Mudbug Bash again best party of the year
By Jon Alverson/alverson@dctribune.com
Wednesday, May 7, 2008 3:37 PM CDT
It's the best party of the year and there's no doubt.
Mudbug Bash was as much fun again this year as it was last, and the bugs were no less spicy.
The party is a benefit for Palmer Home for Children and is evident of how much this community supports such a worthwhile charity and mission.
Just like last year, I had new friends in town who were novices at eating crawdads.
Roger did not shy away and jumped with both feet into the bucket and was soon pinching tails and sucking heads. It's a lot of work to get the meat out of a crawdad if you don't know what you're doing, but a quick lesson is usually all someone needs.
Luckily for all in attendance the weather was much better than it had been just a day before.
Dink Upchurch related a story from the set-up time the night before. When the strongest winds of Friday's storm poured through the square in Hernando, the huge tent housing the silent auction jumped up off the ground. Dink said everybody under the tent scattered for cover. The tent survived the night and quick work by the set-up crew secured it after the high winds.
The square was packed in Hernando and it seemed everybody was in great spirits.
I'm already looking forward to next year's party and hope it will continue as a great way to support a worthy cause.
The DeSoto County Economic Development Council held its golf tournament last week in between the lightning and heavy storms.
It's a wonder the event was able to be played and one of the four rounds was cancelled.
The event is in its 16th year and is always well attended. The Wine and Jazz social Thursday night was unfortunately the only one of the two social events planned the tournament players and friends were able to enjoy.
The tournament winners are: Thursday morning flight first place TVA, second place Cook & Bolton Private Client Group, third place Allen and Hoshall Engineering.
Thursday afternoon: First place Blue Cross Blue Shield of Mississippi; second place H & M Construction Co. Third place Butler Snow O'Mara Stevens & Cannada. Friday afternoon: first place AFCO Millwork Products; second place Myers Graves PLLC; third place AT&T.
Sid Salter was scheduled to speak Friday night at the dinner, but inclement weather, again, cancelled the event.
Daniel Michael from D'vine Wine and the folks at A&B Distributors had a great selection of wine and new beers to taste at the Wine and Jazz event.
Cherokee Valley Golf Course was in fine condition considering the rain. I'm still not used to the sideways motion you feel when driving across the Zoysia grass fairways here in the Mid-South. I grew up playing golf on Bermuda grass and it just doesn't do that to your golf cart. The first time I drove across a fairway at Cherokee I thought I had a tire going down.
Merle Flowers spoke to our Rotary Club on Tuesday to give us an update on the just completed legislative session.
He's proud of the work done in the session this year and I think he's got a good reason.
Fully funding the Mississippi Adequate Education Program is a windfall of about $125 million for DeSoto County. And not to put too fine a point on it, as Kevin Blackwell said to him, it was done in a non-election year for the first time.
The Senate was realigned under the leadership of new Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant and Flowers landed the chair of the ethics committee.
It's a big assignment. It's important to open government because the ethics committee will take on public records violations.
As a newspaperman, Mississippi's public officials' attitudes to open government have always scared me a bit.
In some of the less progressive counties than DeSoto it's almost impossible to get government agencies to hand over information rightly belonging to the public. It is indeed troubling.
I asked Merle how he felt about a public record request made by the Clarion-Ledger of Haley Barbour's office. The governor told the C-L it would cost them about $14,000 to produce the record.
Merle's response was appropriate as I'm sure he, like most of us, does not know the whole story. He said the paper was probably asking for too broad a disclosure and the governor was probably charging more than it would actually cost to produce the documents. He's probably right in both circumstances.
What bothered me a little was a later statement, often made by officials, where Merle said there are some things that just need to be a secret until the deal is done.
It's not that Merle believes there are things in government that need to be kept secret, it's the thought the only way to get a deal done - such as bringing Toyota to Mississippi - has to be kept secret in order for it to happen.
Why has it always been thought no big business deal could be done in the open? If every governmental agency worked above board throughout the whole of the United States and in the open then the need for secrecy would evaporate.
It's sad to think the business of the people must be conducted in private. I'll never be convinced otherwise.
I'm glad Merle sees the need for open government. I wish the rest of Mississippi did as well.
Angel Alert, Angel Alert: a reader said a friend Carol spent the night in the hospital with another friend Karen after an emergency surgery as her advocate. We all need a friend in times of need. Major karma points for Carol.
Another Angel Alert: Southaven Police Officer Gregory Sturghill changed a tire for reader Michelle. Sturghill's definitely out there serving and protecting. If we ever have a flat we hope he's around.
Scum Alert: reader Amanda said, "While kickin' it to the grooves at Memphis in May, this guy bumped into me and I spilled my Coke everywhere." Bad karma points to Mr. crowd-bumper-intoer. Own up next time and buy the lady a new Coke.
Send Angel alerts and scum alerts to Alverson@dctribune.com
Jon Alverson is publisher of and a columnist for the DeSoto County Tribune.
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