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A family Halloween tradition
A weekend at my mom’s house with my sister and her kids, and all their animals (four dogs and a cat between them) is usually just one step from sheer bedlam. But it’s becoming a tradition around Halloween, matching the one we’ll have again a month later during Thanksgiving/Black Friday.
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Celebs’ childhood Halloween antics
\My 7-year-old son Gideon has a year-round obsession with Halloween, and I sometimes wonder how that will manifest itself in adulthood.
Of course, there’s also the flip side. How did today’s movers and shakers behave back in their younger days when they were MOVING apples in a tub and SHAKING plastic skeletons? My well-placed spies tell me this is how it went for the following celebrities:
President Barack Obama: “Trick or … hold on, waiting for the ol’ teleprompter to boot up … TREAT!” -
First ER visit, MRI
I still don’t know if never having an IV or blood drawn is a good or bad thing at 27 years old.
More than a week ago I had my first experience with emergency rooms followed by a “cat scan” (after days of unusual head aches and pains) and then a MRI on my brain.
I received an injection in my bloodstream for the contrast of the MRI. And while it stung a little more than a regular shot in the arm, it wasn’t what I would consider an IV. -
Do your part to prevent drug abuse
Letter to the Editor,
Arkansas is number one in prescription drug abuse among teens. According to the Arkansas Prevention Needs Assessment Survey, seven out of 10 teens say they obtain these narcotics from their own homes. In order to reduce ease of access to prescription drugs, we must dispose of unused pills in a manner that is safe for our environment.
The Arkansas DEA is hosting a statewide “Takeback Day” this Saturday, October 29. Last year we collected over 4 tons of unused prescription pills, which the National Guard delivered to El Dorado for incineration. -
America’s Animal Farm
I write this during what might well be the final 48 hours of our existence, as it seems the good Rev. Harold Camping has revised his earlier prediction of The End Of Times to Oct. 21. As his views would place him comfortably in front of a podium and in the mainstream of any of the every-hour-on-the-hour Republican presidential debates — I’m not entirely convinced he’s wrong about a coming apocalypse.
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Catching up with the Batesville class of 1971
High school, I’m told, is a traumatic time for some people. For others, the glory days. For me, not so much of either — if only because, back then, I just didn’t pay much attention. My goal at the time was to simply survive the ride, get out as soon as possible, and then go on about the business of becoming a rock star. How hard could that be?
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Are these parents crazy?
In his new book, “Suicide of a Superpower,” Pat Buchanan writes that the politics of race, culture and tribalism will be the largest problem civilization will face.
This item on foxnews.com proves his point. Here’s where today’s politics of culture are leading this once-great nation.
“A lesbian couple in California who say their 11-year-old son Tommy who wants to be a girl named Tammy are giving their child hormone blockers that delay the onset of puberty — so that he can have more time to decide if he wants to change his gender. -
Another year wiser
My birthday was Thursday and I have decided instead of saying, “I’m another year older” I will say, “I’m another year wiser.”
I like where I am at in my life at 42. That’s right, 42 years of wisdom and life experience. I’m not embarrassed about it at all. I wish our society valued us older folks like other cultures do.
I wish I could go back and tell the 12 year old me that everything works out just fine and that everyone feels that they are different and don’t fit in. I would love to tell her— her dream came true and she gets to do what she always wanted. -
State parks capture spirit of Ozarks
Editor’s note: This is the seventh in a series about museums in the Ozark Gateway Region.
As in previous articles, our journey continues throughout the Ozark Gateway Region, this week focusing on the Jacksonport and Ozark Folk Center state parks. Each captures the spirit of the region with exhibits, activities and entertainment for the entire family, and annual events and celebrations.
Jacksonport State Park
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Globalized protest will be around a while
In these days of globalization it certainly fits our times: Occupy Wall Street has now gone global.
Welcome to New York, a city with more stoops than a talk show host convention. “If I can make it there, I’ll make it anywhere,” say the lyrics of “New York, New York,” and Occupy Wall Street has made it here. Local newspapers are crammed with long stories about it.
But it goes beyond New York: Operation Wall Street incarnations are popping up in a slew of American and European cities. -
Bankaneers, take heart: We like pirates
Pirates, at least the traditional image we have in our minds (the ones with the parrots on their shoulders and wooden legs from the 1700s), were in reality rapists, thieves and murderers. They were violent outlaws; terrorists of the Caribbean colonies. Some of them were hired as mercenaries called privateers, but they were still pirates even with a note from the king. They pillaged, slaughtered and plundered for a couple hundred years.
And a couple hundred years after that? Well, now pirates are a multi-billion dollar Disney franchise. -
Meddling in Africa
The response to President Obama’s Oct. 14 announcement that U.S. military boots were on the ground in Africa to assist in another “overseas contingency” “non-war” operation in Africa is another example of the left’s ever-evolving definition of war based upon which political party is in control.
