July 1999

Rockets' red glare to light up the skies Date: 7/2/99 Category: Weekend Page: W20 Most communities celebrate the Fourth of July with fireworks displays, which frequently take place over a reflecting body of water. Here's a rundown of a few across the state. All displays begin at dark unless otherwise noted. TODAY Freedom Fest, 6 p.m., fireworks at 8:45, Tilden Rodgers Park, Airport Road, West Memphis. Pop and patriotic tunes, children's activities, concessions. Call (870) 732-7598. SATURDAY Lights on the Lake, Lake Willastein, Maumelle. Sponsored by Clear Channel Broadcasting, Sonic Drive-In, Hershey's Inc. Call (501) 851-2500. Fireworks on Greers Ferry Lake, Fairfield Bay. Sponsored by Fairfield Bay Community Club, Fairfield Community Inc. and the city of Fairfield Bay. Call (501) 884-6500 Hot Springs Spa-tacular, gates open 11 a.m., fireworks at 9. Oaklawn Race Track Infield, Central Avenue, Hot Springs. Music by Drifters, Coasters, Platters, area bands; Kids Korner; Chili Cook-off; games. Tickets: $5 advance, $7 gates, 6-under free. Sponsored by Miller Lite, Three-Lakes Distributing, Hot Springs Chamber of Commerce and Hot Springs Advertising and Promotions. Call (501) 321-1700. See related story page 5. SUNDAY Lake Hamilton, Hot Springs. Sponsored by Jennings Osborne. Call (501) 321-1700. Island Festival, DeGray State Park, Arkadelphia. Sponsored by donations through the DeGray State Park. Call (501) 865-2851. Mayor's Fourth of July Celebration, Harry E. Kelley Riverfront Park, Fort Smith. Sponsored by donations through the Fort Smith mayor's office. Call (501) 784-2437. Pops on the River, Riverfront Park, Little Rock. 6 p.m. performance by the David Rosen Orchestra. 8 p.m. performance by the Arkansas Symphony. Fireworks show by Arkansas Pyrotechnic Products begins at 9:20 p.m. Food and drink vendors will be set up throughout the park. Sponsored by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Call 378-3400. Cutline: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette file photo Bouquet of bottle rockets. Keith Clark (left) and Corey Smith mull over a fireworks purchase.

Social eyes Community Service Awards 'Common thread' of charity binds 22nd annual honorees Date: 7/4/99 Category: Features Page: D2 "Politics doesn't matter when we come to real people," said Gov. Mike Huckabee as he crossed party lines to present the Distinguished Citizen Award to former U.S. Sen. David Pryor at the conclusion June 22 of the Channel 4 Community Service Awards dinner in the Clinton Ballroom of Arkansas' Excelsior Hotel. Pryor was recognized for his lifetime of public service, as well as his recent trip to Albania as a volunteer helping refugees in camps there. "I can't understand how hatred can become so deep it makes men become animals," Pryor said. "In a small way, all of us make a little difference ... one common thread tonight -- we will not and must not accept indifference. We must not accept apathy." The 22nd annual awards ceremony, which was taped and telecast Wednesday, also featured individual community service awards presented by KARK-TV, Channel 4, on-air talent. Winners introduced by videos were Dr. Raymond Biondo of Sherwood, whose trophy was presented by Denise Whitaker; Chris Caldwell of Pine Bluff, by Kent Bates; Betty Jo Hays of Hope, by Lyndall Stout; Helen Holloway of DeValls Bluff, by Shannon Ogden; Jennings Osborne of Little Rock, by Alice Stewart; Mary Gay Shipley of Blytheville, by Steve Barnes; and Marjorie Sproule of Heber Springs, by Betsy Pilgrim. Amanda Abrams of Little Rock received the youth humanitarian award from Arkansas first lady Janet Huckabee, and the corporate humanitarian award for a small business went to Marion Kahn Communications. It was accepted by Marion Kahn from Becky Kossover, director of the Arkansas Division of Volunteerism. The corporate humanitarian award for a larger business went to Beverly Enterprises. David Banks of Fort Smith accepted the award from Dean Hinson, Channel 4/s president and chief executive officer. Each award was accompanied by a cash donation to the recipient's favorite charity. Dave Woodman served as the master of ceremonies. Cutlines: Mary Gay Shipley and Mayor Barrett Harrison, both of Blytheville Dave Woodman (center) with Helen and Gerard Holloway of DeValls Bluff Wayne and Margie Sproule of Heber Springs David Banks and Teresa Keller, both of Fort Smith Janet Huckabee and Amanda Abrams Barbara and former Sen. David Pryor with Dean Hinson and Janet Huckabee Jim Conner and Marion Kahn

Alimagator movie belongs at swamp bottom Date: 7/16/99 Category: Features Page: W14 C.D. MARTIN SPECIAL TO THE DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE Film review Lake Placid Grade: D Cast: Bridget Fonda, Bill Pullman, Oliver Platt, Brendan Gleeson, Betty White Director: Steve Miner Rated: R, for gore and plenty of South Park-style compound profanities Running time: 82 minutes Playing: Razorback 6 Cinema in Fayetteville, Mall 6 Cinema in Rogers and Sugar Creek 10 in Bella Vista. Coal Dog here. I live in the yard. I know what you're thinking. What does it mean when they send the dog to review the show? Well, what it means in this case is that they held the screening on the same night as the Major League Baseball All-Star Game. So I got drafted. (I never get to see the all-star game, just the stupid home run derby.) Anyway, as you can see, I gave Lake Placid a D. The D stands for Don't Go. Unless you're Dumb. I could have given it a C for Cruddy or an F for Fake-looking alimagator but I settled on D because I didn't want to hurt anybody's feelings. I'm sensertive to the feelings of my fellow creatures. Believe me, none of the creatures involved in making this movie really want you to go see it either, because they all look really stupid in it and they get paid whether you go or not. Unless they're really Dumb. Back in the 1 960s, Susan Sontag wrote a famous essay about the science-fiction genre called "The Imagination of Disaster." To prepare for this review, I re-read that essay and I can safely say that the people who made this movie have probably never even heard of Susan Sontag. They didn't follow the rules and if they were intent on making some kind of parody of a bad movie -- which is the most charitable way to read this film -- then they should at least have conformed to the conventions established for bad movies. Instead, Bridget Fonda just keeps getting her clothes wet and clingy and Brendan Gleeson just keeps trying to sound like an American yokel sheriff. Oliver Platt -- formerly known as "the always enjoyable Oliver Platt" -- swears a lot, but not as much or as creatively as Betty White, who sounds like she's trying to get a guest shot on South Park. Bill Pullman looks earnest. Good dog. Now I'm s'posed to talk about the plot. OK. There's a big alimagator in a lake in Maine. One day some guy who's out "tagging beavers" -- isn't that what Mickey and Whitey used to do in the dugout? -- gets chomped. Just his bottom half. So this girl scientist (Fonda) comes up from New York to help Pullman and Gleeson catch the alimagator and scream a lot in the meantime, because her boyfriend -- who looks like he's been made up to look like Ben Stein -- is having an affair with her best friend. Got it? Me neither. And what, pray tell, is a big alimagator doing in a lake in Maine (where there are no roads -- check a map sometime)? Well, as goofy, super-rich, alimagator-worshipping mythology professor Platt succinctly explains, "I don't know." Actually, Platt is kind of enjoyable -- but not "always enjoyable" -- in this movie. He's kind of like that Jennings Osborne fellow, he gets real bossy 'cause he's got lots of money and a heliochopter. Gleeson always wants to beat him up but it is kind of like a Skipper-Little Buddy or Sergeant Snorkel-Beetle Bailey sort of relationship. I don't know why they'd want to bother the big alimagator (one cool scene -- he chomps a bear) anyway, since nobody ever goes to the lake and only White lives there and she likes him. So he ate a beaver tagger -- so what? He only ate half of him. And half a beaver tagger isn't such a big price to pay for a miracle of nature. Even if it is a really fake-looking miracle of nature. Coal Dog out. If you want me, I'll be in the yard. C.D. Martin lives in the yard of Democrat-Gazette movie critic Philip Martin. Cutline Brendan Gleeson fires wildly at a giant alimigator in Lake Placid.

Bush bests Gore in cash raised in state Texan collects $104,852 to Tennessean's $33,375 Date: 7/17/99 Category: News Page: A1 PATRICK HOWE ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE WASHINGTON -- Little Rock business consultant Gary Chandler gave money to President Clinton in the last presidential election, but this time around he's writing his checks to the campaign of Republican George W. Bush. "I'm not a particularly big fan of Al Gore," Chandler explained, adding that the $500 he gave last month to support Bush is "as much because of his style as substance." Chandler was just one of the 143 people who helped Bush collect $104,852 from Arkansans -- three times as much as Vice President Gore -- in the first six months of the year. Bush's success in Arkansas mirrored the record-breaking fund-raising success that his campaign demonstrated nationwide in reports filed with the Federal Election Commission this week. In all, Bush raised $37 million from 74,000 contributors. Gore raised $17.5 million -$33,375 from Arkansans. Flush with cash, Bush announced Thursday that he will decline federal matching funds, a move that frees him from spending limits. Bush's campaign received checks from some well-known names in Arkansas, including former U.S. Rep. John Paul Hammerschmidt, Lt. Gov. Winthrop Rockefeller, Stephens Group Chairman Jack Stephens, Murphy Oil Corp. founder Charles Murphy, and William Dillard, owner of Dillards Inc. Philanthropist Jennings Osborne, his wife Mitzi and their daughter Breezy each gave $ 1,000, the annual legal limit for individual contributions to a candidate. Bush also received money from Earl Sloan, the Walnut Ridge retiree who has given to numerous Republicans but also gave $10,000 to President Clinton's legal defense fund. Chesley Pruet, state finance chairman for the Bush campaign, said his goal is to raise $200,000 from the state for Bush, and he's confident he'll achieve it. "We've got a really good candidate," said Pruet, who has also served as finance chairman for the campaigns of presidents Ford, Reagan and Bush. "That makes the job easier." Because the Texas governor hasn't traveled to Arkansas yet, Pruet said, the campaign has been raising most of its money through letters and direct appeals. The campaign has assembled a second tier of fund-raisers who are given goals of raising $5,000 or $ 10,000 each. "So far, they've all done very well," he said. Gore's contributor list of 63 people includes fewer CEOs than Bush's list, but far more lawyers -- at least 13. Ark Monroe of the Mitchell Williams Selig Gates & Woodyard law firm in Little Rock, who has been coordinating fund raising for Gore and is a distant relative of the vice president, said Gore has only recently begun to focus on raising money in the state. "Frankly, we've made minimal effort, and the response has been excellent.... People are anxious to support the vice president." And Monroe said he expects to raise far more money soon. President Clinton is to join Gore at a $500-a-ticket fund-raiser Aug. 7 at the Statehouse Convention Center in Little Rock. Monroe said the event could raise as much as $300,000. Monroe said Gore benefits in the state not only because he comes from neighboring Tennessee, but also because he has strong familial and political connections in the state. Gore's mother was an attorney in Texarkana. One of the people Gore can count on is attorney Raymond Abramson of Clarendon, who said the $ 1,000 he gave to Gore's campaign is by far the largest political contribution he's ever made. "I'm just one of the working guys," he said. "I wouldn't give it if he didn't deserve it." Abramson said he's been a Gore supporter since the Tennessean first ran for president in 1988. Despite such supporters, Gore's efforts in Arkansas may suffer from what one prominent Democrat described as post-presidential letdown. The theory goes that Gore's potential base of supporters in Arkansas has already gone through the excitement of two presidential campaigns for a home-state candidate. "There may be substantially less interest to people in supporting even a strong neighbor-state candidate," the Democrat said. Nate Coulter, a Gore contributor and Democratic attorney who has run for statewide offices in the past, said Bush's money advantage in the state so far is not a good test of his political support. "People in Arkansas are interested in what a candidate has to say," Coulter said. "Al Gore has a strong base of support here, and this is one of the places where he stands to do very well in a general election." Despite the diligent efforts of party faithful, Arkansas wasn't a significant source of money for either candidate. The state ranked 36th among states in contributions to Bush and 37th in contributions to Gore, according to the Internet site of Public Disclosure Inc., a nonpartisan company run by former Federal Election Commission offcials. Five other candidates reported contributions from Arkansas. Republican Gary Bauer had the most -- $17,960 from 36 people. Republican Sen. John McCain raised $5,500, former Democratic Sen. Bill Bradley $3,750, Republican Elizabeth Dole $750 and former Republican Vice President Dan Quayle $715. Pruet said fund raising means more than pure dollars to a campaign. He said people who contribute get excited about campaigns and feel an investment in candidates. "They get out and talk to their neighbors, who then talk to other neighbors." Photos: George W. Bush Al Gore

Paper Trails: A new presidential anthem for Clinton: 'Jail to the Chief' Date: 7/29/99 Category: Features Page: E8 Carrie Rengers Gene McDonald considered himself a mild-mannered, middle-age man when President Clinton waved his finger at the nation and said he did not have sexual relations with that woman. When Clinton admitted in August that he had in fact had relations with Monica Lewinsky, McDonald had finally had it. The Boca Raton, Fla., resident took to the streets with signs urging people to honk if they thought Clinton should be impeached. Honks and thumbs up far outweighed the one-finger salutes I was getting, McDonald says. On his third day out, though, one person stopped to harass McDonald and they wound up in a scuffle. That kind of turned me into what I am today, McDonald says. He now calls himself an activist and, somewhat jokingly, a member of the vast right-wing conspiracy. He s marketing Jail to the Chief stamps in booklets of 250 stamps for $9.95. The stamps feature Clinton in jail stripes behind bars. The humor and the irony are that the first commemorative stamp for Bill Clinton has [a] value of 0 cents, McDonald says. He says the stamps allow people, including Democrats who are upset with Clinton, to show their disapproval every time they mail something. Opposition to the Stamp Act of 1765 was the first organized political resistance in the Colonies, McDonald says. I believe it is time for citizens to show their disdain and disgust and participate in the Stamp of Disapproval Act of 1999. McDonald is selling the stamps at various places, such as at gun shows, and through his Web site: www j ailtothechiefstamp.com Cheerio, Jerry O The numerous KTHV-TV, Channel 11, billboards around central Arkansas, which show the station s top newscasters as cozy as a family portrait, will be coming down. That s because sportscaster Jerry Olenyn, better known as Jerry O, is leaving. Why? Well, there s this, um, I 11 leave that up to the station to comment, he says. That was the agreement we reached. Olenyn broke a contract to leave, but he says it was due to expire soon and there was no reason for him to stay because he has a sick relative in Nevada and a fiancee in Nashville, Tenn. He was in Little Rock for 18 months. It took a bit of an adjustment, Olenyn says of his time in Little Rock, but they ve been very kind to me. As always, there was no comment from the station except a mention of Olenyn s sick relative. Money-back guarantee Most Arkansans are used to the piled-high plates of barbecue that philanthropist Jennings Osborne serves at events around the state, but what did international visitors think at the sister cities dinner Osborne sponsored at the state Capitol last week? They were just going around with their eyes great big wide like, What a party, says Alfred Williams, chairman of Little Rock s Sister Cities Commission. We forewarned them on our way over there, Now, y all, don t eat lunch today. The comments I had were, I can t believe we had that much to eat, Williams says. He was very generous in his gift to the city and to our international guests. Too generous, said a few naysayers who noted that one Osborne tray equaled a month s worth of food for a family in some of the visiting countries. I didn t hear anything negative, Williams says, though he adds, It was a little warm. That was the only complaint I had. None of us could do anything about that. That s God s temperature control. Osborne knew there might be a few comments. He says that during the event s planning stages last year, someone he can t remember who requested that he scale down the portions he serves. We reduced our menu for that event, Osborne says. For instance, there was no beef brisket. We totally eliminated it. Ditto for the baked beans. And Osborne served smaller turkey legs and smaller chickens just to make everybody happy. We really backed off, Osborne says. He even stacked less food on the trays when he realized the serving tent was so far from the dining tent. Sometimes we pile it on, Osborne says. One request Osborne won t accommodate is to customize people s trays. It just screws the whole line up, he says. Overall, Osborne says, People were very appreciative. I don t know who was moaning and groaning, but they re in every crowd. One person who regularly attends the events notes that hey, if you don t like it, ask for your money back. Under construction The corporation that is the Jennings Osborne Family now has its own Web site. It s at: wwwjenningsosbornefamily.com A miniature Mickey Mouse with a hammer denotes that the site is still under construction. Many of Osborne s Disney friends, such as a flying Tinkerbell, are featured. There s lots of animation. To check barbecue dates, you can click on a turkey leg. When you do, a chunk is bitten out of the leg. Click on the fireworks and they explode. After the site is completed, Osborne hopes to hold weekly and maybe even daily votes on various subjects just for kicks. He 11 also publish pictures after each of his events. The governor s party room Gov. Mike Huckabee s aversion to alcohol is well known, but that didn t keep the champagne from flowing in his conference room at the Capitol last week. I don t know how he feels about it, says Secretary of State Sharon Priest of the champagne that was served from the governor s conference room during a rotunda dinner for sister cities mayors and ambassadors. The governor s conference room is still considered one of the public areas of the Capitol even though it s clearly a working conference room for him, Priest says. Although public functions are held at the Governor s Mansion, Huckabee won t allow alcohol to be served there as various groups were accustomed to doing in the past. Other public spaces in the Capitol include the rotunda, the old Supreme Court and hallways. Anything that s not somebody s offce, Priest says. HOT TIP? QUIRKY STORY? LIVELY TALE? Call Carrie Rengers at 378-3892 or e-mail her at: carrie_rengersadg. ardemgaz. com Cutline Jail to the chief: Now, for a $9.95 book of stamps, people who don t approve of President Clinton can tell everyone what they think every time they send mail.

[ HOME ] [ FAMILY STORY ] [ BARBECUE ] [ CHRISTMAS LIGHTS ]
[ FIREWORKS ] [ GRACELAND ] [ DISNEY ] [ RAZORBACKS ] [ QUESTION OF THE DAY ]
[ PHOTO ALBUM ] [ CARTOONS ] [ FREE PHOTOS! ] [ FAVORITE LINKS ]
[ HOMES & TOYS ] [ VIP ] [ CALENDAR OF EVENTS ]
[ SIGN GUESTBOOK ] [ VIEW GUESTBOOK ]