In the South, football season never ends. In fact, there is no football season at all, only a time games are played and a time they are prepared for. Football has been called a religion, a love affair, a war, but never a game. Every fall brings a skirmish between age-old rivalries.

In the South, the best rivalries date back more than a century. Like marriage or secession, they are not to be entered into lightly. The Janus-faced Southerner views each encounter with an eye on the past and faith in the future. It would be enough for this life to die while your team is on top.

Religion, war, and pride stoke the flames of Southern passion. To a fault or virtue, these same three words serve well to define football in the South– the national pastime of God’s country.

Religion

“For we all know,” Lewis Grizzard wrote, “God is a Southerner.” And if God were to favor one sport, full of power, glory, sacrifice, and redemption, that sport would be football. It’s no coincidence that the writing of Grantland Rice, the man who elevated sports writing to literature, invokes the portentous language of the Book of

By Ramsey Nix
Staff Writer

Two world-renown master ceramicists will visit the Steffen Thomas Museum of Art (STMA) in Buckhead this Saturday evening for a reception in celebration of their art. Since July 28, the ceramic work of Cynthia Bringle and Norman Schulman has been on display at the Museum, but on Saturday from 5:30-8:00 p.m., the artists behind the unique vessels will welcome visitors and perhaps share some of their secrets.

This is not the first time these potters have been featured together. Since they both won the North Carolina Living Treasures award last January, this exhibit has traveled from the University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW), where the awards were first presented, to New Orleans to Buckhead. This will be the only spot on the Georgia map where this exhibit will show.

The Living Treasures award was bestowed on Bringle and Schulman “in recognition of their standing among the finest potters and ceramicists in America today and for their contributions as artists and artisans to their field,” according to a press release from UNCW. 

Most of the art in the Living Treasures exhibit comes from private collectors, two who happened to be affiliated with the STMA, Hathia and Andrew Hayes. They thought the traveling exhibit would be a good fit for the Museum, where Steffen Thomas’ own ceramic sculptures are on permanent display, according to Lisa Conner, acting museum director.

Moreover, the timing could not have been better. “We thought this would be a perfect addition to the OCAF [Oconee Cultural Arts Foundation] Perspectives exhibit and sale going on in Watkinsville the same weekend,” explained Conner. “This will be a great opportunity for local potters to meet these masters.”

Printed in the August 27, 2009 edition.

By Dianne Lively Yost | Photos by Patrick Yost

Morgan County citizens love to travel, so much so that on Saturday, August 15, some 250 local residents managed to tour worldwide destinations in the span of six hours or less and raise an estimated $40,000 for Morgan Memorial Hospital in the process. Indeed, Saturday’s ninth annual Festival of Friends event sponsored by the Morgan Memorial Hospital Auxiliary was among the most successful yet."

“I was thrilled with the large turnout to support our hospital! I’m always amazed at the wonderful neighbors who open their homes to host our dinners, and they are all so special,” said Morgan Memorial Hospital Auxiliary President Nancy Vaughn. She explained the money raised will fund a specific area of the new hospital that will proudly wear the name of the Morgan Memorial Hospital Auxiliary. “We can’t wait.”

An elegant cocktail party and silent auction, at the James Madison Conference Center kicked off the evening with no less than 104 donated auction items from local individuals and businesses ranging from grand trips to Costa Rica, the Ritz-Carlton Lodge at Lake Oconee and Kiawah, UGA Game tickets, a diamond pendant, an elegant hand-knitted shawl and a handmade quilt to sculptures, paintings and rare antique items. 

Vaughn was heartened at the outpouring of support. “The doctors are always so generous to donate funds to help fund our silent auction party and our supporters far and near surprised me constantly with their donations. My heart would truly skip a beat when I’d get a call asking ifI would like a handmade quilt, UGA tickets, six nights at a Costa Rican condo and I could go on and on.”