Jay Grelen's Sweet Tea Times : Ernest Hemingway's Son Has the Hootiepuckers and Other Columns by Mr. Grelen's Mother's Favorite Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Writer

Sweet Tea Times, Jay Grelen's second collection of newspaper columns, offers stories and columns you won't read anywhere else, such as his humorous "To Stalk a Mockingbird." In this lively piece, Jay writes about his efforts to land an interview with Harper Lee, the elusive author of "To Kill a Mockingbird." Sweet Tea Times includes never-before told stories about the Little Rock 9 -- the nine black students caught in Arkansas' infamous standoff at Central High School. He also tells a story of forgiveness and racial reconciliation in the poignant "White hand, back pocket." In a thirty-five year career at daily newspapers, Jay's stops have included five years at the fabled Denver Post, the Daily Oklahoman and the Mobile Register in Alabama. In addition to his elegant writing, Jay is known for his love of Southern sweet tea. No less an authority than Southern Living has referred to Jay as the Sweet Tea Evangelist. He tells how he came to his love of this elixir of the South, and how Sweet Tea came to be known as the House Wine of the South ( Steel Magnolias). You don't have to be from the South to love the people and stories and to appreciate this writer, about whom Pulitzer Prize winning author Rick Bragg "A lot of people can write, but not everyone can tell a story. Jay can. A lot of people write about other people's lives but never really make us feel or care or cry or laugh. He does. You read his columns about people, some famous, most just folks, and you know that he feels what he says. That makes the difference between reading something, and knowing it."