The beat: LK about Memphis

Just got a phone call my my former colleague Leslie Kelly. Now a staff writer for the Memphis (Tenn.) Commercial Appeal, Leslie is adjusting to life in the South. The same goes for her husband, John Nelson, and their daughter Claire, eating BBQ, listening to music on Beale Street and seeing movies such as Jim Sheridan’s “In America” just to remind them where (and, presumably, who) they are.

Leslie just got word that she’s going to take over the wine column. She’s also going to be featured as, to use Leslie’s favorite journalistic stylism — the cliche — a fish out of water. Sort of, Native Northwesterner Goes South and Experiences Life Anew.

I’ve told Leslie to e-mail me now and then, just to let us know how she’s doing. She’s promised, as long as I stop calling her the Queen of Cliches. OK. I promise. Cross my heart.

Heh-heh.