times for 234 yards and two scores. Daniels broke off TD runs of 85 and 51 yards as the Gators allowed the most yardage in school history.
Daniels is third in the country in passing yards behind Michael Penix and Caleb Williams but is tops in yards per attempt (11.6), passing TDs (30) and pass efficiency rating (202.1). Daniels is also 27th in the country in rushing yards and is No. 1 among quarterbacks in the category.
The 4,082 total yards Daniels has put up this season are far and away the most of anyone in college football. Just 13 quarterbacks have accounted for more than 3,000 total yards in 2023, and Penix is a distant second to Daniels at 3,506.
Picture Pun
The lesser-known Garfield Monument is under construction.
