{"id":384,"date":"2007-12-24T11:56:22","date_gmt":"2007-12-24T17:56:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/index.php\/2007\/12\/24\/stone-picnic\/"},"modified":"2007-12-24T16:10:18","modified_gmt":"2007-12-24T22:10:18","slug":"stone-picnic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2007\/12\/stone-picnic\/","title":{"rendered":"Stone Picnic"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Fayetteville newspaper reported recently<\/a> that a tombstone was found at a just-vacated rent house. The marker is of a woman who died two years ago. The rental management company phoned police. The Times’ print edition treats us to a photo of the flat marker.<\/p>\n

Later in the week the Times reported it reached the family, who explained<\/a> that stone had a wrong date and so was replaced. They were not the tenants, so the mystery of how the one with the typo got to this place continues. The implication of the continuing coverage is that it’s worth the public’s attention. Is this a big-M Mystery? And, do the clues point to wrongdoing, weirdness or just not much?<\/p>\n

It’s not newsworthy. Don’t a lot of people have extra tombstones around the house? I do. It’s Dad’s.<\/p>\n

Mine is not on the front porch like Martha Jo’s but in my carport. It’s been there about two years, while I figure where in the yard it should go. It’s too heavy to move here and there for sizing up, once I heaved out of my car trunk. I recently prepared a new garden bed for next spring; it’ll do. I think I can maneuver it into my new wheelbarrow for the journey.<\/p>\n

Dad died 22 years ago last week<\/a>. After my mom died three years ago, we middle-aged kids decided to set up a double marker in Fort Smith replacing Dad’s. I asked the monument company — that created the bench from the design of my architect nephew — what happens with a no-longer-need tombstone. It would get recycled: either to use as a base for someone else’s stone or broken into gravel. So I brought it to our Shady Hill manse.<\/p>\n

The occasional workman or plumber never fails to remark on it; often they’re impressed by Dad’s military service noted on the VA-provided marker. It may creep out some neighbors but none have complained. Call the cops. -30-<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Fayetteville newspaper reported recently that a tombstone was found at a just-vacated rent house. The marker is of a woman who died two years ago. The rental management company phoned police. The Times’ print edition treats us to a photo of the flat marker. Later in the week the Times reported it reached the […]<\/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":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-body-home-street"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":329,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2007\/06\/pennies-tossed\/","url_meta":{"origin":384,"position":0},"title":"Pennies Tossed","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"June 25, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"PHILADELPHIA -- While columnist conferees last Friday toured both the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall, I had a 40-year closure issue with Benjamin Franklin so My Beloved and I skipped the latter. When I was age 10 3\/4, late summer 1968, Dad had business in Camden, N.J. Time for a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Philadelphia Phreedom"","block_context":{"text":"Philadelphia Phreedom","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/nsnc\/philadelphia-2007\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3581,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2012\/03\/fourth-and-goal\/","url_meta":{"origin":384,"position":1},"title":"Fourth and Goal","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"March 15, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Completing the book list of 2011 shouldn't be taxing. Its first entry after all took in the first three quarters. So where are we? Or to quote independent Ross Perot's 1992 running mate James Stockdale (it IS a presidential year, after all), in a televised debate's opening statement: \"Who am\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mr. Boo Klist"","block_context":{"text":"Mr. Boo Klist","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/mr-boo-klist\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":126,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2006\/02\/losing-your-noses\/","url_meta":{"origin":384,"position":2},"title":"Losing your noses","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"February 21, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2005. How about cutting off a nose to spite your face? Worried residents along Rockwood Trail are being short-term not farsighted. The North Sequoyah Neighborhood Association opposes, to the extreme of buying a full-page ad in today's Northwest Arkansas Times of Fayetteville, a strict conditional use permit\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":2679,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2011\/02\/stones-throw-from-campus\/","url_meta":{"origin":384,"position":3},"title":"Stone’s Throw from Campus","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"February 16, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2011 Ben S. Pollock Catherine Wallack, a University of Arkansas interior design professor, deserves praise for curating a comprehensive exhibit of furniture produced by the Fulbright family's wood business and designed by Edward Durell Stone. Wallack is credited with putting together the show, but University Relations leaves unsaid who's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Education, Coarsely"","block_context":{"text":"Education, Coarsely","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/education-coarsely\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":232,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2006\/09\/index-finger-index\/","url_meta":{"origin":384,"position":4},"title":"Index finger index","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"September 7, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I am reading the new biography 'All Governments Lie': The Life and Times of Rebel Journalist I. F. Stone by Myra MacPherson. Mr. Stone worked for a few years at the famous experimental New York newspaper P.M. Reading again about the trendsetting daily of the late 1940s and early 1950s\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Course of Words"","block_context":{"text":"The Course of Words","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/course-of-words\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7104,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2021\/09\/reopening-birdberg-blotter\/","url_meta":{"origin":384,"position":5},"title":"Reopening Birdberg Blotter","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"September 29, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a9 2006 Ben S. Pollock If Twitter had been up in February 2006, these listings from a mirthological police blotter log would have been tweets. But that social medium came about weeks later. The ivory-billed woodpecker, unofficially considered extinct, had been spotted the previous two years in rural Arkansas. Ivory-billed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Birdberg Blotter"","block_context":{"text":"Birdberg Blotter","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/briefs\/birdberg-blotter\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Detail of Audubon engraving of ivory-billed woodpecker","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/Campephilus_principalis-Ivory-billed-Woodpecker-Audubon-16x9-1.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/Campephilus_principalis-Ivory-billed-Woodpecker-Audubon-16x9-1.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/Campephilus_principalis-Ivory-billed-Woodpecker-Audubon-16x9-1.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/Campephilus_principalis-Ivory-billed-Woodpecker-Audubon-16x9-1.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/Campephilus_principalis-Ivory-billed-Woodpecker-Audubon-16x9-1.jpeg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384","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=384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}