American Flags are free - drycleaning in Oxford, Mississippi

I've only lived in a handfull of cities and towns, but I have to say that the folks who run Rainbow Cleaners in Oxford, Mississippi, are the nicest drycleaners I've ever dealt with. They are always pleasant, always helpful, always appear to be hard at work and aware of their customers. The owner is particiularly friendly and has asked me questions about other drycleaners I've been too, in an effort to find new ways to improve his own business.

Of course, Rainbow Cleaners has made mistakes. They lost 3 of my husband's shirts, shrunk my sweater and lost (but then found) an item of mine. Every time they made a mistake, they gave me a gift card with credit towards my next drycleaning for the monetary amount of the item lost or damaged.

So the reason that I choose to do business with Rainbow Cleaners instead of Starbrite - who I've also patronized is this:

1. Rainbow Cleaners does not STAPLE their drycleaning tags to my clothes. They use safety pins. Starbrite should know better than to staple tags to fabric. I had seen cleaners staple tags to the garment's tag - but I had NEVER encountered the practice of stapling through the fabric of nice blouses and shirts before.

2. Rainbow Cleaners has a very convenient Drive Thru drop off system. If you go at the right time, early in the morning, there is NO ONE in line. Of course if you hit Rainbow Cleaners right at rush hour, yes, you may have to wait.

Remember this: Rainbow Cleaners is one of 10 total washing/drycleaning businesses in a town of 19,000 people living just within the city limits. If you visit Rainbow you will see the staggering amount of clothing they process on a daily basis. It is best, in the event that they do lose something, for you to create a list of what you drop off, each time you visit them. This was very helpful when they lost 3 of my husbands shirts, and I had written down the brand names and size of each item.

Rainbow Cleaners is offering 10% off of their prices these days, no doubt as a reaction to the possible lack of clients due to a slacking economy. Despite a lack of cash, I as well am trying to avoid drycleaning all together. My issue with drycleaning in general is this:

Perchloroethylene, also known as tetrachloroethylene, perc, PCE, C2Cl4, Cl2C=CCl2, or tetrachloroethene, is a solvent used by 90% of dry cleaning businesses in the United States. Perchloroethylene is toxic and causes several harmful side effects.

Some studies have indicated that perc can cause menstrual irregularities, fertility problems, and spontaneous abortions among women who work in the dry cleaning industry. Perc residue from dry cleaning processes can also seep into drinking water, causing a variety of problems. For example, many scientists believe perc exposure can cause liver or kidney damage. In addition, perc has been named a “probable carcinogen” by the International Association for Research on Cancer.

In response to customer complaints about the dangers of perc, some dry cleaners have begun to investigate alternative cleaning methods. Hydrocarbon solvents such as Chevron-Phillips' EcoSolv or Exxon D-2000 work much like standard dry cleaning agents, but without the harmful side effects. Wet cleaning, a system that uses water and biodegradable soap, is an environmentally-friendly process that works well for silk, rayon, leather, suede, and wool garments. Liquid carbon dioxide obtained as a byproduct of certain industrial processes can be combined with silicone to create another effective, yet environmentally-safe dry cleaning method.

Unfortunately, since these “green” dry cleaning processes are relatively new, people who live outside of metropolitan areas may find it difficult to find a reputable dry cleaner who doesn’t use perc. However, home dry cleaning kits that use plastic bags and specialized cleaning sheets are widely available and provide a convenient way to freshen clothing while removing minor stains. Several studies have determined that these kits are less harmful to the environment than cleaning a garment with perchloroethylene. Using home drying kits between trips to your local dry cleaner is an inexpensive way to help reduce the environmental impact of dry cleaning.

While the process used to clean your clothing does have a substantial effect on the environment, there are other factors you may wish to consider when choosing a dry cleaner. For example, many dry cleaners have a policy of solvent recycling, plastic bag recycling, and hanger recycling. This can help by reducing the amount of waste that ends up in local landfills. Some dry cleaners have also upgraded to "third generation" machines that are more efficient at minimizing the amount of harmful chemicals used during the dry cleaning process.

So don't forget to recycle your metal clothes hangers, skip the garment bag and don't forget to visit Rainbow Cleaners at 1912 Jackson Ave W, Oxford, MS 38655 (662) 234-2266. Their sign outside includes a customer service pledge that states they will clean your American flag for free! If I had one, I would definitely take them up on that offer. They also claim to maintain a "commitment to environmental responsibility."

New ideas from abroad - this just in from Barcelona

Carbon Neutral on a Shoestring - from the Home and Garden section of The New York Times, published March 4, 2009

Petz Scholtus has been largely successful in retrofitting an 18th-century apartment in Barcelona as a green machine. Photo by Stefano Buonamici for The New York Times.

THE floor tiles made from smashed television screens did not, in the end, work out. Neither did the pulley system Petz Scholtus’s boyfriend rigged to haul her stuff up three very steep flights of stairs to her new apartment in the Barri Gòtic, or old city, when she moved in over a year ago. But the move itself — by bicycle through the streets of the oldest and most cinematic neighborhoods here — was a carbon-neutral success. (It helped that Ms. Scholtus had no furniture then.) So, too, were other elements of her eco-renovation.

That is the phrase Ms. Scholtus, a 28-year-old product designer from Luxembourg, has been using to describe the ongoing restoration and decoration of a one-bedroom apartment in the 18th-century building where she lives and works. In Barcelona, a city that has long prized the new and the glossy, Ms. Scholtus’s project amounts to a countercultural effort.
“Here people have an idea that sustainable is for the rich or that it’s something horrible and low-quality hippy,” Ms. Scholtus said. “I wanted to see if it was possible to make it inexpensive but also, you know, cool.”

As Americans fumble with their green goals and begin to cast a critical eye on sustainable practices on many levels — from a cap on industrial emissions to the use of fluorescent light bulbs — Ms. Scholtus’s experiences (which she recounts on her blog, r3project.blogspot.com) are an object lesson in how fully one can realize green ideals on a budget in an existing home in any city.

On a dark, raw February morning, Ms. Scholtus’s apartment was bright, if not exactly toasty, from the fluorescent bulbs tucked into her handmade Bidon lamps. The English translation of bidón is jerry can or container; Ms. Scholtus found a few on the street and fitted them with compact fluorescent bulbs and PVC-free wiring. One was hanging over a door frame; another sat on a rug like a small pet.

There was a voluminous beanbag chair made from recycled car-seat fabric by a company called Waste; a planter made from an old tire; a chair found nearby at the Placa George Orwell and decoupaged by Ms. Scholtus with newspapers; and floor-to-ceiling stenciled shelving made from fiberboard (planks of recycled sawdust) certified by the Forest Stewardship Council and painted with pigments low in volatile organic compounds (V.O.C.’s). On the terrace, worms were quietly gnawing through Ms. Scholtus’s kitchen scraps, making compost for her herb garden.

Ms. Scholtus, who grew up on a farm in Luxembourg and studied eco-design at the University of London, arrived in Barcelona five years ago. She was teaching English and eco-design, creating products (collapsible felt storage containers called Stuff Bumps, developed in partnership with the green resource and news blog TreeHugger, for whom she is a contributor), art installations and other projects for folks like Chicks on Speed, a German electropop art band.

Rents were high, but purchase prices in the Barri Gòtic, where the newest buildings date from the 18th century and require extensive renovation, were relatively low. Still, this apartment, which Ms. Scholtus bought for 235,000 euros in 2006 (just under $300,000), was hardly a steal: it had no plumbing, no electricity; no glass in its windows; the toilet was in a closet on the terrace; and what would become the bedroom was closed off by a bearing wall (the only entrance was from the terrace). The massive ceiling beams were pocked from wood lice and encrusted with paint in many colors, layered in over the centuries.

Because Ms. Scholtus had challenged herself to be environmentally responsible during every stage of home ownership, she began by researching green financing. To buy the place, she obtained a mortgage from what is known as an ethical bank. Ethical banks — a rara avis in this country (they are more common in Europe and Canada) — invest only in socially or ecologically responsible businesses and projects.

Triodos, a European ethical bank established in 1980, had just opened a branch in Barcelona. Sonia Felipe Larios, a spokeswoman for Triodos Spain, described its core business as financing “companies and organizations from the social, cultural and environmental sectors,” citing organic farming, sustainable tourism, welfare and fair trade organizations as examples.
Ms. Scholtus’s loan, Ms. Felipe Larios said, was a departure for the bank, “the first eco-mortgage we have given here.” Technically, the bank extended Ms. Scholtus a professional loan, as if she were a company or an organization.

“We are still developing residential products in Spain,” Ms. Felipe Larios said. “She was very proud of what we’ve been doing, and we’re very proud of what she’s done in her home.”

Ms. Scholtus became an apartment owner on Buy Nothing Day, an anti-consumerist holiday celebrated in the United States the day after Thanksgiving and 24 hours later elsewhere. The coincidence, she said, made her feel ill.

“I called Graham Hill,” Ms. Scholtus said, referring to the founder of TreeHugger, “and he said, ‘For goodness sake don’t put that on TreeHugger.’ ”

IN making her new home livable, Ms. Scholtus’s challenge to herself was to hew as closely as possible to the three R’s of environmentalism: reduce, reuse, recycle. (Restore and respect are the other R words listed on her blog, but she liked R3 as a title for the project because her street address is 3.) Could she find products that were made close to home, were produced without a huge environmental impact, could be dismantled after her tenancy (following the cradle-to-cradle recycling model) and did not use too much energy? Oh, and all for under 30,000 euros (about $38,000)?

There were hits and misses, but the budget didn’t waver.
One miss: The smashed-television-screen floor tiles she found for the kitchen and bathroom in off-white turned out to be a sickly beige. When she phoned the company that sold them to her, she was told that the color she had chosen was no longer being made. She quickly found ceramic tiles made by a local company that had its own water-treatment plant — that was the good part. But because they were ceramic, they could only be installed with grout — in other words, the old-fashioned permanent way, not ideal for a cradle-to-cradle proponent.
“The only way to remove them is to smash them,” Ms. Scholtus explained.

To save on rent during the demolition, she embarked on six months of couch surfing and house-sitting, working from her laptop and wearing summer clothes long past August.
She found a contractor who claimed to be a green builder. Unfortunately, as she discovered later, just before she fired him, the green projects in his portfolio had been cut from magazines and represented the work of other builders.

“I was going to be the real example for his portfolio,” she said. In over his head, the contractor was relieved to be let go, she continued. Truth be told, he had handled the demolition part just fine, sandblasting the woodwork (a nontoxic alternative to using chemical strippers), hauling out the rubbish and obtaining the environmentally friendly materials that Ms. Scholtus had located (like cork flooring that fits together like a jigsaw puzzle, without glue).

An electrician from Colombia became her lieutenant and then her full-time contractor, though he initially mocked her instructions to find things like PVC-free pipes for the new plumbing (PVC, or polyvinyl chloride, is a ubiquitous building material; environmentalists are concerned about toxic emissions during its manufacture and disposal.).

“In the beginning, he couldn’t understand why I’d go through the trouble of finding PVC-free pipes when the standard PVC ones are easy to find and very cheap,” she said. “In the end, he got into it, and asked me, ‘Is this sustainable?’ or ‘Why is this not good?’ ”

Ms. Scholtus delights in making do with materials at hand. She and Mette Bak Andersen, a Danish designer who lives in Barcelona, have devised a workshop called Materialize Me that they hold at schools like the Elsivava Design School here and the Krabbesholm School in Denmark.
In the workshops, students are challenged to make products from materials that are close at hand, like leaves, scrap metal or their hair. At one workshop in Krabbesholm, a team scooped waste from a sewage treatment plant and made bricks out of it (“they were very brave,” Ms. Scholtus said admiringly); another team hacked CDs to bits and baked them into the shape of a classic Danish lamp.

Ms. Scholtus’s dining room table is a glass slab she found in the rubble of her apartment. “The workers kept complaining that it was too big to remove,” she said. So she found trestles on the street, painted them and placed them under the slab to make a table. Dismantled wine boxes await deployment as the doors to her Ikea kitchen cabinets; ancient drawers rescued from the street, which smell of incense — “I think they must have come from a church,” Ms. Scholtus said, wrinkling her nose — sit on casters and hold magazines.

To heat the apartment and the water, Ms. Scholtus purchased an efficient condensing gas boiler, which she tucked into the closet on her terrace where the toilet once lived. But only after researching a solar solution, her first choice.

“There are more solar panels per capita in Luxembourg than here,” she said, “and where is there more sun?” Ms. Scholtus’s apartment, however, is two floors below the building’s roof, so solar heating was not a viable option, according to a few companies she contacted.
She also dreamed of radiant floor heating, but its cost pushed her toward radiators. She chose Low-H2O radiators (which use two liters of water, rather than 20, a big energy saver), made by the stylish radiator company Jaga.

The other day, though, when an American visitor stopped by, none of them were in use. Spoiled by years of environmental indolence , the visitor shivered a bit. Ms. Scholtus, grinning in her sweater, offered her coffee, a European’s best retort to the energy crisis.

Check out Petz Scholtus' amazing blog - with photos and instructive videos on how she is doing such an amazing job of renovating with an eye towards sustainability.

You Can't Always Get What You Want - Grocery Shopping in Oxford, Mississippi

So, I don't think I've mentioned Larson's Big Star.

I avoided Larson's Big Star for six months before I finally went in there. Driving by it frequently, I didn't even realize that it was a grocery store. Despite the lettering next to the sign, "Deli, Seafood, Bakery," as far as I could tell, that sign was all part of the Fred's next door. (And I have yet to set foot in Fred's.) So basically, I had no idea what the Big Star was selling.

I have, perhaps unfairly, neglected the Big Star, and as part of my New Year's resolution - I intend to make up for that mistake. I want to support my neighbors, the small businesses in Oxford, and according to one employee at Larson's Big Star, another employee has been working there for 37 years. So the Big Star, in fact, preceeds the Kroger AND the Walmart. It may be the oldest, "mom and pop" style grocery store left standing amongst the few retail giants.

This quote from insiderpages.com:

Big Star is the only locally-owned and operated grocery store in Oxford, and their commitment to great service and low prices is a testament to that. Always interested in the community, the store donates to many fundraisers and allows bake sales and other fundraising events to take place on the premises. They also have the best hot lunch in town, bar none. Excellent store.

If you're looking for organic options - the Big Star is not the place to find them. As far as I can tell, they do not carry any organic foods. They do offer the Greenworks brand of cleaners, but that seems to be all. For the past week, the Big Star has had a sale on the Kretchmar brand of Virginia Ham - $2.96 a lb. Head over there to get your deli on!

If you are spending a fortune on chips, crackers and other snacks for your family like I am, and your family does not care about organic brands or even name brands for that matter - you have just struck gold at the Big Star. They carry the Always Save brand, and literally everything is 99 cents. For the same NET WT you would pay close to $3.00 - you can get "cheese crackers" or "wheat crackers" for the same price. I cannot review a taste test for all of the Always Save products that I buy, because I do not eat them - but I have tried the "wheat crackers" and to me, they taste exactly like Wheat Thins.


In the local weekly magazines in Oxford, you will sometimes see a big ad for the Big Star, boasting the best lunch plate in town. They do have a full service deli and lunch bar, serving up what looks like your standard greasy delights: fried chicken, potato wedges and mac&cheese. It all looks delicious for what it is, but I have yet to try it. I am actually much more taunted by the 99 cent cake table.

This cake table may be the demise of my #2 New Year's resolution one day, but the styrofoam packaging is a big turn-off for me. This cake table will be comepletely cleared after lunch, and the little ladies behind the cake counter will no doubt begin refilling this station for the dinner rush. The Big Star has their own little eat-in area at the front of the store, and they have an entire shelf of tall styrofoam cups containing iced tea, strategically placed at the end of the lunch counter, just after the cake display, so one might grab a tall tea on their way to pay for the lunch plate. I've been there once at lunch time, and I've seen the line to get a lunch plate, so it must be good!

If you are new to Oxford, and are concerned that Kroger and Walmart are your only grocery options, fear not! My personal favorite is the Farmers Market, located at 274 County Road 101. If that place sold toilet paper and deli meat, I would never shop anywhere else. But, you can't always get what you want. So you get what you need - and don't forget to patronize Larson's Big Star - they've got everything you might buy at Walmart or Kroger at comparable prices. They are also frequently less crazy at rush times than Kroger or Walmart.

Larson's Big Star of Oxford, Mississippi
1936 University Ave Oxford, MS 38655
(662) 234-3217

Heart Disease: the number one killer of men and women in the U.S.A.

Last night, when President Obama addressed our nation, he mentioned that health care reform would be fully addressed in 2009, and that a cure for cancer would be found in his lifetime. He also, and most importantly in my opinion, hightlighted the PREVENTION of cancer. Cancer rates could increase by 50 % to 15 million by 2020, according to the World Health Organization. The 'World Cancer Report' also suggests that healthy lifestyles and government initiatives could prevent as many as one third of cancers worldwide.

A healthy diet and frequent consumption of fruit and vegetables is identified as one of three prime areas, (along with reducing tobacco consumption and early detection through screening) where action is needed to cut the growing cancer rates.

However, it is heart disease that is the leading cause of death for both men and women in the United States. This doesn't mean that you have to accept heart disease or cancer as your fate. Although you lack the power to change some risk factors — such as family history or age — just as steps can be taken to prevent one third of all cancers - there are some key heart disease prevention steps you can take.

Make a change in your daily life and take steps to avoid heart disease — don't smoke, get regular exercise and eat healthy foods. Avoid heart problems in the future by adopting a healthy lifestyle today.

Visit Go Red For Women for more information on heart disease and prevention.

Act Better to Feel Better to Get Better

Eating alone will not keep a man well; he must also take exercise. For food and exercise, while possessing opposite qualities, yet work together to produce health.

-Hippocrates, fifth century


If you're like me, New Year's resolutions aren't serious until the day after Valentine's Day. All the days before that one are still feeding on the leftovers of the holidays, all those goodies that we got in our Christmas stockings, all those chocolates, peanuts and cheese straws. The post-holiday depression sets in with the gloomy weather, lack of sunshine, and the brittle, dry surroundings of winter. Everything on TV seems bright, colorful, and comforting in a time where everything outside the window looks dead.

But as Winter draws us inward, we are given the opportunity to reflect and evaluate the way we feel about ourselves - mind and body - in the most realistic sense.

When we decide to make a personal change to our life, we must agree to make a permanent change. If, in our minds, the change we are making is not permanent, the change will not hold. We will fall back into our old patterns. The change cannot have an expiration date.

Take active steps to make a change in your life. Stay motivated. Search for motivation everywhere. Seek out friends and family who support your decision to change. And reward yourself at least once a week, in some form, to stay motivated.

Every year, a day before or after January 1, I make a New Year's resolution. I try to stick with it - it doesn't always work out - but I try. No one is perfect. But everyone can make an effort to think about it, write it down, and stick with it.

My list usually consists of 5 things I want to change. This year, my list only amounted to 2 things.

1. Boycott Walmart - (and other, huge, life-sucking chain retailers)

2. Be Healthy - at all costs

So far, I'm pleased to report that I have not spent one cent at Walmart in 2009. This may seem like a small feat, but if you live in small town America, like I do, you might agree that avoiding Walmart is nearly impossible.

So that leaves me with the Be Healthy part of my list. That has not gone so well. I am not the kind of person who throws away food or candy. I try my best to give excess food and candy away, but many times, if something is SO good, I will save it. And if it's within my reach, at any given moment of weakness, it may suddenly be in my mouth.

So what I'm talking about here is how to get healthy. How one must act better to feel better to get better.

On July 18, 2008, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention posted their annual findings on obesity in our nation. Mississippi ranked highest as the number one state suffering from obesity - with 32% of Mississippians determined to be in this category. However, no state was immune. In fact, the CDC found that NO STATE reached what the Healthy People 2010 objective hopes to attain: a nation-wide decrease in obesity. They are hoping that each state will reach the goal of only 15% percent obese.

But what is obesity? It is associated with reduced quality of life, development of serious chronic conditions such as heart disease and diabetes, increased medical care costs, and premature death.

If one is not obese, should they still worry about fatty foods or exercise?



This from Superfoods Healthstyle:

A Nation and a World at Rest

... We were born to move. That's literally true. We are here today because many generations ago our ancestors were running around procuring food. The equation was simple: Move or die. In fact, it's been estimated that Paleolithic man burned approx. 1,000 calories a day and consumed as much as 3,000 calories a day. Today, in affluent Western nations, we consume approx. 2,100 calories a day and burn only about 300 calories in daily activity. A little quick math will tell you that we burn less than a third as much as our ancestors did in daily calories...

Statistics highlight the facts: Nearly 30 percent of American adults are entirely sedentary and another 46 percent don't get enough exercise. That means only a quarter of Americans get sufficient exercise.


Start moving people!

When so much of our focus on going green concerns the abstract ideas of pollution, recycling, and taking the bus - we may forget that while we must clean up our world, we also should maintain a healthy body.

This week is National Eating Disorder Awareness Week (Feb 22 -28, 2009). I would also encourage everyone to take a look at their patterns of eating - how much do you put on your plate? Are you eating nearly the same meal every day? Is there a diversity of foods in your diet? Are you binging, over-eating? How frequently do you consume sweets, soft drinks, and alcohol?

There are many food pyramids out there, and if you haven't looked at a food pyramid since health class in 7th grade, you may be shocked to notice some big changes. This is the latest "New Food Pyramid" from the Washington Post.




In any case, THINK about making a change or two, one for your MIND and one for your BODY. If you chose to act on that change, you will thank yourself next January when you're staring out the window at Winter 2010, re-evaluating your life once again.

Waste-Not, Want-Not: Woodfire at Professor Matt Long's studio, Oxford, MS

Professor Matt Long invited students to participate in firing ceramics in a woodfired kiln at his home last weekend, February 13th-14th. Long received a MFA at Ohio University in 1997, and a BFA from The Kansas City Art Institute in 1995. He is currently an Assistant Professor at The University of Mississippi, teaching ceramics. He has been a potter for 22 years, and currently resides in Oxford, Mississippi where he teaches and has a studio at home.

Graduate students, professors and friends stayed up late to continually push chopped wood through these tunnels under the kiln. The woodfire itself lasted for about 48 hours.

Long also took the time to show us how to make handmade deer-tail paintbrushes. Of course, he did not demonstate how to kill the deer, however, after one gathers the fresh deer tails, they must be split open and cured with rock salt.

After the curing process is complete, Long fashions these bristly tufts into brush tips.

Waste Not, Want Not! I was thrilled to witness yet another way that Mississippians use as many parts of the animal that they hunt as is possible! It was fascinating.

Thanks Professor Long!!

Valentine's Day 2009 at Ravine in Oxford, MS

If you missed the aphrodisiac menu at Ravine on Valentine's Day - you really missed out!

The cool ceiling at Ravine

A little Prosecco for something sweet

A gift from the chef - a heart beet salad. Shaving of heart-shaped beet with braised fennel and carrot salad

Perfect Oysters - not local of course, but fabulous! Plain - on the half shell - sauce on the side, just the way WE like them.

Strawberry and crabmeat salad with toasted pecans and mixed lettuce, strawberry vinaigrette

Rack o' lamb with polenta

Thick steak with mashed potatoes and green beans

Heart-shaped brownie dripping with strawberry and hot fudge sauce, raspberry/white chocolate sauce on the side with sliced strawberrys and real whip cream.

Yeah - I bet you missed it.

Click to donate to The Animal Rescue Site

The Animal Rescue Site is having trouble getting enough people to click on it daily to meet their quota of getting free food donated every day to abused and neglected animals. It takes less than a minute to go to their site and click on 'feed an animal in need' for free. It's in a purple box in the middle of the page. This doesn't cost you a thing. Their corporate sponsors/advertisers use thenumber of daily visits to donate food to abandoned/neglected animals inexchange for advertising. Here's the web site! Pass it along to people you know. http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/

6th Annual Oxford Film Festival promotes local and regional businesses

The 6th Annual Oxford Film Festival was a fantastic example of an organization utilizing small, local businesses and regional vendors. The gift bags that filmmakers received were full o' goodies: cookies from City Grocery of Oxford, MS, baked goods from Sugarees Bakery of New Albany, MS, bottled Mountain Valley Spring Water from Hot Springs, Arkansas and many more treats.
By the way, Mountain Valley Spring Water is the first bottled water company to utilize FDA approved recycled PET resin in its bottles.

The filmmaker's luncheon, held at City Grocery, was fantastic. Chef John Currence served up all of my favorite things:

Mixed greens with red onion, tomato, toasted Mississippi pecans and toast rounds

Wasabi sesame encrusted salmon on a bed of potato salad with zucchini and squash

A very rich chocolate pie with raspberry sauce

If you ever visit Oxford, MS, you should definitely hit City Grocery. It's my second favorite restaurant in Oxford and it's definitely the best restaurant on the Oxford square.

Thanks, John!

The Oxford Film Festival Is Here!!!

If you support the Oxford Film Festival, you support the local economy of Oxford. Many small businesses, restaurants and vendors are involved in making this event possible.

The tentative schedule of events has been posted for filmmakers and sponsors of the festival.

Tentative Social Schedule: An OFFICIAL social schedule will be included with Filmmaker's/Festival go-ers badges, but here's what you can plan on:

Thursday: Festival begins at 7:00, after our local radio show, Thacker Mountain Radio, finishes taping; official party, 9:00pm-12:30am, unofficial party, 12:30am until?

Friday: Media Panel, 10:30am at the Overby Center; Filmmakers-Only Luncheon, 12:00-2:00pm; films at Malco, 12pm; official party, 9:00pm-1:00am; unofficial party, 1:00am until?

Saturday:Films at Malco starting at 10:00am; Award Ceremony/Official Party, 9:00pm-12:00am; unofficial party, 12:00am until?

Sunday:Films at Malco, 1:00-7:00pm; official schedule to be revealed after the award ceremony.

Fundraising much needed for the Oxford Lafayette Humane Society

I visited the Oxford Lafayette Humane Society for the first time on Friday. I stopped by to drop of a piece of artwork for their Paws for Art Auction that's coming up in two weeks.
This is what I saw:

The current OLHS facility consists of 2 trailers and a tent city of dog runs.The OLHS is situated on a lot just off of Highway 7 South, and the buildings back up to the City of Oxford Waste Water Treatment Plant.

The first trailer houses the reception area and offices within 3 rooms.

The girls working there were very busy, very polite and very welcoming.

You are welcome to pet the office cat, Candy Cane.Candy Cane is around 1 year old, and has been at the OLHS for about 3 months. She is very sweet and needs a home!

The cats are housed indoors inside the second trailer.
This photo is hard to see, but it shows a gaping hole in the roof of the second trailer.

This amazing bulldog is living out his days in the tent city just outside the OLHS trailer!

Puppies!

The Oxford Lafayette Humane Society has announced the date of their 10th Annual PAWS FOR ART AUCTION: Friday, February 6th, 7 - 10pm at the Oxford Conference Center

$30 - $45 per person or $50 - $80 per couple, reserved table seating available.

All proceeds benefit the Oxford Lafayette Humane Society

Silent and Live Auction, Drinks and Live Music

Hors d'oeurves provided by Oxford's favorite restaurants

Resevervations accepted, but are not necessary.

For more information, call 662.801.1141

If you don't live in Oxford, or are unable to attend the Paws for Art Auction - there is an easy and free way to give this shelter a chance at a free makeover!!! Join http://www.zootoo.com/ and upload as many files as you can before March 13, 2009!

From the OLHS website:

You can help Oxford Lafayette Humane Society win a shelter makeover of up to $1 million dollars.We (Oxford Lafayette Humane Society) are participating in a contest to win a $1,000,000 shelter makeover.

The web site that is sponsoring this for the 2nd year in a row is www.zootoo.com/makover.

Winning this contest would be an ideal way to realize our dream of a new shelter. The contest requires no monetary support from the community. Being animal lovers, this is your way to help those that can't help themselves. It is super easy to help us out.

Just go on the web site, www.zootoo.com/makeover, and sign up and join the zootoo community. Affiliate yourself with the Oxford Lafayette Humane Society in zip code 38655.

The site is very informative and easy to navigate. You can chat with other animal lovers, post pictures of your pets, or find animal events in your area like Strut Your Mutt here in Oxford on November 8th. The goal is to accumulate as many points as possible for our shelter. There are many ways to earn points for our shelter. You can adopt a pet, refer a friend, write a journal, upload videos or pictures, and many more ways.

The more active you are on the www.zootoo.com site, the more points our shelter receives. The Top 20 sites as of March 13, 2009 become semifinalists, today we are #37. All semifinalist shelters will receive an on-site evaluation to determine the eventual winner of the $1,000,000 prize to be announced after April 24, 2009. Please take a moment to log on and support the Oxford Lafayette Humane Society. If you know someone else that might want to help, please pass this note along to them. We need this to spread like wildfire to help out the animals in our area. Thanks for your help.

New Extended Event for RAVINE restaurant in Oxford, MS: Sunday Suppers

From Joel at Ravine:

Ravine is starting a new regular event! Each and every Sunday night, they will be having "Sunday Supper". When you come in, you can have any 3 courses (only 1 entree, naturally), for a grand total of $23. It can be any combination of appetizer, salad, soup, and/or dessert. They will also be waiving corkage on Sunday nights too, so bring your favorite adult beverages.

This Sunday, January 25th, will be the first supper meeting. To pique your interest,here are listed some of the entree possibilities below:

1. hanger steak with bearnaise and pomme frites;
2. chicken pot pie with mushrooms and a homemade biscuit crust;
3. our pasta that night will be our own lasagna, with some varying meats and sauces;
4. grilled salmon atop corn and spinach couscous, with lemon caper sauce.

Again, these are only some of the selections, and you do not have to order this way either. But the best deal will be found on Sunday night, at ravine, from our 3 course, prix fixe, Sunday Supper menu!

The photos in the post were taken the last time we ate at Ravine.

Rack of lamb with blueberry chutney and pomme frites! It was delicious.

Ravine is located at 53 CR 321 in Oxford, Mississippi. Call 662-234-4555 for reservations.