Why, you might be wondering, is that the name of this site and of my newspaper column?

And I have an answer: After about six years of teaching junior high and high school kids a little bit about grammar and literature, I went back to graduate school and changed careers. I’d always wanted to write, so journalism seemed a good fit.

My first newspaper job out of graduate school was at The Carthaginian, a weekly (not weakly) newspaper in Carthage, Miss. I was asked right off the bat to pen a weekly column, a task I thought reserved for those who’d paid lots of years of dues in hard work and ink stains.

For days, I struggled to come up with a name for the column. Carthage, I learned, is the only square county of Mississippi’s 82. And, if you’ll consult any state map, you’ll notice it’s considered geographically to be situated squarely in the center of the state. Squaring off, among other definitions, means to hold forth in a straightforward and honest manner.

Squaring off it was. And the title has followed me from Corinth, to eight years in Vicksburg at The Vicksburg Post, to one wild year in Booneville and, at present, coming up on seven years at The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal in Tupelo, Miss. – the birthplace of a king. Elvis, that is.

Another thing you might be wondering if you’ve somehow landed at this site and you aren’t a friend or family member of mine: Just who in the world is Leslie Criss?

That’s much more complicated a question than Why Squaring Off? But, I’ll take a stab at it.

Some folks, including my paternal grandfather until his death, took great joy in referring to me as a “damn liberal.” Labels suck. My dear friend and longtime BSU (Baptist Student Union) director at my alma mater Mississippi College, Bradley Pope, told me I was simply “wide open,” and that is not a bad thing.

I believe in equality and justice and compassion. I believe that diversity is something with which to dance not deplore. I truly, truly believe that there is room at the table for all. And I believe it would be a much better world if we would all choose to believe in the possibility of peace.

I’m Southern by birth - and by choice. Though staying put in Mississippi was not always my choice. I spent a little over a year in Los Angeles and loved it. I returned only to plot and plan yet another escape from this state of my birth, until a wise African-American woman, a senior in an English class of mine, wrote me a letter and told me as long as folks who think and feel as I think and feel continue to leave Mississippi, there’ll be no hope of its ever changing for the better. So, I stay.

In addition to teaching school and newspapering, I (along with my sister Beth) was a restaurateur. Why? Well, we found it fun playing restaurant when we were children. How much different could owning one be as adults?

For two years, we bit our tongues when customers weren’t nice. We cleaned, we cooked, we served. We worked harder than we’d ever before worked. Sometimes it was fun; other times it was not. These days in retrospect, we consider it an AFGO – another freakin’ growth opportunity. A book containing our famous and much-sought-after recipe for chicken salad and never-before-published stories of those years at Snickerdoodles is in the works. Stay tuned.

Eight years ago, my sister and her husband (my blogmaster and brother-in-law Tim), made me Aunt Lee Lee to Bailey Elizabeth Cook. If you spend any time at all among my columns, you’ll become well acquainted with her. She’s something.

You’ll also read a great deal about animals I have loved, in particular Maizie, who I discovered one late summer night in a cardboard box at a busy convenience store/gas station in Vicksburg. She became quite famous in the city by the river through my columns. One afternoon I overheard our neighbor outside talking to Maizie after he’d read a Saturday column about her. “Maizie,” he said. “I wish you could read. If you could you’d see that you’re more famous than Hillary Clinton.”

When Maizie died in Tupelo about four years ago, I swore I’d never love another dog. Three months later I stepped inside the Tupelo-Lee Humane Society shelter and made eye contact with a white and brown puppy with the most soulful brown eyes I’d ever seen. After a lot of crazy red tape, she went home with me. Today, Gracie and I are a team. She sings when I play harmonica and she sings along with Vivaldi, too.

I write about my family, my friends, things that have touched me, grieved me, angered me, made me hoot with laughter. Sometimes I mount a soapbox, but I try to do it gently, remembering what my sweet Mammaw used to say, “You can catch more flies with honey …” One day, when I’m gone (though it’d be nice if folks would say it before I’m gone), I’d like for at least one person to say, “That Leslie Criss really helped change the way I thought about something through her words.”

In a nutshell, I love music of most kinds; I love working in the dirt and watching things grow; I love to cook for people I care for; I love movies, particularly those that make me think or make me weep; I love my family and friends; I adore my niece and my dog; I love snow; I love the beach and the mountains; I love to play golf, though I’m not very good; I love to laugh; I love to travel; and, have mercy, I love a good book.

I know about as much about computers in general and this site in particular as I do about Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, but my computer-savvy brother-in-law wanted to help me do this, and I’m trying to learn a little along the way.

Keep dropping by – who knows what kinds of surprises you might find!