The reason why the Cherokee named Sequoyah was heavily persecuted by his own people for his work on establishing a Cherokee writing system always puzzled me — until now. Sequoyah lived from about 1770 to 1843.
A passage in a book I was reading recently made me aware that many folks may be familiar with the rain crow’s call but not with the bird itself. In the novel, a man who seemed familiar with nature — up to that point, anyway — told two boys and their young sister that the mourning dove is named for its melancholy call. So far, so good. But then he said it is also called the rain crow because it often calls on cloudy days. Whoa!! The mourning dove and the rain crow are two different species. The rain crow is a cuckoo — a yellow-billed cuckoo, to be specific.
A Batesville resident is asking why no one seems seem enthused about holding a 200th anniversary celebration for the city this year. The short answer is: No one really knows when the first “town” was established here. For one thing, it depends upon how “town” is defined and what criteria is used in the definition.
One of the most interesting feats performed by an eccentric daredevil was the walking on the waters of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers in “pontoon shoes” by “Professor” Charles Oldrieve in early 1907. It seems the “professor” or inventor or whatever he was accepted a $5,000 bet that he could walk on water wearing his shoes down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers from Cincinnati to New Orleans within a specified time limit.
Geologists and others, well, to coin a word let’s call them Earth-ologists, used to say — and many if not most still do — that humans came along very late in the formation of the Earth. For instance, in my college geology class, the professor told us that if the formation of the Earth was made into a 24-hour movie, humans would be in only the last three minutes of the show. Well, I beg to differ. And so does my Bible (King James Version). And so does the evidence.
Just in time for Christmas and Santa’s flying reindeer, we find that our schools and universities have let us down once again. Stories and legends of flying reindeer are not confined to the past 150 years or so. No, not at all. Flying reindeer with large, long and often stylized antlers are found carved on standing stones called megaliths in Mongolia, parts of Siberia and the Ukraine and other northern areas. The carvings may be as much as 3,000 years old.
Members of the United States Marine Corps say that “once a Marine — always a Marine.” “You could say a similar thing about those who share the privilege of having been a Batesville High School Pioneer,” said 1946 BHS graduate Dale Hanks, a writer and historian from Virginia who has strong ties to the Lafferty community in Izard County. In observance of the current Pioneer football team’s battle with the Greenwood Bulldogs at 6:30 p.m. Saturday in Little Rock for a state championship, Hanks wrote the following:
Until a couple of weeks ago, I considered Iran a nation run by a doofus president and kooky religious leaders and a threat only to Israel. But no more. The rogue nation of Iran, doofus and the kooks who run it make up a significant threat to the mighty United States of America. Tipped off by a friend, I started learning about High-Altitude Electromagnetic Pulse weapons. Delivered by a nuclear warhead to explode high over the intended target, the High Altitude Electronic Pulse knocks out all, or almost all, computer systems within a wide range below.
The Cave City Watermelon Festival Association, thanks to generous festival attendees and the watermelon growers who provide the melons, have donated almost $50,000 to the Arkansas Children’s Hospital since 2004 — and that includes a $7,500 donation made from this year’s festival, said Jill McIlroy, associate development officer for the hospital. McIlroy came to Cave City recently to pick up the $7,500 check.
The United States Postal Service is so broke, according to a USPS official who spoke Tuesday during a public hearing, that it may be unable to meet its payroll next month. Many things are to blame, and it was correctly pointed out that many people now pay their bills electronically rather than mailing checks and that email and text messages are used for written communication.
