Little Rock Arkansas | Mike Dougherty's Blog

Falling red-winged blackbirds and other mysteries

January 8, 2011
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We Arkansans like to tout our state as one of natural beauty. Some people from other places know about our home in that context, but most do not.

Often, it is bad news, such as the shooting death of Democratic Party Chairman Bill Gwatney in 2008, or embarrassing remarks, such as the gay-bashing done by the idiot Midland School District board member in Pleasant Plains, that attracts national headlines.

But we’re back in the news because of falling red-winged blackbirds and dead fish. Scientists are baffled as to what killed the birds. They say they suffered some sort of physical trauma … lightning … other weather … they say they really don’t know.

The crazy preachers on the right always are blaming stuff on homosexuals or other constituencies often associated with liberals and progressives. So this time I’m going to get in on act.

For lack of a better answer, I’ll blame the birds falling from the sky on freshman Republican legislator-elect David Sanders of Little Rock, a former Stephens Media colleague. He has a bill ready for filing that calls for changing the state slogan from “The Natural State” to an old one, “The Land of Opportunity.”

On Facebook, I told him that I expected as much — him, a Republican, trying to turn the clock back several decades. Messing with the fates by trying to run from Arkansas’ reputation as being a state with natural beauty is as good a cosmic reason for the mysterious bird deaths as anything else.

Maybe I spoke too soon …

December 28, 2010
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I wrote a column published in Thursday’s North Little Rock Times and Sherwood Voice that expressed my frustration with rude shoppers encountered during the Christmas season. It was based on an outing to Park Plaza in Little Rock on Dec. 18.

Then I finished up my shopping Wednesday night by picking up a couple of things at Barnes & Noble Booksellers for my brother, Pat, and a couple of stocking stuffers for my wife, Nancy.

Wouldn’t you know it? I couldn’t have had a better time!

I wandered around amongst the frantic shoppers, knowing that I was done. I purchased the three items I needed and then held the door open for a young lady who was leaving the store at the same time. In return, she tried to hold the door from the entryway to the outside open for me, but didn’t quite hold it long enough.

We laughed about it, and had a pleasant conversation over our respective shoulders as we went our separate ways in the parking lot. By the time I reached my car, I realized that it had taken just that one enjoyable exchange with a stranger to put me in a much better frame of mind about the Christmas shopping experience.

Granted, it may have been that:

A. Officially I was finished shopping for the season;

B. I had been spending time in a book store, which usually calms me;

C. The brush with niceness really did cheer me; or

D. All of the above.

Whatever the answer, I was feeling better about my fellow human beings. And despite my reputation as an occasional grump, that had to be a good thing.