Birney Imes: The season of lights

“Walk slowly, I’ll catch up with you.” I had asked daughter Tanner if she wanted to walk and look at Christmas lights on Southside. First she had said no, then had a last minute change of heart and yelled to me as I walked out the door.

Bert Montgomery: Who Dat?!: (The ‘09 Saints and requiem for a joke)

The New Orleans Saints have a perfect record and are serious contenders for the Super Bowl.

Steve Mullen: The dead weight under the tree

Who doesn’t like gift cards?

Jay Lacklen: A house, a ship, a home

Recently I stood in the empty, torn-apart-for-renovation, “ship” my family sailed for over twenty years. I felt both melancholy and pride as I walked among the torn up carpet, barren, patched walls, and scattered debris from an incomplete move. This old girl was up in dry dock for repairs before her next family crew would launch on their life mission aboard her. She will soon be back at sea, but we will no longer be with her.

Birney Imes: Whad’Ya Know, a Christmas parade

The evening may have been wet and the crowds sparse, but there was little evidence of dampened spirits at Monday night’s Christmas parade. Float riders (who may have outnumbered onlookers) waved and shouted, and the crowd waved back. Good cheer all around.

Steve Mullen: A ‘Charlie Brown Christmas’ to remember

Most of us probably have a single Christmas that stands out.

Birney Imes: Whad’ya know, Michael Feldman?

One of the funniest guys you’re ever likely to meet is coming to Columbus Saturday.

Bert Montgomery: Of Egg Bowls, the Maroon Band, and things that never change

Things sure have changed since I was in the Famous Maroon Band. Back in 1986, I was a trombonist (one of among 30-plus trombones) in the band. Dr. Kent Sills (or, “Doc”) was director of bands; Mr. Bob Taylor (“Mr. T”) was assistant director. MSU football legend Rockey Felker was in his first season as the Bulldogs’ head coach.

Birney Imes: The day after Thanksgiving

Friday afternoon as I was making my way down Military Road, a white El Camino passed me headed toward town. In the truck bed was a large piece of exercise equipment, price tags flapping in the wind.

Steve Mullen: Be thankful, shop local

For many, this long weekend is about family and friends, turkey and football, and most of all, gathering around a table and giving thanks. It’s also about shopping.

Birney Imes: Georgia school offers example for MUW

In 1889 the state of Georgia established in Milledgeville the Georgia Normal and Industrial College to prepare young women for secretarial and teaching jobs. (Five years earlier the Industrial Institute and College, the first state supported school for women in the country, was established in Columbus, Miss.)

Bert Montgomery: The mellowing of a former peacenik

Uncle Obed, from over in the northern Mississippi Delta, drove a mobile medic truck during World War II. His son, my cousin Ricky, says the stories Uncle Obed told resembled the chaos that was made famous by M*A*S*H (even though that was set in Korea). Uncle Obed returned from Europe and continued farming in the Delta.

Steve Mullen: Keeping Uncle Haley out of the kitchen

We thought, over the past several years with two elementary-age kids, that we’d seen all the cutesy Thanksgiving-themed things students could possibly produce. Of course, there’s the perennial favorite: Drawings and cutouts of turkeys made by tracing their hands. We’ve seen the Indian feathers and headbands from construction paper, and the Pilgrim hats and buckles. We’ve seen turkeys made out of pine cones and Coke cans.

Birney Imes: Namaste from a hep cat

Just finished John Dufresne’s “Love Warps the Mind a Little,” a lively and humorous exploration of love and death. The book is almost too clever, but the longer you read the more you get drawn in. By the time I finished, I felt like a friend of the protagonist, Lafayette Proulx (Laf as he’s called in the book) and was sad to part company.

Steve Mullen: Denialism and The W

In his new book “Denialism,” author Michael Specter explores how, on occasion, “an entire segment of society, often struggling with the trauma of change, turns away from reality in favor of a more comfortable lie.” Denialism is all around us. We often ignore reams of evidence, if it contradicts something we find more comfortable or easier to believe.

Steve Mullen: Burned over Burns Bottom?

Well, at least we could say we got close this time. This community has talked about building a soccer complex for years. After working to vet several candidate sites over the past several months, the city and county finally struck a deal on locating a soccer complex and community park in Burns Bottom — not just a bunch of fields, but a plan to keep the land’s natural beauty intact. After out-of-town planners and architects showed us the property’s potential, most dissenting voices came around.

Bert Montgomery: A student's murder, a teacher's reflection

Reid's note grabbed my immediate attention: “Jury selection begins today in the capital murder trial of Bobby Batiste. Batiste stands accused of murdering Andreas Galanis. Both young men were students at Mississippi State. Andreas Galanis was a friend of mine.”

Birney Imes: Cooking from the soul

“You have a Mr. Beauregard R. here to see you.” It was Felicia in the front office. Beauregard or “Beau” was in town visiting a friend and I’d invited them for lunch on Thursday. He lives in St. Augustine, Fla., and is a painter.

Steve Mullen: Amid wrestling over MUW’s name, the 900-pound tag team in the room

As the need to reach a consensus on a new identity for Mississippi University for Women becomes ever more urgent and more dire, I find it pleasing to imagine all the different sides of the debate crowded face to face, in one arena, going at it. I can picture a wrestling ring — or better yet, a cage match.

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