We may need to do some readjusting

I, for one, am going to readjust what I'd planned to wear the next few days.

At times like these, it's important to consider footwear. 

Let's imagine a blustery day in late April. The tornado sirens sound. You and 30-50 others are in a lecture hall at That School Up North. You must quickly and calmly gather your belongings and move to the first floor of the building. You do not want to be slip sliding down those marble steps in cutesy shiny soled sandals. 

I was really hoping to wear that new little yellow dress today. Ain't gonna happen. 

Secure the Perimeter!

Wait! What? Where are you headed?

This is a pretty amazing story! Missy was outside and I realized she was barking which is something she hardly ever does unless... 

"Oh! Marica! That's just not true. I don't need my Dear Friend Rocky to tell me when to bark! I bark at the birds all of the time."

"RUFF!!"

"My apologies, Missy. You do bark at the birds. And today a turtle that was far far away."

"rufffffff"

"You seem surprised."

"Well, as I said, you don't usually bark at much besides birds."

"RRrrruuuufffff ruff!"

"You find that amusing, my Friend? May I remind you that you bark at just about everything. You even bark at Mr. Big Food when he incites you."

"Okay. Okay. How did you know the turtle was way down there by the fence, Missy?"

"Oh my goodness! Couldn't you smell it? It was abominable."

"Wonder if that's the way the males and females find each other?"

"Ruff."

"So you smelled it. Why! I'm impressed, Missy!"

"Thank you. I was just, however, following my instincts."

"Ruff ruff."

"You know, we should talk about that one day-- what we've learned about our instincts."

"We must have a crappy book, sorry-- an old book-- or two about instincts we could read together at reading time."

"Some William James?"

"Lovely! And there's that brand new volume of Henry!!"

"Ruff."

"By the way-- I might have forgotten to mention-- but things are about to get hectic."

"oh. Ha. Um... Excuse me, Marica. I must have been nodding off. We did have a big weekend. "

"Indeed we did. Goodnight, Missy. Goodnight, Rocky."

And You Thought You Were So Smart!

via Daughter C come the "100 smartest cities in America."

Starkville, Mississippi-- home to Mississippi State University: #34

Oxford, Mississippi-- home to the University of Mississippi, or as we like to call it, That School Up North: #75

Cincinnati, Ohio-- home to the University of Cincinnati, Xavier University and many others: #100

Here's the list. I do believe many big city mice will be quite surprised.

"They're moving a house. ... Be careful!"

As I mentioned, Mr. Big Food and I traveled to Oxford, in Lafayette Co., Mississippi, home of That School Up North (TSUN) today. We left the Farm a little after 9am. (Sorry. We don't have GPS in the truck and I turned it off on my phone, so if you're listening in, you'll just have to take my word for it.) We'd planned a delightful day-- and in the end it was delightful, but not at all what we had planned.

I was paying attention to folks' crops and gardens as we drove, and Mr. Big Food was listening to sports radio, and we were chatting, too. And I remarked that I couldn't for the life of me understand how folks would not want to live out here. (You don't. STAY AWAY.) And we got to talking about demographics and such. And then I saw the flashing blue lights of the sheriff's car.

Ahead. Not behind.

I slowed way down, rolled down the window, and and paused.

"They're movin' a house up ahead. It's takin' up the whole road. Be careful!" she said.

"Thank you!"

This exchange factored into our conversation. Have you ever had this exchange with a sheriff's deputy?

A few miles on, I see a pickup in the middle of the road. A woman jumps out. I again roll down my window-- by this time it's about 83-85°F-- and in the weirdest motions I've ever seen, she does a television-version of a tarmac dude motioning us to the side of the road yelling, "Get off the road. Pull over." It was confusing.

But we got the gist, and pulled into someone's private driveway. The truck behind us pulled in behind us.

 And we waited for this house to come down the road.

At the time, it was not at all clear what role this 18-wheeler was playing

and it still isn't clear.

Meanwhile, all of the available driveways were filled and the tarmac lady moved on down the road to guide folks in to other driveways.

And then...

"Really? We couldn't have gotten around that?" Is what Mr. Big Food asked.

Let's look at this together.

My gut instinct is that is a house of about 500-700 square feet. But what we need is a unit of measure. Here are the obvious choices: shingle tabs; door/window frames; proportion of standard state highway that the house occupies; mailbox dimensions.

Based on my extensive research, I'm going with 15 x 30.  450 square feet.

How much does it cost to tote a 15 x 30 house down the road? On a tractor?

STAY AWAY.

There's no explaining what goes on here.

Photo Post with No Captions

because I'm at a loss for words. Background: we traveled to That School Up North today.

Bad Children! Bad!

This will teach them (via Y'all Politics):

Lafayette County Political Party Comments on Election Night Events at Ole Miss

The Democratic and Republican Executive Committees of Lafayette County collectively join Chancellor Dan Jones in condemning the inappropriate behavior displayed on campus last night. Although our organizations encourage spirited debate and engagement among University of Mississippi students on political campaigns, there is no place for divisive and disrespectful confrontations like those that occurred on campus last night. The heat of the campaign is no excuse for violent words or actions. We too encourage our students and our community to revisit the university creed we all hold dear, which calls for us to represent ourselves with dignity, civility, and integrity. As both Democrats and Republicans, we have full faith in our University leadership to continue to set a standard of tolerance, high character, and a respect for others. We expect all Ole Miss students to rise to that example, as the majority of our students already do.

Justin Cluck, Chair of the Lafayette County Democratic Committee
Geoffrey Yoste, Chair of the Lafayette County Republican Committee
11/8/12

Background here.

Reporting some events at TSUN*

TSUN = That School Up North, also known as Ole Miss.

From WMCTV in Oxford (via Breitbart). Keep in mind that Ole Miss has a FIRE green rating-- one of the best-- in the top ten-- schools in the country for free speech on campus.

OXFORD, MS -
(WMC-TV) – While you were sleeping, protests were forming on the Ole Miss campus in Oxford, Mississippi.

[snip]
Reports originally came into Action News 5 that "riots" were brewing on the college campus.

According to Ole Miss Chancellor Dan Jones, university police were first notified of the demonstrations when 30 to 40 students gathered at the union. Within the next 20 minutes, the group had grown to more than 400 students.

More below the fold.

An Eventful Day

Today Mr. Big Food and I traveled to Oxfordtown and TSUN.* Miss M and Mike joined us. 

There was an EVENT on campus.

We were not there for the EVENT, and that's what I told the security guard who was guarding Visitor Parking Street, but he let us park in EVENT PARKING anyway. 

As per usual when we visit TSUN, we walked across the Grove headed for the Union and a cup of bitter coffee. As we were walking, I mentioned to Miss M that 50 years ago James Meredith became a student at Ole Miss. We chatted about subsequent EVENTS.

An unpleasant turn of EVENTS.

Are you ready

for some football? Folks around here sure are!

This week's newspaper included the Three County Football Guide 2012.

It took us a while to learn how to spell 'Oktibbeha.'

Sixteen colorful pages of analyses, schedules, introductions, and advertisements. 16!

Page 16 really cracked us up.

FIRE! (Updated with minor edits)

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education has awarded Mississippi State University the 'Green Light' rating for MSU's free speech policies. I'm pleased to report that That School Up North also has a FIRE green light. So here in Mississippi we have two, of only 15 colleges and universities in the United States of America, which protect-- and dare I say? promote-- free speech. 

Keep reading to see the full list. Most surprising-- to me... .* 

Clarification

I need to take a second and make sure we are all on the same page here. Reader Aggie, from Shoestring Manor (located in the the southern part of Our State), said something in the comments to a recent post & I replied:

This is Our State!

Signs of the time

I still can't get over that remark from one of our employees. She characterized us-- the citizens of the Hospitality State-- as "disgusting and shameful." She's entitled (isn't everyone) to her opinion, but I think it's ill-mannered to talk this way about your employers.

I was disappointed that there were so many weeds (not pictured) in the flower beds at TSUN.

As I mentioned, we traveled today to That School Up North (TSUN), located in Oxford, Mississippi (not to be confused with the real Oxford). I didn't purposefully go looking for evidence to the contrary-- that we are not disgusting & shameful-- but after reviewing the photos I took, that's what I found. We are neither disgusting nor shameful. (I think there are some grammatical issues in what she said, but it was a Twitter post.)

Granted, TSUN & Oxford are... how to say this?... different from the rest of Mississippi so we shouldn't be too quick to generalize, but still, that's what I found. 

B&N serves Starbuck coffee. I don't care for Starbucks coffee. But it's hardly disgusting. I will say the student body at TSUN used to dress better than they do these days. I guess it's a sign of the times that they look remarkably like State students.

Walk this way.

Champion

 Zoom in. It says, "[T]he heartwood is resistant to deterioration." 

There should be no shame in growing old. That's a normative claim. 

There's a bench beneath the tree.

Loyal Rebel.

I could be wrong about this, but I don't think it's shameful to be loyal to rebellious cause, is it? 

Especially when you have a Creed.

Class of 2005

Disgusting and shameful-- to Believe in Respect, Fairness, Civility, Integrity, Honesty, Freedom, Stewardship.

I make fun of TSUN a lot. But it's a good school.

Lyceum below.

Dawg tired

Just back from Oxford Town and That School Up North (TSUN). Fun as always except for the New Jersey drivers.

Before we left for the Farm, we had a drink upstairs at City Grocery with the TSUN gang. Which reminds me... .

My new issue of Garden & Gun came at some point in my life after Missy came into my Big Life, four weeks ago today! Both Mr. Big Food and I were amused to see that City Grocery's bar was named the #1 "Writers' Retreat" in the 50 Best Southern Bars feature article. I have no physical or mental desire to fetch my hard copy of the magazine right now, so I'll quote the on-line version of what G&G has to say about City Grocery:

City Grocery Bar in Oxford, Mississippi
Faulkner’s gone, but Oxford writers still need whiskey. Enter City Grocery Bar, a magnet for both visiting literati and a prodigious crop of local talent. At this dark second-story spot, bartenders pour grown-up drinks, says chef-owner John Currence. “And those soothe the demons in a writer’s soul.” citygroceryonline.com

Faulkner's gone but you wouldn't know it if you'd ever spent time in Oxford, Mississippi. He lingers everywhere. Even I have a stupid pamphlet in the guest room-- right under  the NRA Basic Pistol Shooting booklet-- about Faulkner and that place he lived. Some people are interested in this sort of crappy old stuff. I try to be a good hostess.

We don't eat dinner at City Grocery as frequently as do our TSUN friends, but Mr. Big Food has been eating at City Grocery for as long as two of them have, 

Everything's fine!

Dogs are fine. Seeds are fine.

We have company. Company's fine!

I'll be back.

P.s. Goin' to Oxford, Mississippi to visit That School Up North tomorrow. Should be fine.

The Town Up North That Keeps On Giving

TTUNTKOG (topics I can post about) is where TSUN (Ole Miss) is located.

North Mississippi Commentor passes along news that the Oxford (Mississippi) Film Festival lineup has been announced. 

It's not really my sort of thing, however, these short documentaries sound interesting:

Back in Oxford (Mississippi), Dir. Jordan Berger; A student documentary exploring the underground rap culture in Oxford, MS. An interesting view of this small town, told through a lens many people are not familiar with. WORLD PREMIERE

The Beacon (Mississippi), Dir. Camilla Ann Aikin; The Beacon is the story of a 52 year old diner, an Oxford, Mississippi institution. It is a place full of colorful characters and stories, fiercely loyal customers and employees, and deep ties to the South’s complicated past. WORLD PREMIERE.

Proud Larry’s In Between the Scenes (Mississippi), Dir. Zachary Scott Thompson. Proud Larry’s is a great window into the Oxford Scene’s past and in its future.  This short film highlights past memories of Oxford music scene veterans as well as those who are shaping the scene today. The music featured is provided by Oxford’s own Balance. WORLD PREMIERE.

Sonny (UK), Dir. Sophie Smith, The historic Mississippi River town of Helena in the Arkansas Delta, has been the home of the longest running blues radio show in the world. The King Biscuit Time blues show, which began in 1941 has featured ‘Sunshine’ Sonny Payne as the DJ since 1951… WORLD PREMIERE.

To Live and Die in Avoyelles Parish (Mississippi), Dir. Joe York. The latest documentary from the Southern Foodways Alliance details a different hog-roasting celebration: the Cochon de Lait Festival. The annual Mother’s Day tradition sees some 30-odd hogs hoisted up on metal racks that resemble giant coat hangers and cooked for several hours near a roaring blaze. The results, named for the suckling pigs that often are used in the recipe, are tender white flesh encased in the crispy skin known as “cracklin.’”

 The Oxford Film Festival is February 9-12, 2012.

Public Service Announcement

 Background for those unfamiliar with concealed carry permits:

Mississippi is a "shall issue" state, meaning that provided an applicant meets certain age (21) and law-abiding citizen criteria (as reviewed by applicant's county sheriff and ultimately determined by the Federal Bureau of Investigation), the Mississippi Department of Public Safety (DPS) must issue a Firearms Permit which allows the citizen to carry a concealed handgun. Note that a permit is not needed to have weapons in one's home, vehicle, or place of business. Note also that there are restrictions. Firearms are not permitted in government buildings, restaurants that serve alcohol, or on university campuses (see below for more on this issue), to name a few. 

~~

Unbeknownst to me-- and I'll bet many other Mississippians-- earlier this year Governor Barbour signed into law House Bill 506 which permits concealed carry in previously restricted places, provided that the firearms permit holder takes an eight-hour class on safety and state law regarding firearms carry. From the NRA-ILA web site:

"a person licensed under Section 45-9-101 to carry a concealed pistol, who has voluntarily completed an instructional course in the safe handling and use of firearms offered by an instructor certified by a nationally recognized organization that customarily offers firearms training, or by any other organization approved by the Department of Public Safety, shall also be authorized to carry weapons in courthouses, except in courtrooms during a judicial proceeding, and any location listed in subsection (13) of Section 45-9-101, except any place of nuisance as defined in Section 95-3-1, any police, sheriff or highway patrol station or any detention facility, prison or jail.  The department shall promulgate rules and regulations allowing concealed pistol permit holders to obtain an endorsement on their permit indicating that they have completed the aforementioned course and have the authority to carry in these locations."  [My emphasis]

The "nationally recognized organization" is undoubtedly the NRA, which much as I dislike it, serves a useful function at least at the local level. 

Read more about HB506 and its implementation here.

Here is the list of Enhanced Permit Certified Firearms Instructors at the Mississippi DPS website.

[h/t Y'all Politics for linking to this Clarion Ledger article]

Some of the comments on the article at the Clarion-Ledger highlight the stupidity of the anti-gun crowd lack of critical thinking on the part of opponents to concealed carry. One notes that a lot of "emotionally charged" activities, child custody hearings and the like, happen at courthouses. True enough. But let's think this through. Bubba and Bubbette are fighting over custody of their seven youngins. Neither can legally take a gun into the courtroom where the hearing takes place even if they have enhanced carry permits. With or without a permit, enhanced or not, they both have to leave their guns in their respective trucks. Recall that Mississippians do not need permits to have guns in their vehicles. If Bubba wanted to shoot Bubbette after the hearing, he'd have to leave the courthouse, go to his truck and retrieve his gun. Again, he could do this even if he had no permit at all. How exactly does HB506 change this scenario? It doesn't.

Also, a lot of pretty mundane activities take place at courthouses. We vote, pay property taxes, and renew car tags at ours. Not a lot of emotion attached to these. Why shouldn't law-abiding citizens be armed when they renew their tags?

More to the point, the anti-gun commenters fail to appreciate the character of concealed carry permit holders. An FBI background check is non-trivial. A person who has passed one is known to have never-- that's never-- committed a felony of any sort, been convicted of any-- that's any-- drug offense, and has no criminal history of abuse. 

The front and back of a business card from the group, Ohioans for Concealed Carry. Although designed for another purpose, it makes my point nicely.

(Aside: On Black Friday, the FBI processed a one-day all time high number of background checks: 129,166.)

Restaurant and bar carry is another topic that got the commenters' knickers in a knot. Alcohol and firearms co-exist quite peacefully in many homes, why do these folks assume they can't do the same at Applebees? Because they aren't thinking about Applebees and a zillion other places that serve alcohol along with food. They are thinking about bars where they get drunk. 

If you are ever in this argument with an anti-gunner, ask him or her this, "Have you ever been in a drunken bar fight?" 
 
The likely answer will be, "No." 

Follow up with this, "Neither have I. Now, imagine-- imagine just for a second-- you were armed in a bar, would you pull out your gun and shoot someone if your life was not in danger?" 

The likely answer will be, "No!" 

Follow up, "Then why do you think I will?"

Keep reading for thoughts on campus carry. Hint: there are more over-21 grownups on campuses than there are under-21 crazy kids.  

Garden & Gun

Garden & Gun is a very pretty glossy magazine which doesn't devote nearly enough pages to gardens or guns but does present the Rural South positively. It's better than Southern Living, which was once good and is now just... .

I love this magazine. My wonderful mother-in-law saw an issue at her hairdressers in Georgetown and bought me a subscription. My mother in Greensboro collects back issues and saves them for me. They know me well. I love this magazine.

The November-December issue features a fellow, Mike Stewart, who raises and trains huntin' dogs-- he's now branched out into training dogs who can detect low blood sugar in diabetics.

“I’m a retired cop,” Stewart says, as he walks me toward a line of kennels on the property. “Seven years with the Oxford, Mississippi, police department, then eighteen as chief of police at Ole Miss. But I’ve been piddling around training dogs as long as I can remember. I’ve always loved dogs—and training them. I trained my first Lab, Pepper, in 1972. Sold her in 1973. Great dog.”

Good Lord! Those folks up in Oxford are awful smart, aren't they? "Piddling" around with raising dogs that he sells for $10,000 or more.

He sounds like a regular guy, though. Read the whole thing. 

~~

Mr. Big Food noted the other day that no one from around here refers to TSUN as "The University of Mississippi." No one. It's Ole Miss, thank you very much.

Egg Bowl Morning After

It's raining like crazy here. If we'd stayed for the game, we'd be confronting it, driving home, about now.  We went to the tailgate, chatted, took some pictures, ate, chatted, chatted with Daughter C., chatted some more, gave away our tickets, left, and came home. 

This was about 3pm. Very quiet & subdued.

I believe that I've mentioned that I hate my camera.

Bruno & I had a nice conversation about stripes.

Egg Bowl Morning Predictions

1. I predict I will see a lot of this over-priced stuff today, and that the more I think about the relationship between Big Business and Big College Sports, the more ticked off I will become.

You can't get to the Athletics page without going past this advertisement.

2. I predict the "highly-anticipated" matchup has a fair chance of turning out to be not all that good a game.

I predict by the end of the evening, one of these two teams will have a(nother) conference win.

Let's not forget that TSUN's coach and athletic director are gone after this game. And the Dawg's coach called last week's game "worst ever." Enthusiasm. 

3. I predict the chicken wings Mr. Big Food will drop off at the tailgate at 2:30pm (before the roads on campus are closed) will be gone before you can say, "Best chicken wings ever."

4. I predict by the end of the evening, many people will be miserable, despite what the score will be. From the National Weather Service:

[Keep reading for two more predictions.]

Oxford Updates (label: "silly stuff")

Courtesy of North Mississippi Commentor

The food desert that is Oxford has a new restaurant on The Square.

And this, that I'll just copy, paste and link:

This just in.

The Ole Miss Alumni Association
is exploring the idea…

…of establishing an “on campus” memorial to honor proud alumni and friends. Throughout our history, Ole Miss has touched many individuals and created a proud and vibrant extended community. And while our school has helped shape the lives of those in pursuit of knowledge, it’s the people themselves who have made Ole Miss truly special.

Inspired by the devotion of our alumni and friends, we are considering the establishment of a small, on-campus memorial garden that would feature a columbarium containing the cremated remains of interested individuals. This permanent memorial would honor those who hold our school so dear to their hearts and give them a special place on our campus. We envision a peaceful garden landscape, complete with strolling walkways and reflection benches. Space in the columbarium would be available for purchase in advance of an individual’s passing. [My emphasis]

Read the whole thing. The comments are fun.