If I say the word "Mammy," you're likely to conjure up the character from Gone With the Wind. Or, you may think of Aunt Jemima, in her trademark kerchief, beaming from boxes of pancake mix. What ...

I thought of Vyry in Margaret Walker's "Jubilee," the "Gone With the Wind" for black folks that I read in my 20s. Vyry was not thick and dark- skinned, but a mulatto with long hair and a trim figure.

Forget the Irish Mammy, it's your Irish Granny that really has the best phrases in the world! My West Cork Granny frequently referred to jigs and reels in her daily speech. Whenever she was a ...