The Jackson Avenue Center, the new and official name for the former Oxford Mall, is looking more like an integral part of the Ole Miss campus since its recent renovation. The Jackson Avenue Center houses the Center for Mathematics and Science Education, the University’s Mathematics Lab, several laboratories for the Department of Civil Engineering, two distance learning classrooms for the Division of Outreach and Continuing Education and a multipurpose room that is used for various meetings and other university functions. Living Blues magazine also is located there, along with Contractural Services, while its space on the central campus is being renovated.
Photo By HottyToddy.com
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Ole Miss Pole Vaulter to Compete in USA Championships
Meek School of Journalism broadcast major Sid Williams interviews Ole Miss sophomore Sam Kendricks, the athlete who posted the best pole-vault by an NCAA athlete since 1998. Kendricks’ excellence in track and field has won him the honor of competing in the USA Championships in Iowa, but his dream of track and field success began long before college.
Would Ole Miss Benefit by a 9th SEC Conference Game?
Ole Miss Football Coach Hugh Freeze joined the majority of conference coaches to vote against adding a ninth conference game to the season schedule. / Photo Courtesy of Ole Miss Communications
Last week the SEC coaches voted 13-1 against adding a ninth conference football game on the schedule, which would have eliminated one non-conference game. The lone vote for the additional game came from Nick Saban at Alabama.
The vote certainly says a lot about where a majority of the SEC coaches fall in terms of overall quality scheduling versus record-building. So much of it relates to bowl eligibility and ranking potential. Alabama is currently playing with championship “house-money” and can afford to push the scheduling envelope because of the depth of their program at the moment. They also don’t have an annual in-state non-conference opponent like South Carolina (Clemson), Florida (Florida State), and Georgia (Georgia Tech).
If you put yourself in Coach Hugh Freeze’s seat for a moment, you will understand why he would vote against the ninth game. Ole Miss fans will remember more that the Rebels became bowl eligible after defeating Mississippi State in the Egg Bowl. What they may conveniently forget is that had we not beaten Central Missouri, UTEP and Tulane, the magic of the bowl game in Birmingham would have never happened. We were also 0-2 versus SEC East opponents in 2012, and that ninth game would have come from a pool of Florida, South Carolina, Tennessee, Missouri and Kentucky. I personally think Ole Miss would have beaten the later three opponents, but drawing the Gators and Gamecocks in 2012 would not have been fun.
From a marketing perspective, winning at Ole Miss, regardless who you play, is of utmost importance right now. Would our fans rather see the aforementioned SEC East teams? Probably. Is it more fun to celebrate a win in The Grove and see the program gaining momentum each week? Absolutely. And that perspective may change over the next few years, but we have to be realistic where the program is at this time. Coach Freeze did a remarkable job turning around a program recently highlighted only by its pregame festivities. The young players Freeze really wants to fit into his system are just now arriving on campus.
From a revenue standpoint, in the years Ole Miss would have hosted five SEC games, the attendance and sponsorship dollars would have spiked up versus playing a non-conference opponent. But you have to weigh the potential of an SEC loss which can only depress the fan base, and hurt the school’s bowl eligibility (especially if you are competing for a BCS Bowl game where the real money is on the line).
Coach Nick Saban of Alabama was the lone vote in favor of adding a ninth conference game to the schedule. / Google Image
Taking a quick “assumption poll”, I believe the following seven SEC schools are in a similar situation to Ole Miss when it comes to this issue: Mississippi State, Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, Auburn, Kentucky, and Vanderbilt. So adding a ninth conference game was never going to pass anyway. I also believe that South Carolina, Florida and Georgia were never going to vote for it because of their quality annual non-conference opponents. Which leaves LSU and Texas A&M as the two that puzzle me a bit relative to their thinking. Of course, they haven’t won the BCS National Championship three out of the last four years like the one team that voted for the ninth conference game either.
In my opinion, voting against the ninth SEC Conference game was just another good decision made by Coach Freeze and the Ole Miss Athletic Department leadership. –– Scott Pederson, professor of journalism, Meek School of Journalism and New Media
Email Scott Pederson at scott_pederson@celebratepositive.com
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The African-American-owned B & B Cafe was tucked away in an alley just off the northwest corner of the Square. This is one of only a few known images of the cafe. Butch Morgan, the owner, is seated in booth. While long gone, the cafe, with its southern plate lunches and fried pies, is still part of the collective memory of Oxford, Mississippi.
Photo from Martin J. Dain Collection – Southern Media Archives – The University of Mississippi
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Environmental Agency Fails To Enforce Its Rules To Clean-up Wash At Front Door
Photo By HottyToddy.com
The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, charged with protecting natural resources including water quality, has failed to police its front yard at the North Regional Office located off Highway 6 at the intersection of CR 413, about three miles west of Oxford.
According to residents of the Highland’s development, a massive wash, just feet from the North Regional Office of the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) parking lot, has gone unattended. Run-off silt appears to ultimately flow into the Highlands Lake, the centerpiece of the upscale development.
“The wash started small about five years ago. It is on highway right-of-way. Several calls have been placed to Mississippi Department of Transportation (MDOT) maintenance, the agency responsible for maintaining highway right-of-way, and to MDEQ,” the resident, who asked not to be identified, said.
”Neither agency has done anything, and the wash continues to grow with each rain,” he said.
Robbie Wilbur, Communications Director for MDEQ, said the agency is aware of the wash, which he said is the responsibility of the Mississippi Department of Transportation (MDOT).
MDEQ located its regional office at the intersection several years ago, and employees who have authority over water control drive by the wash to attend work each day, but for at least several years, the agency has not forced the issue with MDOT.
One Highland’s resident said that a few years ago, he was challenged by MDEQ for what the agency though was an infraction of silt run-off on property he owned.
“I had a call from a very nice young woman from the MDEQ office who read me the riot act about what was assumed to be a problem I had created,” said Highland resident Ed Meek.
“She was so tough on me I thought I might be charged with some infraction. Now it seems the same agency is ignoring a massive wash that literally is at their front door. I would assume MDEQ and the Mississippi Highway Department must follow the same rules as those required of citizens,” Meek said. –– Jim Roberts, staff writer, HottyToddy.com
Email Jim Roberts at hottytoddynew.com
A view of the wash in front of the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality North Regional Office.
Photo by HottyToddy.com
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Mullets and Majesty: Video of Ole Miss in the Mid-’80s
‘Video yearbook’ depicts Oxford and Ole Miss of yore
A loose documentary of sorts is available on that magical repository known as YouTube, showing what life was like for Ole Miss students around 1985—a long-gone age when you filled your cup with beer from a spigot on a Budweiser truck parked in the yard at your fraternity party. Check it out on this YouTube channel. The video is credited as being made by Steve Moore.
The “video yearbook” is broken up into segments. Here’s a sample:
— Tad Wilkes, tad.wilkes@hottytoddy.com
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Art Shirley graduated from the University of Mississippi in 1984 with a BA in Art.
While at Ole Miss, Art drew the daily comic strip Ernie, Skip & Joe which ran for a little over three years in the Daily Mississippian.
Art is currently the Creative Director for Quest Group, an advertising and marketing firm in West Point, Mississippi, where he and his wife, Becky, make their home. Art and Becky have two sons; Will, a junior at Ole Miss, and Drew, a freshman at Mississippi State.
Art has continued to do some cartooning “on the side” in the nearly thirty years since he left Ole Miss, contributing to several local papers, websites and trade magazines. He has just self-published a graphic novel, enjoyed some internet success with a cartoon about the Weather Channel’s alleged “Land Mass” gaffe and is particularly excited to be contributing cartoons for HottyToddy.com.
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This month marks the 50th anniversary of the Jackson, Mississippi, Woolworth lunch counter sit-in, the day that produced one of the most powerful images of the civil rights movement.
In a shot taken May 28, 1963, Jackson Daily News photographer Fred Blackwell captured for the world not so much the brutality, as the cruelty, of Jim Crow segregation. (There was plenty of brutality that day, too, as at least one young black man was beaten to the point of concussion).
The picture known to all of us shows three people, a male professor and two female college students, seated at the lunch counter and surrounded by a mob of young white men who appear to be in their late teens and early twenties. Most of the men are seen jeering or laughing. One is portrayed as dumping the remainder of a jar of sugar onto the head of one of the young women at the counter. The three victims are covered in sugar, ketchup and mustard.
Also in May of 1963, my family moved to Mississippi from southern California. My Dad worked for Chevron (then Standard Oil) at the newly commissioned refinery in Pascagoula. We lived in a little house in Moss Point. I was six years old.
I knew nothing of the Woolworth lunch counter melee, nor of the assassination of Medgar Evers in June of 1963, nor of the Freedom Riders. I did not know about Martin Luther King’s history-making and life-changing speech later that summer in front of the Lincoln Memorial.
Not until I was a teen did I realize that my boyhood was notable if for no other reason than that it tracked the Civil Rights Movement almost perfectly – I was born in 1957, the year Eisenhower ordered troops to protect the integration of Little Rock’s Central High School, and turned 13 in 1970, the year full desegregation of the public schools was finally implemented in Mississippi under the direct order of the United States Supreme Court.
I had the opportunity to grow up in a bi-racial, middle class community of folks who mostly worked at blue collar jobs in a highly industrialized county. I went to a high school that was close to evenly mixed in its black/white student population. And I played high school football on a team that was a community rallying point for everyone in our community, regardless of race.
Racial issues in our town were not absent, but they were also not dominant during my teen years. My friends and teammates and I were expected to demonstrate basic civility and citizenship, but not raw moral courage.
But as an adult, I have thought a lot about what was happening in our state and nation when I was a little boy.
And I have wondered, if the hottest points of the civil rights era had been in the mid-70’s, when I was a teen, rather than the mid-60’s, when I was so young, how I would have reacted.
Would I have had the moral courage to do right and to stand against wrong had I been old enough to realize at the time what was going on around me?
I hope so.
I hope I have that kind of courage now.
I hope we all do.
Andy Taggart is an attorney with Taggart, Rimes & Graham law firm in Jackson. He is a highly regarded attorney, political, business and community leader. He is a cum laude graduate of Tulane University, where he served on the law school editorial board. He also serves on the Board of Trustees of Mississippi College. A long-time presence in governmental policy and political arenas, he is a frequent speaker at major events and has been involved in a wide range of activities, from serving as CEO of the Mississippi Technology Alliance to chief of staff for the late Governor Kirk Fordice. Email him at andy@tru-law.com
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On May 29, 2013 Belk department stores around the country celebrated 125 years of business. The Belk in Oxford, Miss. celebration featured live music from local artists Silas Reed ‘N’ Da books, gift card giveaways and refreshments.
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Kids enjoy painting at the Square Fair, a special pavilion set up for youngsters at the recent Double Decker Festival in Oxford. / Photo By Tad Wilkes
Lafayette County can add another community title to its present lineup of awards and accolades making it an attractive place to live, but the newest community title is dedicated to the area’s youngest group of residents –– Lafayette County children under the age of five.
The Lafayette-Oxford-University (LOU) community has become the newest certified child-friendly community by the Excel By 5 Program, becoming the most recent addition to Mississippi’s family of Excel By 5 Certified Communities.
The commitment to ensuring that children will enter kindergarten healthy, happy and ready to succeed has paid off for a core group of community leaders and educators dedicated to the cause. Lafayette County children under the age of five are the benefactors of all the hard work and dedication by those who worked tirelessly to see this certification process through.
Launched in the fall of 2004, Excel By 5 is an innovative process that is designed to encourage and assist communities to become actively involved in supporting their young children.
“We are thrilled that our community has achieved Excel By 5 Certification,” said Mary Harrington, certification manager of the LOU Excel By 5 Candidate Steering Committee. “Through the dedication of many people involved in this effort, we have made significant progress toward our goal of having every child prepared to enter kindergarten, but our work is far from done. Our Coalition plans to expand its efforts, particularly in neighborhoods where children are most vulnerable.”
The first of its kind, the Excel By 5 certification process emphasizes the important roles parents and primary caregivers play in educating children during their most formative years, birth to age five. Quality early learning experiences for all children are critical to a community’s economic success, a key driver of school readiness, and vital to improving high school graduation rates.
Studies show that children entering kindergarten with the cognitive, social and emotional skills necessary for success are more likely to graduate high school.
“What a great community accomplishment, but certification is just the beginning, definitely a milestone,” added Kathy Sukanek, executive director of the United Way of Oxford & Lafayette County. “Many people have worked very hard and have established resources that are now available to parents, child care workers and other caregivers of children under the age of five.”
One such community resources established is the Family Resource Center that is now open at 1097 Jackson Avenue West by the Oxford Malco Movie Theater. Known as the Northwest Mississippi Child Care Resource and Referral Center and L.O.U. Excel by 5 Coalition Family Resource Center, this free community resource offers development learning tools, books and other materials to parents, grandparents and families in the community who have children under the age of five.
Also, the Resource Center can be used by educators, school teachers, child care workers and child caregivers who work with children under the age of five.
The Family Resource Center is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
“To work with people whose sole purpose is to help young children, birth to age give, learn and develop emotionally and socially is a privilege,” said Kerry Holmes, steering committee chair. “Congratulations and thank you to all the groups and individuals within our community who made it possible to become an Excel By 5 Certified Early Childhood Communities in Mississippi.”
Lafayette County joins 27 other communities in the state of Mississippi who are Excel By 5 certified communities. The recent addition to Mississippi’s family of Excel By 5 certified communities will help Lafayette County champion for the success of the community’s babies and children.
This recent dedication also demonstrates the coalition’s willingness to invest in the future of the community and state. To find out how to become involved with Excel By 5, call 662-236-4265 or visit www.excelby5.com. –– Kelly Graeber, Volunteer Oxford
Email Kelly Graeber at volunteer@oxfordms.net
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Ole Miss athletes published in the Track & Field News comprehensive list of the world records this year, combining indoor and outdoor athletics. As many as ten Ole Miss Rebels were mentioned as holders of current world records, including Isiah Young ranked the world’s No. 3 in the 200m, Sam Kendricks ranked the world’s No. 7 in the pole vault and former Rebel, Brittney Reese world’s ranked No. 1 in the women’s long jump.
Mink’s On the Square Deli at College Hill Road and the intersection of Molly Barr
Location has been essential to growth for owners of Mink’s On the Park, The Whiskey Still and Bikini Beer
Stephen and Amy Donnely have cornered the market, so to speak, on the south side of College Hill Road at the intersection of Molly Barr Road.
Located across the street from the popular Skymart convenience store, the couple owns Mink’s On the Park, Bikini Beer and The Whiskey Still.
“We opened Mink’s Deli in 2010, and six months later Bikini Beer followed by The Whiskey Still liquor store,” said Mrs. Donnely.
Amy Donnely at The Whiskey Still spirits store on College Hill Road
All three properties along with Skymart benefit from heavy traffic from College Hill Road and student housing developments in the area.
“Mink’s is open 7 a.m. to midnight, and we serve breakfast all day long,” Ms. Donnely said. “Probably our two most popular sandwiches are The HMM and The Alex. The HHN is a breakfast sandwich of bacon, sausage, turkey sausage, deli sliced ham, or deli sliced turkey with cheddar, Swiss or Provolone served on a croissant, English muffin or bagel,” she said.
“The Alex is roast turkey, blazing buffalo chicken, Vermont cheddar cheese, avocado, lettuce, tomato and mayo. The HMM is $3.49 and the Alex is $7.99, and we only serve Boar’s Head meats.”
Recently, Mink’s added a new bar which extends into space formerly used by The Whiskey Still, which is located in the same building. The Whiskey Still is a full service ABC unit with a wide selection of spirits and wines.
Stephen Donnely displays one of the beers at Bikini Beer
Bikini Beer offers a wide range of craft and domestic bears, all sold room temperature.
“I think we have the largest selection of craft beers in town. Customers can sample various beers by purchasing a six or four pack of different beers selected from the shelf.”
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Lisa Magro (right) and her son Axden talk with ATT employee Eon. Communication companies today are investing millions to expand technology to keep up with the growth and demand for digital services in all sectors.
The explosion in digital technology is costly both for companies and consumers.
While companies like C-Spire, Verizon and, most recently ATT, open new stores in Oxford, these corporate giants are spending millions expanding the reach of technology with consumers demand more, and paying more for services. Still, much of rural America and even areas of Oxford have spotty service on some networks.
Lisa Magro (right) and her son Axden talk with ATT employee Eon. Communication companies today are investing millions to expand technology to keep up with the growth and demand for digital services in all sectors.
The pervasive growth of the Internet in all areas of commerce and personal communications fuels the demand for more and faster capacity. While most Americans think the U.S. is leading the way, other parts of the world have vastly improved services. Regulatory issues, the debate over fiber underground versus satellite and the future of home telephone services complicates digital growth in America.
Both the capabilities and capacity of cell phones is expanding rapidly, requiring more bandwidth, and thus more investment by cellular companies. Marketers seem to agree that the future is “mobile, mobile, mobile” as tablets and cell phones replace laptops and desktops.
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