Thursday I was back in Mississippi for the start of the fall PhD season. My flight arrived in the afternoon, so after a friend picked me up from the airport we headed over to the Harbor View Cafe for lunch. I had never been there before and it was a nice restaurant. I had a turkey cranberry sandwich and fried eggplant on the side. Then in the evening I attended an informal get together for the new PhD students (there are about 18 or so new ones starting this fall) at The Dock restaurant.