lunch in the little easy

there's just something about having lunch on a fine spring day in oxford, ms. where else can one stroll into a funky eatery and see, inter alia, billy "the dawg" brewer talking to god knows who on a cell phone @ one table and barry hannah holding court @ another across the room? where else do plain old cheese grits and "greens" (of the turnip variety) have so much spice that they scald the mouth? a single midday constitutional reveals myriad dog breeds, old timey sidewalk sales, mamas pushin' babies in strollers, shaggy characters sucking cigarettes (yes, you can still smoke here), newly blooming flora and fauna (the aforementioned canine breeds foremost among the latter). if you have to live in the south, which, i confess, is still a far cry from my beloved adoptive new england, this is where it's @. and, no, i don't care that grammar snobs sneer @ "where it's at". they, quite obviously, don't live in oxford.