{"id":164,"date":"2006-03-07T11:40:13","date_gmt":"2006-03-07T17:40:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/index.php\/2006\/03\/07\/milk-fails-the-pepsi-challenge\/"},"modified":"2006-03-09T01:49:07","modified_gmt":"2006-03-09T07:49:07","slug":"milk-fails-the-pepsi-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2006\/03\/milk-fails-the-pepsi-challenge\/","title":{"rendered":"Milk fails the Pepsi Challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"

We in Arkansas are proud of our governor, Mike Huckabee. It’ll be a shame to lose him to term limits in 2 1\/2 years, as he has grown in office even in the eyes of progressive sorts. He went from being a rigid Republican and a member of the evangelical right — he’s an ordained Southern Baptist minister — to forming alliances with almost every sort of leader and legislator around the country for the betterment of Arkansans.<\/p>\n

Huckabee has not grown as an average American, though. In fact, he’s shrunk; he’s become his own best example of healthy living. He’s published a book of advice on wellness, and he’s worked with national figures to encourage us flabby types to get moving. Mostly, though, he’s focused on children’s obesity.<\/p>\n

In Arkansas, though it took some years, he’s gotten candy and soda machines banned from schools. To be fair — and don’t you have to be fair? — vending machine companies may play out their contracts with school districts, which will take just a few years.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the wise regulations, as they must be general, stipulate common drink container sizes rather than ingredients. In today’s Northwest Arkansas Times, we read on the front page<\/a> that milk has been banned from Fayetteville High School.<\/p>\n

The smallest bottle dairies can put in machines are 16-ouncers, and drinks greater than 12 ounces are not allowed, under regulations. Still “grandfathered” in, though, are 20-ounce Pepsi products. So in the milk machines are rows of pints of water, an exempt beverage.<\/p>\n

I asked a recent high school graduate a while ago why she preferred bottled water to the fountain at work. I said, you know that tap water throughout the nation is safe, though sometimes minerals might make it taste different if you’re not used to it. She said she accepted that, but still, bottled water was better for you or they wouldn’t sell it, right? This I could not win.<\/p>\n

So, you can lead Americans to running water but you can’t make them drink, unless it costs extra. So if milk is banned, would that make it more tempting? Maybe this is part of the Healthy Arkansas Kids plan, after all. -30-<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We in Arkansas are proud of our governor, Mike Huckabee. It’ll be a shame to lose him to term limits in 2 1\/2 years, as he has grown in office even in the eyes of progressive sorts. He went from being a rigid Republican and a member of the evangelical right — he’s an ordained […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education-coarsely"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":225,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2006\/08\/two-no-comments\/","url_meta":{"origin":164,"position":0},"title":"Two No Comments","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"August 5, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"A popular sportscaster in Arkansas , Paul Eells, 70, was killed in a head-on collision a little after 8 p.m. on Monday, July 31. Also killed was the driver of the car into which his sedan crashed, Billie Jo Burton, 40, of Dover, Ark., who also was traveling alone. Eells'\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "American Culture"","block_context":{"text":"American Culture","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/american-culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1183,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2009\/05\/dixublican\/","url_meta":{"origin":164,"position":1},"title":"Dixublican","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"May 15, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Stereotypes are tough. Arkansas can move right along, minding its own business with no Huckabee or Clinton (either of them) feeding the 24-hour international news cycle in at least 168 hours, when a politico from my northwestern part of the state, prominent only here, opens his yap. State Sen. Kim\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News, Spin"","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7637,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2023\/08\/reason-542-to-join-local-965-of-aea-nea\/","url_meta":{"origin":164,"position":2},"title":"Reason 542 to Join Local 965 of AEA\/NEA","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"August 23, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"An Editor's Note Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders last spring signed into law Arkansas Act 542 of 2023, the Given Name Act. Its full title is \"An Act to Create the Given Name Act; to Protect Faculty Members, Teachers, and Employees of Public Schools and State-supported Institutions of Higher Education from\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News, Spin"","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"The top of Arkansas Act 542 of 2023","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/ACT542-first-page.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/ACT542-first-page.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/ACT542-first-page.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/ACT542-first-page.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/ACT542-first-page.png?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/ACT542-first-page.png?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8218,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2025\/12\/presumptive\/","url_meta":{"origin":164,"position":3},"title":"How Presumptive Thou Art","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"December 26, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Holidays and Holy Days I'd like to thank the governor, the honorable Sarah Huckabee Sanders, for giving my colleagues in Arkansas state government and me Friday off, well, outside of first-responders and the like. Holiday? Actually, that was Thursday, Christmas, making this 26th of December similar to the day after\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Education, Coarsely"","block_context":{"text":"Education, Coarsely","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/education-coarsely\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Twelve Hanukkah candles plus the shammash helper candle are arranged on a typical nine-spot menorah.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/12-days-Hanukkah-1920x1080-122425.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/12-days-Hanukkah-1920x1080-122425.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/12-days-Hanukkah-1920x1080-122425.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/12-days-Hanukkah-1920x1080-122425.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/12-days-Hanukkah-1920x1080-122425.jpeg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/12-days-Hanukkah-1920x1080-122425.jpeg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":259,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2007\/01\/get-it-on\/","url_meta":{"origin":164,"position":4},"title":"Get It On …","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"January 25, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"All these flags being half-staff have been making me nervous. A little Internet work, and it turns out to be legit. Formal mourning for a president is 30 days. It's in the U.S. Code. The pertinent section is \"m.\" Poor President Ford. Now the real histories can start to be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Body, Home, Street"","block_context":{"text":"Body, Home, Street","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/body-home-street\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":402,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2008\/01\/the-green-candidate\/","url_meta":{"origin":164,"position":5},"title":"The Green Candidate","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"January 30, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Four years ago Charlie Rose interviewed Garrison Keillor, who said something so provocative that for a detectable millisecond Rose was speechless, a rarity. Keillor of course was on promoting A Prairie Home Companion, but early on they discussed the just-ended 2004 election, where the progressive Keillor nailed John Kerry's defeat\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News, Spin"","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}