COMMENTARY: Time To Ring In Predictions

Monday, December 31, 2012

When it comes to departing one year and entering a new one, there’s a choice to be made.

One can spend a lot of time looking back, reviewing what happened in the preceding 12 months. That’s no doubt a healthy thing to do. Another choice is to look forward, to set some goals and to consider the possibilities that a new year can bring.

Today, I choose the latter. I’ve warmed up my crystal ball and gazed into it. It was a little hazy, so please, no betting on the real outcome. These predictions are accepted at your own risk.

The Walton Arts Center will ask the Fayetteville Advertising and Promotion Commission for millions of dollars to fund a planned $20 million expansion on Dickson Street. Usually content to operate without external involvement, arts center oftcials will now remind the city it is half-owner in the buildings housing the arts center.

Bentonville Chamber of Commerce oft cials will reveal their selected site for the Walton Arts Center’s new performing arts theater, three days after ground is broken for the project.

Northwest Arkansas will get at least one major snowfall early in the year. It will come after meteorologists guarantee nothing but clear skies for days.

A new gun control measure will pass Congress and be as effective as all the others.

New federal studies on the effectiveness of mental health services will be commissioned. Funding for mental health services will be cut by a third.

The Arkansas General Assembly’s 2013 legislative session will not be as contentious as many feared, except within the Republican Party.

At least 20 percent of the bills filed before or during the legislative session will make no sense to anyone, even the ones who sponsored them.

There will be traft c congestion in Northwest Arkansas.

The parking deck the city of Fayetteville plans adjacent to the Walton Arts Center will cost more than expected because of underground challenges in setting the foundation.

After it’s built, motorists will still complain about a lack of parking on Dickson Street.

Not as likely, but ...

The Arkansas Scholarship Lottery will deal with its funding shortage by off ering college-bound seniors $2,500 worth of scratchoff lottery tickets each semester instead of cash.

Hey, somebody’s gotta win, right?

Jeff Long, the University of Arkansas athletic director who successfully kept Bret Bielema’s name secret leading up to Bielema’s hiring as head football coach, will be appointed to oversee the financial data for the UA Advancement Division.

Apple will release iPhone 6.75, which is capable of emptying the dishwasher and folding the laundry so that its users can spend more time on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and FourSquare.

Arkansas football Coach Bret Bielema will reject a Harley-Davidson motorcycle that showed up as a gift, citing the fi ne print in his University of Arkansas contract. The card on the motorcycle is signed “Your fellow SEC coaches.”

Bentonville voters will again reject a second high school, but some will start a petition for an election to build a new, domed Tigers Stadium.

Asa Hutchinson will be fired from his new school safety gig with the National Rifl e Association after he shows up at NRA headquarters for a meeting unarmed.

Steve Womack will say he’s running for governor in 2014, volunteering several times in his press conference that he doesn’t know ANY lawyers in Hot Springs.

Monte Ne, the ruins of eccentric William“Coin” Harvey’s early 20th century resort near Rogers, will become a bed and breakfast catering to the spray paint artist market.

One more thing: Do you use Twitter?

Why not have a little fun with predictions for 2013? Last week, I created a hashtag (#NWApredictions) for Twitter users in the region to use in posting their prognostications for 2013.

A few have joined in, but more are always welcome.

Some of the predictions I’ve made in this column were tweeted last week.

More will come as inspiration strikes.

Join in with your own predictions, and search #NWApredictions to see who else out there has some serious, funny or just quirky observations about what’s to come in 2013.

A few contributions from others, whose IDs I will leave to the Twitterverse:

Another Mayan calendar that extends to 3012 will be discovered.

A local picks the Hogs as a dark horse to win the SEC in Coach Bret Beilema’s first year, and is serious.

So give it a try. Have a little fun with the annual transition into a new year.

Most of all, may you all have an outstanding 2013 and be safe out on the streets tonight if you’re going out.

GREG HARTON IS THE OPINION PAGE EDITOR FOR NWA MEDIA.

Opinion, Pages 5 on 12/31/2012