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[Collier] When the Clock Ticks
The incessant tick-tock of the biological clock has been the cause of anxiety for women who haven't yet had children but want them, and those who are still waiting for "the one." I've never bought into the internal clock phenomenon much. Until I had a birthday recently, that is.
Beyond the Blind Spots
Last Sunday after my yoga class, I stopped at the grocery store to pick up a few essentials like cat food and shampoo. The store wasn't crowded and I had my choice of lines. As usual, I exchanged a bit of banal small talk with the checker and the bagger.
More Than A Maid
Growing up, I spent a lot of time with my grandmother. I didn't have to; I wanted to. Most of my summer days, we watched "Donahue" re-runs and "Sanford and Son" and "Benson." I stayed over at her house every Friday night from the time I was in kindergarten until the sixth grade, and we started out every Saturday morning watching the "Smurfs." Then, every day after school until I was in the 11th grade (when I started driving myself to school occasionally), my routine was the same: Get off the bus, drop my backpack on the floor in the "little room," make a snack, and then my grandmother and I would watch Oprah. I miss those predictable times with my grandmother.
[Braden] Conversations With (28-plus) Women
Conversations with my two best girlfriends occur while we wait in the drive-thru line for a Diet Coke, during our new baby girl's nap time (we have an 8-month-old in our mix now) or when we are rushing through our grocery shopping. We have accepted this reality, as we are now all older than 28, and have also submitted to the sad fact that our once-profound wisdom has been simplified into Forrest Gump-isms: Life is like a box of chocolates, and sometimes there is sh*t in them.
No Rest For the Weary
Benjamin Franklin once said that without continual growth and progress, such words as "improvement," "achievement" and "success" have no meaning. This statement, true in the 18th century, remains so in the 21st century.
[Balko] The Hunt for Criminality
Why it's important that prosecutors know when not to bring charges.
[Brantley] My Mississipi [sic] Identity
I arrived in Metz, France, in fall 2007 equipped with new degrees in English literature and French, and enough clothes to survive the reportedly bitter winter. In the middle of the Lycée Cormontaigne high school campus, where I would be working as an English teaching assistant, stood a remnant from one or both of the World Wars.
Factchecking McCain on Small Biz
In all of Sen. John McCain's hand-wringing recently over Sen. Barack Obama's tax plan, there's something I have never seen said plainly enough that I'd like to state for the record here:
With Gentleness and Reverence
When Todd and I used to live in Belhaven, we'd often walk in the mornings. Nearly every morning, we would watch a harried mother--often in a big SUV talking on a cell phone with at least one kid in the car--screech through the streets, presumably taking the child to school. Almost every day, we watched moms run stop signs, and more than once, had to jump out of the way to keep from getting hit.
[Hightower] Money In, Money Out
Surely you don't think that campaign donations from wealthy interests are intended to buy favors from our lawmakers, do you?
Fight or Fight
It's an odd world where Councilman Kenny Stokes is standing with FOX News celebrities who care more about profiling young blacks than protecting citizens' rights. But in the aftermath of the Frank Melton acquittals last week, we are living in a bizarro-land populated by strange bedfellows, led by a mayor and police chief who yelp about "drug houses" but arrest no drug dealers.
[Public Eye] Sunshine in the 2010 Forecast?
Although we're still mired in winter, the new year has brought a couple rays of sunshine: some promising developments in government transparency.
[Johnson] Letters From Vietnam
Last week, President Bush urged us to continue the war in Iraq by comparing our experience there to the war in Vietnam, warning us that withdrawing from Iraq might produce similar results.
[Stiggers] You Lie!
Boneqweesha Jones: "Welcome to the motivational portion of Hair Did University's fall semester orientation. Our guest speaker is Smokey 'Robinson' McBride, representative of Ghetto Science Team District No. 1042 and 2/8."
[Braden] Do You Care?
Young people in Jackson are grieving this week- but you didn't see the reason for their grief on the breaking news when we lost another student to violence. In fact, all news sources in Jackson reported different information, and they asked questions that they probably won't bother to follow up on for the answers. Young people know their day-to-day world doesn't make breaking news.
[Stiggers] Branding the Unemployed
Boneqweesha Jones: "I heard James Brown paraphrase a Bible verse at the end of one of his songs: ‘If you don't work, you don't eat.' And right now in America, people are starving.
[Hightower] Letter to American Airlines
You frequent fliers will call me a fool for even thinking that I could reason with the CEO of a major airline. You're right—I couldn't even reach him.
Mississippians Be Damned
For more on Haley Barbour, see Donna Ladd's blog and Jackpedia: Haley Barbour
Barbour's Shameful Pardons
We first heard that then-Gov. Haley Barbour had pardoned another wife-killer Saturday night on WLBT after the Saints game. From there, the news snowballed, with another wife-killer added to the mix, culminating in a list of more than 200 pardons and grants of clemency that we were trying to sort through as the paper went to press.
A Romney Runs Through Us
Campaigning in Mississippi last week, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney set off a mini-firestorm in our offices. Sometime between joking about grits and forking up some hay, down-south style, Romney uttered words that made us nearly sputter in response: "If the federal government were run more like here in Mississippi, the whole country would be a lot better off." Say what, Gov. Romney?!