Thumbs up, thumbs down

Things I like, and things I don’t: Lindsey Vonn: She didn’t win gold at the Winter Olympics, but her courage in coming back from what was almost a career-ending accident and showing such class when she didn’t win makes me proud to be an American. Her bronze medal in the women’s downhill makes her the oldest female ever to medal in the toughest of the ski events. This country has a lot of Lindsey Vonns, all fine examples for our young people.

Over-the-top makeup and ultrawhite teeth: HDTV gives us a very up-close look at politicians and TV personalities, and it can be a real turnoff. You know, teeth that are so ultra-white they almost glow in the dark. That, combined with an orange spray-on tan or heavy makeup, makes those folks look like cartoon characters. Healthy adult teeth are a soft shade of white with just a hint of color. I’m all for a little makeup on women, but guys, please forget the makeup.

Football games at 11 a.m.: Can’t stand them. Some folks will do anything for money, and whoever agreed to let the TV people bribe them with sacks of cash to move some of the university’s football games to the ungodly hour of 11 a.m. should be taken out and horse-whipped. What makes it even worse is that we have to sit there and suffer through around 60 minutes of commercials to see two losers play for the cellar. Football games should be at the God-pronounced starting time of 2 p.m. on Saturdays. All students should get tickets when they pay tuition, and all parking around the stadium should be on a first-come basis. All this would screw up what is passed off as a football game, and that ain’t bad. Maybe then we would get back to what the original college football games were meant to be.

Going on and on about the royals: I mean the royals of England. They seem to be nice people, but they are just tourist attractions, and to dwell on their every little twiddle is clogging up the media. The hoopla about the forthcoming marriage between Prince Harry and Meghan Markle was the lead TV story several weeks back. It should have been given about as much coverage as a new ride at Disney World. So back off, media, and quit acting as if these people are special.

Rainy days in Arkansas: Forecasters tend to be fair-weather fans, but I’m not. Arkansas needs 50-plus inches of rain a year, and when we go through a long dry spell, it has a negative impact on our state. So I like a rainy day. Too much of a good thing can create problems, but Mother Nature sometimes needs to flush out the excess with a good four- to six-inch drenching that recharges the groundwater, fills out lakes, and gives us the forests that we take for granted.

Living with wildlife: I grew up on a farm and hunted and fished at least two or three times a week from the time I was 8 years old until I went off to college. Today I’m settled into a nice wooded property in the city limits of El Dorado with two small ponds and plenty of wildlife. We have a big wooden deck off our kitchen, and under that deck live possums, raccoons, snakes, and spiders. When we finish with our Thanksgiving turkey, we put out the scraps and they disappear by morning. Nothing is left. Our two ponds have plenty of ducks, fish, turtles, snakes, and an occasional beaver. A couple of years back we had a river otter check out our swimming pool. It left after a display of swimming and diving. Our lower pond has a small island in the center and the large willow tree there has become an egret roost with some 20 egrets roosting there.

We have deer—doesn’t everybody? A couple of years back a doe gave birth to twins in our courtyard. Recently I spotted a substantial beaver dam on Mill Creek, which crosses a bypass just north from my house. And Vertis, my wife, spotted a black bear crossing our neighbor’s yard about 5:30 one morning.

Politicians who won’t have town hall meetings: We all know why. They can’t handle tough questions and don’t like folks questioning their motives for the way they vote. I’m inviting any and all of our congressional delegation, especially U.S. Representative Bruce Westerman, to come to Griffin Auditorium in El Dorado (it holds 2,200 folks) for an old-fashioned Norman Rockwell town hall. I promise we’ll pack the hall, and it will be a night to remember.

We’ll ask Congressman Westerman to explain the comment he made in Hot Springs in response to a question about C & H Hog Farms in Newton County, where he reportedly told the crowd he believed that swimmers put more nitrates in the river than the farm.

I know it’s hard to believe he said that, but it sounds as if the fall election may be a referendum on the Buffalo National River.

Richard Mason is a registered professional geologist, downtown developer, former chairman of the Department of Environmental Quality Board of Commissioners, past president of the Arkansas Wildlife Federation, and syndicated columnist. Email richard@ gibraltarenergy.com.