By: Kara Kimbrough My carry-on suitcase was filled with delicacies from Barber Orchards and Bakery in Waynesville, NC. Back home, I created the perfect brunch that included, clockwise from bottom left: apple cider doughnuts, apple tarts, Barber’s strawberry preserves (and my homemade biscuits), apples I picked myself from a Waynesville apple orchard and hot apple cider.  (Photo courtesy of Kara Kimbrough) I can’t enter 2026 without sharing the best food and travel finds that

By Ron Powers In 1979, Bob Seger unleashed one of the most enduring feel-good anthems in rock history with “Old Time Rock & Roll,” a track that would become a cultural fixture far beyond its initial release. Written by George Jackson and Thomas Jones and reshaped by Seger’s unmistakable vocal grit, the song found its way onto the album Stranger in Town  and quickly became a fan favorite. Though Seger initially saw it as a simple, straight-ahead rocker, audiences connected ins

By Ron Powers

By Bob Garver Poster credit IMDB Back in 2019, brothers Benny and Josh Safdie delivered one of the best films of the year, and possibly the decade, with “Uncut Gems.” The film was, as I wrote in a review earlier this year, “a 135-minute anxiety attack.” And I mean that in the best possible way – I have enormous amounts of respect for movies and filmmakers that know just how to push my buttons. Now in 2025, the Safdie brothers have graduated to solo projects. Benny didn’t fare

Send responses to: andybowman839@gmail.com If you are anything like me and a lot of other people in this country, you are sick. Sick and tired of so much around you. Things like, not being able to walk safely to your car in a public parking lot, traffic tie-ups that can keep you trapped on the interstate for hours, and constant scams being foisted on you to separate you from your money. Cons from ‘companies’ (and I use that term very loosely) that are worried about your car m

By Bob Garver    Poster credit IMDB All the way back in 2009, director James Cameron introduced the world to the planet Pandora and the Na’vi race in “Avatar.” The film soon set the record for all-time highest grossing movie at both the domestic and international box offices (it still holds the record for the latter). Sequel “Avatar: The Way of Water” came out in 2022 and made its way onto the top 10 on both lists. Can three years’ worth of inflation help third installment “F

The 100 Men Hall is hosting  Thacker Mountain Radio Hour,  which   kicks off this year’s HOMEGROWN event with a live show at historic 100 Men Hall on Thursday, January 29, 2026 beginning at 6PM. The event features Thacker Mountain host Jim Dees, the Yalobushwackers Band, blues musician Corky Siegel, and author Ralph Eubanks. The event is free to the public courtesy of the Hancock County Library, please RSVP. There will be a cash/credit bar.    Thacker Mountain Radio   - Based

Dr. James Watson, State Veterinarian, issues a certificate of veterinary inspection to Santa Claus, permitting his reindeer to enter and exit the state of Mississippi on Christmas Eve, December 24. The Mississippi Board of Animal Health (MBAH) has approved a certificate of veterinary inspection for Santa Claus of the North Pole, authorizing his famous reindeer to enter Mississippi on Christmas Eve, December 24, 2025, for a holiday delivery run. "I am happy to announce that Sa

By: Kelley Williams, Chair Bigger Pie Forum Cliff Notes began as short plot summaries of classic novels and stories. Now they are cribs about complex topics and spin. Corps Speak is the US Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) clever spin that evades responsibility for higher and longer Mississippi River floods (a complex topic). This story began when Congress put the Corps in charge of flood control (1928 Flood Control Act) to prevent another 1927 flood disaster. The Corps develop

Recently, the Mississippi Department of Education (MDE) presented results of the 2025-26 Educator Shortage Survey and the 2024-25 Teacher Recruitment and Retention Survey to the State Board of Education. Educator Shortage Survey The Educator Shortage Survey was conducted from Aug. 13 to Nov. 1, 2025, with 100% of Mississippi's traditional public school districts completing the survey. Results show there were 6,907 vacancies among teachers, administrators and school support st

By Bob Garver   Poster credit IMDB   Since this weekend’s highest-grossing as-yet-unreviewed theatrical film, 205-minute Indian actioner “Dhurandhar,” is playing on only 377 screens in the entire country, I thought I’d take this opportunity to review something a little more accessible. “Wake Up Dead Man” is the third installment of Rian Johnson’s “Knives Out” mystery franchise. Like its predecessor “Glass Onion,” “Wake Up Dead Man” is treating fans to a brief theatrical run t

Send responses to: andybowman839@gmail.com People are just people, everywhere you go. Everyone has their favorite hobbies and if given the chance, they would spend hours doing just that. And most of us also have heavy responsibilities that we avoid like the plague for as long as possible. As long as possible without wrecking our finances, or letting the house fall down around our ears. But only doing the great stuff? A truly adult life doesn’t work like that. Not unless you w

By: Kelley Williams, Chair Bigger Pie Forum   Hans Einstein   Not Albert, his son Hans. As far as we know, Albert was right about his General Theory of Relativity and other natural laws. Hans was not as famous as his father. But he was the world expert on river sediments. He advised the Corps of Engineers (Corps) on the design of the Old River Control Complex (ORCC) in the 1950s. He thought the Corps would take his advice. He was wrong. The Corps built the ORCC to keep the Mi

By Misty Strieff Prine “May I never forget on my best day that I still need God as desperately as I did on my worst day.” – May ALL of us have this mindset!!                  This is something that I pray not one single one of us ever loses sight of. We need God JUST as much on our good days as we do on our bad ones. Why? Because we are nor will we EVER be exempt from our need for grace. No matter what good place or bad place we are in our lives, we need God every second of e

By Bob Garver   Poster credit IMDB               From its ridiculous opening scene, there is little denying that “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” is one of the stupidest movies of 2025. Its only real competition comes from Disney’s live-action “Snow White” remake thinking that its Dwarfs were fit for human eyesight. And it’s not even the fun kind of stupid horror movie. It was never really on the table for this to be a “good” horror movie like “Sinners,” but it could have at least

Send responses to:  andybowman839@gmail.com    Simply kick and scream and pout until God makes everything good for you again. Maybe that way of dealing with your problems seems like a good idea to you. After all, you have been told repeatedly all your life that He is a good and loving God, who always wants the best for you. So, it must stand to reason that if you let Him know in clear unmistakable terms that you are unhappy, He will have to fix what’s wrong. Right? You can’t

By Alistair Begg, Magnolia Tribune Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds. – Psalm 36:5 If you do a little digging, you’ll find plenty of articles that ask the question, “Is anyone faithful anymore?” Usually, they refer to marriage, but the question is applicable to almost any sphere of life. When I talk to members of my congregation who work in business, for example, they often tell me of workers who appear to be very committed t

By: Dr. Andrew Dale     December can be decision season for Mississippi families. As students receive semester grades and begin planning for life after graduation, one question rises to the top: How do we afford college without a lifetime of student debt? The answer is clear. Mississippi's community colleges offer the lowest tuition in the state, with an open-access mission that welcomes every learner, and an academic environment designed for student success. For thousands of

By: Bob Garver   Poster credit IMDB               2016 was a great year for animation. Disney gave the world a new musical masterwork in “Moana.” Pixar had its biggest hit up to that point in “Finding Dory.” Even underdog Laika came out with cult classic “Kubo and the Two Strings.” But the winner of the Best Animated Feature Oscar that year wasn’t any of those films (“Finding Dory” wasn’t even nominated), it was another Disney movie, “Zootopia.” It wasn’t a terribly controver

By: Bob Garver Poster credit: IMDB Previously, in “Wicked” Aspiring witches, green-skinned outcast Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) and pink-and-popular Glinda (Ariana Grande), started off as enemies at school, but then became friends. They decided to go their separate ways after discovering a plan by the nefarious Wizard (Jeff Goldblum) to blame and punish animals for problems in the Land of Oz. The Wizard and henchwoman Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh) tried to have Elphaba captured