12.01.21 by Reflector Editor

THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF MISSISSIPPI STATE UNIVERSITY SINCE 1884

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2021

137TH YEAR | ISSUE 11

New shopping center coming soon to Starkville LIZZIE TOMLIN

ties along Highway 12 as it expands the options and keeps our residents in town to shop, as well as attracts those from surrounding areas to shop in Starkville," Spruill said. The mayor explained the benefits she is expecting to see after the construction is complete. "I fully expect other growth to come with time and with the other initiatives that are underway," Spruill said. "Our new sports tournament facility will, I believe, attract hotels and more development on the west side of town, as the east is expanding from added interest in being close to the campus and the magic that the excitement of athletics fosters." SHOPPING, 2

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

There is exciting news for the shoppers of Starkville, as construction has begun on a brand new shopping center containing wellknown commercial businesses. Triangle Crossing, developed by Rise Partners and Castle Properties, plans to house nine new shopping options. The retail, grocery and service center is scheduled to be 95,000 square feet and is an anticipated upgrade of choices for the Starkville community. Rise and Castle purchased the property from Garan in 2018. Garan plans to relocate to the industrial district, which Starkville Mayor Lynn Spruill describes as "a

Kathryn Beatty | The Reflector

A new shopping center, Triangle Crossing, is currently under construction on Highway 12 that will be home to Aldi Grocery, Marshall’s, PetSmart and more.

perfect fit." After the initial purchase in 2018, construction is finally underway near the intersection of Highway 12 and Industrial Park Road. Highway 12 is one of the most

commercialized areas in Starkville and is a hotspot for shopping and business. The intersection chosen for construction is in close quarters with other shopping centers such as Walmart,

Kroger and multiple other local stores and restaurants. This project will include Marshall's, Ulta Beauty Supply, Sports Clips, Aspen Dental, Rack Room Shoes, Five

Below, Aldi Grocery and PetSmart. Spruill said these popular stores will be an exciting addition to Starkville. "The new retail will be a wonderful benefit to the shopping opportuni-

Fashion Board dedicates show to beloved lost student Recent MSU alumna was fatally shot on her grandmother’s front porch over the summer

HANNAH BLANKENSHIP EDITOR-IN-CHIEf

A single rose and the name "Tia Evans" graced an empty chair in front of the runway at Mississippi State University Fashion Board's 2021 "Trashion" fashion show. Tia Evans, a beloved former student in the fashion department, lost her life to gun violence just one month after walking at her graduation. In the early morning hours of June 5, 2021, Jackson resident Felita Peace was awoken by a phone call with news no mother ever wants to hear. Her daughter had been shot and killed.

According to Peace, Evans' cousin had recently tried to rob someone at a local park. The robbery victims retaliated against the family, and Evans became a casualty of the crossfire. "We lost a life over $300. Senseless … If they had pulled up and put a gun on Tia I am sure she would have given them $300," Peace said. The tragedy left ripples of shock and sorrow far beyond Evans' family lines. Rachel Woodward, a lecturer for fashion design and merchandising and co-adviser of MSU's Fashion Board who taught Evans multiple

times throughout the years, said she was the first faculty member to find out about Evans' passing. "I just sobbed like, I just couldn't, it just didn't seem real. It still doesn't seem real," Woodward said. At Fashion Board's last Trashion show in 2019, Evans had modeled a skater skirt dress made out of recycled and painted newspaper. "I honestly picture the last show that she was in … I can just picture her little bright little smile walking by," Woodward said. Evans had a passion for fashion and design, but most of all for doing hair

and makeup. She had already started her own business, Touched by Tia, and styled hair for students and local residents. "If you called and you booked to get your hair, lashes did, she would do it; she would come to you. You didn't have to wait because she would be there and that's why that was nothing but love shown, nothing but love wholeheartedly," her mother said. On the night of her murder, Evans was doing what she loved. She had gone over to her grandmother's house in south Jackson to style hair for a client. FASHION, 2

Courtesy Photo | Rachel Woodward

Tia Evans struts the runway at the 2019 Trashion fashion show in a newspaper print dress.

What is a successful "Jeopardy!" contestant? MSU BECReative Energy Club at MSU wins $250k Ph.D. student competes in famous game show to remove carbon dioxide from atmosphere EMMA NISBET

JOSHUA STEWART

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

STAff WRITER

To his friends and colleagues, it came as no surprise that Tucker Shope would compete on the trivia game show "Jeopardy!" Shope, a Ph.D. student studying history at Mississippi State University, has always had a knack for trivia. Shope competed in an episode that aired on Nov. 11 against Willa Perlmutter, a lawyer from Portland, OR, and Andrew He, a software developer located in San Francisco, CA. Shope placed third in the episode. Shope performed well, answering questions primarily related to his favored subject of history. He had correct answers for questions about historical figures, including Leon Trotsky, John D. Rockefeller and Vlad Dracula, also known as the Impaler. Longtime friend and trivia partner Justin Brinkmeyer knew Shope when he was an undergraduate student at Lee University

Courtesy Photo | Jeopardy!

“Jeopardy!” host Ken Jennings is pictured with MSU Ph.D. student Tucker Shope on the show.

in Cleveland, TN. The two competed in bar trivia in the Cleveland and Chattanooga areas together. "He's a smart guy, so I knew he'd be very good at it," Brinkmeyer said. "Of course, his specialty was history and religion. When you create a trivia team, everybody has their specialty. He knows some music and pop culture as well." Another person who knew Shope during undergraduate school is John Coats, professor of history

at Lee University and Shope's former adviser. Coats talked about Shope's time in his classroom. "He came in not a history major but became intrigued with the discipline. He's very eclectic and curious about many things. That makes him a good student because when you're curious about things, you study them and pursue them. Tucker always marched to his own beat," Coats said. JEOPARDY!, 2

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Over the course of the summer of 2020, Colby Freeman, a senior biological engineering major at Mississippi State University, founded BECReative — a student organization with the purpose of pursuing a feasible method for carbon capture, sequestration, clean, renewable energy and overall reduction of the world's carbon footprint. The club consists of four teams: the market analysis team, carbon capture team, biological capture team and storage team. Members range from chemical, biological and biomedical engineering majors and biological sciences and computer science. Earlier this year, XPRIZE announced a four-year-long competition for student-run groups, established companies and startups to see who can most

FORECAST:The sun will come out tomorrow, Bulldogs! Look forward to a warm and sunny week to kick off the last moments of the fall semester. Going into the weekend, Friday night is looking stormy, and Saturday has a 20% chance of rain. Other than a small chance of rain, it is looking to be a beautiful weekend. Get out and enjoy it!

Courtesy of The Weather Channel

effectively remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. XPRIZE is an international nonprofit organization that develops and hosts competitions to utilize technological developments to benefit humanity, BECReative at MSU was one of 23 groups worldwide picked to receive a cash prize for making their proposal a reality. "This project was really going to be an opportunity to get the whole of the university involved," said club founder Freeman. Freeman officially started the group in May 2021 when he spearheaded getting the team off the ground and onto their feet. The club worked toward the XPRIZE competition all summer long. They started with a proposal, submitted it and then different professional engineers from around the world consulted their work to ensure

Ivy Rose Ball | The Reflector

BECReative club founder Colby Freeman.

their calculations were correct and that everything would work out the way it should. Time constraints were a big issue. "There was a big question of whether we were going to get it done from the beginning," Freeman said. BECReative's specific proposal is to combine carbon capture with the process of gasification. CONTEST, 2

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FASHION Her mother did not want her to go because her uncle's house, down the street from her grandmother's, had been shot at earlier that week. "I said 'Tia I don't think you need to go over there,' and she was like 'Well I gotta make my money,' and I said 'Tia, well you know what, you're grown. If I don't take you, you're going to find someone to take you anyways," Evans' mom said. According to Peace, later that night, after midnight, a group of men turned onto the road, firing out of their car. Evans was sitting on her grandmother's porch and got up to run but was hit as she was standing up and died shortly after. Evans' best friend and fellow fashion student, Jazzmin Butler, described her reaction to hearing the news. "I couldn't breathe," Butler said. Butler and Evans had been in classes together for years and had immediately become fast friends. Instructor Woodward recalled fond memories of Butler and Evans goofing off in class. The two girls were some of Woodward's

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first students in a sewing lab where they made pajama pants, a skirt and a men's dress shirt. "I can't always say that Tia loved (the lab). But she was there and always had a smile on her face, loved trying on her garments that were always too big for her. But her thing was to put them on a in class and just be silly," Woodward said. When talking to anyone about Tia, it is clear that there is one thing about Tia that stood out beyond all else: her smile. "All I can picture when I think about her is just how bright and how big her smile was," Woodward said. Butler even said Tia was the reason she came to class some days. "She did everything with, with grace, with poise. She was really one of my inspirations. She was, she really was the reason I would get up and go to class most of the times, just to see her, just to have her with me in class," Butler said. Evans was no stranger to adversity in her life. Earlier in college, she lost her boyfriend to gun violence, and 45 days before her death, she nearly died in a car accident. "I thought we had lost

her then," Butler said. But, despite the challenges she faced, Evans' mother said her daughter was always positive and upbeat. "She was just a freespirited person, outgoing person; that was her. She always looked to find the beauty of a situation," Peace said. This is clearly a life motto that Peace herself lives by. She looks upon her daughter's death as a mercy in disguise. "I understand life, I understand death. Of course I want my child here today but … apparently the Lord was ready for her. That's how I look at it, and that's the beauty of it all: my child is not here suffering," Peace said. In addition to dedicating the Trashion show to Evans, the fashion department is working on making a memory quilt for Evans' mom. They are planning to hold a dyeing workshop on Dec. 1 for students to dye the cotton for the quilt. Peace sent a tshirt from Evans' balloon release to be sewn into the blanket. The purple shirt sports a picture of Evans in the middle surrounded by the words "In memory of a beautiful soul."

Courtesy Photo | Rachel Woodward

A single rose lays on a seat in the audience of this year’s Fashion Board Trashion fashion show in honor of Tia Evans.

CONTEST

The team has not physically tested its proposal before, only virtually simulated. For the very first time, club members will experiment with their idea on MSU's campus. "Now that we've made it through the first phase, we have a chance of winning the $50 million prize," said Emiliano Estrada, senior biological engineering major and head of the market analysis team. "To be honest, we never really expected to get the 250k. It's been a lot."

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BECReative club members will use the money to support one of the club's members to attend graduate school at MSU, bring a graduate student onto their team to work in the lab and purchase equipment and materials for gasification. In February 2024, BECReative will have the opportunity to apply to have its work reviewed to qualify as a finalist. For this to happen, the team must demonstrate that their

proposal can remove 1,000 tons of carbon dioxide within one year. "It's definitely a big challenge," Freeman said, "but I think the great thing about the challenge of it is that even if we don't end up winning that prize, we're still set up very well, and I think that we've still contributed to progress in carbon capture which is the main goal of the competition." Freeman has been interested in biological engineering since he was in high school, yet

he initially started in the agricultural engineering branch upon beginning his undergraduate degree. "Engineering I really saw as an opportunity to take some problem-solving skills and then integrate it with biology," Freeman said. "I just think that biological systems are going to be so much better suited to do most things than we are, but if we can harness them, then we can do some really amazing things and that's kind of the whole

idea behind our project." The entire purpose of BECReative and XPRIZE's competition is to promote the removal of carbon dioxide, one of the biggest polluting greenhouse gases, from the Earth's atmosphere. "I think it's a good thing for younger generations to start taking action," BECReative market analysis head Estrada said. "All of my teammates are truly passionate about climate change and they

SHOPPING

Residents of Starkville said this kind of growth is something the community has been anticipating. Starkville has previously focused on local business growth rather than commercial growth. However, along with Triangle Crossing, Starkville has announced the construction of a Chipotle and has brought in similar projects such as Smoothie King and

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Academy Sports and Outdoors. These kinds of expansions promote benefits in many areas of the Starkville community. Starkville native Grant Peterson, a sophomore at Mississippi State University, expressed his enthusiasm for the new shopping center. "My family actually lives in Green Oaks, which is right across from where they're

building the new stores, so it'd be pretty convenient and fresh to have some different options available," Peterson said. "I also appreciate bringing in new businesses as Starkville grows, even as the pandemic is causing lots of businesses to struggle." Peterson also predicts an issue with the center's location. Although it is convenient for his

family, it is inconveniently far from the MSU campus. "The placement of the new shopping center is inconvenient for most students, which alienates a significant portion of Starkville area's customer base," Peterson said. Students unfamiliar with Starkville share the same excitement despite the location's distance from campus. "I am especially

JEOPARDY! Coats discussed Shope's performance on "Jeopardy!" and what strategies winning contestants use. "He definitely did not embarrass himself. I've had other students go on Jeopardy before, and it seems like the real trick is buzzing in fast enough. If you notice, the guy who won almost never jumped straight into the answer, he would talk slowly because he was figuring out the answer as he was saying it," Coats said. Brinkmeyer provided insight into the preparation of contestants for "Jeopardy!" "The actual amount of knowledge that the show tests on is not that extensive. It's a fairly narrow thing over the last fifty years, so the questions are revamped and recycled. You have to come up with those answers quickly, and then get lucky with the buzzer. You can memorize so

really do care about making a difference." Since its conception, professors Fei Yu and Amin Amirlatifi have assisted BECReative members and allowed the students to use the professors' labs to research, conduct experiments and collect data. Freeman said he plans to attend grad school at MSU and continue working on the project. "This is not the end," said club adviser Yu. "Especially for a student club, this is just the start."

excited for the Five Below because it is one of my mom's favorite stores," said Josh Cohran, a freshman at MSU from Byram, Mississippi. Cohran expressed that the new upgrades to this community will hopefully attract family members to visit their children. He agreed with Mayor Spruill and said he believes the surrounding, more rural areas around Starkville

will likely benefit just as much as the residents. With a rise in the tourism industry due to MSU's recent baseball National Championship win, the city can now support visiting family, friends and athletic teams with developments like Triangle Crossing. New stores and renowned businesses are a way the community can attract new residents in addition to travelers. CONTINUED FROM 1

much information but get unlucky with the buzzer," Brinkmeyer said. Coats spoke about the best ways to prepare for trivia, especially as it relates to his field of history. "I would say read it. That's one thing Tucker does well, and he has a good recall of what he reads. I would start with general textbooks, American history, European history and African history. If you had time, I would keep working my way down from the textbook into more specific things," Coats said. Brinkmeyer agreed that reading was one of the best ways to study trivia, and gave several other suggestions as well. "I would suggest reading a lot. I would find bulletin board websites where other people talk to one another about trivia. Finding out what other people do is helpful," Brinkmeyer said.

Shope said he had been subtly preparing to compete on the show his whole life. "You have to really take in things throughout life and be observant. You have to be open to learning things regardless of where they are," Shope said. "Being good at trivia is not just about studying an encyclopedia. It's if you learn something interesting, if you read about it in a book, you go and search for more information about it. You try to remember the names of people you see on TV; you watch the Oscars every year, that sort of thing." Shope mentioned his grandparents as a key influence on his decision to pursue a spot on "Jeopardy!" "I lived with my grandparents during undergrad, and every night we'd make dinner, watch 'Wheel of Fortune' and then watch

'Jeopardy!' We would compete against each other, and I would normally come out on top. After I graduated in 2018, I took the online test for the show. It wasn't about being on TV, it was about being able to play Jeopardy in person, live with the board and the buzzer and the contestants," Shope said. Shope spoke about his experience of being on "Jeopardy!" and said the opportunity was valuable and rewarding. "Just being on the show was amazing. Competing against other people was fun. It was great being in the studio. Walking through there, people pointed out 'By the way, "Wizard of Oz" was filmed in there, "Singing in the Rain" over there, "Shark Tank" is filmed right up there.' It was a great experience to be there and get to do it regardless of the outcome," Shope said.

Courtesy Photo | Jeopardy!

Tucker Shope competed on the Nov. 11 episode of “Jeopardy!” He came in third place.

THE REFLECTOR | WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2021 | @SPORTSREFLECTOR

SPORTS

“It would mean ever ything” Without a place to call home, MSU club baseball presses onward This is a team— one with a full roster and a travel budget. There is one thing they're lacking, though: a place to call home. During the pandemic year, the team played at a local high school. Now, however, due to new regulations, they have to find a new place to play. Several of the team members spoke about what exactly the club is and what it would mean to be able to have somewhere permanent to call home. "It would mean everything," said Trace Adams, a junior mechanical engineering major. "That'd be incredible. Right now we're having to, you know, find a place out here. We don't always get lights, so some days we just can't practice. So finding a forsure home that we know we could always use would be incredible." Club president C.J. Fisher, a junior finance major, provided insight into the history of the team's field usage. "This is my third year with the team, and for my freshman year we used to have to drive a half hour to West Lowndes High School for every practice and every game ... and last year they kind of terminated our agreement. We played one game at (Starkville Academy) and they charged us a single game fee, but honestly we're kind of homeless," Fisher said. They may be homeless, but this is a team that still loves the game.

Tanner marlar sporTs ediTor

On a chilly, dry Tuesday October night, the MSU club baseball team met for one of their bi-weekly practices. There were no scholarship athletes on the field, no five-star recruits, no cameras or crowds of thousands, just guys playing the game they love. These guys weren't out here because they wanted to work on their slider, or to put in work in the cage and earn their next NIL deal. They were here because they love baseball, and aren't ready to give it up just yet. This was what the sport is supposed to be— America's pastime in its purest form. They wear the Mississippi State University colors proudly and compete at the highest level they can against other schools across the country, sometimes even in hopes of catching some eyes, like former MSU club baseball player Matthew Reed. He can now be found taking the mound for the University of Alabama-Birmingham Blazers on game days, still playing the game he loves, all because he was noticed during his time on the club team here in Starkville. These players meet at the Starkville Sportsplex fields on Tuesdays and Thursdays to practice, but for the entirety of this semester, they have been met with uncertainty.

"We just want to play ball," Adams said. "That's what this is all about." In terms of what joining the team is all about, new member and sophomore business administration major Luke Wyman was able to offer some insight.

"Realistically, just joining the club team, you really just come out and do a tryout. We're not very strict on it, you know, as long as you've got the fundamentals down and you can make the easy plays and play the game for what it is,

you should be good to go," Wyman said. With every athletic club, there of course comes dues, and this one is no different. Dues are broken up into two payments of $150 a semester, so the financial burden is minimized as

much as possible. As for tryouts, those will take place as soon as students come back to school next semester in January. In order to schedule one, you can message the team on Instagram or Twitter @hailstateclubbaseball.

Courtesy Photo | MSU Club Baseball

Junior business administration major Kyle Kisslinger awaits a pitch in action for the Bulldogs this past season. The team did not get to play during the pandemic.

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OPINION

MSU needs more functional nature spots around cam pus f or s tudents and s t af f aaROn WatERSOn COntRIButIng WRItER

Mississippi State University's campus does a very good job of balancing the feel of a mostly natural campus with the necessities of a college setup, but with the Sam D. Hamilton Noxubee Refuge being under half an hour away and the Tombigbee National Forest being about double the travel time to get to, it feels like there should be more opportunities to delve into nature. More nature exposure for the average student would be beneficial in a lot of ways. Christina Heiser with NBC reported people who had taken walks through a forest were found to have lower blood pressure and measurably lower amounts of stress chemicals such as cortisol running through their body compared to those who were spending time walking in more urban environments. The hustle and bustle of MSU's campus can absolutely qualify as an urban area, which is all the more reason that we need it. Harvard Health Publishing found a similar decrease in stress

Hailey Storey | The Reflector

Hannah Storey admires a gingko tree outside of the Mitchell Memorial Library. Gingko trees are are commonly believed to have originated in China, but are actually native to North America.

through exposure to nature, even in small increments like the slight gaps between classes. It is just generally important to have a lot of exposure to the natural aspects of the world. To some degree, MSU

has already made it to where students have access to natural things like pocket parks and the inclusion of plenty of plants and trees around campus, but there could also stand to be some improvement. A shuttle to the Refuge

a few times a day could work to help people take more advantage of the placement of campus as a whole. Another thing that could help is adding even more of the pocket parks. Kathleen L. Wolf with the National Parks

Multiple fine dining options have no place in Starkville JORDan BROCk

COntRIButIng WRItER

As students living in a university town, we are used to cheap dining options. Most rely on fast food to satisfy their needs such as a Wendy's 4 for $4 meal deal or a $6 Cookout tray. However, sometimes you want to go sit down and eat with your friends. Cheaper Mexican restaurants are usually a go-to unless you are wanting something different like a $10 burger from Mugshots. Most dine-in restaurants located in Starkville cater to a cost that college students can afford, but there are exceptions to this trend with a select amount of fine dining restaurants, including a new addition called Taste. Taste is located where The Veranda was until its closure amidst the COVID19 pandemic. The Veranda was a high-end restaurant like Taste. According to Mary Pollitz at The Commercial Dispatch The Veranda was losing money every month. So, this begs the question, if the previous high-end restaurant was failing, why would another fine dining restaurant succeed? Starkville is known for being one thing, the home of

Mississippi State University. According to World Population Review, the highest population by age is the 20year-old age range as it holds a whopping almost 5,000 residents, followed by the 25-year-old age range which is almost 3,000. Starkville is a college town, so opening a restaurant which does not cater to college students does not make sense economically. Taste's menu offers many high price dinner entrees with the lowest being $19 and the highest being $43. There are other restaurants in Starkville which are also in this price range, like Restaurant Tyler located off Main Street. Restaurant Tyler's dinner menu is similar to Taste with upper expense level menu items. MSU students are already paying thousands of dollars to attend school, so paying a minimum of $30 for a meal is a little excessive. According to the Mississippi State Office of Admissions and Scholarships, the annual cost of attendance for instate students is $19,850. Some students find it difficult to balance a job with a

full academic load, so, when looking for a place to eat, these unemployed students are not looking to drop $30 on a single meal.

Places like Taste and Restaurant Tyler are more geared toward the residents of Starkville and successful alumni rather than the college students who keep the town afloat. Having one higher-class dining option would not be something excessive but having multiple will cause

these small businesses to inevitably lose money. Harveys is a well-known nice dining restaurant in Starkville. The Harveys' parking lot is always full when driving down Highway 12 at dinner time. With Harveys being at the top of the highclass dining list, it does not make sense for the list to be lengthened. Small business owners in Starkville are always supported by the community to succeed, however like the new restaurant Taste, residents cannot always afford to support these local businesses. If you want to open a business, then keeping the most plentiful target audience in mind is a necessity. I always want local businesses to succeed, but to me going to Taste is a oneand-done type of restaurant. I would go once, after I got paid, and get the cheapest thing on the menu just to have the experience. Starkville is an amazing city with great restaurants, and Taste has great reviews with food I am sure tastes amazing, but would it be worth spending an arm and a leg? I will let you be the judge of that.

and Recreation Association points toward research which specifies small natural areas like pocket parks as being incredibly beneficial to creativity and productivity in people who spent time in them. While we have several in and

around the Drill Field, adding more benches could help with allowing people to take advantage of those benefits. There could even be some encouragement for professors to host classes outside to give students a breath of fresh air and some of that exposure without sacrificing academic time. It would be a nice break from the constantly buzzing and headache-inducing fluorescent lights which populate classrooms around campus. Granted, this comes with the obstacle of what to do when the weather is less-than cooperative but if there were pavilions scattered around, the weather would not be much of an obstacle. In short, more natural and rural activities should be implemented around campus, and those that currently exist should be promoted more, as they tend to slip through the cracks of the overcrowded pin boards. Every stressed person on and around campus would benefit from the inclusion of more nature exposure and activities, and since MSU is not completely surrounded by a city, the source of those benefits should be made into a reality.

HOT TAKE: COFFEE SUCKS AND TEA IS SUPERIOR

Yes, you read that right. I would much rather drink dirty leaf water over dirty bean water. Like many college students, I tried to dive into the world of coffee culture, which is "the social atmosphere and social interactions that are related to coffee and coffee houses" as defined by South Africa Info, but I found the concept of it to be far better than the actual coffee drink. I have tried it with cream, sugar, multiple types of milks and the wide array of flavored syrups, from hot to cold, at multiple local coffee shops and chains. But alas, I have still been let down with far less enjoyment than everyone pretends to have. When you have a cup of tea, it is like a hug in a glass.

My favorite variations of tea are made with earl grey tea with either a London Fog or just the tea and a drizzle of honey. Something about it just feels more natural and comforting than a cup of coffee. Tea, while widely popularized in England, has its origins in China with a legend revolving around royalty, according to the Lipton Tea website. So, if it is fit for kings and queens, then it is great for someone as common as me. You can also feel like a true American and dunk tea into the water of your cup to recreate the Boston Tea party thrill. Coffee originated on the Ethiopian plateau according to legend, as mentioned by the National Coffee Association, and made its way across the Arabian Peninsula and Europe. It did not make it to the U.S. until the British brought it in the mid-1600s. The main reason for its popularization was because it provided a source of quick energy. While coffee has surpassed tea in popularity, tea still holds it ground by being the favorite drink of choice for many.

about coming together and using music to connect and demonstrate love and friendship. Henson makes effort to both respect the music from his home, jug band music and the contemporary music from the time, rock and roll. Do not let anyone de-

ceive you, Jim Henson was cool. "Emmet Otter's Family Jug Band Christmas" is short, sweet and nostalgic. This year, take a break between viewings of "Die Hard," sit down with your family and enjoy the work of Mississippi's greatest puppeteer.

EMMA DOTSON is a senior majoring in communication. Contact her at opinion@reflector.msstate.edu

STREAMING NOW: “EMMET OTTER” Tu n e i n e v e r y w e e k fo r a n e w re v i e w fo r w h a t i s t re n d i n g o n yo u r s e r v i c e s. LukE COPLEY

SHOW tItLE:

“EMMEt OttER’S FaMILY Jug-BanD CHRIStMaS”

StaFF WRItER

I like Christmas movies as much as anyone else, but I have seen "Elf" far too many times. I have more of the "Santa Claus" trilogy memorized than I do the Bible. As we get ready for the holiday season, consider taking a quick 52 minutes this month to appreciate a Christmas movie which gets less attention than it deserves year after year: "Jim Henson's Emmet Otter's Family Jug -Band Christmas." Jim Henson, the creative force

behind the Muppet's franchise, was born in Greenville, Mississippi. While "Emmet Otter" does not technically fall under the Muppet main canon, I think the species name for any puppets that Henson made is "Muppet." Further, I believe if this film had been marketed as a Muppets movie it would get the attention it deserves, but instead, it has become everyone's mom's favorite Christmas movie, like something which was once really good. In-

correct. It is currently very good. The film opens in Waterville, a rural town with a river running through it, days out from Christmas. Emmet Otter and his mother, known only as Ma, do laundry and odd repairmen jobs to get by after Emmet's dad dies. The movie has a cast of lovable characters: porcupines with quills popping through their clothes, foxes in top hats and frogs in glasses. When the town organizes a talent show with a $50 prize,

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Emmett and Ma both make sacrifices to enter with hopes to buy the other a Christmas gift. "Emmet Otter" is such a refreshing Christmas movie because it has so little to do with any of the famous iconography associated with the holiday. There is nomentionofSantaortheChristmas spirit. It is more about music than Christmas and about playing together with your friends and family. The acts in the talent show are not holiday songs, but songs

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THE REFLECTOR | WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2021 | @REFLECTORONLINE

LIFE & ENTERTAINMENT

Local tattoo artist Meat brings art to life

HannaH BLankenSHiP

editor-in-CHief

The door jingles as it opens into a small, dimly lit room filled with the distinct aroma of cigarette smoke. The inside of Animal House Tattoo, a small shack on the side of Highway 12, boasts an orange couch, plenty of wall art and a row of stickers for sale with messages like "Kiss my tattoo" and "Practice safe sex. Go fyourself." A stocky, bearded man sits behind the counter. His name is Meat. Plenty of inked students on MSU's campus are familiar with Meat and have his handiwork on their body to prove it. But most of them are less familiar with the history that lies behind the artist. In 11th grade, Meat, whose real name is Edward Johnson, was chosen to be a Walt Disney Company animator. Disney was hirng background animators or "The Lion King 2: Simba's Pride," and Meat and his friend applied just or fun. They were surprised when they got a phone call asking when they could move to Orando. "The first question was 'Where do you have your major and master's in art rom?' and I was like 'I'm n 11th grade' and he was ike 'There's no way you're in 11th grade,' and I said 'I am,'" Meat said, recounting the phone conversation. The recruiter told him he would hold the job for him. But unfortunately, a new director was hired and that promise fell through. So Meat took "the long way around" and went through art school at Mississippi State University. After he graduated, he applied again and got accepted to work at the Disney parks and shadow the animation team. "I signed the paperwork, shook the guy's hand, and when I stuck my arm out,

Adam Sullivan|The Reflector

Starkville tattoo artist Edward Johnson has been working at Animal House Tattoo since 2012. Johnson’s, or “Meat’s,” work can be seen on students and residents across Starkville.

the bottom of my tattoo stuck out from under my sleeve, and he pulls my arm across and pulls my sleeve up and says 'I can't hire you with tattoos,'" Meat said. It is indeed a rule that no Disney park employees are allowed to have tattoos, and Meat, for the second time, was denied being an animator for Disney. But, as Meat said, he is pretty good at not letting things get him down. "I had a child, so she had just been born. I was like, 'Well, you know, you can't sit here and mope about this. You gotta take care of her,'" Meat said. Meat moved on to the next thing and put his drawing skills to work, just on real people rather than animated characters. Meat has been working at Animal House Tattoo since 2012 and devotes nearly 60 hours a week to his job,

maybe more. He is just grateful to have a job in his major, he said. "In Mississippi (tattooing is) the only thing artwise to really make money off of," Meat said. But, despite his long hours, he never lets his work get in the way of his relationship with his loved ones. "I've always made time for (my daughter). If it comes between her and the job, I'm gonna make sure I take care of her first … She's with me more than she's not," Meat said. Even those who know Meat only for the amount of time it takes to get a tattoo know how special his daughter is to him. Sarah Margaret Knight, a junior communication major at Mississippi State University, said she got a tattoo from Meat almost exactly a year ago. "Meat was really nice.

and her friends started discussing who would be in town, that's when the Thanksgiving-hopping with Orr came into play. "All my friends were like, 'Come to ours, come to ours,' and I ended up cancelling on someone because I was like, 'We can't go to four Thanksgivings,'" Kennedy said. "We just have mutual friends and she came over and we were both the only people out of our friend group whose families weren't in town." Orr and Kennedy spent the morning watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and then started their rounds at friends' family gatherings. "It definitely felt like home away from home, in the sense that the whole community that does celebrate thanksgiving there, invited us in and included us in their thanksgiving," Orr said. "It was really sweet and fun." While the Egg Bowl was the motivation behind a lot of students staying in town for Thanksgiving, there are also a few students who choose not to leave Starkville for an extended period of time over the winter break as well. Paige Hunt, Starkville's director of tourism through the Starkville Greater Development Partnership, shared some upcoming events in town that would be available for students who decide to stay in town to attend, as well as those who are leaving to be able to see before the break begins. Some of the events she shared were the Starkville Christmas Parade in down-

town Starkville, which happened on Monday, as well as Starkville's 49th annual Holiday Bazaar, which took place at the Mill Conference Center Dec. 1-2. These, Hunt mentioned, are great for students and families alike, with the parade being a fun activity and the bazaar serving as a way to get some holiday shopping done while supporting local artisans in the area that both locals and students call home. Friday, the Budweiser Clydesdales are coming to Starkville. They will make a route through downtown as well, and public viewing of them will be available at Fire Station Park beginning at 3 p.m., with a parade following that. With activities like these jumpstarting the holiday season and many more to come, students who choose to spend the break in Starkville will have plenty of opportunities to get involved locally with activities and shopping. Hunt shared that Starkville is a great place to spend the holidays, and that families of students should feel welcome to spend the seasonal time together in the quaint college town. "There's definitely shopping and dining and things to do," Hunt said. "And obviously, it sounds pretty cliche, but there's some really great Christmas lights that folks put up, and it could be fun to drive around and look at Christmas lights. We have all new Christmas decorations in downtown Starkville. It really does look like a Hallmark movie, it's beautiful."

He was telling me a story about his daughter and how he had just bought his daughter a car, and he was really proud of himself, which I thought was really sweet," Knight said. Myia Wilson, a junior communication major at MSU, got her first tattoo from Meat on the night of her 18th birthday. "He loves his daughter. He has her artwork all over his office," Wilson said. Knight also mentioned the skill with which Meat did her tattoo, which was a backward "S" to represent her recovery from scoliosis. "He did a good job doing the tattoo, like his technique was good. It didn't really hurt," Knight said. But how does a tattoo artist go from drawing on paper to drawing on another human? Meat revealed the secret to his soft touch.

"We practice on fruit," he said. First, tattoo apprentices start off using the machines to draw straight lines on lemons, then graduate to drawing stars. Then they move onto oranges, honeydew and finally tomatoes. "Then it was a red tomato with a really little tiny liner. And if you can tattoo that without it exploding, you should never damage anybody's skin," Meat said. Next comes the final step: tattooing yourself. "You feel like you don't have the right to cause anybody pain unless you know what it feels like by your own hand. It gives you a greater respect for the process," Meat said. Many of the tattoos Meat does are common symbols. He said the infinity sign will probably be popular for the length of its own

meaning — infinity. But Meat's passion lies in lengthy, elaborate tattoos — true works of art. His favorite tattoo he has ever done is recreating the hands of man and God from Michelangelo's "The Creation of Adam" across a man's chest. But for all the good tattoo ideas Meat sees, he also sees plenty of bad ones — such as a full-color Smurfette smoking a blunt spanning the entirety of a young woman's forearm, or a sixpoint nautical star on a man's neck to cover up the word "goon" that was already tattooed beneath his chin. Although Meat loves art, and always has for as long as he can remember, he said his favorite part of the job is the people. Wilson, who has been back to Animal House several times for nose piercings, immediately mentioned Meat's proclivity to chat with clients. "If you do go in there to see Meat, you definitely need to set aside two hours of your time because he does love to talk," Wilson said. Meat said he is prone to getting in trouble for talking too much. "You get to meet new people all the time, and then your older customers, they're almost like a separate family that come in here constantly, and then you get back there and you get to talking, and I get fussed at for talking too much," Meat said. " … There's some people that start telling you stuff and it's like 'Oop I don't wanna know, because I don't wanna be an accomplice when they find the dead body in the woods, so stop talking.'" Although Meat's drawings could not be brought to life on the movie screen, they are brought to life daily by every person who sits in the tattoo chair and leaves Animal House bearing Meat's art on their body.

Students choose to stay home in Starkville for the holidays

Lydia PaLmer

Staff Writer

Every year, a mass exodus of Mississippi State University students from Starkville, Mississippi, to their various hometowns occurs. While many students choose to go home for the holidays, some choose to stay in the college town. While winter break is a ong break with more opportunities for students to travel, the break for the Thanksgiving holiday is shorter and less students choose to go home. This could be because of limited time to travel, studying for inals or the fact that the Egg Bowl is held on Thanksgiving Day. Seeing the rivalry game between the University of Mississippi and MSU at home in Davis Wade Stadium is hard to pass up for many Bulldog students. Elizabeth Orr, a first semester grad student studyng early intervention from Summerville, Tennessee, chose to stay in Starkville this year. Because she was already staying in town for the Egg Bowl, Orr chose to stay in Starkville for the full day, and had a unique Thanksgiving holiday experience. Orr spent her time Thanksgiving-hopping with her friend Chatham Kennedy, a student in the University of Alabama's Distance Learning program, in which she is earning her master's degree in social work. Kennedy had Thanksgivng plans change last minute and decided to stay in town or the Egg Bowl. When she

Courtesy Photo|Elizabeth Orr

Elizabeth Orr and Chatham Kennedy celebrated Thanksgiving here in Starkville, where they were a part of three celebrations.

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