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My Hardest Job

Being a writer has nothing on being a stay-at-home dad. I didn't know what being tired at the end of day was like until I started staying home with my daughter.

Lit Highlights September 2014

Fall might mean football season to a lot of people, but the conscientious bookworm knows changing leaves mean that your favorite bookstores are changing their shelves.

WestJXN Porchfest Sunday on Robinson Road

Kimberly Hilliard, executive director of community engagement at Jackson State University, is partnering with Hope Enterprise Corporation and residents of west Jackson to host WestJXN Porchfest on Sunday, Oct. 28.

[Stauffer] A River Running Through It

The LeFleur Lakes project will be something that Jackson talks about for some time to come. Originally the brainchild of developer and engineer John McGowan, the "Two Lakes" project, as it�s often called, is a plan to dredge a canal in the bed of the Pearl River and then flood the river to create what (arguably) could be called two lakes—an upper and a lower, with the dividing line somewhere around LeFleur's Bluff Park. Some supporters tout the project as a miracle solution to Jackson's problems—or, at least, the flooding and economic development woes. With waterfront lapping up to the outskirts of downtown and all along the eastern edge of Jackson, people will flock back to Jackson and once again fill the city's tax coffers, they say.

Deep Awareness

In the fall of 1991, Deborah Harris, then 39, picked up a couple of muffalettas for lunch from a local restaurant in Shreveport, La. She went downtown to the rooftop of the First United Methodist Church to meet her new beau, David Dykes, then 48. Anxious about his leaving town that afternoon, a strange feeling started to come over Deborah as they ate and exchanged a few kisses on the rooftop. When they were done eating, David drove Deborah back to her office at Southern University, only a block away.

[Gregory] ‘Mom, What Did You Do?'

Recently, at a flea market in a town a little south of here, I dug into a bin of old newspapers and found a copy of the Jackson Daily News printed 35 years ago to the exact date. Besides reinforcing all my superstitious beliefs, I decided that there was a reason I was led to this exact spot, in this exact time, to read this paper. That may seem a little strange to some of you, but I watch enough bad horror and am just Catholic enough to hold on to a whole barrel of irrational beliefs concerning fate, destiny and black cats—and I actually own two black cats.

Making The Connection

In my 10 years of living in California, I never once heard anyone play the "Name Game" with another Californian. Yet, within my first day back in Mississippi, I was part of a conversation that takes place in thousands of variations on any given day around here.

Capitol Report

Dr. Warren Jones, the executive director for the Division of Medicaid, held a press conference Monday and sent Gov. Haley Barbour a letter saying that he regrets to inform everyone that Medicaid only has enough money to benefit its beneficiaries until March 11. That's it.

Here Comes Da Judge

Damn, it's time for more Morgan-Quitno rankings. The last time we got dinged, it was for being the 10th most dangerous city, based on 2001 crime statistics and released last fall (and reported by daily media this spring as if they had just come out). In this round, though, the Lawrence, Kan.-based book publishers have the state of Mississippi in its sights. (Didn't that town learn anything about needless agitating back in frontier times?) This hellhole of a state we live in, it seems, is the 14th most dangerous, our second-worst ranking ever. We were more dangerous in 1999 (13th) and hit our safety peak in 1994 (the first year of the rankings). And, after all, Vermont is the safest state, and we wouldn't want to rank anywhere near them wussy-butts, even if they do, too, appreciate the right to arm bears, er, bear arms.

A Long, Long Road

"Donna, you know what? I run Jackson," declared Mayor Frank Melton, scrunching his face up into one of his trademark snickers that are cute and creepy at the same time. "I do it in a weird way, but I run Jackson."

Tale of Two Downtowns

What step to take next will be a huge question for 2003. We could be going nowhere, or at least a relatively short distance—after all, we're in a recession, Mississippi's telecom industry is "retrenching," and the prospect of war may change local and national goverment priorities significantly.

[Tisserand] Submerged

New Orleans is gone. I left it behind me on Saturday, with my two kids in the backseat, the soundtrack to "Shrek" on the CD player.

Syria Truce Collapse Shows Limits of Diplomacy

Syria's air force fired missiles and dropped barrel bombs on rebel strongholds while opposition fighters attacked regime positions Sunday, flouting a U.N.-backed cease-fire that was supposed to quiet fighting over a long holiday weekend but never took hold.

Times Columnist on the New Evangelicals

Regardless, this evangelical shift should be noticed ... and applauded, I would add.

In a way, it was great to see the New York Times' Nick Kristof write about the changes that have hit the evangelical movement in this country—specifically the move away from telling women what to do with their bodies and adults what to do in the bedroom toward issues that, well, seem to follow the teachings of Jesus a bit closer like alleviating poverty, protecting the earth ("creation care") and fighting the AIDS epidemic. But the remarkable part is that this column is written as if he just figured this out. (Guess he hasn't been listening to Speaking of Faith religiously every Sunday morning, eh?) And that says a whole lot about the New York media elite—they tend to be clueless about what is happening in the rest of the country, and they still make proclamations on behalf of the rest of us. (I recall that yuck David Brooks using a town just across Maryland in Pennsylvania a few years back as an example of crossing the meatloaf line into "red" America, for instance.)

Hometown Candidate

When Courtney Walker was 14, one of the local TV channels came to his central Jackson neighborhood and interviewed him. The focus of the story was crime, as it is with many stories on the tube about Jackson.

Yes, It Was That Bad

"I've alluded to it here and there, but it wasn't until this year, when we decided to focus the Chick Ball on sexual assault, that I knew it was my turn to come out, so to speak."

EDITOR'S NOTE: As You Vote, Recall the Blackjacks Hitting Mrs. Hamer’s Back

"(Fannie Lou Hamer) came up in a Mississippi where white leaders, including former Confederate generals immortalized as heroes, had worked diligently in the years before her birth to make sure that Black people could not enjoy the fruits of emancipation."

VA Hospital Director Says Troubles are in the Past

The new director of the veterans' hospital in Jackson is struggling to change perceptions of the institution as members of Congress and a government oversight office pursue investigations into misconduct.

Leader of Mexico's Zetas Drug Cartel Captured

Miguel Angel Trevino Morales, the notoriously brutal leader of the feared Zetas drug cartel, was captured before dawn Monday in the first major blow against an organized crime leader by a Mexican administration struggling to drive down persistently high levels of violence, officials announced.

Young and Restless, by David Chilton

Two years ago I went to an all-ages show at Musiquarium. As I entered Banner Hall, I heard this massive buzz from upstairs. My jaw dropped when I entered MQ, because there were well over a hundred kids packed in the room, jumping up and down to a heavy riff scratched out by a handful of fans who were no more than 16.

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