One of the prettiest towns you'll ever come across.
It's not a trick...They named it after Oxford, England as part of a successful effort to have the University of Mississippi located in the town.
Ole Miss was founded there in 1848. Bones (not the actor :) ) from Star Trek is an alum, John Grisham, Charlie's Angle Kate Jackson...the school's produced three Miss America's...
and of course William Faulkner was a student there.
The school also produced The University Greys*, Company A of the 11th Mississippi Infantry...only 4 students showed up for class in 1861 after secession.
The other 135, along with much of the faculty, enlisted. They suffered 100% casualties during the war...that's everybody either killed or wounded. Got farther than anybody during Pickets Charge...and paid dearly for it. Gen Barksdale was killed on the second day of the battle leading his men from the front. One dumbfounded yankee was overheard saying "we don't have officers like that." Damn right they didn't...they were past-masters in burning and raping things...and slaughtering Indians though.
Ole Miss is a fine academic institution but, more importantly it's the home of The Ole Miss Rebels**...founding members of the SEC. It's been about 60 years since they were dominant force on the field....but, off the field, in The Grove, they're still champs.
"Don't win many football games but, they've never lost a party." ***
Lots of music around Oxford. It's the home of Fat Possum Records...R.L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough territory. The Silver Jews and Modest Mouse have recorded records there...Johnny Marr used to have a house there.
Books...Books and more Books...
Square Books is annually rated as one of the best privately owned bookstores in the country (along with Lemuria in Jackson...we are book lovers)...it's even too big for one store...
It's just a pretty place.
Grenada (that's Gre-nay-duh in Mississippi) is not really that pretty of a place but, I like it all the same. Had business in Kosciusko...so I stayed there Wed. night.
I ate my supper here...
Looks great...sorriest BBQ I ever had south of the Ohio River...pulled pork straight from a bucket. I've had better pork in a school cafeteria...place should be shutdown by the cops.
Should've eaten here...
or maybe here...
Anywhere but High on the Hog.
Anyway fortunately I made it home in time to see this...
Next week...Baton Rouge.
*That's GrEys...we spelled words correctly down here until after the war. Evidently a part of being reconstructed was learning a peculiar New England way of spelling English words.
**Let's not go there for now.
*** Sorry Jenny Q, Sister...I'll make it up to you after my next trip to Starkville.
Yes Adam hates the Fall (i.e. rocknroll)...hate's my MS paint masterpieces...makes my wife laugh at me but, he is a swanky dresser and you can't really help who your friends are any more than you can your family.
This is like a card y'all...sign it.
I may be a little off on the days...but it's somewhere around in here.
In the continuing effort to smarten up The Sisters poncey tea party (and to keep her from running her friends off with Level 42 and Simply Red) we offer the 80's UK side...
Side: Ponce
1. Tainted Love - Soft Cell
2. It's My Life - Talk Talk
3. Love Plus One - Haircut 100
4. Rio - Duran Duran
Should Be...
That **** is WIZARD!
5. Material Girl - Madonna
Her moment...all down hill from that point on.
In between themed toddler birthday parties, running marathons and working at a non-profit..The Sister gets together with a Supper Club.
It's her turn to host this month. Never one to leave a bad idea alone when it can easily be made so much worse...she has decided to give her night an 80s theme. My brother-in-law rightfully dreads this, not as a one-off but, as a challenge to the rest of the club. You can just see it in his face when she talks about it...this is all leading to a night some months from now when he'll be forced to talk like a pirate if he wants the salt.
For her it's an excuse to indulge in her favorite delusion...the 80's According to S****t...by making a mixed CD (shouldn't that really be a tape?). Thursday night, after supper, we sat around the table and listened as she explained which bands and songs were being considered...the fist troubling omission between all the Level 42 and Huey Lewis was Berlin.
How can you put a new wavish/80's compilation together without The Metro?
Then she balked at Haircut 100!
My own personal 80's list would consist only of a Fall side and a Prince side...but for her purposes, as vague and sketchy as they were turning out to be, how can you exclude Love Plus One???
"Well," she says, "I love those songs but, my taste in music is a little more, you know, sophisticated than most"...most what? 8 year olds.
Then she screwed up her face at Don't You Forget About Me. The song hits me like a bad smell too, but it is The Breakfast Club and she's throwing an 80's themed party drenched in day-glow and tied with a scrunchy...the decision's not really her's to make.
Obviously she needs help..and as y'all know, because I've told you so many times, I am nothing if not a loving and doting brother. As always...I'm here to help.
Here is your list lil Sister...it might not rise to the esoteric levels of sophistication you're comfortable with...but It'll be a hit.
We'll break into sides...keeping with the theme.
Side: Bougie
1. The Metro - Berlin
2. Head Over Heels - Go Gos
This really is one of my favorites.
3. Kids in America - Kim Wilde
4. Shake It Up - The Cars
5. B52's - 52 Girls
I know I know...but you tell me which decade it's most comfortable in.
6. Devo - Whip IT
7. The Waitresses - I Know What Boys Like
8. Stray Cat's - Rock This Town
9. Joan Jett & The Blackhearts - I Love RocknRoll
10. When Doves Cry - Prince
Y'all feel free to make your own suggestions...she really needs the help.
Six in the morning I'm at Bedi's Texaco inhaling an Iced Texas-Sized Honey Bun. Then with my faced stuffed like a gerbil hoarding seed I squeezed a cigarette in between my cheeks...I had to get one more before the coffee went cold.
It's Refreshment Sunday...not Gluttony Sunday, but bet...at 11:59 and 30 seconds I was frantically chewing a mouthful of M&Ms tryin' to get 'em down before midnight.
Just sad...and wrong.
Somehow I don't think this kind of excess, or legalism, has anything to do with Lent.
Of course I'm not much better while fasting. I've limited myself to 15 cigarettes a day...and what do I do? I smoke halfs...quarters. See it's OK if I go out for a sixteenth time 'cause I only smoked a half of the last one. Sad...it's not like I normally pull on 'em til I can taste the filter. By the time Easter gets here I'll be carrying a ruler around in my pocket...by smoking 3/4 of each cigarette I can actually step out three more times...six if I only smoke a half each time.
That's pathetic man.
Then, in light of the lenten fasts, there's my normal sketchy behavior and the questions that raises. If I was only required to love my neighbor as myself for 40 days a year I could probably find some sneaky way of pulling it off, but for the rest of my life....awwww come on. Yet isn't this what I've pledged to try and do just as surely as I've agreed to lay off the sweets for lent? I mean I wouldn't think of stopping by the donut shop this afternoon....well that's not true...I'll be thinking about it...A LOT, but I wouldn't dare do it because I've said I wouldn't.
But let some old lady pay for her groceries with a check in front of me at the store. I'll spend that twenty minutes fantasizing about elaborate scenarios in which she get's a flat tire on the way home...that's just mean. Yesterday at a light...there was a fella going from car to car beggin' for money. All I could think was please don't bother me dood...and then when the light went green and I had to wait while the lady in front of me dug around for a dolla to give 'im...I got uhhmm...a little impatient.
I know not every one of these beggars is legitimate. There's a fella at Waffle House on High Street that's been beggin' for twenty years...just tryin' to get enough money for a bus ticket to Baton Rouge where his cousin lives. That's not the point though...I coulda given that fella a dollar and I certainly could have not gotten so bent about having to wait three seconds at a green light.
Probably more important than me not eating a Honey Bun this afternoon...
Idiot Flickr has changed it's sharing function...and this is the result. A random picture on my blog...well, it isn't exactly random. It is from my account and it is another MS Paint Masterpiece.
