Local Columns
Home Base: Unlike Clapton, after midnight I want to go to sleep in peace
Call me Mr. Wilson. That’s fine.
Slimantics: Note-taking makes better juries
Imagine two college students of equal ability, both serious about their studies. They never miss a class. They sit near the front of the room and listen intently to the professor as he delivers his lecture.
Ask Rufus: The Eloquence of Pushmataha
While reading an 1842 Columbus newspaper, The Southern Argus, I came across an interesting article about the Choctaw Nation. It contained comments on their famed chief, Pushmataha.
Partial to Home: A lovin’ spoonful
My Grandma Eunice took her coffee from a cup and saucer, often mismatched. She would “spill” the coffee from the cup into the saucer and after it cooled, drink from the saucer.
Grant Mitchell: Caledonia’s new water rates need reconsideration
The Mississippi Public Service Commission (MSPSC) has pressured the Town of Caledonia (Town) into surrendering to an undesirable water rate structure to increase a needed cash flow for operations.
Possumhaw: Beauty or beast
“The extensive planting of just one exotic species removes thousands of native species.” — “The Trees in My Forest” by Bernd Heinrich-Biologist and Author
Partial to Home: Nancy M. Imes, 1928-2021
Nancy McClanahan Imes, a lifelong resident of Columbus known for her over-sized personality, support of charitable causes, marriage to businessman and Dispatch publisher Birney Imes Jr. and, in her later years, the realization of a sumptuous French country-style home in the Prairie, died Thursday afternoon. She was 92.
Ask Rufus: The Lost World of Plymouth Bluff
I have often written about John Pitchlynn and Fort Smith at Plymouth Bluff during the Creek Indian War of 1813-14 and the French army that camped there in 1736, but what fascinated me about the bluff when I was a child was fossils.
Jabe Nicholson: Dancing with the devil
Sin is stupid. The commonly held view is that God just wants to spoil our fun. Nothing is further from the truth. God hates sin because it distorts us, disappoints us, and in the end damns us if we won’t let it go.
Dr. Angela Farmer: Spoken like a Natural
While there are a variety of opportunities to stretch a child’s learning platform, one of the best may be the introduction and immersion into a foreign language at an early age. While there are a number of intrinsic cognitive benefits, there are also positive lifelong implications for the children.
Slimantics: Which Mississippi?
When my out-of-state friends ask me about Mississippi, I generally respond by asking, “Which one?”
Possumhaw: Stop and smell the coffee
Every morning a cup of coffee is delivered to my bedside table.
Partial to Home: A woman’s best friend
About this time last year, Jannette Adams had a crippling case of the COVID blues. She felt lonely and adrift.
Sherri Ivy: A valley experience with God
Every Christian has gone through a valley experience with God at some time or another.
Ask Rufus: The Story a Picture Tells
Cherry Dunn came by my house a couple of months ago and showed me an interesting photo that she had. It was a tintype photo that had been passed down through her family from 150 years ago.
Possumhaw: One transition to the next
As fast as the winter ice storm arrived it left. On a hilly gravel road out here in the Prairie there had been little or no traffic for a week.
Wyatt Emmerich: Positive news for Mississippi commodities
At 1.13 billion, timber is the third biggest agricultural crop in Mississippi, behind poultry/eggs at $2.16 billion and soybeans at $1.21 billion.
Partial to Home: Remembering the Beatles
The other day I was reminiscing with Newell Robinson, a friend from childhood. We hadn’t talked in decades. Newell, whose father, Dr. Jo Robinson, was a pediatrician here for many years, is a heart surgeon practicing in New York.
Jabe Nicholson: Win some by being winsome
Recently I’ve been bombarded with questions from people who are deeply concerned about raising their children in a nation increasingly hostile to Christianity and its values.
Ask Rufus: The tragic past of Black Creek
A headline in the April 27, 1839, Columbus Democrat read, “Daring and Atrocious Murder.” The news account began, “One of the most daring and outrageous acts of villainy in the annals of crime was perpetuated a few miles from our town.”
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