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After nearly 40 years in business, the Chapel Hill restaurant often credited with being the birthplace of shrimp and grits has permanently closed its doors. Beloved for its innovative takes on Southern cuisine and a pie so good it will make you blaspheme, Crook’s Corner was reportedly unable to rebound following the coronavirus pandemic. Co-owners Gary Crunkleton and Shannon Healy broke the sad news on social media. “With an incredibly heavy heart I must share the news that we are closing,” the announcement reads....

Complete the look of your living room with curtains. Long, flowing panels add instant softness and polish to a space. Our Southern grandmothers have been swearing by window treatments for decades, naming this fun-yet-functional design element as their decorating secret weapon. We understand why—curtains are an easy way to bring a living room to life with color, pattern, and texture. In bedrooms, curtains add an extra level of coziness and privacy (plus help to block bright sunlight for sleeping in on weekend mornings)....

Air conditioning may be one of the greatest inventions of the modern age. It means that even an August heat wave in Alabama is bearable. There are a few downsides to air conditioning, though: It’s not great for the planet and when it goes out, it’s hard to cope with the summer heat. If the heat or weather gets too extreme it can even knock out the power, which in turn knocks out the AC....

Picture this: you’ve just returned to the cabin you’re renting with your friends after a full day of skiing on the slopes. Chill-ridden and ready for your favorite can of soup, you search high and low in every cabinet for a can opener but to no avail. You’re left wondering: “How do you open a can without a can opener?” Although takeout may start to sound like an inevitable option, you should know there are several ways to open a can without a can opener....

The Southern Living Idea House found a home on the banks of the Ohio River in Louisville this past year. We were honored to partner with two Kentucky-based organizations—The LEE Initiative, the Louisville-based nonprofit co-founded by Chef Edward Lee and Lindsey Ofcacek, and Gilda’s Club Kentuckiana, a cancer support community providing more than 180 free monthly program offerings. Since our home opened to the public, a portion of the proceeds from ticket sales to tour the Idea House has gone to these organizations....

Kenny Chesney was one of countless musicians to pay tribute to Eddie Van Halen following news of the rock icon’s death on Tuesday. In a heartfelt Facebook post, the Chesney revealed that he was “devastated” by his friend’s passing and reminisced about sharing the stage with the legendary guitarist in Los Angeles in 2006. The country star called it “one of the highlights of my touring life in all my summers on the road....

About Vince Gill The last time Vince visited with us was in October of 2020, right before his Christmas shows at the Ryman were canceled, and we are so happy to have him back. On this episode, Vince talks about getting his first real break from touring in almost five decades, playing to an empty audience at the Grand Ole Opry, and embarking on his first big solo tour in three years....

Ida B. Wells, a journalist, activist, and educator best known for her fight to abolish lynching, is the latest heroine to be honored with a signature Barbie doll. Part of Barbie’s Inspiring Women Series, Wells joins icons Maya Angelou, Billie Jean King, Eleanor Roosevelt, Ella Fitzgerald, and other historical and present-day role models in a collection that memorializes those who have paved the way for generations of girls. The new doll’s design features Wells wearing a floor-length midnight blue dress with black and white lace detail and black heeled boots....

At this point, we’re living exclusively in our sweatpants. And despite already owning a variety of cozy styles, we’re always open to purchasing more—especially when they come with rave reviews. With a nearly perfect five-star rating, Athletic Works Soft Joggers from Walmart not only accomplish the former, but they also cost just $13. With a relaxed, mid-rise jogger design, these pants are certainly cute, but are they worth their 97 percent recommendation rating?...

A Texas high school drama teacher was honored on Broadway’s most illustrious stage over the weekend. Roshunda Jones-Koumba of G. W. Carver Magnet High School in Houston received the 2022 Tony Award for Excellence in Theatre Education at Radio City Music Hall in New York City Sunday night. The Excellence in Theatre Education Award was co-founded in 2014 by the Tony Awards and Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) to recognize a K-12 theater educator in the U....

You don’t have to wait for nature to hurry up in your garden outside in order to bring pretty blossoms into your home. Our tip? Force the blooms instead. This age-old gardening how-to tricks the flowers into thinking it’s time to bloom using water. By forcing your blooms, bulbs like tulips and hyacinth will begin to blossom ahead of schedule, and you’ll have gorgeous color for your windowsills. So how do we force blooms?...

If you’re a Southerner, chances are you love cooking with beans. Red bean and rice. Succotash galore. Hoppin’ John on New Years’ Day? Wouldn’t dream of starting January any other way. When it comes to dried beans to make all your favorite beans recipes, we’re partial to the oldest dried bean company in America, Camellia Brand, born and based in New Orleans, Louisiana. Now in its fourth generation of family leadership, Vince Hayward leads L....

Woodruff’s Café & Pie Shop first opened in 1952 in a two-story cinderblock building that was built by hand by Woodruff’s husband. It sits on a corner named for his father, Wyatt Woodruff, who was a freed slave who became the first black man to open his own business in Amherst County. The couple, along with their one-year old twins, moved upstairs, opening a grocery store on the ground floor. The store, one of the few black-owned businesses in the state at the time, ran on the quiet corner of Virginia 130 in Amherst County for 30 years until 1982....

When Shannon Crain first laid eyes on this 600 square-foot studio apartment, it was banana yellow and cobalt blue. As an interior designer, she knows that every color has a place, but she was certain that these two in particular did not belong in an 1882 Georgian apartment in the historic section of Wilmington. The colors, of course, didn’t worry her. Repainting would be easy. “I was focused on the glorious windows and the fact that they opened onto a roof where I could grow herbs,” she says....

Johnny Cash may be best known as the rough-and-tumble Man in Black, who performed a set at Folsom Prison, but he had a softer side, especially when it came to his wife, June Carter. In what may be one of the greatest love stories from the South, Cash and Carter met backstage at Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry back in 1956, where Cash was performing for the first time. The two singers and songwriters felt an instant connection as they were already fans of each other’s work....

True love comes in more than one form. This Valentine’s Day, a very lucky dog and the incredible veterinarian who saved his life are showing off a different type of puppy love as they officially become a family through adoption. In early January, an Uber driver discovered a limp dog lying on the side of the road. He was taken to the Kentucky Humane Society where was assessed and treated for infected pressure sores and extreme malnourishment....

The holiday season may still be a few months away, but if you’re anything like us, you already started to plan your holiday greeting card list. And given the turbulent year we’ve all had amid the coronavirus pandemic and civil unrest, we all could use an uplifting season’s greetings more than ever. To add the finishing, festive touch to your holiday card, the United States Postal Service has announced five new holiday stamps in their Forever collection, which remain valid regardless of the current postal rate (i....

Zoo Miami is celebrating the birth of three impossibly cute North American river otters. The pups were born to first-time mama Zinnia on Friday, February 5, in a secluded den at the zoo’s Everglades exhibit. While it’s still too early to determine the sex of the babies, all three are “being well cared for by Zinnia,” the zoo reports. The tiny pups weighed between 136 and 148 grams (about a quarter of a pound!...

In case you missed it, Sweet Magnolias is a new Netflix series set in the South that teleports viewers to the fictional town of Serenity. Chronicling the lives of three best friends who call themselves the “Sweet Magnolias,” the show is based on author Sherryl Woods’ Sweet Magnolias book series, which contains beloved titles like Stealing Home, A Slice of Heaven, Honeysuckle Summer, and more in the 11 book collection. With captivating characters and plot lines, you’ll likely speed through the Netflix series in a few sittings....

Fans were definitely feeling the words to Tim McGraw’s ’90s hit “I Like It, I Love It” after the country star brought his 1883 castmates onstage to help him perform the song at recent show. McGraw performed a sold out set at the Boots in the Park country music festival in Norco, California on Saturday, and brought several of his 1883 co-stars along for the ride. His wife Faith Hill was there, as were LaMonica Garrett, Emerson Miller, James Landry Hebert, Alex Fine, and Amanda Jaros....