Articles by Slim Smith
Want medical cannabis? For now, see Dr. Jack Walters
There are plenty of medical doctors, physicians’ assistants, nurse practitioners and optometrists in the Golden Triangle, but for the time being at least Dr. Jack Walters stands apart from them all.
Community Profile: Lifelong painter’s arts festival win leads to gallery show
By his estimate, James Wagner has been painting for about four decades now. During all that time, he never entered an art competition, not until last month, that is.
Monday Profile: Labat: ‘Loving and leading,’ not leaving
As far as Columbus school district superintendents go, it was about as clean a break as possible when Cherie Labat stepped down in August.
Slimantics: Fish, cut bait or just flop around?
The way the search for a new Columbus police chief has gone over the past couple of days brings to mind the title of an old country song: “Everybody Wants To Go To Heaven, But Nobody Wants To Die.”
Monday Profile: Knowing he has helped
In recent years, there has been a push to expose students as young as eighth-graders to occupations that don’t necessarily require traditional college educations.
James Avery probably wishes that idea had been around when he was in school.
Slimantics: Cruelty is the Republican brand
I was a Republican from the time I reached voting age in 1977 (my first presidential vote went to Ronald Reagan in 1980) until the early 2000s, when I came to understand that I just wasn’t cruel enough to be a Republican.
Monday Profile: Living an ‘undeserved’ life
When Currie Haynes says he’s in a “good place,” he is not necessarily referring to the new location of his business — Currie’s Barber Shop and Salon — which opens this week on Gardner Boulevard in Columbus in a larger, renovated building that will better accommodate his growing clientele.
Philanthropist leaves legacy of statewide impact in death
Mention the name Bob Gilbert in Columbus and most thoughts turn to the much-beloved Mississippi University for Women professor and department head of 40 years, who passed away in 2017 at age 102.
Slimantics: Why I love baseball
When I was a kid, baseball reigned supreme, easily the most popular sport in America and while baseball has today yielded the crown to the NFL, for many people of my generation baseball still retains its preeminent position.
Slimantics: Wake me up when September ends
I have always taken a measure of pride in being aware of what’s going on, whether it be on the local, state, national or, to a lesser degree, international level. I believe it is the duty of every citizen to be as well-informed as possible.
Slimantics: Jackson’s water crisis dates back to integration
It’s a damn poor farmer who starves his mule and then complains because it can’t pull the plow.
Slimantics: White’s report reads like a campaign brochure
Shad White is running for office. It’s just not clear yet which office he is running for.
Slimantics: The poor man’s lamb
When I think of how our state is governed, it rarely calls to mind Biblical parallels (other than the Plagues of Egypt found in the Book of Genesis, of course).
Slimantics: Based on scores, school education re-emerges from the pandemic
I’m not going to say exactly how long it’s been since I was in elementary school, other than to note we had an abacus in our classroom and learned to add and subtract using images of bundles of dynamite (or, at least, that’s what they looked like to me).
DeWitt Hicks remembered as public servant, accomplished lawyer
DeWitt Hicks was born in Memphis, but he grew up in Sledge in the Mississippi Delta, where he was the valedictorian of his senior class and an All-Delta basketball player. He grew up with country music star Charlie Pride and considered him a friend.
But Hicks never left any doubt about what he considered to be his hometown.
Monday Profile: Adeline Rollins’ recovery from liver transplant surgery has been remarkable
Four-and-a-half years ago, Adeline Rollins received a liver transplant in a race against time. Just 14-months old, Adeline would not survive the rare defect that was destroying her liver without a transplant by age 2, her doctor said.
Slimantics: Reeves punishes the poor to prop up his political ambitions
On Wednesday, Gov. Tate Reeves announced that he will pull Mississippi out of a federal pandemic relief program that provides rental and utility bill assistance to low income families and will return the remaining funds to the federal government.
Slimantics: Kansas shows Mississippi how constitutional issues should be settled
For some time now, Mississippi has operated under the illusion that we have a government that relies on the rule of law.
Slimantics: Freedom is a limited commodity in Mississippi
A Black male Democrat, a white female Republican and a college professor walk into a bar.
Holiday Handcrafts Bazaar accepting vendor applications
July 12, 2025
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