Home Opinion Mine Creek Revelations by Louie Graves: Anti-duck guns

Mine Creek Revelations by Louie Graves: Anti-duck guns

1987
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NUMBERS. The Arkansas Activities Association has reclassified high schools based upon student numbers. The reclassification means some conference changes. For example, Texarkana (Ark.) High has been moved down to Class 5A. Unless I’m missing something, it means that the high school Razorbacks will be in the conference with De Queen, Hope, Magnolia, etc.

Texarkana will be the largest school in Class 5A. The smallest is Pulaski Academy.

Nashville is the 14th largest in Class 4A. In size we are exactly between Malvern and Arkadelphia in that order. The smallest school in Class 4A is Central Arkansas Christian.

Moving down to Class 4A is Wilbur Mills High School, and it is possible that the geniuses in Little Rock will think it wise to put them in ‘our’ conference. They’ve done that sort of thing before (see CAC, Pulaski Academy and Joe T. Robinson).

Our local Class 2A schools are way down the list in that division’s numbers. Mineral Springs is fourth from the bottom and Dierks is 18th from the bottom. Murfreesboro is 36th from the bottom. The smallest school in Class 2A is Strong; the largest is Yellville-Summit. Strong is also the smallest school which plays football.

For the record, the two largest high schools in the state are both in Springdale. The smallest is Arkansas School for the Blind.

Also for the record, ‘Scrappers’ continues to be one of the most unique mascots in the state. There are two Rattlers; eight Hornets; only one Outlaws, but there are seven others with horse-related mascots — Colts, Mavericks, Mustangs.

I must be thinking about football.

Maybe this is the year the Razorbacks beat Alabama and win the national championship. Nahhh. I can dream, but I’m not stoopid.

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WANT YOU TO KNOW. I’m not real big on corresponding with legislators, but I do so when something is real important to me.

After the House of Representatives voted to replace Obamacare with Trumpcare, I went to Sen. John Boozman’s website and sent a message. Essentially it was this: When  you consider the Trumpcare healthcare legislation, please protect our rural Arkansas hospitals.

I sent this message a week ago. Since then I have gotten a couple of emails assuring me that the senator’s office would get back to me.

I heard from him via a blanket email, yesterday. Essentially it was this: Blah, blah, blah. No mention of Arkansas’s rural hospitals..

Obamacare made lots of people mad, obviously, but are we going to get something worse?

If Trumpcare puts our rural hospitals in danger, it will be really, really worse than Obamacare, and I’ll not forgive our Arkansas senators and congressmen for voting for it.

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ANIMAL CRACKERS.

Murfreesboro’s famous birdwatcher, ‘Doc’ Phillip White, relates some sightings which are of interest to yours truly.

He says that some black-bellied ‘whistling ducks’ — also called squealers — landed briefly on his son’s pond but have not blessed the pond with a return visit. If they are sometimes called squealers, then are they sometimes referred to as Dirty Rats? For former ‘Nashville News’ subscribers just now getting the ‘Nashville News-Leader,’ this is what we at ‘The Leader’ refer to as humor.

Doc has also espied some ‘muscovy ducks’ flying over Yarbrough Landing on Lake Millwood. This species is a BIG bird with males getting up to 15 pounds. Some duck hunters have actually used army surplus anti-aircraft guns to try to bring the birds down. It requires more than one direct hit. Also, there is no retriever dog big enough to swim back to the duckblind with the bullet-riddled carcass. See my comment above, reference to humor.

Doc also says that some ospreys have set up a nest near the campground at Cottonshed. Now Millwood fishermen will have some real competition.

A game and fish officer told me a few years ago that some Baltimore orioles were nesting at Cottonshed. I could never spot them despite several trips there.

I’ve been amazed at the warlike conduct of ‘my’ bluebirds which now dive-bomb any bluejay which ventures near the bluebird box on my patio. The bluebirds haven’t yet attacked any of the cardinals or thrushes which also come to the peanut buffet table.

As if they don’t already have enough troubles with the bluebirds, the bluejays fight among themselves and miss out on lots of opportunities to make off with peanuts. While they’re fighting, the cardinals swoop in for a meal.

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THE TWINS. Thunder and Lightning. They put on an impressive show. One of them is really dangerous; one is just loud. You can’t hardly have one without the other.

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THINGS I LEARNED from opening email: If at first you don’t succeed, skydiving is not for you.

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HE SAID: “We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done.” Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, poet and educator

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SHE SAID: “The older I get, the more I’m conscious of ways very small things can make a change in the world. Tiny little things, but the world is made up of tiny matters, isn’t it?” Sandra Cisneros, American author

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SWEET DREAMS, Baby

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