[caption id="attachment_1141" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Tara all around."]<a href="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/20110515_2.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-1141" title="20110515_2" src="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/20110515_2-300x199.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="199" /></a>[/caption]

In case you're wondering, Tara is more than just a state of mind.

I've got to figure that after the White House, the lovely antebellum plantation in "Gone With the Wind" might be the single most famous private residence in America, fictional or otherwise. Although I was sort of stunned when I entered "Tara" into a Google image search and got five pages of pictures of Tara Reid before I adjusted the search and got what I needed.

I'm not sure if the movie is all that specific about where the O'Hara plantation was, although we know that a dying mule was able to get Scarlett, Melanie and Prissy there when Sherman burned Atlanta.

The tourist attraction that is supposed to be Tara -- I haven't seen it yet -- is south of Atlanta about 10-15 miles, which leaves it 10-15 miles north of us.

[caption id="attachment_1142" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Tara"]<a href="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/TaraScarlett.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-1142" title="TaraScarlett" src="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/TaraScarlett-300x250.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="250" /></a>[/caption]

When we head north to Atlanta on State Route 19-41, it's called Expressway when it leaves Griffin and becomes Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. But about 10 miles north of Griffin, it becomes Tara Boulevard.

Of course there are all sorts of businesses named Tara, and there's even an elementary school with the name.

The really special <a title="GWTW Museum" href="http://www.mariettaga.gov/gwtw/" target="_self">"Gone With the Wind" museum</a> is in Marietta, which is one of those cities that I still have to search a map to have any idea where it is.

I've got Atlanta, Macon, Savannah and Augusta figured out, and I think I could find Athens too. But past that, I'm mostly local with Griffin, McDonough, Jonesboro and one or two others. I know where Zebulon is (10 miles south) and I'm dying to get down there because there's a barbecue joint with a great name -- the <a title="Oink Joint" href="http://www.theoinkjoint.com/" target="_self">Oink Joint</a>.

I don't know how good it is. It only opened last year, so it's hardly a local institution, but barbecue is like pizza and sex. Or maybe I should say pizza or sex. Even bad is good.

But I'm digressing from my Tara topic.

I have been meaning to write this for my good friend Tara Johnson, who worked with me on my college newspaper at George Mason. I just wanted her to know that I live in the land of Tara.