You Never Know | Fiction by Jeff Fitzgerald

  JEFF FITZGERALD The coming of Fall in Branscomb’s Mill, Virginia, meant many things to those of us who’d spent most of our lives nestled in the idyllic little town nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains. It meant the return of our beloved high school football season, it meant the changing of the leaves that … Continue reading →

Love, With Gravy | Fiction by Jeff Fitzgerald

JEFF FITZGERALD Love, With Gravy Even in the best of marriages, there come the inevitable periods of trial. For Essie and me, we seemed to be mostly immune to the little sorts of disagreements and disappointments that can mount up over time. The little drops of acid that can erode even the strongest relationships till … Continue reading →

The Southern Gentleman: A Primer

JEFF FITZGERALD For most of us, even those born and raised here and rooted to the soil like one of Faulkner’s oaks, the South no longer exists. In fact, nearer to the truth, it has never existed. The South, as we know it, is a collective fantasy that lives in us as much as we … Continue reading →

That’s Amore Part II: Pizza Pie

JEFF FITZGERALD When last we left our discussion of pizza, it had been thoroughly established that pizza is America’s favorite food and that the primary criteria that separates good pie from bad is love (established in Fitzgerald v. Boyardi, in which the Supreme Court voted 5-4 in favor of half pepperoni and half mushroom, with … Continue reading →

On Pizza: That’s Amore

JEFF FITZGERALD Former New York Times food critic Sam Sifton is credited with formulating the Pizza Cognition Theory: The first pizza we experience, once we’re able to conceive of food as anything more than an instinctual need, becomes the standard by which we judge all future pies. In other words, the first pizza we have … Continue reading →