Letters

Only in Arkansaw ...

Chuckled reading Brenda Looper's "Persnickety prose" column. Over the years my wife and I have learned and, for lawdy sakes, sometimes even use rudimentary ARbonics including:

Plump, for sit: "Think I'll juss plump down in dis ol' char har."

Het-up, for upset, heated, irritated, angry: "Don git all het-up over tha spilt milk."

Futher, for farther: "The sto is futher down da road apiece."

Apiece, for an indeterminate distance ranging from a few feet to miles away: "The next town is apiece down the road." Akin to yonda, a bit, closeta, or catty-wompus.

Scooters, turkey trots, diaree: "I'm habin' a case of them ol' debil scooters."

Whang, for spicy or sharp: "That chili is plum whangy."

Plum, for very: "That ol' hoss is plum loco."

Booger, for difficult, hard: "That 'ritmatic test wuz a real booger."

Agin, for against, anti: "I'm agin anythin' that canidate sez."

(and yours, Brenda) Tump, for overturn: "Carful darlin' an don tump over da worsh bucket."

GEORGE ALDRICH

Hot Springs Village

The newspaper's job

Mr. Wilburn Rowell's statement that the Voices section is "inundated with pro-homosexual letters" is simply incorrect. For example, do you remember the Wednesday after the infamous Mother's Day/gays kissing Sunday paper? All but one letter in the Voices column that day was in staunch opposition to Judge Chris Piazza's ruling and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette's coverage of the story.

It is the newspaper's job to report the news, not to cater to any one individual's beliefs.

AMANDA SHINN

Little Rock

Essay was wonderful

Thank you, Judge Wendell Griffen, for your wonderful essay in the Sunday Democrat-Gazette regarding same-sex marriage. It was an eloquent, intelligent and truthful summary rebuking state Sen. Jason Rapert's position on same-sex marriage.

SUSAN TURTON-WEEKS

Sherwood

Protected class born

I believe enshrining same-sex marriage in law will create another protected class. At some time during their lives, those who shun procreation will depend upon other people's children to defend them in wars and to support and to care for them in old age. Old adage but true: "A mother's work is never done." It is expensive to raise and educate children, and when the children become adults, they too will have more work to do for the sake of others. So "discrimination" in these matters is not just a one-way street. Love is a many splendored thing but then so is civilization.

Was there desert clarity when people lived in tents and under the stars? About when? In the desert, in Sinai, about the time of Leviticus.

CHARLES VERMONT

Prescott

Outstanding doctor

Re Dr. Eddie Reed: Ask any teacher which students are remembered, and the answer is the brightest, most promising achievers, and the worst performers or most ill-behaved. The obituary on June 2 of Dr. Eddie Reed made me think of my year with (then to-be Doctor) Eddie Reed.

Over 40 years ago, from 1970 to 1974 at Philander Smith College, I was "Assistant Professor of Physical and Natural Sciences and Mathematics" (they were long on titles in those days). I taught the freshman one-semester general education requirement, Physical Science, and the sophomore two-semester General Physics class. General Physics was required of all pre-professional students (such as engineering and pre-medical).

Without peer, Eddie Reed was an outstanding student, the brightest of all the students I taught those four years. He was capable of attending any university medical school in the country. I recognized that potential so much so that periodically I would check on him via Google searches, most recently a year or so ago, just to see where he was and what he was doing.

I do not recall ever seeing him again after I left Philander Smith, but I respected him from a distance. I was saddened to see his obituary. The country has prematurely lost a great mind, and an outstanding physician.

It is like a parent losing a child. The student is supposed to outlast the teacher. It was a privilege to have been one of his teachers.

RAYMOND HARRILL

Little Rock

To rationalize stand

Jason Rapert's recent guest column has certainly generated a lot of responses. A few concur with him while others, including the reasoned response from Judge Wendell Griffen, took umbrage at his ideas.

I personally found it hilarious.

The answer to Rapert's question--"Who decides what's best for Arkansas?"--requires only two words: The Constitution. Instead, after praising the brevity of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, he went on and on and on and even further on with biblical references and misinformed commentary on how our nation's government works.

My mother's phrase for this type of behavior was "diarrhea of the mouth and constipation of the brain." You would have thought someone was paying him by the word.

Mr. Rapert, you can cherry-pick whatever you wish from the Bible and wrap your whole life around it--I don't care, but don't you dare cherry-pick from my Constitution to rationalize your narrow view of the world and legislate from that perspective.

Because, you see, the Constitution is relevant to the laws of the country while the Bible is not.

LEWIS NEIDHARDT

Sherwood

Editorial on 06/11/2014

Upcoming Events