Johnny Weissmuller ~ Olympic Champion

National Cheesecake Day

Praline-Crusted Cheesecake
(Pictured in the photo above)

Crumbled pralines and sugared shortbread make an out-of-this-world 

crust for classic cheesecake.

Ingredients

• 2 cups crushed shortbread cookies (about 28 cookies)
• 3 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted
• 4 Pralines, coarsely crumbled
• 5 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
• 1 3/4 cups sugar
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 4 large eggs
• 2 egg yolks
• 1/3 cup whipping cream
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon rind
• 2 (8-ounce) containers sour cream
• 1/3 cup sugar
• Garnish: crumbled Pralines    Pralines, coarsely crumbled

Preparation

1. Combine cookie crumbs and butter. Press into bottom and up sides of a greased 10-inch springform pan.
2. Bake at 350° for 8 minutes. Cool on a wire rack. Sprinkle coarsely crumbled Pralines over crust.
3. Beat cream cheese at medium speed with a heavy-duty electric mixer until creamy. Gradually add 1 3/4 cups sugar, flour, and vanilla, beating until smooth. Add eggs and egg yolks, 1 at a time, beating just until yellow disappears. Stir in whipping cream and lemon rind. Pour in crust. Place on a foil-lined baking sheet.
4. Bake at 350° on lower oven rack 10 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 325,° and bake 1 hour and 20 minutes or until almost set. Cool on wire rack 1 hour.
5. Stir together sour cream and 1/3 cup sugar; spread over cheesecake.
6. Bake at 325° for 10 minutes. Cool on a wire rack. Cover and chill 8 hours. Remove sides of pan. Garnish, if desired.
   

Southern Living
NOVEMBER 1999

Olympics 2012 ~ Year of the Woman

My Mississippi by Robert St John

 

Olympic Poetry - 1912 Winner

                                     Ode To Sport

Georges Hohrod, & M. Eschbach

(Pseudonym Pierre de Coubertin)

Awarded a prize in the sports literature

competition in the V Olympiad - Stockholm 1912.

Ode to sport

Oh Sport, pleasure of the Gods essence of life, you appeared suddenly in the midst of the grey clearing which writhes with the drudgery of modern existence, like the radiant messenger of a past age, when mankind still smiled.

 And the glimmer of dawn lit up the mountain tops and flecks of light dotted the ground in the gloomy forests.

II.

O Sport, you are Beauty! You are the architect of that edifice which is the human body and which can become abject or sublime according to whether it is defiled by vile passions or improved through healthy exertion.

There can be no beauty without balance and proportion, and you are the peerless master of both, for you create harmony, you give movements rhythm, you make strength graceful and you endow suppleness with power.

Ill.

O Sport, you are Justice! The perfect equity for which men strive in vain in their social institutions is your constant companion. No one can jump a centimetre higher than the height he can jump, nor run a minute longer than the length he can run.

The limits of his success are determined solely by his own physical and moral strength.

IV.

O Sport, you are Audacity! The meaning of all muscular effort can be

summed up in the word ‘dare’. What good are muscles, what is the point of feeling strong and agile, and why work to improve one’s agility and strength, unless it is in order to dare? But the daring you inspire has nothing in common with the adventurer’s recklessness in staking everything on chance.

Yours is a prudent, well-considered audacity.

V.

O Sport, you are Honour! The laurels you bestow have no value unless

they have been won in absolute fairness and with perfect impartiality. He who, with some shameful trick, manages to deceive his fellow competitors feels guilt to his very core and lives in fear of the ignominious epithet which shall forever be attached to his name should his  trickery be discovered.

VI.

O Sport, you are Joy! At your behest, flesh dances and eyes smile; blood

races abundantly through the arteries.

Thoughts stretch out on a brighter, clearer horizon. To the sorrowful you can even bring salutary diversion from their distress, whilst the happy you enable fully to savour their joie de vivre.

VII.

O Sport, you are Fecundity! You strive directly and nobly towards perfection of the race, destroying unhealthy seed and correcting the flaws which threaten its essential purity.

And you fill the athlete with a desire to see his sons grow up agile and strong around him to take his place in the arena and, in their turn, carry off the most glorious trophies.

VIII.

O Sport, you are Progress! To serve you, a man must improve himself

both physically and spiritually.

You force him to abide by a greater discipline; you demand that he avoid all excess.

You teach him wise rules which allow him to exert himself with the maximum of intensity without compromising his good health.

IX.

O Sport, you are Peace! You promote happy relations between peoples,

bringing them together in their shared devotion to a strength which is controlled, organized and self-disciplined. From you, the young worldwide learn self-respect, and thus the diversity of national qualities becomes the source of a generous and friendly rivalry.

London Olympics

Be Positive

Reflections in the White House

I am thrilled to say that Reflections even made it all the way to the White House and into the hands of the president and First Lady.
Almost TWO years ago (May 6, 2010 to be exact- I still have the e-mail...and many more that followed) I was contacted by John Paul Greenawalt  of BOOK ARTS in D.C. who is responsible for selection of certain gifts for the President to present to dignitaries, heads of states, ect .

He asked permission to recommend my book for the possibility of being presented as a gift from the President.  Of course I was delighted!
I was advised that I couldn't/ shouldn't discuss it with others until a final decision was made.


January 30th...

I received a letter from the Department of State ~

Dear Ms. Dorsey
Thank you for providing us with a sample of your beautiful work.
We are grateful for Mr. Greenawalt introducing us to your poetry.
The needs of our office are always changing, so we will be touch should
another gifting opportunity arise.

Sincerely,
Katie Jacks
Senior Gifts Officer
Office of the Chief of Protocol
U.S. Department of State


So, the book was ultimately not chosen as a presentation at this time ...and now I can discuss it.
Although it was not chosen, I feel SO HONORED that it was even recommended and CONSIDERED!
My little book of southern poems from Tupelo/Saltillo , Mississippi impressed a man
who looks for material for gift presentations for kings and queens
Miracles do happen...and I am hoping that it might be reconsidered in the future.

I recently received a leather bound copy of what the gift book would have looked
like if it had been chosen and presented.

With the book I received this letter
Letter from John Paul Greenawalt :
from Book Arts Conservatory

Dear Mrs. Neely-Dorsey

Your binding is bound with the same red calfskin as used .for Queen Elizabeth II and is inlaid with the same chocolate calfskin on the hand-fitted archival case used for President Sirleaf, and the design is the same as created for the Emperor of Japan...all as gifts from the President.
I have enjoyed the prospect of your poems within our bindings, all of these many , many months, and it is a pleasure to send this binding to you as a gift. (I added the leather box as a bonus!)
Best Wishes in your continued Success

John Paull Greenawalt
President
Book Arts Conservatory

Magnolia Memories ~ I want Yours

When I went away to school in Boston (Boston University) for four years, one of the things that I missed the most  and appreciated more about my beloved Mississippi and the South was our unbelievable weather. I could not believe how cold it was already getting in September, just after the start of school.
I started wearing all of my heavy clothing almost right away.
Everyone told me that I was going to freeze to death when it got "REALLY" cold. Really Cold???!!!  It was already really cold to me !  I wondered exactly what they meant by that . I soon found out !!!  It was not pretty !!!

The type of cold that I learned about,living off of the Charles river, with  that bone chilling wind blowing in the winter is indescribable  to/for a southerner.  On top of that , people still kept going when there was unbelievable amounts of snow on the ground .  With just the  FORECAST of snow in the south , they are immediately  making plans for closing the schools ! LOL!!

I spent the summer in Boston,one year, and woke up on a bright July morning with the temperature at about 50 or 55 (dead winter temperature for  Mississippi) I knew then that this was not the place for me.
Yes, I endured the four years of cold and proudly graduated from Boston University , but was headed home to more "humane" conditions as quickly as you could say Mason Dixon Line !

                                                TOO COLD FOR COMFORT

When I went off to school in Boston,

I realized why Southerners have a slower pace;

When the weather’s not so frigid out,

There is no need to race.

When the weather’s nice and toasty,

You can take time to slowly walk;

When you don’t feel you’ll freeze to death,

With your friends, you can casually talk.

Northerners don’t really know what it is,

To take a leisurely stroll;

They’re always rushing here or there,

‘Cause the weather’s just too cold.

Reflections of a Mississippi Magnolia 
©2008 Patricia Neely-Dorsey

Cool Wall Murals from the Mississippi Hills

  Bukka White Mural (Booker T. Washington White ) – ABERDEEN MS
                                     (Photo by Bob Franks Fulton MS)

                       Howlin' Wolf mural – ABERDEEN MS
                                 (Photo by Bob Franks Fulton MS)
        

                 Albert King Mural – ABERDEEN MS
                              (Photo by Bob Franks Fulton MS)

                              Mural – AMORY  MS
      

                         

                               Reed's Gumtree Bookstore – TUPELO MS 

                       Romie's Grocery - Jackson Street – TUPELO MS 

                                         Ice House 3D – TUPELO MS 

        

     Dr. Pepper Ad Mural - The Old Senter Drug Store Bldg West Main St - FULTON MS                                                      (Photo by Bob Franks Fulton MS)



                        Old Advertisement  - CORINTH MS
                                   (Photo by Bob Franks Fulton MS) 

The Mississippi Hills National Heritage Area (MHNHA), designated by Congress and the President in April of 2009. Bounded approximately by Interstate 55 to the west and Highway 14 to the south, MHNHA covers 19 full counties and portions of 11 others in the northeastern part of the Magnolia state.

Mississippi Hills National Heritage Area represents a distinctive cultural landscape shaped largely by the dynamic intersection of Appalachian and Delta cultures, an intersection which produced a powerful concentration of nationally-significant cultural icons. Lasting contributions to our country’s musical and literary legacies were forged by Hills natives Elvis Presley, William Faulkner, Tennessee Williams, Howlin’ Wolf, and Tammy Wynette. The heritage area seeks to interpret and share the stories of these individuals, as well as the legacies of Civil Rights pioneers James Meredith and Ida B. Wells-Barnett.

The Mississippi Hills join a network of 49 other National Heritage Areas across the country, which are charged with preserving, conserving and interpreting some of America’s greatest treasures.

To locate a National Heritage Area close by you check out the main web site for more information.
http://www.nps.gov/history/heritageareas/

Soul Food Restaurant - Patricia Neely-Dorsey

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