Southern man

(Joan griswold)

Roy Blount Jr. is a famous American humorist. But that clipped description is kind of like saying that Paris is simply an inland French city: The outline is accurate as far as it goes, but it leaves out all of the captivating details. Blount is also a sportswriter, actor, screenwriter, comedian, lecturer, political commentator, playwright, and magazine writer. He is, in a phrase, tough to pigeonhole.

In a 40-year career, he has interviewed sage novelist Eudora Welty, civil rights leader Martin Luther King, black baseball legend Cool Papa Bell, and fan-dancer Sally Rand. A longtime resident of Decatur, Ga., and a leading interpreter of Southern ways, he nonetheless now lives in Western Massachusetts. He's also a regular panelist on the NPR radio quiz show "Wait, Wait . . . Don't Tell Me!" Globe colleague Charlie Pierce, a fellow panelist, says that Blount, in addition to his better-known talents, also "knows by heart more songs about food than anyone else alive."

Blount, who has written 21 books, is in Cambridge tonight to talk about his latest, a look at the oddities of the English language with the exhaustive, tongue-twisting title "Alphabet Juice: The Energies, Gists, and Spirits of Letters, Words, and Combinations Thereof; Their Roots, Bones, Innards, Piths, Pips, and Secret Parts, With Examples of Their Usage Foul and Savory." The show goes on at 6 p.m. at the Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle St. Tickets are $27, but include a copy of the book. For reservations, call 617-661-1515. JIM CONCANNON

POLITICS, FROM THE INSIDE OUT Mike Huckabee is a rarity in American politics, a conservative on social issues but a populist on economic ones. A recent Republican presidential candidate, as well as a former Arkansas governor and ordained minister, Huckabee caught political lightning in a bottle and won several caucuses and primaries early this year before eventually ceding the nomination to John McCain. Huckabee will speak at Brown University in Providence on Thursday, discussing the rather pointed topic "The Pursuit of the Presidency and the Perfectly Insane American Process." The event, which opens to the public at 7:45 p.m. after Brown affiliates are seated, begins at 8 p.m. in Salomon Hall, room 101. For details, visit www.brown.edu/Students/Lecture_Board.

WHEN SEX TAKES CHARGE Susan Cheever, prolific author and daughter of novelist John Cheever, wrote her last book about Concord's dynamic and dominant 19th-century literary tradition. She returns to town Sunday to discuss her decidedly different new book, "Desire: Where Sex Meets Addiction," a tale that's part salacious memoir and part thoughtful science. She'll speak at 3 p.m. at the Concord Bookshop, 65 Main St. Call 978-369-2405 for information.