From France, With Love and Pain
If we chose to live in fear and base our decisions on our own safety instead of the needs of others, the terrorists win.
Under Siege in America
Sadly, I feel physically safer in France, with its baguette-eating, cigarette-smoking, non-church-going, slightly rude and less social population than with gun-toting, Bible-thumping Americans.
Why D-Day Matters
As I waited for my wife and contemplated the seemingly unending horrors that man can perpetrate on other men, I realized that standing here answered the question that I had asked myself just a couple of weeks before. Then, I had been standing on a bluff overlooking the D-Day beaches and wondering why in the world it had been necessary.
Simple & Scrumptious
Carbonara has been a staple at my house for many years now, the go-to meal when nothing else will do. It's simple to make, always delicious, and often a requested meal for a special occasion such as a birthday or anniversary.
Dinner Like Grandma Made
Norma Ruth's is a small establishment tucked tight into a little plaza between a clothing store and a barbershop on Ellis Avenue.
Bright Ideas
Are you feeling uninspired? No challenges left? Did you read another depressing statistic about Mississippi? I have a cure for that. Read Polly Dement's "Mississippi Entrepreneurs."
The Natchez Novelist
In 2011, author Greg Iles was just a week away from the deadline for his next novel, a follow-up to the best-seller "The Devil's Punchbowl," when he was involved in a horrific car accident near his hometown of Natchez.
Joe LaNier: Survivor
Iwo Jima is a small volcanic island in the Pacific Ocean. Its name is seared into the psyche of anyone even remotely familiar with American history in World War II.
Fondren’s New Shutterbug
Lately, Sharon Coker's home has felt a little crowded, with her family and photography business all under one roof.
Trevor Pickering
Dr. Trevor Pickering, a partner in Mississippi Sports Medicine and Orthopedic Center in Jackson, is an orthopedic surgeon who specializes in knees and hips.
Scandinavian Sightseeing
When I first considered going to Norway, it was really hard to think of anything that I knew about the country, other than it has some weird-looking extra letters in its alphabet.
A Photographic Nature
No matter the category of photographers you fit into—young or old, professional photographer or scrappy amateur, male or female, black, blue, pink or whatever—the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science's "Back to Nature" photo contest wants you.
Zombies and Filmmaking
Prepare Now for the Zombie Apocalypse! On Oct. 26, as part of the fourth annual Mississippi International Film Festival, zombies and their attendant goons will overrun the Russell C. Davis Planetarium for the annual Zombie Ball. The best zombie or goon costume will receive a prize.
A Piece of History: The Mississippi River Basin Model
The Mississippi River Basin model covers some 200 acres near Clinton off of McRaven Road and is a scale replica of the Mississippi River basin.
Biking in the Bayou
See Greenwood’s historic sights by bicycle in the annual Bikes, Blues and Bayous race.
Debrynda Davey
Debrynda Davey graduated from S.D. Lee High School in Columbus, Miss., in the early 1970s and began a long and successful career as a nurse and nurse educator.
All Grown Up
The bride was so beautiful! All brides are beautiful, of course, but this one especially so. Her red lipstick set off her white complexion and her full-length veil could not hide her sparkling, laughing eyes. I remember that as a child, she always had on an infectious grin, with a wide mouth and great pearly white teeth.
Deloris Angrum
This has been a good decade for Deloris Angrum. Her daughter, April, returned safely from Iraq. She is a grandmother and will be again soon.
Tarasa Brierly-Harp
Tarasa Brierly-Harp attended the Mississippi University for Women and has been teaching at Murrah for more than a decade.
RaSul Hijaz El
RaSul Hijaz El is a talented portrait artist known to a small following in Jackson for bringing his subjects to life with pen, pencil and pastels.
'Junkyard' Songstress
When India Ramey stopped practicing law in 2009, she decided to start a music career. "Singing is the way I want to spend the rest of my life," she says.
Why Write for the JFP?
Ugh! He's in my office again, with his holier-than-thou arrogance, his buffed-up hair and skin so alabaster he can't have ever seen the sun! What does he want this time? He's complaining about something. I do that thing where I look the speaker in the eyes and nod like I'm engaged, but my mind is elsewhere (note to self: middle daughter has caught on and extracted quite a bit of money from me last time).
Write This
The Mississippi Writers Guild will hold its sixth annual writers' conference on Aug. 3 and 4 in Jackson. The guild, with the motto "No Writer without a Voice," was established in 2005 and is a charitable organization formed for the purpose of advancing and preserving the literary arts in Mississippi.
Dog Day Afternoons
Are dogs your thing? Is Fido acting squirrely and out of sorts? If the mail delivery no longer excites him and he lets the UPS driver come and go without a peep, perhaps he needs some doggone companionship.
‘Day Off' in the Art Garden
Are you looking for a good laugh? Do you want to watch a feel-good film with a light-hearted look at the proverbial coming of age? Has it been 30 years since you've seen "Ferris Bueller's Day Off?" Have you never seen it? Were you confused about the Honda CRV Super Bowl commercial with Matthew Broderick in it? "Broderick? Broderick? Broderick?" If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, then by all means go to the "Screen on the Green Thursday, May 24, at 7 p.m.
Celebrating Jerry Clower
My first brush with Jerry Clower was in 1971 when I was in an Army barracks in Baumholder, Germany. Two of my platoon mates (still friends some 40 years later) were listening to a scratchy record on a portable, battery-operated record player.
Jayce Powell
Jayce Powell believes in the power of the bicycle to change lives. He considers himself "a lifestyle consultant" in his job as the store manager of Indian Cycle in Ridgeland. "We are passionate about cycling," he says.
Nikisha Ware
There are cliches for a reason, and Dr. Nikisha G. Ware, the executive director of the Mississippi Learning Institute is an example of one: Dynamite comes in small packages.
A Glimpse at History
Having just had to sell one of my children to pay for entry into the Insectarium in New Orleans, I'm all about a free museum, and we are blessed to have a good one right here in Jackson. The Old Capitol Museum, located at the intersection of Capitol and State streets downtown, is well worth visiting on a regular basis.
Irish Heroes
I sensed trouble as my brother's three sons and wife slunk out of the room slowly, without making eye contact. It had started well enough. I was in town and hadn't seen my brother or his family for a few months, and they had invited me over for dinner.
Christine ‘Chrissy' Wilson
Mississippi has no bigger cheerleader when discussing the art, history and culture of Mississippi than Christine "Chrissy" Wilson. She has edited many of the markers on the Mississippi Freedom Trail commemorating the state's civil-rights heritage as well as the Mississippi Blues Trail and the Country Music Trail markers.
deborah Rae Wright
deborah Rae Wright, who doesn't capitalize her first name, has lived in an early 20th-century home on west Jackson's Grand Avenue for 11 years. The 59-year-old lives with her current companion, a well-behaved cairn terrier (think Toto) named Zach, whom she rescued a few years ago.
Running on Friendship
"I'm done," I thought to myself. "Stick a fork in me. I am done."
John Hugh Tate
"I'm a very pro-Jackson guy," John Hugh Tate says. "I love the history, the diversity and the artistic community. It is such a green city, just aesthetically beautiful."
Gene Moore
Gene Moore is a chaser of dreams and determined to do what he can to leave the world a better place. In 2003, he left his position as the news director for WJTV-12 to start his own business, T-KAM Video Production.
Tamu Green
Tamu ("sweet" in Swahili) Green speaks with enthusiasm and conviction about his vision for Mississippi. Like a proud parent of a star athlete showing off his trophies, he walks between unopened boxes in his new office in Ridgeland. He describes how the computer equipment and robotics gear will be used for young people.
Rick Cleveland
Rick Cleveland steps out of the melting Mississippi heat and into Sneaky Beans in Fondren. "It was a mistake to walk here," he says. "I hate this heat, and I hate Yazoo clay."
Vicksburg: The River and The Civil War
As I pulled into Navy Circle in Vicksburg, my passengers, two female French engineering students, spoke politely and hesitantly in English. When the Mississippi River first came into view, their speech turned to a shrill, rapid-fire French. They scrambled for cameras and attempted to open the car doors while the car was still moving. All the while, their French was getting louder and more excitable.
Peyton Johnson Collins
Peyton Johnson Collins calls herself a high-heeled hippie. A wife, mother of two young children and a part-time employee at Lakeland Yard and Garden Center, Collins operates an almost 15,000-square-foot vegetable garden on a farm just north of Clinton. She works on her garden in her spare time with her friend and gardening partner Don Maxwell. "We are the labor," she says.
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