New in the collection: Souvenir moonshine jug

Moonshine mini-jugs were once found in souvenir shops coast to coast, but nowhere as commonly as in — how did you guess! — North Carolina.

State Capitol? Check. Mount Mitchell State Park? Check. USS North Carolina? Check….

This jug from the Cherokee Reservation seems less comical than poignant, given Native Americans’ long struggle with alcoholism and addiction.

 

Ngram says: Opie, you’re still no Andy

More phrase-frequency charts from those bustling bibliophiles at Google Books Ngram Reader:

— Andy Griffith vs. Don Knotts and Ron Howard

— Moonshine vs. NASCAR

— Interstate 40 vs. Interstate 77, Interstate 85 and Interstate 95

— Moon Pie vs. sweet potato pie

— Piltdown Man vs. Marlboro Man

A link dump even more instructive than usual

— How Charlotte got to be CHARLOTTE (while somehow retaining an amazing microhabitat or two).

— How Asheville came to host its first  flash mob pillow fight (while still honoring its more traditional pastimes).

—  How a covered wagon from Rowan County ended up on the second floor of a restaurant in New Washington, Indiana.

— How Benny from Lexington became “the old man” on “Pawn Stars.”

— How North Carolina lost  — to Ohio! — its official unofficial state  “ready-to-eat spiced sausage treat.”

Link dump makes case for high-fiber diet

— Why General Stoneman went raiding in a buggy.

Spanish stone stackers restoring ancestors’ work on Blue Ridge Parkway.

— Hank Williams Jr. revives Popcorn Sutton‘s moonshine recipe.

— “If we submit now to Lincoln’s election, your homes will be visited by one of the most fearful and horrible butcheries that has cursed the face of the globe.” Another installment in the New York Times’ superb “Disunion” series.

— Lively audio reminiscences about widespread panic provoked by underground newspaper at East Mecklenburg High in 1968.