Editorial / Opinions

I hope you had the opportunity to get outside over for the opening of deer season. It was such beautiful weather for November – it’s almost hard to believe but that’s weather in the Ozarks for you.

I am reluctant to embrace change – especially if it involves technology. Heck, I still marvel at the pocket calculator and am amazed by the remote control on my television. I guess that’s why I was a little skeptical when my trusted machinery salesman suggested I “upgrade” on a purchase I made last week.

After nearly three years I finally found time and a reason to take a vacation. But now I feel as if I need a vacation from my vacation.

Many of you, no doubt, have read news accounts on a hearing held in northwest Arkansas by the Arkansas Public Service Commission. The matter was about the Gentry Power Plant jointly owned by Swepco and Arkansas Electric.

I’ve written many times about my love of making a ‘good deal.’ It doesn’t make any difference whether I’m trading for a new truck, piece of farm equipment, another farm or buying a set of cows; the enjoyment I get from ‘negotiating’ the absolute lowest price is as rewarding to me as the enjoyment I get from the purchase. While the trading process makes other people nervous wrecks (my wife and youngest son included), I consider it entertainment.

What can we do to push our countries’ leaders to put the brakes on fuel and gas prices, like a ceiling on the prices?

After nearly three years I finally found time and a reason to take a vacation. But now I feel as if I need a vacation from my vacation.

Image is everything – so they say. If you don't believe me, just look at the billions of dollars spent each year carefully crafting an image for everything from perfume… to automobiles… to politicians. As one of my old marketing professors put it, “'It's not so much about what you buy, but more about what you THINK you're buying.” In other words, one doesn't purchase a particular fragrance of perfume or cologne because it smells so much better than the other brand, but rather because he or she will assume that they will instantaneously become the person in the ad who is surrounded by hordes of beautiful people.

A few weeks back I watched the movie “The Blind Side” with Sandra Bullock. Even though I’d seen the movie before it still tugs on my heartstrings.

Recently, a legend in the northwest Arkansas poultry industry history passed away. Robert “Red” Bone went to his rewards up at Cassville, Mo. I worked for Red in my early years at Tyson Food. I had not seen him in almost 20 years.