We took a break from the news desk last week for a romp around the Gulf Coast. Our first stop was Baton Rouge, a fairly monotonous-yet-scenic, six-hour drive from Arkadelphia and home to the tallest state capitol in the U.S. Towering 450 feet over Baton Rouge’s downtown, the 34-story capitol is an impressive landmark, but its exterior could use some deep cleaning; a good pressure washing, maybe? At one point during our brief stay we watched from our hotel as plumes of smoke billowed from some unknown point northeast of the capitol — behind it, from our perspective, and in the general area of the governor’s mansion. We deduced that the governor was hosting a book burning party, possibly with Arkansas’s governess. Baton Rouge was OK, but not somewhere we’re likely to revisit anytime soon.
The Spouse was convinced that the Buffalo River south of Natchez (and east of the mighty Mississippi) was the same Buffalo River in Arkansas. She’s blonde.
Leaving Baton Rouge we took note of a road sign that read “Wipers On Lights On It’s The Law”. We drove the next 100 miles under clear skies with our wipers and lights on — we weren’t about to break the law in Louisiana. Yours Truly was once blonde.
This week last year we reported that Chancellor Chuck Ambrose was leaving Henderson State University. Good riddance. CLICK HERE for the story.
Lots of interesting city names in Louisiana: Natchitoches, Thibodaux, Ponchatoula, etc. Then there’s Robert. We fancy that perhaps it’s pronounced the French way, like Ro-bear. We didn’t stop to ask because we had Florida on our mind.
We’d like to thank Bill Sutley (our readers should, too) for writing local stories while we bummed around the beach.
Ozzy S. Thompson sez: We were shumwhere around Penshacola on the edge of the beach when the treats began to take hold. We had two bags of Purina, 75 pellets of hemp chews, five high-powered bully sticks, a salt shaker half full of vitamin sprinkle, and a whole galaxy of multi-colored Greenies, Blue Buffalos, Milk-Bones, Pup-Peronis … and also a quart of rum and a case of Busch Light for Diddy. Not that we needed all that for the trip, but once you get locked into a serious treat collection, the tendency is to push it as far as you can.
Ask us about seagull meat pies.
Word problem: For Little Rock news stations, a fatal dog mauling in Arkadelphia holds <, >, or = the news value of the closing of ~100 yards of a minor Arkadelphia thoroughfare. Answer at the bottom.
Crab Traps for $6!
We titled this column after a Guns N’ Roses lyric for two reasons: because everybody needs some time off from work, and as an homage to GNR guitarist Slash, who was in the news this week after announcing the death of his 25-year-old stepdaughter. It wasn’t too long ago that Slash showed up in our news feed for celebrating many years of sobriety. Though not die-hard Guns N’ Roses fans, we hope this iconic guitarist will continue to steer straight in light of his loss.
Back home in time for the weekend and a couple more days off, we traveled to Hot Springs to catch Twisters on the big screen. Going to the cinema is a rarity for us, but our nostalgia for the ‘90s drove our curiosity to check out the hype. Unfortunately, we left the theater unimpressed. Twisters was essentially the same story line as Twister, the differences being that the Dodge Rams in the “remake” are white, and the cast is younger than we are by 10 years. Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt, both in their 30s during the filming of the original, seemed ancient to our prepubescent eyes. We kept waiting for comic relief or even a Van Halen or Goo Goo Dolls song; we found no humor, and the soundtrack left us wanting.
Now, if you’ll excuse us, we have at least a cubic yard of beach sand to remove from our vehicle’s interior.
Joel Phelps is editor and publisher of arkadelphian.com. Opinions in Bits & Pieces are his own. Contact him at editor@arkadelphian.com. Answer: <
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