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Written and Illustrated^by Our Readers
S lackpole is a heartwarming, funny, thought-
provoking and quirky representation of Athens
and its people. Our staff is thankful for all of
our Flagpole readers who contribute to writing and
illustrating our end-of-the-year annual issue, allow
ing us to take a break during the holidays. We enjoy
reading all of the submissions, and those that didn’t
make it into print can be found online at flagpole,
com. We’ll be back with the first Flagpole of 2025
on Jan. 8.
Bless Your Heart
By Eric Somerville
My friend, Steve, moved to Georgia a few years ago from
New York. He lived his whole life there but is not at all the
“typical” New Yorker we think of here in the South. He is
kind, respectful, quick with a smile or to lend a hand. He
witnessed many things during his career as a police officer,
and reflexively assesses the behavior of those around him.
With the keen observation that would impress Jane Good-
all herself, Steve quickly noticed the subtlety of that most
Southern idiom, “Bless your heart.”
There have been books, magazine articles and news
paper stories written about “bless your heart.” Mr. Zach
Newcastle wrote in 2015, “...the phrase is largely seen as
Southern code, a way for Southerners to insult someone in
a less direct way.” Tracy Moore added more recently, “It’s
the nicest way you’ll ever be called an idiot.” And when
former President Donald Trump dinged former South
Carolina Governor Nikki Haley in 2016 (via Twitter, of
course) by telling her, “The people of South Carolina are
embarrassed by Nikki Haley!” She replied simply, “Bless
your heart.”
Steve commented to me one day that while “bless your
heart” sounds very thoughtful and sympathetic, it seemed
to him more often to really mean “I told you so” or “Tough
shit.” I, of course, found this hilarious. I explained to Steve
that when spoken by an adult to a child, “bless your heart”
almost always conveys genuine empathy or consolation.
However, when spoken by one adult to another adult about
a child, as in “bless his heart,” the meaning could just as
likely be, “He’s as dumb and lazy as his daddy.”
When referring to a third-party female over the age of
19, “bless her heart” is almost always a veiled critique of her
poor judgement in men. The only exception might be if the
target of the gossip has experienced a recent family tragedy.
Intent gets even murkier if “bless her heart” is expressed
in a group of middle-aged Southern women about a middle-
aged acquaintance who is not present at the time. Here,
context is everything, and often one needs to know the full
social and family history of all women involved if there is
any reasonable chance of discerning the meaning of “bless
her heart.”
A few summers ago, my family and I spent a day in New
York City while awaiting a flight to Europe and decided to
grab a bite at a genuine New York deli before heading back
to the airport. I sent Steve a message and asked for his rec
ommendation. He sent us to Katz’s Deli on East Houston
Street.
Katz’s Deli was established in 1888. It’s been run by the
same family for over 100 years and is famous for its pas
trami sandwiches. My wife and daughter, both vegetarians,
were largely out of luck, because Katz’s is much like Satur
day Night Live’s “Olympia Restaurant.” No matter what’s
on the menu at the Olympia Restaurant, everyone gets a
cheeseburger, chips and a Pepsi. At Katz’s, everyone gets
22 pounds of pastrami between slices of white bread and a
pickle spear.
Steve sent me a message later asking what I thought
about Katz’s. I politely told him it was pretty good, but
asked, “Would it kill them to add some lettuce and a slice of
tomato?”
He replied, “It would kill most New Yorkers.”
“But I feel like I have eaten a whole cow,” I lamented.
“Even just some token ruffage would have been great.”
To which he replied, “Bless your heart.”
Athens in Harmony
By Pat Priest
I first saw Mokah Johnson, the director of the Athens
Anti-Discrimination Movement (AADM), in action in 2016
when she organized a prayer vigil with Athens for Everyone
to lament the recent deaths of Black men at the hands of
the police and to mourn officers killed in Dallas around that
register
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16 FLAGPOLE.COM ■ DECEMBER 25, 2024 & JANUARY 1, 2025
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