We took a weekend trip to Northwest Arkansas, the town of Lavaca to be exact, to get a new member of the family. We’ve been to Eureka Springs on several occasions, but I personally had never been to any town on Highway 71 north of Mena. Google Maps took us on an interesting backroad experience, claiming it was the shortest route. The Prius did a little off-roading as we forded a low-water crossing on a bumpy road in Sebastian County. This little stretch of country roads was worse than some of the Dallas and Ouachita county roads we frequent — roads that don’t exist on Google Streetview. We nearly stopped to ask for directions but voted against the idea once we noticed the lone porch dweller was a squinty-eyed boy with a banjo on his lap. OK, OK, that part isn’t true, but we learned a valuable lesson: sometimes technology doesn’t have our best interest at heart, and it’s best to just stick to the main highways.

The Arkadelphia High School Badgers have been raking in respect on the baseball diamond this season, like they have for many seasons in the past. This past weekend, the Badgers won the 4A South regional tournament and are headed to the state playoffs this coming weekend. We’ll have coverage of these games, so be sure and read these stories and look for the names of local student athletes. Give them praise and let them know you read about their performance in The Arkadelphian.

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My upper lip tingled. I touched it and inspected my fingers, now red and damp with fresh blood. My face had hit the steering wheel in the impact. I studied the rearview mirror in hopes that all my teeth were still intact. They were, but my two upper-right incisors had hit the steering wheel, piercing my lip and leaving tooth marks on the steering wheel. 

Advertising in The Arkadelphian works! Don’t believe us? Just ask Clark County Circuit Clerk Brian Daniel. On Friday morning, Daniel’s office purchased ad space to fill a vacant position. On Monday morning, we got a call saying the position was filled and that the candidate he hired saw the advertisement right here on this website. It’s nice to be appreciated for the work we’ve done since launching last July, but it’s great to know that our advertisers benefit from investing in us. If your business has a message to get across, we can help. There are lots of people tuning into Clark County’s only daily news source.

We hope to soon be able to get our eyes on the bound editions of the Siftings Herald so we can flip through some old newspapers and include in this column what happened in Clark County five, 10 or 15 years ago. Another idea we want to come to fruition, with the help of our civic-minded readers, is to revive the “shout out” award included in the late Dolores Harrington’s regular “Bee in my Bonnet” column. Once in a while, she would applaud a local resident’s accomplishments, good deeds or just overall pleasant demeanor. The award was named in honor of the late Donnie Bettis. If you’ve witnessed someone guilty of a good deed, drop us a line at editor@arkadelphian.com and nominate that person. Be sure and include why the person is deserving of recognition.