2024 En Plein Air Competition LeFleur’s Bluff State Park includes even more artists, coming in from all parts of Mississippi for this year’s competition. This event, brought to you by the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks and Pacesetter Gallery, will showcase 44 talented Mississippi artists as they paint LeFleur’s Bluff State Park competing for publication in Mississippi Wildlife magazine and cash prizes.

During season eight of HGTV’s Home Town, featuring the renovation of Jones College’s Old President’s House on the Ellisville campus by two of JC’s famous alumni, Ben and Erin Napier of Laurel, Jones College President Dr. Jesse Smith announced a new program to be named in the couple’s honor. An old factory building currently houses maintenance and housekeeping departments, along with storage, will be transformed into a centralized home for training future craftsmen to help rebuild hometowns across the country. It is called the Erin and Ben Napier School of Design and Building Construction.

Mississippi contributes so much to American culture in a variety of ways. One of these ways includes the contributions of several famous people who call Mississippi home. Here are some of Mississippi’s actors, authors, athletes, artists, musicians, and other notable people from the great Magnolia State:

March is Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month (also called intellectual and developmental disabilities). You may see these written as “IDD” and / or “DD.” The color that represents DD month is orange. Orange symbolizes energy and positivity. Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month stands to represent how we can come together with those who have intellectual disabilities and form healthy, happy, safe, and overall conducive communities alongside them. 

Step into a world of fantasy and wonder as “Fairytales on Ice” brings “Peter and Wendy’s Adventures” to the Hattiesburg Saenger Theater on March 28. You’ll be transported into the pages of your favorite fairytales and will be treated to an evening of fun and adventure. There will be pirates, lost boys, mermaids, a touch of pixie dust, and lots of fun for the whole family. 

Easter is almost here! Since it falls a bit early this year, you might not have your usual prep work done for your family Easter celebration. But don’t panic. Just tell everybody to bring their favorite food, a dozen dyed or plastic, candy-stuffed eggs, and you’re good to go.

Chevron’s Pascagoula Refinery announces open enrollment for the 2024 5C program will begin May 1, 2024. This program provides up to 60 members of the Jackson County Chamber of Commerce, Ocean Springs Chamber of Commerce or Mississippi Gulf Coast Chamber of Commerce with five hours of complimentary marketing and advertising agency support from Chevron’s local agency partner, Christie Fountain Advertising, Inc., of Ocean Springs, Mississippi.

For those of us that are older (definition withheld), many of our fondest memories are that of simpler times and experiences with the characters that defined small towns. That was certainly true for me growing up in southwestern Louisiana where those characters shaped my view of the world and how simple acts were common.

There are a vast number of ingredients that pair well with pasta, from the simple pasta carbonara (hot pasta, raw eggs, bacon and parm), one of the most popular dishes in Italy, to the even simpler pasta, olive oil and freshly grated parm. Is it hard to think of a vegetable or meat that would not go with pasta, don’t you think?