Smoky
Well, not so good news about Julie’s opening in September as a new restaurant for some of us who have given up the weed. If, in fact, they do allow smoking in the bar, I guess one needs to be cancer objective to go there. It is the very worst place in town as far as smoke inhalation goes. I have seen it so smoky you could hardly see across the room. The smoke infects the restaurant and makes for a quite unpleasant eating experience. Oh well, enough from a non-smoker and Arkansas’s so called no-smoking law.
Bob Donaldson
Little Rock
Good memory
Thanks so much for the article on the Spudnuts in El Dorado. My husband and I were just discussing this place LAST WEEK! Hadn’t thought about it in years. When we were in high school in Fairview-Camden, the Spudnut started as a family business, and took off like a wild fire. Folks came every weekend to fill up on the delicious donuts. It was a great experience just watching them being made, and the smell of anticipation.
We had wondered if they were still in business, not being close enough in many years to check it out.
Keep up the good work on your newsy paper.
Virginia Finley
Hot Springs
Drive-in movies live
As I was reading David Koon’s article on Movies in the Park, I wanted to let you know that while there are still many people in this generation who have never experienced a movie under the stars, we at the Kenda Drive-In Theatre in Marshall are cutting the numbers each week. In operation since 1966, we are a family owned and operated drive-in theatre with regular customers from all across Arkansas. It is a shame that so many of the drive-ins like the Asher have closed, but we strive to provide the drive-in experience to a whole new generation. Come see us.
Kenda Dearing
Kenda Drive-In Theatre
Marshall
Breakfast option
The restaurant review of The House deplored the lack of breakfast options in the Heights and Hillcrest neighborhoods. I don’t know where the reviewer lives, but there has been a great little eclectic restaurant in Hillcrest that we have patronized for years: Leo’s Greek Castle. They serve one of the best breakfasts in town with friendly service and a family-like atmosphere. We see people there who have, like us, come to eat for years; friends, neighbors, big-wigs and not-so-big wigs. If you have Leo’s, you don’t need any other breakfast options!
Phyllis Haynes and Bud Thurman
From the Internet
Blue Dogs and health
I enjoyed your article on Mike Ross and the Blue Dog Democrats who have taken a leaf out of Billy Tauzin’s old disgraceful playbook and have brazenly sold out to the “Health Care Industry” thugs. I don’t know why I ever persuade myself that the U.S. can ever reform anything, with the gang of prostitutes we have in the U.S. Congress, and the supine apathy of the Great American Public — who apparently enjoy being ripped off from the cradle to the grave — literally. I lived in Canada, by the way, for 15 years; I really do know the health care system in Canada (it is provincially run, not federally run, by the way). The so called “conservatives” (read “brain-dead”) will continue to spout lies and misinformation about Canadian health because Americans are stupid enough and lazy enough to believe them. Canadians are proud of their system because it works. It delivers. It insures everybody, including resident Americans like myself. If Americans want to go on believing all of the propaganda of the lying Republicans and of whores like Mike Ross, all I can say is, go ahead. I have been watching this obscene spectacle for half a century, and I am tired of talking about it.
James A. Means
Natchitoches, La.
Conventional wisdom indicates that if you want to know who and what a person is follow the flow of his money — just what, where, and how much he gets and how and for what does he spend it? Then give much more weight to what he does than to what he says, especially if he is a politician!
Let’s take a look at Congressman Mike Ross of the Fourth Congressional District. It’s reported 22 percent of his constituents have no health insurance, 20 percent live in poverty, and 30 percent are people of color. Since recent polls indicate that his constituents want and badly need health care reform, why is Ross blocking it?
Just follow the money! Sarah Shive, in a blog article, noted that health care companies contributed $261,000 of campaign money to him in 2008! Further, Dan Eggen in an article in the Washington Post July 31 said, “The Blue Dogs are carrying water for the industry rather than their constituents. In effect, the Blue Dogs and the Republicans are taking positions that are closer all the time and further away from what most Americans want.”
But then there is the matter of getting elected. Nowadays it takes a big pot of money to get elected, and that is a big part of the problem.
Kermit Moss
Monticello