BULLETIN BOARD 3 An In-Class Distraction

Libra - This week, you’ll find yourself shirtless, fanning smoke away from your detector with a recent edition of Southern Living that you stole from your dentist. Joanna Gaines is on the cover.

Hey, you can’t park there!

January 25 - An employee reported that a Visa gift card purchased by the department was fraudulently used at a nearby Walmart.

January 26 - A student was issued a post arrest citation and referral on Fraternity Row for simple assault and minor in possession of alcohol.

January 27 - A student reported she was being yelled at by another student over a parking space in the Hill Poultry Science parking lot. Referrals were issued to both students.

Taurus - Your aggressive, elderly dog Endymion will die this week while pushing you out of the way of a speeding bullet fired by some dude you cut in front of in the Two Bro’s bathroom line.

Gemini - While searching the backlogged channels of YouTube at 4 a.m., you will stumble upon a message from the Great Creator buried in a dash-cam video of the 2013 Chelyabinsk asteroid.

Pisces - You will accidentally kill an elderly dog while attempting to assassinate an age-old nemesis of yours for socio-political purposes. While you may not have hit your target, the message was received.

The Noxubee National Wildlife Refuge offers citizens of Starkville an easy escape to nature. While Mississippi’s public outdoor infrastructure does not garner much attention, trails and roads are there if you know where to look.

Holly Harrison staff writer

Hearing these questions made me wonder if people truly believe Mississippi has absolutely nothing to offer for travelers. However, after living here for 20 years, I can tell you that Mississippi has more to offer than meets the eye.

Mississippi is best known for being the birthplace of America’s music for influencing genres like rock and roll, gospel, country and the blues.

One museum located in Tupelo celebrates the most famous Mississippi musician, allowing tourists to see the childhood home of Elvis Presley. According to the Elvis Presley Birthplace website, the home Presley was born and lived in for 13 years in Tupelo, Mississippi, was turned into a museum to show where it all started for him.

If travelers want to learn more about other Mississippi famous musicians, they can visit the Grammy Museum in Cleveland. According to its website, the Grammy Museum shows the impacts American music has made on culture and history by sharing famous artists and their impacts. It does not stop with music, though. Ask Mississippians their favorite thing about home, and many will bring up the cuisine. According to Visit Mississippi, the foods people should try in Mississippi are soul food, barbecue and seafood. Any place can have its own local menus, but nothing compares to the comfort foods here.

Fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, fried okra, collard greens, cornbread, sweet potatoes, fried catfish and sweet tea come to mind when describing the Magnolia State’s comfort foods. Restaurants scattered across the state serve these dishes to much acclaim from residents and visitors. Families pass on recipes for generations. My great-grandmother’s cornbread recipe has been shared in my family since the 1930s or earlier, and it is superior cornbread. (No Jiffy Quick Mix in this house.)

When it comes to food, barbecue is a Mississippi staple, if not the state favorite. Some of the best barbecue in the world comes from the Magnolia State.

While it may not be Mississippi’s most iconic specialty, locals know Mississippi’s seafood is nothing to be ignored. According to Visit Mississippi, an advantage Mississippi has being located on the Gulf of Mexico is the availability to catch plenty of fresh seafood such as shrimp, crab and oysters. Restaurants on the Mississippi Gulf Coast serve the freshly caught seafood. In the spring, crawfish season takes over the state. Despite the variety of popular foods in Missis- sippi, sometimes even the best restaurants are overlooked because of their rundown or plain appearances. However, these restaurants, if still in business, are typically known for having some of the best foods around and a cult of loyal customers that know they offer more than meets the eye.

Along with the nationally famous food and music, Mississippi has some hidden sightseeing and hiking places for travelers. The Mississippi gulf offers a costal escape. While it may not be the Bahamas, the beach stretching from Biloxi to Henderson Point is 26 miles long, making it the longest man-made beach on Earth, according to an article by Zach Eady of Our Mississippi Home, which is a weird record to hold, but a record we hold nonetheless.

Other sleeper-hits include Red Bluff in Foxwell (Mississippi’s Grand Canyon) and Ships Island located 11 miles south of Gulfport and Biloxi.

Through my research of the state, I have only scratched the surface of all the tourism opportunities Mississippi has to offer. Too often, Mississippi is ignored or written off for its public reputation. But — much like the beloved rundown barbecue shacks our state is so fond of — if you can get past preconceived notions about appearances, if you are willing to poke around a bit, there is gold here to be found. So goes my point, why not visit Mississippi?