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Thursday, May 17, 2012
Not too much new to write about this week (05/11/12)
I guess I could write about the city and its IRS scandal -- for the longest time there was something happening in that little mess -- but that constant discussion has just about died down now, awaiting some report from the State Police/FBI investigations.
What's up with this no-rain-in-April thing? (05/04/12)
April showers bring May flowers. Not this year.
Politics can be like owning rental property (04/27/12)
When my father passed away (more than 30 years ago now) he left my mother and me in possession of several pieces of rental property in Steele, much of which he bought in order to expand the parking lot behind the Steele Enterprise building.
Why I'm so negative about 'social media' (04/20/12)
It seems that the technological advancements of the last several years are taking root with more and more folks all the time.
Lots of State Police, FBI talk going around (04/13/12)
Second Judicial District Prosecuting Attorney Scott Ellington asked the State Police to investigate Blytheville's failure to make tax deposits to the IRS a couple of months ago; now the FBI has announced plans to stick its lengthy nose into it as well.
March: An odd time for Current River fun (04/06/12)
Granddaughters Alexandra and Leah-Bo were in town last week, and I worked half-days in order to spend a little extra time with them before they get all grown up.
Granddaughters help keep things hopping (03/30/12)
Alexandra and Leah-Bo showed up around 10 p.m. Monday night, having made their way east to St. Louis from Columbia, Mo., where they and My Dear Sweet Sainted Wife paused briefly (all of Monday afternoon) at the City Museum in St. Louis which, according to those three females, is quite a place...
Parks & Rec money should be easy to spend (03/23/12)
The city of Blytheville received $1.1 million and change Monday from Warren Bank and Trust when bonds that had matured in December were remitted to to city.
Voters give city a break on tax issue (03/16/12)
This whole mess with the city and its problems with the Internal Revenue Service has apparently been solved by the simple measure of hitting up the shopping public with a 1-cent add-on sales tax, voted into law this past week.
It's time to decide on IRS/sales tax vote (03/09/12)
On the surface, it seems highly unfair to make the citizens of Blytheville take on an extra 1-cent sales tax to bail the city out of its current imbroglio with the Internal Revenue Service.
Getting close to spring break for granddaughters (03/02/12)
I'm not sure of the exact week, but sometime in March granddaughters Leah-Bo and Alexandra will be out of school for a week and it's possible that My Dear Sweet Sainted Wife and I will hijack them for a few of those days.
And I thought not paying taxes was illegal (02/24/12)
Mark Brasfield did a little research on one of the subjects I raised in last week's column, namely, why hasn't the city tried to collect the bond money connected to the former mayor, financial director and treasurer?
What would we do without the Internet? (02/17/12)
I sometimes write a few words that some would categorize as critical of the Internet ... I make fun of people who "Tweet" their days away, I make fun of "Facebook fanatics," I complain sometimes about people who seem glued to their "smart phones" on a continual basis.
Pardon me while I rant a little bit (02/10/12)
I didn't go to the public meeting featuring state auditors at the Ritz Tuesday night but I did read Mark Brasfield's news story in Wednesday's Courier News.
Tom Brady won't let this one get away (02/03/12)
Every time anybody's asked me about who I think is going to win this Sunday's Super Bowl, I've answered, "The Giants, they're on a roll right now."
Granddaughter fix went both ways this time (01/27/12)
In last week's column I mentioned that My Dear Sweet Sainted Wife was getting to the point where a visit to the granddaughters up in Columbia, Mo., was becoming a necessity.
Clinton's beginning to look like Broyles (01/20/12)
I was watching what used to be the Bob Hope Classic golf tournament on TV Thursday night (mostly reading my latest book, actually, but watching out of the corner of my eye).
Winter has been pretty tolerable so far (01/13/12)
Even with the little spit of snow we had Thursday and some lower temperatures moving in for the weekend, you have to admit, global warming seems to have settled in on the Mid-South and I don't mind a bit. It's the middle of January and we've only had a few days of nippy weather, hardly any snow and not just a whole lot of rain. And plenty of days have been in the 50s, even the 60s, bordering on winter golf weather. Now, if it'll just stay that way...
There's a big hammer working downtown (01/06/12)
It's about a mile away from the Courier News office, but whenever I go outside I hear (at very consistent 1 1/2 second intervals) a pounding, slamming noise coming from the approximate vicinity of our old warehouse at the corner of Railroad and Ash downtown.
I've changed my mind: Voting NO on tax (12/30/11)
Twice I've mentioned in this column that I was (with reservations) going to vote YES in the upcoming special election for a sales tax add-on to take care of the city of Blytheville's multi-million dollar debt to the IRS. I've stated that the vote had little chance of approval my vote notwithstanding; I was just thinking of the easiest way out for the city...
Christmas Day wraps up granddaughter week (12/23/11)
All good things must come to an end, and that's the case with having granddaughters Alexandra and Leah-Bo at the house for the last week, while they were out of school for Christmas vacation.
Snagging granddaughters in St. Louis works (12/16/11)
If the whole idea is to transport granddaughters Alexandra and Leah-Bo from Columbia, Mo., to Blytheville with no need to spend any time in Columbia, My Dear Sweet Sainted Wife (mostly) and I have stumbled on the maneuver of meeting one of their parents in St. Louis and just swapping the girls from one car to the other.
Mareno might have more money than sense (12/09/11)
When granddaughter Alexandra's mother told her that "Albert has gone to the Angels," the sweet-natured 7-year-old broke out crying.
What Christmas break means to me (12/02/11)
I remember back in the old days when I was in grade school, Christmas break was a real big deal to me and the other kids in Steele Elementary School.
Thanksgiving went very smoothly this year (11/25/11)
Thanks mostly to the hard work of My Dear Sweet Sainted Wife and Mother, Thanksgiving was another enjoyable day with pretty much everybody in the family around for the festivities.
Thanksgiving is just around the corner (11/18/11)
Abraham Lincoln took time out from what must have been a busy agenda in 1863 to designate the last Thursday of November as a national day of thanksgiving, and the holiday has evolved into a variety of manifestations over the years.
What do you make of the Penn State mess? (11/11/11)
Sports talk shows and ESPN's Sports Center -- not to mention all sorts of national news broadcasts -- have been hung up all week on the scandal in progress at Penn State University.
Weekend ran a little long, but was fun (11/04/11)
It started out as a fairly routine weekend trip to Columbia, Mo., to attend a Saturday Halloween party hosted by granddaughters Alexandra and Leah-Bo and their next-door neighbor (I think her name is Megan).
Getting in a little lick back at Harrison (10/21/11)
My Dear Sweet Sainted Wife finally got back into town the other day from yet another excursion to visit (and babysit) granddaughters Alexandra and Leah Bo in Columbia, Mo.
Another week of messing with the dogs (10/14/11)
I have once again been abandoned by my Dear Sweet Sainted Wife, who has removed herself to Columbia, Mo., to be there for Leah-Bo's fourth birthday (Wednesday) and to stay through the weekend (Alex and Leah-Bo's parents both having to work, weekend babysitters scarce, Dear Sweet Sainted Wife happy to oblige).
St. Louis trip was worth the trouble (10/07/11)
Much as I hated to miss my usual Wednesday afternoon golf game, I had to make an exception this week to take advantage of an early starting time for the Cardinals' last home game in the playoff series against Philadelphia.
1,000,000 page views ... I guess that's a lot (09/30/11)
Sometime Thursday night somebody took a look at one or more of the pages on the Courier News website, and our little counting process bumped up over 1,000,000 in the "page views" category.
Let's start off with the poor old Cardinals (09/23/11)
As a lifelong Cardinals fan, nurtured by radio broadcasts early in life and working on up through today's TV coverage of virtually every game, I have to say this season has been an odd one. I've mentioned that 16 years is a long, long time to put up with Tony LaRussa and his odd fixation on changing relief pitchers until he finds one the other team can hit...
I better brag while the bragging is good (09/16/11)
I know it's only two weeks into the "Pigskin Payoff" football contest, but among the eight of us in this year's Courier News employee contest -- at this exact moment in time -- I, David Tennyson, am reigning in the coveted "First Place" position,
Where does Blytheville go from here? (09/09/11)
The headline for this column asks a very interesting question, to which I certainly don't have all the answers. But I will offer a few suggestions.
I was a big football fan, but that was 15 years ago (09/02/11)
Growing up I played football ... sandlot when I was a little guy, high school, a little bitty dab in college ... and I was always a big college and NFL fan from the word go, particularly a Hog fan, and for some reason, a New Orleans Saint and Chicago Bears fan.
This week's columns were pretty good (08/26/11)
It's not my normal practice to offer comments on my fellow Courier News column writers' efforts, but this week I managed to read Pat Ivey's on Tuesday, Andy Weld's on Wednesday, and Mark Brasfield's on Thursday.
Dr. John was a good guy, and I miss him (08/19/11)
There's a golf tournament this weekend at the country Club in honor of Dr. John Williams, who passed away a few years ago at way too early an age.
Lost dog causes (temporary) difficulties (08/12/11)
Some dogs are dumber than others, as just about anyone knows. Granddaughters Alexandra and Leah-Bo have always wanted a dog, and a few months ago they went to the Columbia, Mo., humane shelter and picked out a medium-size female Boxer and named her Brooke.
Everybody had enough of this heat? (08/05/11)
Most folks who have known me for a while understand that I devote Wednesday afternoons with acceptable weather to playing golf, as I have for 35 years or so.
It's time for some answers about the money (07/29/11)
Former City of Blytheville Finance Director Faye Griggs has retired, and before she did, she didn't have anything to say about why she didn't make city payroll tax deposits to the tune of $2 million plus.
So long to granddaughters for a spell (07/22/11)
Mothers can be sometimes be rather tricky, sometimes even devious. I seem to recall a few such circumstance from some of my much younger days (apologies to My Dear Sweet Sainted Mother).
Twitter, Tweets, Facebook ... what's next? (07/14/11)
My Dear Sweet Sainted Wife and I were out for our weekly "Saturday night date" at Olympia, which is one of our revolving set of favorite local restaurants.
Publishers shouldn't dig post holes in the hills (06/24/11)
My Dear Sweet Sainted Wife couldn't stand our dogs running wild all over the Deer Run property and campground (up at Van Buren, Mo.); even though they would never hurt anybody, they are still stupid and clumsy and always ready to grab a free snack if it's available.
River was wet but so was the weather (06/17/11)
As you might expect, the Current River was still running strong last weekend, and was well back in its banks and behaving properly.
Summer seems ahead of schedule this year (06/10/11)
Officially, the first day of summer is June 20 or 21, when the sun reaches "summer soltice," or when the sun appears at its furthest point to the north of the year, which produces the longest day of the year.
Haven't seen the granddaughters in a while (05/27/11)
With the Memorial Day Weekend coming up, and Andy needing to trade working weekends with me because of his daughter's softball schedule, I'm off for three days and headed up to Columbia, Mo., to spend some time with granddaughters Alexandra and Leah Bo.
Let's talk more about Thunder Bayou (05/19/11)
Aside from the fact that lots and lots of rain causes problems and that the city has never seemed to have the money to run the place, I've got to say this ... Thunder Bayou is a beauty.
Dear Sweet Sainted Wife northbound again (05/13/11)
It will be another few weeks before Alexandra and Leah-Bo's mother picks up a new schedule at the hospital, so this being the "every" of the "every-other-week" work schedule, My Dear Sweet Sainted Wife is headed north as I write this, wearing, I'm sure, her babysitting shoes, ready for a weekend with the granddaughters...
A few days of sunshine helps the psyche (05/06/11)
There for a few weeks, (actually, since back before Thanksgiving) there just haven't been many stretches of weather decent enough to encourage the human spirit.
Easter Bunny survives annual trip to Alex's house (04/29/11)
A few weeks before Easter, granddaughters Alexandra and Leah-Bo added a new pet to their repertoire, a young mixed-Terrier pup of some sort, who joined a hamster and several fish in the household.
Just about had it with automated phone systems (04/22/11)
The Courier News newsprint warehouse is going under the wrecking ball for the highway/railroad overpass being built before too long through Blytheville; this has added a number of tasks to my usual workload.
Old Jake (the Lab) finally leaves the family (04/15/11)
We got him when he was just a pup, 15 years ago, from some place up around Sikeston, I think, but my memory is a bit vague on that, since it was My Dear Sweet Sainted Wife who arranged to buy the dog.
Granddaughters return home, via Van Buren, St. Louis (04/08/11)
My Dear Sweet Sainted Wife managed to get out of town by about 3 p.m. last Thursday, en route to Van Buren, Mo., where we have a place near the Current River.
NCAA March Madness stays true to name (04/01/11)
I was all set to write a paragraph or two in this column about what a ridiculously easy path to the Final Four Kansas stumbled into this year, 'til they got beat Sunday night by VCU.
Countdown 'til granddaughters' spring break (03/25/11)
It won't be long now (about 10 tonight) 'til Alexandra and Leah-Bo will be here for a visit with grandma and grandpa -- and the visit will last for a week.
Things won't be the same without Mame (03/18/11)
Who's going to call me up and (very sweetly and politely, of course) remind me that her ads are supposed to be in the UPPER RIGHT HAND CORNER of the page?
Alone again: Abandoned for granddaughters (03/11/11)
Having been married for almost 35 years now (I hope I got that right) I have learned to deal with the occasional extended absence of my Dear Sweet Sainted Wife, so don't let this column's headline make you feel too sorry for me.
Granddaughter writes first love letter (03/04/11)
Alexandra is just about exactly six-and-a-half years old, and to some it may seem that's a bit early to get caught up in the love letter writing business, but let me explain.
Too much wind for me at Thunder Bayou (02/24/11)
Middle son Kit escaped for the weekend from the melting 2 feet of snow he inherited in Columbia, Mo., and headed south with granddaughters Leah-Bo and Alexandra, that much was a good thing.
Spell of good weather quite welcome (02/17/11)
I've been griping about the weather all winter, but this week has made up for several of those cold, drizzly/snowy, lousy days of January (and a few in December and February as well).
Maybe weather will take turn for the better (02/11/11)
After another week of near misses from the clutches of the "White Death," the weather forecast for next week is actually quite excellent. Sunny and much warmer would be nice.
Granddaughter visit ends with Malden detour (02/04/11)
As it happened to turn out, granddaughters Alexandra And Leah-Bo and their father, middle son Kit, made it into town about 8:30 Friday evening.
Good riddance to the month of January (01/27/11)
January, January, how I detest thee. A couple of more days, and it will be over for another year.
Bedtime serenade only goes so far (01/21/11)
I received several comments regarding my column last week, phone calls ... voice mails ... e-mails. A couple of ladies who read my column mostly to hear stories about my granddaughters chastised me for not writing anything about the little girls last week.
Herb says it's time to play some racquetball (01/13/11)
I was working at my computer Thursday (something I do at least some of the time just about every day) when Herb (that's longtime employee Herb Smith, for those of you not in the know) came up behind me and started chatting me up about playing some racquetball.
I can use any picture I want, thank you (01/06/11)
Since I started writing this column a few years ago a number of people (in a more or less friendly manner) have pointed out to me that the picture of me that accompanies the column is several years old.
David Tennyson
David Tennyson is publisher of the Blytheville Courier News.
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