At the invitation of one of our favorite national publications managers (Faye Porter of NFIB), Hammock once again was a sponsor in this year’s Susan G. Koman Breast Cancer Foundation’s Race for the Cure.
Thousands of walkers and runners turned out on Sunday to walk in celebration, memory or support of women fighting breast cancer. Hammock purchased a sign in Susan’s Garden, one of the many activities set up at MetroCenter’s Business Park where the race took place.
Five Hammoratis (Barbara not pictured) laced up their sneakers and joined the 5K race. Though all are avid athletes, four decided to walk instead of run the race (out too late celebrating Vandy’s 4-0 season?). Celebrity gossip diva Lena Basha (the only one from the group who ran) got a taste of stardom herself when she was recognized by a fellow racer, who witnessed Hammock’s impressive victory in last week’s 12th Annual Nashville Adult Literacy Council Corporate Spelling Bee.
The Race for the Cure raised more than $400,000.

One of our clients is the American Watercraft Association , for whom we publish Ride Personal Watercraft Magazine. There’s a section in the magazine that is a joint project between AWA and Shawn Alladio, a world-renowned water safety and rescue trainer. In the days following Hurricane Katrina, Alladio and several colleagues went to New Orleans to assist in rescue efforts; their experience was chronicled by The New Yorker Magazine.

On Tuesday, Sept. 20, Team Hammock brought home gold from the 12th Annual Nashville Adult Literacy Council Corporate Spelling Bee, which is a fundraiser for the Nashville Adult Literacy Council. Our team was composed of writer Lena Basha, designer Carrie Wakeford and editorial director Bill Hudgins.
The emcee “Bee Master” was author Ann Patchett, whose work includes Bel Canto. She was witty and enthusiastic and made a great emcee.
There were eight teams in the competition, each with its own table. We had only 45 seconds after getting the word, a definition and a sentence to spell it. We were allowed to confer on each word, although only the captain (Lena for us) could actually spell the word. It was not like the televised National Bee where each contestant stands in the glare of the spotlights, thank goodness.
They narrowed the 8 teams down to 4 after about 45 minutes. We were in the remaining four. They tried to make us move up from our table to another one, after the losing teams left the stage, but Lena wisely refused, knowing we had a lucky table. We are taking her to Tunica very soon.
Two more teams went out fairly quickly – before we quite realized it, the event was down to us and a team from a large local law firm. We went back and forth, then Bill forced Lena to misspell stratagem (he thought it was stratEgem).
Under the rules, the other team had to spell that word correctly, then spell a final word to win. For some odd reason, the judge spelled stratagem out loud, so they had to go to the next word, which was the name of a disease you get from bird droppings – psittacosis.
They misspelled it, so suddenly we were back in the game and got it right. The final word was “raconteur,” which we spelled correctly, and the crowd went wild. John Lavey, our managing director and a longtime member of the literacy council board, did some impressive Heisman poses with the trophy for the cameras and said he was going to Disney World, with the trophy. This was the fourth or fifth team fielded by Hammock and the highest placing by far. Our highest previous finish was fourth.
The event raised $13,000 for NALC.

I had the pleasure of attending the Titans game this past Sunday with my dad. It was the first time either one of us had been to the Coliseum. We sat directly behind McNair’s family!
If you have a chance to go, make sure you know the correct street for parking since several are blocked off. We drove around the entire stadium to get to lot F (enter from 1st street for a much more direct route). I wore my t to show off my Hammock pride.
In case you didn’t know, we won 25 to 10.

From Rex Hammock:
Last week, I heard about the impact Katrina had on the publisher and staff of a New Orleans-based magazine and felt Hammock Publishing could reach out and help.
Romney & Charley Richard, publishers of Louisiana Cookin’ Magazine were flooded out of their home and office in New Orleans. (They still haven’t been able to return to either.) They are now living in an RV parked at their daughter’s home in Baton Rouge. Likewise, their staff are all direct victims of the disaster and are now evacuated across five states.
Committed to keeping Louisiana Cookin’ alive, yet consumed with the personal struggles she and her staff are facing, Romney sounded understandably dazed when I spoke with her for the first time last week. I told her that getting out a magazine is something we at Hammock Publishing know how to help her do…and that I know a lot of folks throughout the magazine publishing world will also love to volunteer to help out.
We’ve launched a weblog at KeepCookin.org. Please link to it. Please subscribe to its RSS feed. I know a lot of folks who read this blog are media-types, but we also really want to reach out to food bloggers, as well. Pass the word along to them.
Also, please purchase a subscription to the magazine. It’s a great magazine for folks who enjoy Louisiana cuisine or who have enjoyed the restaurants of New Orleans. Subscribing via the Louisiana Cookin’ website is perhaps the quickest and most-direct way that individuals can help support Romney’s efforts to get back up and running. (That, and advertising, which we discuss on the Keep Cookin’ blog.)
If you’d like more information regarding Keep Cookin’ or would like to volunteer your support, visit KeepCookin.org or e-mail: helpkeepcookin (at) hammock.com
Also, if you’re a blogger, as you make posts about this, please use the tags: magazines, louisianacookin, keepcookin.org

Hammock Production Manager and Red Sox true-believer Patrick Burns takes a break from attending PhotoShop World in his native Boston to root the Sox on to a 6-3 victory over the Angels. Since no party in Beantown is complete without T, he thoughtfully brought his Hammock shirt along for the occasion.

Digging through a folder of old family photos and letters today, our editorial director Bill Hudgins came up with this WWII gas rationing coupon that belonged to his mother. Let’s hope it is not an omen of things to come.