David Williams, back in Memphis after his trip to the Sewanee Writers' Conference, has her pegged:

Then onto workshop. With no stories left to critique, we convened at the French House for Bloody Marys and show and tell. I brought out my son's iPod jukebox and played Flannery O'Connor reading "A Good Man is Hard to Find." If you don't have Flannery on your iPod, you should, is all I've got on the matter. Alphabetically, on my iPod, at least, she falls right between Flaming Lips and Flatt & Scruggs. Just about right, I'd say. Just about right.

Read all about his time at the conference: One, two, three, four, five.

I don't believe for a second that there's not some Memphis-curated, pork-based awesomeness that could rival the fattiness of what this site has deemed Tennessee's most fattening food, the Triple Prime Bacon Cheddar Burger from Ruby Tuesday, which includes:

8 ounces of beef, cheddar cheese, applewood smoked bacon, lettuce, tomato, and mayonnaise.

The burger comes standard with bottomless fries.

Perhaps I am naive in thinking that some barbecued something-or-other could rival this monstrosity. Perhaps. What I am definitely am, however, is hungry.

Mary's enjoying her last few weeks in the states so much that she went and got engaged to her across-the-seas beau Kepa!

The proposal story is pretty dang sweet, from the post-it trail to the amazing flipbook video Kepa made:

Now the couple will move to Kepa's home country of New Zealand to start the newest chapter in their lives.

Best wishes to them both!

It is my pleasure to present to you the cutest thing you will see all day:

Josiah meeting his new little sister.

Congrats to the Hackett family on their new arrival!

A couple of local bloggers are gearing up to attend the annual BlogHer conference in New York City, and this week they've started preparations.

Kalisa's got a hefty to-do list, which included finding the perfect walking-around bag (a super important thing to do for conference-type events):

The one thing I did decide to buy was a backpack. Because usually when I travel, I carry my netbook in a tote bag. Actually, I carry it in a big padded envelope inside a tote bag. And it works okay, but it's not very practical for BlogHer. For one thing, the bag gets awfully heavy, and it's kind of hard on my back to carry it. For another, I spend half my time digging around for stuff in the one giant compartment. At BlogHer, I need to carry: my netbook, business cards, cell phone, a small notebook, a pen, my wallet, my room key and a lipstick. I think that's about it. Maybe a water bottle. What I need is a backpack.

My husband said, "Why don't you just use Elijah's?" And this is where the but-I-have-to-impress-people-at-BlogHer! gene kicked in. I most certainly will not be carrying around my teenage son's huge school backpack. Gawd. So I did buy a $30 backpack. But that's IT. I'm not buying anything else.

Uh huhhh, sure.

Kalisa's also putting a lot of thought into her conference wardrobe.

Meanwhile, Elizabeth's prep involves one major mandate: DO. NOT. SPEND.

I am currently driving on fumes. I just ate canned spiced peaches from Thanksgiving. When I run out of coffee on Sunday, I will be drinking what's left of the Christmas blend that's been in my pantry since, well, Christmas.

Last night, in the process of mapping out my menu for the next week to make sure that I could put together a dozen or so meals with only the items inside my home right this instant, I realized that there is a disturbing correlation in my life between the city of New York and the state of abject poverty.

So this weekend, I'll be cleaning my house, reading, snacking on stale two-month-old Tostitos and various other pasttimes that do not involve opening my wallet.

Anyone else in the Mid-South heading up to BlogHer?

So sayeth the Midtown Security Community's blog:

Be aware that a coyote has been positively identified in the 1400 block of Central where it was devouring a neighborhood cat on Saturday, July 24. It has also been seen in the past week on Melrose between Central and Peabody heading north.

We are working in close cooperation with Union Station Police Station on this matter.

The entry includes instructions on what to do if you see the coyote.

I will NOT make an anvil joke. I will NOT make an anvil joke. I will NOT make an anvil joke.

The news that a body found in the woods in Southeast Memphis had been identified as that of missing basketball player Lorenzen Wright has pretty much shocked the entire community. Wright was young and left behind a family that included six children. Here's what local bloggers are saying:

Common has a bleak take on Wright's demise:

I don't want to point fingers prematurely but let's not focus on the obvious. No doubt he was robbed but there's a bigger picture here. Both his professional and private lives had taken heavy blows. He suffered the death of a child, a divorce and two foreclosures. His high standard of living was definitely on the decline. He may be worth more dead than alive.

Chris Herrington shares some memories:

But the very first thing that came to mind this afternoon, when I was driving home and I heard the news that Wright had been found dead in southeast Memphis, was what former coach Hubie Brown said when introducing Wright at Brown's first Grizzlies public practice. Microphone in hand, addressing fans, Brown introduced all the players, but Wright was the only one about whom he said this: "This guy," I remember Brown telling everyone in the arena, "is living the dream."

What Brown meant was that Wright had been a high school and college star in Memphis, his hometown, and was now suiting up as starting center for an NBA team at home. Something he did for three Memphis playoff teams. How many athletes in any sport have had the experience of being a hometown star at all three levels of competition? Certainly many fewer than have found themselves in all-star games or halls of fame.

Wright's life was charmed: Unprecedented hometown athletic success. Immense respect and affection garnered on and off the court. Seven children. But it was also plagued with troubles: One child tragically lost, as an infant, during his tenure with the Grizzlies. Recently, a divorce and home foreclosures that may or may not be relevant to his death. (As my colleague Frank Murtaugh points out in his remembrance of Wright, there's been a pattern of troubles that has touched too many Memphis basketball greats.)

Frank Murtaugh says that just one word describes Wright's tale -- heartbreak:

Who knows if money (lost or owed) played a role in Wright's violent demise? There will come a time when that detail matters. For now, it's only heartbreak. To the list of former Memphis basketball heroes who have found themselves on the wrong side of a gun -- from Baskerville Holmes to Antonio Burks -- we now have to add Lorenzen Wright.

You could hear Wright's scream of elation upon delivering a slam dunk from the cheap seats of The Pyramid during Ren's college days. He loved playing basketball, particularly in Memphis. He smiled easiest when he was on the basketball court. I'm going to remember that smile.

Condolences from Steve Steffens, Richard Thompson, Kerry C-T, Paul Ryburn.

Check back for updates throughout the day.

Related reading:
• Geoff Calkins
• The Memphis Edge rounds up Wright stories from around the country

Jolynna has herself a new beau, and she's having to go through that age-old battle: The toilet-seat tango:

Several times this week I walk into my bathroom, and upon entering (or should I say sitting) I realize that the toilet seat is up. Again. And this time I actually almost fell right in.

Boy was I ticked.

So I march in the living room and say to MM (in a very nice way), "Sweetie, you left the blanketyblank toilet seat up again!" MM just sits there staring at me with a confused look on his face. Then he says "Why do I have to put it down? Why can't we just agree to leave it up? Yeah, in fact, when you are finished you can put it back up for me."

What the blanketyblanketyblank??????!!!!!!

And just about the time I was prepared to launch into a tirade and catapult his military butt right off my couch and out the door, he starts to grin.

Then I grin back.

Yeah. He was soooo messin with me.

But it did raise an interesting question. Toilet seat up or down, people? You decide.

In my time on this earth, I have known several woman who get really worked up about the toilet seat issue. Me? Meh, I don't take it as a personal affront if I have to put the seat down, and I generally don't go around sitting on toilets I haven't given a once-over anyway. But sometimes I think I'm in the vast minority on this, given what a pop-culture trope it is. In fact, I feel like if women would take their collective toilet-seat rage and direct it toward actual gender iniquities and injustices (the pay gap, lack of adequate maternity leave, domestic/sexual violence, the entire Catholic church, etc.), we might actually get somewhere.

Am I crazy? Ladies, is the seat issue a dealbreaker? Men, does this seat thing help fuel your suspicion that women are unstable wack jobs? I'd like to know. For science.