Flashback Forty-One

Time: July, 1941
Place: Liberty, Mississippi
Status: What's Yours is Mine aka the Borrowing Neighbor

Dear Mrs. Stratton: I saw in Southern Herald where you answered a question for some one, so I want you to answer one for me. For years I have loaned my cake pans, sizzors, needles, dishes and various other articles to a neighbor. This neighbor will not return anything. She is good and I do not like to refuse, but Mrs. Stratton, sometimes I have to walk one half mile to get my wash tubs. Please tell me what I should do. - A Reader

I saw this small-town advice column while scrolling through a microfilm copy of The Southern Herald and just about died. Have you ever walked around in July in Mississippi? While carrying wash tubs? Here's the response for this saint:

Page Solomon! Dear Lady! Why did you not ask me to work a hard arithmetic problem for you? Well, I think after your years of neighborliness, I would tell my friend that I was willing to loan, but she must return, and if she failed to do so, next time I would tell her what she wanted to borrow was being used.

I should say so! Invest in your own pair of sizzors, neighbor lady. I wonder if she read this heartfelt plea in the paper...

Time: July, 1941
Place: Liberty, Mississippi
Status: Porcine King

L. D. Causey, the sausage king, reports progress in his section and a good sausage prospect for next winter.

My interpretation: Mr. Causey has a "champeen" size pig. Also, would you want to be referred to as the "sausage king"?

Time: July, 1941
Place: Liberty, Mississippi
Status: Chicken Rustlers Beware

The chicken rogues are busy again and showing much activity in this neighborhood. Plans are being made to find identity of some, so if they don't fail will tell you next week the name of the guilty party.

I didn't see anything about the chicken thieves in the next issue. It seems the editor's pessimism was well-founded.







I hope you've enjoyed this "flashback" to Liberty, Mississippi, in 1941. Old newspapers can be fascinating to read. They contain so much information about the lifestyles of the people and communities. Have a question about one of your ancestors? Remember, Mississippi Library Commission staff are available to search our microfilmed newspapers for you.


The Southern Herald. Liberty, Mississippi. July 1941.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Sus_domesticus#/media/File:Pig_USDA01c0116.jpg
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Wash_tubs#/media/File:Judges%27_Lodgings_2014_GLAM_Kitchen_2585.JPG
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Chickens#/media/File:Hedemorah%C3%B6ns_Gammlia_2007-06-24.jpg

Flashback Fifty-Nine

Last week I used the microfilm reader to locate an obituary from the April 1959 Clarion-Ledger. Not only did I find the death notice, I also stumbled upon these ads that tickled my funny bone.

 

This stuff is like magic! I almost want to try it myself. Not only was this wonder product completely harmless, it was also cheap, easy to use, and didn't fade. It's hard to believe Canute Water is not available at all drug stores anymore.

The Lamar Theater believed in covering all their bases; they were emphatically not responsible if one looked too long at the Gamma Ray Monster. "Vicious, hideous love-killers" are pretty scary, y'all. (IMDb claims that First Man into Space isn't half bad.)

I do believe that I found the forerunner to Spanx. I wish I could read the free picture booklet, though. I'd love to find out how wearing the RelaxAcizor was fun and healthful.

Don't forget to give us a call when you need help tracking down old newspaper items. I love an excuse to pore over old microfilm!

What would you do for a drink right now?

It's Friday and, as the old adage goes, "It's 5 o'clock somewhere!" I'm not knocking back libations at the library right now, but I believe the fellow mentioned in the article would be. While the event took place in Bowling Green, Ohio, I found the article on the front page of the March 11, 1909 issue of the Simpson County News of Mendenhall, MS.

The article reads as follows: "Claiming that her aged husband, suffering from a deep-seated thirst in a dry county, had traded her for a keg of beer that some more fortunate neighbor had succeeded in smuggling over the line, Mrs. Goddell, aged 65, of Bowling Green, O., was taken in care by the Wood county trustees. She was found living with her daughter, the latter's husband and six children, after running away from the man whom she claims bought her. The family was living in the most abject destitution."

Charlie and Minnie

I was recently doing some research in the Simpson County News from March 18, 1909 and found this little blurb out of Maben, MS.

The quality isn't the greatest because of the age, but it says the following:


"Charlie Crossin, a 14-year-old boy wearing knee pants, and Miss Minnie Corley, 30 years old, were married at Maben. The boy's parents, hearing of the marriage, separated the couple within an hour and refused to allow the boy to return to his new wife."


While I wasn't able to find any more information on Charlie, I did find a Minnie Corley (her age is given as two years younger than the Minnie mentioned in the article) from Mississippi who moved to Texas, married at some point between 1910 and 1920, and had 3-4 children. Is this our Minnie? It's hard to know with the small amount of information given in the article above, but I like to think so.

We're All Mad Here

We have several books compiled of articles from old Mississippi newspapers. The entries range from the mundane to the bizarre. For example, on November 29, 1894, the Southern Sentinel in Tippah County, Mississippi, ran the following blurb:

Henry, the 12 year old son of J. L. Walker was attacked in the street opposite Dr. Alexander's  resident last Friday by a dog supposed to be afflicted with the rabies. The animal reared up and evidently made for the boy's throat but Henry threw out his arm and the dog's teeth were buried into the left forearm. After biting the boy the dog fled in a northern direction and was afterwards slain by some parties near Faulkner.
Mr. Walker carried his son that same afternoon to Mrs. Palmer's and applied the mad stone which is said to have stuck for ten consecutive hours.
Henry does not complain and it is to be hoped that no serious consequence will result.

You'll be relieved to hear that Henry survived his dog bite. Here he is in the 1900 census, with his sister Noverta:

 

What conclusion must I draw from this? The mad stone cured the rabies! What is a mad stone, you ask? According to Merriam-Webster's Medical Desk Dictionary, it is:

a stony concretion (as a hair ball taken from the stomach of a deer) supposed formerly in folklore and by some physicians to counteract the poisonous effects of the bite of an animal (as one affected with rabies)

Fans of the Harry Potter books will recognize the mad stone by a different name, as in this passage where Snape reprimands Harry:

"A bezoar is a stone taken from the stomach of a goat and it will save you from most poisons."
 
In 1885, only nine years before Henry Walker's accident, Louis Pasteur successfully treated a boy bitten by a rabid dog with a newly developed rabies vaccine. Mad stones eventually fell by the wayside as the much more effective vaccine became more widely available and well-known.

Lockhart, Tommy. Biographical Notes from the Files of the Southern Sentinel, Ripley, Mississippi, Tippah County. Old Timer Press, 1977.

Rowling, J. K. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Scholastic, 1999.

Madstone. (2005). In Merriam-Webster's medical desk dictionary, revised edition. Retrieved from http://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/mwmedicaldesk/madstone/0

"Louis Pasteur." Scientists: Their Lives and Works. Gale, 2006. Biography in Context. Web. 5 Dec. 2013.

She Done What She Could

Webster's Blue
Black Speller

I've been searching for the first school shooting in Mississippi for the past day or so. I favor a three-pronged attack: print sources, Internet databases, and ye olde Internet search. You'd be amazed at what isn't available on the Internet! I was scanning a print book called From Cotton Field to Schoolhouse: African American Education in Mississippi, 1862-1875, which led me to The American Slave: A Composite Autobiography, wherein I found an incredibly moving story that cried out to be shared:

Belle Caruthers was born a slave. At the end of the War Between the States, she was one of 437,000 blacks set free (31). Most were completely illiterate. Belle was not. She had cared for a white baby as a slave and, "The baby had alphabet blocks and I learned my letters while she learned hers" (33). Belle later found a Webster's Blue Black Speller and used it to study. Her master kicked her when he found her pouring over its pages (33). This did not phase Belle in the least. "I found a hymnbook one day and spelled out, 'When I Can Read My Title Clear.' I was so happy when I saw that I could really read that I ran around telling all the other slaves" (34). I can imagine her excitement, can't you? It practically leaps from the page even now, over 150 years later.

Tombstone of Belle G. Caruthers
She done what she could.

Belle went on to some further schooling herself; she then spent many years as a teacher in the Holly Springs area, passing on her love of and knowledge and learning. She married and raised a family. Belle also wrote for The South, the local county newspaper printed in Holly Springs. The Mississippi Department of Archives and History holds the newspaper for the years Belle would've written her column. I think a personal trip to MDAH is in order in the near future!

Do you see what happened there? I went into my search looking for one thing and came out with a great story and a new resource. (I can't wait to try this in my genealogy research!) Mrs. Belle may have passed away in 1938 at the age of 91, but I think she still has a lot to teach the world.

Blue Black Speller http://www.blockaderunner.com/Catalog/catpg9a.html
Gravestone at Hill Crest Cemetery - She Done What She Could: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=12301446
Rawick, George P. The American Slave: A Composite Autobiography Supplement, Series 1, Volume 7 Mississippi Narratives, Part 2. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1977. Print.

That's My Job

I've been searching for obituaries for the past several days. Although I didn't find a single one that I needed, I did stumble upon this hilarious article in the April 7, 1965 edition of the Clarion-Ledger:

It's Not Part Of Regular Job

Elizabethtown, KY
The state recently erected billboards showing a picture of a state trooper and this quotation: "It's my job to help you."
Two weeks later a woman telephones the post here to report she had a library book due at 1 p.m. Would a trooper please rush to her home, pick up the book and deliver it to the library before the deadline?
The dispatcher who took the call was courtesy itself. He told her no one was available just then for that particular kind of help.

You know what? It IS our job to help you. It always amazes me how many wonderful programs and services Mississippi libraries, let alone the Mississippi Library Commission, offer. Working on your family tree? Ancestry and the Federal Census can track down those relatives. Homework stumping you? We can point you in the right direction with help from MAGNOLIA. Car trouble? Chilton's may be the answer for you. Have a question on any topic under the sun? Give us a shout and we'll give it a shot.

By the way, I admire that quick-thinking officer. It's always so hard to find the right thing to say and still manage to convey a helping hand. We always advise dropping off your library books yourself, though, instead of calling the police!

The Projected Extinction of Mosquitoes

I was diligently scanning microfilm yesterday when I ran across this little blurb: 

Extinction of Mosquito
Seen by '73.
By SCIENCE SERVICE
WASHINGTON, By 1973, just nine years
after the start of an antimosquito
campaign, the Aedes aegypti will be
eradicated from the United States,
according to the Public Health Service.

Yellow Fever Mosquito
Aedes Aegypti

Granted, the article was published May 15, 1967, but there still lingers a wistful plea--please, please, please, no more mosquitoes! Anyone plagued by the miniature beasts nowadays can see that this article was published prematurely. (I think one of those bloodthirsty suckers got me this morning on my walk!)

According to the CDC, there are 3,500 different species of mosquitoes. I am blown away by that number: 3,500. There are 3,500 different types of mosquitoes out there trying to rob me of my blood?! I don't stand a chance, do I? Well, possibly...

WebMD claims that only one out of every ten people are highly attractive to mosquitoes, beacons of blood, so to speak. These tend to be people who "have high concentrations of steroids or cholesterol on their skin surface." People who produce large amounts of acids (e.g., lactic acid, uric acid, etc...) or carbon dioxide are in high demand, too. Body heat and motion also send out a "Please dine here!" vibe. (My oh-so-logical plan of being a moving target is all for naught.) All of my skinny friends up North who like to lounge about in the shade--you're in the clear.

Mosquito Fish
Gambusia Affinis

If you're in my boat, the not-so-skinny person living in the South boat, the Mississippi Department of Health has some great tips to make your living area bug-free. For instance, have you ever heard tell of a mosquito fish? These native Mississippians love to gobble up this pesky flier, so much so that they start eating skeeter larvae "from the day that they're born." Eat, little fishies! Eat! (Be sure to check out their site for additional interesting mosquito repelling techniques.)


WebMD offers the old standby DEET as a protectant, but also exorts that other, newer products will do the trick. Picaridin (Cutter Advanced), Skin-So-Soft (IR3535), and Metofluthrin (DeckMate) all keep the pesky critters away. (Some are, naturally, better than others.) For the back-to-nature lovers, soybean oil based repellants and oil of lemon eucalyptus (Repel) will offer relief.

I'm off to stock up on sprays and calamine lotion. See you at the pharmacy!

http://www.cdc.gov/malaria/about/biology/mosquitoes/
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aedes_aegypti_biting_human.jpg
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mosquitofish.jpg
http://www.webmd.com/allergies/features/are-you-mosquito-magnet 
Science Service Washington. "Extinction of Mosquito Seen by '73." Clarion-Ledger 15 May 1967: A4. Print. 

He's Harmless!

Sometimes the oddest of stories hides in an array of daily "top" news stories.  This one was found while searching through the Jackson Daily News, July 16, 1954 on microfilm:

We never found out how it ended!  Were they able to successfully serve the warrant?  Did the dog end up attacking the Deputy Constable resulting in a biting free-for-all between animal and human?  What was the dog's name?  So many questions left unanswered!  It's amusing how they described the dog as "growling in an unfriendly manner."  Have you ever heard of a dog that growled in a friendly manner?  We'd sure like to know!

Associated Press. “This Could Have Made Big News.” Jackson Daily News [Jackson] 16 July 1954, 62^nd ed.: 5. Microfilm. Jackson Daily News Jackson Mississippi July 1954.

Man vs. Banana Peel

We often come across interesting, even amusing, pieces of information here at the Mississippi Library Commission while searching for patron requests.  One short article came from the Clarion-Ledger which focused on a poor, poor soul.  This guy had no idea what he was in for when he crossed paths with a banana peel on July 14, 1954.

There's a cartoon-like quality to this story, or any story that involves slipping on a banana peel, but this has not been the first time a human was unknowingly pitted against a discarded banana peel.  Bananas became a popular snack of choice in the Americas in the early 1900s in part due to their portability.  The leftover peels were often thrown in the gutter, or littered on the streets and sidewalks.  The peels took on a slippery effect once decomposition began, and this was how the accidents began to happen when the human foot met the peel.

“What we know as a movie gag was real enough that in 1909 the St. Louis city council passed an ordinance prohibiting persons from ‘throwing or casting’ a ‘banana rind’ on public streets or sidewalks (another regulation the official body passed that year forbid anyone from allowing a ‘bear to run at large’) (Koeppel 66).”

This awful problem became less so as the decades passed and cities adopted use of street sweepers.  But who knows?  The banana peel may strike again!

Associated Press. “Jackson Man Slips On Peel of Banana; Taken To Hospital.” Clarion-Ledger [Jackson] 14 July 1954, CXVII ed.: 8. Microfilm. Clarion-Ledger Jackson Mississippi July 1954.

Koeppel, Dan.  Banana: The Fate of the Fruit that Changed the World. New York, NY: Hudson Street Press, 2008. Print.

All the News That's Fit to Print, Newton County Style

Last week I was helping a patron look for genealogical material in one of our reference books, Newton County, Mississippi: Newspaper Items 1872-1875 and W.P.A. Manuscript. While she studiously scanned census rolls, I swallowed my snickers over some of the newsworthy items of the late 19th century. I shared a few with my patron and we chatted a bit about what an experience it must have been to live in a small, rural Mississippi town nearly 150 years ago. Everyone knew everyone else. Everything and anything was worth at least a mention or a remembrance in the local town paper. Resources like this can provide invaluable clues for genealogy research in addition to a fascinating glimpse at small town life. Here's a small sampling of my favorites:
(The comments in parenthesis are my own.)

Thursday, September 26, 1872

A grey eagle was captured near Brandon the 17th that was 7 ft. from wing tip to wing tip. It had been carrying off young pigs. (My mom once gave a kitten to our across-the-street neighbor. An eagle or hawk carried it away. It did not make the news.)

Thursday, January 2, 1873

The thermometer dropped to zero this week. (It's always a hot topic in Mississippi when the weather gets cooler.)

Thursday, March 13, 1873

Marine Watkins will place his horse in a quarter race against any other Miss. horse. Purse unlimited.

James Taylor had a bad fall while painting the residence of Marine Watkins. (After reading this, I decided that Marine needed to make some extra cash to help James with medical expenses. That could be completely false, but it makes for a nice story, right?)

Thursday, April 3, 1873

W.H. Wilcox, formerly of Newton Co., has swindled people in Rankin Co. and deserted his wife and children. (News! I'm surprised that the wife and children's names weren't listed.)

Thursday, May 15, 1873

Capt. Scanlan gave a party Friday night that lasted long past midnight. (I'm sure the town biddies were all aflutter about this shindig.)

Mrs. Judge Watts has the best arranged gardens in town.

Mrs. Thos. Thompson has beets as large as Mrs. Watts. (Oh, yes. Keeping up with the Watts.)


Thursday, June 5, 1873

R.K. Batt was bitten by a moccasin while hunting last Friday. He was in pain for several hours, but is now up again.

Jno. Bynum wounded Martin Warren of 7 miles NE of Decatur during a quarrel over some dogs. Warren is not expected to survive.

Thursday, June 12, 1873

We have more dogs and goats in town than any other town of the same size in MS.

Mr. Warren has died of the wounds inflicted by Bynum.

Thursday, July 10, 1873

Mr. Chas. Burns brought us a beautiful coffee pot. He has many others. (How many coffee pots do you suppose he owned? Two? Three? Thirty?)

Mrs. Eliza Eubanks of Newton, grandmother of J.K. Warner who was killed by Martin Bynum, offers a reward of $200 for the apprehension of Bynum described as being 25 years old, tall & slender, light complexion & hair, with blue eyes.




Thursday, July 17, 1873

The coat of Dr. T.S. West was stolen from his room. He will be confined to his room until a new coat can be made. (You do realize it was July? I suppose a proper Southern gentleman just wouldn't go out without the correct attire.)

Thursday, July 16, 1874

Dr. Watts has a cucumber 36 in. long that looks like a swamp moccasin. (Couldn't you say that all cucumbers look like moccasins?)

Thursday, April 29, 1875

D.L. Young age 16 of Winona is a mathematical prodigy.

Mr. L. Young showed us some turnips as large as coffee cups. (I'm surmising that the Youngs visited town that day with D.L. and turnips in tow. Poor turnips. Poor D.L.)

From the WPA Manuscript portion of this genealogical treasure trove of a book, I found this summary of the happenings between Bynum and Warren:

Martin Bynum killed John Warren on June 3, 1873. Warren had caught up Bynum's stray cows and was holding them for payment of damages the cattle did his property. Words passed between the two, and without promise of future settlement of their disagreement, they began fighting. Bynum killed Warren with a barlow knife. Another act of self-defense.

"Without promise of future settlement of their disagreement..." What a pretty way to say they were stubborn as mules and couldn't work things out without fighting!

I hope you've enjoyed this trip down Memory Lane to small town Mississippi. Don't forget: In addition to providing great ancestral clues, old newspapers can provide a fun and insightful look at life long ago.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Agkistrodon_piscivorus_Flickr.jpg#file
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:CDC_beets.jpg#file
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:CDC_cuke2.jpg#file
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Coffeepot,_English_-_Indianapolis_Museum_of_Art_-_DSC00628.JPG#file
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pig_suckling.png#file
Strickland, Jean and Patricia Nicholson Edwards. Newton County, Mississippi: Newspaper Items 1872-1875 and W.P.A. Manuscript. Ben Strickland, 1998. Print.

Google News Archives & Dear Abby.

It's a beautiful, sunny Friday afternoon here in Jackson, and while the reference desk phone keeps ringing and people keep asking interesting questions (what is the mortality rate in Coahoma county for emphysema? for example), between calls I find myself drifting back into something I find highly entertaining.

First off, did you know that many newspapers are available digitally (and free) through Google News? What's most interesting for me is the Archives category. From there, you can search for older articles from a variety of newspapers and read the text for free.

This week as I was doing some research, I was looking on microfilm for some information. Now, searching microfilm is not always fun. (Do it long enough, and you might need some Dramamine.) What I like to do as I'm searching a newspaper is stop by and enjoy the scenery: I read the funnies, and I look at the movie listings, but my favorite thing is to read the advice columns.

One of the Dear Abbys I read from the 60s Clarion-Ledger I was searching was about a woman whose husband hasn't bathed since their son's wedding...THREE YEARS AGO!

In the 60s and 70s, Dear Abby and Ann Landers were almost nothing like what they are now. Besides the infrequent bather, many, many women wrote in to complain about their husbands' chest hair -- having too much, too little, whatever. Abby's and Ann's responses are also very unhelpful, which adds to my amusement.

While I can't sit around at the microfilm reader and continue to read hilarious letters all day, I CAN, when I have a minute, "refine my search skills" and "practice utilizing resources that are available to me" by doing a little Dear Abby/Google News Archives searching.

To search yourself and see what I mean, go to Google and click on News. Enter "dear abby" and any word at all. You may not get any results, but on the lefthand side, choose Archives. And let the fun begin! I tried "dear abby" and hamburger as my search, and got this article about a poor girl whose boyfriend is so cheap he only buys her hamburgers. And another girl whose boyfriend always gets ONIONS on his hamburger, which makes parting at the end of their dates awkward!

I find these letters so entertaining. However, I should point out that I hear you can also use Google News Archives to find real information as well.

Let us know if you find anything good in your searching!

Terrific!

Last week I was looking for an item in the January 1950 Clarion-Ledger for a patron. While I didn't find it, I did discover that when I finally get my time machine working again, I am definitely going to skip January 1950!

Instead of finding what I was looking for--an item about a piece of legislation that was introduced during the legislative session--I learned about a horrible murder in Kosciusko. (Stokes McMillan's One Night of Madness tells the tale; our copy is checked out but when it comes back in, I'll fill you in!) There were several other tragedies, which stood out not just because of their awfulness ("Patient Says She Set Fire: Explains Arson Taking 41 Lives") but because of the differences in newspaper language then and now ("Duplex Blast Kills Mother and Tots: Terrific Concussion Mangles All Bodies"). There was also the photo of the gaunt gentleman who is wasting away due to an unresolved case of the hiccups. Because this was 1950, the headline doesn't play coy: "DYING FROM HICCUPS" it screams.

I was thoroughly depressed. I kept trudging downstairs from the microfilm area on the mezzanine to report the awful things I was learning about. My coworkers deserve various medals for humoring me and listening to me rant ("No, seriously, it really says "'terrific concussion mangles all bodies.'").

However, I was roused by a two-page advertising spread featuring ads from various companies. They were all welcoming the first baby to be born in Mississippi in 1950, little Baby Boy Tompkins! (I'd tell you his name, but I checked the phone book, and I'm pretty sure he still lives in the area.) I first even noticed the spread because of this ad:



My eye is naturally drawn to roasting children. As well as hilarious brand names: Pro-Tek-Tot! (Full disclosure: my great-grandfather invented an athlete's foot remedy called No-So-To....you know, so your toe won't be so' no mo'.)

Other companies offered the Tompkins family actual deals (besides illustrations of their baby turning into a marshmallow). A beauty shop offered Mrs. Tompkins a free permanent! Florists sent the baby a bouquet! Other offers were free dinners, free shoes, an electric heating pad that is not recommended for babies today, and best of all, free ice cream.

Thank you, Baby Tompkins, for brightening what would otherwise be a terrible microfilm expedition!

Old-Timey Superstitions

While researching a recent genealogy question, one of our reference staff came across some interesting tidbits in an old Mississippi newspaper.
Apparently, around 1889, folks believed some pretty crazy things about the cause of certain common ailments. The Fayette Chronicle out of Jefferson County, MS, was good enough to publish these superstitions.

Superstitions About Diseases

Earrings were considered a sure cure for sore eyes.

Fried mice were looked upon as a cure for smallpox.

Ague was frequently treated with spiders and cobwebs. Fright was looked upon as a cure for ague.

Warts, it was averred, could be cured by rubbing bacon on them, the condition being that the bacon would have to be stolen.

Mice seem to have been a popular cure for several centuries. Another reference book, The Encyclopedia of Superstitions, mentions using the blood of a mouse to cure warts. And a lot of folks actually prescribed any manner of cooked mouse-meat to cure any type of ailment.

Of course, we do not advocate the use of any of these cures. Their reprint here is simply for your enjoyment. Makes modern medicine really seem like a miracle, doesn't it?

The Encyclopedia of Superstitions. ed. Christina Hole, Hutchinson & Co.: 1961

Take a Seat.

Did you know that MLC is the only Patent and Trademark Depository Library in Mississippi? If you have a great idea for a new product or need to trademark your brand name or slogan, you can call us for assistance.
I was going to provide you a list of various Mississippi inventors and their inventions, but unfortunately most of them are super scientific and are way above my head (silicon carbide semi-insulating epitaxy layer, anyone?). However, there is one recent invention that is definitely not, er, above my head at all. From the Laurel Leader-Call:

Local man invents vibrating toilet seat
By Eloria Newell James
A Jones County native has developed a new twist to a traditional item. Johnny Henry of Laurel has developed the vibrating toilet seat.
“I believe in thinking out of the box,” Henry said. “I wanted to create something that is a little unusual.
“This invention is designed to stimulate,” he said. “It’s to make you feel good while you are there.”
Because of Henry’s invention, he recently attended the Invent Bay International Inventors Convention held at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada.
“It was great,” Henry said about the convention. “You get to meet with licensers, buyers and investors, and I got a chance to promote my product. ... It was really nice.”
Also while at the convention, Henry, a native of Soso, made a pitch for the Jay Leno Show and The Discovery Channel. Henry said he currently has a provisional patent on the product, however, “hopefully I’ll get on one of the shows and be able to introduce my product to a national audience.” Henry said the vibrating toilet seat “is a novelty item that can also be used as a gag gift.”
When asked how he developed the idea, Henry said he “wanted to add
some life to the otherwise lifeless toilet seat.”
Henry, a 1968 graduate of Roosevelt High School in Ellisville, attended Jones County Junior College and Alcorn State University before entering the United States Army in 1973. After three years in the Army, Henry enrolled at the University of Southern
Mississippi, where he obtained a bachelor’s degree in sociology. However, Henry said the inventors convention was very educational.
“The convention was very exciting. There was 300-400 investors there,” Henry added. “I gained a wealth of knowledge about how to market inventions and how to get a product going.”
Henry, who began working on his invention in 1997, has now developed a prototype. Henry said he continues to work on the invention to make it look more slick, modern and appealing.
“I want it to automatically turn on when someone sits on the seat,” he explained. “It will have two speeds. On high speed, it will increase the blood flow and stimulate the body and muscles.”
Henry, who enjoys writing, said he has gotten poems published and
also a book. However, Henry said, he continues to be focused on modernizing his invention.
For more information about Henry’s invention, you can contact the inventor at 601-729-4470.