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B8 Sunday, September 13, 2009 The Vicksburg Post The associated press Sue Monk Kidd, right, and her daughter, Ann Kidd Taylor ‘Bees’ author Kidd, daughter pen memoir By Bruce Smith The Associated Press MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. — The latest book by novelist Sue Monk Kidd gives her fans a window into the creation of her popular best seller, “The Secret Life of Bees,” and into the deepening relationship with her daughter, who helped write the memoir. “Traveling With Pomegranates” features Kidd and first-time author Ann Kidd Taylor alternating chapters as they tell of loss and discovery, myth and the relationship between mothers and daughters. The book, published by Viking, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA), came out Tuesday. Subtitled “A Mother- Daughter Story,” Kidd tells of a woman dealing with the changes and loss of turning 50 — a woman with a deep desire to become a novelist and who incubates a story about a white Southern girl who runs away to live with three black beekeepers. Taylor writes of finding her place after graduating from college and suffering the breakup of a long-term relationship. The writers set their memoir against the backdrop of travels to France, Greece and Turkey between 1998 and 2000 in what becomes a journey of discovery. “It’s a story of coming into age of a young woman, but it’s also my story of crossing over into being an older woman,” Kidd says. “They are so different but in a lot of ways they are the same because you’re having to deal with feelings of loss.” The book opens in Greece before a bas-relief of Demeter and her daughter Persephone. In Greek myth, Persephone is abducted by the lord of the dead and her mother seeks her. Persephone finally returns but only after unwittingly swallowing pomegranate seeds, meaning she must return to the underworld part of each year. As in the myth, Kidd felt she had lost her daughter. “When she left college, I could feel this distance sort of encroaching,” she says, sitting in the airy great room of her home that overlooks the marsh in this Charleston suburb. “I thought I miss her and will she ever come back?” “I could feel her leaving in a way of emotional distance, a kind of silence,” Kidd recalls. “We were talking but in a superficial way. We never had one of those pyrotechnical relationships that are famously written about. It wasn’t crazy. It was a normal relationship where we had these classic struggles.” Their journey proves to be, above all, one of Cover of “Traveling With Pomegranates: A Mother- Daughter Story” reconnection. “While there was this other story happening the big story was we again found one another,” says Kidd, 61. “It’s the channel where the souls of a mother and daughter open and flow as two separate adults, woman to woman,” Kidd writes toward the end of the book. “It is, I know now, a place created through necessary loss and necessary search and a reinvention of the whole relationship.” That mother and daughter wrote together seems fitting, for they look remarkably alike. Both have expressive eyes, Kidd’s are hazel trending toward brown and Taylor’s eyes a lighter blue; Kidd wears her auburn hair short, her daughter in a shoulder-length bob. Taylor, 33 and who at first contemplated an academic life in Greek studies, discovers during her journeys that she wants to become a writer, too. “I felt I had to go do something else because my mom is a writer,” she says. “As our relationship changed, I realized I could have this relationship with my mom and still be a writer. It had always been there.” Kidd’s first novel, “The Secret Life of Bees,” tells the story of a white girl in the South during the civil rights era who flees her abusive father to end up living with three black women who raise bees. The book spent 125 weeks on The New York Times list of best-sellers and last year was made into a movie with Queen Latifah and Dakota Fanning. Kidd’s second novel, “The Mermaid Chair,” also climbed to the top of best-seller lists and was made into a television movie. Taylor, who had written numerous articles and essays for a local magazine, started writing “Pomegranates” on her own. “I had lived with the idea so long and wanted to write it so badly that my mom’s success didn’t play into what went on at the beginning. Of course, that came up later,” she laughs. “I’m going to write something and it will be horrible and my mom has got this career and I’m going to sink it.” Taylor started writing in 2003, but found she couldn’t do it alone; she found she needed to include her mother’s story as well. “I saw there was so much more going on and so much of my travel experience was with my mom,” she explains. “There was another story of our relationship and how it had changed and deepened and I didn’t want to leave that out.” Kidd herself had wanted to write about the trips but felt it was her daughter’s story until she asked her to contribute. The Warren County-Vicksburg Public Library reports on new books regularly: • “We Had Sneakers, They Had Guns” by Tracy Sugarman is the story of the kids who fought for civil rights in Mississippi. No one experienced the Freedom Summer of 1964 quite like Sugarman. As an illustrator and journalist, he covered the nearly 1,000 student volunteers who traveled to the Mississippi Delta to assist blacks in the South in registering to vote. He interviewed these activists, along with local civil rights leaders and black and white residents not directly involved in the movement, and drew the people and events that made the summer one of the most heroic chapters in America’s long march toward racial justice. • “The Art of Making Money: The Story of a Master Counterfeiter” by Jason Kersten is the story of Art Williams. This book details how a gifted and obsessed individual using offthe-shelf supplies was able to defeat the most advanced anti-forging technologies ever devised; how Williams and his partner-in-crime wife converted fake bills into legitimate tender at shopping malls all over America; and how they stayed one step ahead of the Secret Service until trusting the wrong person brought them all down. • “In the Sanctuary of Outcasts” by Neil White is a memoir of his time spent in a federal prison in Carville, La. After his conviction for embezzling, the judge sentenced him to 18 months in a federal prison. But it was no ordinary prison. The beautiful, isolated colony in Carville was also home to the last people in the continental U.S. disfigured by leprosy. Hidden for decades, the small circle of outcasts had forged a tenacious, clandestine community, a fortress to repel the cruelty of the outside world. It is here, in a place rich with history, where the Mississippi River briefly runs north, amid an unlikely mix of leprosy patients, nuns and criminals that White’s strange and compelling journey begins. He finds a new best friend in Ella Bounds, an 80-year-old double amputee who had contracted leprosy as a child. She and the other secret people, along with a wacky troop of inmates, help White rediscover the value of simplicity, friendship and gratitude. • “Methland: The Death and Life of an American Small Town” by Nick Reding focuses on the small town of Oelwein, Iowa, population 6,126. Like thousands of other rural communities across the country, Oelwein has been left in the dust by the consolidation of the agricultural industry, a depressed local economy and an out-migration of people. Now an incredibly cheap, long-lasting and highly effective drug has taken its hold. Centered on one community battling for a brighter future, it reveals the connections between the real-life people touched by the drug epidemic and the global forces behind it. • “The State of Jones” by Sally Jenkins and John Stauffer is a true story about the South during the Civil War. In Jones County, Miss., a farmer named Newton Knight led his neighbors, white and black, in an insurrection against the Confederacy at the height of the Civil War. FRESH GRILLED NORWEGIAN SALMON with shrimp and crawfish $ 12 95 PRIME RIB SATURDAY NIGHTS Karaoke Wednesday, Thursday, Friday & Saturday Nights! Jacques’ Cafe Battlefield Inn • 601-638-5811 new on the shelves Knight’s life story mirrors the little-known class struggle in the South. This account takes us inside the battle of Corinth and to the siege of Vicksburg. Off the battlefield, the Newton Knight story is rich in drama as well. He was a man with two loves: his wife and an ex-slave named Rachel. It was Rachel who cared for Knight during the war, when he was hunted by the Confederates, and later, when members of the Knight clan sought revenge for the disgrace he had brought on the family name. • “Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture” by Ellen R. Shell uncovers the cost of our penchant for making and buying things as cheaply as possible. This pervasive yet little-examined obsession is arguably the most powerful and devastating market force of our time — an engine of instability in an increasingly unsettled world. Our fixation on low price has also fueled a surfeit of consumption that threatens our health, imperils our environment, lowers our standard of living, and even skews our concept of time. Low price is so alluring that we have forgotten how thoroughly we once distrusted it. The author traces the birth of the bargain as we know it from the industrial revolution to the assembly line to discount retailers and beyond. • “Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari, and their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans” by A.J. Baime tells the remarkable story of how Henry Ford II, with the help of a young visionary named Lee Iacocca and former racing champion turned car builder Carroll Shelby, concocted a scheme to reinvent the Ford company. They would enter the high-stakes world of European racing, where an adventurous few threw safety and sanity out the window. They would design, build, and race a car that would beat Ferrari “RAINBOW CONNECTION” By PAMELA AMICK KLAWITTER ACROSS 1 Sharp comment 5 12th century year 9 Tante’s spouse 14 Guttural interruption 18 Domingo forte 19 Brother of Moses 20 Santa’s favorite snack cakes? 21 Limp-watch artist 22 Fake footprint at the murder scene, e.g. 24 __-garde 25 Words of triumph 26 Story starter? 27 Kiss drummer Peter 28 Tea type 30 Bite hard 31 Conjurer’s word 32 Ages like iron 33 Coward, slangily 37 Finishes, as a lawn 39 Net business 40 It may have a code 41 James Bond’s domain 43 A-Team muscleman 46 Fitness franchise primarily for women 48 Related to the lower back 50 Evening parties 52 Adjusts, as sagging socks 54 Helmsley and others 56 1930s-’40s singer/actress Durbin 57 Stuffed shirt 59 “As a matter of fact,” informally 61 More illmannered 62 Stare 66 Anne’s home, in a 1908 Montgomery classic 70 Statutes 71 Paperless tests 73 Meal on a stick 74 Bad marks 76 Nursery rhyme loser? 78 Make a home (in) 81 “Like that’ll ever happen!” 86 Shows up 88 Correct, as text 90 Site of a bread line? 91 “L.A. Law” costar 92 Go round and round 94 __ land: unreality 96 Marathoner’s woe 97 Island east of Java 98 Aristocratic 100 Pay attention in class 103 Like a dismal day 106 One of a world majority 107 “Closer to Fine” folk-rock duo 109 Fishing mishaps 110 Struggle to make, with “out” 113 Cranny’s partner 114 Honda, to Toyota 115 Ponytailed pal of Lucy Van Pelt, in “Peanuts” 117 Wittenberg’s river 118 Knock off 119 Wrong move 120 Mythical matchmaker 121 Highlands rejections at his own game in the most prestigious and brutal race in the world — the 24 Hours of Le Mans — something no American car had ever done. • Also look for “Requiem for a Paper Bag: Celebrities & Civilians Tell Stories of Unscramble these six Jumbles, one letter to each square, to form six ordinary words. GEDDEW <strong>NEW</strong> Jumble iPhone App go to: www.bit.ly/15QkRq UNSADE NAMMDA BINBBO TYMARR CHULAN ©2009 Tribune Media Services, Inc. All Rights Reserved. the Best Lost, Tossed, and Found Items from around the World” edited by Davy Rothbart. • Denise Hogan is reference interlibrary loan librarian at the Warren County- Vicksburg Public Library. Write to her at 700 Veto St., Vicksburg, MS 39180. THAT SCRAMBLED WORD GAME by Mike Argirion and Jeff Knurek Now arrange the circled letters to form the surprise answer, as suggested by the above cartoon. PRINT YOUR ANSWER IN THE CIRCLES BELOW HIS “ ” RELEASE DATE—Sunday, September 13, 2009 Los Angeles Times Sunday Crossword Puzzle Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis 122 Specter on the 19 Hood’s weapon? Hill 23 Lacking auditory 123 Locker room Answer feedback : group 28 Jazz trombonist 124 Slider’s WEDGED goal MADMAN Kid __ SUNDAE BOBBIN 29 Chinese leader What DOWN the Olympic 30 star Horror liked writer to 1 Unadorned throw — Barker 2 Aggressive 31 Put Greek god HIS “WEIGHT” 33 “Ugh!” 3 Frees (of) AROUND 34 Case for 4 Scrooge’s cry tweezers and 5 Cousin of the such xylophone 35 Symbol of 6 Veggie drawers happiness 7 Charged 36 “Boston Public” particles actress Sharon 8 Having one 38 Like no news? sharp, musically 41 Decaf pioneer 9 Chicago site of 42 “If at first you many don’t succeed” connections course of action 10 Bright stars 43 “How Can You 11 Seaman’s song __ Broken 12 A million to one, Heart?”: Bee say Gees hit 13 Italian noble 44 Keep getting family Mad, say 14 Gigi’s goodbyes 45 Old dynasts 15 Warmongers 47 Like most pop 16 Economist hits Janeway 49 Mnemonic for 17 Gets the lead this puzzle’s out? theme 51 He succeeded Fidel 53 Politically motivated MARTYR spending LAUNCH55 Auctioneer’s shout 58 Nasty exam 60 Lawn intruder 62 Turn 63 Soap-on-__ SEPTEMBER 13, 2009 64 Popeye’s dad Poopdeck __ 65 Civil War’s Robt. __ 67 Big name in criticism 68 Long time follower? 69 Certain Slav 72 Chef’s hightemperature technique 75 Vacation area 77 Annual dance 79 Lollapalooza 80 Twin of Jacob 82 Goodyear’s home 83 Hoover Dam’s lake 84 “It’s him __”: lover’s ultimatum 85 “Blue” TV squad 87 More boring 89 __ Fagan, Billie Holiday’s birth name 93 New kid on the block, e.g. 95 Third son of King David 97 Toys “R” Us purchases 98 Real est. ad count 99 Hybrid big cat 100 Bedding material 101 First name in B- 29 lore 102 Southwestern home 104 Rub off 105 Woody in films 108 Willy of “Free Willy” 109 Foal’s father 110 Columnist Bombeck 111 “Get Smart” evil agency 112 Thornfield Hall governess 115 Check for accuracy 116 Gift of the garrulous 9/13/09 xwordeditor@aol.com ©2009 Tribune Media Services, Inc. ANSWERS ON B10 ANSWER TO TODAY’S PUZZLE
The Vicksburg Post Sunday, September 13, 2009 B9 THe ViCKsBuRG POsT Business Karen Gamble, managing editor | E-mail: newsreleases@vicksburgpost.com | Tel: 601.636.4545 ext 137 GASOLINE PRICES Average regular unleaded self-service prices as of Friday: Jackson .............................$2.31 Vicksburg .................$2.33 Tallulah .............................$2.36 Sources: Jackson AAA, Vicksburg and Tallulah, Automotive. com PORTFOLIO We welcome your news about achievements by area employees. Submit items by e-mail (newsreleases@vicksburgpost. com), postal service (P.O. Box 821668, Vicksburg, MS 39182), fax (634-0897) , or delivered in person to 1601-F N. Frontage Road by Wednesday for publication Sunday. Be sure to include your name and phone number. Miles new anchor at Texas TV station Toni Miles has been promoted to morning anchor at Action 10 News, the CBS affiliate in Corpus Christi, Texas. Miles, a native of Vicksburg, was hired in early August as toni Miles an investigative reporter and will still work in that role. Before moving to Texas, Miles worked for about 10 years at stations on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. While on the staff at WLOX in Biloxi, she was in the staff that received Peabody and Edward Murrow awards for their work during Hurricane Katrina. Miles is a graduate of Vicksburg High School and the University of Southern Mississippi. Maier named chief of ITL research arm Dr. Robert Maier has been named chief of the Scientific Computing Research Center at the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s Information Technology Laboratory. dr. robert Maier He will be one of six directors of the Department of Defense’s Supercomputing Resource Center. Maier, who joined ERDC in 2003 in the Major Shared Resource Center, began his career in 1981 in computational science as an applications analyst with the Control Data Corporation. He joined the Army High Performance Computing Research Center in 1991 as a postdoctoral fellow and staff scientist. Maier has a doctorate in numerical analysis from the University of Minnesota. Corps timber bids to be taken Oct. 1 The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will open bids for timber purchase at Grenada and Enid lakes at 2 p.m. Oct. 1. Bids will be taken at the Vicksburg District Office, 4155 Clay St. For information, call Barbara Hubbard at 601- 631-5229 or Robert Patterson at 662-578-3873. Farmer jumps on peanut train, expecting high yield By Manivanh Chanprasith mchan@vicksburgpost.com A Warren County farmer has ventured into the world of peanuts this growing season, and he’s expecting a good crop at a good price. First-time peanut farmer Edward Mahalitc and his family have planted 97 acres in a field off of Bovina Cut-off Road. “I wanted to try another market,” he said. “So far, I’m pleased.” He’s testing the waters after recommendations from another farmer who did well with the crop last year. “There’s good ground for peanuts here — the sandier-type of soil,” said Mahalitc, who also has 600 acres of corn in Warren County. “I’ve had some guidance from other farmers in the area,” he said. “They’ve given me advice on weed controls and other things when I have questions.” Unlike other crops, peanuts require crop-specific equipment, including an inverter, which takes the peanuts out of the ground, and a combine, which scoops up the Demand high for information on farm real estate values It’s amazing how interested people are in farm real estate values. The last time I wrote a column on this topic, I received lots of feedback and requests for further data. Today, I will follow up with some of the most current information from the agricultural statistics service. Farmers are interested in these statistics, but there are folks who may be renting or leasing cropland or pastureland to others who seek these numbers, too. Many of these individuals are curious about how their personal situation compares to statewide averages. I was surprised to learn from a phone call I received how many Warren County residents own agricultural land in other parts Diversifying his options Edward Mahalitc, right, and son Rodney Mahalitc hold peanuts the pair are growing on their farm off Bovina Cut-off Road. By the numbers Peanuts in Mississippi: • 2005 — 15,000 acres planted, 44,800 pounds produced. • 2006 — 17,000 planted, 46,400 produced. • 2007 — 19,000 planted, 59,400 produced. • 2008 — 22,00 planted, 81,900 produced. • 2009 — 20,000 planted, 66,500 projected to be produced. Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture National Agriculture Statistics Service peanuts once dried. Mahalitc plans a harvest at the end of this month. His peanuts will be used to make peanut butter and candy bar fillings. Josh Miller, the governorappointed vice chairman and Delta representative of the Mississippi Peanut Promotional Board, says national peanut butter sales increased 27 percent in June, compared to the same time last year. john COCCARO county extension director “During a recession or in bad economic times, people tend to buy more peanut butter because of its protein and price,” Miller said. Peanut prices are projected to be between $355 to $400 per ton at harvest, and that’s what attracted Mahalitc to the crop. Miller, who planted 150 acres at Tara Wildlife and 385 acres in Yazoo and Sharkey counties, said, “It’s the only crop I’ve made money on in the last three years. I’ve been planting peanuts for five years, and it’s more profitable than anything I’ve planted. It’s going good right now.” The MPPB was established in 2007 to promote the peanut industry in Mississippi. Funded by a portion of peanut growers’s sales, the six-member committee uses the funds to research ways to improve the crop. Historically, peanuts have been grown in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic regions, with Georgia as leading producer. But, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service, the number of peanut acres in Mississippi has been on a steady rise since 2005. That year, 15,000 acres were planted, producing 44,800 pounds. In 2006, 17,000 acres were planted, producing 46,400 pounds. In 2007, 19,000 acres were planted, producing 59,400 pounds. In 2008, 22,000, acres were planted, of the state and surrounding states. Perhaps similar to other kinds of investments, Mississippi farm real estate values — the measurement of all land and buildings on farms — dropped last year. The average on Jan. 1, 2009, of $2,000 per acre was about 4 percent lower than in 2008. Specifically, cropland values held their own at $1,810 per acre, but pastureland decreased by 7 percent to $2,050 per acre. How does the statistics service come up with these statewide averages? During the first two weeks of June, the agricultural statistics service uses a complete, probability-based, land-area sampling frame. The survey conducted in Mississippi included a stratified sample of 298 land areas (segments), averaging about a square mile in size. Enumerators collecting data for the June area survey contact all agricultural producers operating land within the boundaries of the sampled land segments and record land value information for cropland and pastureland within these segments. They also collect an estimated value of all land and buildings for the operator’s entire farming operation and the estimated percent change from the previous year. Survey reported data are reviewed for reasonableness and consistency by comparing with other data reported in the survey and with data reported within the segments the previous year. Often, landowners and farmers contact the Extension office to inquire about average rental rates for pasture and cropland. These facts are reported by the statistics service, too. It was interesting for me to note that average pasture rents reported this year stood at $15 per acre, which was down considerably from the $18.50 figure last year and below mErEdiTh SpEncEr•The Vicksburg PosT producing 81,900 pounds. This year, the number declined to 20,000 acres, with a projected yield of 66,500 pounds. “I plan on planting it again next year, maybe with more acreage, if the price gets better,” Mahalitc said. “You got to get your feet wet first.” the $16.50 rate in 2005. Irrigated cropland rented for an average of $100 per acre, while nonirrigated cropland fetched $67 per acre cash rent. Cropland rental rates really did not represent a drastic change from the previous five years. Looking back over the past 40 years, farm real estate values have climbed rather steadily, except for the period from 1981 to 1987. During that time, the per-acre value dropped from slightly more than $1,000 to $600. From that point, farm real estate values have more than tripled. • John C. Coccaro is county Extension director. Write to him at 1100-C Grove St., Vicksburg, MS 39180 or call 601- 636-5442. E-mail him at jcoccaro@ext. msstate.edu.
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