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Category Archives: Body, Home, Street

Ranging from near-memoir to considerations of local news.

Budget Hawk Takes Bath

There really was a hawk in our yard, I told My Beloved. She was out of town so this was on the phone. She believed me enough. After all, she’s the one who spotted the high nest this past spring, in an old oak in the back yard of the home next door. We occasionally [...]

Get to Know Your reDistrict

Copyright 2011 Ben S. Pollock The strongest proposal before the Arkansas General Assembly to reapportion the state’s four congressional districts involves a serious attempt to gerrymander. The question before the body is what does the amphibious gerrymander eat? Houseflies — and votes. The aim is to divide the state into four roughly equal populations. My [...]

Point the Way, Bruce Walker

Attending the musical wake of Bruce D. Walker on Sunday brought up a lot of sadness in the midst of so many cheerful tunes by local songsters. Standing in several of the eight corners of George’s Majestic Lounge (front bar/stage and garden bar/stage) I saw dancing and clapping and heard hoots and whoops. Embracing the [...]

PEG o’ My Heart

Last year, which is to say 11 days ago, Brick described the local cable company as reneging on its agreement with area governments by moving the local access channels from its cheapest tiers, analog cable, to the more costly digital ones. This posting provoked interest among Facebook friends. They gave conflicting stories, hence some informal [...]

Inaccessible Cable Access

Earlier this month the cable television provider Cox Communications changed the access to the community and government access channels here in Northwest Arkansas. They sent a letter to customers (click for a PDF), and press releases to the news outlets. They’d say changed the location, but what they did is limit the access. The show-off [...]

Taking a Constitutional

What happens when a blogger, columnist or occasional writer dawdles is the the topic either gets away, gets old or gets stolen. Hats off to colleague John Brummett. As of Nov. 2, Arkansas has three fresh amendments to the Arkansas Constitution. That will make the 88th Amendment, 89th Amendment and 90th Amendment. I am bound [...]

Cultural Muscle

A month ago, the Walton Family Foundation offered money to Fayetteville’s Walton Arts Center if it would build a second, larger auditorium 35 miles north in Bentonville, rather than enlarge itself into a complex a la Lincoln Center, with an accent. The idea had merit in some ways — the growth of the northern part [...]

Cultural Indifferences

The wonderful thing about having a well-run auditorium in town is opportunities it provides. If you follow Paul Simon or were listening to pop music in the mid-1980s you know of his album Graceland, which introduced to the West the South African men’s chorus that was in Fayetteville last weekend. Its name can seem a [...]

iStumblebum

I miss smoking. Yes, quit pipes and the occasional cigarette or cigar 22 years ago. Don’t mean miss my own smoking. I do miss how smoking helped the dexterity of nearly everyone — that is, people who smoked, which was nearly everyone. That was not obvious until a few weeks ago. My office moved from [...]

Pillow Talk

My memory foam pillow remembers everything. It sees too much. Maybe my sleep has been less sound recently, and maybe it’s the pillow’s fault. That’s what I thought when I read an article on bed pillows filled with buckwheat hulls, instead of closed-cell foam, feathers and polyester fluff. Before the special foam pillow bought over [...]