What the Aussies think of us - USM Forum -- Message Board

Date: Jan 4, 2006

What the Aussies think of us

Date: Jan 4, 2006

World Watch wrote:

I didn't know Hattiesburg had rail service. I still don't know that.
link

What rock have you been under? The 'Burg has had passenger rail service since the inception of Amtrak, and surely for much of its history before that.

I didn't find the article to be such a hatchet job--just somewhat offhand and obtuse.

Date: Jan 4, 2006

I'd be willing to bet that the New York correspondent who wrote this story flew directly from NYC to Mississippi with no stops in between. Other than that, he's probably wandered no further than 50 miles outside of Manhattan. If he'd traveled into the 50,000 population boondocks of New York, New Jersey, and other parts of the Northeast, he would see privitive sights that would make Mississippi seem like a cultural mecca.

Date: Jan 4, 2006

Pamama Limited wrote:

I'd be willing to bet that the New York correspondent who wrote this story flew directly from NYC to Mississippi with no stops in between. Other than that, he's probably wandered no further than 50 miles outside of Manhattan. If he'd traveled into the 50,000 population boondocks of New York, New Jersey, and other parts of the Northeast, he would see privitive sights that would make Mississippi seem like a cultural mecca.

Yeah. The jerk probably doesn't even appreciate Delta Blues, Mississippi Catfish, or Southern Belles.

Date: Jan 4, 2006

Pamama Limited wrote:

I'd be willing to bet that the New York correspondent who wrote this story flew directly from NYC to Mississippi with no stops in between. Other than that, he's probably wandered no further than 50 miles outside of Manhattan. If he'd traveled into the 50,000 population boondocks of New York, New Jersey, and other parts of the Northeast, he would see privitive sights that would make Mississippi seem like a cultural mecca.

Well, he indicated he'd taken the train from N.O. And MS as "cultural mecca"--hmm, lemmesee, implying religious zealotry, right?

And, World Watch, if you go downtown, you can watch gobs of taxpayer money being pumped into "restoring" the train station.

Date: Jan 4, 2006

Get on Board wrote:

The jerk probably doesn't even appreciate Delta Blues, Mississippi Catfish, or Southern Belles.

How culturally deprived is that correspondent? He probably thinks Elvis is a brand of women's clothing.

Date: Jan 4, 2006

The one thing that didn't surprize me was that the train was late!

Seriously, we can't deny "idiosyncratic" can we? As for the 35 churches, that seems low. I'd have said more. And all you Methodists need to watch that hand-clapping!

Date: Jan 4, 2006

LVN wrote:

And all you Methodists need to watch that hand-clapping!

I'm Baptist and I've attended dozens of Southern Baptist churches throughout the years, but I've never witnessed hand-clapping during a church service (except as a polite gesture after a visiting solosit or when the preacher announced that the church had exceeded its goal for disaster relief).

Date: Jan 4, 2006

Get on Board wrote:

Pamama Limited wrote: The jerk probably doesn't even appreciate Delta Blues, Mississippi Catfish, or Southern Belles.

WHAT????? He must be dead then!

Date: Jan 4, 2006

Outside Observer wrote:

Pamama Limited wrote: The jerk probably doesn't even appreciate Delta Blues, Mississippi Catfish, or Southern Belles.

WHAT????? He must be dead then!

Add grits to that list.

Date: Jan 4, 2006

Voter wrote:

And, World Watch, if you go downtown, you can watch gobs of taxpayer money being pumped into "restoring" the train station.

Your snide comments regarding the train station are unnecessary. What do you have against renovating the downtown area? Maybe you think the money should go to the Oak Grove community?

Date: Jan 4, 2006

Down Under Diver wrote:

if you go downtown, you can watch gobs of taxpayer money being pumped into "restoring" the train station. Your snide comments regarding the train station are unnecessary.

First there was the Albertson's space, and then the old High School building. What USM department will be housed at the train station?

Date: Jan 4, 2006

World Watch wrote:

I came across this very odd story about H'burg in "The Australian." Its a typical hack job on the South

I don't think that article reflects what the Aussies think of us. The author of the piece is a New Yorker. It probably reflects what New Yorkers think of us.

Date: Jan 5, 2006

Down Under Diver wrote:

Your snide comments regarding the train station are unnecessary. What do you have against renovating the downtown area? Maybe you think the money should go to the Oak Grove community?

So I take it you approve of my other snide comments? I was simply trying to further edify World Watch, who seemed to know as little about the 'Burg as the "correspondent."

I just find it remarkable that our "leaders" can manage to round up financing for projects like this, then moments later lament that we don't have enough revenue to take care of even the basics, therefore need a tax increase.

Maybe you'd better come up for air, Down Under--your Oak Grove remark couldn't be further from the truth. I think O.G. and all its sister exclaves should be annexed by the city, so that all their inhabitants can share in the tax joys of maintaining the city from which the overwhelming majority of them derive their livelihood.

And as for other uses for the depot money, how 'bout higher education, just for starters?

Date: Jan 5, 2006

Tell somebody who cares wrote:

I don't think that article reflects what the Aussies think of us. The author of the piece is a New Yorker. It probably reflects what New Yorkers think of us.

Based on my own admittedly skewed sample -- mainly computer geeks, music freaks & tree-hugging nature nuts -- I don't think the article reflects what Australians or New Yorkers think of us. Brits, Germans, Norwegians, Danes or Swedes, either, for that matter. (Most of the New Yorkers I know are enlightened souls who have major jones for the blues.)

For 99% of the world, if you say "Mississippi" you are going to get an instant association with Elvis Presley, B B King, William Faulkner & my own favorite Mississippian, Robert Johnson. One of my old associates from England recently contacted me to say that he & his wife were taking a bus tour of the South (in spite of & perhaps because of Katrina), mainly because the tour included Nashville, Memphis, Clarksdale & New Orleans. As he put it, "I want to see the part of the country that produces what they sell in New York City." And he was, in fact, talking about culture.

I once had the experience of flying deep into the heart of Texas with a plane-load of Australian rugby league fans. They reminded more of lifelong residents of Purvis than anything else -- rednecks (and I mean that in the "good" sense) with Cockney accents & a near-religious belief that beer in quantity cures most problems.

Date: Jan 5, 2006

Invictus wrote:

a near-religious belief that beer in quantity cures most problems.

It doesn't?

Date: Jan 5, 2006

Invictus wrote:

"I want to see the part of the country that produces what they sell in New York City."

I like that idea, Invictus: "Mississippi produces it. New York sells it."

Date: Jan 5, 2006

Random Selection wrote:

First there was the Albertson's space, and then the old High School building. What USM department will be housed at the train station?

Probably "Human Resources" so they can process the paperwork for faculty who are leaving town by any and all means possible ASAP - HA!

Date: Jan 6, 2006

Lurker wrote:

Random Selection wrote:

First there was the Albertson's space, and then the old High School building. What USM department will be housed at the train station?

Probably "Human Resources" so they can process the paperwork for faculty who are leaving town by any and all means possible ASAP - HA!

maybe we can get the Hudson's space too.

Date: Jan 8, 2006

I once had the experience of flying deep into the heart of Texas with a plane-load of Australian rugby league fans. They reminded more of lifelong residents of Purvis than anything else -- rednecks (and I mean that in the "good" sense) with Cockney accents & a near-religious belief that beer in quantity cures most problems.

Makes sense, same basic ethnic stock. Voyagers to the West and The Fatal Shore have similar beginnings. Need to send John Shelton Reed to Australia on sabbatical to get a definitive answer.