Arkansas Times by Arkansas Times

Smart talk

Contents

8 History lesson for

The debate debate n It was a story that played out over the Internet and daily press in between our weekly editons, but, for the record, the Arkansas Times and Channel 4 did endeavor to arrange one final debate between Sen. Blanche Lincoln and Lt. Gov. Bill Halter, Democratic runoff opponents for Lincoln’s Senate seat. We proposed June 3. The Halter camp accepted (and was open to just about any other time). The Lincoln camp said June 1-8 was out because she already had plans for statewide touring then. That left May 27 and the Memorial Day weekend. Was any time acceptable to Lincoln? Lincoln tried to seize the initiative by saying she wouldn’t debate unless Halter would give a yes or no answer on union-backed card check legislation that Lincoln once supported but now opposes. He’s said repeatedly that the bill is no longer relevant. He also said Lincoln was simply trying to find an excuse not to debate. Blame who you will. There was no debate. They had met three times previously.

Do endorsements matter? n Nobody spurns an endorsement, but nobody is quite sure of their value either. The Democratic primary runoff for the 1st District congressional nomination might provide insight. Tim Wooldridge led the balloting with 38 percent of the vote. Chad Causey finished second, with 27 percent. Third- and fourth-place finishers David Cook and Steve Bryles, with 15 and SURE WINNER?: 10 percent respectively, have endorsed Congressional Causey. Add them up and Causey wins, candidate Chad with 52 percent, right? (Two other candi- Causey. dates, who received 9 percent of the vote, have not indicated a runoff preference.) Tune back in June 8.

Charlie Daniels

A free-lance writer whose passion is finding and correcting errors in major media and public displays, hit the jackpot on a lesson for students prepared by the Arkansas secretary of state. — By Mark Powell

10 LR Film Festival

Southern roots will be prominent at this year’s Little Rock Film Festival. We’ve got the must-see films and a complete schedule of events. University of Arkansas: Shouldn’t go changing.

Learning, thy name is UA n Until a conservative group called the American Council of Trustees and Alumni began to warn the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville not to lower its academic standing, most Arkansans probably didn’t know what stellar standing the UA had. According to ACTA, the core curriculum required of arts and sciences students at Fayetteville is one of the strongest in the country. ACTA evaluated 100 major institutions on their requirements in the fields of English composition, literature, foreign language, U.S. government or history, economics, mathematics and science. UA was one of only five institutions to get an “A” rating. The others were City University of New York-Brooklyn College, the University of Texas at Austin, Texas A&M University, and the United States Military Academy. Among the institutions receiving an “F” were the University of California at Berkeley, Northwestern University, Oberlin College, Vanderbilt University and Yale. The UA is considering reducing the number of required courses in its core curriculum, to more nearly match the requirements at other institutions. The study will likely continue through the summer, according to UA officials.

18 Blanche Lincoln’s example

It’s been a tough election season for U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln, but she stood out last week in declaring support for repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell.” — By Max Brantley

Departments 3 The Insider 4 Smart Talk 5 The Observer 6 Letters 7 Orval 8-17 News 18 Opinion 21 Arts & Entertainment 39 Dining 45 Crossword/ Tom Tomorrow 46 Lancaster

Words VOLUME 36, NUMBER 39

n “Ronald Reagan spent twenty-five years on the lecture circuit, honing his toastmaster’s chops to such burnished perfection that any kid in the 1980s could imitate his amiable head tilts and the soothing susurrus that bathed his every line.” Susurrus is onomatopoeic; the word sounds like the thing it refers to – “a soft murmuring or rustling sound, a whisper.” n Hi (“Pop”) Fligh writes: “Why do we say someone or something peculiar is out of left field or out in left field? How did left field come to be home of the strange?” Good question, Pop (if I may address you informally). I’ve wondered myself. Some say it has to do with left field’s 4 june 3, 2010 • ARKANSAS TIMES

Doug smith doug@arktimes.com

remoteness from the heart of the game, but right field is just as remote, and in the lower levels of baseball, more likely to be occupied by an athletic misfit. I can vouch for the truth of a column by Ron Fimrite in the San Francisco Chronicle (quoted in Paul Dickson’s New Baseball Dictionary): “There was but one position to which the clods, the kids with glasses, the little guys, the sissies, the ones that got good grades, the kids who played with girls, were exiled. That would be right field,

the Siberia of my youth. Right field was the back of the bus, the slow-learners class, the children’s department, a sideshow . . . Anyone directed to play right field would have given anything to ‘be out in left field.’ ” There’s no sure answer to Mr. Fligh’s question, further proof of the adage “Questions are easy. Answers are hard.” Dickson cites a couple of theories: (1) “The phrase was an insult heaped on kids who were stupid enough to buy left-field seats in Yankee Stadium, which for many years would have put them far away from a right fielder named Babe Ruth,” and (2) “The phrase was a specific reference to the fact that there was a mental hospital, the Neuropsychiatric Institute, in back of left field in the old West Side Park in Chicago.”

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