I oppose renaming the journalism building, but to describe Ida Wells as 'reporter' misses the mark

Wells

    There is a proposal to rename the journalism building at Ole Miss after Ida Well, a native of Holly Springs. I am opposed and  find the proposal ironic, since Ed Meek, for whom the building is currently named, was the victim of a modern-day lynching insofar as his reputation is concerned. Wells was one of the first, most prominent, and most outspoken opponents of lynching in the South.

    With that said, the AP story which told of the effort to rename the building described Wells as a "reporter." That's like describing Ronald Reagan as a radio announcer. Wells was an amazing woman, one of the most important to come out of Mississippi in the 19th Century. I don't remember being taught about Wells in school even though she was from Holly Springs; I hope that is still not the case. Even though I don't support the renaming of the building, she certainly has a record of accomplishment that is worthy of admiration.

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    Ida Wells, who was born and reared in Holly Springs, was born into slavery in 1862. Her father was owned by Spires Bolling, an architect whose homes were known for featuring octagonal columns. He also built the Walter Place, with its unusual octagonal wings on each end. The Wells family lived at the Bolling Place, which was later the Gatewood home, and is now the site of the Ida B. Wells-Barnett Museum, which features the signature octagonal columns.
    Wells, who lost both parents to the Yellow Fever epidemic of 1878, struggled to support and keep her younger siblings together by working as a schoolteacher. Her frustration over receiving $30 per month while white teachers were paid $80 per month led her to become active in a movement to seek equal pay for black teachers, which led to her firing, after which she moved to Memphis.
    In May 1884, Wells refused to give up her seat on a Tennessee train and move to another rail car; when the conductor tried to forcibly move her she bit his hand. She was thrown off the train and successfully sued the train company, obtaining a $500 judgment in circuit court. The Tennessee Supreme Court overturned this judgment in 1887 and assessed Wells $200 in costs. This case was later cited as support by the U.S. Supreme Court in Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896), which found that segregation laws were not unconstitutional under the "separate but equal" doctrine which remained controlling law until Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954).
    (An interesting note is that Plessy v. Ferguson was a "friendly" lawsuit carefully coordinated between Plessy and the railroad company, both of whom believed that the Supreme Court would find Louisiana's forced segregation laws unconstitutional. The railroad company wanted Plessy to prevail, as it did not want the expense of having to maintain two sets of passenger cars. Plessy was one-eighth African and seven-eighths European).
    In 1889, Wells, who was working in Memphis as a schoolteacher, became owner of the Free Speech and Headlight, a newspaper published out of the Beale Street Baptist Church. Her opposition to segregation and articles decrying the poor condition of black schools led to her firing in 1891.

    Also in 1889, three of Wells' friends were lynched, which led her to become active in the national anti-lynching movement, in which she often collaborated with W.E.B. Du Bois and Frederick Douglas. In 1892, she published a famous anti-lynching pamphlet, "Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases."
    On May 27, 1892, a white mob destroyed the offices of Wells' newspaper. Because of threats on her life she soon moved to Chicago, where she wrote articles for the New York Observer and began to work for the Chicago Conservator, that city's oldest black newspaper.
    During the 1890s Wells traveled extensively to promote civil rights, including trips to Europe. In 1909 Wells was one of seven black and 53 white founders of the NAACP. In later life she retreated from the national spotlight somewhat as she devoted herself to family life, although she remained active in support of civil rights throughout her life until her death in 1931.

University of Kansas showcases black Mississippi writers, including Holly Springs' Ida Wells

    The Project on the History of Black Writing at the University of Kansas is  sponsoring a series of events, Black History Suite 2017, celebrating works of black Mississippi or Mississippi-related writers during what it calls the Mississippi Renaissance, a period from World War I to the Great Depression and World War II era. Events will include panel discussions, a digital exposition, and a showing of "Yazoo Revisited" by David Morris.
    Among the writers featured are Richard Wright, Margaret Walker, and Ida B. Wells. Wright is best known for his novels "Black Boy" and "Native Son," but a panel discussion will focus on his "Blueprint for Negro Writing."

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    Ida Wells, who was born and reared in Holly Springs, was born into slavery in 1862. Her father was owned by Spires Bolling, an architect whose homes were known for featuring octagonal columns. He also built the Walter Place, with its unusual octagonal wings on each end. The Wells family lived at the Bolling Place, which was later the Gatewood home, and is now the site of the Ida B. Wells-Barnett Museum.

Wells

    Wells, who lost both parents to the Yellow Fever epidemic of 1878, struggled to support and keep her younger siblings together by working as a schoolteacher. Her frustration over receiving $30 per month while white teachers were paid $80 per month led her to become active in a movement to seek equal pay for black teachers, which led to her firing, after which she moved to Memphis.
    In May 1884, Wells refused to give up her seat on a Tennessee train and move to another rail car; when the conductor tried to forcibly move her she bit his hand. She was thrown off the train and successfully sued the train company, obtaining a $500 judgment in circuit court. The Tennessee Supreme Court overturned this judgment in 1887 and assessed Wells $200 in costs. This case was later cited by the U.S. Supreme Court in Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896), which found that segregation laws were not unconstitutional under the "separate but equal" doctrine which remained controlling law until Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954).
    (An interesting note is that Plessy v. Ferguson was a "friendly" lawsuit carefully coordinated between Plessy and the railroad company, both of whom believed that the Supreme Court would find segregation laws unconstitutional. The railroad company wanted Plessy to prevail, as it did not want the expense of having to maintain two sets of passenger cars).
    In 1889, Wells, who was working in Memphis as a schoolteacher, became owner of the Free Speech and Headlight, a newspaper published out of the Beale Street Baptist Church. Her opposition to segregation and articles decrying the poor condition of black schools led to her firing in 1891.

    Also in 1889, three of Wells' friends were lynched, which led her to become active in the national anti-lynching movement, in which she often collaborated with W.E.B. Du Bois and Frederick Douglas. In 1992, she published a famous anti-lynching pamphlet, "Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases."
    On May 27, 1892, a white mob destroyed the offices of Wells' newspaper. Because of threats on her life she soon moved to Chicago, where she wrote articles for the New York Observer and began to work for the Chicago Conservator, that city's oldest black newspaper.
    During the 1890s Wells traveled extensively to promote civil rights, including trips to Europe. In 1909 Wells was one of seven black and 53 white founders of the NAACP. In later life she retreated from the national spotlight somewhat as she devoted herself to family life, although she remained active in support of civil rights throughout her life until her death in 1931.

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    The Black History Suite will also feature a showing of David Rae Morris' "Yazoo Revisited," which looks at what eventually because an unsuccessful attempt to integrate the Yazoo City schools. Morris's father, Willie Morris, who I was proud to call a friend, first wrote about the effort  in his book, Yazoo: Integration in a Deep-Southern Town." Willie Morris' book ends with him firmly convinced that Yazoo City's school had successfully integrated, maintaining a 40 percent white student enrollment. By 2000 the school system was 99 percent non-white.
    I viewed and reviewed a very early cut of this documentary in 2013, and while I enjoyed it, I was disappointed that no effort had been made to interview white families who originally stayed with and strongly supported the public system but then later drifted away. These were people of good will and not hard-core segregationists, and their viewpoints might enlighten future school choices. These are difficult issues, and ones many people might be loathe to talk about on camera, but if the question is never asked then there will never be a solution. Hopefully Morris has added some of this material to his documentary.

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Graham

 

    The Black Literary Suite will use the hashtags #HBW and #BlackLitSuite for Twitter conversations; the Twitter address is @ProjectHBW. Information is also available at projecthbw.blogspot.com.
    The Project on the History of Black Writing was founded by Kansas professor Maryemma Graham in 1983 while she was a professor at Ole Miss. It maintains a small library at the University of Kansas and is currently completing a digital archive of African-American novels, the first in the United States.

Interactive graphic shows transformation of Ole Miss, Alabama into regional, national universities

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   The Chronicle of Higher Education  has an interesting interactive graphic that allows one to see the geographic origin of the freshman class of almost any university in the United State from 1998 to 2014.
    As a parent with two kids doing college searches, it’s good to be able to see the makeup of the student body of various colleges. I also found it interesting to view the changes at two of the fastest-growing flagships in the country, Ole Miss and Alabama.
    Both Ole Miss and Alabama have exploded in size over the past 20 years, fueled in large part by out-of-state enrollment. These out-of-state students pay a large supplement, almost paying private-school rates to attend a public college. In other words, these students are a real profit center for the schools and subsidize the in-state students
    In 1998 Ole Miss was already attracting a fair number of out-of-state students, with 985 in-state and 824 non-resident freshmen, for an out-of-state percentage of 46 percent of a freshman class of 1,809. Almost a third of these were from Tennessee, and from my experience most were from Memphis or the Southwest part of the state; in some ways these Tennessee students weren't really from out of state, since Ole Miss was their closest flagship.
    By 2014 the freshman class size had more than doubled, to 3,809, with 1,688 in-state and 2,121 non-residents, or 56 percent out-of-state.
    One of the biggest changes in the composition of the Ole Miss freshman class is the increase in the number of students from Texas and Georgia. In Texas, the 10-Percent Rule (or Seven-Percent Rule, depending on the mood of the moment) has made admission to that state’s top schools almost impossible for good students from top school districts. In Georgia, the Hope Scholarship has encouraged the state’s best students to attend the University of Georgia or Georgia Tech, and made admission highly competitive (the average freshman ACT at Georgia is 29).
    The Texas and Georgia numbers are plain to see. In 1998, Texas sent 84 and Georgia 78 freshmen to Ole Miss. In 2014 those numbers were 353 and 295. In 1998 California sent four students; in 2014, 84. Connecticut went from three to 19. Massachusetts, one to 15. New Jersey, zero to 21. Pennsylvania, 3 to 23. Florida 23 to 99. And so on.
    Over at Alabama, the growth has been even more explosive and transformative. In 1998 Alabama had 2,616 freshmen with only 26 percent coming from out of state. So in 1998 Ole Miss was much more of a regional school than Alabama. By 2014 Alabama had 6,824 freshmen, 2,462 in-state and 4,362, or 64 percent, out of state. The growth in the number of Northeastern and far West students attending Alabama far exceeds the growth at Ole Miss. Connecticut went from five to 67 from 1998 to 2014. Massachusetts, two to 85. New Jersey, nine to 142. Pennsylvania, five to 123. Florida 71 to 386.
    Both Ole Miss and Alabama are using generous merit scholarships to attract top students from around the country. Students with a 32 on the ACT can attend tuition-free; at Alabama, if a student finishes in fewer than eight semesters he can use the scholarship towards graduate school.
    Alabama gets a lot more buzz over its Presidential Scholarship than Ole Miss does for its Academic Excellence Award, and the graduate school rollover certainly makes it a better deal. On the other hand, top students have a far greater chance of being able to stack scholarships and perhaps even get a full ride at Ole Miss.
    Of course, most out-of-state students don’t get scholarships; they pay their own way. Part of what attracts them to Ole Miss or Alabama is the desire to attend a relatively small, traditional Southern school.
    There can be too much of a good thing, though. If these schools keep going on their current trajectory, neither will be small nor Southern 20 years from now. And that’s not a good thing, in my view.

There is college merit aid available for students who work to bring up their ACT scores

    I'm not sure many high school juniors are thinking about their college search right now, but the hour is growing late. Time is also running to to figure out how to finance four years in college. This year's juniors won't have to pay their matriculation fees for another 18 months, but planning needs to have started yesterday.
    Most people don't qualify for need-based aid, so that leaves fairly limited choices in seeking colleges with good merit aid. But those choices are out there.
    Some of the most generous merit aid packages are offered closest to home, at Ole Miss. Ole Miss offers partial- to full-tuition scholarships based on student ACT score, and unlike most colleges, only a 3.0 high school grade-point-average is required. Students with a 3.5 g.p.a. do get additional money, though.
    Ole Miss offers numerous merit scholarships, and they are stackable, which means they can be cobbled together to create a full-ride scholarship. The Academic Excellence Award is the one of most interest, and it only requires a 3.0 high school average. It's an automatic merit scholarship granted according to ACT scores; an ACT of 27 gets $2,250 while a score of 32 gets $7,500, which is a few dollars short of full tuition. Out-of-state students get partial non-resident waivers, which rise to a full waiver. For students with a 3.5 high school g.p.a., an additional $1,500 to $2,700 is available. (The chart can be found by following the link, above).
    When I was in high school, the only kids I remember taking the ACT twice were a few people who didn't score high enough to get into Mississippi State. Jockeying for higher scores was just not something we did back then.
    But it certainly pays for students to do it now! Ole Miss rewards ACT scores as low as 24 with a $1,000 per year scholarship. So there is an incentive for virtually all incoming students to seek a higher ACT score by taking the test again; and again; and again.
    The Academic Excellence Award states that qualifying tests can be taken up until enrollment. So high school seniors planning to enroll at Ole Miss should just keep taking the ACT in hopes of getting a higher score, because the higher the score, the greater the scholarship. Some students do better on the SAT, and students should take it, too, as an SAT score can be used for the Academic Excellence Award.
    Some people will never be able to post a high ACT score, but many have low scores because they have trouble finishing sections or with the math or science. These problems can be resolved with practice. A nephew of mine had trouble finishing the ACT and scored a 24 on his first attempt; on his eighth try he made a 34. It can be done!
    For those who are just bound and determined to attend a cow college, Mississippi State has scholarships that are similar to those offered at Ole Miss. The MSU grants look to be a little less generous on the low end but include some bells and whistles on the high end, such as one year of free room for those with a 34 or higher.
    I've often mentioned the University of Alabama's generous National Merit Scholarship. Ole Miss has one, too, but Alabama also offers a good ACT scholarship. Students with a 32 or higher on the ACT with a 3.5 g.p.a. get a full tuition scholarship for four years. A unique feature of the Alabama scholarship is that it rolls over to graduate or law school, so that a student who arrives with lots of AP and dual enrollment credit might be able to get an almost-free graduate degree.
    It's easy enough to find out what merit aid offers are out there; just Google the name of the college and the words "merit scholarship." But do it now, because some merit aid requires applications as early as August.
    Juniors and seniors with any chance of ACT-based merit aid should take the ACT just as many times as is possible. It's going to be given to every junior in Mississippi in April, and there are paid test dates in April, June, September, October, and December.
    Just take it every time, kids. The more money you can save your parents, the more spending money they can give you for all the extra stuff that makes college fun. So everybody wins!

   

Take it from philosopher Blaise Pascal: For students, preparing for the PSAT is a can't-lose proposition

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    In just over six weeks high school juniors will have the chance to take the PSAT, or National Merit Test. Those with scores in the top one percent of their state will become National Merit Semifinalists. The overwhelming majority of these students (15,000 of 16,000) will become National Merit Finalists.

    To score in the top one percent of Mississippians one need but post a score that is just above the national 97th percentile on the PSAT. On average our state’s students have lower scores, and so it’s easier to become a National Merit Finalist in Mississippi than in most states.
    I’ve written it before, but I’ll write it again. The National Merit Finalist designation carries with it some of the sweetest scholarships available to prospective college students. Ole Miss offers a free ride. Alabama and Oklahoma go one step further, offering 10 paid semesters, both undergraduate and graduate, plus free summers. Since most NM Finalists will arrive at college with more than 50 hours through AP classes and dual enrollment, these schools are essentially offering a free graduate, law, or medical degree. This can be worth a quarter of a million dollars to an out-of-state student.

    So it pays to put some effort into preparation for the PSAT. But don’t take my word on it. Take the advice of Seventeenth Century philosopher Blaise Pascal.
    They didn’t have the PSAT back in the 1600s, but Pascal advanced a theorem which provided a logical basis for believing in God. Essentially his theorem was that there was no penalty in believing in God and being wrong, but if one refused to believe and was wrong the result was eternal damnation.
    The chart at right sums up the possible outcomes for someone who believes or doesn’t believe in God. (Belief, by the way, means more than just detached observation, but rather belief with commitment; however, I’m not attempting any theological debate here).
    I’m not sure when I first heard of Pascal’s Wager, as it’s called. I actually had conducted the same mental exercise as a child of 8 or 9. But it’s an interesting way of looking at things, and in my view a valuable contribution to religious thought.
    One can use a variant of Pascal’s Wager as providing a real incentive to study for the PSAT, at least for those who have at least an outside chance of making the test’s Semifinalist cutoff score. There are four choices, based on two choices and two possible outcomes. One can prepare or not prepare. One can earn a high enough score to become a Semifinalist; or not.
    Those who attempt to become Finalists and fail will still be better students because of their preparation. They will likely have higher grades and score higher on the ACT and SAT. Even if they don't bag the National Merit scholarship, they might improve their scores enough for other merit aid. And of course, those who don't prepare and just barely fail to make the Semifinalist cutoff will be forever burdened with the knowledge that massive amounts of money could have been theirs with just a slight bit of effort.
    I’ve put all of this in the chart which is at the top of this blog post. If this doesn't convince your student to prepare for the PSAT, I'll end by offering this poem by William F. O'Brien.

Better To Try And Fail Than Never To Try At All

by William F. OBrien

Some say risk nothing, try only for the sure thing,
Others say nothing gambled nothing gained,
Go all out for your dream.
Life can be lived either way, but for me,
I'd rather try and fail, than never try at all, you see.

Some say "Don't ever fall in love,
Play the game of life wide open,
Burn your candle at both ends."
But I say "No! It's better to have loved and lost,
Than never to have loved at all, my friend."

When many moons have gone by,
And you are alone with your dreams of yesteryear,
All your memories will bring you cheer.
You'll be satisfied, succeed or fail, win or lose,
Knowing the right path you did choose.

After 40 years, the Rocky Horror Show is still a lot of fun; it runs until Feb. 15

    Jinny and I joined some friends in attending a showing of The Rocky Horror Show at the Playhouse on the Square in Memphis Sunday afternoon. It was a great show in a great venue. As you can see from the rehearsal video above (featuring the current cast), this show is a little different.
    Almost everyone of a certain age has seen the cult movie The Rocky Horror Picture Show a few times (and a few have seen it hundreds of times!). It was popular in the late 1970s through the 1980s as a midnight cult classic, and in fact never has stopped being shown each week at various theaters. It’s the longest running movie release in history.
    The film, which was adapted from a West End play, was initially a flop before it became a cult classic with midnight showings. Fans would dress up as their favorite characters and attend -- again, and again, and again.
    I wasn’t one of those to attend on a regular basis, and I certainly never dressed up, but once one gets over the shock of seeing a bunch of men running around on stage in the underwear the movie was a lot of fun. The Hoka in Oxford had a number of midnight showings back in the day.
    The Playhouse on the Square version is a lot of fun, too. The actors use a minimum of props, with actors playing the role of a bench or even windshield wipers. It may sound weird, but it worked, and worked well.
    I’m not going to try to say who did the best job. Frankenfurter was good; Columbia was good; Magenta was good; Brad and Janet were both good; Riff Raff was good; the narrator was good. Overall, the quality of the singing and acting was simply outstanding, with only a couple of minor rough spots. The live show isn't one for lots of audience participation, and patrons are instructed to leave their rice, newspapers, squirt guns, toast, playing cards, etc., at the door.
    I think we are all conditioned to think that an expensive theatrical performance is going to be better than a low-budget show. Personally, I thought the quality of the acting in The Rocky Horror Show was better than much of what I’ve seen at the Orpheum or on Broadway, although admittedly I'm no professional critic. I’ve tended to have trouble hearing at the Orpheum, were the acoustics aren’t the best. At the Playhouse, I could hear and understand everything the actors were saying or singing! I didn't have to keep poking Jinny and asking, "Whudhesay?"
    I’ve never been to the Playhouse on the Square before, but it is one of the most comfortable and enjoyable theatres I’ve visited. It only seats about 340 people, so it is an intimate setting; the balcony seats may be better than some of the floor seats. Tickets were only $29.95, although the Friday and Saturday shows cost more. Even if the Rocky Horror Show isn’t your thing, put this place down as a place to see a play or show. You won’t be disappointed.
    Oh, and 30 years ago we didn't have the Internet, and I never could figure out who Janet was referring to when she belted out "God Bless Lili St. Cyr!" It turns out she was a famous burlesque performer. So now you know.

    ■ The Rocky Horror Show runs at the Memphis Playhouse on the Square until Feb. 15, with evening showings Thursday through Friday and a matinee on Sundays. Tickets may be purchased online. Almost every seat is a good one, but the extreme outside edges have slight visibility problems in seats close to the stage.

Amanda Witt

    ■Amanda Wansa Morgan, an assistant professor in the Ole Miss theatre department, is the Rocky Horror Show's musical director. Three current Ole Miss students and two alumni are supporting cast members as Transylvanians. Current students are Cory Clark, Kate Louis Prender, and Bobby Kelly; and Ole Miss alums Kelley Michele and Cameron Yates.

This may be Oxford's biggest home game ever, so let's make sure we win the hospitality contest

    I do believe the biggest football game in Ole Miss history is about to take place.
    The match-up between No. 11 Ole Miss and No. 3 Alabama may be the most-watched game in the nation Saturday. The 2:30 p.m. game will be broadcast on CBS, but for the first time ever ESPN Game Day will be broadcast live from the stage at the Grove.
    Thank goodness for our big-screen television back in our tent, because to date I haven't been able to afford a ticket. My experience is that sometimes it's possible to get tickets at reasonable prices just outside the gate; and if not, I'll cheer from the Grove.
    I do hope everyone will pass the word that we need to be on our best behavior. The Alabama fans are our guests and we need to treat them as such. Fans that visit the Ole Miss campus return home marveling over how gracious we all are. Let's make sure Alabama gets a warm welcome even though we hope it will be a close game.
    Make no mistake, the oddsmakers expect Ole Miss to lose this game, but not by much. The line at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas currently has Alabama favored by 5½ points. As hard as it may be, if we lose we need to be gracious in defeat.
    But we're playing to win, and we have one of the best chances of beating Alabama in quite a while. The Alabama team isn't quite up to snuff this year and the Rebels are the best they've been in decades. A lot will depend on effort; and luck; and on the 13th man in the stadium.
    If we should win, I hope everyone will endeavor not to act like fools.
    A couple of years ago Jinny and I had the pleasure of hosting an out-of-state high school student who was thinking about coming to Ole Miss. He was a great student and being recruited by the honors college. After visiting the Grove, his mind was made up. He said then he was coming to Ole Miss, and he did.
    What attracted him wasn't that we won or lost the game that day. What attracted him was the graciousness and hospitality that he witnessed in the Grove. It is one of Ole Miss' greatest recruiting assets, so let's make sure we as fans don't muck it up through obnoxious winning or sore losing.

For a prospective med students National Merit Finalist status worth a quarter-million dollars

    I've repeatedly blogged about how National Merit Finalists will qualify for automatic full-ride scholarships at many schools.
    Of 16,000 Semifinalists named last week, 15,000 will go on to become Finalists. Those who don't make the cut will have poor essays, fail to validate their PSAT with a 1960 or higher on the SAT, have low grades, or receive a negative recommendation from their high school. In Mississippi there are 135 Semifinalists this year; most will become Finalists.
.   Let's take a look at two schools offering automatic National Merit scholarships: Ole Miss and Alabama.
    I've selected Ole Miss because -- well, just look at the blog name. I've selected Alabama because it has one of the most generous Finalist packages in the nation, and as a result is pulling in lots of Finalists.
    Ole Miss offers Finalists a combination of three different undergraduate scholarships; as best I can figure it, eligible students automatically receive two; the third is automatically awarded to students who don't get a scholarship from the National Merit Corporation.
    The National Merit Academic Excellence Award is valued at $46,084 ($11,521 per year – includes a full-tuition scholarship, currently valued at $6,996 per year and the standard cost of double-occupancy room in a campus residence hall currently valued at $4,525 per year). Non-Resident students will also receive a full non-resident scholarship currently valued at $12,084 per year. Finalists may receive additional awards. This scholarship is awarded in lieu of the Academic Excellence Scholarship.
    Stacked on top of this are the Barnard Scholarship, worth $12,000 and the National Merit Finalist Award, which is worth $4,000 but limited to those students who don't receive a National Merit Corporate award.
    So the total value of the Ole Miss package is $62,084 over four years for state residents; it's considered a "full-ride," covering room, board, tuition, and some books. For non-residents the package is worth $82,436. Students receiving this scholarship are eligible for additional awards.
    Alabama's award is a little richer, although technically it's not a full-ride. Oklahoma and Alabama are in somewhat of a bidding war in an effort to attract the highest number of Finalists. The winners of this battle are the National Merit Finalists.
    Alabama offers housing for only the first year. Students also receive $3,500 per undergraduate year, offset by any National Merit Corporate Award. Add to this a one-time $2,000 award for international study and a free iPad on arrival, plus free tuition, and you have a pretty good package. The real beauty of the Alabama award is that it isn't an undergraduate award; it's a university award, good for 10 tuition-free semesters of both undergraduate and graduate school.
    Given that most Finalists will arrive at college with almost two-year's worth of credits through AP and dual enrollment, the inclusion of graduate school is big. Really big.
    Alabama doesn't give the dollar amount of its scholarship, so I've tried to ferret it out as best I could. In valuing the Alabama scholarship I based my numbers on two years of undergraduate school and three years of graduate, law, or medical school.
    Tuition and fees at Alabama are $4,975 per semester for residents and $11,850 for non residents. Annual tuition for the law school is $10,660 per semester for residents and $18,000 for non-residents. For medical school it's $12,745 residents; $30,466.80 for non-residents.
    So let's assume we have a typical National Merit Finalists who arrives at Alabama with two-year's worth of credits, and that he then wants to go to law school. For that student the Alabama scholarship package is $7,000 NM Award, plus $82,360 in undergraduate and law tuition, ($155,400 non-residents), plus $8,800 in housing, plus a one-time $2,000 award, plus an iPad worth say $300, for a grand total of $100,460 for Alabama residents and $173,500 for non-residents.
    Oh, and just for fun, let's go ahead and calculate the value of the Alabama scholarship for someone going to medical school. Just subtract the non-resident law school tuition of $108,000 and add in the cost of non-resident medical school tuition of $182,800 and you pretty much max out the scholarship at $248,300.
    I haven't detailed the University of Oklahoma Finalist package, but it is similar to that of Alabama; the two schools are competing ferociously for Finalists. Oklahoma provides a special office just to assist Finalists with any problems they might have and also offers Finalist-only housing. In my opinion such benefits are quite valuable, but I don't know how to put a price-tag on them.
    In recent years the honors college concept has taken firm hold at public universities. These elite colleges within a college offer an outstanding education value.
    Values are relative and in the eye of the beholder. An out-of-state tuition waiver is worthless to a student not wishing to attend school out of state. The same goes for graduate school if one doesn't wish to attend (but how many Finalists don't?). But these scholarships are automatic and clearly valuable; under the right circumstances they can be worth a quarter of a million dollars.
    Sadly, many very bright high school students are completely unaware of the value of National Merit Finalist status and as a result won't put any real effort into winning the free quarter-million dollars. That's sad indeed!

Changing the name of Confederate Drive at Ole Miss is violation of state law

    There's a little glitch in Ole Miss Chancellor Dan Jones' plan to desecrate the memory of our Confederate War dead by changing the name of the spur road that serves to access the cemetery. He announced plans last Friday to change the name of the road from Confederate Drive to Chapel Lane.
    Such a name change is apparently against the law.
    Mississippi Code 55-15-81 provides that most streets named in honor of military units, organizations or events may not be renamed. This would certainly include a street serving a Confederate cemetery, named in memory of the men interred therein.
    Dan Jones has shown an unwillingness to adhere to the Ole Miss Creed regarding civil discourse. His hatred of Ole Miss and its history is so great that now he wants to break the law to erase memorials to the dead. Isn't it time we had a chancellor who would adhere to the Ole Miss Creed and obey the law?

    The relevant code section reads as follows:

(1) None of the following items, structures or areas may be relocated, removed, disturbed, altered, renamed or rededicated: Any Revolutionary War, War of 1812, Mexican-American War, War Between the States, Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, Korean War, Vietnam War, Persian Gulf War, War in Iraq or Native American Wars statues, monuments, memorials or nameplates (plaques), which have been erected on public property of the state or any of its political subdivisions, such as local, municipal or county owned public areas, and any statues, monuments, memorials, nameplates (plaques), schools, streets, bridges, buildings, parks preserves, reserves or other public items, structure or areas of the state or any of its political subdivisions, such as, local, municipal or county owned public areas, which have been dedicated in memory of, or named for, any historical military figure, historical military event, military organization or military unit.

UPDATE AND ADDENDUM: In the space of 10 hours this has become the second-most-read post I've had on this blog, as determined by direct click-throughs. Of course, I do have a few regular readers who just type in the blog name (in fact, I think this is becoming more common).

I really did not come up with this idea on my own. Someone posted a comment on Facebook which cited a Senate or House bill, not the code section. I read this on my phone, and when I tried to find the post on my computer I couldn't. I wanted to give whoever it was credit. But to whoever it was, next time cite the code section! You made me do some work. Also, my good friend John Cofield said he was aware of this information for the past few days and was just waiting for someone to publish it.

Ole Miss desperately needs a change, but it's not the name that needs changing

    I was glad to read the news that Coliseum Drive on the Ole Miss campus would be named in honor of Roy Lee “Chucky” Mullins, who was paralyzed and died a few years later following a tackle-gone-wrong in the 1989 Homecoming game against Vanderbilt.
    But how sad that Ole Miss Chancellor – oops, University of Mississippi Chancellor – Dan Jones made the announcement as part of a press release on plans to increase campus diversity. In other words, Jones’ message is that Mullins isn’t being honored for his sacrifice on the playing field, but because he’s black.
    I don’t believe in diversity just for the sake of diversity, but Jones does. But would it have hurt to have announced the renaming of the street a couple of months ago? The renaming could have still been mentioned in Jones’ press release.
    That’s one of the many problems with the “diversity” industry. Once in place there is no way to know whether favored groups have received honors on their own merits or merely because of a special status granted to them through their ethnicity, gender, sexuality, or whatever.
    Jones said the university now plans to create a new vice-chancellor position for diversity and inclusion. Such a post might as well be called Vice-chancellor for Grievances and Quota Demands. Throughout academia such posts invariably work to limit academic excellence, free speech, and just about everything that universities should strive to support.
    Once these diversity pot-stirrers become entrenched the list of grievances never ends. No complaint is too trivial, and no one is ever happy. Some people can’t be made to be happy: Give them buttermilk, they want sweet milk; give them sweet potato, they want white potato; give them white bread, they demand wheat bread.
    The University of Wisconsin faculty senate recently approved a diversity plan for that school which calls for “proportional participation of historically underrepresented racial-ethnic groups at all levels of an institution, including high-status special programs, high-demand majors, and in the distribution of grades.” You read that right: the distribution of grades.
    The university has now denied that it is ordering professors to implement race-based grading, and says that the diversity plan is merely a long-term goal, But since the Supreme Court outlawed racial quotas in the 1978 Bakke decision, we all have been able to observe that goals operate as de facto quotas. If there is a goal in place people are expected to meet that goal or suffer consequences. Goodbye academic integrity.
    An organization called Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) repeatedly goes to bat for students and professors who are persecuted for exercising their right to free speech or denied their due process rights. Some of these cases would be funny were they not so sad, such as Indiana University’s 2007 finding of racial harassment against a student seen reading Notre Dame Vs. the Klan: How the Fighting Irish Defeated the Ku Klux Klan, which celebrates the defeat of the Klan in a fight with Notre Dame students. But the cover featured a photo of a Klan rally, and thus reading it in public was considered an act of racial harassment. Goodbye freedom of inquiry.
    Jim Crow laws mandating legally enforced segregation came into being because people started voluntarily integrating when it served their interests, and lower-class whites felt threatened by this gradual integration. So they sought to prohibit it. Today it’s the reverse. Although there has been a progressive increase in racial integration based on shared interests, those who feel they have nothing to offer in the way of shared interests want to force diversity through law or regulation.
    Both forced segregation and forced “diversity” are wrong. If the university wants to increase social interaction among those from diverse backgrounds, the way to do it is to encourage or even require campus involvement in clubs, organizations, and committees having nothing to do with diversity. The wrong way is to create a Diversity Gestapo to try to micromanage student lives.
    Jones covered a lot of ground with his press release. He said he plans to change the name of the short lane leading to the Confederate cemetery from Confederate Drive to Chapel Lane. Apparently it’s not enough for Jones to irritate those of us who are living; he’s got to desecrate the memory of the dead as well. This would seem to be an area where the legislature should step in, as it has traditionally helped to ensure that our Confederate dead were properly memorialized.
    The university also plans to erect plaques at various locations around campus, such as next to the Confederate Statue on the Loop, explaining the complexities of Southern history. It’s great that the complexities of Southern history can be reduced to just a few sentences. Why not just create a plaque for each course offered by the university? People could get a degree in a day!
    I think it’s important to take a look back at Jones’ mis-administration over the past several years:
    ■ In the "From Dixie With Love" battle with the students over the shouting of the chant “The South Shall Rise Again,” Jones created a one-time showdown with the students to give himself the opportunity to demonstrate that he was the boss all at the expense of the school. He could have easily prevailed by working behind the scenes, yanking the song for one game, then two, then three, and so forth, until the chant simply would have gone away. But he has a character flaw that doesn’t allow him to behave rationally in this type of situation.
    ■ During the mass alumni protests seeking to have Pete Boone removed as athletic director, Jones shared a podium with two speakers who compared members of the Forward Rebels group to segregationists, Citizen Council members, and speech censors. Although Jones didn’t make these comments, he used their comments as talking points, thus ratifying their defamatory remarks. It was a stunning lack of civility and a violation of the Ole Miss Creed. Jones has not apologized.
    ■ Also during the Pete Boone protests Jones issued a letter to alumni in which he stated that there had been threats to expand the protests beyond the football program. The letter was so poorly worded that newspapers across the nation ran news stories based on the letter that Jones and Boone had been physically threatened, which apparently never happened. Jones never corrected the record, preferring to be known as a martyr than an incompetent communicator.
    ■ The poorly written letter cited above is not an isolated example. Jones seems to be unable to communicate effectively. When he sends a letter to alumni hoping to calm them down, he angers them. Despite months of preparation he was unable to effectively communicate exactly what the plans were for the use of the phrase “Ole Miss,” the delightful English phrase used to describe both our campus and the wife of a gentleman. We have an administrator who can neither communicate nor administrate effectively. But he certainly does a good job of sowing seeds of despair and dissension.
    Ole Miss doesn’t need a new name. It doesn’t need a Vice-Chancellor of Grievances and Quota Demands. It doesn’t need to rename the short road leading to the Confederate cemetery.
    What Ole Miss does need is a new chancellor. Soon.

Ole Miss Sigma Nu has year's most famous party after video published on Gawker, TotalFratMove

    (UPDATE: This story and video are now viral.)

    You know it was a great party when both Total Frat Move and Gawker share your video.
    That's what's going on with the video of the this year's Ole Miss Sigma Nu spring party, with a Woodstock theme. The fraternity, or somebody involved in the fraternity, got Oxford-based Skymasters Photography to create a video of the event. Apparently using a drone to film a fraternity party is so over the top that nobody had thought of it until now.
    Gawker and Total Frat Move both picked up the video from Youtube after is was uploaded on June 9. The video has been viewed almost 25,000 times since then. The music is Slow Down by, appropriately enough, Poolside.

Jenner Jordan
(Click to enlarge)

    Skymasters is owned by recent Ole Miss grad Jenner Jordan, a former writer and photographer for Hottytoddy.com. You can read his bio here.
    I've got to say, it looks like it was a great party, and it certainly makes Ole Miss look like a fun place to be. It's a good recruitment video for both Sigma Nu and Ole Miss. So congratulations to all involved.
    I bet we'll see more of these party vids next year. Party on, dudes.
_________________

Robert Khayat sings 'Long Black Veil'

Robert Khayat

    This is old news, but hey, if you haven't read it, it's still news.
    Almost three years ago Ole Miss held a reunion of Mississippian staffers to celebrate the newspaper's 100th anniversary. The journalism department videotaped the many events, posted them on Youtube, where they were promptly forgotten.
    Former Chancellor Robert Khayat did a little singing for us, and I have to say he wasn't bad at all. Plus, I liked his choice of music. He sang "Long Black Veil," which I've taken the liberty of presenting it today for your viewing pleasure.
    In introducing the song, Khayat referenced "The Eternal Triangle" of two men and one woman that seems to be at the heart of much if not most music and literature. Occasionally one can find two women and one man. Think about the popular "Twilight" series, "The Hunger Games," or any Louis L'Amour western.
    According to Wikipedia, "Long Black Veil" was written by Danny Dill and Marijohn Wilkin and originally recorded by Lefty Frizzell.
    Wikipedia also reports that the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals referred to the song in the case United States v. Dayton, 604 F.2d 931, 935 n.3 (5th Cir. 1979). This case concerned the proper procedures trial court judges must take when accepting a guilty plea, and identified "the two most dangerous" pitfalls of a guilty plea as coerced pleas and ignorant pleas. In describing a modification made to Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, which governs acceptance of pleas, the court explained that the changed required that "the defendant be made aware of what might happen as a result of his plea, and that the court be satisfied that a factual basis existed for it." It dropped a footnote at this point which stated, "This change was doubtless effected to avoid such circumstances as are recounted in 'The Long Black Veil.'"
    As good as Khayat's version of the song was, my favorite cover is the one done by Jason and the Scorchers. I still remember their concert in Fulton Chapel back around 1985-86 when they opened for The Fabulous Thunderbirds. As far as I'm concerned Jason should have had top billing.

Florida law dean candidate brings up dropping LSAT scores and promptly kicked off campus

    Ole Miss law school dean Richard Gershon is one of the editors of the Law Deans on Legal Education Blog. In a recent post he tells of a dean candidate at Florida Coastal School of Law being ordered off the campus for attempting to address the issue of declining LSAT scores and dropping bar passage rates at a faculty review luncheon.

    A portion of his post is below:

    The on-campus process involved dinner with the President of the school, and then a meeting with the staff and faculty during a series of small groups sessions the following day. Each candidate was to give a presentation on the candidate’s vision for the school to the full faculty at lunch the day of the interview.  That is fairly standard for dean searches nationwide.
    One oddity was that the faculty was told they could only exclude one of the seven candidates from consideration. In effect, that means that the faculty has very little role in selecting the dean from the six remaining candidates. That is odd, but not particularly alarming, provided that the faculty had a significant role in the selection of candidates.
    The disturbing part of the report involves a candidate who raised concerns about the school’s declining student credentials and bar pass rates. That candidate was asked to leave in the middle of the lunch presentation. The candidate resisted, but was told that security would be called to remove the candidate from campus. This all happened in the view of about 40 faculty and staff present at this presentation, which was being recorded so others who were teaching class could see it later.
    The concerns raised by the dean candidate are supported by publicly available information showing that the 2013 entering class at Coastal had the following 75/50/25 LSAT profile: (148/144/141). Reports indicate that the students who have placed seat deposits in 2014 have a virtually identical profile as the 2013 entering class.

    I am adding Dean Gershon's blog to the blog list which appears on the left side of this page.

h/t Above the Law

College friend, housemate, and fraternity brother shares letter signed by both of our fathers.

Click to enlarge

    At some point I seem to recollect coming across a quote that said "Mississippi is not so much a state as it is a private club." I thought Faulkner said it, but numerous Google searches for the author have proven fruitless. If I can't find anyone to attribute it to I guess I'll claim it.
    The point of the quote is that Mississippi is a relatively low-population state in which people from all over seem to share friendships and a common history.
    Joe Guyton, a fraternity brother and former housemate recently emailed me a copy of a letter to the national Democratic Committee that was signed by both of our fathers back in 1948. It urged the committee to name a slate of electors to support the re-election of Harry Truman as all of the state's leaders were supporting Strom Thurmond and Fielding Wright.
    A Google search found reference to this (unsuccessful) effort in a biography of Mississippi Congressman Frank Smith. It was apparently encouraged by Ole Miss professor Jim Silver, who was my father's favorite professor.
    My father was unable to attend a ceremony honoring Silver three years ago, so I went in his stead. I was disappointed when Chancellor Dan Jones and others used the event to suggest that those who wanted a new athletic director for Ole Miss were like those who drove Silver from the Ole Miss campus. It was a disgraceful act of incivility outside the bounds of the Ole Miss creed, yet Jones has still not apologized.
    In any event, what are the odds that two of 24 people who signed a letter back in 1948 would have sons who would later become friends, fraternity brothers, and housemates? My guess is that in Mississippi such things are more likely than in most states.

Oxford Eagle Feature: Forty years later former student tips Mistilis waitress, with interest

   I bought a year's subscription to the Oxford Eagle last Friday. I had been buying it off and on from the rack, and I had an electronic subscription, but the fact is more times than not I wasn't reading.
    Monday my first copy arrived in my driveway with the story about a student who was a regular customer at Mistilis Restaurant on College Hill Road back in the early 1970s. He wasn't a big tipper. He just didn't have much money back then, and at the time a lot of students just didn't tip. It's the type of story that I wish everyone could read about Oxford and Ole Miss.
    Apparently, after graduation the student learned of the ways of the world and the propriety of leaving a tip, and he often thought of the waitress who frequently served him and his friends. He didn't know her name and asked the Oxford Eagle for help in tracking her down. The Eagle contacted Jo Dale Mistilis, who was able to do so.
    And so, after 40 years, the waitress received her tips, with interest, in the form of a $500 check.
    I'm afraid copyright law doesn't allow me to reproduce any more of the story than I have above. It's a fairly long piece and worth reading, but to do so you'll need to stop by the Eagle and buy a copy for 50 cents or pay $5 for a month's subscription to the electronic edition, unless you are already a subscriber.

DA Creekmore says no charges for now against students who placed noose on Meredith statue

    Several sources have reported that at this time no criminal charges are planned against three students who left a noose and pre-2001 Georgia flag on the statue of James Meredith at Ole Miss.
    Ben Creekmore, who serves as District Attorney for Lafayette County, told WMC-5 on Friday his review of the law found that no law had been broken.

    Creekmore told Action News 5 late Friday morning that investigators and prosecutors have looked into several misdemeanors as possible charges. He said because the statue was not physically damaged, and the suspects did not appear to be trespassing, his office would likely not be in a position to bring criminal charges against the suspects.
    He did add that he felt the act was despicable and that federal investigators could opt to bring charges if they saw fit.

     Everything I've read suggests that these three men are not guilty of a federal hate crime, which requires their act to target a specific individual or group and not a large generalized group. But I will leave it to others to make this determination.
    But I do think they might be guilty of disturbing the peace. They reportedly yelled racial slurs at a contractor working for the university. These would seem to me to be "fighting words," and as such a breach of the peace, and a violation of  Mississippi Code 97-35-15:

§ 97-35-15. Disturbance of the public peace or the peace of others; exception

(1) Any person who disturbs the public peace, or the peace of others, by violent, or loud, or insulting, or profane, or indecent, or offensive, or boisterous conduct or language, or by intimidation, or seeking to intimidate any other person or persons, or by conduct either calculated to provoke a breach of the peace, or by conduct which may lead to a breach of the peace, or by any other act, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof, shall be punished by a fine of not more than Five Hundred Dollars ($ 500.00) or by imprisonment in the county jail not more than six (6) months, or both.

    I respect Creekmore's decision in this matter. As a district attorney he certainly doesn't want to be seen as doing nothing. And it's not ethical for him to bring charges if he knows the law isn't with him.
    Perhaps this charge needs to be brought at the local level by the county prosecutor. And perhaps there's not enough to make it stick. But these men have certainly caused a very large disturbance of the peace.

Here's a Google search that ought to make you think a bit about campus hate vandalism with nooses

    UPDATE: Three Ole Miss students from Georgia have apparently admitted to placing the noose and flag on the Meredith. Assuming this information is correct, this event clearly was not a hoax.
    I'll have a blog post later. This is the first campus case I've been able to find where white racist, students have left an anonymous noose or drawings of a noose. There have been a number of cases where either black students or "progressive" whites have done so to increase "racism" awareness.
    It's important in a case like this to consider every possibility: that it might be legitimate, it might not be; that it might be students, it might not be. Those who jumped the gun and said "Students Did It," up front turned out to be right, but they were wrong to do this.

________________

    If you want to see something interesting, go to Google and type in the words "campus hate hoax noose." Or you can just click on the link I've provided. It will return approximately 14,500,000 items.
    I'm not going to summarize the myriad race hate hoaxes over the last couple of decades. That's why I've provided the link. What I will say is that when a noose is involved it is usually planted by a minority or "progressive" white trying to raise awareness of "racism." Apparently nooses are to real racists as quiche is to real men.
    Don't miss the compilation of columns by Michele Malkin, who has written exhaustively on campus race hoaxes, some involving nooses, others not. At least someone is trying to raise awareness of campus hoaxes!
    The response to these hoaxes is always the same. Campus sit-ins, awareness events, and minority demands for whatever it is they feel like demanding at the time.
    Sort of like the past few days at Ole Miss. A protest was organized at the site of the vandalism of a statue honoring Ole Miss' first black student, James Meredith. A noose had been placed around his neck and he was draped with a cape fashioned from a pre-2001 Georgia flag, which features a large Confederate emblem. African American Studies professor Bryan Cooper Owens is quoted in The Daily Mississippian as saying:

    “Until the university begins to address the real issues of systemic institutionalized racism on this campus, until they begin to take seriously the environment of white supremacy that exists on this campus, we will continue to see incidents like this,” Cooper Owens said.
    “If there is a pattern, it is no longer individuals,” Cooper Owens said in regards to those responsible for “symbolically lynching” the James Meredith statue, a campus representation of unity and courage amongst whites and blacks. “We can’t say it was ‘these outsiders’ — no, it was us.”    

    Note how important it is for Cooper Owners to make the claim that the vandalism was the result of institutionalized racism instead of the act of one or two criminals. He's not seeking justice for those who committed this act. He's seeking political advantage. At this point there's not even a scintilla of evidence that a student committed this crime, but he's certainly acting like one did.
    Mississippi NAACP president Derrick Johnson used the opportunity to complain about the school's street names. "You cannot have a university where, when you turn down the main drag, it's called Confederate Drive." Well, Mr. Johnson, yes you can. For what it's worth Ole Miss also has a Union Loop. Ole Miss is for equal opportunity, something Mr. Johnson apparently knows little about.
    Still others are using the event to demand that Mississippi get rid of its flag, which was adopted in 1894 and readopted by an overwhelming bi-racial margin in 2001. In fact, the use of the old Georgia flag is one of the facts that leads me to believe the Meredith vandalism may be a politically motivated hoax.
    The race-hustler crowd likes to equate the Mississippi flag and the old Georgia flag when in fact the two have nothing in common from a historical standpoint. The Mississippi flag was adopted in 1894 when school segregation was not even an issue. The inclusion of the Confederate banner was designed to honor our ancestors. Georgia, however, placed the Confederate flag in its state flag in 1956 as a direct response to the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision, in support of segregation. As a result the Georgia flag was eventually changed. It all goes to intent.
    But the haters want to equate the two. And that's why I think the Georgia flag was used. They aren't exactly easy to find.
    In 2002 there was a serious incident with racist graffiti being drawn on doors in Kincannon dormitory at Ole Miss. The depiction of nooses was included. Next up was the anti-racism rally, with everyone standing up to imaginary racism. Imaginary because it was all a hoax; it was perpetrated by blacks who were not prosecuted. In fact, part of the pattern over the past 20 years is that the hoaxsters are usually not prosecuted, and often their identities are shielded by the universities where they committed their crimes.
    The Meredith vandalism may not be a hoax, but I've offered to wager heads-up on the matter with two different friends and they've both declined. But no matter who did it or what their motive was, it is still vandalism, and when the criminals are caught they should be punished whether they are racists, anti-racists, or just drunks.

Daily Mississippian reports arrest near in suspicious vandalism of Meredith statue

    The Daily Mississippian reports that an arrest in imminent regarding the vandalism of the James Meredith statue between the Lyceum and the library on the Ole Miss campus.
    There is a chance, of course, that the person or persons who did this will be drunk, racist fraternity boys. I don't think this will be the case. I think it was either non-students or else a good old-fashioned race-hoax.
    We'll see. There are a number of things about this that seem very suspicious to me, including the use of the former Georgia flag. I'll post more after an arrest is made.
    But no matter what, whoever did this needs to be punished. It gives the school a black eye and causes untold turmoil. The university cannot afford to simply ignore this.

Million Dollar Quartet was a great show and the Ford Performing Arts Center is a great showcase

I snapped this photo of the Ford Center from the orchestra pit area a few minutes before Tuesday night's performance of Million Dollar Quartet. I didn't think I would ever see this type of facility at Ole Miss!

    I took the family to see Million Dollar Quartet at the Gertrude C. Ford Center for the Performing Arts at Ole Miss last night. It was a great show and a reminder of how lucky we are in Oxford to have the Ford Center.
    The musical centers on the night in 1956 that Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, and Jerry Lee Lewis got together at the Sun Recording Studio in Memphis. Their impromptu session was recorded and they were dubbed the "Million Dollar Quartet" in a Memphis Press-Scimitar new article the next day.
    My father-in-law went with us. As a young man he was a member of a Nashville band that tried to make it in the music business. I think they had one song that made it into the Top 100 for one week. Although the events showcased by Million Dollar Quartet were a little before his time he loves the music and singers from this era. (And after the show he shared a story of his band opening a show for Conway Twitty and Jerry Lee Lewis in Birmingham. Lewis was most displeased with the fact that Twitty was getting top billing for the show and made his displeasure known. The promoters ended up closing the curtain on Lewis after four songs).
    I'm not going to write a review of the musical except to say that I enjoyed it. You can read that elsewhere. I will say I agree with the Lexington Herald-Leader's view that John Countryman as Jerry Lee Lewis looks the least like the star he is portraying but does the best job of acting and sounding like him.
    I have been lucky in getting theatre seats lately, and somehow managed to get front-row seats for last night's show. I bought them fairly late, and I must have gotten online at exactly the right time as some Orchestra Pit seats were released.
    Yet the Ford Center is full of good seats. I never go in it that I am not amazed that the second-smallest university in the SEC in the smallest college town in the SEC has a performing arts center that is among the very best to be found not only at any SEC school, but at any university, period. I'm sure there are bigger and better, but when the size of our university and our town are taken into account the Ford Center is just as good as it gets.
    The Ford Center seats 1,250. By way of comparison the Orpheum in Memphis seats 2,500. But 1,250 seats is enough to bring in some good shows, and as much as I like the Orpheum I'd rather see a show at the Ford Center.
    Tuesday night's performance was a sell-out, although there were a few empty seats due to bad weather. Tonight there is a performance by Widespread Panic's "JoJo" Herman in the studio theatre. It, too, is sold out. A look at the Ford Center's upcoming events calendar shows that the facility will be put to good use over the next few months for campus events, concerts, and even a high school musical.
    If you haven't been to an event at the Ford Center, I suggest you put it on your "bucket list." You'll enjoy the show, and just as important you'll enjoy the facility.

The Rebel Deli lives -- at least in my kitchen

    Back in my student days I spent a year to 18 months working at the Rebel Deli, which was located on Jackson Ave., at the end of Fraternity Row, just west of Tidwell's Grocery and Service Station.
    The Rebel Deli's menu was about as simple as can be. They (or we) served steamed sandwiches on white, wheat, or onion roll. A variety of cheeses were available. There were no tomatoes, onions, green peppers, or any of that nonsense. Just bread, meat, and cheese steamed, put on a square of tinfoil which you then carried to your table to eat. Many of us absolutely loved them, and because I worked there I got to eat for half price.
    Grey Sellers, the owner of the Rebel Deli, wrote a little bit about the history of his restaurant on the Restaurant History of Oxford Facebook page:

   I opened the Rebel Deli in September of 1979 and served the last sandwich on May 31, 1985. It was a sad day. George Kakales, the owner of Dino's on the square, bought the property from Mr. McMillan in order to open the new Dino's. He decided that he didn't need any additional competition and would not renew my lease. I looked for other locations to move the deli to but I could not find anyone willing to lease to a restaurant.
   When we first opened, there were only a handful of places selling food after 10:30pm. (Mr. Quick, Kiami's Bowling Alley, Pizza Den, and Quick Shop). We were open 14 hours a day and would typically do half of our sales in the 2 hour period from 11:00pm to 1:00am. The drunk to sober ratio during this time slot was about 10-1. It was rare that anyone would pay with cash. We would take between 70 and 90 checks on an average day with the average check total approximately $3.50. The best thing I can say about Rebel Deli customers is that after 6 years, we closed the doors with only 7 checks that bounced and were never paid.
   I saved 1 of the steamers and we break it out 2-3 times/year. It brings back a lot of good memories.

    The video that I've posted above just shows me making some steamed sandwiches and talking a little bit to my kids about the Rebel Deli. I will note that the Pepperidge Farm onion rolls did not steam well at all. The Cobblestone Mill bread did quite well. The video is almost 15 minutes long, so please be assured that you won't hurt my feelings if you skip through parts of it!
    After the failure of the Pepperidge Farm bread I bought some much firmer onion rolls from Kroger and made a sandwich using Boar's Head oven roasted turkey and Cracker Barrel Extra Sharp white cheddar. After steaming it I topped the sandwich with a couple of pieces of crisp bacon. It was a joint tribute, to both the Rebel Deli and the Hoka Theatre, which used to sell a sandwich called the "Love at First Bite" made with turkey, cheddar, and bacon. Yes, my sandwich was good.
    The steamer is good for more than just making sandwiches. It's supposedly great for cooking shellfish and for reheating a variety of foods. I'll have to play around with it some, but my reason for getting it was to make sandwiches.
    If our group's generator will handle it I think I'll bring the steamer to the Grove for one of the football games. Something tells me I won't lack for company.