Ah ain't makin this up.... (Oakland: 2015, home, to live)

[Listener2307]

This is an honest-to-God article written by a man who moved from NYC (that's New York City, Delbert) to Pluto, MS. Well, right outside of Pluto, really.
Tell the truth, That Woman and I had never heard of Pluto. So I looked it up. It exists.

The guy has nothing bad to say about Mississippi. But he is no ordinary man, evidently. He does his own thinking and his own talking. I think I'd like him. You probably would, too.

......in the same town, a man was caught in a police sting operation while having carnal relations with show hogs. We had never even heard of show hogs, so our friend Martha Foose, a Delta-born cookbook writer, had to explain. “We have beauty pageants for our swine,” she said. “And they get those hogs dolled up. They shave their underparts, curl their eyelashes, buff their little trotters, and I guess it’s more than some guys can stand. I call it ‘dating down the food chain.’”

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/08/op...ssissippi.html

[sammyreynolds1977]

I think I like him as well.

[Southern man]

I had seen that article somewhere else and it does paint a picture. But all them NY Times readers will conclude all of Mississippi is like that section depicted.

[Seadory]

I've nearly finished the book. I understand so much more about Mississippi. This explains Eudora Welty, Alice Walker, John Grisham, Tennessee Williams, William Faulkner....

Richard Grant, the author of Dispatches from Pluto, says, "Not only are they great tellers and admirers of colorful stories, with a rich supply of material. There's also an intangible, mysterious quality to life here that Mississippi writers have felt compelled to tackle, a kind of magical realism that comes out of the state's long insularity, the urge to mythologize its history of defeat and oppression, the deep influence of the Old Testament and faith-based thinking, and perhaps the drama of the natural landscape."

Wonderfully funny. Loved the story about "dating down the food chain."

[Desert kid]

Read this yesterday, lol.

[mibiloxi]

Great and amusing article, however, I really wish people, especially those outside of MS, and the ones who have never been privileged enough to live or visit here, would understand that MS truly is not any different then anywhere else...as far as people go. There are good and bad people everywhere; their only differences reside in their landscapes, circumstances, weather, economics, views of the world...the list goes on; people are people.

[smarino]

I thoroughly disagree that people are the same everywhere you go! Yes, you are going to meet bad ones and good ones, that much is a given. But having traveled a lot, trust me, the people in Oakland, Ca are not like the people in Daytona, Fl. The people in Boston are nothing like the people in Lafayette. For that matter, Portland people are considerable different than Salem people. By the same token, by and large, people in Mississippi are different, and they'll tell you so. We speak our minds, and don't care who likes it or doesn't like it. That was drummed into me, and it's a quality that is hard to find anymore.

I'm from Mississippi, and one thing I'll say about the state is that you will meet some of the nicest people, and some of the worst. It's from one extreme to the other. It's not really someplace I'd like to return to, since I'm a white male w/ a black wife, and we're both very liberal. The black and white cultures tend to be totally separate in Mississippi, and it would just cause problems. Some things about the state haven't changed, and unless someone is in an interracial relationship, they just don't know. It's all just theory, like it was with me before meeting my wife. In some places, people will act one way around me alone, and differently when we're together. It has certainly opened my eyes to a lot of things that I just assumed were one way or the other.

Yes, the folks back home know a lot about oppression. They should know, as some of of them were well versed in oppressing other people (and I'm talking about long after the War of Northern Aggression). So much for the Old Testament and faith based thinking. I'll take a rational, compassionate atheist over a bible thumping, hate filled hypocrite any day.

[Listener2307]

Originally Posted by smarino

............I'm from Mississippi,..... It's not really someplace I'd like to return to, since I'm a white male w/ a black wife............ In some places, people will act one way around me alone, and differently when we're together. It has certainly opened my eyes to a lot of things that I just assumed were one way or the other......................

But if you no longer live in Mississippi, and you report that people treat you differently under different conditions, doesn't that indicate that the "different treatment for different folks" syndrome is alive and well everywhere?

It is, you know. I have a friend from Montana (of all places) and his white sister married a black man. They had so much trouble that they had to move to Alaska. Mississippi is an easy target. Montana is a little harder to explain.

And our best friends in Texas had a black daughter (adopted, years ago). I sat silently at a table as a white man launched into the usual diatribe - you know the routine. Oliver (my friend) sat silently too. I asked him later, and he said he was used to it.

But do you hear all these tales of racism about Texas or Montana? No. Mississippi is easier, and you can get more people to believe such things about Mississippi. Even when a writer such as our subject blogger writes that all is well and safe, people reject it.

[PS.........Man, you got to stop moving around! You're going to lose yet another wife (I follow your posts) if you keep that stuff up!]

[brownbagg]

the story BS, he said nearest grocer store was 30 miles, according to mapquest there one three miles away, and many within 20 mile. there a whole town within twenty miles

[Listener2307]

Originally Posted by brownbagg

the story BS, he said nearest grocer store was 30 miles, according to mapquest there one three miles away, and many within 20 mile. there a whole town within twenty miles

You mean there really is NO DATING DOWN THE FOOD CHAIN??!!

NO! I was counting on the story to be completely true!!