by Pat Laster
But I’m going to step out of my comfort zone
and do some aping of folks like John Brummett sometimes does with his arrows.
I doubt I can sling arrows, but the computer
might allow plusses and minuses. Perhaps I could use smiley and un-smiley
faces. Using entries in my journal as reminders, here goes.
+ - Bravos to Arkansas's Governor Beebe for vetoing
the 20-week abortion bill. And the 12-week one.
–– - Boos to the Arkansas legislature for
overriding the governor’s vetoes.
+ - Congratulations to Misao Okawa of
Osaka, Japan, who was presented with the Guinness World Records certificate for
being the world’s oldest woman at 114.
+ - Kudos to Steven Hanley for his
feature in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, “Arkansas Postcard Past,” many of
which end up taped into said journal. A Mansfield, AR combo gas station/café/
grocery/ truck-and-tourist stop somewhere around 1940 is one such item. The
business sold Coca-Cola, Delaware Punch and Sinclair gasoline. During that time
gas was 18 cents per gallon.
–– - Poor Land commissioner Rueben G.
Dye, on February 24, 1913, put in a
strenuous day. He had his office declared vacant by Attorney General Moose,
being appointed to it by Governor Robinson and then seeing the house pass a
bill to abolish the office––all in one day.
Also Mr. Dye enjoys the distinction of being the only state official in
the history of Arkansas [politics] whose office was declared vacant after he
had been elected to it. [Maybe that needs to happen in 2013. Just sayin'.]
+ - Willie Kavanaugh Hocker, who died
in 1944, designed the Arkansas flag as a result of winning a contest around
1912, beating out 64 others. The flag was adopted February 18, 1913 and made
law February 26 that year. The design was unchanged until 1923 when a fourth
star was added for the Confederacy.
–– -
There are 925 million hungry people in the world and US folks spend $51 billion
a year on our pets, according to K. Horrigan, St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
–– -
The US has five percent of the world’s population, yet consumes one-sixth of
the world’s animal protein—8 ounces per person per day, and we pay less for it
than anyone.
+ - Arkansas has 96 weekly newspapers
and 28 dailies, according to Jack Weatherly.
+ - A joke going around, found in Terry
Mattingly’s religion column earlier: Father James Martin, a Jesuit, tweeted, “Pope
Benedict XVI is raising the bar when it comes to giving things up for Lent.”
–– -
After the meteor hit Siberia, a nationalist leader in Russia was reported as
saying, “It’s not meteors falling. It’s the test of a new weapon by the
Americans.” [!?!?]
+ - Ash-Wednesday-on-the-go: Episcopal and Ecumenical Catholic priests set
up a drive/walk-up place for prayers and ashes in Little Rock.
–– -
[Some news briefs beg me (!) to turn them into cinquains:] “Precious, /thirty-one,
barged/ into a high school class, / helped daughter beat up another/ student.”
[I can’t imagine; glad I’m retired from the classroom--except in occasional dreams.]
+ - “The gift of singing songs …”
(title) “Children’s/ choir—Italian--/ sang to Pope Benedict/ in German, his
native tongue. He/ thanked them.”
+ - Long live Pope Emeritus Benedict
XVI.
