Thanks for the memories Coach Palmer

Sad but encouraging news out of Southern Miss today.  Corky Palmer will be stepping down at the end of the season.  Coach Palmer has guided USM through perhaps its most successful period in school history.  From 6 consecutive regional appearances to the renovations at the park, he has moved the Baseball program to achieve great levels of success and has set the bar very high for a successor.  Thanks for the memories Cork.

Um Hotty Toddy???

Finally……after struggling to put wins together for a few weeks, USM had a big win last night.  Although it’s always nice to beat that school to the north, the real reason it was a big win was for RPI purposes.  It basically keeps USM alive to play in a regional.  There is a huge series this weekend against Tulane who has possibly the second most annoying  cheer in all of sports (see Hullaballoo Cheer in the link, its even annoying just reading the words).  Be sure to check it out at the Pete this weekend and because they do the cheer every time they score, I’m sure we will hear it quite often.

Last night was one of our first free Tuesday nights since last August due to the fact that our Masterlife group’s time together is coming to an end.  It was very weird not going to see all of our friends last night.  In order to cope with the withdrawals from not getting to watch Big James get very close to tossing TJ through the ceiling, Joy had a wonderful idea to go eat Crab Legs and since it is her favorite thing to eat, we went to this place in Petal that has all you can eat crab legs on Tuesday nights.  She says they were awesome and I’ll take her word for it since I’m not a big crab leg person.   

Finally, I just have to say that crack must have been created in Japan because we got a Wii last week and if crack is more addictive than that I can at least have a glimmer of understanding why Whitney decided to go there.  But always remember kids, in the words of Whitney, “Crack is wack.”  Between Mario Kart, bowling, and tennis we are killing some major time.  It’s a ton of fun if anyone is thinking about making the purchase.

Hope everyone has an awesome Wednesday.  Two more working days till the weekend after today!!

It Was Only a Matter of Time!

As a special early Friday gift to all of the avid readers of the Lee and Joy Davis Blog we give you this special nugget which I hope brightens your day.

COLLEGIATE SNUGGIES!!!  WOO HOO!!! Coming soon to a WalGreens in BAMMER near you(or Alabama for those that don’t speak Redneck).

USM Lost But We’re Still Glad We’re Not Rebels

Last night, USM was dominated by a much better Ole Miss team.  Joy and I have rationalized that for the first time in a long time USM won’t be playing in a regional.  There is simply not enough pitching to play five games in one week.  I guess football starts in four months so we’ve got that going for us. 

On American Idol we said goodbye to Anoop Dogg.  Anoop was an Indian (Dots not Feathers) frat boy from Chapel Hill with a surprisingly pleasant voice.  He didn’t stay on key all the time, but he did have a great personality that sucked us in.  Gotta say we’re gonna miss Anoop Dogg.  Also, Lil Rounds (Or as Simon likes to say, Little) exited stage left, but that was pretty easy to see coming.  I definitely think that this last group of ten or so has been the best group of ten they’ve ever had. 

Church should be exciting this weekend, with a gentleman coming to preach in view of a call to be the East Campus Pastor at Temple.  Apparently he is also preaching at the West Campus Sunday morning so it will be exciting to hear him bring the word.  We are diligently praying that he will be a guy that will lead that campus and help heal old, deep wounds.

Possibly, we will have a new Wii very soon, maybe as early as tonight.  We’ll keep everyone posted.  Have an awesome day!

“Jerrell is a Really Good Child, But He Just Can’t Read”

In honor of Southern Miss vs. Ole Miss tonight at the Pete, I thought I would take a moment to pay tribute to one of the most academically gifted students Ole Miss has ever had.  Mr. Jerrell Powe was a 5 star defensive tackle out of Wayne County, MS.  Mr. Powe had a major problem that was discovered after he graduated from high school, he couldn’t read.  Not like the kid in Billy Madison (T-T-T-Today Junior) who simply had a stuttering problem, but Jerrell really couldn’t read.  According to his mother, he graduated from High School and he couldn’t read.  I keep repeating this because it blows me away.  How in the world does someone graduate from high school and they are not able to read? 

I have a pretty good idea how it happens.  Jerrell, happens to be around 6′2″, 340 lbs.  He was simply passed along until he was out of high school and because he was a stud defensive tackle it didn’t matter that he couldn’t read.  The best part of the story is that Ole Miss signed Jerrell out of high school.  Ole Miss. 

You know, the school that portrays themselves as a National Championship contender next season.  The same school that has been getting an SEC welfare check since 1932, which is the same amount of time as Georgia, LSU, Alabama, Florida, and Tennessee.  I find it hilarious that after one 9-4 season they are ready to declare themselves as competitive again.   Most of the other schools I just named would have gnashing of teeth and coaches with ”For Sale” signs placed in their yards after four loss seasons.  I mean Georgia’s worst season in a long time happened in 2006 when Matthew Stafford was a freshman and they only lost 4 games that year.    

But Mr. Powe will be on the field for the Rebels in the fall nonetheless.  Which brings us to an interesting incident that happened in Oxford this past weekend.  According to reports, police were summoned to Mr. Powe’s off campus apartment where he reportedly was committing a minor noise violation.  At the end of his investigation, the officer asked Jerrell to read the last paragraph and sign his name basically saying he understood what was going on.  What would be his response you ask?  Well, Mr. Powe told the cops that he wouldn’t sign the ticket because he still can’t read.  Huh?  I’m as blown away as you are.  Ole Miss pulled strings to get him in school and after being at Ole Miss for several years, Mr. Powe still can’t read.  This is one of the saddest things I’ve ever heard. 

It’s quite obvious to me that Johnny Reb is taking full advantage of Mr. Powe and his football skills.  How is he staying qualified if he can’t read?  How much is the tutor getting paid to do everything for him so he can stay qualified per NCAA regulations?  I’m sure this kind of thing happens many times at most schools, but this is such a public case.  Ole Miss needs to do the proper thing and teach this kid some phonics.  Start with basics and work your way up.  By the time the season starts he could be on Clifford or even the Berenstain Bears.  Maybe by the time he graduates, he could be reading Amelia Bedilia.  Who knows he possibly could even major in Amelia Bedilia to get the certificate. 

My solution to this matter is simple, Mr. Powe must not be passed along and excused because he is a football player.  The University should not be a place where academics comes second to athletics.  Academics must always come first.  Mr. Powe must not be allowed on the field until he can get his act together in the classroom.

Blues, Barbeque, and Bad B n B service

Friday afternoon Joy and I began our journey to north Mississippi, the land of farms, more farms, Ole Miss, more farms, blues and a few more farms.  We were attending the Juke Joint Blues Festival in Clarksdale, Mississippi.  Also joining us for our mini vacation were Joy’s Parents and her brother, Mike and his wife, Tara for the fun festival filled weekend.  Since we waited until just a few weeks before to go, we had to book a Bed and Breakfast in Helena, Arkansas called the Magnolia Hill Bed and Breakfast.  

The drive is definitely not fun.  Basically from Hattiesburg you must take Hwy 49 to Jackson, and then I55 to Batesville and instead of turning right to go to Ole Miss, you turn left.  Once you turn left on 6, you immediately enter the setting for “Oh Brother Where Art Thou?”.  There seems to be nothing but farms and silo’s everywhere.  Hills are non existent. 

Since Joy and I had to work, everyone else arrived early and we decided to meet everyone for dinner in Clarksdale.  Clarksdale has a quaint downtown area with many juke joints.  We made a quick stroll down Delta Dr. absorbing all of the sounds of Blues and smells of Barbecue.  We settled down at the Ground Zero Blues Club.  This Club is co owned by Morgan Freeman.  Our group ordered pulled pork barbecue, a fried green tomato sandwich, fried catfish, and fried tamales.  Most were mediocre, however the fried green tomato sandwich and the tamales got rave reviews.  The joint was well appointed with the type of memorabilia one would expect from a true Blues juke joint.  After dinner we enjoyed a show by Super Chickin and the Fighting Cocks.  This was a blues band that was fronted by a guy named Super Chickin, the rest of the band was all female.  They played a great show. 

We then made the 30 minute drive to Helena, Arkansas, to the Bed and Breakfast for the night.  Helena is a run down river town that once was really thriving but has seen much better days.  The beds were fine and we got a decent nights sleep.  The next morning we met the innkeeper at breakfast.  We were informed that despite what the sign said, breakfast is not served until 10, it will only be served from 8-8:30.  OK, no big deal, but it would be nice to sleep in a little.  At breakfast, Tara accidentally used the service fork (who even knows what in the heck a service fork is????).  The innkeeper made her feel like the biggest moron in the world and went on and on about the service fork.  Keep in mind that Tara probably has had the most etiquette education of anyone there.  Kathy Bates from Misery, oops, I mean the Innkeeper, proceeded to explain to us on several different occasions that she didn’t like her husband and just continued making awkward conversation that no one wanted to make except for her.  Not good. 

The festival in Clarksdale was a lot of fun.  We caught some awesome acts.  The monkeys riding dogs was probably one of the greatest acts I’ve ever seen.  There was pig racing.  I mean what festival is complete without pig racing.  We caught a show where students at the Delta Blues Museum were playing and singing, and WOW these kids were so very talented.  This group was followed by “Honeyboy” Edwards.  I could tell by the applause that this was a respected guy, but I had no clue who he was.  After some research, I discovered that he was one of the last living links to Robert Johnson, who was the most famous Blues man of all time.  In fact Honeyboy was at the juke joint with Johnson the night he was poisoned.  Honeyboy has written and performed some of the most famous Blues songs ever written.  “Sweet Home Chicago” and “Crossroads” are two songs made famous by Eric Clapton.  Honeyboy is still doing his thing at 93 years old which is quite remarkable. 

We decided to eat dinner at a wonderful fairly new restaurant in down the street from Ground Zero called Rust.  Rust was a very cool modern restaurant that I can only describe as Mississippi Farm Chic.  Appetizers were ordered consisting of fried oysters topped with a homemade remoulade sauce, homemade potato chips topped with a blue cheese fondue sauce, and fried green tomatoes.  All were excellent.  Entrees included shrimp and grits, seared ahi tuna, filet, and the special which was a crabmeat au gratin.  All were divine!!  There didn’t seem to be any plates that had any food left.  Dessert was a peach sauce bread pudding and a piece of Chow’s birthday cake.  This meal was definitely up there with some of our all time favorite places we’ve ever eaten.  I would definitely recommend Rust to anyone.

As part of the festival, you were given a wrist band for $10 that would allow you to visit anyone of around 16 venues on Saturday night.  We chose the Hopson Plantation Commissary to spend the evening.  It definitely did not disappoint.  This is also on the same property as the Shack Up Inn.  We will definitely be staying at this place on our next visit to Clarksdale.  There was an opening act playing when we got there and his name was Jon Short, he was from the northeast.  For a Yankee, the guy was awesome.  He playing some amazing blues on his steel guitar.  The main act of the evening was Big George Brock and the Houserockers.  Big George is a true Blues original and is still going at 77 years old.  He came out dressed in a full suit with black and white wingtips and a super sweet hat that was framed by some of the best Jerri curl I’ve ever seen.  Big George came out on stage only after Clarine (A singer who was with him) went back to the limo and led him out with his championship belt like a boxer heading to the ring.  I’ve gotta say the band was pretty awesome.  Clarine had some of the best female blues vocals I have heard in a long time.  The star of the show for us was 18 year old Marquis Knox.  Marquis was absolutely amazing.  His incredible guitar playing oozed the deep penetrating power of the blues with every lick that he played.  We enjoyed the music until almost midnight when we headed back to the Bed and Breakfast.

After another awkward breakfast, Joy and I packed our stuff and headed home.  We decided to try riding Highway 49 all the way to Jackson.  Great Plan, only somehow we missed 49 and had to stay on 61 all the way to Vicksburg.   This drive was even worse than the drive up.  I’ve gotta say that it was really eye opening for us the level of poverty that exists in our state.  Not some far off country, but right here where we live.  The drive took us about an hour longer but I guess its one thing to do once in your life.

Thumbs up/Thumbs Down

Blues- Thumbs up

Barbecue- Thumbs in the middle

BMW’s Overheating – Thumbs Down

Service Forks – Thumbs Down

Helena, Arkansas – Thumbs Down

Honeyboy- Thumbs Up

Hippies – Thumbs Down

Monkeys Riding Dogs – Thumbs Up

Magnolia Hill Bed and Breakfast – Thumbs Down

Rust- WOW! Thumbs Way Up

Hanging our with our Family – Major Thumbs Up

Innkeepers who could have starred in “Misery” – Thumbs Down

And Now Back By Popular Demand

Trust me people, we heard the weeping.  We heard the moaning and groaning.  We heard the public outcry.  After a long break from the world of blogging we are back.  I will say that the pressure became so intense that I knew we could no longer hold this public service back for the greater good of the people.  That’s what we are about here at the Lee and Joy Davis Blog, the people. 

We have an action packed weekend in store for us this weekend.  We will be traveling to Clarksdale, MS for the Juke Joint Festival.  We will be staying at a bed and breakfast in Helena, AR (pronounce it however you want, however my wife does correct the way I say it every time I say it, which is always fun).  Depending on laziness, we should have some reviews of the weekend and possibly some pictures up of the festival. 

And we bid you Adieu on this Friday with this little gem from Kansas City.  The Lee and Joy Davis Blog in no way condones a certain show on HBO involving a washed up John Rocker type pitcher that uses extremely vulgar language and a large amount of drug use.  However, if you ever feel the need to make a homemade Kenny Powers jersey to wear to a baseball game, you might need to take a step back and evaluate all of your life goals.  This is wrong on so many levels including the fact that a grown man who is not playing in a sport is wearing a jersey, but that is another blog for another day.  Without further delay, I give you the homemade Kenny Powers Jersey.