Jiben Roy: Mass uprising in Bangladesh
Most of my Dispatch readers may know that I am originally from Bangladesh, however I have been in the USA since 2001. Recently there was a mass uprising in Bangladesh against the apparently stable government of prime minister Sheikh Hasina.
Ask Rufus: Dr. B.C. Barry: Pioneer, doctor and early community leader
One of the more interesting figures associated with the founding of Columbus was Dr. B.C. Barry.
Slimantics: Litella for president!
If I live to be 100, I’ll never understand how this could happen, but there’s no disputing it: Emily Litella is the Republican nominee for President of the United States.
Home Base: A pro-lifer’s guide to voting for Kamala Harris
As questionable cognitive ability goes, riding with a roadkill bear carcass in your car that you forgot to field dress, then dumping it in Central Park so you don’t miss your flight – that’s a contender.
Possumhaw: Mother Goose and the wasp
Right there in the grocery produce section was Mother Goose. She was dressed in a frilly long dress and her sweet, ruffled apron. She said she had been to a little “to do.”
Sid Salter: The 2027 governor’s race is shaping up as an echo of the hard-fought 1987 elections
The Neshoba County Fair political speaking program last week made plain two facts moving toward the 2027 statewide elections in Mississippi. First, the field of candidates in the race to succeed two-term Republican Gov. Tate Reeves may be broad, and second, the 2027 race will be hard-fought and may have substantial parallels to the 1987 Mississippi Democratic gubernatorial primary.
Thom Caraccio: Mississippi 1969: Thom’s draft physical goes south big time
Nineteen year old kids are way too stupid to be out in the world, and I was no exception.
Ask Rufus: Become immersed in nature and history at MUW’s Plymouth Bluff Center
There are not many places in Mississippi where you can go and have a firsthand account of what happened in that place more than 200 years ago and experience a still almost primeval landscape. One of those places is only five miles from downtown Columbus.
Sid Salter: It was a light political year under the old Neshoba oaks
The tin roof of the Founder’s Square reverberated with a lot of political rhetoric this week – some of it serious and relevant and some of it, well, not so much.
Slimantics: Olympic Games have no peer
Of my 44 years as a newspaper journalist, 23 of them were spent in sports departments from Columbus to Biloxi to San Francisco to Phoenix. In 2005, I made the decision to leave sports to be a news columnist and while I’ve dabbled with sports journalism off and on since then, I can’t say I have regretted moving on from the games people play.
Possumhaw: Back to nature
The rains came down day after day after a long drought where the grass didn’t grow and what was there started to brown.
Thom Caraccio: That time I ruined Burt Reynolds’ plane
More tales from the film set.
A chore we were constantly doing was turning the boss’s helicopter and light plane into “SHERIFF”, “POLICE” and “FBI” air vehicles. Burt Reynolds rented them to the production company along with his sound stages at the B.R. Ranch, a common practice.
Ask Rufus: The W’s Puckett House, a Queen Anne treasure
Ken P’Pool, the retired longtime head of historic Preservation at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History and someone I consider the foremost authority on Mississippi and Columbus historic architecture, has called the Puckett House on the Mississippi University for Women campus one of the finest examples of a brick Queen Anne style house to survive in Mississippi.
Sid Salter: Biden’s choice more like Wilson in ‘20 than Johnson in ‘68
The easy political comparison to President Joe Biden’s decision to withdraw from the 2024 U.S. presidential race is to point to incumbent Democratic President Lyndon Baines Johnson’s decision not to seek the presidential nomination of his party in the 1968 campaign.
Possumhaw: The years go by
Last week was pretty traumatic for most everyone I know. I spent more hours indoors than my usual outdoor time filling bird feeders, checking on Wilhelmina, watering and planting flowers, misting my pet tree frogs and Thomas the toad, while washing the laundry, and planning dinner. Even Sam noticed: “I’ve never seen you spend so much time in front of the television.”
Thom Caraccio: Send me lawyers, guns and money
A lion was walking through the jungle and he came upon another lion who was eating giraffe excrement. He stared in shock and asked his buddy, “Why are you doing that?!”
Ask Rufus: The electric street cars of Columbus
I’ve been watching the progress of Deborah Mansfield and Marion Sansing painting a streetcar mural just down College Street from my house.
Slimantics: Readin’ and writin’ and culture warin’
On June 25, 1962, the United States Supreme Court outlawed prayer in schools. That’s been the accepted narrative by conservatives for more than 60 years.
Sid Salter: Trump rally shooting points up how off the rails politics in our nation has become
If we are the American people we are supposed to be we are this week pausing from the caustic political exchanges on social media and thanking God for the fact that the assassination attempt at the campaign rally for former President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania did not end in a state funeral.
Possumhaw: Country living
Growing up I lived in a new subdivision with a cotton field just beyond the backyard. The subdivision was full of youngsters to play with, carpool when necessary or walk together to the elementary school only a block away.
Jelly Roll to perform at Jeffery Simmons Community Fun Day
July 3, 2025
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