Jody Hardin’s pigs have 72
western, or what have you — and then they hours to get out of Grady. Mayor’s have 48 hours to write, shoot and edit a seven-minute film that fits in that genre. orders. Though that might sound like child’s The mayor, who happens to be Jody Hardin’s uncle and his neighbor in down- play, there’s a lot of work poured into those town Grady, said it was incumbent on seven minutes. Sleep is a luxury most him to “take swift action� after the six teams can’t afford. Coffee is the Elixir of Gloucester Old Spots visited City Hall on Life. Speed in all things is your friend. The Observer realized this year that Sunday. Then, Hardin says, they went to the bank. One of them jay-walked “and we’re getting a bit long in the tooth for that was the reason for the eviction,� he that kind of running around. The realization came at about 4 a.m. Sunday morning. sighed. The pigs had trotted over from Hardin’s Though we’ve been lucky enough to grab small farm, “a nightmare hell-hole what sleep we could in our own beddymoneypit� in the city limits of Grady that bye in previous years, this year found us has been in Hardin’s family since the late camped for a good bit of the weekend at 1880s. Farmer Hardin had been in trouble The Fortress of Employment, our red eyes with the law before. He was, in fact, “on dazed and blinking into the fluorescent probation,� for teaching his flock of turkeys lighting of the Arkansas Times newsroom to follow him down Main Street several come the darkest hour of Sunday before the dawn. years back. Seventy or 80 of them. I don’t know if you’ve ever had the It was the Gloucester Old Spots’ opportunity to sleep first visit to City at your place of Hall, which is four wageslavehood, but houses down from it is definitely not Hardin’s property. recommended. The Hardin said their Observer usually pen was new and avoids the Times “heavily armored� on the weekends but, unfortunately, like someone has Hardin believes he poisoned the water left the gate open HERCULES: Took it to City Hall. hole. Mrs. Observer and the pigs crossed the mayor’s yard and headed for the seat hasn’t yet seen fit to toss us completely past the couch to the curb, so we’ve never had of government. “I fully understand it’s an election year the pleasure of trying to sleep in this place and he has to come down hard,� Hardin full of hard surfaces to write on and chairs said about his uncle, whom he affection- designed to keep sleepy editors awake at ately described as a “dirty rotten scoun- two in the afternoon on a slow news day. After trying out a plywood bench with drel� who has called the police on occasion when Hardin’s goats have rambled over to thin, burlap-like cushions in the office of a co-worker, The Observer finally settled his backyard. Hardin must now find a home for the on one of the few comfortable chairs in pigs, or pay a $1,000 fine. He’s hoping the the whole joint — those in the lobby, fact that the pigs are a rare breed will help placed there to convince waiting guests him find a home. The home might need that we’re a snazzy media org instead of to hold more than six pigs; some of the The Island of Mismatched Furniture. Still, trying to sleep bolt upright isn’t fun for an renegades are pregnant. old fart like Yours Truly, even in a wellFor the fourth year now, The upholstered chair. We woke three hours Observer spent a hot Friday, Saturday and later with our lower back throbbing and Sunday last weekend making a movie for our neck feeling like someone filled it with the Little Rock leg of the annual 48 Hour crushed glass. We got our movie in on time, thanks Film Festival. Team Arkansas Times won the whole enchilada last year, so we’ve got to some sleep-deprived whippersnappers something to prove. If you’re unfamiliar (thanks Eric, Mona and Jessi!) but we’re with the concept, the idea is that teams thinking: might have to Observe from afar draw a genre out of a hat — action, sci-fi, in the future.
m i e T ! e t a G l i a T s It’
Smokin’ Bob
-ADE FOR 1UALITY s -ADE IN .ORTH ,ITTLE 2OCK GREAT FOR "ARBEQUE #OMPETITIONS s 0ARTIES s #HURCHES #OMPANY &UNCTIONS s &AMILY 2EUNIONS s 4AILGATING
4HE lNEST QUALITY SMOKER YOU CAN BUY #ONVERTS EASILY TO A CHARCOAL GRILL &OR MORE INFORMATION CALL !NDY #APEL AT EXT OR GO TO OUR WEBSITE AT WWW "USH 7HACKER COM/SMOKER.
BW 5516
% TH s .ORTH ,ITTLE 2OCK s EXT www.arktimes.com • august 26, 2010 5