Ozarks At Large
Tonya Lewis Lee helped bring Christopher Paul Curtis' novel The Watsons Go to Birmingham to Tv this month. Tonight the film is being shown, for free, at Bentonville High School and today we talked with Ms. lee about the project that premiered earlier this month on the Hallmark Channel.
Late last week, the federal Department of Health and Human Services accepted Arkansas's plan for Medicaid expansion. The city of Bentonville will give away compost and wood mulch this week. A couple of roads close or otherwise reroute in the River Valley starting today. And gas prices dropped slightly in Arkansas over the past week.
With this morning's montage, we say several goodbyes; to Summer, to a famed Yankees pitcher, and to one of our longest-tenured colleagues at KUAF. Here are our 10 pop culture references we used to say goodbye.
- "So Long, Farewell" from the Sound of Music
- Lou Gehrig's farewell speech
- "Goodbye my Lover" by James Blunt
- ET says his goodbye
- The famous words from Gone With The Wind
- "Hello, Goodbye" by The Beatles
- The Friends leave the apartment for the final time
- "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" by Elton John
- Jim Carey tells his fare goodbye at the beginning of Dumb and Dumber
- Leaving Casablanca for the final time
- Johnny Carson bids his final farewell to the audience during his final time hosting The Tonight Show
The Arkansas Center For The Book this week made its selection for the 2013 If All Arkansas Read The Same Book Program. Kyle Kellams spoke with Vivienne Schiffer, the author of the novel Camp Nine, this year's selection.
State officials continue to seek a solution to the teacher insurance crisis in Arkansas. New numbers are out regarding Arkansas students' achievements on Advanced Placement tests. And, the Connecting Arkansas Internet Conference is being held in Little Rock this week.
You can go to a workshop at NWACC to learn about the state's Freedom of Information Act, or you can participate in one of many lake and other outdoor cleanups in the next few days.



Latest Edition of Ozarks at Large
Friday, May 9, 2014
Ahead on this edition of Ozarks, Michael Tilley talks about a new owner for some long-abandoned real estate in Fort Smith, and the official announcement of a Whole Foods in Fayetteville. Plus, Cletus Got Shot gets ready to perform at a few festivals in the next month.
Here are our ten clips celebrating dance in honor of the NCAA's Big Dance:
1) Dancing Queen by Abba.
2) Al Pacino does the tango all the way to an Oscar in Scent of a Woman.
3) Marni Nixon provides the voice to Audrey Hepburn's celebration in My Fair Lady.
4) Gene Gene the Dancing Machine delights the audience on The Gong Show.
5) Uma Thurman and John Travolta debate in Pulp Fiction.
6) Chubby Checker launches a dance craze with The Twist.
7) Kevin Bacon makes the case for dancing in Footloose.
8) Los del Rio launches another dance craze with the Macarena.
9) Billy Elliot explains why he dances.
10) Gene Kelly ends the best (disagree?) dancing scene ever in Singing in the Rain.
Apologies to: all those other dances, dance movies and dancing songs. Maybe next time.
Becca Martin Brown begins a week's worth of road trips to start Spring Break off right.
We end today's show with another song from the band's new album Lion's Den.
The university system's board voted yesterday to start offering online courses. And, the state departments of health and education partner on educating schools about the dangers of heat-related illnesses.
Sister by Andrew Belle
Michael Tilley from The City Wire says the 188th Fighter Wing has recieved approval to spend to $12.5 million to build a facility that could help the unit become an ISR Center of Excellence.