Arkansas Blog

This piece was run under Harry's by-line but I think it was actually written by Brummett. John's e-mail is listed at the bottom. Besides, the line about prostitution just doesn't sound like Harry.

I think that some copy editor at Stephens Media had his mind on the turkey when that piece crossed his desk. Somebody might want to check on this.

Harry King would never write that. He's a nice guy. He doesn't deserve this. I wrote it -- John Brummett

Way to man up, John.

And you are right. Harry King IS a nice guy. So are you. You just don't want many people to know it.

Copy editor musta had a swig or three from that bottle stashed in the back of that bottom drawer. Normally I'd say off with his (or her) head. Only I consider this less a capital offense than the practice of cutting off a story in mid-sentence, as often happens around here. At least the editor left us a big bad clue to the origin of the story.
And now I guess it's time to tend to a bit more of the food, food, food. Even with two days of prep work (and a week of housework -- yech, the dog and cats should be bald), about this time every Thanksgiving I'm ready to pack it in and repeat what we tried several years ago -- hit one of the restaurants that are open for Thanksgiving. Anyone who insists that a day of television must bracket the "gorgy" can stay home and have a bologna sandwich.

Personally I find the possibility that the top of the ladder might be used by Nutt to moon us an appropriate use for that ladder by the coach.

It would be the one time that HE has a right to that position that makes HIM the main focus after a win.

Let's all have some leftover turkey and enjoy the game....

Happy Thanksgiving you liberals one and all!

Personally, I only take Otis to heart. *wink*

"There are so many ironies to this mad Razorback obsession. The main one, obviously, is that the state with the lowest percentage of college-educated residents . . . ." -- Brummett

Yet another irony is that the acerbic, all-knowing John Brummett is included in that embarrassingly low percentage of college-educated Arkansas residents.

Much clearer version of the irony: John Brummett does not hold a college degree.

I didn't finish my degree till I was forty-seven and had no high school diploma or GED. I wasn't any smarter or better prepared for life the day after my diploma arrived than I was before.

College (says the guy taking his masters degree to set an example for the daughter) is overrated. In particular, spending the proposed severance tax money on either roads or higher education is just more corporate welfare. Putting one penny of that into anything other than making sure that every Arkansas child who leaves an elementary school has had every reasonable chance at a first-class education is shameful.

"I wasn't any smarter or better prepared for life the day after my diploma arrived than I was before . . . "

I agree that a person is not smarter simply because s(he) is a college grad, John A., but I can't imagine college (and graduate work) not making one "better prepared." Unfairly so or not, many doors are simply closed to those without a college degree.

I do not look down upon anybody without a degree, and I should not have posted what I did earlier, because it's so easy for readers to take things like that the wrong way. It's just that Brummett and the tilt of his nose really get on my nerves. I was striking out at him, obviously. You know, sort of like Eddie Sutton was striking out at Daddy Frank when Eddie said he would have crawled to Kentucky.

Have a great Thanksgiving good people! You, too, Brummett.

Fair enough, durangokid.

I'm kind of the anti-Brummett: I've made a point of telling people who assumed I was Dr. Arkansawyer or something like it (a common mistake, for some reason) that I didn't even have a high school diploma, and I see what gigs you about his attitude.

But that "unfairly or not" part is what gigs me (not at you, but at the situation). For instance, one of the ways to hide racial discrimination in hiring is to require a college degree for a job that doesn't require it. (The example I saw given for this was "Would you like a bookmark with that?" I ran the book section of a small department store for three years and can attest that my literature classes were of much less help in that than my personal reading and library-building.)

Overvaluation of college also contributes to running down honest, useful work that doesn't require a degree, and thus running down those who do it. I've got a technical job where I have relatively major responsibility. There's no doubt in my mind it's fair plumbers make more money than I do. It's a hard, necessary job I +sure+ don't want to do myself. The average plumber probably does society more good than I do on any given day, especially right now during pipe-bursting season.

There's a very good book (that, okay, I must finish someday--there's why I prefer buying to checking out) by Mike Rose, "The Mind at Work: Valuing the Intelligence of the American Worker", which you can read about by clicking my name.

There's no doubt in my mind it's fair plumbers make more money than I do.<<

Having what amounts to a strong union helps too. Plumbers go through about 8 years of OJT before reaching the master level plus they must pass a license exam. It's a carryover of the guild system but sorta works like a union regarding uniformity of fees.

eLwood says: "Having what amounts to a strong union helps too."

You see? Not only do plumbers work harder than I do, they're smarter, too.

I'm like you John A; I have enormous respect for plumbers, electricians, carpenters, brick layers, those who cut and install tile, etc. As I often tell these guys when they're doing work for me, I'm not smart enough to do what they do, and there could never be enough OJT for me to pass the licensure exams to which eLwood referred. The Mike Rose book appears to be a very interesting read, and I'll check it out. (One can learn so much from others on this cotton pickin' blog.)

Cato, are you there? Went over to the brother-in-law's casa today for the harvest feast. He's a very private individual, but OK'd my providing the surnames: Goodner and Ratliff. They go back well over a century, farming there and around Pine Ridge. Most, if not all, now reside in area cemeteries. It seems that death came in a wide variety of ways back then: One of the ancestors, for instance, died after a horse bit him in the stomach, a story that is undoubtedly true, since it is one too preposterous to make up.

We looked at a couple of the old letters again. It was a three-day (not two-day) journey by wagon to Little Rock when one needed medical treatment here. The writer noted that some of streets in LR had board surfaces; she expressed great shock at having laid eyes on a black person here, the first such human being ever in her life to see; and expressed grave concern about spending time in a city where the "lunatic asylum" (as the locals still called it) was located. She feared the "lunatics" even more than "the hobos along the Kansas City Southern."

As I said previously, old letters like these provide a fascinating glimpse at times long gone with the wind.

Thanks for the local info, durango. Lots of Goodners and Ratliffs in this area. I grew up with some. Two houses down from me is a family of Goodners. Surprised at her "surprise" over seeing "darkies" as they were in our mixture here. Not a big population but some. According to the Census, in 1861, there were 172 slaves in our county and after the Civil War they migrated off. The rr crews that came in here in 1896 had mixed populations, too. The so called "last black" died in 1937 and is buried in a local cemetery. So, that surprise expressed in the letter is a puzzle.

This may (or may not) explain it, Cato: This particular letter was written by a young girl (we think she was 11 or 12) who was brought here for treatment after having been bitten by a fox feared to be rabid. It's quite possible she lived a sheltered life in the outback and at that point in life, maybe had never even been to Mena. But if that were the case, from where did her fear of hobos come? Perhaps from hearing Mena kin voice concern about them? We can only guess about these things; unfortunately, all we have to go on is what she wrote.