The sweetest compliment I’ve ever given someone was probably a text message I sent a few years ago to my then-boyfriend that read, “You make me want to hit Paula Deen in the face with a ham, just so I can hear that laugh again.”
It was a reference to a conversation the two of us had a few months earlier, when we shared our mutual adoration for Deen as she was being bombarded with criticism for not disclosing her diabetes sooner.
As we talked about various aspects of her personality that we found charming, I told my boyfriend how I appreciated Deen’s bubbly response to being hit in the face with a flying, frozen ham while making an appearance at Atlanta’s Hosea Feed the Hungry.