Arkansas Blog

You know, so many of us come on board this blog, make our comments and then go on our lives. However, some of us are just plain regulars. We squabble from time to time and scratch to have our voices heard. I think when you know the person, you have a better chance to understand the journey they are on and why they believe or say what they do.

Therefore, I am challenging, offering, requesting, asking that we set aside an afternoon, maybe in Saturday, to get together in Little Rock. My idea is a meal, time to meet, and maybe have a meeting where Max & Warwick give tips on the blogs. Maybe have Pat Lynch over to comment. Also, a Q & A for everyone else.

In addition, have some good old fellowship time for everyone to get to know one another a lil' better.

What say all of you????

Pritt-
Do you know a good gay bar we could go to?

Wow. The zoo is going to price themselves right out of business. $8 for adults and $6 a kid? Get real. The zoo is worth maybe half that amount.

I've been taking kids and grandkids to the zoo for over 30 years. While the friends of the zoo family plan is cheaper, even it is up to $65 or so a year now.

For this admission fee cost I'd expect something along the lines of the Memphis zoo and LR is far from that. Save your money and take a nice free walk in a park with the little ones instead.

A zoo "friend" who is aghast at this end of the year news!

One of the reasons that blogging is so successful is that bloggers can remain anonymous. I have no interest in finding out anything more about these people than I can imagine by reading their profound rants.
Maybe Cajun's has an unused dimly lit back room where you can go spend a few thousand to "have some good old fellowship time for everyone to get to know one another a lil' better." Poor MBR probably needs your money, now that she's been blacklisted at City Hall.

...or maybe at the Zoo Cafe, before admission prices go up. They have a pretty decent corn dog.

I am all for gettin together to talk politics, with anyone!

My wife thinks discussing is fighting so I am not allowed to do religion or politics with her dad although he is the funnest since we never agree and he never listens.

But, I hardly ever stay in town for weekends. I might be home 2 or 3 weekends a year. Don't tell any burglers.

I guess a few of the regulars got together back during the primary election but I was out o town then.

"What say all of you????"

Only if the future First Lady presides just to keep order between Arch and DBI.

We would welcome the bloggers at Rumba! in the River Market one Saturday afternoon. It would be fun to host this big Blind Date.

Unfortunately - we can't make the same offer for Sticky Fingerz. Since the smoking ban, Stickyz has been a strict 21 up, and it's obvious that there are some underagers around here...

I don't the zoo admission is excessive, if you want to have a nice smaller zoo you have to generate revenue, especially if the city and county don't support you. Those prices are offset by lack of zoo parking fees many other cities have.

Anyone ever been to the Caldwell Zoo in Tyler, TX? It's slightly nicer than the LR Zoo and costs $7.50 for an adult.

The zoo fee is a crime. The greatest zoo in mid america, the st louis zoo, is totally free and always has been. we would do a better service by closing this zoo and providing free rides to the memphis zoo.

There are few defenses to the A&P scandals, but the frequent use of Cajuns is probably defensible. There are few large venues in town. Why hasn't anyone published the annual revenues of Cajuns based on the sales tax figures? THe A&P expenditures probably amount to less than 1% of Cajun revenues, maybe even less than that. It was stupid but not greedy or self serving. Now, Dr. K...that is another matter.

I am blogging the City Board meeging now.
http://lynchlarge.blogspot.com/

Forgive the spelling errors. Enjoy.

Pat Lynch

i would love the chance to meet the people on the blog. some or all. since i live in little rock it would be easy for me so i would let any out of towners try to set a date.

There are big hotels and a convention center that I expect could handle the Ad & Pro group.

The problem is spending tax revenue without adhering to guidelines.

If the Cajuns shindigs were the only items that were not bid it would be a big difference. BUT it appears NOTHING was bid or put out to quote.

That FACT casts doubts over the whole bunch out there.

Locks keep honest people honest AND protects the honest from suspicion.

It is the same thing with spending controls. I have been treasurer for various clubs and charities and currently I run a region of a national business. I would REFUSE to risk my good name if there was no way to prove I was honest.

Spending controls protect the reputations of those entrusted to handle money.

Why would Mary Beth Ringold handle public money with less scrutiny than she would expect managers at Capers and Cajuns to exercise?

When I was a kid I was accused of cracking open an other kid's head with a golf club. No one would believe me that I had been in my own back yard the whole time.

I was the only Chuck in the neighborhood and Barry said Chuck did it. Luckily Barry survived with stitches and a concusion and was able to admit that he had been at another Chuck's house a couple blocks over (Barry wasn't alowed off the street) and I was saved. It didn't seem to matter that neither I nor anyone on our street had golf clubs.

But it taught me an important lesson. You need to make sure you take every precaution to protect yourself from accusations.

The Convention and Visitors Bureau members are all business owners and managers and should know that it is risky business not leaving a paper trail. It could come back and bite them if ANYTHING goes wrong.

AND IT DID.

Sanford, I wouldn't at all mind having a free zoo that's as nice as St Louis's. Since Pulaski Co has a larger population than the city of St Louis it could be done with taxes but is that fair?

As someone that has lived in a far larger metro (DFW) returning to my hometown of Little Rock, I think the zoo is important. I have a 2 1/2 yr old son and going to the zoo is something he enjoys. In an area like Central Ark where activiities are limited, it's important to have a zoo. It's one of the few things that's "family friendly" about the city of LR (along with good parks) with its crime and public school issues.

I'd like to see more city and state support for the zoo, at any given time I'd bet 3/4 of the zoo patrons aren't LR residents. Admission fees are one way to help pay for them but I'd like to see more of a state and county contribution. The city and zoo do an awful job of getting corporate and private sponsors involved. I can think of other zoos, including the one in Tyler, where donations and sponsorship are the backbone of the zoo. In Little Rock, not so much.

BTW, the Memphis Zoo isn't that great. It's solid but I'd put the zoos in Ft Worth and OKC well above it, let alone those in really large cities.

Okay Rumba has made the offer. How does the 21st of January sound for everyone???

Drew Boy,

Let me explain something where you can understand.

It is not a bloggers meeting that you need to be attending. Your needs run much, much deeper than that. The following is a list of meeting that would be more use to your Drew. (forgive me for not knowing the times or meeting places for these groups, but i am sure with your connections, you can easily track them down):

- Young Communists League of UALR
- I'm really lonely
- Getting on with life
- Losers Anonymous
- I like to talk a big game

No one wants to have a lunch with you to discuss typing on a keyboard. If they do, they are the same kind of person that enjoys watching a car wreck in slow motion, then TIVOing it and watching it over and over again.

Drew, you are a car wreck, a dainty, rainbow colored car wreck with all the splendor of a classic liberal meltdown.

Should a lunch with you be considered a privilege or a field trip for students from the psychotic ward conducting clinicals. If your don't get any more bites on your lunch date, I would suggest calling up the good doctors over there. It would be a late Christmas present for them.

Rich, very rich..

>>>The zoo fee is a crime. The greatest zoo in mid america, the st louis zoo, is totally free and always has been.<<<

Except the SL Zoo is supported by tax dollars. Not that I ever minded paying the taxes that support the Zoo and the Art Museum. They are both amazing places to spend an afternoon FREE unless you rent a headphone tour or buy food.

BUT they are also support by millions of $$$ donations (I'm always surprised by the piddling amounts the LR zoo gets donated) from the local big wigs and coporations.

I think a blog "meet up" would be a hoot.

ChrisKing puts it well...(and good to see local flavor workin the threads)...

...adults or lack thereof...

although Stickyz would be better...

Anyway, is anyone else suffering from post 30-pack X-mas thumps?!

...eek...aack...who was that wacky cat?

You know whats so funny? Someone who comes on here and attacks me and says I am a nobody and a nothing and a loser.

So tell me Maxwell Smart, and like the character you try to emulate you are just as bumbling dumb, answer this simple question.

If I am such the loser and as you so eloquently put it, a car wreck, a dainty, rainbow colored car wreck with all the splendor of a classic liberal meltdown, then answer this :

WHY DO YOU WASTE SO MUCH TIME GOING ON A BLOG TO ATTACK ME?

Its very simple. If I was such a nobody, you wouldn't waste time blogging to attack me.

But you do, so go on and continue with the stupidity of your character attacks upon me, you idiot!

"The zoo fee is a crime. The greatest zoo in mid america, the st louis zoo, is totally free and always has been."

Actually, the St. Louis Zoo charges a high fee for parking. That's where you are paying the admission price!

Drew boy,

That is the same lame excuse you use everytime someone mentions your name.

Alright, i will concede one point to you. I am a very bored, cranky person that loves to waste my time poking fun at you.

It is what i wake up for in the morning. You are a nobody, and my poking fun at you is in no way legitimizes you status as anything at all.

It is what I do for fun. You could say it is my hobby.

Drew why did you not answer all those questions that were posed to you over on that other blog?

Ohh, let the fun continue.

Come on drew, come on drew, please repsond to make my 4 hour drive worthwhile today.

My CD's get old and I would like something to pass the time while I drive.

Being a zoo fan, I'll agree that Oklahoma City and St. Louis are quite nice and I would add San Diego to that list. I still enjoy Memphis too though.

Interesting that the point of the zoo being a "state" attraction was mentioned and that the zoo should get some state funds and more city funds. That was tried by the Arkansas Travelers with little success and no more state and city money which was zero to begin with. That's why we have the North Little Rock/Stephens Travelers now, I guess.