“Things Every Southern Woman Should Know How to Make”

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Alice clicked on the headline, mildly curious about what yet another stranger thought should be in her kitchen repertoire. Pictures of China plates mounded with crispy fried chicken, greens, cobbler, and a pile of biscuits a mile high flooded the screen, all set off with a pitcher of sweet tea beaded with condensation. The table was set; an apron draped off to the side next to a box labeled “Gramma’s Recipes” in fine calligraphy. She closed the browser and put away her tablet. She was born a Georgia peach, but she couldn’t make a cobbler to save her life. Did that mean she wasn’t southern? Or maybe just not “Southern.” For Alice, there was no recipe box full of family traditions. Her younger years were filled with rental homes in different states and her father’s voice coaxing her toward a text book rather than a cookbook. Metalworking and fabrication held more interest than learning to flambé or sauté. Did it make her less of a woman that her cooking skills consisted of fresh salads...
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Comic Rec: DAYS OF HANA by Seokwoo


Today’s recommendation is the webcomic, DAYS OF HANA, by Indonesian artist Seokwoo, whose romances are far more than a love story. They deal with social perceptions of minority groups, in the case of DAYS OF HANA, werewolves, what happens when the world views begin to change.


In the world of this story, humans keep werewolves as pets, but Hana and Haru were raised together like siblings, and the line between owner and pet is blurry. Hana’s family took Haru in when they found him injured and alone one winter. There's an adorable montage of photos of Hana and Haru growing up, ending with a family photo. But as the two get older, the hazy boundaries between human and werewolf become a problem. Werewolves are given limited rights—education, right to work for wages, etc.—with the hopes they they’ll be able to live independently and on equal footing with humans. However, as the werewolves explore their newfound freedoms, there’s pushback from the humans who have owned them. Tensions grow as prejudices are aired for the world to see, and social taboos strain Hana and Haru’s family. And under all of that is a brutal world where werewolves are pitted against each other for the amusement of the human elite.


DAYS OF HANA does have romance, a sweet budding relationship between two people who have known each other their entire lives, but it's tangled in the social taboos, prejudices, and growing resentment of the werewolves against the humans who refuse to accept them as equals.


This is a complex story, and while excellent and brilliantly told, it gets very dark and often heartbreaking.


If you'd like to check out more about DAYS OF HANA, check it out here: https://www.webtoons.com/en/romance/days-of-hana/list?title_no=1246&page=1


And if you like it, be sure to check out Seokwoo's completed comic, ORANGE MARMALADE, featuring a sweet vampire girl trying to blend with the human crowd, the human boy she falls for, and the struggle of hiding her true self. https://www.webtoons.com/en/romance/orange-marmalade/list?title_no=97&page=1. 


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