Adrienne Klasky, from The Sun Herald 

Adrienne Klasky.  Chances are you know the name of Haley Barbour, but have never heard of her.  Who is she?

Adrienne was shot in Pascagoula, MS, in 1989 by her husband, Michael David Graham.

"Witnesses said Graham stalked K… Read full post »

(My mother has severe heart trouble, among other things.  She speaks slowly and not very strongly.) 

Me:  Where were you the day Kennedy died?

Mama:  At Pass Christian High School.

Me:  What were you doing?

Mama:  Teaching, uh, English. (Sighing.)

Me:  Wh… Read full post »

I am on the board of an emerging nonprofit.  We applied for a Pepsi grant, as did many other Gulf Coast Projects.  (Pepsi set aside special money to help the Coast after the oil spill devastation.)  Voting started August 2 and goes through August 31. … Read full post »

Yesterday at a store, I saw an old acquaintance.  I was in a hurry to get ready for the once-monthly meal I help organize and I needed filling for our sandwiches, which were to feature BBQ 'pulled pork.'  I went to the deli to ask if they carried it, my eyes… Read full post »

We meet again.  I come bearing letters--like last year--to your chosen place.  The Waffle House turned Denny's.  Murder does not go well with morning chatter, the slightly sulphurous smell of eggs.  Clinking silverware.  The slide of sugar into coffee.

Mourning is no beginnin… Read full post »

Our worst family Easter disaster has yet to occur, because I've never been knocked up, but one can dream.

"taptaptaptaptap" the plastic spoon against the side of the Dixie cup is supposed to herald an announcement.

"What the hell are you doin'?" Cousin Jimmy, jerker of our beef, eyes me… Read full post »

Yes, ladies and gentleman!  I may now mingle with the ranks of the wealthy!  And to think, I had somewhere from $7 to $14 in my checking account like the little people only a few days ago.  (Yes, I have a hard time keeping up with it exactly.)  I gritted my teeth,… Read full post »

"It could tear a hole in the space-time continuum."  That is the reason I gave for not meeting OS friends recently.  Cheeky but true.  We have to think of the little people, I said.  We have to put them before our own selfish needs.

It may also… Read full post »

When in the course of human events you are gifted a 'free' part-wirehaired-terrier puppy by two women in a truck that roars off down the street as soon as the puppy has cleared the passenger side window...well, when this happens, you don't know what's in store for you.
 
If you are me, you… Read full post »

Anna is a homeless woman who goes to my church.  She has hard-to-tame hair, a reddish, sun-lined face, a stocky build.  I met her because we sat in the same section--all the way over to the side and in the last row.  I did not know for a time that she… Read full post »

This is a quick post on a serious topic.  Instead of doing more commenting on my own, I just wanted to share an email message I got from Senator Roger Wicker (Republican--MS)  or, most probably, the person in his camp who disseminates such messages.  Somehow I got on Wicker's list… Read full post »

Everyone else is doing a list, and if everyone else jumped off a cliff, well, I wouldn't.  But making a list is hardly jumping off a cliff....

Holiday gatherings provide the opportunity to relish quality time with family, friends, or coworkers, but that's only if you really enjoy your family, fr… Read full post »

Today is the first anniversary of my blog on OpenSalon.  I had never blogged anywhere, and I feared that if I did, it would contain little more than my self-involved ramblings.  Hopefully I have occasionally risen above this level.  I don't know.

 I usually don't forward… Read full post »

On Oct. 30, it was confirmed that my 91-year-old grandmother had cancer.  On November 1, we met with an oncologist, who told us he thought she had less than a month.  She was suffering with blood clots that were cutting off circulation to her feet, which were turning black and could… Read full post »

It was not today, but Thursday over a week ago that I woke up in the morning and walked past my grandmother's room.

"Take me to the hospital.  I wanna go now, this way, " she said, asking to go in her robe and slippers.

Granny is normally a hospital avoidance… Read full post »

Charles Gibson on the nightly news just introduced a segment comparing supposedly incompatible terms of justice. Director Roman Polanski is in a Swiss jail "on 30-year-old charges of having sex with a teenaged girl."  Yet on the other hand, there is a known money launderer running a bank an… Read full post »

I cannot even make an intelligent post of all this, but when has that ever stopped me before?

 Several weeks ago after a long car trip to see her lone surviving brother, my grandma had problems with her right leg, which was swollen and red.  She is a thin person, delicate because… Read full post »

"In September, lie all the things you've lost..." So began a poem by Rachel Sams, a girl from my creative writing class senior year.  She was much more talented than I, as you can see. 

That first line is all the more true for me because September is a birthday month… Read full post »

Oh, snark, how I appreciate you.  How I glory in you.  How I fear that you will be used against me.  I have not many gifts, but I do have the gift of snark.  Oftentimes I keep it to myself, but sometimes I unleash it.  And worse, if I… Read full post »

 This is how I feel, mostly not about the whole editor's pick thing, but because Kerry ignores me.  I've sent flowers and cards.  I burned a CD for him of our songs.  I've called him, and a suspicious person answers. "Who is this?"  I ask.

"Who is this?" suspicious per… Read full post »

I was originally going to compose a long post about the emotional rollercoaster that was last night's town hall meeting on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.  Keep in mind that these are people still bitter over their battles with insurance companies post-Katrina, so would they have a more nuanced view… Read full post »

“When things go wrong, you'll find they usually go on getting worse for some time; but when things once start going right they often go on getting better and better.”  C.S. Lewis quotes (British Scholar and Novelist. 1898-1963)

Sometimes in life we wander through the wood… Read full post »