The Spouse volun-told us to smoke a turkey breast for a Christmas luncheon at her workplace, so early Tuesday morning we busied ourselves with the task in the carport of our home on Martindale Hill. After waking at 3 a.m. and taking care of the prep work, the turkey was on, and we helped ourselves to a heaping helping of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers concert footage broadcast from a projector as the Weber kettle did its magic. We witnessed some unusual pre-dawn activity: in true Deck the Halls fashion, our new neighbors rolled in across the street in a clanking Penske rental truck; a domestic disturbance later unfolded outside a vehicle on a neighboring street, hopefully reaching its climax with the shouting and swearing we heard before the vehicle sped off, leaving ol’ yeller behind; and a pair of fire engines drove around Mill Creek Apartments and Welch Street (thanks to the former fire chief, we’re not privy to the radio traffic of the Arkadelphia Fire Department, so we have nothing to report). We’ve seen less nighttime action on the streets of New York City on Saint Patrick’s Day. The turkey, if we may boast, was a big hit at The Spouse’s luncheon.
If you’re reading this, congratulations: you’re not considered one of those spoon-fed Facebook freeloaders who refuse to step outside of social media to check out local news. Thank you.
Flat Earthers may disregard this fact: This Saturday marks the winter solstice, when the North Pole reaches its maximum tilt away from the sun. It’ll be the shortest day and longest night of the year, with the takeaway being that we’ll begin experiencing more daylight in weeks to come, albeit in minute amounts (now that’s a clever pun).
If Braum’s has no plans to use the former Western Sizzlin’ restaurant, the company should sell the property to someone who will. We are convinced that a 24-hour IHOP would be a fine addition to Arkadelphia’s dining options. It would give the night owls something to do, and the I-30 frontage location is a perfect spot for an International House of Pancakes. Someone had to say it; apparently we were appointed.
We read an interesting piece in Arkansas Business regarding how Arkansas’s two major newspapers — the Democrat-Gazette and Arkansas Times — have turned to philanthropy to keep their businesses sustainable. If we’re being honest, the advertising model that fuels The Arkadelphian’s meager earnings is, more often than not, one of uncertainty. We hope to continue this business model and are grateful to each of our advertising customers and readers who have generously made non-tax-deductible contributions. Some readers have said they would gladly pay a subscription. While most of our online colleagues offer paywall-free news with ads, our friends at South Arkansas Reckoning decry the advertising model and rely instead on reader subscriptions. We see the pros and cons of both models, and looking into 2025 — if things don’t pick up — we may reconsider our business model. It would be a risky move, we realize, but necessary. One thing’s for certain, though: We will not ask local philanthropic entities for help (not that they’d entertain the idea anyway), because that money should be used for more important purposes and issues facing the community.
Ozzy the Chocolate Chihuahua sez: Got your message, Chuck. I’ll tink about it.
A current poll on our website asking readers how much they spend on Christmas indicates that most folks dish out between $500-$1,000 for the holiday. Take the poll if you haven’t already done so.
Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em.
If a successful deer season is measured by the number of harvests, then ours was a bust. If it’s measured by the time you spent sitting in a wooden box you crafted yourself, then by golly we had a good deer season. This year marked the first since our 2021 launch that we made time to hunt. Although we’ve had invitations to hunt on local properties, we prefer our hunting grounds in the Ouachita River bottoms in northern Ouachita County, about 5 river miles south of the confluence of the Ouachita and Little Missouri rivers (also the southeastern most tip of Clark County, which you can see from the Tate’s Bluff bridge).
Joel Phelps is editor of arkadelphian.com. Opinions expressed in this column are his own. Email him at editor@arkadelphian.com. Good night, Santa. Good night, Mrs. Santa’s sister.