Mississippi
From Pittsburgh to New Orleans, on a 19th-Century-Style Flatboat
LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI: An Epic American Journey, by Rinker Buck
A dry cleaner in Yankton, S.D., as soon as informed me that he had spied so many fussily costumed boaters from the banks of the close by Missouri River that he’d grown weary of recent arrivals. “Persons are recreating Lewis and Clark,” he mentioned. “It occurs right here on a regular basis.” He cherished the river, for its waterfowl and promise of imaginative escape, however not at all times its thru-traveling flock, who, if not reprising the migration of earlier generations, typically gave the impression to be proselytizing for one factor or one other: power independence, say, or sobriety. “A few of these persons are slightly on their excessive horse, you already know?” he mentioned. To fulfill a waterborne voyager whose solely trigger was wanderlust: That was novel.
I considered my dialog with the dry cleaner whereas studying Rinker Buck’s participating “Life on the Mississippi: An Epic American Journey,” which recounts the writer’s 2,000-mile journey from Pittsburgh to New Orleans aboard a purpose-built picket flatboat, like those utilized by Appalachian farmers within the a long time after the Revolutionary Warfare. His rotating crew features a someday Meriwether Lewis impersonator whom Buck loathes, not just for his informal racism and misogyny however for his pretension — archaic speech, suitcase bulging with Nineteenth-century outfits.
Historic re-enactors, Buck writes, are “overdressed losers.” Readers of his earlier ebook, “The Oregon Path: A New American Journey,” will acknowledge the actual sensitivity. For that entertaining venture, Buck traversed the previous pioneer route by coated wagon, whereas railing towards these purists who would lament the intrusions of asphalt and smooth serve. The frontier was ever debased. Nonetheless, you would possibly say that Buck is a re-enactor by one other identify: a journey author, who delights in incongruity and in historical past’s rhymes.
He additionally comes by his wanderlust organically. When he was 7, in 1958, Buck accompanied his mother and father and siblings on a wagon experience by means of New Jersey and Pennsylvania to “see America slowly,” as his father, {a magazine} writer, put it. When he was 15, and extra inclined towards pace, he joined an older brother within the cockpit of a Piper Cub and leapfrogged the continent. “We had solely a buying bag filled with maps, no radio and a compass that hardly labored,” he writes. “Comply with the highways, son,” his father would say, “or select a river.”
The rivers on the coronary heart of this ebook should not simply the oft-chronicled one within the title (borrowed, in fact, from Mark Twain) but additionally the Ohio, which set a younger nation in westward movement and thereby outlined People “as a migratory individuals,” Buck writes, “radically departed from our European antecedents.” Some adopted the water’s gravitational pull solely to promote their wares, and the timber on which they drifted, and hoof again. Others resettled downstream. On the time of the nation’s beginning, about 3 % of the non-Native inhabitants resided west of the Appalachian vary. By 1830, that determine had floated to 30 %. “On the fringe of civilization in North America, on the wharves and bursting river cities of the brand new territories, social caste and standing belonged to the uprooted, the wayfarers, the self-made males and boys scuffling with their oars to land a broadhorn towards the present.”
Broadhorn was one other identify for a flatboat — sq. of bow, shallow of draft and requiring little in the way in which of development experience — as a result of the lengthy, curved steering oars have been wielded from atop the cabin and appeared like big horns at a squint. Buck names his flatboat Endurance — and opts, pragmatically, for an inboard motor, which he pilots from the roof deck, like his predecessors. His heightened perch is the proper vantage each for admiring the panorama of conservation forest punctuated by Rust Belt blight, and for considering the financial winds which have these days roiled our politics. The decline of the metal trade, he observes, stirred a special kind of progress, with sprigs of aspen and birch extruding from West Virginian smokestacks and window transoms. “The persistence of man was dramatically yielding to the persistence of nature,” Buck writes.
Coal was one other matter: too just lately decimated, by offshore drilling and fracking, for nature’s reclamation to encourage awe. Many marinas, in the meantime, have been deserted, casualties of the 2008 recession and subsequent flooding. The lack of a lot disposable earnings meant fewer fishermen and water skiers, which in flip led to a discount of refueling stations. A savvy crew member of the Endurance charms a struggling enterprise proprietor into donating a number of essential backup gasoline tanks to the mission by slagging the federal authorities. Surveying the lonely river valley, Buck has the belief that the identical ridgelines that lent emotions of containment and serenity to a ship captain successfully shielded the extent of deindustrialization from the still-bustling interstates on the far sides. Geography is future. No marvel the populist groundswell of 2016 caught so many landlubbers unexpectedly.
“You’re going to die,” everybody warns Buck, each earlier than and all through an journey by which he by no means comes shut. I hesitate to establish this as a disappointment, although I think the writer would sympathize with this reader’s craving for vicarious adversity to match his riparian environment. If Buck is a proselytizer for any trigger whereas afloat, it might be for the perverse pleasure related to cracking one’s ribs, which he does — memorably, and for the fifth time — whereas balancing a tray of biscuits and gravy, eggs and bacon (“actual meals, trucker chow”) for his crew and ascending a poplar staircase to the deck amid oncoming rollers from a tug. The breakfast survives his fall intact; the rib cage doesn’t. “I like what being a champion rib-breaker says about my life,” he writes. “Rib breaks and their ache are a reminder of my foolhardiness, maybe, or my dependancy to journey, or my want for comeuppance for having led such a lucky, pleased life.”
Ben McGrath, a employees author at The New Yorker, is the writer of “Riverman: An American Odyssey.”
LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI: An Epic American Journey, by Rinker Buck | 386 pp. | Avid Reader Press | $32.50
Here are the candidates for SBLive’s Mississippi high school Athlete of the Week for August25-31. Read through the nominees and cast your vote. The poll will close Sunday at 11:59 p.m. If you would like to make a nomination in a future week, email Tyler@scorebooklive.com. For questions/issues with he poll, email athleteoftheweek@scorebooklive.com.
Editor’s note: Our Athlete of the Week feature and corresponding poll is intended to be fun, and we do not set limits on how many times a fan can vote during the competition. However, we do not allow votes that are generated by script, macro or other automated means. Athletes that receive votes generated by script, macro or other automated means will be disqualified.
Kohl Bradley, DB, George County: Racked up 17 tackles and returned an interception 80 yards for a touchdown in a 33-7 win over East Central.
DaJuan Colbert, DB, Natchez: Recorded 15 tackles, forced one fumble and returned another one 75 yards for a touchdown in a 58-50 win over Hancock.
Garrison Davis, QB, Holmes County Central: Completed 14 of his 21 pass attempts for 375 yards and three touchdowns in a 20-6 win over Vicksburg.
Xzavion Gainwell, DB, Yazoo County: Recorded nine tackles, an interception and an 80-yard interception return for a touchdown in the Panthers’ 20-16 win over South Delta.
Elijah Jones, RB, West Jones: Had 24 carries 226 yards and four touchdowns in a 34-6 win over Laurel.
Kingi McNair, WR, Pearl: Caught four passes for 160 yards and two touchdowns in a 26-20 win over Neshoba Central.
Ashton Nichols, DB, Clinton: Recorded six tackles to go with two big pass breakups, a blocked punt and a return for a touchdown in a 26-20 win over Warren Central.
Ethan Prater, RB, Pisgah: Rushed for 132 yards on 27 carries with three scores and caught a 60-yard touchdown pass in a 33-32 win over North Forrest.
Glen Singleton, RB, Madison Central: Rushed for 174 yards on 18 carries with all four touchdowns in a 27-20 win over Ocean Springs.
Damarius Yates, RB, Kemper County: Rushed for 193 yards on 17 carries and returned a kickoff 75 yards for a touchdown in a 38-15 win over Kosciusko.
Mississippi
‘If they cannot play Thalia Hall, they cannot play in Mississippi at all’: Broadway in Jackson speaks out about possible show cancellations
JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) – It’s been one month since Thalia Mara Hall closed its doors due to a mold outbreak.
Innovation Arts and Entertainment is the company responsible for bringing Broadway productions to Jackson.
Representatives from the company visited Jackson after hearing the building had been closed.
CEO Adam Epstein says the City of Jackson did not inform them of the news.
“We did not find out from anybody within the city. We found out by reading news clippings forwarded to us by other people in Jackson,” Epstein said.
Certified Industrial Hygienic Testing reported visible dirt, debris, and suspected mold growth on many surfaces.
Epstein fears this could change the possibility of bigger shows coming to the capital city.
“They’re going to skip over us because of this mess. We need to show as a community that Jackson cares about this valuable asset and that we demand our elected leaders to support and treat this really, incredibly valuable asset with the TLC it deserves,” he said.
Thalia Mara Hall is the only venue in the state that can host a Broadway production due to the technical needs and accommodations required.
“Touring theatrical shows. If they cannot play Thalia Hall, they cannot play in Mississippi at all,” he said.
Broadway in Jackson is not only a great source of entertainment in the city, but it’s also beneficial economically.
“Those other businesses don’t benefit. The city doesn’t earn tax revenue from events that we present. They don’t earn rental income from the events we present. They don’t earn facility fees from the events we present. This is a real tragedy. It’s unacceptable.”
The well-being of the potential audience is the company’s main priority.
“I will not risk our ticket buyers’ health and safety and comfort. Our shows can and will cancel before we’d ever put somebody in jeopardy. We’ve issued a 100% guarantee of a full refund if the venue is not given a clean bill of health,” Epstein said.
All shows will be canceled on a case-to-case basis.
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Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board are conducting a probe into Saturday’s crash that killed seven and injured 36 people.
The deadly bus crash in Mississippi that killed seven people and injured dozens of others early Saturday occurred after the vehicle experienced a tire failure, causing it to run off the road and overturn, officials and authorities said.
Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board, in coordination with the Mississippi Highway Patrol, are conducting a probe into Saturday’s crash that left seven people dead and another 36 people injured. The collision occurred at about 12:40 a.m. on Interstate 20 near Vicksburg, Mississippi, when the bus left the roadway and overturned.
The bus, which authorities described as a 2018 Volvo commercial passenger bus, traveled westbound when its left front tire failed, NTSB member Todd Inman said at a news conference Sunday. The bus then moved onto an embankment and rolled over on its left side.
Inman added that investigators will be at the scene for at least another week and are looking into several factors of the crash, including the vehicle’s mechanical condition, motor carrier safety, the condition and experience of the driver, and environmental factors.
According to U.S. Department of Transportation records, the bus was operated by Autobuses Regiomontanos. Records show that in the 24 months before Saturday, the transit company’s vehicles were involved in one fatal crash, two injury collisions, and a crash requiring a tow truck.
The transit company has over 20 years of experience and provides trips between more than 100 destinations throughout Mexico and the United States, according to Autobuses Regiomontanos’ website.
“Everyone at the NTSB sends their expressions of sorrow for everything that the survivors and victims of this crash went through,” Inman said.
7 killed, 36 injured in bus crash
The bus carried a total of 41 passengers and two drivers, according to authorities. It was traveling from Atlanta to Dallas when the incident occurred.
No other vehicles were involved in the crash, according to Master Sergeant Kervin K. Stewart with the Mississippi Highway Patrol. Six people were pronounced dead at the scene and another person died later at a hospital, Stewart said.
Another 36 people were transported to area hospitals.
Warren County Coroner Doug Huskey said two victims killed in the crash were identified by their mother as a 16-year-old girl and an 8-year-old boy, according to The New York Times. Authorities were working to identify the other victims.
Contributing: Jeanine Santucci, USA TODAY
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