Pardon Me!

A Meebo patron asked us a two-part question this morning:

1. How long have MS governors been allowed to pardon people right before they leave office?
2. What are the pardoning records of past MS governors?

We turned to the Mississippi Constitution, which is contained in our trusty set of the Mississippi Code, and found this:

In all criminal and penal cases, excepting those of treason and impeachment, the Governor shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons, to remit fines, and in cases of forfeiture, to stay the collection until the end of the next session of the Legislature, and by and with the consent of the senate to remit forfeitures. In cases of treason he shall have power to grant reprieves, and by and with consent of the senate, but may respite the sentence until the end of the next session of the Legislature; but no pardon shall be granted before conviction; and in cases of felony, after conviction no pardon shall be granted until the applicant therefor shall have published for thirty days, in some newspaper in the county where the crime was committed, and in case there be no newspaper published in said county, then in an adjoining county, his petition for pardon, setting forth therein the reasons why such pardon should be granted.

Mississippi Constitution, 1972 Article V § 124

In one form or another, the power to pardon prisoners has been granted the governor of Mississippi since the Constitution of 1832. (If you would like to view the text of previous Mississippi constitutions, Mississippi History Now is your source!) That's 180 years if you happen to be counting.

The New York Times published a most fortuitous article this very day. In it, they provided the following numbers:

• Gov. Haley Barbour (2004-2012) 203 full pardons (17 to convicted murderers)
• Gov. Ronnie Musgrove (2000-2004) 1 full pardon
• Gov. Kirk Fordice (1992-2000) 13 full pardons (2 to convicted murderers)
• Gov. Ray Mabus (1988-1992) 4 full pardons

We hope this answers your question, Meebo patron! For further updates, stay tuned to local news, such as the Jackson Free Press. (They have been covering this story extensively.)

Mississippi Code, 1972 Annotated
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/11/us/gov-haley-barbour-of-mississippi-is-criticized-on-wave-of-pardons.html?_r=2
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nuernberg_jail.jpg

Meebo Musters Up The Military




Confederate artillery defending Charleston, 1863

Last week, I received a reference request from one of our Meebo patrons. (You remember Meebo, right? We're mlcreference if you need to ask a question!) This particular patron wanted to know about:

1. The difference between a regiment and a battalion
2. Harper's Regiment, CSA in Mississippi

I found my first answer in Dictionary of Military Terms:

A battalion is a tactical unit of one branch of a ground army's combat arms, varying in size and composition but generally in the range of 500 to 1,000 troops and usually commanded by a lieutenant colonel. It normally consists of three to five of the basic combat units of its branch (company for infantry, battery for artillery, company or troop for armor). Three or four battalions are usually combined to form a regiment or a brigade (Dupuy et al. 30-31).

A regiment is a military unit, particularly of infantry, cavalry, or artillery, that can be either administrative or operational... Since the late 18th century a regiment, commanded by a colonel, has usually been an operational unit of two or more battalions, and has functioned most often as a component of a division. In the modern US Army, until the mid-1960s, infantry regiments consisted of three battalions, in strengths varying from about 1,500 to 3,000 troops." (Dupuy et al. 208).

Finding Harper's Regiment in Mississippi proved a much larger task. Here are a few potential candidates:

• Harper's Battalion
  13th Mississippi Battalion Infantry
  Major N. B. Harper
  (Rowland 219)
• Harper's Reserves
  36th Mississippi Infantry, Company C
  Lt. Col. S.G. Harper
  Formed from men of Newton, Lauderdale, and Smith Counties
  Mustered 20 February 1861
  (Rowland 319)
• Harper's Battery
  Part of "Jefferson Flying Artillery"
  Captain William L. Harper
  Formed in Jefferson County May 6, 1861
  Mustered into state service at Fayette, MS April 1861
  (Rowland 479)

I relaize that not all of these are regiments, but I think it is important to keep yourself open to the idea that your source could be partially incorrect. Also, tt's possible that there are additional military units with a "Harper" moniker. A better idea of where your ancestor was located prior to and directly after the Civil War would help. Bible records, the Census (both Federal and State), and pension applications will provide you with more details. Please feel free to contact the Mississippi Library Commission Reference Department again if you have further questions!

Dupuy, Trevor N., et al. Dictionary of Military Terms. New York: H.W. Wilson Company, 2003. Print.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Confederate-artillery.jpg
Rowland, Dunbar. Military History of Mississippi, 1803-1898. Spartanburg, SC: The Reprint Company, Publishers, 1978. Print.

Meebo and the Phenomenal Governor William Winter



Governor William Winter,
Marshall Bouldin III, 1983.



Last week, a Meebo friend asked us a question about the portrait of former Governor William Winter hanging in the Hall of Governors at the New Capitol. With a little bit of help from our friends at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, I was on my merry way. They pointed me to an article in The Clarion-Ledger that was written when the governor left office in 1984. I learned all about the former Mississippi governor, his portrait, and his celebrated portraitist, Marshall Bouldin III. Winter's portrait is unusual in that there are six other people portrayed in the picture. They are:  

1. An African-American man who represents that population of the state of Mississippi.
2. Governor Winter actually appears in his portrait twice. He's man in the dark suit, and he's mimicking a pose he liked to strike.
3. The third man from the left in the picture is David Crews. He was Winter's press secretary.
4. Elise Winter, Governor Winter's wife.
5. If you peer closely at the portrait and look between Elise Winter's head and the large column, you will see the head of Herman Glazier poking up. He was Governor Winter's executive assistant.
6. Last but not least is Jason Bouldin, who at seventeen, represented the youth of the state of Mississippi.

Our former governor also has a sense of humor. At the unveiling of his portrait, Governor Winter related the following anecdote:

"You know, I was on my way down here and I heard one man say to another, 'What's that crowd down there for?' And the other one said, 'Why, they're getting ready to hang the governor."

Black, Patti Carr. Art in Mississippi, 1720-1980. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 1998. Print.

Holland, Elizabeth. "Winter's portrait joins predecessors in hall." The Clarion-Ledger, 5 Jan. 1984: B3. Print.

Fred Who? Fred Meebo!



Who is Fred anyway? Could this man be Fred?

 A curious Meebo patron asked us if the Fred who appears in the Fred's SuperDollar commercials is the eponymous Fred who started the discount retail chain. After a little digging, I am saddened to report that he is not. I found an article from 2010 that states:

Besides changing the faces of hundreds of Fred's stores, the company is changing the face of Fred himself. Well, sort of.
The company revived a 1990s "Fred" character for new in-store promotions and on-site events. The new Fred is a neighborly, older gentleman. However, much like the "Wilson" character from "Home Improvement," Fred hides his face somewhere between his fishing hat and cardigan sweater.

I did learn one neat nugget. Fred's began life in Coldwater, Mississippi in 1947. How's that for Mississippi entrepreneurship?!

I Think That I Shall Never See, A Poem Lovely as a Mississippi Tree





Magnolia





Mimosa



I know, I know. I've thrown the meter of Mr. Kilmer's sweet poem completely out of kilter. You see, though, one of our Meebo patrons wanted to know which tree(s) are most common here in the Magnolia State. Different types of trees began running through my head, interspersed with Trees. I knew that the Magnolia is the state tree, but I doubted that they outgrow every other tree. Mimosas are my least favorite tree, but even though there seem to be more and more of those spiky pink flowers blooming every spring, I didn't think they're number one either. I set my thinking cap straight and checked the Mississippi Forestry Commission. Surely they would be able to help (and they did!) According to them,



Forestland covers 19.6 million acres in Mississippi or about 65 percent of the land area. The majority of forests are classified as timber. One hundred and thirty-seven tree species were measured on Mississippi's forests in the 2006 inventory. Thirty-six percent of Mississippi's forestland is classified as loblolly-shortleaf pine forest, 27 percent is classified as upland oak-hickory forest and 19 percent is composed of bottomland hardwoods.



I should have figured on the pine tree. What a true Mississippi poem! 

Shortleaf Pine



Loblolly Pine





 



http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Loblolly_Pines_South_Mississippi.JPG

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pink_Mimosa_(Mimosa_borealis).jpg

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Shortleaf_pine.jpg

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:UCB_Magnolia_grandiflora_habit.JPG

http://www.mfc.ms.gov/pdf/Info/FF/Other/Forest_Statistic_2006_MFC.pdf

Hear ye! Hear ye! Announcing Lord and Lady Falderal Pipsydoodle

A curious Meebo patron asked me late yesterday afternoon what the order of rank is for nobility in England. I ran (read: walked sedately) to our most current copy of Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage and dove into the most complicated web of genealogical factoids I've ever seen. Debrett's lists everything. I mean everything. Younger sons of Dukes of the Royal Blood come before Marquesses' eldest sons come before Dukes' younger sons... for two pages of teeny-tiny print. The long and short of it is this:

King
Prince
Duke
Marquess
Earl
Viscount
Baron
Baronet
Knight
Esquire
Gentleman

Queen
Princess
Duchess
Marchioness
Countess
Viscountess
Baroness

The fairer sex, as you'll have noticed, comprises its own list. (Think wives of the eldest sons of the younger sons of peers.) Check out this hummer of heraldic code:

If the daughter of a Peer marries a Peer she takes her husband's rank, but if she marries the eldest or younger son of a Peer she ranks either according to her own inherent precedence (i.e., as the daughter of her father), or according to that of her husband (i.e., as the wife of the eldest or younger son of a Duke, Marquess, Earl, etc), whichever happens to be the higher, no matter what the courtesy title may be.

I must confess, I've read that at least three times, and I'm still not exactly certain what they're driving at. I'm grateful the Americans overthrew the British back in the 18th century. Otherwise, I probably would have been beheaded for addressing a Knight of the Garter before a Marquess.
Kidd, Charles, ed. Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage. Richmond, Surrey: Debrett's Limited, 2007. P. 29-30. Print.

Meebo Questions

Last night a Meebo patron asked two great questions. First, the patron needed to know how to properly clean a wooden cutting board. I discovered that although wooden cutting boards are very pretty, they’re a handful to maintain. If you don't properly treat the wood, bacteria can find its way into the cutting board and multiply. There are, thankfully, many ways to prevent this. One of the best articles I found is from Whatscookingamerica.net. Here’s the article.

The second question is about dog training and cleaning up the inevitable “accidents” that occur. First, I looked through Kathy Diamond Davis’s Responsible Dog Ownership to learn how to clean up after the dog. Ms. Davis stresses the importance of thoroughly cleaning the spot where the accident occurs. If one does not take this precaution, the dog will continue to relieve him/herself at that spot. Ms. Davis suggests you must use white vinegar to clean the spot. She claims the scent from white vinegar will discourage the dog from using that spot again. Also, Ms. Davis advises to NEVER use ammonia because it will encourage the dog to return to that spot. You should also use soap or disinfectant if the mess has been there for a while.

Lastly, Ms. Davis says to use encouragement rather than punishment while training your dog. Encourge the dog for going in the proper places. Never punish the dog for a mistake. The most important part is to keep the dog on a solid routine so the animal knows his/her “potty time.” If you need more information, here is an excellent article from Best Friend Animal Society.

MLC provides many excellent dog ownership books for check out. Also, please remember if you ever need help remembering your “potty time” or anything else, you can call, email, or Meebo your friends at MLC.

Price of Tea in China.

Earlier today a meebo patron asked where they could find pricing information on various objects. Sadly, I was unable to help them right away, but I’ve since found Grey House Publishing’s Value of a Dollar. This reference book has all sorts of prices available for different goods. It also contains average salaries for different careers and shows how much money folks spent on different products. Value of a Dollar would be a great resource for anyone who is interested in consumer patterns or price influxes in different products. Here are a few examples of some interesting figures!

In 1932 you could get a gallon of Cod Liver Oil for $1.79. (214)

In 1903 you could’ve enjoyed a whole gallon of White Line Whiskey of only $3.50. (55)

In 1968 ten cartridges of Gillette razors cost a measly $0.99. (399)

In 1981 the 1.3 cu ft GE Spacemaster microwave oven cost $689.99. (460)

So doesn’t it feel great to know that while prices will rise and fall you can always get quality help from MLC for free?

Derks, Scott and Elizabeth Derks, Tony Smith. The Value of a Dollar: Prices and Incomes in the United States. Amenia, NY:Grey House Publishing,2009.

Baby Come Back. You Can Blame It All On Me!

If you've recently tried to contact us through Meebo and didn't get a response, please come back. We've been experimenting a little with Meebo but now we're going back to basics. So, if you have a question, just type it in the Meebo box and we will be ready.

Events At MLC

Here's a link for our meebo patron who asked if we have an events calendar.
http://www.mlc.lib.ms.us/aboutmlc/calendar.html

If you are looking for computer classes or other public training events, check your local library's home page. Or, better yet, contact the reference department here at MLC and we'll be happy to find a class near you.

Are You Trying To Kill Me? Yes Or No!

This morning when I logged into Meebo, I noticed that a patron had left us this question:

Why doesn't Mississippi have a law for attempted murder?

Well, I'm definitely not a lawyer, and as a reference librarian, I'm not allowed to attempt any interpretation of the law, but I, naturally, thought, "Piffle! Of course Mississippi has a law for attempted murder!" First I turned to the Mississippi Code (Did you know you can access it online here?) and flipped through the index to Homicide (§ 97-3-15 - § 97-3-47). Attempted murder was not listed, but funnily enough, right above homicide (found in the chapter on Crimes Against the Person) is a law entitled § 97-3-1 Abduction For Purposes Of Marriage. Apparently it is illegal to force anyone over the age of fourteen to marry you. Good, at least I'm covered there! I tried the same search with manslaughter (nope) and began to become suspicious. Could it be? Was my patron right after all? Does Mississippi not have an attempted murder law?

I turned next to Lexis-Nexis State Capitol, one of our subscription databases where it is possible to look up past legislation. It turns out that nearly every year since 1992 someone has introduced legislation proposing that attempted murder become a criminal offense along with associated penalties. Guess what! Every year that it has been introduced the bill has died! I even spoke with Representative Bill Denny, who sponsored so many of these bills. He expressed his frustration about the failure for the bill to pass in the past, but stated that he plans to try again this year.

I did a quick Google search and found a news article from a few years ago all about this very topic. Donnie Register, a man who was shot in the head during an armed robbery stated

When I said that it was attempted murder, (police officers) said ‘We don’t have that charge.'

Wow.

This article from the Jackson Free Press is even more recent and iterates the same thing. I did turn up several blog posts from enterprising law field people like this one and this one, but these leave a lot of room for interpretation and you remember, I'm not allowed to do any legal interpretation! One of those blog entries references § 97-1-7, and sure enough, it is entitled Attempt To Commit Offense; Punishment. I think I remember why I decided to go into a field other than law when I started college--This is all very confusing!

I finally decided that I don't know if Mississippi has an attempted murder charge. It kind of doesn’t look like we do, at least not one that is called “attempted murder.” We might! We might not! Here, however, are some sources for legal services in Mississippi that may help you in your search.

Good luck, Meebo patron! And thank goodness for lawyers out there who do real live legal interpretation!

Humpty Dumpty Had an Argument About Nouns.

This afternoon we had a Meebo patron who was trying to settle an argument with her boyfriend over a question they saw on the quiz show "Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?" The question asked how many common nouns are in the nursery rhyme about Humpty Dumpty.

Let's see:

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall
All the king's horses and
All the king's men
Couldn't put Humpty together again.

Wall, fall, king, horses, men. That's five. While the patron didn't say what side of the argument she was on, our guess is that the use of "fall" as a noun here (and not a verb) was what started the argument. (If the rhyme was "Humpty Dumpty was having a ball / But Humpty Dumpty was going to fall," fall would be a verb.)

Meebo patron, I hope this settles it! If you have any other game show disputes, please let us know!

Teacher Salaries

A meebo patron needed to compare Mississippi teacher salaries to the national average. So he/she smartly contacted the Mississippi Library Commission.
Here are the numbers.

The average teacher salary in Mississippi is $41,215. This figure comes from the 2010 Superintendent's Annual Report. Nationally, teachers are averaging $54,319. This figure comes from the National Education Assiocation.

I hope this helps!

Canadian Inheritance from Meebo Patron.

Dear Meebo Patron,

Thanks for your question about Canadian inheritance taxes. From your note, I wasn't sure if you were asking from the perspective of someone in the U.S. or Canada, but nevertheless, Canada's inheritance tax was repealed in 1972. Estates are treated as sales and taxes owed are paid by the estate, not the beneficiaries.

However, because we are not attorneys, I recommend that you contact the Canada Revenue Agency's International Tax Services Office at 1-800-267-5177 or find a lawyer in your area specializing in estate planning (you can do this through a Google search: "estate planning and your city, your state," but I recommend following the Mississippi Bar's recommendations on finding a lawyer as well).

I hope this helps! Please let us know if you need anything else, and thanks again for your question!

Car Seats! Get Your Red Hot Car Seats!

Yesterday afternoon, a Meebo patron asked where one might go to get a free car seat. He was told by a friend that there is a Mississippi state agency which gives them away. I absolutely adore getting things for free, so you know I was 100% behind him! I was on a mission to find this cute little baby safe wheels.

• Mississippi Safe Kids can be reached at 601-360-0531. Among many other important programs, this organization helps families who receive aid from WIC or other public assistance obtain car seats.
• The Mississippi Department of Health's Preventative Health Division can be reached at 601-576-7781. Ask for Caryn Womack who also has information about free/low-cost car seats.

You may have to leave a message (I did!) as these people are usually out and about keeping our kids safe. I hope this helps you in your search, Meebo user. Please let us know if you need additional assistance.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Child_car_seat_.JPG

Broadsided by Meebo

Today I received a question from a Meebo patron asking about the term "broadside" in relation to printing. After asking Tracy, who knows everything, by the way, I was able to located the term in Glaister's Glossary of the Book. The term "broadside" is defined as:

"A sheet of paper printed on one side only. Broadsides were used soon after the beginning of printing for royal proclamations and official notices. They were later a vehicle for political agitation and the expression of opposition to authoritarian rule. They were even used for the dissemination of scaffold speeches by criminals on the point of execution.

Early in the 16th century poems and ballads were printed in this form in England, and black letter fount continued to be used long after the introduction of roman for books.

Broadsides are also known as broadsheets, single sheets, street-or-still-ballads, and black-letter ballads. The term broadside is now applied to a variety of large regular and special-fold sheets, printed on one or both sides. A broadside may also contain one job or a number of jobs."

If I had to create a broadside for today it would read:

"Reference Librarian Reprimanded for Snarky Comment on Blog. Supervisor Mulls Termination!"

Glaister's Glossary of the Book: Terms used in Papermaking, Printing, Bookbinding, and Publishing with notes on Illuminated Manuscripts and Private Presses. Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 1979. p. 73

Add A Dash Of Salt And A Pinch Of Meebo

Earlier this afternoon, one of our Meebo patrons asked us to post some information about salt. More precisely, how much salt does it take to make water boil better? I overthought the question (as I am want to do) and learned a lot of stuff about boiling point and so forth which you are more than welcome to read about here or here. I think, though, that our patron may be looking for an answer that is a little more helpful in the kitchen area, which I found over at finecooking.com.

Salted water flavors the pasta. A generous amount of salt in the water seasons the pasta internally as it absorbs liquid and swells. The pasta dish may even require less salt overall. For a more complex, interesting flavor, I add 1 to 2 tablespoons sea salt to a large pot of rapidly boiling water. By the way, the claim that salted water cooks food faster (because of its higher boiling temperature) is exaggerated; you're not adding enough salt to raise the temperature more than about 1°F.

I hope this is what you are looking for, Meebo patron, and that all of your pots of water are perfectly salted from now on. Please be sure to let us know if you need more information!
http://www.finecooking.com/articles/cooking-pasta-properly.aspx

A Way with Words

Yesterday morning when I logged into Meebo, two very interesting questions were waiting for the reference staff. I’m not sure if they are from the same person, but they both inquire about background information about two colorful sayings. I’d never heard of either of the phrases before, so I set out to see what I could find.

The first question asks about the origin of the phrase “that’s a lot of sugar for a dime.” My search first led me to the dictionaries and thesauruses in our reference collection, where little light was shed on the nature of this phrase. A search of our electronic databases yielded a similar result, unfortunately. So, I turned to the Internet, a trusty companion in a situation like this.  Google did not let me down. It turns out that the actual phrase is “that’s too much sugar for a dime,” and there’s actually a website that uses the saying as its moniker. According to the site, the saying means that something is more trouble than it’s worth. I also found another site called The Phrase Finder that offered some different interpretations about the meaning of the phrase. The site has a forum where members use their collective intelligence take on phrases with elusive meanings. For “too much sugar for a dime”, one guest suggested that the phrase meant that something was too good to be true. Similarly, another contributor said it meant “overwhelming or false praise.”

Now on to the second Meebo question: What’s the origin of the phrase “son of a biscuit-eater”? According to Rawson’s Dictionary of Euphemisms and Other Doubletalk, the phrase is a variant of a nearly identical, more popular phrase. The phrase most people are probably more familiar with uses another b-word in place of “biscuit-eater”, one that I can’t spell out here on this blog. Let’s just say it’s another word for a female canine and leave it at that.

So there you have it, Meebo guest (or guests). I hope this answers your questions. If not, or if you have more questions, feel free to comment on this post or drop us a line at mlcref@mlc.lib.ms.us.

So, Snow, When Did You Fall?

This past Friday, the Library Commission and the rest of the state of Mississippi experienced something most unusual for the second time in less than a month. A fierce swath of winter weather swept across the South and forced us to temporarily close our doors. Unheard of!

It seems that some of our patrons have been racking their brains trying to recall old snowstorms from Mississippi's past. One inquiring mind asked, "How many inches of snow fell in the 1990 snow?" Well, not many! After some digging, I found a reference in the Clarion Ledger to "a light blanket of snow and sleet over north and central Mississippi" which fell December 23, 1990. Unable to determine if this was the storm in question and still missing the vital measurement, I turned to our local National Weather Service Forecast Office. The informative staff there was able to inform me that there was no measureable snow in our area in 1990. The closest accumulation occurred December 9, 1989, when 0.1 inches fell. People must have made mighty tiny snowmen!

Tell me, Meebo patron, was this the information you needed? Please feel free to add a comment here, meebo us again, or send us an email at mlcref@mlc.lib.ms.us.

Cearnal, S. (1990, December 24). 2 killed, 4 injured in accidents on highways covered with ice. The Clarion-Ledger, p. A1.

Meebo Blinded Me With Science!

Earlier today we had a question about DNA. Do you remember high school biology? If not, pay close attention! DNA is an abbreviation for deoxyribonucleic acid. It is found in all cells and is shaped in the easily recognizable double-helix. The genetic information it contains controls "how the body and all its different parts grow, develop, function, and maintain themselves" (The Human Body Book). Each molecule of DNA is contained in a single chromosome and yet is thought to carry 100,000 genes.

Here's something I don't remember learning from Mrs. Balding: a single stretched-out strand of DNA measures about two inches. Put all of that together and just one of my cells holds 13 feet of DNA. That one cell contains all the information, or programming data, if you will, needed to make me human. Amazing, right?!

Need more? Go here http://www.dnai.org/ or http://www.pbs.org/wnet/dna/. Also, be sure to check out what the people from the Human Genome Project are doing.

chromosome. (2005). In The American Heritage Science Dictionary. Retrieved from http://www.credoreference.com/entry/hmsciencedict/chromosome
DNA. (2005). In The American Heritage Science Dictionary. Retrieved from http://www.credoreference.com/entry/hmsciencedict/dna
DNA. (2009). In The Human Body Book: An Illustrated Guide to Its Structure, Function and Disorders. Retrieved from http://www.credoreference.com/entry/dkbody/dna
DNA. (2008). In Philip's Encyclopedia 2008. Retrieved from http://www.credoreference.com/entry/philipency/dna
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:DNA-molecule2.jpg