WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - State Facts: Mississippi

Episode Date: February 24, 2025

Nate is joined by Rooks Russell to talk all about Mississippi.

You're listening to State Facts on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. I'm your host, Nate Gallagher, and I'm going by Hillsdale's resident Mississippian, Rooks-Russle. How you doing, Tate Rooks? I'm doing pretty swell. How are you doing? I'm good. Where are you from in Mississippi? I'm from Brandon, Mississippi. Technically, it's Flood. They had a bit of an identity crisis a few years ago, but... What is the capital of Mississippi?

Jackson, Mississippi. Brandon's actually a suburb, so I'm pretty close. What is the nickname of the state? The hospitality state. My stuff said the magnolia state. Oh, that... Magnolia is, it's... That's like the...

This will probably come later. It's the state flower, but the hospitality state is like what it's known as, generally speaking. Okay. I got to find a better website for these questions. Have the time they're wrong. Like, there's what it's like, actually,

what is the state fruit? We love honeysuckle down there. I know that, but that's a flower. That's not a fruit. And it wouldn't even be the state flower. Um, blueberries. Yeah.

Actually? Yes. Yeah, let's go. What is the state reptile? Oh, it's got to be a gator. It's the gator. Yeah, it's the gator.

Wait, isn't your, your colleges aren't the gators. That's Florida University. That's Florida. My mother actually went to Florida University for a degree in tax law. Tax law? Yeah. How, is that like different from regularly?

law? Well, she went to law school at the University of Mississippi, Ole Miss, and then for her doctorate, she went to the University of Florida for specifically tax law. What is the state Bird? It's got to be Mockingbird. It's a Killingbird. It's a co-Mockingbird. Great book. Yeah. I read it in, like, sixth grade. Yeah. Have you read it since? I don't think so. I think I just took the once over,

and that was good for me. I'm not going to lie. It's a top ten book for me. Top ten? Top ten. All time. All time. You're putting, to Kill a Mockingbird. How high in the number? How high, though? It's pretty low in the top 10. Like nine?

Yeah, nine, maybe eight. What books are beaten by To Kill a Mockingbird? This is unpopular, but Marilynne Robinson's housekeeping is a number one book for me. I've never heard of that book. It's pretty modern, but a beautiful story. It's a biblical, it's a modern retelling of the biblical story of Ruth and Naomi. Yeah. I know you're a theater, guys.

Are you including, like, play scripts in that? I would not. I'm kind of a purist in that sense. Like, you separate that out. Okay. How about the state insect? Is it a cicada? No, it's a honeybee, but I love cicadas.

Actually, now that you bring that up. Yeah. They, every now and again, I think it's like every 15 years, if that, actually probably less. There will be this just enormous migration. of cicadas. And I saw it one time. We were in like Virginia, I think, when it happened. And I was like, I thought I was the Pharaoh in like Prince of Egypt. I was like, what the, because it was the

whole sky. But in New York, they, they chirp all the time at night in the summer. It's, it's wonderful. Oh, I did not know that. Yeah. In Mississippi, they'll be like, throughout the south, they really, like, the trees will just like start screaming at you. And it's just cicadas. like they'll cover the whole tree or they'll be in the tree like describe that a little bit so they'll be like they're not like around sometimes you're like when they're like

breeding you'll like see like they're like husks or their chrysalis shells like on cars and like surfaces but like when you go out and you're just like out and about you'll just hear like distant like worrying and buzzing and it's just cicadas

just they're in the trees and they're making noise Anything talking about the honeybee though? You mentioned honey suckle. Oh, honey suckle. Honeysuckle and honeybees are unfortunately, I mean, they're related and like it's a flower. But honey bees, I knew a guy who did like bee harvesting. I knew him from my church.

He did the whole shebang. He would like get called out to like remove hives from places. Oh, when you said bee harvesting, I thought you meant like he was like a beekeeper. Like he would have the suit and the smoke spray. He'd like collect honey. Yeah, he would do all that. He would collect honey. I got to try honeycomb from his bees. And that was really cool. But he'd also have to go out and people would find hives and like I don't want this here. And you'd take it and like relocate it. Was it good? Oh yeah, it was good, honey.

Well, Rooks, I think that's all the time we have today. All right. Thanks for coming on the show. Yeah, it's glad to be here. I've been Nate Gallagher with State Facts on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. See you next time.