Off Topic: The unofficial state movie of Mississippi (and what's yours?)

As a diversion, state legislatures go on sprees of declaring "official state" things. During a brief stint as a political writer in Nashville in the mid 1970s I watched lawmakers consider tagging various flora, fauna and other non-persons with the "official state" prefix. As I recall, the firefly was named an official state insect that year (Tennessee has more than one).

One young lawmaker, making light of the whole thing, entered a bill naming the oldest member of the state senate as the "official state fossil." The elder statesman was not amused.

What I've never seen anywhere is a state with an official movie.

Here in Mississippi, I would nominate O' Brother, Where Art Thou?, the 2000 comedy from the brothers Coen, Joel and Ethan.

It already ranks in my mind as Mississippi's unofficial state movie. People who've watched it more than once almost invariably have their favorite lines.

It's a comedy, but the whole premise sounds anything but funny: 3 convicts escape from a chaingang, seeking an alleged treasure, all of it set during the Depression in hardscrabble rural Mississippi in the midst of a gubernatorial election. Oh, and did I mention that it's a retelling of The Odyssey by Homer?

But funny, it is.

My personal favorite line comes from the scene in the stolen car when the escapees have just picked up Tommy Johnson, the bluesman. Tommy admits to having sold his soul to the devil the night before. As it happens, 2 of the escaped convicts, Pete and Delmar, had just stumbled into a riverside baptism service and, being caught up in the fervor, were submersed, themselves.

The third escapee, Ulysses, played to the pop-eyed hilt by George Clooney, declares:

"I seem to be the only one who's currently unaffiliated."

That's my favorite.

I"ve heard other people say that their favorite lines are, among others:

• "I'm with you fellers."
• "She done R-U-N-N-O-F-T."
• "Is this the road to Ittie Beenie?"
• "Watch your language, young feller, this is a public market!" and, related to that, "I'm a Dapper Dan man."
• "Hot Damn! It's the Soggy Bottom Boys!"
• "Oh, George, not the livestock!"
• "I didn't seem to be needin' it."
• "Well, ain't this just a geographical oddity!"

Granted, none of those seem funny if you haven't watched the movie. But in context, they are memorable gems and rank right up there with round up all the usual suspects and I'll worry about that tomorrow as dialog that people will recite decades from now.

Most states don't have such a close enough tie to a movie that anyone would want to make it an "official" part of the state's symbolism.

Maybe folks in Georgia would point to Gone With The Wind as a nostalgic favorite. Having the state's name in the title is no cinch. I don't think the citizens of one western state would want to enshrine the 1954 yarn Cattle Queen Of Montana as its celluloid icon.

If I lived in Texas, I would throw my weight behind Giant, the 1956 drama that tells of the state's evolving economy and gradually shifting social outlook. A writer with Texas Monthly several years ago, in fact, did declare it to be the unofficial state movie of Texas. Many people in the power structure of Texas actually hated Giant when it first came out, the article noted. But then it kind of took hold and in many ways portrayed the state as its natives would want the rest of the world to see it. Rough and tough but progressive and forward looking, full of adventure, opportunity and, yes, romance. And don't forget the wide open spaces.

I guess that would be the hallmark of an official state movie: a story that would show the world who we think we are as a people. Mississippi could do worse than O' Brother.

But past Mississippi and Texas, I can't think of any other state that has that sort of relationship to a piece of cinema. I don't mean to slight my friends in other parts of America, but tell me what would be the state movie of Arkansas or California, Alabama or New York?

Any further suggestions about Mississippi -- or elsewhere?

- Owen Taylor

J. G. Boswell was anything but a simple cowboy

On our web site in late April we noted the death of J.G. Boswell, whose name is synonymous with California cotton and, for better or worse, corporate agriculture.

If you've ever traveled in the the state's San Joaquin Valley then you probably drove by, on or near land in Boswell's holdings, especially if you were in parts of Kings and Kern Counties on the southern end of the SJV. Though referred to as a ranch, the word operation is more appropriate. And this giant agribusiness entity is just as multi-faceted as Boswell, himself, who took over the family business at 29 from his uncle. Boswell died in April of this year at 86. His legacy as a success was as recognized as was his penchant for privacy.

He liked to be viewed as a simple cowboy. In reality, he was a graduate in Economics from Stanford University and sat on the board of General Electric as well as other corporations. He was born in Greensboro, Georgia, before the family moved to California.

Despite his Southeastern roots, he became part of the very power structure of California, marrying the daughter of Harry Chandler, Los Angeles Times Publisher and real estate baron. Boswell further built real estate interests in suburban and urban settings, but he will forever be linked to the SJV holdings. Today, J.G. Boswell Company farms over 150,000 acres in the U.S., and the cotton enterprise is said to have produced income exceeding $150 million annually.

Boswell's farm personnel grow it, pick it, gin it and spin it. Other crops raised on the California acreage include tomatoes, alfalfa hay, wheat and safflower. The company also crushes the cotton seed, runs two tomato processing plants and has a cow/calf operation. The Boswell operation is also a major grower, ginner and marketer of cotton in Australia. It is one of North America's main suppliers of safflower oil, and the company's cottonseed breeding program was commercialized under Dow's Phytogen brand.

The best resource for understanding what made J.G. Boswell, the man and the company, take a look at The King of California: J.G. Boswell and the Making of a Secret Empire, written by Arax and Wartzman. This is authoritative because the authors were actually given access to both Boswell and the company's archives. The book tells of the early years when cotton was king and Boswell, as well as other San Joaquin Valley farmers, understood that success was tied to water.

Boswell also recognized the need to take advantage of the most modern and productive farm equipment available. He knew that to plant 90,000 acres of cotton in 9 days, then harvest those same acres in 6 weeks, he had to have the best equipment and dedicated employees.

This book should be on the required list for any farmer, but definitely for the cotton growers in the crowd.

-Tom Crumby

The Boll Weevil, Then And Now

Ron Smith, Alabama's Extension Cotton Entomologist Emeritus, has lived a good deal of the history of the boll weevil in the South. Now, Smith has developed a lecture on the subject, going back to the very entry of the pest into this country and tracing it through the so-far-successful attempt to eradicate it.

"The impact of the boll weevil on the South's economic life is second only to that of the Civil War," says Smith, who has been invited to share his insights with history groups and as part of a museum lecture series. It's a fascinating talk, full of things you've probably never heard about the pest and its role in shaping modern Southern agriculture.

One of his recent lectures was recorded on video, and his slide presentation accompanies his talk. Click here to view it:

http://wms.aces.edu/accordent/bollweevil/f.htm

It's best viewed on Internet Explorer, we've found.

-- Owen Taylor

Willie Nelson steps into milk-price debate

Willie Nelson and the Farm Aid organization are urging U.S. Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack to put a floor under milk prices after prices paid to dairy farmers fell by more than half this year, and the organization has started a petition drive to round up support for its position.

The free-fall in dairy prices has crippled areas where farmers operate dairies and/or supply hay, silage and other feed for milk production. Earlier this month, California reported what is believed to be the fifth instance of a dairy farmer committing suicide. Larger dairies are losing hundreds of thousands of dollars a month, but even smaller operators are being hit, according to a release from Farm Aid. High feed and energy costs last year took a toll

“Setting a fair price for milk won’t fix all the problems that led to the current crisis, but it may be the only way to keep thousands of dairy farmers on their farms this year,” said Nelson, a Farm Aid board member and ag activist. “Unless Secretary Vilsack takes immediate action, huge areas of the United States may be left without any local dairy farms at all.”

The price of milk paid to farmers by processors collapsed a record 30% in January, according to a release from Farm Aid, and prices are "currently down 50% since July 2008. In the meantime, the top dairy processors have recently announced 2009 first quarter earnings that are up from the same period last year. The top processor, Dean Foods, reported their first quarter earnings are more than double that of last year thanks in part to the plunging price Dean pays to its milk producers."

-- Owen Taylor

Soybean replanting decisions: guidelines, numbers

Over the next week we expect more Extension workers in the Midsouth to issue soybean replanting advisories and guidelines.

Here are 2 to study right away:

Arkansas Soybean Notes, 5-15. Replant decisions ahead - how to call it; soybean rust outlook; market report.

Mississippi: Current Issues In Soybean Production, 5-5-2008. What population is too low, and calculating plant populations.

The date on the Mississippi advisory is correct. Trey Koger, the state's Extension soybean specialist, issued the report after last year's wet spring led to widespread stand loss and plenty of questions about soybean replanting. Here's the start to that year-ago advisory:

"The last six weeks have definitely been challenging for everyone trying to get a crop in the ground and up to a stand. The past few springs have been fairly dry and helped us to forget what it is like trying to get a crop in the ground and up in an extremely wet spring. This is not to say we cannot make a good crop in years with wet springs because we have in the past, it is just something we haven’t dealt with in a few years. About the time you get frustrated with drowned out low lying spots in fields or bottom ends of fields where we have lost some crop, think about those dealing with flood waters that have killed entire wheat, corn, and/or soybean crops and that still have floodwaters covering a tremendous amount of their acreage. Unfortunately, it does help to put things in perspective for those not dealing with extreme floodwaters."

History repeats itself.

-- Owen Taylor