The line commences early because, with my wife out of town, I’m anxious to get cooking on a frat house favorite that doesn’t enjoy her favor — tuna noodle casserole, cream of mushroom soup and all. I also finally got around to watching (above) David Lewis‘ fine Arkansas take on one of my all-time favorite songs, “I’ve Been Everywhere.” Several of you have mentioned it previously. It’s a tour de force musical travelogue. Be sure to watch the credits.
Finally, about drinking beer:
I got polled tonight about my receptivity to a ballot initiative to allow sale of alcohol in every county in Arkansas. It was a straightforward survey with gender, race, age and religion demographic questions. Sign me up. Why should Bruce Hawkins’ clients in Conway County enjoy a regional monopoly as a booze oasis? Regnat populus. And populous, I should add. The state’s only about half wet geographically, but I’m reasonably sure a big majority of the people live in wet counties. Local option drives are underway to take care of some current large exceptions — Saline, Craighead and Faulkner. (All already have legal sales through the “private club” artifice.)
Retail outlets such as convenience stores and grocery chains could be expected to back the alcohol initiative. As I’ve written before, county line liquor stores are already working against it. So far, nothing is on file at Ethics Commission that reveals backers of the drive, but with polling underway, I’d think something would need to be filed soon
UPDATE: The group working for a wet Saline, Faulkner and Craighead counties has filed papers. The group, “Our Community Our Dollars” is led by Jay Allen of Rogers.