Smart talk
Contents
Delta-made high society
8 Protecting the lake
n Tuckerman, Ark., amid the Delta row crops of Jackson County, isn’t much known for high-society cotillions. Nonetheless, a son of Tuckerman, Bronson Van Wyck, has become the A-list party planner of choice in New York city and beyond. BizBash, an industry journal for planners, named him the party designer of the year. He’s president of Van Wyck & Van Wyck, which he runs with his mother Mary Lynn and sister Mimi. The firm’s work and its leader were featured in a recent New York Times article for its good taste for billionaires like George Soros, Rupert Murdoch and David Koch, plus entertainment celebrities, major businesses (he handled Mercedes-Benz’s Oscar night party) and major arts institutions. He doesn’t sound like the average farmer in the Times’ account: “There’s not much in his carriage that suggests that Bronson Van Wyck grew up on a farm in Tuckerman, Ark. The farm, however, had been in his mother’s family for generations. His parents settled there after his father finished Harvard Business
Environmentalists fear a land use plan for the Lake Maumelle watershed gave up too much to development interests. — By Gerard Matthews
10 Thank God it’s over
VAN WYCK STYLING: A private party in Nashville. School, and his father approached agriculture in the Mississippi Delta with entrepreneurial zeal, he said. It was not a small farm, but don’t ask how many acres. “ ‘That’s one of those questions like, “How much did money did you make last year?” ’ he said. From there, he continued through Groton and Yale.”
When they say it’s not about slavery ...
Charter school: All in the family
n The 150th anniversary of the Civil War is upon us. Dec. 20, for example, was the 150th anniversary of South Carolina’s vote to secede. Inevitably, the observance will resume the lingering hostilities over the question of whether the bloody conflict was a war over states rights or slavery. For the record, Guy Lancaster of the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture, provided us a copy of the journal with resolutions adopted by the Arkansas secession convention. Among others: “Resolved: That it is the deliberate sense of this convention that African negroes and the descendants of the African race, denominated slaves by all the constitutions of the southern slaveholding states, is property, to all intents and purposes, and ought of right to be so considered by all the northern states, being expressly implied by the constitution of the United States and a denial on the part of the people of the northern states, of the right of property in slaves of southern states, is, and of right ought to be, sufficient cause, if persisted in by northern people, to dissolve the political connection between said states.”
n The Dallas Morning News has been doing a series of articles on charter schools and it has included some information worth following here, as charter school backers keep pushing for more state money for their operations. One thing to watch for: nepotism. The Dallas paper reported on the Focus Learning Academy, a Dallas charter school of 700 students, where founder and Superintendent Leroy McClure makes $146,000, about $50,000 more than the chief of a regular public school district that size. His wife, Yvette, makes $100,000 for consulting work. His brother is the school’s facilities manager and his sister is a teacher. That name might be familiar in Conway. McClure and his brother are Conway High School graduates. They started a Focus Learning Academy in Conway, but announced closure of the charter school in 2007 on account of low enrollment and financial deficits. Texas has proved friendlier to the cause.
Say goodbye to 2010, a hot and sorry one with many more worsts than bests. — By Bob Lancaster and David Koon
16 Little Rock Club at work
All is forgiven by club members when the Little Rock National Airport director goes astray. — Max Brantley
Departments 3 The Insider 4 Smart Talk 5 The Observer 6 Letters 7 Orval 8-15 News 16 Opinion 19 Arts & Entertainment 31 Dining 37 Crossword/ Tom Tomorrow 38 Lancaster
Words VOLUME 37, NUMBER 17
n “I am opposed to the proposition that it was ordered by President Nixon. That argument is totally false, demonstratively false.” I don’t know whether it was Henry Kissinger who confused demonstratively with demonstrably, or the Washington Post, which quoted him. Probably the Post, although English was not Kissinger’s first language, and after 70 years in this country, he still speaks with a German accent. n Homer is coaching. Jachilles is academically ineligible: We noted the other day that Odyssey Sims plays for the women’s basketball team at Baylor. Since then, I’ve learned that Julysses Nobles is on the men’s team at the U of A. n “The sheriff’s office has ruled the 4 DECEMBER 30, 2010 • ARKANSAS TIMES
Doug smith doug@arktimes.com
death a suicide.” Wayne Jordan writes, “I don’t believe that a sheriff’s office ever ‘ruled’ anything. It might make a finding based on investigative evidence and give an opinion as to the cause of death, but I don’t believe it can make a ‘ruling’ like a court can. Have I become too picky?” Possibly, but pickiness keeps this column going. One dictionary definition of rule is “to decide or declare judicially or authoritatively; decree: The judge ruled that he should be
exiled.” Jordan is correct that a sheriff doesn’t rule in that way. Lacks the authority. But rule can also mean “to make a formal decision, as on a point of law.” I think a sheriff’s official opinion on cause of death could be called a ruling, even though it’s not authoritative in the way a judge’s ruling is. But a simple “The sheriff’s office has said the death was a suicide” would be sufficient here. n Prepositions gone wild, Part XXVIII: “Cal Amadee, a motion consultant, said he’s known Snively for the better part of 20 years. ‘I hold him to the utmost respect,’ Amadee said.” Hold him to the utmost respect, eh? What for, to see if the respect’s sleeves need shortening? To greatly admire someone is to hold him in the utmost respect.
ARKANSAS TIMES (ISSN 0164-6273) is published each week by Arkansas Times Limited Partnership, 201 East Markham Street, 200 Heritage Center West, P.O. Box 34010, Little Rock, Arkansas, 72203, phone (501) 375-2985. Periodical postage paid at Little Rock, Arkansas, and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to ARKANSAS TIMES, P.O. Box 34010, Little Rock, AR, 72203. Subscription prices are $42 for one year, $78 for two years. Subscriptions outside Arkansas are $49 for one year, $88 for two years. Foreign (including Canadian) subscriptions are $168 a year. For subscriber service call (501) 375-2985. Current single-copy price is 75¢, free in Pulaski County. Single issues are available by mail at $2.50 each, postage paid. Payment must accompany all single-copy orders. Reproduction or use in whole or in part of the contents without the written consent of the publishers is prohibited. Manuscripts and artwork will not be returned or acknowledged unless sufficient return postage and a self-addressed stamped envelope are included. All materials are handled with due care; however, the publisher assumes no responsibility for care and safe return of unsolicited materials. All letters sent to ARKANSAS TIMES will be treated as intended for publication and are subject to ARKANSAS TIMES’ unrestricted right to edit or to comment editorially.
©2010 ARKANSAS TIMES LIMITED PARTNERSHIP
FOR INFORMATION OR SUBSCRIPTIONS CALL 501-375-2985