Articles by Slim Smith
Community Profile: Barber finds calling steeped in family tradition
It is said that certain traits, talents and conditions often skip a generation.
Slimantics: A penny
It probably won’t create much of a stir, but the U.S. Mint is producing its final batch of pennies this week, three months after President Trump ordered the U.S. Treasury to stop making the coin.
Slimantics: Taking out the trash is still a bargain
Two years ago when Lowndes County and the city of Columbus negotiated trash collection services for their residents and businesses with Golden Triangle Waste Service, a clause in the new five-year contract gave the company the option of raising rates each year.
Slimantics: Fossils fuel a kid’s imagination
When I was a kid, our elementary school librarian in Tupelo, a lady named Mrs. Cook, turned us on to hunting for arrowheads and pieces of pottery found near our school. The Tupelo area was once a major Chickasaw village and fort. In fact, the area was the site of a great Chickasaw victory over the French and their Choctaw allies in 1736.
In memoriam: Lawyer, soldier, hunter, author
Bill Threadgill lived 37,029 days and didn’t seem to waste any of them.
Slimantics: The war we lost and the lives Mississippi gained
Wednesday marked a 50th anniversary that most Americans have forgotten, and those who do remember don’t feel like celebrating.
Slimantics: Takin’ the rap for rap
Yo, Mississippi has been churning out some of music’s GOATs — blues legends, pop stars, country crooners, gospel greats — for as long as those kind of tunes have been around.
Slimantics: Cows, chickens and the Audrey Book Club
I’ve been thinking a good deal about animals lately. Maybe it’s because spring has arrived, which is the best time to observe nature at its most industrious. It might also be because of the book my sort-of-step-daughter, Audrey, selected for our two-person book club. I say “sort-of-step-daughter” because Audrey is 32, and I’ve been married to her mom, Tess, for less than three years. So it’s not as though she has ever asked me for gas money or to kill a cockroach in her bedroom.
Community Profile: Political concerns turn Cox into protest leader
For most of her adult life, Annis Cox has been active in her community, helping with church projects, substitute teaching at Annunciation Catholic School and using her sewing skills to organize a mask-making project that provided thousands of masks to Columbus schoolchildren in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Slimantics: If only it were so easy
For almost 15 years, Leonard Levy has been touring the South with his anti-violence program,“The Funeral Is Cancelled.” By using actors in a live re-enactment depicting scenes of gang violence, drug abuse and police brutality, he hopes to send a powerful message for youth. The purpose of the program is to reach young people who are either headed down the wrong path or may be tempted to take that path.
Slimantics: With HB1197, one local Republican lawmaker voted in support of the First Amendment. Guess who.
Someone once observed that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.
Slimantics: Amphitheater is where Brooks, Jones part ways
Until now, there’s been far more sizzle than steak where the two Democratic candidates for mayor of Columbus are concerned.
Slimantics: The Unfolding What If?: A ‘Plot Against America’ in real time
Novelists have always had a fascination with “what if” plots. There are a half-dozen popular novels based on the premise of the South winning the Civil War. Stephen King wrote a novel about someone traveling through time to prevent the JFK assassination.
Slimantics: MSMS plot is a tangled web
The more I think of the campaign to move the Mississippi School for Math and Science from its home on the MUW campus to Mississippi State, the more machiavellian it seems, almost to the point that it strains credulity.
Slimantics: Mississippi Republicans strike a blow for Uniformity, Partiality and Exclusion
On Wednesday, the Republican-dominated Mississippi House of Representatives voted strictly along party lines on legislation that will end all Diversity, Equality, Inclusion programs in our schools and prohibit the use of diversity statements in hiring, training or other materials.
Slimantics: What the heck, Hob?
For what it’s worth — and my endorsement may be perceived as more curse than blessing — Hob Bryan is, by far, the person in the Mississippi legislature I respect most. Now in his 41st year in the Senate, the Amory native is the one Democrat that commands the attention of the Republican-dominated legislature.
Community Profile: For Simpson, helping animals always comes first
For the past four decades, West Point veterinarian LeAnn Simpson has treated all sorts of animals. While she hasn’t treated a lot of birds, she’s been known to ruffle a few feathers over the years.
Slimantics: How dumb were my parents?
For a long, long time, I thought of my parents as hard-working, honest, thoughtful, kind people who cared not just about the welfare of their family, but for other families, too. Consistent with both their faith and character, they loved their neighbor and were their brother’s keeper.
Slimantics: A different kind of ‘pay to play’
Every year, the people we send to the Mississippi legislature file about 3,000 bills during the three-month session that begins in January.
Slimantics: Surprised by snow
One of things we have lost with the emergence of digital communication is a wonderful thing called being caught by surprise.
Starkville duo, New Hope striker relish all-star opportunity
July 11, 2025
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