Barbecue lovers from Pikeville to Paducah should give thanks for Wes Berry, the English professor and 'cue enthusiast whose new Kentucky Barbecue Book is a survey of all things smoked and sauced in the Bluegrass State. Packed with recipes from and interviews with the people who make smoked meat happen in Kentucky, the book offers a rare but focused peek into a lesser-known barbecue culture.

The past two years have seen the Jack Rudy Cocktail Co.’s flagship tonic syrup blow onto bar menus from New York City to New Orleans. It has become the secret ingredient in many a quality G&T, raising demand to the point that founder Brooks Reitz has finally been forced to move packing and shipping operations out of his dining room.

“He had taken four buses to get here,” says Andre Prince Jeffries, proprietor of Nashville’s Prince’s Hot Chicken, about a customer who came in to her restaurant not long ago. “He said that he was in a hurry. But, you know, we don’t serve fast food. I told him that he was going to have to wait. So he left.&rdquo

Last fall, we gathered around our computers to follow the progress of Mary Lee, a 16-foot Great White shark, as she worked her way down the East Coast and poked her nose into Charleston Harbor. Tagged by OCEARCH, a non-profit studying shark migration, she is currently swimming between Bermuda and the Bahamas. But this week, off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida, the OCEARCH team tagged a new shark. Nicknamed “Lydia,” this 2,000-pounder provides further evidence that Great Whites, whose migrations are still shrouded in mystery, have long been swimming Southern waters.