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As the coaching carousel turns in Fayetteville
12/14/2011

One of the markers of a football program's relative progress is that the concept of "season" will naturally expand. by Beau Wilcox

One of the markers of a football program's relative progress is that the concept of "season" will naturally expand.

'Tis true that some of this is a function of an overwrought base simply obsessing over every stitch from signing day through spring and summer practices, fueled by as much fodder as their ISP's bandwidth cap will permit. But success breeds this kind of zealotry. Winning 28 games over three years has given the Razorbacks that sort of year-round allure.

The supposed lull between the end of the regular season and that bowl game far, far off in the distance is one period that, by all rights, should be quiet. It's a weeks-long vacuum for bowl-bound teams and for schools that flopped their way to an early finish, it's a signal that basketball is about to take center stage for a while.

There is no such December malaise in Fayetteville anymore. The coaching carousel spins almost off its axis for a few weeks, which means that coveted assistants like Garrick McGee get well-earned shots at taking over flagging teams. When the McGees of the world morph into commodities, the implication is clear: your program is thriving when the also-rans start plucking fruits off your tree.

It is then rare for one coordinator to rise while the counterpart falls. But when Willy Robinson finally got his walking papers last week, dismissed for failing to build upon a sturdy foundation laid late last year, Arkansas found itself in that very odd position of replacing both at once.

To supplant McGee, head coach Bobby Petrino brought back his brother Paul, paroled after a two-year stint in Champaign as Ron Zook's OC at Illinois. Frankly, the little brother is a beneficiary of fortunate circumstance, as McGee's ascent left the door ajar for a return to Arkansas when Zook and his staff were mercifully flushed after a six-game skid to end the season. This sort of hire will always incite fears of Razorback supporters who get justifiably queasy over the slightest taste of nepotism within the program, but even the jaded have to acknowledge that Paul Petrino is far more steeped in offensive know-how than the common hanger-on. He helped make Casey Dick a somewhat respectable passer in short order, then was part of Ryan Mallett's early flourishing in 2009.

The more curious and divisive choice was spent on rehabbing a defense that ranked somewhere near the middle of the national rankings despite returning a wealth of seasoned contributors. Ultimately the man Petrino tabbed as Robinson's successor was Paul Haynes, who struck many observers as an odd selection given that former Miami coach Randy Shannon was rumored to have been the early front runner, and that Haynes had spent only one year as Ohio State's co-defensive coordinator.

Haynes and Petrino have connections dating back to their NFL stints, and it became apparent from the latter's press conference ("Paul Haynes is extremely familiar with the way we operate") that the decision may have been forged long before it was announced.  To hear former Razorback/current "Drive Time Sports" talking head Marcus Elliott talk, though, you'd think that this is some sort of conspiracy hatched to keep the Hogs' defense playing harmony to Petrino's offensive melody, which is absurd. Elliott, like many, seemed titillated by the mention of Shannon, then had those rose-colored glasses shattered when Haynes was announced. It's understandable that common fans would endorse someone with Shannon's background, but is it realistic to think that a former head coach of Shannon's caliber and age would take a coordinator job at this point?

Consider this: the coordinators of inarguably the two best defenses in the country are Kirby Smart (Alabama) and John Chavis (LSU). Smart toiled as a position coach for various teams before Saban made him coordinator at the ripe age of 32; Chavis built up the Tennessee defense during its halcyon days in the late 1990s before he became a casualty of Philip Fulmer's ouster in 2008. Neither has been a head coach to date.

So Shannon would have been a coup, but he was probably more of a pipe dream than anything else. Arkansas needs to bolster its defense principally through a more global approach to recruiting, an area where Haynes excels, and by re-establishing a physical presence in the secondary, once a hallmark of this program that has dissipated over time. 

There is much to be gained by having the two Pauls in the fold in early December. Both get an audition in Dallas on January 6, an opportunity to hit the ground in full stride and get a leg up on recruiting.

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Curry in a Hurry shows promise
12/14/2011

The NLR Indian restaurant is authentic and friendly.

We wanted to love Curry in a Hurry even before we tasted the food. But we were a bit skeptical when we pulled up to the convenience store on North Little Rock's Pike Avenue. We squinted dumbly at the inconspicuous entrance, nearly camouflaged by next door's neon beer ads. Once inside, we were puzzled by the absence of tables in the main room. We were ushered to a pale purple sideroom-cum-closet. It's large enough to hold a square table and not much else. "Slumdog Millionaire" was on the TV, remote in easy reach next to the upright roll of paper towels. Overly bright photos of entrees line the walls, and floral curtains cushioned diners from neighborhood happenings just beyond the walls.

The manager, Sahil Hameerani, an early-30s immigrant entrepreneur, recommended "the popular Chicken 65," and left us with menus — but not before informing us that the place is family owned and his dad does the cooking.

The menu includes such rarities as bheja masala (goat brain) that aren't Indian restaurant standards, but we ordered "spanich" pakora and chicken 65 to start. The spinach was lightly battered and deep fried, served with tamarind sauce. We could taste it through the chickpea crust. The bittersweet, salty meld had a satisfying texture.

Chicken 65 is usually boneless deep-fried chicken. In south Indian lore, it takes 65 days to age the marinade. When the dish arrived at our table, it was practically glowing from the overhead fluorescents. The showy red comes from hours of marinating in spices (and, we suspect, a bit of food coloring). For balance, it was garnished with crispy fried curry leaves and cool cilantro. This version of chicken 65 was barely fried, but it still made us long for the beer that Curry in a Hurry doesn't serve. It does offer a bright green basil juice, which makes a nice palate cleanser. It has a sugary, vanilla flavor and tiny, gummy seeds.

We were less impressed with the breaded pakora. The overwhelming flavor was "generic deep fried." If we chewed thoughtfully, a hint of cumin muscled through, but unless we're polishing off a night of heavy drinking, it's a dish we'll avoid.

The chicken 65 was tender and tangy, but despite its professed popularity, was less interesting than some of the other offerings. The seekh kabob — with a strong fennel undertone — was served in a delicious flaky naan. The vegetable curry will become a safe standard, with plump potatoes, carrots, peas and moderate heat. The spices are distinct, particularly ginger, and the fresh cilantro was a welcome touch. The mutton (in India mutton refers to goat) biryani was succulent, although the rice could have been a tad spicier.

Haleem, a mush of meat, barley and wheat, often resembles overcooked dahl. But in Curry in a Hurry's version, both meat and wheat still retained their separate properties, even as impossibly thin strips of beef melted into the sticky base.

Palak paneer was the standout. It's a dish often noted more for its texture than its flavor, but Curry in a Hurry mastered both. The spinach tasted fresh and not too gelatinous. The paneer — fresh cheese — was perfectly browned, firm and generous. There was just the right amount of creaminess and a subtle heat that didn't leave us scrambling for rice and water.

Dessert isn't on the menu, but when we asked, Hameerani brought us khir and gulab jammon. The khir was a bland, gritty rice pudding with almond flavoring and cashew topping. It's dessert for those who don't really like dessert. But the gulab jammon was the best we've ever tasted. Usually this donut-like dessert is much too heavy, a victim of its own thick, sickly-sweet syrup. But this syrup was light and the donut fresher and airier than we could have hoped.

In fact, fresh food and hospitality seemed to be the overriding theme of the odd little two-table restaurant. Hameerani was chatty, excited about his new venture and seeking honest feedback — and with the TV and private dining, he'd obviously put effort into making the space comfortable for patrons. Curry in a Hurry has no pretension and a lot of heart. It feels like a Southern approach to Indian cuisine. The portions are hearty, the prices are moderate but it's the authenticity — of both the food and the dream — that will bring us back.

Quick bite:

This is the place to try goat brain or liver, and the Indian standards — curries, masalas and biryanis — are fresh and hearty. If there is space, dine in. The dining set up and friendly manager are part of the charm.

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An open letter to Mark Martin
12/14/2011

When you entered office at the Capitol, you immediately changed the news channel on the public television in the Capitol Rotunda to Fox News.

An open letter to Mark Martin

When you entered office at the Capitol, you immediately changed the news channel on the public television in the Capitol Rotunda to Fox News. It had been set to a more mainstream and moderate news source by your predecessor. With the results released by several recent surveys (Fairleigh Dickinson University PublicMind Poll and University of Maryland) that indicate a person having no exposure to news at all has better knowledge of events than someone who watches Fox News (either Republican or Democrat), I'm hoping you'll do the right thing and change the channel back. Will you do your part to help Arkansas citizens be better informed? Or will you continue to subject both public employees and visitors to the "news" channel that distorts facts and promotes disinformation?

Karen Wells

Little Rock

From the web

In response to an Arkansas Blog post on Nashville News Publisher Mike Graves' column on the De Queen-Nashville high school football game in which he wrote (and subsequently apologized for saying) that he was "embarrassed for the decent citizens of De Queen, especially when the prayer and our national anthem were ignored by the thugs in the crowd who kept their caps on" and asked "when we give the illegal so much, how do we expect them to have any respect or regard for America?":

I don't know about anyone else here, but I am tired of people speaking their minds, then apologizing for it. The apology means nothing. Stick to your guns. If you say what you believe, then stick to it. This is America. So what if people are offended?

I'm more offended by these apologies that always come out than anything else. I don't think what the man said is worthy of all this hoopla. That is a problem in today's society with the Internet and such. Things get blown out of proportion in a hurry, and then the TV news has to get a hold of it and try to stir up the pot.

jtsims

I went to Fort Baptist Northside in the early '90s with the sons and daughters of Vietnamese and Laotian refugees. Their parents, most of whom spoke no English, took whatever jobs they could find, from furniture factory jobs down to the chicken plants. A few families started restaurants or Asian food markets. The high school age kids worked too so the family could make ends meet. Sound familiar?

Today, many of those students are now doctors, lawyers, pharmacists, teachers, etc., and their children speak little to no Vietnamese. Twenty years from now, I see no reason we won't see the process repeat itself with the Mexican and Salvadoran immigrants, just as it has many times before, including my wife's family who came to Subiaco, Arkansas, from Germany 100 years ago.

FSMXNA

In response to an item on the Arkansas Blog, "Occupy Wall Street is making a difference."

It amazes me that people in power are swayed by protesters screaming out against them from a safe distance. Ole LBJ heard the sea of anti-war protesters outside the fence day and night until it bothered him so much he chose not to run for a second term. He could have ignored the noise and had a second term with no one so much as knocking a hair out of place yet the protesting finally got to him and he slunk off to Texas to die five years later.

I'm glad it works! Protesters have saved us from some of the worst of the 1%, and we've already seen the power of those dirty hippies trashing our precious parks. Winter doesn't seem to be slowing them down much but I predict next spring will be a watershed moment. We've got the winter to let the Occupy message foment in our minds and I think by next spring a whole lot of us Centrum Silver folks will get our Occupy on.

In truth our election system and our government has become so corrupted it hardly works at all. Hundreds of years of special-interest sponsored amendments and bills and tax breaks have spoiled the soup. Can anyone name an aspect of modern American life that hasn't been corrupted? Can't even trust your kids to your local priest, for crying out loud. And if the boy plays football — look out!

It's high time we have a major adjustment. The way things are we can't keep kicking the many many cans on down the road. It's time to take our medicine and deal out a lot more medicine for those who can't handle the truth that America is a cesspool of corruption controlled by Fascism in the form of Citizens United. A country of war profiteers. An oligarchy taking us back to pre-Civil War days when Massa held all the cards. It will not stand! Occupy your mind and the rest will follow!

Deathbyinches

Submit letters to the Editor, Arkansas Times, P.O. Box 34010, Little Rock, AR 72203. We also accept letters via e-mail. The address is arktimes@arktimes.com. We also accept faxes at 375-3623. Please include name and hometown.

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Tropical Smoothie headed to old YMCA Building
12/14/2011

And Lombardi closes.

Tropical Smoothie Cafe will be the first retail tenant in the downtown former YMCA building, at Sixth and Main, according to Sharon Priest, director of Downtown Little Rock Partnership. The sandwich and smoothie franchise has an expected March 2012 opening date. The California-based Tower Investments purchased the building in 2005, with plans to redevelop it as retail space. But in 2010, the building was unoccupied and up for sale. Little Rock resident Shellie Barnes purchased the building in August 2010, rescuing it from another buyer who wanted to raze it for a parking lot. Perhaps Tropical Smoothie is the first of many retailers who will embrace the historic building. According to Priest, the business' commitment "is another affirmation that things are happening downtown."

Local liqueur company Lombardi closed shop this month, falling victim to banks' cautious small business lending practices, according to owner Nick Lawrence. Lawrence and a partner started Lombardi in Little Rock in 2007, shortly after Lawrence's primary employer, Delta Airlines, filed bankruptcy.

"I'm a pilot. My salary was sliced, my pension gone. I needed look into something else," said Lawrence, a Little Rock native.

His business partner had a recipe for limoncello, so they decided to mass-market the liqueur. The company offered three lemon liqueurs, but its signature product was Lombardi Cream of Limoncello.

For the past two years, Lawrence has kept up his flight schedule while overseeing the liqueur company. It was a small operation with three fulltime employees at its peak. Finding capital became increasingly frustrating. Lawrence said banks wouldn't offer a loan because of insufficient cash flow, and several private investors offered help, but then backed away.

The Historic Arkansas Museum has posted the recipes from the winners of its 7th Ever Nog-off — John Robert Jackson's Eggnog (People's Choice), Capital Eggnog (tie for Taster's Choice Award) and OMnog (tie for Taster's Choice Award). Go to arktimes.com/nog for the link and more information.

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New fraud: Regulation is bad
12/14/2011

In the catalog of imagined horrors inflicted upon the nation by a merciless government, none is more enduring, at least in the minds of big business and the Republican right, than regulation. by Ernest Dumas

In the catalog of imagined horrors inflicted upon the nation by a merciless government, none is more enduring, at least in the minds of big business and the Republican right, than regulation.

They have invoked it for 40 years, since President Nixon, Republican, signed all those laws regulating discharges into the country's air, lakes and streams and forcing businesses to have clean and safe workplaces.

Last week the Republicans used their big majority in the House of Representatives to pass a nonsensical bill to halt new federal regulation. Every important regulation on business would hereafter have to be approved by both houses of Congress. It would quadruple the workload of Congress, which cannot now even pass routine budget bills, and virtually guarantee that no act of Congress dealing with the health, safety and financial security of the American people would ever again be implemented.

But it was just theater. No one seriously thought that could work or should become law. But the Republican congressmen all rushed out boilerplate statements crowing about their votes to create jobs by voting to stop President Obama from imposing burdensome rules on those desperate good people, "the job creators."

Rep. Tim Griffin sent the media a statement claiming that he had just voted to stop the heavy hand of Barack Obama from "crushing Arkansas job creators." He didn't identify the Arkansas employers or potential employers whom the president and his bureaucrats were crushing and how they were doing it.

If he were pressed, he would probably say it's those forthcoming rules to control greenhouse gases, coal ash and other pollutants from fossil fuels, a list supplied by the coal and petrochemical industries and electric utilities.

Griffin would be hard-pressed to show that less government regulation produces jobs. He was a mole in the best laboratory for that research, the George W. Bush administration. (Griffin worked in the White House political office.) Bush came into office denouncing the excessive regulation of the Bill Clinton administration and promising to be more obliging of industry. He put lawyers, lobbyists and executives from industries in the jobs regulating their industries, and regulation came to a virtual standstill, from the Environmental Protection Agency to the Securities and Exchange Commission and the other financial regulators. Bush's EPA refused to carry out the Clean Air Act even after the conservative U.S. Supreme Court said it was obliged to.

How did all that work out, congressman?

The economy produced a net growth of almost 23 million jobs under the extreme duress of the Clinton regulators. In the caress of the Bush regulators, the job creators produced a hair over 1 million jobs—the worst eight-year jobs record since the Great Depression. We need more of that, Griffin says.

The regulatory bugbear does go back largely to Nixon and to the Democratic Congress that worked so closely with him.

There was the hated Occupational Safety and Health Act, signed by Nixon in 1970, requiring all private and government employers to provide a workplace free of toxic chemicals, mechanical dangers and unsanitary conditions. For 20 years, industries denounced OSHA regulations and pointed to ridiculous sounding rules. They were supposed to be costing millions of jobs.

You hear the complaints only rarely now. One reason is that some 14,000 workers were killed or died from workplace accidents or sicknesses every year then. It's down to a little over 4,000 a year now although employment has almost doubled. Injury rates and work-related sicknesses have dropped dramatically, from 11 per 100 workers in 1972, when the rules went into effect, to 3.5 per 100 workers now.

All the consumer product safety rules that Republicans are raging about now? That pretty much started with Nixon and his firebrand consumer affairs director, Virginia Knauer, who died, incidentally, the other day at 96.

All the current fuss about regulation is over the implementation of the Clean Air Act, signed by Nixon, along with the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act. When a major air pollutant is identified, the EPA is supposed to adopt regulations to bring it under control. Now it's carbon dioxide, mercury, nitric acids and other contributors to global warming.

Congress and their regulatory lackeys acted upon the growing alarm of Americans about polluted lakes, rivers and harbors, the smothering smog and deteriorating quality of the air over major cities like Los Angeles, Houston and Chicago (and, yes, Little Rock), the acid rain that was killing forests in the industrial heartland and the rising incidence of respiratory diseases among children and the elderly.

All those horrors are much better, thanks to regulation, and some day we will combat greenhouse gases, too, though maybe too late. It is well to remember that the Griffins and the chambers of commerce all those years said the rules were excessive and job killing.

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Brave Combo to Stickyz
12/14/2011

Also Hamboy Jukes Band at Stickyz, the Victorian Christmas Magic Lantern Show at the Old State House, Whale Fire and Phantom Limb at White Water, the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra's 'Happy Holidays' at Robinson, a huge-ass local show at White Water, Trampled By Turtles at Juanita's and The See at White Water. by Robert Bell

WEDNESDAY 12/14

HAMBOY JUKES BAND

8:30 p.m. Stickyz. $5 or a canned ham.

Last month, Amboy Community Food Pantry in North Little Rock served more than 900 people. That's 900 people who would have gone hungry had it not been for the volunteer-run nonprofit. But pantries don't just fill themselves. So in addition to the good work of the volunteers who run the food bank, the nonprofit also needs donations; hence this show. The Hamboy Jukes Band (dig the nod to the Amboy Dukes, the psychedelic rock band that launched Ted Nugent into the world) is a super-group of sorts, including Jimmy Powell (Go Fast), Walter K (Shannon Boshears Band), Mike Nelson (Gun Bunnies, Big Silver, Amy Garland Band), Johnny Atomic, JR Top (Booyah! Dad), Mark Wyers (Josh the Devil and The Sinners, The Weisenheimers) and Gil Franklin (Port Arthur Band), as well as Jim Jolly on guitar and jazz pianist Bill White (Farris Holliman's Rhythm Masters). Be sure to bring a canned ham. Other nonperishable food donations will be accepted as well.

WEDNESDAY 12/14

VICTORIAN CHRISTMAS MAGIC LANTERN SHOW

7 p.m. Old State House Museum. Free.

In the olden times, before smartphones and liquid crystal displays and cathode ray tubes, before even film itself, people still huddled in dark rooms to stare at glowing projections. You know, for entertainment. One of the earliest methods of creating shimmering distractions was the magic lantern, a sort of proto-projector that bounces light off a mirror and directs it across an aperture and through a lens and a glass slide with a colorful image on it. Later innovations enabled the images to move, thus humanity took another step toward the birth of film. The Old State House Museum will give audiences a taste of Victorian-era entertainment, with a genuine antique magic lantern, which "rapidly projects spectacular color slides on a full-size movie screen." The images are dramatized by costumed entertainers and by the audience itself, which is encouraged to clap, stomp and join in chants and songs.

THURSDAY 12/15

BRAVE COMBO

8 p.m. Stickyz. $10.

Call me crazy, but with the exception of being at some sort of German beer garden — kielbasa in one hand and the afternoon's third massive stein-full of beer in the other — I've never really dug polka. But one exception might just have to be Brave Combo. The Denton, Texas, outfit got started in the late '70s, doing polka-fied covers of rock classics and by the late '90s/early aughts, Brave Combo was winning Grammys for Best Polka Album (1999 and 2005) and being featured on The Simpsons — a sign that you've made it if ever there was one. The band's polka version of "Must Be Santa" from 1991's "It's Christmas, Man!" even resonated with Bob Dylan, who included a nearly identical arrangement of the song on his own Christmas album, 2009's "Christmas in the Heart." Dylan told Street News Service that he "first heard that song years ago on one of those 'Sing Along with Mitch' records. But this version comes from a band called Brave Combo. Somebody sent their record to us for our radio show. They're a regional band out of Texas that takes regular songs and changes the way you think about them. You oughta hear their version of 'Hey Jude.' " High praise from Blind Boy Grunt himself? Hey man, good enough for me.

THURSDAY 12/15

WHALE FIRE, PHANTOM LIMB

9 p.m. White Water Tavern. $5.

Little Rock's Whale Fire is all ear candy of the sweetest variety: clean, clear guitar lines, catchy melodies and falsetto "ooh-oohs" all over the place, anchored by bedrock bass guitar. On the band's EP from last year, the lead track "Sirens" includes all these characteristics; it sounds like a mission statement. Phantom Limb is a duo that got started in a fairly inauspicious way. A couple of friends — Justin Kinkel-Schuster of St. Louis (also of buzzed-about act Theodore) and Andrew Bryant of Oxford, Miss. — got to playing songs and recording them and then before they knew what happened, they had an album. The group's self-titled debut (on Misra Records) filters Dinosaur Jr.-style guitar rock through The Band's country-boy soul and raggedy backwoods sensibility. Vocal harmonies recall those of the critically vaunted Fleet Foxes, so if you dig that sound, Phantom Limb is recommended.

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FRIDAY 12/16

ASO: "HAPPY HOLIDAYS"

8 p.m. Robinson Center Music Hall. $20-$65.

For its annual holiday show, the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra presents an evening of familiar favorites. Selections include "Let it Snow," "Sleigh Ride," "Ave Maria," selections from "The Nutcracker," the "Winter" concerto from Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons," Rimsky-Korsakov's "Snow Maiden Suite: Dance of the Clowns," and much more. Also just as a heads-up: Santa is rumored to be in attendance, so you'd better watch out, and all that. There will be another performance Saturday night at 8 p.m. and a matinee at 3 p.m. on Sunday.

FRIDAY 12/16

HUGE-ASS LOCAL SHOW

8:30 p.m. White Water Tavern.

If you ever wanted to gorge on a pre-holidays smorgasbord of Little Rock's leading rock practitioners, here you go: Brother Andy & His Big Damn Mouth, Stella Fancy, Jab Jab Sucker Punch (new band with personnel from Big Boss Line and The Moving Front), Adam Faucett, William Blackart, Iron Tongue, Jonathan Wilkins and Booyah! Dad. That's eight — count 'em eight — bands, with even more in the offing, going by the WWT's website. It's like a competitive eating contest but with bands instead of hotdogs or hot wings or whatever. Eating contests are ultra-gross, while this is certainly not, but still: Just how much music can you cram into your ears in a single night? Why not find out once and for all?

FRIDAY 12/16

TRAMPLED BY TURTLES.

10 p.m. Juanita's. $12

Bluegrass fans have always placed a premium on instrumental virtuosity. Whether they favor old-fangled traditionalists or newgrass hippies, playing at lightning speed has always seemed — to the outside observer, at least — to be one of the necessary components. By that standard, Minnesota quintet Trampled By Turtles more than measures up. "It's a War" from the band's 2010 disc "Palomino" blisters by and begs the question: Other than its instrumentation, what really differentiates this from a hardcore song? But it's not all warp-speed antics, and the band displays an understanding of nuance on other cuts. Trampled by Turtles (or TxT for short) is no stranger to mixing it up in terms of cover material. Right now there's a string-band version of the classic Pixies tune "Where is my Mind?" on the band's website. And in addition to the foundational bluegrass influences, the band name-checks acts such as The Band, Bill Callahan and Townes Van Zandt. (Aside: is there anyone making music right now who doesn't cite Van Zandt as an influence? Don't get me wrong, "Live at the Old Quarter" is a desert-island pick for sure, but dang it seems like everyone in the world got hip to ol' Townes in the last five years or so.) Anyways, if you dig prog 'grass-ive (sorry, couldn't help it) acts such as Yonder Mountain String Band, Old Crow Medicine Show and the like and you haven't already checked out TxT, don't pass up this show.

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TUESDAY 12/20

THE SEE

10 p.m. White Water Tavern. $5.

Word comes along that the bearded warriors of The See have been hard at it finishing up their newest platter, "Pretending and Ending." I think one of the songs on it is called "Hey," a demo version of which is available on the band's MySpace page, and it's a good'n. It's got a tender touch. It's not as bruising as the band sounds live. Or once sounded live — it's been a while since I saw The See. Also, I hear tell that there might be a special treat for the first hunnert or so folks through the door. Wonder what that might be? Perhaps a recording of some of those new songs? I'm not one who's given over to idle speculation, but that'd be pretty sweet. Also performing: Coach, the promising local rock act.

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Goose hunt a man thing
12/14/2011

The Arkansas Times filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the 106 lucky people who won the lottery to be allowed to kill two geese in Burns Park Dec. 20-22 as part of a sanctioned hunt to reduce the population of Canada geese in the park.

The Arkansas Times filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the 106 lucky people who won the lottery to be allowed to kill two geese in Burns Park Dec. 20-22 as part of a sanctioned hunt to reduce the population of Canada geese in the park.

No Christmas geese for them. Mayor Pat Hays postponed the hunt to consider alternatives for goose population reduction. But the list may be reactivated for a January hunt.

Meanwhile, we noted one thing interesting about the list. Of the 106 names, only one seemed an obvious woman's name, Crystal Brown. The rest of the would-be geese slayers all carried manly monikers.

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Liberals have a lobby
12/14/2011

It's the Arkansas Public Policy Panel. by Doug Smith

While native liberals are distraught over the conservatism of Arkansas politics, Bill Kopsky, executive director of the Arkansas Public Policy Panel, says that politics in his home state of Oklahoma are even rougher and farther to the right than Arkansas's.

"Arkansas still elects moderates who can get things done," Kopsky said. "It's like Hutchinson running against Beebe. Hutchinson ran as a social conservative and Beebe beat him easily." (Former U.S. Rep. Hutchinson, a Republican, opposed Beebe, a Democrat, in the 2006 governor's race.) The panel and its affiliate, the Arkansas Citizens First Congress, can work with Governor Beebe, just as they could work with former Gov. Mike Huckabee, a mostly moderate Republican, Kopsky said.

But Arkansas politics are starting to look more like Oklahoma's. Kopsky said the legislative session earlier this year was the most polarized along party lines that he'd seen in his 15 years with the panel. For the first time, the Citizens First Congress couldn't find a single Republican legislator who'd sign on as a co-sponsor of its bills. And there were more Republicans than ever. The party is likely to gain a legislative majority in the near future.

More far-right Republicans in state government would make the Panel's work more difficult, presumably. But then the continued existence in Arkansas of a poor-man's support group like the Panel, lobbying against big, rich conservative interests like the Chamber of Commerce, the Farm Bureau and the Poultry Federation, is somewhat surprising. At least until one learns that the Panel has more resources than one might have expected.

Operating from a house on Second Street, near the Capitol, the Panel is supported by grants from foundations that share its interest in education, the environment and other issues, and by individual donors. It has an annual budget of $950,000, a staff of 14, "hundreds and hundreds of volunteers," and a professional lobbyist.

But then the Panel has more to do now than in its early years. It was founded in 1963 as "The Panel of American Women," by Sara Murphy, a liberal activist, in the aftermath of the Central High School desegregation crisis. The Panel, all mothers of public school children, championed racial and religious diversity. Other prominent female progressives joined Murphy in the movement — Brownie Ledbetter, Jean Gordon et al. By the '70s, the group was dealing with issues other than school desegregation, and male liberals were signing up. The name was changed to Arkansas Public Policy Panel in 1972.

By 1992, grass-roots activists and people like J. Bill Becker, then president of the Arkansas State AFL-CIO, were talking up a grass-roots lobby group at the Capitol to tell the story that the corporate lobbyists didn't. The Citizens First Congress was formed in 1998. The Congress now has 49 member groups, some of them local grassroots groups that were organized by the Panel — the Gould Citizens Advisory Council, Parkdale Citizens in Action — some of them independent, long-standing groups that support the Panel's work (Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, the Sierra Club, etc.). The groups select the delegates to the Congress.

The Congress spends about $40,000 a legislative session — the $875 legislative lunch here, the $765 legislative breakfast there. It does little in the way of testifying at legislative committee meetings. The Congress's style is to inform its members about bills that would affect them, and let those members talk to their local legislators. "We bring a lot of grass-roots people into the process," Kopsky said. "They're very effective." Individual members of the Congress' 49 member groups total about 7,000, Kopsky said, and the Panel has 14,000 names in its data base.

A number of the Congress's bills died in this year's more conservative legislature — a "wage theft" bill to penalize employers who don't pay the wages they promised, a bill to protect water and land from pollution by natural-gas drilling, bills to promote energy efficiency and renewable energy. But the Congress says it helped pass legislation to lower taxes on low-income single parents with children, to eliminate red tape that was preventing some eligible children from being covered by the ARKids First health insurance plan, and to require school districts to "stop stockpiling and start spending money designated for helping low-income and minority children achieve more academically."

A team of interns, college students working with the Panel for one semester each, reads all the bills introduced and flags the ones that should interest the Congress. Most of the interns are social studies or political science majors. One or two that work the longest hours are paid "a pittance," Kopsky said. The other 5 to 7 are unpaid. Kopsky has been with the Panel since 1996, and executive director since 1999, when Ledbetter retired.

The legislature meets in regular session for only a few months every two years, but the Panel is engaged fulltime in organizing local groups of activists, especially in the predominantly black communities of southern and eastern Arkansas. Bernadette Devone of Pine Bluff is the organizing director.

The idea is to get people participating in the political process who haven't been doing so before, because "the process is controlled by the same people who've controlled it forever, the good old boys or whatever you call it," Kopsky said. Once the local groups are organized, they go to work building community centers, cleaning up election fraud, improving schools, Kopsky said. The new groups are often in conflict with other residents. In the predominantly black town of Gould, the City Council recently tried to ban a group organized by the Panel.

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South in a handbasket
12/14/2011

"Where did the expression 'going south' come from? There's a big debate here." by Doug Smith

Which way?

A devoted Times reader e-mails a question from Colombia:

"Where did the expression 'going south' come from? There's a big debate here." Yes, I can imagine that people in South America don't want to think "going south" has a negative connotation.

But, I've been under the impression that "going south" means roughly "going to hell," that is, "deteriorating, falling apart": Perry's presidential campaign is going south. We usually think of hell as being downward from here, and downward is south on a map.

The on-line Free Dictionary confirms that one meaning of "go south" is "to lose value or quality." In a similar vein, the expression sometimes means "to stop working," the dictionary says, as in "I need more time for this project. My computer has gone south."

FD says that go south can also mean "to make an escape; to disappear": Cheyne went south as soon as he was released from prison; "to fall, to go down": The market headed south today, and "to quit, to drop out": Fred got discouraged and went south.

So it seems the expression is mostly negative. Hellish, if you will, but the dictionary doesn't say for certain that hell is where it came from. Colombian debate will continue.

(For what it's worth, I remember Gene Autry singing "South of the border, down Mexico way ... " and that was pretty positive. Ay, ay, ay, ay.)

Dominate usage:

"It's a fun show. It educates people about a culture not dominate in Arkansas."

Dr. Douglas Young of Conway questions the use of dominate, and is correct in doing so. Dominate is a verb, as is predominate, which means about the same thing. The adjectives that mean "major, ruling" are dominant and predominant. Unfortunately, we often see the verbs where the adjectives should be, and sometimes where an adverb should be. It's a predominantly black college, not a predominately black college.

Peeking too soon:

Jimmy Jeffress saw the headline, "Fort Smith Tea Party Forum Offers Peak at 2012 election." It piques one's interest, though not in the way a headline should.

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Saved by the Court
12/14/2011

It was the one percent against the 99 percent when the legislature took up "tort reform" in 2003, and the one percent prevailed easily. Since then, the Arkansas Supreme Court has been knocking holes in this unjust and unwise statute. We see again that the separation of powers is a wonderful thing.

It was the one percent against the 99 percent when the legislature took up "tort reform" in 2003, and the one percent prevailed easily. Since then, the Arkansas Supreme Court has been knocking holes in this unjust and unwise statute. We see again that the separation of powers is a wonderful thing.

Corporations, the Medical Society, the Chamber of Commerce, the Poultry Federation — they were united in support of a bill making it more difficult, if not impossible, for the poor to win a sizeable legal judgment against the rich. Legislators were so intimidated by this fearsome coalition, they didn't even ask the proponents to make a case for the bill. At committee hearings, opponents presented strong witnesses and sound arguments against "tort reform." The other side didn't say much more than "call the roll." The proponents, for example, couldn't find a single insurance-company executive to testify that "tort reform" would bring down the cost of insurance, though that was supposed to be a principal reason for the bill. People in the insurance business knew better than to tell so flagrant a lie in so public a forum. They knew the real purpose of the bill was to shield wrongdoers from a jury's justice.

Legal experts said at the time that the legislation was unconstitutional and would eventually be found so by the Supreme Court. Two attorneys general had said the same thing about similar legislation, previously considered. But the legislators weren't interested, and they were shameless. The "tort reform" bill passed on a near-unanimous vote.

Various provisions of the "tort reform" law had been stricken by the Supreme Court before last week's decision, in which the Court threw out the law's million-dollar limit on punitive damages. Associate Justice Courtney Hudson Goodson wrote for the majority that the Arkansas Constitution allowed the legislature to limit the amount of recovery only in matters arising between employer and employee. The Court thus refused to overturn a $42 million award for punitive damages that was made in Lonoke Circuit Court to a group of farmers who sued a provider of contaminated rice. The trial judge in the case, Phillip Thomas Whiteaker, also had declared the million-dollar limit to be unconstitutional.

The president of the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce has said, predictably, that the Supreme Court decision will discourage "job-creating entrepreneurs and business leaders." The supporters of "tort reform" are more law evaders than job creators. They tell the common man and woman "just give up your rights, and we might find low-paying work for you." It's not a good deal, and thanks to the Supreme Court, the people of Arkansas don't have to take it.

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Thanks, but no thanks
12/14/2011

Opponents to a land use plan for the Lake Maumelle watershed, scheduled for a Pulaski Quorum Court vote last week have grown frantic in opposition. The latest development is a "compromise" plan with some controls, but far less than the ordinance would provide.

Opponents to a land use plan for the Lake Maumelle watershed, scheduled for a Pulaski Quorum Court vote last week have grown frantic in opposition. The latest development is a "compromise" plan with some controls, but far less than the ordinance would provide.

The Arkansas Farm Bureau floated general elements of the compromise in advance of committee meetings Tuesday on the ordinances. They would list prohibited uses in the watershed; set aside 25 percent of the land as open space and put buffer zones along creeks. Period. The Farm Bureau has also joined with Republican official opposition in starting a new talking point – that unpaved roads are the real source of potential pollution in the watershed and perhaps a taxpayer-financed plan could be developed to pave them all. That wouldn't hurt majority landowner Deltic Timber, the Chenal Valley developer, one bit.

There was also this: In building opposition, the Farm Bureau said it was joined by the League of Women Voters and Citizens Protecting Maumelle watershed in opposition. Wrong and/or misleading. The League wants more than currently proposed, but president Nell Matthews said it supported the proposed plans and will work to improve them after adoption. A member of the Citizens Protecting group said the Farm Bureau was wrong "on many levels."

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Christmas changes
12/14/2011

Santa Claus has turned Republican, I understand, and plans to make some big changes in the Christmas ritual. by Bob Lancaster

Santa Claus has turned Republican, I understand, and plans to make some big changes in the Christmas ritual.

Foremost among them: people had come to regard Christmas gifts as an entitlement, and Republicans have given us to know what horrible things entitlements are, so Santa Claus wants to phase out the Christmas gift-giving tradition altogether.

Instead of presents under the tree for the little ones, S.C. wants the little ones to get jobs. Newt Gingrich was saying just last week that it would be a great benefit — a great character builder — if we'd put the little scudders to work as young as four or five, and Mr. Claus concurs, I gather reluctantly.

Apprentice them out to a no-nonsense sweatshop run by a stern taskmaster — the coffin maker in Oliver Twist comes to mind — and it wouldn't be long before they learned the value of a dollar, and the pride of earning the wherewithal to buy their own crust of bread or bowl of weevilly gruel when malnutrition threatened their on-the-job efficiency or proficiency.

Or just furnish them a daily can or two of Red Bull, the cost deducted from their wages, of course, if they have enough wages to cover a can or two of Red Bull, and they could probably get their work quota just from jitters resulting from that. And what's left over after the Red Bull and the flat tax withholding, sure, by all means splurge on a peppermint cane to hang on the tree and have the family take turns jumping up and licking it two or three times a day during the 12 Days of Christmas.

Such extravagant living as that is morally contraindicated, understand, but it's your dime — literally, it's your dime; as a dime a day sounds about right as a wage in an economy fueled in large measure by pre-pubescent sweat and pre-pubescent tears.

This no work/no-holiday-candy-to-lick-on ethic is as American as beating child-labor slackers with fireplace pokers, going back 400 years to John Smith at Jamestown. It received Biblical sanction from St. Paul in II Thessalonians — and there's no reason why American children should be excluded from it. Literary bleeding-hearts got them excused in the first place, and we're a tougher-minded lot today. We know they're just spoiled brats mostly, who could use a little shaping up.

And not since the 19th century has an American political candidate or party had the tough-love discipline to hold urchins' little feet to the fire, to oblige them to pull their own weight, to pull up by their own bootstraps if indeed the developing Republican scheme admits of their going to work shod. It might very well not.

Oh, but working full time they wouldn't be able to go to school, the spoilers say. Sure they would, say N.G. and S.C. in reply. It'd be the School of Hard Knocks primarily, yes, but eventually the other kind, too. The other kind that banned God and made slouching apes out of Adam and Eve and won't let you beat up homos or pack. It might test their stamina a little to go to hard knocks school every day and no-pack ape school nights and weekends and holidays, but little kids have pep to burn so why not put it to good use?

The bleeding hearts say well, their hands are too small and tender, they don't have the strength to turn a lug wrench or load 16 tons of No. 9 coal or rassle professionally on the WWF circuit. You got the same razzmatazz once about women in the work force, but Rosie got a foot in the door and women proved they could do the job and for only a small fraction of what it costs to get a man to do it.

With just a teensy bit more of timely government deregulation, you could get a child under 10 to do the job for even less than you have to pay a woman, and with the anticipated Republican-agenda legislation enacted and in effect if the child grumbled or sulked about it, or started talking union or threatening to call OSHA, you could tase the little troublemaker or waterboard him or whatever the situation required. Bruise him to death sort of accidentally, as one of the Artful Dodger's workhouse overseers claimed was his specialty.

Garnish whatever coppers were left in his, ahem, paycheck and pass them along to the Koch boys who have to have money from somewhere — or lots of somewheres — to keep their humongo hog act going.

Not that this mess of trash that's bantering toddler workfare really cares about the issue. Their ultimate aim is to revoke all government regulation, so they can get free and unlimited permanent access to the trough, and they figure if they can scrap the child-labor regs then the rest shouldn't be too much of a problem.

The most troubling question for me in all this is how they lured Santa Claus — Santa Claus! — into their shameful kuplotting against the urchinry. I've got some theories on that — from the disillusioning predictability of his Christmas night routine to the physical threat to Toyland from man-caused climate change — and I might get around to expounding on them later.

Meantime, bear this in mind, that Santa is an anagram for Satan. Might be a clue in that.

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Tim Griffin's photo op
12/14/2011

Seventeen words from my congressman, U.S. Rep. Tim Griffin of Little Rock, sent me into orbit last week. by Max Brantley

Seventeen words from my congressman, U.S. Rep. Tim Griffin of Little Rock, sent me into orbit last week.

Said the Republican congressman, in his Twitter feed: "I am currently touring Arkansas Children's Hospital and learning more about the incredible work being done here."

His tweet was dutifully regurgitated by the Arkansas Republican Party and, I'd guess, other elements of the right-wing electronic echo chamber.

What's not to like? Who doesn't like Children's Hospital and the miracles it performs?

Answer: The Republican Party, if policies count more than a Twitter post intended to wrap a politician in the warm gauze of sympathy for sick children.

Eight months ago, Griffin voted in lockstep with a budget proposal crafted by Republican Rep. Paul Ryan that would have gutted Medicaid as a guaranteed health insurance program for poor people. It would have turned it into a block grant program. Had the legislation not been defeated in the Democrat-controlled Senate, it would have reduced Medicaid spending by almost $800 billion over 10 years. It would have allowed states to cut back services to the disabled, children and the elderly.

Without Medicaid, Children's Hospital doesn't exist as we know it. Sixty-five percent of its patients are covered by Medicaid. Though Republicans wouldn't cut it all at once, it's easy to guess some of the first casualties.

Intensive care and emergency services would continue at some level, but would vital early childhood intervention programs, Head Start and basic primary care continue? The odds would not be good.

I had a personal window last week on the value of such a simple thing as an encounter with a Children's Hospital primary care physician. The only medical problem facing one young patient was head lice. But it was an outgrowth of deeper problems in her home, problems that began being addressed thanks to a call from the concerned Children's Hospital physician. Cut Medicaid and you can soon forget such luxuries as this timely intervention that kept a home intact and a child in school.

Ryan has not given up on his budget plan. He'd still like to cut taxes of the wealthy, at the expense of poorer people, and reduce Medicare and Medicaid outlays. He'd give poor people vouchers to help buy insurance, yes, but the vouchers would be supported by only about a quarter of the federal money now being provided, says the nonpartisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Faced with rising health costs and insufficient insurance, poor people would go without. The big new Children's Hospital buildings that Tim Griffin toured and touted? They'd be emptied of sick children and caring staff in favor of enriching the wealthy.

The National Association of Children's Hospitals has told Congress that the hospitals are already strapped by decreasing Medicaid support and the burden of uncompensated care. Cuts in spending are also a guarantee of greater costs. Children who need attention, but don't get it, will experience worsening, more expensive conditions.

Polls show American people prefer elimination of tax breaks for the rich and tougher regulation of banks over cuts in spending on vital programs, looser government regulations and no tax increases.

By his past votes, Tim Griffin indicates he doesn't believe the polls. Or he believes that photo ops and lip service at the local Children's Hospital will cover his support for the Republican assault on government-supported medical services for the poor, from children to elderly.

In 2010, many voters voted against self-interest. It could happen again — certainly if no one runs against Griffin. He's currently unopposed.

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Flying a little longer
12/14/2011

The North Little Rock city council and mayor Pat Hays agreed to postpone a controlled goose hunt in Burns Park that was scheduled for next week. The mayor is seeking alternatives to thin the amount of geese causing issues at the park. by Brian Chilson

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Fla. artist admits rare wildlife smuggling
12/08/2011

MIAMI BEACH, Fla., Dec. 7 (UPI) -- A Miami Beach artist has pleaded guilty to trafficking in protected wildlife Tuesday, federal prosecutors said. Enrique Gomez De Molina was accused of importing things such as orangutan skulls, a king cobra, a slow ...

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Obama: may give up Hawaiian Christmas
12/08/2011

WASHINGTON, Dec. 7 (UPI) -- President Obama promised to give up Christmas in Hawaii if the payroll tax cut extension is not passed, a Demoratic leader said Wednesday. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said Obama at a meeting with Democrati...

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Baggage handler offered job back
12/08/2011

RENO, Nev., Dec. 7 (UPI) -- An airport baggage handler in Reno, Nev., fired after refusing to let an emaciated dog be shipped from the airport has been offered her job back. Sally Leible, president of Airport Terminal Services, said Wednesday the St....

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Critics oppose new Capitol permit policy
12/08/2011

MADISON, Wis., Dec. 7 (UPI) -- Critics say a new policy that makes it tougher to protest at Wisconsin's Capitol is a violation of free speech. The policy requires organizers of events at the Capitol involving four or more people to get a permit at le...

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Sebelius blocks FDA on Plan B
12/08/2011

WASHINGTON, Dec. 7 (UPI) -- Girls under the age of 17 will still need a prescription to obtain the so-called morning-after pill known as Plan B, U.S. regulators said Wednesday. Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, overruled ...

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Maintenance man charged with killing girl
12/08/2011

CANTON, Ga., Dec. 7 (UPI) -- A maintenance worker at the apartment complex where a slain 7-year-old Georgia girl lived was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of killing her, police said. Ryan Brunn, 20, is scheduled to appear in court Thursday, The Atl...

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Live tiger found in box in Moscow
12/08/2011

MOSCOW, Dec. 7 (UPI) -- A box containing a live tiger was discovered in a Moscow district, RIA Novosti reported Wednesday. "Yesterday, we received a call from residents who had discovered a box containing a tiger in wasteland in the Pechatniki distri...

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Radiation found in baby formula in Japan
12/08/2011

TOKYO, Dec. 7 (UPI) -- A company in Japan says it's recalling 400,000 cans of infant formula containing traces of radiation after the nation's nuclear plant meltdown. Tokyo-based Meiji Co. said the milk was manufactured in March and April and shipped...

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Iran blocks U.S. ‘virtual embassy’
12/08/2011

TEHRAN, Dec. 7 (UPI) -- A day after the United States launched a "virtual embassy" Web site aimed at Iranians, would-be users said Wednesday they were sent to an Iranian site. The site provides information in English and Farsi on U.S. visas, immigrat...

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The brain drain
12/07/2011

From online comments on Kristian Andersen's Big Idea submission of an Arkansas Business Fellowship ("Stop the brain drain," Nov. 30).

The brain drain

From online comments on Kristian Andersen's Big Idea submission of an Arkansas Business Fellowship ("Stop the brain drain," Nov. 30).

Are there "scientific" studies to support the assertion that "our best kids go to San Francisco, Austin or New York because that's where the best jobs are" or is this simply conventional wisdom that might be flawed? (And please define the term "best kids.")

I ask about our "best kids" going elsewhere because a year ago former Arkansas Dept. of Higher Education director Jim Purcell said that new ADHE numbers showed that two-thirds of Arkansas's young people who've earned a BA or higher are staying in the state.

He credited this to a slow dance with industry to ensure that while we're educating our workforce, we're also bringing in jobs that give them a tendency to stay here. Seems to me you're traveling somewhat the same road, thus I applaud what you're doing with the Arkansas Fellowship Program.

Beyond Arkansas, I'm concerned about the nation's "brain drain." Last I heard, almost 70 percent of science and engineering grad students in American universities were from other countries. In the past, most stayed here after graduation, contributing in countless ways to the health and welfare of this country.

Today, however, a rapidly growing number of these brilliant young university graduates are going back to their home countries to engage in their careers, particularly to booming China and India. I think much of this is due to our woeful immigration policies and that we'd better wake up and correct them.

But even THAT may be too late. I fear the day is quickly dawning when these bright minds won't even be coming here to study, since not-to-be-outsmarted China, India, and other countries are paying American schools to set up shop on THEIR soil.

The result of this is that you and I could live long enough to see a shortage of scientists, engineers, and physicians so critical that the U.S. will no longer be at the sci-tech-medical fore.

Durango

Kristian Andersen responds:

"Best Kids" is a bit of a fuzzy term — you're correct. In this context, we're talking about high-potential, entrepreneurial (often unconventional) students. The statement regarding where the "best kids" go is absolutely based on anecdotal evidence, but that doesn't make it any less true. I've spent the last several years traveling the state, talking to students and recent grads and there is definitely a feeling that there is not sufficient opportunity for entrepreneurially-minded graduates. Now, I don't happen to think that is true, but I do think there is a disconnect between those opportunities and the job seekers. That is one of the primary purposes behind the Arkansas Fellowship.

To your second point — Yes we have a national brain drain as well. There are three reasons for this. The first is our restrictive visa policy. There are some smart people that are trying to rectify this like Brad Feld, Paul Graham and Sen. John Kerry via the "startup visa act."

The second is that we just simply have fewer students pursuing careers in the sciences (mathematics, engineering, etc.). And the ratio of young women pursuing these types of careers is woefully inadequate. There are a number of folks working on addressing this issue with varying degrees of success.

The third is countries like India and China are much better (easier) places to start a business than they used to be. They are still not the U.S. in terms of rule of law, intellectual property rights, access to markets, early-stage funding, etc., but they are a lot closer to the U.S. than they were just 10 years ago. A brilliant Indian student studying in the U.S. really had no option but to stay in the U.S. if they wanted to pursue an entrepreneurial career 10 years ago. That is no longer the case.

Build the Chester Bridge

I read Max Brantley's column last week ("A bridge too few," Nov. 30) with interest and found myself in essential agreement with him. I favor using Chester Street, which not only connects with I-630 but runs south from the river to Roosevelt Road, as a place for  a new bridge to take off. Although the street is not designated as a state highway, the state Highway Commission could, I trust, make that happen. Unfortunately, it is questionable whether or not the soon-to-be revealed design proposals, still on the closeted drawing boards of the crew at construction firm HNTB, will satisfy.

I suspect it's time to focus on the next river crossing, one whose design and construction are still several years away. With forethought, vision and a well-developed sense of consequence (which the Highway Department seems to have in short supply) we may be able to build that singular span.

Let's keep the Broadway Bridge, limiting its use to pedestrians and bicyclists, and build a great new one that's accommodating to vehicular travel, cyclists and pedestrians at Chester. Locating it there would insure room for an enlarged Robinson Auditorium footprint, providing needed space for the performing arts facility that Philip Mann rightly favors.

June Freeman

Little Rock

Petrino's outburst

Chutzpah? Too big for his britches? Goose/Gander? Pot/Kettle? How much does the State of Arkansas pay this guy? What does the president of the UA System say about this? Is BoPet growing like JoPat? Bobby Knight? Woody Hayes? KingKong Suh?

Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino screamed obscenities at the LSU coach for kicking a late field goal to make the score 41-17, apparently accusing him of running up the score. The quadruple irony/hypocrisy is: The week before, Petrino's Razorbacks beat Mississippi State by the identical score. In three earlier games, including an SEC game, Petrino's team won by margins of at least 42 points.

Robert Johnston

Little Rock

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Ray Tarantino comes to Maxine's
12/07/2011

Plus Rodney Block.

THURSDAY 12/8

Ray Tarantino plays a smart modern take on singer-songwriting rock 'n' roll – think Springsteen or maybe Tom Petty filtered through U2-esque arena bombast and you're close to Tarantino's sound. He plays Maxine's at 8 p.m. Red-dirt troubadour Jason Boland comes to Revolution for an acoustic show with fellow traveler Evan Felker. Trey Stevens opens the 18-and-older show at 9 p.m., $12 adv., $15 d.o.s. Bernice Garden hosts a tree-lighting holiday party, with Christmas carols, crafts for sale and refreshments. Bring an ornament to hang on the tree, as well as your own plate, utensils and cup for this zero-waste event, which starts at 5:30 p.m. The folks at Electric Heart Tattoos host The Type Truck, a mobile letterpress that's currently touring the country, starts at 6 p.m. and includes printing demonstrations and music from Bonnie Montgomery.

FRIDAY 12/9

Rodney Block & The Real Music Lovers headline "A Soulful Christmas," with singing from Jeron, Mia McNeal, Dee Davis and Bijoux, Twelve Modern Lounge, 9 p.m., $10-$20. The Arkansas Chamber Singers present a "Holiday Concert," including performances of Respighi's "Laud to the Nativity" and the premiere of a new work by Scottish composer Cecilia McDowell, Covenant Presbyterian Church, 7:30 p.m., $10-$18. It's 2nd Friday Art Night and at the Historic Arkansas Museum, there will be an eggnog competition, music from The Meshugga Klezmer Band and a new exhibit, "Found–Fired–Formed: Sarah May Leflar, Donna Uptigrove and Amber Uptigrove," 5 p.m. Over at Arkansas Studies Institute, they're unveiling "Ark in the Dark: An Exhibition of Vintage Movie Posters," which includes 35 posters that feature films from the years 1926 to 2009, as well as Arkansas- and movie-related memorabilia, such as programs, tickets, photos, lobby cards, books and other items, 5 p.m.

SATURDAY 12/10

The Elise Davis Band and Amy Garland play White Water Tavern, 9 p.m. Over at Shooter's Sports Bar & Grill, Ed Bowman & The Rock City Players bring the blues, R&B and rock 'n' roll, 9 p.m., $5. Check out a double feature of productions from Independent Guerilla: "Tuckerman" and "The Devil Lives in Hot Springs" screen at Market Street Cinema, starting at 7 p.m., and including a Q&A with the filmmakers, $10. It's time to start a dance party over at Revolution, with Tragikly White, 18 and older, 9:30 p.m., $7.

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