Brian's Blog Update from Mississippi

As mentioned last week, Brian is down in Biloxi, Mississippi, for work. He's becoming rather accustomed to the Gulf Coast states, and was kind enough to send an update for the blog. He also sent some pictures that can be viewed below this post and I added some commentary. Here's what Brian has to say....
-Ross

I'm running a loan program in Mississippi right now and wanted to send an update for the blog. Everything within about a half mile of the Gulf Coast here got totally destroyed. On an intensity scale, the damage here is far worst than anything i saw in Louisiana. I have no internet connection in my hotel or at the office (they won't even let me in until my background check is squared away) , so I sit in the parking lot of another hotel to pick up their wi-fi.

Weather is beautiful-- mid 80s, sunny, blue skies. I'm staying right on the beach-- although I found out later you shouldn't walk on it without combat boots due to all the debris. You have to watch out for random uncovered man holes, and there's so much debris in the water you can't go in that either.

Two great quotes from the EconoLodge in Biloxi:
-A women on her cell phone standing outside the door: "He stole $3,000 from the safe and bought a gun with it, now we can't get him out of the hotel room so we called the police."
-Two men negotiating with prosititutes in the next room: "I don't wanna buy it, I just wanna rent it for a few minutes"

Beauvoir, MS-- Jefferson Davis' house (the first, last, and only President of the Confederacy) is within walking distance from the office. How many people do you know that got their picture taken there?

I'm learning all about Mississippi, particularly the Confederacy. Some interesting facts-- 1/3 of the GDP of Mississippi in the year after the war was spent on artificial limbs. Almost everyone had at least one close family member killed in the war-- in some towns, no men at all came back alive. It's called "The War of Northern Aggression", not the Civil War--even though everyone just refers to it as "The War." The British Royal Family is the single largest private landholder in the state of Mississippi (it received land in payment for war debts). There is one county (the Independent State of Jones) that even seceded from the Confederacy. Southern states still are banned from making contracts or agreements with one another.

The Stars and Bars have a totally different meaning there than up north. Biloxi was founded by the French. Gulfport by the British. The two still hate each other.

By law, all casinos there must be built on barges. Slight problem: many of them floated away-- two floated over the highway eventually crashing into hotels.

That's just the tip of the iceberg, enjoy.