Hi there, well-read intellects, and welcome to Oxford, Mississippi! With a population of around 13,000, Oxford is known as a writer's mecca. Novelists John Grisham, Larry Brown, Cynthia Shearer, and Barry Hannah have homes here, but the most famous of the local writers has got to be...William Faulkner.

For those of you who haven't read Faulnker's works yet, he's the Nobel Prize winning author of several major novels, including The Sound and the Fury, As I Lay Dying, Light in August, Go Down, Moses, and of course The Portable Faulkner, which just about every high school senior in the U.S. has read at one time or another.

William was born up the road in New Albany, Miss, but lived most of his life here in Oxford. And as you can see, he was also kind enough to hold a certain can of you-know-whats in his lap. Grisham has never done that.

So it is here in front of the City Hall building on the famous Oxford town square that you'll find a life-size bronze version of Mr. Faulkner, chilling out for all eternity. He spent many days on the square, smoking his pipe and watching the people go in and out of the courthouse. The statue is positioned so that he can watch the courthouse for eternity. Maybe he's waiting to see if O.J. will pass by one day? Regardless, he was just as pleased to meet the beans as they were to meet him, so it was a win/win day all around.

But for ghoulish side of our visit, and for a chance to meet the *real* William Faulkner, the beans made a trip out to St. Peters cemetery, where they paid their proper respects to one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. Visitors to his gravesite leave pennies (and the occasional canned vegetable) on his grave, as an homage to the writer's lean years when he first started out. The beans thought this was a good idea, only they hope that visitors will leave gold Kruggerands when they finally expire (hint, hint).

The beans had a great time in Oxford, and thank Stacey, her son, and of course Mr. Faulkner for showing them a good time. In fact, the beans were so inspired by their visit, they are now considering becoming a novelist, too. If only they had an agent...