The following is a hammorati dispatch (blog-spatch?) from Rex:

I was interviewed Friday by the folks at the public radio show Marketplace for an upcoming story regarding CEOs who blog -- or, something akin to that topic. The interview went about 15-20 minutes which means I probably said a sentence of something worth keeping in the story. When I find out if and when the story is to air, I'll post it here on Hammorati. Also, it was the first time I've been in the new studios of WPLN which are very nice. (Sidenote: A thank-you shout-out to Scott Smith, who has more songs on his iPod than anyone I know, for giving me a tour and being kind enough to explain to me in terminology I could understand, the digital means being used to connect me with the Marketplace producer.)

As Hammock Publishing has supported WPLN in the past and will be doing so again this year, it is great to see the facilities they have -- and to recall how far they've come since those days in the Ben West Public Library. Come to think of it, it's great to recall how far the library has come since those days in the Ben West facility.

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Sweet tea, Alabama: As luck would have it, several folks at Hammock Publishing have connections to Alabama (does that make them Bamarati?). Such down homeness has caused a pavlovian response among this contingent to that state's current tourism promotion, "The Year of Alabama Food." As part of the celebration, its tourism development folks have posted a list of 100 Dishes to Eat in Alabama Before You Die (which, frankly, could be renamed 100 Alabama dishes if you eat too often will cause an early death, but we'll not go there).

This promotion seemed so mouth-watering, we asked Hammock's Bamarati what dishes on the list were their personal favorites. Here are their cravings:

Jamie Roberts: Milo's in Birmingham. My parents knew Mr. Milo, so I was weaned on this burger joint's super-secret brown sauce. Milo's adds an extra sliver of beef to your burger and drowns it in the heavenly sauce. (A little cup of sauce is also perfect for dipping into Milo's cheese-dusted fries.) And don't get me started on their sweet tea--it needs its own 12-step group. When headed south on I-65, make a detour on Montgomery Highway headed toward Vestavia. You won't regret it. Also, Johnny Ray's pies. My former workplace used to order these for special client lunches. I don't miss my former workplace, but oh, Lord, I miss those pies. Also, even though I make fun of my family for eating at Lloyd's in Birmingham almost every Sunday after church, their perfectly fried onion rings can make a convert out of anyone. And I don't even like onions.

Shannon Scully: My all-time favorite restaurant on the list is City Cafe in Northport. Their fried okra rivals my grandmother's recipe. In Tuscaloosa, you can't beat Dreamland ribs with white bread. In Auburn, Toomer's Corner lemonade hits the spot on a hot day (or after a win by the undefeated Auburn Tigers!!). (note: Shannon grew up in Tuscaloosa yet went to Auburn -- something akin to zigging while other folks zag.) In Dothan (recently added to my list of 'favorite' cites), Peanut Pie at the Garland House, though I'm told the Peppermint Puff is their best dessert.

Rex Hammock: Wow. Two close runners-up: Lloyd's onion rings, although I think they were better back in the old days when Highway 280 south of Birmingham was a two lane highway winding through two mountains and Lloyd's was located on a stretch of it near Chelsea called, "the narrows." A cheeseburger from the Dew Drop Inn in Mobile (said to be inspiration for native son Jimmy Buffett's song, "Cheeseburger in Paradise") is one of life's simple pleasures. But, forgive me for drooling when I recommend the pork chop sandwich with mustard sauce at 13th Street Bar-BQ in Phenix City. (Or, on second thought, if you're ever in Phenix City, get a barbecue sandwich (chopped, inside and out -- trust me) from a restaurant not on the list, The Smokey Pig, on Opelika Highway). Face it, barbecue sauce is made with mustard. How come only folks in the Chattahoochee Valley have figured that out?

John Lavey: (note: John, while a native of northern Virginia, was lucky enough to "marry into" Alabama and has become quite the expert in the state's delicacies.) Sadly, while I've been to a dozen of the establishments listed, I've only sampled the following "go-to" dishes: ribs and bread at Dreamland (really good, though Perk's in Harperville and Twix and Tween in Centerville are better in my mind), Fried Catfish at Ezell's Fish Camp (this redefines fried catfish, cooked on the bone) steak at Jesse's in Magnolia Springs (which, by the way, is the town that matches a Yankee's mythic version of the South: sleepy, Spanish Moss, big oaks). I will consider myself lucky to hit a high percentage of the other restaurants before being scattered in ash-form over the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Gulf Shores.

Coming soon: Dishes from other Hammorati home states that must be eaten before you die.

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We were proud to learn that MyBusiness Magazine, the small business magazine we publish with our friends at NFIB for their 600,000 members, has been named a finalist in the 51st Annual Jesse H. Neal National Business Journalism Awards. Out?of the 1,168 entries, ours was one of 81 to make it to the final round. MyBusiness is one of three finalists in the category of "best department" for its recurring feature, "MyBusiness Manual." This is the second consecutive year for "My Business Manual" to be a finalist in this category. (Who knows, maybe this year, the judges will see the light!)

Seriously, the Neals are business-to-business magazines' most prestigious and most sought-after editorial honors. We are proud of the work we and NFIB do in publishing each issue and honored that such work has received this recognition by others. The Neals are presented at a luncheon ceremony in New York on March 16.

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We're happy to announce that Hammock Publishing (along with WKRN-TV and the Freedom Forum) is an underwriter of BlogNashville, a three-day event that will include Bloggercon Tennessee, the unique unconference-conference that has previously been held at Harvard and Stanford Universities. The May 5-7 event is being hosted by and will take place at Belmont University. We'll be blogging lots more about the event in the coming days and weeks. Our friend and fellow Nashville Blogger, Bill Hobbs, has a press release about the event.

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Hammock's Summer Huggins and her husband, Cole, write:

Yep, that's right. We're taking Hammorati to Luckenbach, Texas! Unfortunately, Willie and Waylon and the boys weren't there. But we did find a few like-minded Texans enjoying a couple of cold beers on a crisp January afternoon.

Of course, we thought the obvious choice would be to take a picture next to a Luckenbach city limits sign. Turns out the state (county?) doesn't make those anymore because they were stolen as soon as they were put up.

It's not a fancy place - no Apple Store, no iPods, no wi-fi, no computers; just cold beer, motorcycles, guitars, and old men playing horseshoes - but if y'all are ever in "God's country," you should stop by for a visit. You'll be glad you did...

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Hmmm...that photo below of Barbara and the Quad crew wearing Hammock T-shirts. She says they're in a restaurant, but doesn't the background look like a liquor store?

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The cover of MyBusiness was supposed to be on press at 11 a.m. Lisa Kretlow, Angela Miller and Lisa McCauley of Quad took me to an early lunch, as the 6pp gatefold usually needs a longer make ready. I?m used to that. We had lunch at a great Italian restaurant called Louise?s and had the waiter take a picture of us wearing the Hammock tees. Thanks, Peter.

Around 2 p.m., the press supervisor called me to come to the plant as they had a question about the cover fold and layout. It was an easy solution, so the press started up again. I went to the customer lounge and read People magazine (so that I will know what my coworker Lena is talking about) until they wanted me to look at the cover. Shortly after 4 p.m., the color on the cover was okay, as well as the 16pp piece How Congress Voted, which we are publishing for NFIB. I?m finished.

Quad had lots of other customers press checking their publications while I was in the plant. Two other clients there were Major League Baseball (Hey, Patrick!) and Architectural Digest. Quad makes and flies flags for their clients when they are in the plant. There were so many customers there that our flag wasn?t flying, which is okay because it flies most other times that I'm in the plant.

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Here's the latest sighting of the Hammock T-shirt, Louise's on Bluemound Road in Brookfield, Wisconsin. Pictured from left, Lisa Kretlow, Barbara Mathieson, Angela Miller and Lisa MacCauley. Lisa, Angela and Lisa are Quad employees who work on the Hammock account. Their coworkers are all jealous of the tee.

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Barbara continues:

My next phone call from the Sussex press room came at 6:19 a.m. I was at the plant by 6:40 a.m. This job isn't for those who are vain about their appearance. I put on the clothes that I had worn yesterday, gargled with some mouth wash and left. It's two below zero outside. Again, I'm happy to have my Hammock puffy coat.

The form on press was a 4pp form on press M25. The color looked good, and I signed off on the form and was back at the hotel in less than an hour. While at the plant, I conferred with the outgoing and incoming press supervisors about the cover form which should run around 11 a.m. Back at the hotel, I emailed in my blog from last night. (Okay, I'm not an official blogger. Blair is posting these accounts for me.) I checked my email for hot things to do, then wrote this entry.

One thing I like about press checks is that I get a break from the normal Five O'clock World that I normally live.

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Barbara writes:

I try to keep up my exercise routine while I travel. I had been walking on the
treadmill at the Marriott for about 25 minutes, when at 5:45 p.m., I got a call on my cell phone from Ken, the pressroom supervisor, who told me that they were ready for me.

I drove to Sussex, got my ID card, went to the customer lounge and met up with Ken, who told me that there had been a mill break in the paper, and the press was down for at least 30 minutes. Shift change was scheduled for 7 p.m., so I wouldn?t see anything until the new press crew arrived. I grabbed a bag of popcorn from the Quad dining room, a cranberry juice from the customer lounge and a bag of trail mix from the vending machine for dinner.

Shortly after 8 p.m., I saw my form 3/4, the middle pages of MyBUSINESS. Around 9, all pages were okayed, but the paper started picking. This meant that there were hickeys all over the pages. The pressmen were complaining about the paper, as the forms were now coming off the press unacceptable. At times like this, I?m glad that Hammock Publishing doesn?t supply their own paper.

I then traveled to the West Allis plant to okay another form, the CapCov/InPolitics 6pp piece. The temperature was falling, but my puffy Hammock coat and my Hammock gloves were keeping me warm. The CapCov form was a very easy press check. The only snag was that I took a wrong turn when I entered Door Four of the plant and toured the bindery, which must cover acres of land.

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There are a few of us from Hammock (Rex, Shannon Scully and Laura Creekmore) who were in Washington, D.C. tonight to attend a function Hammock Publishing has helped sponsor the past few years, a welcome back party for Capitol Hill staffers hosted by NFIB's federal legislative team. While attending a party may not be as exciting as witnessing an electrical transformer explode (see previous post), it's an assignment we shouldered with dutiful enthusiasm. Hey, it's a tough job, but someone's got to do it. In the photo, Laura is with the two Dans, Dan Blankenburg (left) and Dan Danner (right) of NFIB. By the way, the look on Blank's face is one of frustration because the photographer (me) can't figure out why the camera is zoomed in so tightly. Bottom line: Great party, guys. Sponsoring parties organized by Ryan Peebles is our new favorite hobby. Now, back to Barbara's press check.

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Barbara writes:

I arrived in Milwaukee. And as the plane was taxiing to the gate, I received a call from Lisa Kretlow, our Quad account manager, who updated me on the press check. Pat Carl, one of the Quad chauffeurs, met me in the airport lobby and drove me to the Sussex, WI, plant to pick up my Quad car. Quad loans its customers cars to drive while they are in their plants.

Pat had to stop at two other Quad plants on the way, so I checked my voice mail and called home. Brad Drake, our post press manager, called me to check some data samples for MyBusiness via email, and Lisa called again with a question about the NFIB Federal Mandate Ballot, which Quad would also be printing this week.

Finally I checked into the Marriott in Waukesha and ate a late lunch at the Thunder Bay Grille in Pewaukee, a restaurant I had eaten at during my first MyBusiness press check in 2000. As I finished lunch, a transformer blew up outside the restaurant and knocked out the power. The restaurant had to find a discarded credit card swipe machine so that I could pay for my meal.

I checked with the Sussex press room and discovered that my first press check probably wouldn?t be until after 7 p.m.

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Barbara, Hammock's production director, is blogging her press check via email:

It's 11:21 a.m. Eastern time, I'm in Detroit awaiting my flight to Milwaukee to oversee the MyBusiness magazine press check for our client, NFIB. I fly NWA to Milwaukee over Midwest Express, who has a direct flight, because it's cheaper, there are more options, and Midwest used to cancel their flight and put me on NWA anyway. Plus I'm a Gold Elite member and often get put in first class, where I'm usually the only female traveler. If I go through Detroit, I'm also among lots of General Motors and General Mills managers.

Quad Graphics, our printer, wanted me at the plant by 2 p.m. when I made my travel plans last week. Now, my first form on press won't be until the evening, probably late evening.

I spend my "down" time, checking my office voice mail via cellphone and checking email via the wireless connection at the airports. It's awesome. I also read a lot. Currently I'm rereading Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a book I first read 35 years ago. I also listen to my favorite music on my IPod.

I forgot to bring home my power cord to my laptop yesterday, so I had to stop by the office at 7:20 a.m. and pick it up. I'm the one who left the door unlocked, when I left. I assumed Lisa and Lynne would be in shortly. Sorry, Rex.

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Due to some technical difficulties that we feel certain have nothing to do with our attempts to experiment with running our mail server on a new iPod Shuffle, the folks here at Hammock Publishing are experiencing email isolation this morning (Wednes., 1/12). We should be back up soon.

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The Hammock community loves their animals! John Mathieson, husband of Hammock's Production Director, Barbara, sent in this T-shirt picture. John is holding the Mathiesons' pet Mexican Pueblan Milk Snake. If snakes give you the creeps, Pueblan Milk Snakes should be your friend. One of their favorite foods is other snakes.

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Morrie (left) sent us his photo from Edina, Minnesota, where he stars in a weblog, Pups 'N Prostates, about how men with cancer can get amazing therapeutic benefits merely by loving a hound.

When we received Morrie's e-mail, we couldn't believe what we were seeing. Sure, we could believe that a dog was sending e-mail and has a weblog. Heck, that happens all the time. What we could NOT believe was how much Morrie looks like Feste (right), who sometimes hangs around our office (but please, don't tell the landlord). We had to find out, what gives? So, we e-mailed Morrie and asked him if he had any cousins who are Coton de Tulears.

Morrie e-mailed back and it turns out that he's a Havanese, and, sure enough, if you go back a couple centuries, they are cousins. Apparently, some ancient pirates sailors from France took their bichons along with them on their marauding voyages and introduced them to the island-nations of Madagascar and Cuba. Fast forward a century or so and the Madagascar (or, as Feste corrects us, the Malagasy) branch of the family becomes the affectionate companion, Coton de Tulear and the Cuban branch of the family becomes the affectionate companion, Havanese. Both branches of the family came to America in the 1970s and are still somewhat rare, but like Morrie and Feste, Cotons and Havanese all seem to have very loyal humans as pets.

(By the way, if some student in the future stumbles across this page doing research on pirate dogs or one of the breeds mentioned, please attribute all the facts to Feste, as he made up most of them.)

(Don't forget to send your photo wearing a Hammock Publishing T-shirt to blog@hammock.com, and yes, with this post about our pets, we can now officially declare Hammorati a weblog.)

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Hardly a month goes by without Renal Care Group making an announcement like this one today concerning their growing network of outpatient dialysis centers. Such growth means the Nashville-based company now serves over 30,000 patients at more than 415 outpatient dialysis facilities, in addition to providing acute dialysis services at more than 200 hospitals. Over 8,800 associates provide services across the Company's 33-state network. As we at Hammock Publishing work with RCG to produce bimonthly publications for both patients and associates, we greatly appreciate the opportunity to grow along with the wonderful folks at Renal Care Group. Congratulations.

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We've received some more T-shirt shots and we'll be adding them during the coming days, but we thought it would be nice to show-off some of the Hammock Publishing staff gear from the 2005 collection. This year, most people added something warm to their staff gear wardrobe as our Monday morning meeting is held in an office with the temperature set by its occupant to that of a "meat locker." (That would be me.) The warm-hearted and warmly-attired Hammock folks pictured above are, from left to right: Susie Garland, Lisa Ask, Lynne Boyer, Carrie Wakeford, Jamie Roberts.

(Don't forget: E-mail us your Hammock Publishing T-shirt shots: blog@hammock.com)

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Nashville super-blogger Bill Hobbs was very kind to compliment Hammorati's coverage (by Bill Hudgins) of the Gallatin Presbyterian church fire.

Quote:

Mainstream media told Nashville the facts about the fire. Hammorati provided a more personal and moving account of the faith that withstands the flames.

Thanks, Bill.

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