It was thought to be accurate to within 1′ and within 1 hour on where crests would be and how high they would go.

As I understand it, the rat comes from outside this particular agency. I think it is a Mississippi Dept. of Finance and Administration rat and it seems to be one of a large pack; see recent stories about the proposed Dept. of Revenue building site on the corner of Ridgewood Rd. and Lakeland Dr.

This doesn’t even begin to address the ridiculousness of a records storage facility being built in a floodplain that has flooded in recent memory and will flood again. It would be one thing if this were New Orleans, but there are plenty of locations in downtown Jackson that don’t have that particular downside and would have involved a much smaller construction bill, or no construction bill–there are plenty of warehouses downtown and elsewhere that could have been rented.

And then to find out now that on top of all this, there’s actually no money to occupy the buildings or to “restore” the front section as had been promised . . . . Stunning. I smell an enormous rat. Not sure if it’s Legislature-sized, Governor-sized, or just MDAH-sized, but it’s a big one.

I am the very model of a modern Major-General,
I’ve information vegetable, animal, and mineral,
I know the kings of England, and I quote the fights historical
From Marathon to Waterloo, in order categorical;
I’m very well acquainted, too, with matters mathematical,
I understand equations, both the simple and quadratical,
About binomial theorem I’m teeming with a lot o’ news,
With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse.

I’m very good at integral and differential calculus;
I know the scientific names of beings animalculous:
In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral,
I am the very model of a modern Major-General.

I know our mythic history, King Arthur’s and Sir Caradoc’s;
I answer hard acrostics, I’ve a pretty taste for paradox,
I quote in elegiacs all the crimes of Heliogabalus,
In conics I can floor peculiarities parabolous;
I can tell undoubted Raphaels from Gerard Dows and Zoffanies,
I know the croaking chorus from The Frogs of Aristophanes!
Then I can hum a fugue of which I’ve heard the music’s din afore,
And whistle all the airs from that infernal nonsense Pinafore.

Then I can write a washing bill in Babylonic cuneiform,
And tell you ev’ry detail of Caractacus’s uniform:
In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral,
I am the very model of a modern Major-General.

In fact, when I know what is meant by “mamelon” and “ravelin”,
When I can tell at sight a Mauser rifle from a Javelin,
When such affairs as sorties and surprises I’m more wary at,
And when I know precisely what is meant by “commissariat”,
When I have learnt what progress has been made in modern gunnery,
When I know more of tactics than a novice in a nunnery—
In short, when I’ve a smattering of elemental strategy—
You’ll say a better Major-General has never sat a gee.

For my military knowledge, though I’m plucky and adventury,
Has only been brought down to the beginning of the century;
But still, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral,
I am the very model of a modern Major-General.