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Amanda Shaw slides her bow across her fiddle and belts Hank Williams’ classic Cajun tune “Jambalaya” on the Riverbank stage in Natchitoches, Louisiana, where the 95th annual Festival of Lights is underway. “Jambalaya and a crawfish pie and filé gumbo…sun of a gun, we’ll have big fun on the bayou!” She sings. The crowd claps to the beat while the kids center stage spin in arms-spread-wide circles. These are the jubilant moments leading up to the big reveal: the night the oldest city in Louisiana illuminates more than 300,000 Christmas bulbs to quite literally turn on the holidays....

Country music legend Vince Gill is making sure the young Tennessee students impacted by deadly flooding over the summer can continue to study music. Gill presented more than $100,000 worth of instruments to the junior high and high school band programs in Waverly this week. Many of the students lost their instruments during the August floods that devastated the town and its schools. The donation was from KHS America, a local musical instrument distributor, on behalf of the CMA Foundation....

The winter freeze can be hard on plants. Grumpy gets lots of mail about formerly verdant evergreens and other plants that now look like they just came from the toaster. Crispy-brown leaves, blackened stems, and fallen foliage do not a happy plant signify. What should you do? Trim off the dead-looking stuff? Go full commando and chop victims off at the ground? Don’t do either. Wait. Just because a plant looks dead doesn’t mean it is....

More people have been to space than have driven the Wienermobile, but Molly Swindall (@mayochupmolly on Instagram) and Maggie Thomas (@mustardmags) are among the lucky dogs to have taken the wheel of the 27-foot-long frank. Swindall, who grew up near Atlanta, and Thomas, who is from Tupelo, Mississippi, are spending their year as Hotdoggers—a coveted position in Oscar Mayer’s program for recent grads. It’s a yearlong, full-time, paid gig that entails driving across the country in the iconic Wienermobile and delivering plenty of smiles (and weenie-related puns) along the way....

While microwave popcorn brands have seen sales surge amid the coronavirus pandemic, the other side of the popcorn industry—the farmers who provide the snack to movie theaters and events—is in tough shape. According to The Washington Post, 30% of all popcorn in the United States is consumed at movie theaters and other events. With countless movie theaters closed and most public gatherings prohibited due to the pandemic, popcorn farmers throughout the country have found themselves with mountains of kernels and nobody to buy them....

Look, we get it, washing your hair every day can be a pain. It takes time, effort, and is just too much to handle early in the morning. You may think skipping a wash here or there would really add up to a greasy mess on the top of your head. But, it turns out you’re wrong about that and potentially a few other hair related fables. Indeed, there are a few sneaky ways to combat that hair shine — including washing less — so you can go a few extra days in between shampoos....

We’ve chatted about the drawbacks of applying too much eyeliner—and don’t even get us started on lower-lash liner. In the words of my toddler, “It’s a big no-no.” The reason being it can cause the eye to look smaller than it is, not to mention the smudge-effect that creates faux dark circles right smack-dab where lighter and brighter is always preferred (if not required). But if you thought you were safe with your lower lash mascara habit, think again....

Let’s be honest, beige has gotten a bad rap. Its reputation as boring, flat, and unattractive isn’t totally unfounded—afterall, builders and developers have relied on some of the worst shades of beige when picking a color to paint an entire house—but beige doesn’t have to be that way. In fact, we think beige is an incredibly versatile neutral and one that will stand the test of time when folks tire of their bright-white walls....

Dolly Parton is the Christmas gift that just keeps on giving. From her new holiday album, A Holly Dolly Christmas, to partially funding Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine, Parton is the (rhinestone!) silver lining we all need during this most difficult of years. In a new #TakeABreak segment with Instagram, Parton sits down beside a beautifully decked Christmas tree to share some of her favorite yuletide memories from childhood. “Well, we always got in the mail like most people did back then, Daddy called it the ‘wish book’ but it was a catalog....

Set your course for Louisville, Kentucky, to experience the world’s only underground holiday light show. Louisville Mega Cavern’s annual “Lights Under Louisville” is back and better than ever, with more than 40 themed displays, 10 mapping projections, approximately 900 lit characters, exciting new themes, and over 4 million points of light. Drive your own car in this merry, 25-minute journey through a Christmas-ified stretch of the limestone cavern’s underground passageways or choose to take the open-air “Christmas Express” tram....

If you’re a Southerner, this much is true: You love college football and you love Duke’s Mayonnaise. Well, we’ve got some exciting news, and it involves both of these things. Last week, the Charlotte Sports Foundation (CSF) announced that South Carolina born Duke’s Mayo is the new title sponsor of the regular season college football game and postseason bowl game played in Charlotte. Per a company press release, the Duke’s Mayo Classic is scheduled for Saturday, September 26, with the Notre Dame Fighting Irish taking on the Wake Forest Demon Deacons....

“A chinka-what?” I asked my grandparents, as they told me about this surprising and funny little nut that’s widespread from Maryland down to Texas. My grandparents explained that they grew up enjoying this uncommon snack from the trees on their family farms. Apparently, it can even be baked into a pie. Such intrigue! The chinquapin, or chinkapin, is a sister species to the American chestnut. It grows in a hard, spikey burr on a squatty tree that looks similar to the American chestnut tree....

Playing it coy has never been the institutional strong suit at Commander’s Palace. If the peacock blue-striped awnings didn’t loudly declare the fanfare woven into the New Orleans establishment’s DNA, the jazz band marching through the dining room on any given Saturday and Sunday just might. Since its doors opened in 1893, Commander’s Palace has been New Orleanians’ go-to for celebratory brunches and festive dinners. The novel coronavirus has now forced the beloved gathering place to temporarily close its doors, but co-proprietor Ti Adelaide Martin and her team have found other ways to keep the restaurant’s hospitable spirit alive....

Soft-shell crab is a regional favorite this time of year, but those tasty, Crispy Soft-Shell Crab Sandwiches don’t just magically appear in the kitchen of your favorite beachside diner. Just like succulent grilled steaks and hot fried chicken, that protein comes from a living creature, and someone has to do the deed of preparing it for our consumption. What is a Soft-Shell Crab? A soft-shell crab is, in fact, a blue crab that has lost its hard shell....

Everyone has a favorite flower. While roses, hydrangeas, and peonies get a lot of attention (they are gorgeous, afterall), one of the South’s most beautiful flowering plants is the Lily of the Valley. And one of my first memories of it stems from a child’s perfume bottle I bought at Jackson’s 5&10 in Winona, MS when I was 8-years-old. I’ve loved this fragrance and flower ever since. Here’s some need-to-know growing and caring advice....

June is the peak bloom season for daylilies. You’ll see blossoms in myriad colors on stems ranging from one to five feet tall. Individual flowers last a day, but plants typically open successive blooms over four to five weeks. Rebloomers offer several performances yearly, while a handful of daylilies called everbloomers flower nearly all summer. This simple beauty is toxic to cats, so be mindful of where you plant daylilies because the entire plant, including the stem, leaves, flowers, pollen, and water, can be dangerous....

The Louisville Zoo is now certified as being sensory inclusive! That means staff at the Kentucky zoo have been trained by medical professionals to recognize visitors with sensory needs, as well as how to handle situations where they might be feeling overwhelmed and overstimulated. “The latest US Census data shows that one in six people have a sensory need or an invisible disability such as autism, dementia, PTSD, or hearing or vision loss....

Whoever said “don’t cry over spilt milk” has certainly never had a stain on their plush rug or fancy upholstery. Unlike an article of clothing—which can easily be thrown into the laundry at your convenience—tidying up home decor requires the right timing, a heavy-duty stain removal formula, and sometimes, professional or fancy equipment. Well, until now, that is. Over the past few years, a handful of direct-to-consumer brands such as Ruggable and Tumble have changed the design game with their machine-washable rugs....

If you think house cats don’t have what it takes to defend a property, let us introduce you to a 20-pound calico named Bandit. “You hear of guard dogs,” owner Fred Everitt told Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal. “This is a guard cat.” The 68-year-old retired former oral and maxillofacial surgeon and Bandit share a home in Belden, Mississippi. Four years ago, when he adopted her from the Tupelo-Lee Humane Society, Everitt would have never guessed that she would one day save his life....

Pie: It’s better in our bellies than in our daydreams, but we’ll never turn down the chance to learn more about the popular Southern dish. (Nor will we turn down the chance to bake them. To that point, check out the Lost Pies of the South and Vintage Southern Pie Recipes We Still Love.) With Pi Day approaching on Saturday, March 14th, Google decided to dive into their numbers to determine the most uniquely searched pies in every state over the last year....