The Daily Mississippian April 6, 2023

MISSISSIPPIAN THE Daily

Another school shooting strikes fear in the hearts of teachers

Who’s to blame for the Rebels’ 1-8 start in SEC play?

AVA JAHNER

JULIEANNA JACKSON

thedmnews@gmail.com

Following another deadly mass shooting that occurred March 27 at the Covenant School in Nashville, educators are asking themselves how they might respond in a similar situation.

The Covenant School shooter was identified as 28-year-old Audrey Hale, a former student of the school. The shooting killed six people, including three nine-year-olds and three

adults. Hale was shot at the scene by two officers and died. According to the police, Hale’s victims were randomly selected, and a local school and church building were the targets.

Former and current University of Mississippi students and teachers shared their feelings and what plans they have in place to protect their students.

“I walk into any classroom, and I immediately think, ‘Where is the window, where is the door, where would the kids go?’” Maeve Lewis said.

Lewis is a first-year teacher at Della

SEE TEACHERSPAGE 3

Clothesline Project promotes sexual assault awareness

TANISSA RINGO

thedmnews@gmail.com

Rallying Against Sexual Assault held a T-shirt decorating event for the Clothesline Project at Tuesday night in the Thad Cochran Research Center. Students brought awareness to the issue of sexual violence by creating T-shirts to express their stories.

RASA is an open student organization under the Violence Intervention and Prevention: Survivor Support office that brings education and awareness of gender-based violence to students who are passionate about the topic. The organization is comprised of confidential advocates that work with stu -

dents that have experienced sexual assault, intimate partner violence and stalking.

The Clothesline Project is an interactive exhibit that features written experiences by survivors of interpersonal violence and all forms of violence. T-shirts created during Tuesday night’s event were put on display Wednesday, April 5, on the Union Terrace.

The organization hasn’t been consistent in putting on The Clothesline Project exhibit, but co-advisors Bhakti Patel and Christin Dobbs are glad they brought the event back to campus this year.

Patel, a second-year graduate student who works in the VIP office, thinks the event is a “cathartic” experience for ev -

The Ole Miss baseball team has found itself in a bit of a pickle here at the midway point of the season.

Heading into the 2023 campaign, no one really expected the Rebels to win the National Championship again this year. But most would have expected Ole Miss to have a solid season with some return-

ing faces and good offseason acquisitions. Unfortunately, it hasn’t been smooth sailing for the defending champs.

The Rebels sit with an overall record of 17-11 and are just 1-8 against SEC opponents. Before winning last Saturday’s game against the Texas A&M Aggies, Ole Miss started 0-7 in conference play for the first time since 1935.

Those seven consecutive losses also constituted

Ninety-six gun-related incidents have already occured at U.S. schools in 2023.

PHOTO COURTESY: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

The Ole Miss baseball team stands for the National Anthem prior to a game against Southern Miss on March 7.

ASHLYNN PAYNE / THE DAILY MISSISSIPPIAN

This league is just so unforgiving and if you don’t play well, you don’t win.

-Head Coach Mike Bianco

CLOTHESLINE

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eryone involved and hopes the exhibit will bring awareness to the community.

“Making a T-shirt is really for empowerment in itself,” Patel said. “I think it’s always powerful reading the T-shirts on a clothesline in the middle of campus because you always think ‘Maybe that could be my friend.’ It definitely brings awareness.”

Dobbs, in addition to being the co-advisor of RASA, is the program manager of the VIP office.

“I think it’s always really amazing to see students engaged in activities where you can see how it’s impacting

them and how it’s building community for them,” Dobbs said. “I think that’s really valuable and rewarding.”

“Just being able to have this opportunity to educate campus, I’m grateful for,” Dobbs said.

Freshman nursing major Breanna Moseley is a RASA member. She attended Tuesday night and described feeling supported by her fellow attendees.

“It’s emotional. Especially seeing other people’s shirts. It’s good to know that there’s people around me that have shared the same experiences,” Moseley said. “They don’t compare traumas here. Everyone is here for each other, and that’s what I really like about it.”

See photo gallary online at thedmonline.com

THE DAILY MISSISSIPPIAN EDITORIAL staff

RABRIA MOORE editor-in-chief dmeditor@gmail.com

VIOLET JIRA managing editor dmmanaging@gmail.com

ZACH SPOONER copy chief thedmcopy@gmail.com

HAL FOX MARY BOYTE news editors thedmnews@gmail.com

AIDAN GALLARDO sports editor thedmsports@gmail.com

JANE ROB PANNELL assistant sports editor thedmsports@gmail.com

HG BIGGS photo editor thedmphotos@gmail.com

ASHTON SUMMERS assistant photo editor thedmphotos@gmail.com

JUSTICE ROSE opinion editor thedmopinion@gmail.com

KHARLEY REDMON arts and culture editor thedmfeatures@gmail.com

WILL JONES assistant arts and culture editor thedmfeatures@gmail.com

ERIN FOLEY LIBBY FLANAGAN design editors thedmdesign@gmail.com

SAVANNAH SHOOK SEDLEY NORMAND visuals editors thedmvisuals@gmail.com

CAROLINE BEACH social media editor thedmsocialmedia@gmail.com

BRITTANY KOHNE multimedia editor dailymissmedia@gmail.com

LIZ HAYWOOD online editor

When it is decided that The Daily Mississippian will take an editorial stance on an issue, the following positions will make decisions as the Editorial Board: editor-in-chief, managing editor, copy chief, sports editor and opinion editor.

S. Gale denley student media center

LARZ ROBERTS Director of Student Media

DENNIS MOORE Editorial Director

ROY FROSTENSON Assistant Director/Advertising

JAYLIN JONES Advertising Sales Manager dmads@olemiss.edu

SALES ACCOUNT

EXECUTIVES

Owen Pustell

Dylan Sheu

Caleb Perkins

Kendall Scott

Ole Miss students view UM RASA’s clothesline exhibit on the union terrace on April 5.

Hayden Wallace and Laila Miller read the stories and quotes written on T-shirts at UM RASA’s clothesline exhibit on April 5.

Lane Taylor writes on a brown T-shirt to be displayed at UM RASA’s clothesline exhibit.

HG BIGGS / THE DAILY MISSISSIPPIAN

Davidson Elementary School in Oxford and a UM graduate.

“I think, ‘What’s in the corner? Are there shelves in the way?’ You think about it, and it’s real,” Lewis said.

Lewis said during her first day at the school teachers were prepped for various lockdowns by their resource police officer, including if an active shooter came into the school. She realized at that moment no school or town was safe and that she would be willing to sacrifice herself to protect her students.

“As a teacher, I feel that most teachers would put themselves in the line of fire for someone else; as for myself, I know I would put my life on the line for them,” she said.

In recent years, conversations about education have moved from how to teach children to how to protect their lives.

“I saw a post the other day. The premise of it was every single teacher that you know has thought about what they would do,” Lewis said.

Grace Webb, a senior elementary education major and fifth grade teacher at Central Elementary in Oxford, started preparing for that scenario when she heard what happened in Nashville.

“I was at lunch, and one of the teachers next to me was on her phone and got an alert about the Nashville shooting. We got

to talking about another school shooting, and I had to ask, ‘Wait, which one was that?’ The fact that we even said that is crazy and sad,” Webb said. “I am hoping this will wake more people up. I was sad that I didn’t have a reaction, that I wasn’t more shocked.”

In 2023, there have already been 96 gun-related incidents at schools, according to the K-12 database. A gun related incident is defined as when a gun is brandished, is fired or a bullet hits school property for any reason, regardless of the number of victims, time or day of the week.

Webb is from Arkansas, and her main worry as a teacher used to be how to protect her students from natural disasters, such as tornadoes. Now, she says, they practice more active shooter drills at her school than they do tornado drills.

When you ask a child about their dream job, many say becoming an astronaut, president or teacher. Children across the country look up to their teachers and realize how they are committing their lives to not only their education but to their safety as well.

Paige Barnett, a junior secondary math education major and student teacher at South Panola High School in Batesville, Miss., echoed safety concerns with the job.

“Mentally, it’s challenging knowing that I am putting myself into a profession that traditionally is not something that would be putting myself in harm’s

way,” she said. “Now, in the day and age we are in, I am taking that risk to educate our youth.”

An undergraduate at the University of Mississippi, Barnett says she already has an escape plan for an active-shooter incident, and she knows how she would protect her students. Barnett says that she has been told before by her education instructors that she “could get shot” in the job.

Kaylee Plowman, a junior integrated marketing and communications major from Nashville, says her hometown needs all the love and support it can receive

due to the most recent school shooting. She says Nashville is a tight-knit community, and almost everyone is connected in some way to a victim of the shooting.

“This is our home; something must be done to protect our community and kids. Our Metro police have set the standard countrywide for fearlessly taking out the active shooter in record time,” Plowman said. “They saved countless lives, and we are so thankful to have them protecting us.”

In a blink of an eye, six lives are gone and Plowman and her community will continue to re-

member them and their families in the wake of this tragedy.

“The three nine-year-old children should have gone home to their parents and been tucked into their beds. The headmaster, substitute teacher and custodian should have returned home to their families and had dinner together,” Plowman said. “Instead, there have been six funerals remembering the lives that were taken. Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs, William Kinney, Katherine Koonce, Cynthia Peak and Mike Hill, you will not be forgotten.”

SAVANNAH SHOOK / THE DAILY MISSISSIPPIAN

The tragic tornadoes that demolished portions of Amory and Rolling Fork, Miss., on March 24 left a memorable impression on countless University of Mississippi students.

Student organizations set up opportunities for fundraising, volunteering and donating all in the name of support for the citizens of the areas affected.

Individual Ole Miss students, such as Terrell Atkins, were directly affected by the catastrophe..

Born and raised in Amory, Atkins ventured over to Oxford in fall 2022 as a freshman at UM. Around seven months later, on March 24, Atkins was rushed to the basement of a frozen yogurt establishment on The Square as fractions of his hometown were being swept away.

“I was at Yaya’s, visiting a friend, and then the sirens went off. They told us to go to the basement,” Atkins said.

Atkins confessed that he was not initially concerned about the weather, as Amory frequently experiences unnerving weather with -

Amory student reflects on devastating hometown tornado

out disastrous follow-up.

“It’s never been like that one before. I just thought it would be another storm that went by. I didn’t really take it that seriously at the time,” Atkins said.

He later learned that even though his family’s house was not destroyed, Atkins’ family was forced to temporarily relocate until the necessary repairs can be made.

“A tree fell on our laundry room roof, so my parents are, right now, camping out in Tupelo in a hotel while the house gets fixed — like roofing and electric and hot water,” Atkins said. “But the damage wasn’t as bad as it could have been, so that’s why I’m grateful.”

He has yet to return to Amory for a visit post-tornado.

“I think I’m subconsciously trying to avoid it,” Atkins said. “I mean, I’ve seen pictures and videos, but I haven’t really seen the wreckage. I think I’m gonna go back this weekend — maybe.”

Atkins said that he is thankful to the people who check in on him and his home, but acknowledges that it is exhausting to be constantly reminded of it.

“Last week I was in the

union getting food and these two girls saw that I was wearing an Amory shirt that I just happened to wear that day. They were like, ‘Hey, are you from the town that the tornadoes went through?’” Atkins said. “It just felt weird and was just really random to me, but I appreciated it (the checking in).”

Regardless, Atkins believes

that it is the people within communities, far and close, that bring the good out of terrible situations like this one.

“I think that in a time like this, where it can feel (like) everybody is such in a vulnerable, helpless spot, that having a lot of people around you that are willing to be compassionate and have empa -

The tea on The Tea: What’s in it?

ing meal replacement companies in the United States.

According to Severance, the campus truck serves 200 customers per day on average.

On any given day, numerous Ole Miss students can be seen walking around campus with clear, 32 ounce cups filled with a colorful liquid called “loaded tea.” Loaded teas have circulated across social media and college campuses, but some consumers question the health benefits and risks of these teas.

Operators of The Tea, a campus-favorite food truck located between the student union and the Croft Institute, say they avoid “artificial flavors and preservatives” as well as “aspartame and high fructose corn syrup” in their loaded tea products.

“No other nutrition store has our product,” Riley Severance, sophomore Ole Miss student and manager of The Tea, said. “Our drinks have no sugar and are only 15 calories.”

The drinks are so sweet and energizing that consumers as well as nutritionists ask: What exactly do these loaded teas consist of?

“We cannot give a full ingredient list because the company we use is cautious about giving out that information, but it is not Herbalife,” said an employee of The Tea said.

Herbalife is one of the biggest multi-level market -

“On a warm day on campus, we can see as many as 400 customers,” Severance said.

Micheal Hays is a graduate student at Ole Miss studying nutrition. Hays has never tried a loaded tea, and said he feels somewhat indifferent toward them.

“I don’t think they are good or bad. I just think there are trade-offs,” Hays said. “Drinking loaded teas that have large amounts of caffeine can cause dehydration, especially if combined with vigorous exercise. However, loaded teas have many healthy compounds like tannins, EGCG and even caffeine itself, which are beneficial. The key is balance and timing consumption of these products to maximize the benefits and limit the potential harm.”

Despite the fact that loaded teas are not cheap — the most basic order starts at $8 a drink — some students get them three or four times a week. Ole Miss sophomore Teddy King says that she relies on loaded teas to help her function.

“The other day I didn’t get one and I had a bad headache. It made me come to the realization that I’m actually addicted to them,” King said.

Ole Miss nutrition professor Melinda Valliant advis -

es against drinking loaded tea despite the immediate energy boost they provide.

“I have had numerous students on campus report experiencing some or all of the following: increased heart rate, abdominal cramping, bloating/diarrhea, trouble sleeping and increased anxiety, all of which subsided when they stopped consuming loaded teas,” Valliant said.

Some students get into the habit of drinking loaded teas as a daily dietary supplement. The amount of central nervous system stimulants the teas contain often makes the con -

sumer feel full after drinking them. This can begin a toxic cycle of malnutrition, depriving the body of fiber, vitamins and minerals from food.

“If an individual consumes a loaded tea instead of eating foods with energy-yielding nutrients, carbohydrates, protein and fats, they won’t have adequate energy to supply their body with fuel, which is particularly concerning for active folks,” Valliant said.

Valliant also warned people about the potential health risks of consuming what is considered an unregulated product.

“A dietary supplement

thy — no matter who you are, where you came from or any past you may have – it gives people hope,” Atkins said. “It makes you realize the importance of community and the people who are willing to give back when they see someone genuinely needs it.”

company does not have to prove the safety or efficacy of the product before putting it on the market,” Valliant said. “Only when adverse events are reported and linked back to a product does the company have any responsibility to do so.”

Because these companies do not have to get their products safety tested and FDA approved, there is an abundance of money to spend on marketing and branding.

This is why Valliant believes loaded teas are so popular.

The road into Amory, Miss., was littered with broken tree branches and other debris after a tornado hit the town on March 24.

JORDAN ISBELL / THE DAILY MISSISSIPPIAN

ELYSE LITTLETON ANNA GRACE BOWLING EMMA KATE DAVIDSON

A student worker places an order on The Tea food truck’s counter.

HG BIGGS / THE DAILY MISSISSIPPIAN

Arts&Culture

Spiritualist Anne Strand presents ‘Sacred Altars: An Artful Journey to Enchantment’

from scientific and spiritual literature that immerse the reader in thoughtful meditation and self-reflection.

Ahead of the Oxford Conference for the Book, Square Books hosted literary enthusiasts and longtime friends of Anne Strand as she guided the audience through her life and the creation of her book: “Sacred Altars: An Artful Journey to Enchantment.”

“This book is for all who want to feel aware or alive within, whether they are religious or not, and for those on a human journey who want to feel connected to themselves, to others and to the universe,” Strand said, reading from the dedication section of “Sacred Altars.”

Strand is a retired psychotherapist, teacher, Episcopalian chaplain, artist and author with academic degrees in art, theology and psychology. “Sacred Altars” showcases her abstract expressionist works accompanied by excerpts

“When I call myself a mystical spiritualist, it implies that my work reflects and expresses a unity and a connection of things as one, attempting to access fields beyond the intellect and the physical senses alone,” Strand said.

In conversation with director of the Center for Southern Culture and esteemed Southern scholar Kathryn McKee as well as writer and publisher Neil White, Strand discussed the challenges she faced after suffering a stroke while completing her book.

“When I woke up, I couldn’t say my name. I couldn’t say any words at all, and this book is about connection. So I was not connected at all,” Strand said. “People came in, and I couldn’t say my name, so they left immediately.”

Although Strand lost her ability to articulate words,

she was able to read and complete “Sacred Altars” while recovering from her stroke.

As publisher of Strand’s work, White described the process of deciding whether to print the book’s abstract expressionist prints in color or black and white. Ultimately, the pair decided to dedicate their resources toward printing through one of the top book publishing companies in the South to present Strand’s life work in the best light possible.

“It was well written, and it was meaningful. You can read a page anytime you want to, and you’ll get something meaningful out of it,” White said.

McKee shared her personal history with Strand.

“I have known Anne Strand for more than 20 years. We were part of a group at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church called the spiritual journeyers, and we met every Sunday for years and years. Anne was our guiding light,” McKee said.

When McKee asked the au -

dience to raise their hands if they ever attended the Episcopal Church group led by Anne Strand, a majority of audience members did. McKee shared the immense impact that the religious group and her relationship with Strand have had on her spiritual life.

“When I was reading your book, I felt like you wrote it for me because so much of what we talked about in class has made its way in here, and I am so grateful to you for that,” McKee said.

Editor-in-chief of the Local Voice and designer and editor of “Sacred Altars,” Nature Humphries, spoke of her experience working with Strand and her connection to the book.

“It was a real gift working on this book, and I kind of almost see it as a meditative manual,” Humphries said. “I feel like I grew a lot with it, and I learned so much, and if you haven’t already read the book, please do because it’s very beautiful.”

As the discussion concluded, Strand presented several of her paintings, including “The Wound and the Cross,” as she read gems of wisdom included in her book. Strand signs each of her artistic pieces with the sigil “GrandMother-Wise-Woman” as a testament to both her role as a maternal figure and her years of rich life experience.

Strand encouraged the audience to embark on their own spiritual journeys through pursuing their creative passions along with meditative practices.

McKee concluded the discussion by reading an excerpt from Strand’s work.

“For when we are made one with everything, sacred altars spring up everywhere. Nobody can be lost. We are at home already,” McKee read from “Sacred Altars.”

“Sacred Altars: An Artful Journey to Enchantment” is available to purchase at Square Books.

MARCUS ELVIS TAYLOR MEMORIAL MEDAL DESIGNEES

“For Meritorious Scholarship and Deportment”

Zynub Al-Sherri

Savannah Armistead

Thomas Berry

Rachel Berry

Rhonda Brown

Sarah Brownlee

Sarah Bryan

Andrea Cleveland

Chandler Cohn

Anna Couhig

Jamie Cox

Caroline Cross

Braxton Crumpler

Blakely Culp

Jackson Dear

Lukas Engelhardt

Daniel Ferro

Lauren Fiedler

Jorge Flores

Mary Ford

Sarah Ryann Fortner

Austin Gardner

Amyaha Graham

Hermine Granberry

Edith-Marie Green

Hannah Hardy

Ashlyn Hinton

Jacob Holifield

Elizabeth Howard

Madelyn Jarjoura

Chloe King

Reinhard Knerr

Bozidar-Brannan Kovachev

Ryan Krance

Ethan Lambert

Samantha Leon

Erin Lomenick

Camryn Long

Henrietta Long

Rylie Mangold

Abigail Martin

Jacob Maschhoff

Maren McSparin

Michael McWilliams

Molly Medling

Logan Moll

Rabria Moore

Regan Muirhead

Alexanaka Nabors

Anna Nguyen

Katherine Overstreet

Catherine Page

Shelby Phillips

Cody Poskin

Leslie Ray

Olivia Reeves

Sydney Rester

Cayman Rigdon

Lydia Robbins

Anna Robertson

Guest Speaker: Dr. John Bentley, 2022 Elsie M. Hood Outstanding Teacher

Maria Sallee

Bethany Selby

Jayanti Shukla

Kaitlyn Sills

Caleb Sitton

Alyssa Stoner

Ember Suh

Tuong Tran

Margaret Walker

Caroline Whitaker

Morgan Whited

Loral Winn

Amy Winter

PARTYNEXTDOOR and Erica Banks bring students together in the Grove

and Gucci Mane in 2017 before the concert was canceled due to weather, the genres remain underrepresented at free concerts in Oxford.

PARTYNEXTDOOR, a world-famous R&B artist, and rapper Erica Banks performed in the Grove on Saturday for the University of Mississippi’s annual spring concert.

Executive Director of the Students Activities Association and senior Caroline Parnell said that SAA, the sponsor of the concert, changes the genre every year to cater to as many students as possible.

Last year’s spring concert was headlined by country music artist Riley Green, so this year the organization chose R&B and rap artists.

“What made this year’s spring concert unique was that it brought in not only Ole Miss students, but also the Lafayette and Oxford community along with students from other schools as well,” Parnell said.

Emmaline Schild, director of homecoming for SAA and senior at Ole Miss, said that the ultimate goal of SAA is “to promote unity and make others proud of the Ole Miss community.”

“We want to make sure all of the students feel like they have a place here, so we feel like switching the genre for the spring concert each year will cater to more students,” Schild said. “Our job is to bring unity and spirit to the campus and this is just one of the ways that we try to do that.”

Kaylyn Steen, a junior at UM, said that this was her first time attending the spring concert. When PND was announced to perform in the Grove this year, she was so excited she “was literally counting down.”

“It was just kind of surreal to have such a big artist literally in the Grove,” Steen said.

While the spring concert has hosted rap and R&B artists before, Nelly in 2014

Steen shared her perspective.

“I personally have been frustrated with the lack of diversity in entertainment, not just at the university, but in Oxford, period,” Steen said.

“This concert meant a lot to me as a Black student to see a Black artist as the headliner.”

Manuel Campbell, senior at Ole Miss, thought that it was an inclusive act to bring in artists that “have fan bases of populations of underrepresented groups on campus.”

“The nature of the choices for the artists elicited a more diverse crowd and allowed for us to see more of the diversity of the campus,” Campbell said. “I knew a good number of Black students who attended. Additionally, I saw a number of my friends that were from other backgrounds, including Vietnamese and Korean, as well as some international/exchange students at the university.”

Campbell said that the turnout of the concert was about the size that he expected to show up.

“There were a good number of people who said they knew who PND or Erica Banks were and also a good number who said they didn’t,” he said. “There were also a few that knew songs by the artists but just couldn’t put a face to the name. Based on this, I reasoned that it’d be a pretty decent size from actual fans, people who heard of them and people who were just curious.”

Campbell also noted his hope for more events that highlight diversity and inclusivity.

“The importance of this event to me lies in tapping into the interests of the diverse student body here at the university and actually doing things they enjoy,” Campbell said. “More than any other inclusive event, this one truly

made me feel like I was a part of the Ole Miss family and had a community here. I hope that

such events continue to occur and become commonplace.”

Rapper Erica Banks performs at Ole Miss’s annual spring concert in the Grove on April 1.

KHARLEY REDMON / THE DAILY MISSISSIPPIAN

R&B artist PARTYNEXTDOOR performs at Ole Miss’s annual spring concert in the Grove on April 1.

KHARLEY REDMON / THE DAILY MISSISSIPPIAN

John Darnielle and the legacy of the Mountain Goats

Speaking of the South, tell me what it was like recording some of your recent albums here.

If you are on TikTok, you’ve likely heard the Mountain Goats’ 2002 song “No Children.” The doomed-relationship anthem went viral on the app in 2021, but the band has been a folk rock fixture since the early 1990s.

Throughout those 30 years and 21 albums, John Darnielle has anchored the group as its frontman, founding member and at times, its only member.

Before embarking on the band’s 2023 tour, Darnielle spoke with The Daily Mississippian from his home in North Carolina about the South, eating plantbased on tour and art as labor.

THE DM: The past 30 years have been a gradual eastward migration for you. You’ve gone from California, spent some time in Iowa, and now you’re in North Carolina.

I’ll be in the ocean next.

You’re in Durham, sort of split between the coastal region and Appalachia. Do you consider yourself a Southerner at all?

I’m not. Not by birth, anyway. But I’ve lived here longer than I have lived any other place, so North Carolina is where I’m from now.

I grew up in California. But my grandmother was from Arkansas, and my grandfather was from Alabama. So there’s a sense in which I’ve come back, but you never fully shake the Californian identity.

I have lived in North Carolina since 2003. I’d been bumping all around prior to that. When do you get to start saying ‘“I’m from here,” you know? But I do say I’m from Durham now, because if I moved back to California, I would barely recognize it at this point. It’s like, oh, well, I used to live here, but everything’s different now. Whereas everything’s different here now, too, but I was here to see all the change.

I guess at the end of the day it’s up to you to determine which region you identify with the most.

I record mostly in Southern cities now, just because there’s a bunch of good studios here. One thing about the South is people outside it have a caricatured idea of it. It’s the same as with the Midwest. When, really, we have all the same stuff everybody else has. People, the same stores, the same access to everything.

I love to be in cities, but I also find them very high energy, even just going for a walk in the city. You get a lot of stimuli.

Yeah, the stimulation and the energy expenditure are totally different.

For me, the ideal recording environment is a place where I’m gonna see as few people as possible, where nobody’s going to recognize me.

We do tend to stick to the Southeast. Bigger cities are great to record in, because I can have whatever I want for lunch. Whereas if you record in Muscle Shoals and you’re vegetarian, your eating options are pretty limited.

I’m now wondering about your plant-based eating habits on tour. How do you manage?

Eating on tour is hard because for one thing, like a lot of other people, I’m kind of a comfort eater. You eat when you’re bored, you also eat when you’re agitated. As a singer, too, you have to watch out for your acid intake.

Right now we’re on a bus, and I often make overnight oatmeal. I have a special thing where I take a quarter cup of oatmeal, soak it in either milk or plant based milk — I’m not that particular — and then I add dates and cashews. That’s breakfast.

For lunch, I now have a tiny induction cooktop thing, and I will heat a Tasty Bite. These are Indian lunch things, like palak paneer. Or I make ramen with some vegetables. For dinner, my general rule is to be disciplined about breakfast and lunch, and I’ll have whatever I like for dinner.

I imagine it’s hard, too,

to be away from your family for long periods of time. How do tours change your relationship to fatherhood or make you value it differently?

Fatherhood changes the relationship to the gig, really. It’s sort of yes and no. I was just talking with Matt Douglas, the saxophone, keys and guitar guy and close friend about this today. Because for us, the first week of a tour can be a real challenge. He has three children and I have two. We don’t have a nanny or anything. My wife is by herself doing this once I’m gone. But eventually on tour, you break free from home base, and your feet go. It’s like a physical feeling where you feel like you can’t go back and then you’re sort of in the zone. And that’s where you want to be because you’re not going to just go home.

Right. You have no choice but to immerse yourself.

This is something I think about a lot. It depends on the tour, but during the first couple of days, even if the shows are great, I’m like what am I doing out here? I’m supposed to be back home. If we could afford an extra bus, I would bring my kids and have somebody take care of them.

You bring up an important point because even

with reaching a certain level of comfortability and success in your career, at the end of the day, it’s still a job that you must work. And touring is your labor.

It’s very true. People don’t like to talk about that. But I do on my private Facebook, just talking to my friends. It’s interview season and I’ve been bitching. If one more person asked me the difference between writing a book and writing a song, I’m gonna jump out of this window. From the creative end, there’s nothing really to talk about. But that’s what people always ask me. It’s like asking how it’s different to build an apartment, or car or an idol.

Considering your own rhythmic utterances, how many songs have you written under the Mountain Goats moniker? It’s over 600, right?

At least three songs, I think.

That’s a sound guess. How do you approach building a setlist from such a vast discography?

The longer you stick around, the more challenging it is to figure out what to do. But it’s good to have a rationale. If you’re a legacy act, like The Who, the list of songs that people expect you to play is

long. With the Mountain Goats, there’s only a few songs that we fully expect to play in the body of the set. Other than that, I have a lot of leeway to build a set. We’re blessed to have people who come and see us over and over again.

You want to dig deep into people who have liked you for a long time and haven’t had a chance to see you yet, and my assumption is that they’d rather hear a song they’ve only heard once or twice. So you play a couple of songs that people really expect and some deeper cuts.

Will April 7 be your first time playing in Oxford?

We played there in 2019 in the summer. I actually gave a reading at Square Books for “Wolf in White Van.” And I saw the Faulkner house when I was in high school. Back then, there was a company called Historical Products that sold T-shirts of authors and composers. And they were very austere T-shirts. It was like a photograph in a frame with the name of the author underneath it. They had Sartre, they had Virginia Woolf. I had a William Faulkner T-shirt.

So coming to Oxford is a pilgrimage, in a sense?

It is, yeah.

The Mountain Goats will play at The Lyric Oxford on April 7.

John Darnielle.

PHOTO COURTESY: LALITREE DARNIELLE

REBELS

continued from page 1

the longest conference losing streak for Ole Miss since 1997.

Some might say the Rebels faced very good teams to start SEC play. Yes, Ole Miss played the No. 3 and No. 4 ranked teams in the country in Florida and Vanderbilt, respectively. But you’re telling me they couldn’t rally to get just one win in those two three-game series?

Conversely, the Rebels faced a Texas A&M squad that had an overall record of 15-10 and just 1-5 in SEC play heading into last weekend’s series. Ole Miss had plenty of chances to come out with a couple of victories. Instead, the Rebels came out of the weekend losing the series two games to one.

Yes, the SEC is arguably the best conference in college baseball, and head coach Mike Bianco is fully aware of that.

“This league is just so unforgiving and if you don’t play well, you don’t win,” Bianco said after last Sunday’s loss against Texas A&M. “This league, the teams are too good.”

So who’s to blame? The hitters? The pitchers? Or is it the coaching?

I think it’s a little bit of everything.

First, let’s state the obvious: Ole Miss has had bad

IAN SPARKS thedmsports@gmail.com

luck with injuries this season.

Relief pitcher Josh Mallitz had a stellar 2022 season, holding an ERA of just 1.45, and he was expected to play a big role in the Rebels’ bullpen. But Mallitz underwent season-ending Tommy John surgery back in November. So it was evident that the bullpen needed to really step up this season to compensate for a major loss.

Hunter Elliott, Ole Miss’ No. 1 starting pitcher, sprained his UCL after his season-opening start on the mound and has been out ever since. Bianco said that he expects Elliott to return to game action in mid-April.

Then in March, Bianco said right-handed reliever Matt Parenteau was dealing with discomfort after suffering a slight tear in his UCL last summer. While visiting with surgeons, Parenteau has been out for Ole Miss.

Injuries are a part of the game, and that’s why it is important to have a lot of depth on your team.

The remaining Ole Miss pitchers have struggled this season. The team has an ERA of 7.73in SEC play, and opponents are batting a staggering .314 against Rebel pitchers.

In nine games against SEC teams, the Rebels have been outscored 75-47. Ole Miss’ pitchers have just been pushed around against these teams, plain and simple.

One reason for that: The Rebels have a lot of young pitchers. Grayson Saunier, Sam Tookoian, Cole Ketchum, Brayden Jones and JT Quinn are all freshmen, and these are guys Bianco regularly uses on the mound. So there are going to be some growing pains. But let’s be realistic, as well. Even ace pitcher Elliott’s return to

game action isn’t likely to magically fix the Rebels’ problems. But it will help. Once Elliott is back in the starting rotation, Jack Dougherty will most likely move back to the bullpen and add some much-needed depth in that area. (Dougherty had been taking Elliott’s place in the starting rotation.)

In the end, it all comes down

to consistency, and that hasn’t been the MO for the Rebels this season. Granted, there’s still a fairly long way to go in the season — the SEC Tournament begins May 23 — and we all remember what happened last year following a relatively inauspicious start. But the Rebels have to pick it up if they hope to reach the big stage again.

Rebels bounce back over Memphis, Bianco sets new milestone

Following their thirdstraight conference series loss, the defending national champions find themselves second-to-last in the SEC West, above only instate rival Mississippi State.

The Rebels have had some unfortunate injury woes to start the year with ace Hunter Elliott out as well as reliever Josh Mallitz. But the SEC is a grueling and unforgiving conference that takes pity on no one, even the champs.

While the start to conference play has been anything other than ideal, this team knows better than anyone that dwelling on your misfortunes will provide no benefit. And as we’ve seen before, getting hot at the right time can undo a month’s worth of failures.

The Rebels made the short journey to the Bluff City on Tuesday to take on long-time foe Memphis. While the Tigers aren’t world-beaters in the classic sense of the word, they have proved to be a tough out for the Rebels in years prior. This game, however, was not as close.

Ole Miss opened its account early and often, scoring three runs in the first three innings before busting the game open with a four-run top of the fourth.

An impressive showing from the Rebel slugger Kemp Alderman saw him tally three RBIs on the day while going 2-for-3 at the dish. Rebel backstop Calvin Harris also had a multi-hit affair going 2-for-5 with two runs scored in the afternoon.

These midweek games that fall between SEC weekends can do wonders for a team’s and a player’s confidence. As has been the story so far this year, the Rebel pitching staff has struggled without Elliott.

True freshman Grayson

Saunier has shown impressive stuff in his early days as a Rebel but has been burned by his inexperience so far.

Saunier had a good outing against the Tigers going five full innings and allowing only three hits and one run, something that he can build on going forward.

Relief appearances by Sam Tookoian, Cole Ketchum and Brayden Jones saw the Rebels close this victory out and improve to 17-11 on the year.

Another story that came out of Tuesday’s victory was that Mike Bianco earned his 871st win as head coach of the Rebels, surpassing his mentor Skip Bertman of LSU. With this win, Bianco moved into second all-time in the SEC for wins, short of Mississippi State legend Ron Polk at 1,218.

The Rebels will look to continue righting the ship this weekend as they host division rival Arkansas in what could be a tough series for both sides. If, and only if, the Rebels can pitch well, the offense will surely give them a chance to grab their first series win of the season.

First pitch of Game 1 is on Thursday, April 6, at 6:30 p.m. CDT on SEC Network+.

The Ole Miss baseball team celebrates in the dugout after Ethan Lege scores a run during a game against Delaware on Feb. 19.

HG BIGGS / THE DAILY MISSISSIPPIAN

Coach Bianco meets with the infield at the mound as LA Tech takes the lead during a game on Feb. 28.

ASHLYNN PAYNE / THE DAILY MISSISSIPPIAN

Checking the Tape: Zamari Walton

“Checking the Tape” is a weekly series that highlights the Ole Miss football team’s offseason acquisitions. Whether it’s coaches, transfers or recruits, sports writer Owen Pustell goes in-depth and analyzes each individual. This week, Pustell takes a look at transfer cornerback Zamari Walton.

Height/Weight/Position: 6’3/185/CB

2022 Stats: 36 tackles, 7 PBUs, 1 INT

Strengths:

The best trait I saw from Walton in film was his ability to stick with receivers on vertical routes.

He’s a naturally long player at 6-foot-3, and he uses his arms to disrupt route runners and carry them upfield. He does a great job of bracketing his man against the sideline and not allowing enough separation to tempt a pass.

Walton also has generally strong footwork. He rarely allowed WRs to get inside of him with their release and did a good job matching footwork to avoid getting caught out of step.

For his size, Walton does a

pretty good job of reacting to breaks. His naturally high frame can make it difficult to stick with players, but he generally sticks well to in-breaking routes. There will be times Walton gets caught standing up and simply can’t drop his hips in time to react, but that usually comes with a player of his style.

Weaknesses:

As seems to be an issue with every Ole Miss transfer, Walton is not a particularly good tackler. His slender frame means he doesn’t get good “pop” on contact, and he is prone to miss on RBs when coming up to the line of scrimmage. Walton does not engage blocks violently and can get caught up on WRs blocking on the boundary.

Walton would become lockdown on deep balls if he were able to turn his head around with better timing. Though he is usually locked onto his man, his head rarely turns towards the ball, which means that he can get picked on and is vulnerable to soft pass interference calls.

The only receiver I saw that really gave Walton trouble was Johnny Wilson at FSU. Wilson is a size anomaly listed at 6-foot-7, 235 lbs. Walton struggled to be physical with Wilson and gave up some receptions, but I doubt that there

will be another matchup like that. There are some cases of Walton getting caught with poor eye-discipline in zone coverage, but Georgia Tech played mostly man coverage so that was not a prominent issue.

2023 Outlook:

In my book, Walton is currently a favorite to start next season. His size makes him a great

match for taller WRs, and he does a good job keeping QBs’ eyes away from the sideline. Players who can take away a section of the field (in Walton’s case, the numbers to sideline) free up other defenders. By funneling QBs to the middle of the field, Walton gives safeties more freedom to jump routes and occupy the post area.

Fun Fact:

Walton comes from a football family. His cousin, Reggie Nelson, was a first-round pick in 2007, while his other cousin, Joe Cohen, was a fourth-round selection in the same draft. Walton is also academically driven as he was a member of the ACC academic honor roll.

Men’s golf places fourth at Mossy Oak Collegiate

JANE ROB PANNELL thedmsports@gmail.com

Ole Miss men’s golf claimed a fourth place overall finish at the Mossy Oak Collegiate, with Sarut Vongchaisit earning his first tournament win in his career following a 13-under overall score.

The Rebels finished with an overall score of 835 (-29) with a 22-under par-5 score and 65 birdies during the rounds in West Point.

The Bangkok, Thailand, native led the field in birdies, finding 20 through three rounds with 10 of those coming from an impressive second round score of 64 (-8), tying for lowest round shot in the Mossy Oak Collegiate. Vongchaisit’s second

round score helped him to keep the lead and be named co-medalist of the tournament, tying with Ryan Eshleman of Auburn.

Freshman Patton Samuels had a strong debut at the Mossy Oak Collegiate, shooting par or better through all three rounds.

A final-round score of 68 (-4) pushed Samuels to a 210 (-6) overall score to finish tied for 21st on the individual leaderboard.

Competing individually, Kye Meeks’s third round score of 67 (-5) helped him to finish tied for 21st, sharing the spot with his Rebel teammate. The redshirt sophomore found five birdies and an eagle during his final round to move him 32 spots up the leaderboard and finish at 6-under overall.

Junior Brett Schell played

some steady golf throughout the tournament to finish at 3-under overall and tie for 38th place. Schell was bogey-free through the back nine in both the second and third round.

Hugo Townsend and Cameron Tankersley rounded out the roster for the Rebels, with Townsend finishing tied for 45th at 2-under overall and Tankersley finishing at even-par to tie for 53rd.

The Rebels will travel to Nashville to compete in the Mason Rudolph Championship from April 10-12. The three-day tournament will be played at the Vanderbilt Legends Club South Course and will be hosted by No. 1 Vanderbilt.

Zamari Walton jogs across the field during a game against Duke on October 8, 2022.

PHOTO COURTESY: DANNY KARNIK / GEORGIA TECH ATHLETICS

Sarut Vongchaisit placed first for the Ole Miss men’s golf team at the Mossy Oak Collegiate Invitational on April 4. The team placed fourth overall.

PHOTO COURTESY: KIANA DALE / OLE MISS ATHLETICS

Lavender Letters: ‘the truth of Ole Miss’

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K. CORLEY TAYLOR guest submission

Editor’s Note: The Lavender Letters, a monthly series, is a collection of open letters written by members of Ole Miss’ queer community highlighting the many joys and hardships that come with being a member of the LGBTQ+ community in the South — and in particular on this campus.

If you are interested in writing one, email Mary Boyte, news editor, at thedmnews@gmail.com.

My first kiss was on top of the parking garage on campus. I was 22 years old at the time. She shocked me when she kissed me.

It was a brisk October evening. We had just started dating. She was struggling because she had just come out to her parents. They were not too thrilled that I was her girlfriend.

From our vantage point, we could see the entire world. The trees towered over every street, sidewalk and building. They shielded us from the view of the public. We saw a few cars speeding

down the curvy roads on campus. We saw the stars glittering against the deep purple of the nightfall.

We saw the whole world. It wasn’t just good or bad. It was a bit of both. It was ours to create.

When we stood on top of the world, we had a better understanding. Nothing could be categorized, controlled or predicted. It just was.

It wasn’t glamorous all the time. Under the street lights, there were dumpsters. There was the occasional odd worn-down building in the shadows. Not every street was Sorority Row.

Everything existed in harmony. There was a James Merideth Statue as well as a Confederate grave site. There was the actual library and a bar named the Library. There were professors who would rally behind us and students that were willing to tell us that they don’t support us to our faces. There was my girlfriend, heartbroken that her family rejected her and me, holding her hand.

It was important to acknowledge both the good and the evil. We can’t ever forget where we came

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from or we might have made the same mistakes as our ancestors.

The hope of humankind is that when one love fails, a stronger one will take its place. That isn’t always the case. However, at that moment, it was.

My heart was lost in her shiny eyes. I was swimming in it. I didn’t notice when she leaned forward. This is how my first kiss would happen. All my life I had pictured it. I hadn’t pictured it would be here! I hadn’t pictured it would be like this! I hadn’t pictured it to be with a woman!

There we were, changing our lives. We showed the night air of Oxford, that we were present, we were queer and we had found love in one another.

That’s what it means to be queer on this campus. It means feeling safe enough to be able to share sweet moments with those you love. There will always be that strange mix of acceptance and rejection. As long as the environment makes it safe to do so, progress will happen naturally. That is the truth of Ole Miss.

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The perfect routine doesn’t exist

LIV BRILEY thedmopinion@gmail.com

There have always been people that society has looked to for inspiration, whether that be in the form of fashion, health or just general lifestyle. As social media has grown over the past decade, we have seen an influx of “micro-influencers” who are able to connect with their audiences on a more personal level than ever before. The influencer industry was valued at $16.4 billion in 2022.

Micro-influencers have enough of a following to get brand deals and make money online, but with a small enough audience to feel more relatable to their followers. Because

of this, more and more people are looking to social media for advice and inspiration on how to be their ideal selves.

While there is nothing wrong with following people you admire on social media and taking inspiration from their lifestyles, it can become unhealthy when people begin to promote lifestyles and routines that are not realistic for most people.

I have seen more and more “ideal morning routine” and “what I eat in a day” videos across social media platforms in the past few years. These videos often suggest that the way to be “healthy” is to wake up at 5 a.m. everyday, do intense workouts, eat next to nothing and ultimate-

ly manage to fit more into a couple of hours than most people could fit into their entire day. For people who already have issues with self-esteem and shame around their daily routines or eating habits, these videos and posts can be incredibly harmful. These influencers are not trying to make people feel bad about themselves; they are simply trying to post things that amass the most views, and these types of “perfect routine” videos gain a lot of attention online. No matter the intentions though, there is a level of unattainable perfection that they advocate for when posting these things on their platforms. Brands who sponsor these

videos and use them as a way to promote their products are part of the problem as well. When influencers are rewarded for this type of content, they will of course continue to produce similar content in the future.

When people are bombarded with posts about the ideal habits, routines and meals to make them healthy or happy, it can be overwhelming and lead to more despair than motivation. With eating disorders affecting 9% of the population and anxiety and depression affecting even more, I think we should do a better job of producing content that is less prescriptive and more supportive.

With 86% of young Americans having dreams of becoming

a social media influencer, I am not sure there is any end in sight to this kind of harmful content. However, I hope we can learn that there is no such thing as “perfect” anything, and the best daily routine is the one that makes you feel your best. What works for one person almost never works for someone else, so ignore the bombardment of unsolicited advice from non-professionals online because your self-worth should be measured by much more than your morning routine.

Liv Briley is a junior integrated marketing communications major from Lemont, Ill.

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Columns do not represent the views of The University of Mississippi or The Daily Mississippian. The Daily Mississippian welcomes letters to the editor, which should be emailed to thedmopinion@gmail.com. Letters should be no longer than 300 words. They may be edited for clarity, brevity and libel. Thirdparty letters and those with pseudonyms or no name will not be published. Letters are limited to one per individual per month. Letters should include contact information, including relationship to the university, if applicable.

CARTOON: LIBBY FLANAGAN / THE DAILY MISSISSIPPIAN