Birney Imes
Editor & Publisher
Senior Management Department
birney@cdispatch.com

Recent Stories & Articles
Namaste from a hep cat  11/14/2009 8:29:00 PM
Just finished John Dufresne’s “Love Warps the Mind a Little,” a lively and humorous exploration of love and death. The book is almost too clever, but the longer you read the more you get drawn in. By the time I finished, I felt like a friend of the protagonist, Lafayette Proulx (Laf as he’s called in the book) and was sad to part company.

Cooking from the soul  10/31/2009 10:01:00 PM
“You have a Mr. Beauregard R. here to see you.” It was Felicia in the front office. Beauregard or “Beau” was in town visiting a friend and I’d invited them for lunch on Thursday. He lives in St. Augustine, Fla., and is a painter.

A call for unity  10/24/2009 8:34:00 PM
Our Wednesday editorial on name change at Mississippi University for Women has drawn a flurry of online responses from many of the usual suspects. In that editorial, we again urged lawmakers and the public to proceed with a name change and to go with Reneau University, the name chosen through a long and painstaking process.

Three encounters  10/18/2009 12:07:00 AM
Two sisters Sunday a week ago in front of the Catholic Church in the drizzling rain two Korean women were gathering the fruit from the Ginkgo trees lining College Street. The women are sisters. They live in Tuscaloosa. The older one is wearing gloves; the younger one is using tongs. They have just come from Reese Orchards in Sessums where they have been picking persimmons, a fruit popular with Asians.

Buxton has left the building  10/3/2009 8:32:00 PM
The man for whom a cliché was invented died last week in Las Vegas. His name was Buxton Williams, and not once in his 62 years did he meet a stranger.

Market conversations  9/26/2009 9:47:00 PM
Saturday morning Gordon Parker leaned against a battered blue pickup truck loaded with Vardaman sweet potatoes. Parker, a truck farmer who lives in Hamilton, grows peas, tomatoes, okra, corn, butter beans and two types of pole beans, Louisiana purple pod and rattlesnake, which he sells at the Hitching Lot Farmers’ Market.

Another step closer  9/20/2009 1:11:00 AM
Saturday, after the rains, Patricia McKinley sat on the porch of her house listening to music and visiting with her daughter and a handful of friends. McKinley has lived in the house all her 48 years. It belongs to her 84-year-old grandmother, who still lives there. Located at the corner of Coretta and Seventh Avenue North, the house is among a sprinkling of structures in this forgotten corner of the city that may give way for the proposed city park/soccer complex.

Listening to Olympia tell stories in Brenda's parlor  9/12/2009 9:02:00 PM
Olympia Dukakis says she only saw her father cry three times. When she was a teenager she asked him if she could get a job at the Dairy Queen. “No,” her father said, tears welling in his eyes. “Right now I want you to enjoy your youth. Don’t worry, you’ll work.”

Tan Yard Park  9/5/2009 8:20:00 PM
Sometimes all it takes is a picture. The most eagerly anticipated question of the just completed Columbus charrette was the recommendation on where to put the soccer complex the city and county want to build.

We were all cool and beautiful  8/22/2009 10:48:00 PM
This past weekend mine and Beth’s high school class — S.D. Lee High’s “Mighty Class of ‘69” — held its 40th reunion. We observed the usual roster of events: a Friday night gathering at Grahams’ Camphouse and Local History Museum (Jimmy and Jo Ann Graham are due much gratitude for sharing with the community this remarkable setting they’ve created.), a memorial service for classmates who have died and a Saturday night dance featuring Big Ben Atkins at the Country Club.

Embracing name change  8/8/2009 9:54:00 PM
Tomorrow on the campus of Mississippi University for Women an unveiling of sorts will take place. At a convocation service Monday morning MUW President Claudia Limbert is going to announce the school’s new name. Well, sort of, more like the hoped-for new name. The name Limbert will offer — decided after innumerable campus meetings, focus groups, marketing studies and much spirited debate in these and other opinion pages — is being touted as the choice of the campus community. But, as Limbert has said, this is a state issue, not a campus issue.

Finishing touch  8/1/2009 10:36:00 PM
Friday afternoon Raymond Griggs sits on an empty five-gallon lacquer thinner can under twin 100-year-old red oaks. The trees shade a corner of the Quonset hut where he has refinished and repaired antique furniture for more than a quarter of a century.

Words, plain and fancy  7/25/2009 9:25:00 PM
As a rule, I try to get going on this column by Friday night. I can sleep easier knowing it’s at least underway. This past Friday, though, I succumbed to the siren call of a rented movie and went to bed without having written a word.

Prickly ash bark, bear traps and Martha Stewart  7/18/2009
Years ago, on a walk in the woods with Kerry Pittman, we came upon a tree with spikey knotty bark. Kerry pulled out a large folding knife, expertly cut a piece of the bark and handed it to me.  ”Here, chew this,” he said. As I did, I felt my mouth go numb. “Toothache tree,” he said.

A Friday evening in July  7/11/2009
Pick an evening, say a Friday in July. Call a friend at 6 and ask him if he wants to meet you and your wife for Mexican food. He's single, an empty nester of sorts and is delighted. On the way in the restaurant, you run into a couple who is there for the 89th birthday of an uncle. (Happy birthday, Jim Ford).

The quest for unity  7/5/2009
Someone said the huge flag came from the Marble Works. It made a fine backdrop for the swearing in of seven men we’ve chosen to guide our city these next four years.

Higher ground  6/27/2009
Back in high school I had a couple of friends who found the sound of an ambulance siren irresistible. They loved the thrill of the chase and the sight of carnage. Morbid, I know. Not surprisingly, they both ended up working for funeral homes.

Our own Central Park  6/13/2009
Yes, I suppose we’ve all heard more than enough about Burns Bottom and the six soccer fields that seem destined to go there. Many have expressed outrage at the idea, and all I can say is let your supervisor and councilman know. Write us a letter or comment on a story or column on the subject — many of you have done that already.

Harry, this is a terrible idea  6/12/2009
Soccer moms and dads, before it’s too late — and it might already be too late — drive down to Burns Bottom. That’s the area just down the hill from Riverhill Chevron, the gas station/convenience store operated by Sanders Oil. At the station, turn off Main Street and go down the hill in the direction of the Hitching Lot, site of the Farmers’ Market.

Burns Bottom, come hell or high water  6/11/2009
Ever know anyone who when they make up their mind, it’s all over? End of discussion. Don’t confuse the issue with facts or logical arguments. I’ve made up my mind and that’s that.

Opening day  6/9/2009
It’s not every day one has the opportunity to take part in the launch of a new newspaper. Such was the case Monday when, after a three-month gestation, the first issue of The Starkville Dispatch became a reality shortly after 10 a.m.

Harry and Susan and the playing fields  6/7/2009
With less than a month to go in office, Susan Mackay desperately wants to see the realization of one of her political goals, the siting of a recreation complex on the 156 acres of Army Corps of Engineers land adjacent to the Riverwalk and just south of Highway 82.

A word from Coach Dillon  5/31/2009
Years ago one of our children had the good fortune to play summer baseball for Joe Dillon. In the 27 years he coached at Propst Park, Dillon became a legend among legends. They’ve since named a field for him. When he coached our son, Dillon was at the helm of a crew of 11-12 year olds called “The Pats,” so named for Pat Patterson, the team’s sponsor.

Developing a shared vision  5/23/2009
“A vision without a plan is a hallucination.” —Thomas Edison On Friday about 15 people spent the afternoon dreaming about the future of Columbus. Leading the conversation was Randy Wilson, who in September will lead the community in something called a charrette.

Bill and Virginia’s whirlwind romance  5/17/2009
They say you can hear all sorts of things in a beauty salon. Here’s a story I heard while getting my hair cut Wednesday.

Test article  5/12/2009
Test summary

Working the polls  5/9/2009
Bet you don’t know the memory span of a goldfish. How about what a baby gold fish is called?

Honeybees and politicians  4/26/2009
It was an urban sound, a distant clanging coming from the direction of the port. But standing in the backyard on a recent morning, tea in hand watching the bees begin their day, the noise caused me to flash back to a morning seven or eight years ago in Manhattan’s Flower District.

Tupelo honey at the Silver Spur  4/11/2009
Last summer at the farmers’ market I asked George Dyson if tupelo trees grow this far north. George, one of the market regulars, is the grizzled fellow usually on the north end of the market with a beard and the tattered “I (heart) Bikinis” baseball cap. He sells bowls and cooking utensils he crafts from native woods such as bois d’arc, oak and sassafras.

Uncovering another local hero  4/4/2009
Glenn Lautzenhiser and Rufus Ward are at it again. The two local cultural preservationists have, in the past year or so, organized memorial events for native sons who have been titans in their field, sports broadcaster Red Barber and boxer Henry Armstrong.

Of ballparks and buffalo  3/28/2009
According to Roger Short, the jury’s still out on the site selection for the proposed sportsplex. Someone called earlier in the week to say word on the street is that the decision has been made, that it will be Burns Bottom.

Good books  3/24/2009
Deborah, a friend visiting from New York who loves most things Southern, invoked the spirit of Eudora Welty Friday evening. At issue was whether she should have a dessert made from chocolate, pecans and vanilla ice cream.

Joe Hogan’s legacy  3/14/2009
“Hey, didn’t you say you were on Paul Harvey?” Nancy Perkins asked her husband when she heard news of the radio broadcaster’s death recently. 

A school visit and an evening walk  2/28/2009
Thursday evening just after 7 I happened to be walking across the parking lot behind the Methodist Church toward the back of the post office. There, as if for my benefit alone, the evening presented a momentary convergence of sights, smells and sounds — the chatter of kids and the thump of a basketball at the church, an insistent but soothing train whistle to the south, a young woman (Rachel Smith) talking on a cell phone as she walked to her car and the faint scent of a Japanese magnolia behind the P. O. Can spring be far away?

The Catfish Alley tapes  2/14/2009
A letter last week from Bob Raymond questioning the origin of the name Catfish Alley reminded me of research a friend did on the subject years ago. The friend, Mark Gooch, is a Birmingham-based photographer.

While waiting in line  2/7/2009

The hero of the Union returns to Mississippi  1/31/2009

Search our archives for older stories by Birney Imes