ETA: Edam...AND Jalapeno it is! See y'all tomorrow...Hotty Toddy!

Okay...so in these parts, we Hate State. But even us Rebels have to begrudgingly admit one thing; those chicken-pluckers know how to make damn good dairy products. And it is one of the perks of working here; I have immediate access to the MAFES (Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station) Store. And don't ask me what "Forestry" has to do with cheese-making.

So I feel obligated if not absolutely required to bring some of the product which justifies State's existence. The problem is, State's cheese repertoire has gone far beyond their standard Edam. Rather than obsessively check the Red Tent Rebellion thread every hour for a new comment, I pose the question in a "so easy a State grad could do it" one-click-and-done method:

To understand my hatred of the Arkansas Razorbacks, you must first understand my previous love of the Arkansas Razorbacks.

Half of my family is from the state of Arkansas...my mother was born and raised in Arkansas, as were her parents, and their parents, and their parents, ad infinitum. My grandfather, "Papa" to all of us, owned his own hardware and appliance store for many years. In 1977 he had a heart attack. As a result, he and my grandmother decided it was time for him to retire, and rather than live so far away from their only child and grandchildren, they moved to Oxford. Now, Papa was a huge Razorbacks fan, but since his daughter and son-in-law had gone to Ole Miss, and his granddaughters were being raised as Rebel fans, he cheered for the Rebels, too. I remember Saturday afternoons as a child, sitting on Papa's lap or playing in the middle of the living room as he listened to an Arkansas football game on the radio while watching the game on TV. Sometimes he'd have the Hogs on the radio and the Rebs on TV, or vice versa depending on the schedule. I remember cheering for the Hogs because Papa did; a simple act of a granddaughter loving what her grandfather loved. Yes, I even had my own plastic Hog Hat, and knew "Woo Pig, Sooie!" as early as I knew "Hotty Toddy!" This was all well and good...after all, Arkansas was in the old Southwest Conference, and Ole Miss was in the SEC. Sure they met, but it wasn't like a conference championship was on the line or anything. We usually supported Ole Miss in the head-to-head anyway (Papa was wrapped around us girls' fingers). So I was perfectly happy supporting both teams.

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Y'all take a look at this and tell me what you think:

Charrette planners: Oxford's loss is Starkville's gain

Well, shit. I guess we screwed up by just assuming that everyone knew we were a college town. After all, Forbes, ESPN, Sports Illustated, Time, Newsweek, Southern Living, Yahoo, ad infinitum, have dubbed us so. Apparently we are not. You have to have a big marketing to-do announcing you are, in fact, THE college town in Mississippi, according to TSFWCDAO.

Pat Patterson, your move. Don't F it up.

File photo of Ole Miss's Tony Fein carrying the Cotton Bowl trophy. (Rick Guy/The Clarion-Ledger)

http://www.clarionledger.com/article/20091006/SPORTS030103/91006036/Former+Rebel+linebacker+Fein+dies

Very sad, tragic news: from David Brandt @ the Clarion-Ledger:

OXFORD — Former Ole Miss linebacker Tony Fein died early Tuesday morning, according to his Oxford-based agent Dee Hobbs.

“It’s just extremely sad,” Hobbs said. “I’ve talked to members of his family and some of his friends. We don’t want to speculate on the cause of death right now out of respect for his family.”

Fein, 27, played middle linebacker at Ole Miss during the 2007 and 2008 seasons. Over his two-year career he played in 24 games and made 136 tackles, including eight for a loss.

A native of Port Orchard, Wash., Fein served for more than three years with the United States Army, including a tour in the Iraq War, before playing college football. He played for two seasons at Scottsdale (Ariz.) Community College before transferring to Ole Miss.

Fein was signed as an undrafted free agent this summer by the NFL’s Baltimore Ravens and made it until the final round of cutdowns before being released.

He was arrested during preseason camp in Baltimore for a controversial incident after a police officer allegedly thought Fein had a handgun. It turned out to be a cell phone.

Hobbs said Fein was working out in his home state of Washington while waiting for another football opportunity.