{"id":383,"date":"2007-12-18T11:16:30","date_gmt":"2007-12-18T17:16:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/index.php\/2007\/12\/18\/dim-these-bulbs\/"},"modified":"2007-12-18T14:30:56","modified_gmt":"2007-12-18T20:30:56","slug":"dim-these-bulbs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2007\/12\/dim-these-bulbs\/","title":{"rendered":"Dim These Bulbs?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Demzette reported Monday that the downtown Fayetteville annual Christmas lights<\/a> this year cost $93,884. The little city foresees budget problems in 2008, and this certainly looks expendable.<\/p>\n

Of course it is. Twinkly lights as opposed to road repair and police patrols? It’s a wonder it’s lasted this long without being privately funded by donors, charities or the businesses it directly benefits. Or just the local Chamber of Commerce. Little Rock has had its Super Elf, Jennings Osborne; we might find one or 25 Sugar Elves at the end of some of our Ozark rainbows.<\/p>\n

That near-$100,000 price is disturbing; could this be made more cost-efficient? The number sounds inclusive, including portions of municipal employee salaries while they’re on the ladders. But I keep thinking of an old article about Osborne where he said he buys new lights every year because it’s cheaper than taking them down and coiling them carefully. You think your house is in a fix the week after Christmas? Multiply that a few thousand times.<\/p>\n

This might not sit well in Fayetteville. We’re green, and this sounds wasteful — the wires and the little glass bulbs all going in the trash. But if you think of all of the labor hours, where the workers instead would be neatening the parks and filling pot holes, not to mention how cheap this hardware is — isn’t it nuts you can buy hundred of lights for the house for under $10? — the logic begins to shine.<\/p>\n

If you’re really looking at environmental logic, though, we’d never have the lights up in the first place. This is tree-hugging Fayetteville, after all. Yet you don’t hear complaints from the Sierras about energy waste this time of year. Maybe they pick their battles.<\/p>\n

Last year I dropped by the six weeks of lights just once, at the First Night celebration on Dec. 31 hours before they were turned off. They’re much too delightful to see just once so I resolved to increase my visits.<\/p>\n

So My Beloved and I walked around the twinkly square last night. The horse-and-carriage rides were there, and this year a camel was available for short rides with photo opportunities. The spot for the tethered circular pony rides for young children was set but not open on this evening, just a week before Christmas.<\/p>\n

For a reason. No crowds. One would hope the city is tabulating this, but in past years the sidewalks between about 7 and 9 p.m. is fairly crowded. Vehicles of folks who want the lights without shivering in the cold line up for a block or two before entering the Square to circle it a time or two, slowly. I parked a block away presuming the driving and walking crowds; I didn’t need to. Those on foot probably numbered 10 to 20 on each of the four sides of the square, and car traffic a bit heavier than it would have been at 7:30 p.m. in August.<\/p>\n

This was a Monday night, not a weekend, or whenever a crowd would have poured in and stayed. MB noted, though, this is the week before Christmas, and we’ve come by at this time in years past to find teeming teeth-chatterers as older folks waves from their cars once the queue let them drive around the Square.<\/p>\n

Is the bloom off this promotion? -30-<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Demzette reported Monday that the downtown Fayetteville annual Christmas lights this year cost $93,884. The little city foresees budget problems in 2008, and this certainly looks expendable. Of course it is. Twinkly lights as opposed to road repair and police patrols? It’s a wonder it’s lasted this long without being privately funded by donors, […]<\/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":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brick-bats-reportage"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":135,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2005\/07\/cant-see-the-lights\/","url_meta":{"origin":383,"position":0},"title":"Can’t see the lights","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"July 5, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2005 Ben S. Pollock Tuesday, July 5, 2005: For a few weeks, newspaper house ads and broadcast public service announcements have proclaimed that the city of Fayetteville would host a Fourth of July celebration at Baum Stadium of the University of Arkansas. It would succeed the ones held for\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":428,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2008\/06\/sign-sign-everywhere-a\/","url_meta":{"origin":383,"position":1},"title":"Sign Sign Everywhere A","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"June 5, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"American Airlines is a proud member of something called the Oneworld Alliance, which is a group of 10 airlines combining for the booking of reservations etc. but otherwise independent from one another. Or is it? Are they? From an American jet we took Friday, taxiing to the gate at Dallas\/Fort\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":339,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2007\/07\/security-is-observation\/","url_meta":{"origin":383,"position":2},"title":"Security Is Observation","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"July 23, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"This week, the newspaper says, the town of Lowell is installing a $1,500 Panasonic video camera on a 200-foot cell tower. It will record the \"south, west, north and portions of the east sides\" 24 hours a day. Mayor Perry Long says, \"It will be used for security, not for\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":4462,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2013\/09\/with-luck-a-four-way\/","url_meta":{"origin":383,"position":3},"title":"With Luck, a Four-way","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"September 26, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"May I predict, with perverse pleasure, the coming split of both the Republican and Democratic parties. I am not referring to the politics as usual intra- and interparty squabbles. The GOP is as strong as ever, but it's not without the occasional flare. Mid-month and again this week it was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News, Spin"","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, read the Dr. Seuss children's book \"Green Eggs and Ham\" during his non-filibuster overnight address in the Capitol.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Dr_Seuss_Green_Eggs_and_Ham-215x300.gif?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":103,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2005\/11\/a-perfect-day\/","url_meta":{"origin":383,"position":4},"title":"A perfect day","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"November 7, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2005 Ben S. Pollock Monday, November 7, 2005. Now I can understanding the irritating habit of young brides to have everything \"perfect\" on their wedding day, the heck with the confused groom and the beleaguered parents. Birthdays are like that. At least for me, every year I want my\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":7918,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2024\/08\/friday-night-re-pabst\/","url_meta":{"origin":383,"position":5},"title":"Friday Night Re-Pabst","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"August 3, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"DIY Michelada Is Superior Several years ago I came across a curious cookbook. It comprised workable, simple and healthy vegan recipes but as a parody of a diet book, The Taco Cleanse: The Tortilla-Based Diet Proven to Change Your Life. Its authors \u2014 Wes Allison, Stephanie Bogdanich, Molly Frisinger and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sides"","block_context":{"text":"Sides","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/kook-cooks\/sides\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"4 empty beer bottles, each a different color","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/Beer-bottles-2018-Wikimedia-Commons-1920x1080-1.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/Beer-bottles-2018-Wikimedia-Commons-1920x1080-1.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/Beer-bottles-2018-Wikimedia-Commons-1920x1080-1.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/Beer-bottles-2018-Wikimedia-Commons-1920x1080-1.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/Beer-bottles-2018-Wikimedia-Commons-1920x1080-1.jpeg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/Beer-bottles-2018-Wikimedia-Commons-1920x1080-1.jpeg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383","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=383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}