Slimantics: Sunday visitors stir memories of the good ole dog days

Sunday afternoon found us outside trying to coax our waterlogged flowers back to life while trying to figure out a way to get rid of the slugs and snails that seem to have taken a recent liking to our front porch.

Possumhaw: Chiggers, mosquitoes, ants, oh my

The Prairie is not always paradise. Momma used to say, "I'm glad not everybody likes the same thing 'cause then everybody'd want my Henry." Dad wasn't named Henry, but we got the point.

Ask Rufus: Columbus' early log houses

As might be expected, the earliest houses constructed in the upper Tombigbee River Valley were constructed mostly of log. The term "log cabin," though, is not a very good description of many of the log structures that were built.

Birney Imes: Summer rain

When it started raining I walked down off the railroad tracks through briars into a dense stand of sweet gum. This will be just fine. Just like the deer I had seen near the trestle would likely do, I'll wait out the storm here under the trees.

Lynn Spruill: A practice that's got to stop

On the agenda of Tuesday, July 22, 2014, was a payment for Carver Drive. Alderman Perkins voted against paying for that work already accomplished on his ward's most significant project. Joining him was Alderman Vaughn. Why?

Slimantics: The man who wouldn't go home

It's been 29 days since the Mississippi senatorial runoff election in which six-term incumbent Thad Cochran narrowly defeated tea party challenger Chris McDaniel.

Possumhaw: It was a big fish

From the dock the lake below was crystal clear, reminding me of those glass-bottomed boat rides of my childhood. I'm still taken with the creatures that dwell below the surface. I wish I could say, dwell harmoniously, but often it's not.

Ask Rufus: The irrepressible Uncle Bunky

Last week my granddaughter who lives in Virginia visited Columbus. While here I took her to experience those delightful "crazy animals" from the hand of Robert Williams, the pioneering icon of children's television known far and wide as Uncle Bunky.

Birney Imes: Just RipStiking around

It was 94 degrees in the shade, a scorcher of a Saturday afternoon. Slim Smith and I were standing in the alleyway behind The Dispatch talking about the next day's paper, taking refuge in what little shade there was.

Slimantics: Losing an old friend

On of my Facebook friends died Wednesday. Maybe you've heard of him. His name was John Dawson Winter III. He was 70 and died while on a business trip in Zurich, Switzerland.

Slimantics: An unapologetic cross-over voter

I'm one of the guys Chris McDaniel is upset about. Let's back up first. Until 2007 when I lost my voting privileges, I was a registered Republican.

Possumhaw: Just another day in paradise

Sam asked if I wanted to go on vacation anytime soon, and I said that I'd rather wait 'til fall when things cool off; besides, it's hard to imagine any place better than this "recreational paradise" I live in.

Lynn Spruill: City shouldn't bank on this bad idea

A late-developing plan to put the police department into the Cadence Bank building seems to be a fait accompli. Not only has this train left the station, it's so far down the line, it is almost out of sight. And most likely it won't be stalled no matter what counterproposals might be offered, but I can't help myself. I have to stand on the track and wave a red flag.

Ask Rufus: A mixing of cultures

The site where Columbus now sits has for hundreds of years been a cultural crossroads.

Slim Smith: The accidental Klansman

Like so many things, it all depends on how you look at it. Quite literally, in this case. On the corner of Second Avenue North and Fifth Street in downtown Columbus, a monument dedicated to the memory of Lowndes County soldiers who fought for the Confederacy rests on the lawn of the Lowndes County Courthouse.

Health & Wellness 2014

Back to School 2014

Home & Garden 2014