Tallulah the Wonder Cat plays fetch, and can figure out that she has to go to the other room when she bats the toy under a door—a sure sign of abstract reasoning. The Magnificent Valentino leaps into my arms after my shower to luxuriate in the hot, steamy towel. He never jumps up unless invited. But does my cats’ behavior indicate intelligence, or are they simply automatons?
more...
For years now, Todd and I have delightfully referred to the delightful creature as just “Don Potts’ horse.” And Little River is definitely a miniature horse, and most certainly not a “pony.” Now that we’ve moved to Fondren, my morning walking routes are planned around visits to Little River, as I’ve learned the horse is called. And I even got special permission from mom Becky to give Little River a wedge of organic apple from Rainbow divided into thirds at certain times. Let’s just say that Little River isn’t quite as stand-offish anymore to Big Donna.
more...
by Kelly Bryan Smith
Photo by Christi Vivar
April 9, 2008
OK, you’ve ditched the bottled water habit, unplugged all your home electronics when they’re not in use, and started a compost pile in your back yard. Pat yourself on the back for making the effort to get greener at home. But don’t forget that some of your biggest waste may actually be at work.
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by Margaret Cahoon
Photo by Darren Schwindaman
April 9, 2008
“Sometimes we have to be judged on our one-offs,” wrote Nick Hornby—one of, say, five novelists writing since 1900 whom Lunch Lady reads regularly—in “How to Be Good.” His narrator doesn’t see herself as the kind of person who would end her marriage on a cell phone but, because she has done just that, she considers that perhaps this is the kind of thing you don’t get to do over.
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Those rascals in the Greater Belhaven “There Goes the Neighborhood” Association plan on holding their annual “White Trash Bash” as soon as it gets warm enough to wear a wife-beater. Before long, the middle stretch of Poplar Boulevard will fill with the odors of heart-hindering foods cooking over carbon footprints.
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Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping are coming to town for the Crossroads Film Festival, bringing with them a message against rampant consumerism. Billy, also known as William Talen, 47, is joining his wife Savitri D and Jackson native Derrick McGinty in preaching against what he mirthlessly calls the “Shopocalypse,” the slow death of the planet through humanity’s incessant desire to buy more stuff.
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This feature documentary follows the Christmas tour of Reverend Billy and the Stop Shopping Choir, a group that traveled the country to use humor, spirituality and song to get Americans to stop shopping. Through sing-ins and protests in colleges and malls across America, the group encourages Americans to consider where their Christmas presents are made, and to stop the “Shopocalypse” by buying fewer and simpler goods that are made in the USA. The intentions of the filmmaker were excellent: Reverend Billy has an important message, and the tour was a terrific adventure. more...
It’s springtime in Jackson. The days are getting longer, the birds louder, and the shirt sleeves shorter. For the diehard baseball fans among us, this can only mean one thing: Only a week remained before the Mississippi Braves’ first home game at Trustmark Park on April 8.
more...
by Caroline Crawford
Photos by Nate Glenn
March 26, 2008
Roller-derby mania has come to Jackson, with all its brash and violent style and panache. It’s a DIY sport that’s as much about show as it is about skill. Maretta Allen, 27, is a Capitol City Roller Girl who agreed to show us the accoutrement—and the attitude—it takes to step into the role and skates of “Rowdy Reeta Ricochet.” She and her Jackson team, 8 Wheeled Mafia, take on the West Texas Roller Dollz in Jackson’s first flat track derby bout at Kroger Gymnasium at Tougaloo College, March 29 at 8 p.m., $10. Visit http://www.capitalcityrolrollerderby.commore...
The Jackson Free Press recently asked our bloggers and online readers to come up with their picks for the greatest sports heroes of all time from our state. The thread got passionate, and it got ugly. Insults flew. A couple people stormed out.
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by Jesse Yancy
Photo by Christi Vivar
March 26, 2008
Any kitchen’s larder should include butter among its basic oils: Without butter, cakes lose their savor, eggs can’t find their flavor, and breads just get lost.
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Crunching the state’s numbers from last week’s primaries shows that something is happening in Mississippi. The question is: Will the Obama Effect linger in the state, creating a new political landscape? more...
What’s on your mind this election year? As the national media focus on the presidential horse race, and who’s sprinting ahead, chances are good that these issues will crop up.
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by Margaret Cahoon
Photo by Darren Schwindaman
March 19, 2008
In some cities, storefronts are full, and any time one business vacates, there is another one on its heels to take over. In other places, storefronts stay empty for years and fall into disrepair, and the vacancy seems more like an epidemic than an opportunity. The restaurant scene in downtown Jackson seems to be tilting toward the former lately, which is great news for local diners.
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by Kelly Bryan Smith
Photo by Melissa Webster
March 19, 2008
One major solution to the problem of global warming is making small changes in our own homes. A multitude of things—cars, factories, power plants—heavily contribute to global-warming pollution. We’ve heard a lot about driving less, changing our light bulbs, recycling. Even our weekly grocery trips have come under scrutiny. We’ve talked about the importance of incorporating organic and locally grown foods into our diets. But the issue is bigger than that. A major contributor to global warming is … the cow.
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Professional herpetologist Terry Vandeventer has been studying snakes for 50 years and is Mississippi’s foremost expert on snakes (Mississippi, alone, has 55 indigenous species). Vandeventer is a crusader against the flood of misconceptions about snakes, and bears the mantle of the Mississippi Wildlife Federation’s Conservation Educator of the Year in 2006 for in his efforts to stomp out the wriggly little lies surrounding reptiles.
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by JoAnne Prichard Morris
Photo by Sage Carter-Hooey
March 12, 2008
Can’t get enough of Mal’s St. Paddy’s Parade? Continue the party at home, and have another Mal-athon on your dining room table. You need only to create a krewe of broccoli stalks marching on a street paved with split peas and red beans—and, presto, you’ve got a green parade. This year’s theme celebrates nutrition and health. (Stick the broccoli in candle holders or use pin frogs.)
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by Michele Baker
Photo by Melissa Webster
March 12, 2008
Mark McCrary, executive director of the Mississippi Center for Nonprofits and enthusiastic St. Paddy’s Day celebrant, grew up eating potatoes—the most Irish of vegetables. His mother no doubt used them because potatoes are not only nutritious and inexpensive, but can be cooked in endless ways. Mark was kind enough to share his mother’s recipes for scalloped potatoes and ham, and Irish coffee.
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by Lori Gregory
Photo by Melissa Webster
March 12, 2008
For the past three months I’ve been stuck inside the four walls of my house, braving this new-fangled “southern winter” we’re experiencing, and I am bored. I’m dying in here. I’ve clung to the fact that the St. Paddy’s Parade is only a few days away. I know that, on that day, everyone will once again leave their homes—suspiciously tan—dressed in anything but dull winter clothes. I crave this day every year. The day after the parade? Not so much.
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If you can’t find anything green in your closet, a green drink could be your best defense against pinchers ready to pounce on their non-green companions. You can add green food dye to pretty much anything and make it festive, but to be truly St. Paddy’s ready, try a more organically green cocktail. Below are some recipes that will suit any taste, and if not, I hear absinthe’s legal now.
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by Ian Williams
Photo by Maggie Burks
March 12, 2008
This St. Patrick’s Day, forget the artificially green light beer, and pick up a real Irish beer. The Irish have been brewing beer since at least the 12th century, so you can figure they are good at it. Beer generally falls into one of two categories: lagers and ales. But Irish beer has one more category: stout, or porter.
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by Margaret Cahoon
Photo by Darren Schwindaman
March 5, 2008
Lunch Lady’s friends hear it all the time: Lunch Lady’s getting too old for this. Too old for what, you ask? And for what, short of wearing footie pajamas, could a 24-year-old be too old? Well, Lunch Lady is too old to go out with her friends, watch them drink too much, wait around until they’re ready to go home, and then follow them here and there to make sure they’re not making regrettable decisions. This isn’t college anymore, folks. (Well, maybe it is for some of you.)
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by Kelly Bryan Smith
Photo by Drew Ford
March 5, 2008
With the current bottled-water craze, millions of Americans are paying more money per gallon for water than for gasoline, even though most cities charge less than 1 cent per gallon for municipal water. If you incorporate a few daily changes, and figure out how to filter your own tap water, you can get all the benefits of water without the high cost—and save the environment from all that additional plastic.
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by Ari Glogower
Photo by Bill McCarty
March 5, 2008
What do you do when you’re not sure? This question looms over New Stage Theater’s production of John Patrick Shanley’s 2005 Pulitzer Prize-winning “Doubt,” but don’t expect any easy answers.
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Thousands of operas exist in dozens of languages, but the Mississippi Opera selected a classic masterwork by Verdi for their next production, “The Marriage of Figaro,” and they’ll be doing it in English.
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On a Tuesday night, six members of Trill’Agy, a Jackson hip-hop dance troupe, goof off in a dance studio on Hattiesburg Street. The six young men, mostly high school students, are with their coach Bridget Archer and a few women from the Bridget Archer Performing Arts Company, or B.P.A.C. They’re practicing for an upcoming Black History Month performance. To the sound of old-school hip-hop breaks, the dancers face the studio’s long mirror and play a version of “follow the leader,” each taking a turn improvising steps and poses. By the time the music stops, everyone is winded and laughing.
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Apr 10, 08 | 1:48 pm The Animals We Love ladd: But, Lori, I had to catch the little bugger. And he was tiny, once.
;-)...
Apr 10, 08 | 12:33 pm The Animals We Love Lori G: He wouldn’t let me touch him, but loved the canned food I gave him on the doorstep.
I totallly blame you for his response to "diet food". He's somewhere in the neighborhood of 23lbs at this point. He requires a good "bending of the knees...
Apr 04, 08 | 1:35 pm So You Wanna Be A Roller Girl? KudzuQueen: I was interviewed by the JaxFreePress 2 years ago for a story on Roller Derby. Never printed it I guess, I never saw it anyway.
I'm from Jax and live in Dallas and was a founding member of Assassination City Roller Derby here.
Need some advice?...
Apr 04, 08 | 10:09 am Shopocalypse Now! L.W.: Look at the debt that people incur because of corporations’ work on Christmas. The debt... is paid off later and later each spring. There are still people paying off Christmas right now. The average family spends four months paying off the...
Mar 28, 08 | 9:03 am The State’s Best Jocks L.W.: Robin Roberts “State bowling champ at age 10” – pikersam.
“Good Morning America” anchor who grew up in Pass Christian.
That's so cute. :-)...
Mar 27, 08 | 3:51 pm It's About Turnout, Stupid! Rex: ladd -- "Again, see the headline of this sidebar; it really is about turnout. Obama is going to turn out a s*** ton of voters who won't turn out otherwise. The evidence of this is everywhere."
Hmm... okay.
2008 Democratic primary turnout...
Mar 26, 08 | 11:26 pm Brave New Voice golden eagle '97: I met Ben at the USM-Ole Miss game Tuesday night (which USM won!) and he's a really cool guy. He has a great future ahead of him. ...
Mar 26, 08 | 9:35 pm It's About Turnout, Stupid! willdufauve: I'm not in the 18 to 29 demographic. I'm in the jaded, cynical 60 to 100 demographic. I haven't voted in the past 35 years or so, I'm not even registered, but I think I will for Obama. He's the first person in public life who has ever spoken as if...
Mar 26, 08 | 8:28 pm It's About Turnout, Stupid! Ronni M: My apologies for any errors or muddling of the numbers. I believe the SoS' "certified" numbers were not yet available at press time.
For my two cents worth, no one has commented on what may be the two factors that will make the most difference in...
Mar 26, 08 | 5:19 pm It's About Turnout, Stupid! ladd: Again, see the headline of this sidebar; it really is about turnout. Obama is going to turn out a s*** ton of voters who won't turn out otherwise. The evidence of this is everywhere.
As for the muddled numbers, the editors here are responsible...
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For years now, Todd and I have delightfully referred to the delightful creature as just “Don Potts’ horse.” And Little River is definitely a miniature horse, and most certainly not a “pony.” Now that we’ve moved to Fondren, my morning walking routes are planned around visits to Little River, as I’ve learned the horse is called. And I even got special permission from mom Becky to give Little River a wedge of organic apple from Rainbow divided into thirds at certain times. Let’s just say that Little River isn’t quite as stand-offish anymore to Big Donna.
by Kelly Bryan Smith
by Margaret Cahoon
by Jesse Yancy
by Adam Lynch
by Ari Glogower
by Caroline Crawford
by Jesse Yancy
by Margaret Cahoon
by Kelly Bryan Smith
by Adam Lynch
by JoAnne Prichard Morris
by Michele Baker
by Sage Carter-Hooey
by Lori Gregory
by Ian Williams
by Sage Carter-Hooey
by Margaret Cahoon
by Kelly Bryan Smith
by Ari Glogower
by Bailee Grissom
by Ward Schaefer
