Street Talk

It might be a hang over from the pre-digital past, but I just love getting magazines in the mail. Some I clearly don’t need anymore. Motorcyclist comes every month and I read it from cover to cover. I haven’t ridden a motorcycle in four years.
Same goes for Canoe & Kayak and it’s been over a year since paddling the canoe last. Hot VWs Magazine is a monthly that covers only air cooled Volkswagens, cars that were last imported to the USA in the late 70s, so that’s getting to be a pretty obscure subscription. I keep getting Architectural Digest and it stays on the nightstand, where it is better than any drug for insomnia.  
I’ve been getting two national magazines for decades now, The New Yorker and Harper’s Magazine. They keep me informed of the world better than most news shows. Harper’s is the second oldest magazine published in America. It has been in print since 1850 and only Scientific American is older.         Harper’s is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts. And so when the August edition of Harper’s showed up last Thursday, I looked it over at lunch. There is always a page in the front called Harper’s Index which is a listing of ironic statistics arranged for a thoughtful effect. Missis-sippi is occasionally on this page, as we’re often statistically last or first in certain categories. And usually it is not good. But there in the index was Water Valley, Mississippi. Here’s how it was listed: “Average amount a Water Valley, Mississippi hospital bills Medicare for treating pneumonia with no complications: $4,552.     
Average amount a Philadel-phia (Penn.) hospital does: $79,007.” I don’t know about you, but I think that says a very positive message about Yalobusha General Hospital. Good to see Mississippi at the top of a good listing and Water Valley doing it.
Mary Lapides and her husband, Jason, are back in the county. They are two of the most positive and motivated folks I know and when they’re here, they bring art and music. They don’t do it themselves, but they make it happen. Last year they set up the music exchange between Yalobusha County and New York City. The also had performance artist Zeffrey Throwell in Yalobusha for all of August making a nice film about who he met here. This year artist Andrea Ray is coming, she is setting up an “installation,” which is a fancy term for a big art piece. Andrea was here in WV over New Year’s checking out locations for the installation. That New York artists are coming to Water Valley and want to make art here and think the place is great is all pretty nice. Andrea’s artwork will be up soon and promises to be something special.
Local or not artists, percussionist, and anybody who can knock sticks to-gether will again be beating the drums in a drum circle this Saturday morning at the Farmers Market. Show up at 9:30 or so as the rhythm starts at 10. Guaranteed to cure what ails you. Plus there are some big new drums built just for the occasion.
Just a note of caution, last week the electricity went off right before noon. Just for a short time. I don’t know the reason for the short outage. That’s pretty rare as the electric department is great about keeping the flow steady. But out on Main Street I watched driver after driver just keep on rolling through red light intersections. Just a note: if you don’t see any color on the traffic light—no red or yellow or green—treat it like a stop sign.