Arkansas Blog

Well, thank God (or maybe the vandals)! My faith in the old saying, "miracles never cease" has been restored. Many of us had come to think we'd not live to see the day when this atrocious monstrosity of a display came down: It was the epitome of poor taste, and property values in the immediate Robinwood neighborhood have undoubtedly suffered for years.

I have nothing against Mr. Osborn. I don't necessarily agree with his political views, but nothing wrong with that. He has done a lot of good for the community from what I can see. But, those lights lacked in the tasteful department in my opinion. If I was a neighbor, I would be celebrating this news. The political message aside, it was not an attractive display for a residential area.

I think I first saw that thing in 1989 back when it was still a civil size and still struck awe in a NWA hillbilly.

However, using valuable electricity to support Monkey Boy is atrocious. Does JO have gubbermint contracts approved by Bushco?
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I knew I was forgetting something for the open threads...I noticed some of this work being done several days ago and intended to mention it, but just forgot.

And since durango mentioned Robinwood...can someone tell me why there are several residential addresses ON Cantrell Rd (right near the Osborne compound) which have Robinwood Rd addresses? (Signs in the front yards read XX Robinwood Rd.)

I thought it might be because houses on the North side of Cantrell back up to Robinwood Rd, but there's at least one of these addresses on the South side.

Just curious...

I'd like to see a fitting statue of Jennings and family erected on the front lawn, naturally super-sized in all aspects and towering over the compound wall.

He with a big fat, chomped-on turkey leg in hand. Darling daughter with a copy of her covenant marriage decree in-hand and the Mrs., well the Mrs. would have to be waving to the passerbys while she holds a bucket of barbeque sauce in the other hand.

It would need some lights or it just wouldn't be a fitting statue . But I'll leave that to the Osbornes to figure out. My thoughts just don't run that grand.

They light-up Disney World... just a formality... but I love that place!

I think you have it EA, Disney World of L.R. without the rides.

It's Disney MGM Studios at Walt Disney World to be precise. Disneyland is in CA.

That house and its entire setting was one of my favorites as child.. Riding in the car, I would always make sure I was at the ready to look at it for some reason. Of course heading west on Cantrell in those days, passing that house meant you were less than a mile from considering yourself completely out of town on a country highway. I think they had a stretch Imperial or some kind of wonderful (to me) car in the drive way in those days... The day I noticed it's bricks had been painted was one of those little fairy tale crushing moments growing older delivers.

Who the hell would light up Disneyland anyway. How amazingly stupid is that? Truly. I can't see it any other way. Like Disney or MGM or both don't have enough billions to string up enough lights to be seen from Pluto and this "philanthropod" "donates" the lights for their use to bring smiles to the masses. Just goofy all the way around. Like the guy didn't get enough toys as a kid or get picked up enough by his mother, and now he has some off the grid non-sensical notion of how to disperse his cash in a way that makes some sense. Sure, it's his money so he can do what he wants. But I don't see it having any redeeming value and even would go so far as to suggest he's a big sucker that the Disney big whigs probably feel like they reeled in from the hollers of Arkansas and yuck it up about it behind closed doors.

So don't gush over his generosity on that one but rather I think it more fitting for us to be shaking our heads about it. Truly WTF award for that. Like BFD, Disney has lights. And he paid for it. Sucker play. Way to go there Jennings helping poor-ole Disney out. What next? Maybe send Bill Gates your yard display? Goofy. absolutely goofy.

And the lights on Cantrell? Are we crazy. It's a frighteningly, ugly embarrassing eyesore and the height of bad taste that should not be tolerated in a residential area. But he gets a free pass because I guess he might take away his Fireworks. His generosity on the Fireworks should not mean he gets to ram his awful taste in lighting displays and Presidents down our throats as we pass by his compound. It's a joke that it is allowed to remain there. Hell, I don't care. I don't live anywhere near it.

But on a slow Friday I'm just saying.

Disney pays him for putting up the lights on the backlot of Disney-MGM Studios. You obviously have never seen it and have no idea what you are talking about.

They pay him. What? Why is it always made out that he is like this saintly benevolent figure, donating his lights to Disney? Still goody. Why would Disney hire this guy to put up lights. doesn't make sense. Explain that one. I don't think that is the case. from how I've read about it. Yeah, I've never made the pilgrimage to see it. You're right about that. Better put that on my
1 millionth thing to do before I die list. So how does seeing or not matter?

It's goofy anyway you look at it. And the light display on Cantrell is the epitome of RN crapola and he should've been forced to take that down years ago. That or build the wall 30 feet higher.

Addresses on Robinwood are worth lots more than addresses on Cantrell, so I'm guessing someone pulled off a little address gerrymandering at one time.

For some reason, I always thought he was showing his appreciation for George Wendt.

The lights have been replaced by a rather poorly placed and constructed "Happy Birthday Breezy" banner.
She must of had really bad gas as a baby to be stuck with that nickname.

The "Happy Birthday Breezy" banner is a yearly occurrence. I've seen it before and it will go back into storage soon.

Look, once you are over 18 you need to drop the Breezy Monniker. Unless your mom is Sneezy and dad goes by Grumpy use your real damn name. Note to Jennings and family: L

Look, take down the damn lights, do the banner if you absolutely feel you have to have some shit on your wall from time to time, and hide those hideous, gargantuan BBQ contraptions in the back of your yard out of view from the road.

You might be a redneck if the airplanes flying overhead at night mistake your yard as a runway or the State Fair.

Regardless of your political views, this is a blessing. That was the tackiest thing the man could've done. I wonder if his neighbors hate him for doing crap like this and lowering their property values.

Well, remember that he did some good along the way. When he cooked at the Razorback games, many times when I was walking in I saw folks from the hood lined up to buy a plate of food. That plate of food for $5.00 was stacked high and could feed a family of four easily.

Goof.

Get real. Don't make excuses for the guy, His yard lightshow is bullshit rednceck shit and he needs to be called on it. Her only gets away with it because of the fireworks. Shut him down. Are we kdding that he gets away with that bullshit?

Redneck. Don't try and sugar coat it. No other way to explain it or justify it. Simple. Just a hick redneck with too much money (barely) and never got out of town. Shut the damn lights off. All of them. Geez. Is it hard to see it for what it is.

If everyone will recall, he use to only put the lights up at Christmas time and not year round.

He started leaving some lights up other than Christmas after his neighbors took him to court and he was forced to reduce the Christmas lights. I think it was more of a way to get back at those who sued him than him being "redneck."

IABL - It's so easy to criticize. Tell me the last time you sent a deli tray to all of the fire stations at Christmas. Or sent cases of peppermints and candy canes to fire and police stations to hand out at Christmas to the less fortunate..

I always find it interesting that those who don't have are the first to line up to criticize those who do have.

Back when those Christmas lights were in their prime and cars parked and crept on Cantrell for a half mile in either direction, it would have been impossible to get an ambulance or fire truck into any of those neighborhoods. Too damned bad if Papaw chose to have a heart attack then.

When I drove by one lane of traffic was very slow and the other was moving. It would not have been that hard to get an abulance in there. No more difficult that many places in the city at most times of the day.

When I drove by one lane of traffic was very slow and the other was moving. It would not have been that hard to get an ambulance in there. No more difficult that many places in the city at most times of the day.

If being a "hick redneck" means being generous, I'm all for being a hick redneck. Why, some of my best friends are hick rednecks.

i said ealier that he was generous with some thngs, even mentioned that I appreciate the fireworks on the river. He is generous. My main point is about the lights--that his generosity--however grand it may be-- doesn't give him license or a free pass to have the light displays in his yard. The city should shut them down and he should know better to begin with.

So what does the content of the light displays have to do with their size and intrusiveness? Would it be okay to have an equally large, equally lit reproduction of a Cezanne painting? Or would that still be bad if the person who put up the display was a redneck hick? (Come to think of it, that'd probably be more dangerous--Cezanne can make you dizzy with eyeball kicks if you look too long and hard. That's a Good Thing, I might add.)

Content is not the issue. Any content. Signs, lighted signs, don't belong on the front lawn. There are community standards, neighborly social contracts, probably even city codes, that govern, or should govern such things. To me, simple, he should know better. You just don't erect signs on your front lawn. It's one of the things everyone knows not to do. So why doesn't he get that. And why does he get to get away with it.

You could say it's his property and he can do what he wants. I disagree. There are standards, norms of behavior that keep the neighborhood, any neighborhood, from looking like a neon barrio.

We've become too accepting of his odd, eccentric, and yes, ugly and extremely selfish super-signing. Take it down. all of it. And don't put it up, any of it, again. Period.

That is what he needs to hear.

When I drove by one lane of traffic was very slow and the other was moving. It would not have been that hard to get an ambulance in there. No more difficult that many places in the city at most times of the day. Posted by: liberal Dem looking forward to 2012

I'm not talking about THAT time you drove by. I'm talking about times when scores of people were pulling off and parking on either side of the road, running around with their cameras, getting back in their cars and trying to merge back into "traffic" (which was creeping, at best); when there were brake lights as far as the eye could see between I-430 and Misty Ln. My brother lived in Echo Valley several years ago and I remember going to a family Christmas party at his house. Our Dad was a heart patient I we all had the same thought about the ambulance.

Sounds like the police should have been doing their job and handing out tickets then.

Hugh, I lived in Echo Valley during this time. We knew to go south to Rodney Parham to exit the neighborhood/area while the lights were lit. A bit inconvenient? Yeah, but Jennings truly believed he was sharing a gift with the lights. Remember, he did get police to direct traffic, at his expense, and really did try to please everyone. Actually, my kidz were little then, and we'd drive by several times a night, up Millbrook, folks always let us onto Cantrell, by the lights, then back down Misty to home. I do understand the folks in Robinwood & Riverridge having a bigger issue than EV, because RR has only one entrance and Robinwood only has two, and the second is a very minor exit (across from Millbrook). I didn't understand though why for parties, they couldn't plan around the lights toward the end of their existence...I think it was only allowed for 2 weeks in the end. I do clearly remember, J.O. was willing to do most anything to make things safer and less bothersome for neighbors. *I* wouldn't decorate my house this way even if I did have the $, but his generosity over the years, in many ways, is indisputable.

Thanks for a reasonable response, mykidzmom. Things did get better when the police began directing traffic, and it was only appropriate for JO to foot that bill. But it was the crazy traffic situation (and safety considerations) in the first place that prompted that police presence. It was chaotic before all that.

It's nobody's business what Mr. Osborne does and for putting lights in his front yard is his business.
All of you who objects can take a flying leap in the river. It's people like you that bring on communism. Well, if you like communism just find you are communist country and move there.

Chasv, I've read your commentary for so long, I feel like I know you. Haven't had the opportunity to respond to you until now.

If you have your own planet, then you can call anyone who tells you what to do a communist. Until that time, you have to get along with other people on the only planet any of us has at the moment, and you don't deserve the "star and scythe" for doing so, or for expecting it others to be reasonable either.

Dammit, just because someone has alot of money doesn't mean he can make life miserable, or dangerous in the case of hugh mann's dad, just because he thinks a bunch of friggin' lights is what everybody needs. Let's face it, it was never about the "community," it was always about Jennings Osbourne and how much he wanted everyone to know how rich he was and how rich his family was.

Chasv, stick your communism crap in your own angry red ass. Moron.

gumm, it takes one to know one......that id is gummy like sticky and stinky.
I wonder if you are the jackass that uses more than one id on here... if so you ain't impressing anbody but yourself.
Go jump in the lake.
Move to a communist country.