March is when leprechauns leap, fiddlers play a high old tune, and kites get all up in the air. A pot of gold is there to be found at the end of the rainbow. But everybody loses something, too. With the start of daylight saving time -- a lost hour. Poor little lost hour, it had plans for the day.
1 Pig Day, Kite Month, and pay-up time for all debts and promises made on the condition "When pigs can fly."
Leg work
Little Rock Marathon, General start 8 a.m. downtown. Details at littlerockmarathon.com. Call (501) 371-4639.
Cup, cup and away!
2 How to celebrate National Caffeine Awareness Month on a Monday: Back to the grind.
Brats and splats
3 Florida Admission Day, 1845. Speaking to a cranky crowd of Florida retirees, Gov. Jeb Bush admits what's wrong with the fountain of youth: another place ruined by a bunch of squirts.
Mary Poppins preview night benefits the UAMS College of Medicine Parents Club, 5:30 p.m. at Arkansas Repertory Theatre, Little Rock. Details at uamscomparentsclub.com. Call (501) 920-9483. (Show opens March 6.)
Better than bitter
4 How to celebrate Optimism Month: a toast with the glass half full.
Cheers for gears
Arkansas Rock City FIRST Robotics Regional Competition through March 7 at Barton Coliseum, Arkansas State Fairgrounds, Little Rock. Details at arfirst.org. Call (870) 404-3260.
The sopranos
5 Vienna Boys' Choir, 7 p.m. at Wildwood Park for the Arts, Little Rock. Details at wildwoodpark.org. Call (501) 821-7275.
It's that Poppins woman!
6 Mary Poppins through April 5 at the Arkansas Repertory Theatre, Little Rock. Details at therep.org. Call (501) 378-0405.
Lit fest
Lanterns! festival nightly through March 8 at Wildwood Park for the Arts, Little Rock. Details at wildwoodpark.org. Call (501) 821-7275.
A thing or two about Thing One and Thing Two
Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat through March 29 at the Arkansas Arts Center Children's Theatre, Little Rock. Details at arkarts.com. Call (501) 372-4000.
For he's a jolly good yellow
Camden Daffodil Festival, home tours and steak cook-off through March 7, Camden. Details at camdendaffodilfestival.com. Call (870) 833-2443.
Treble in River City
Royal Players' The Music Man through March 8, 13-15 and 20-22 at the Royal Theatre, Benton. Details at theroyalplayers.com. Call (501) 315-5483.
Made in Japan
7 AnimeCon Arkansas through March 8 at the Little Rock Marriott. Details at animeconarkansas.com. Call (501) 288-3161.
House party
Mindbender Mansion brainteaser exhibit through Sept. 7 at the Museum of Discovery, Little Rock. Details at museumofdiscovery.org. Call (501) 396-7050.
Civil War incivilities
Federals, Rebels and Bushwhackers exhibit through Dec. 6 at Rogers Historical Museum, Rogers. Details at rogersar.gov. Call (479) 621-1154.
Reward for return of lost hour
8 Start of daylight saving time in the dark at 2 a.m. Time goes back to squandering daylight in the dark on Nov. 1, all thanks to tax dollars at work.
Super goober
9 How to celebrate National Peanut Month: Do like the vacationing elephant -- pack a trunk.
Coat and tie dye
10 Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat through March 15 at Walton Arts Center, Fayetteville. Details at waltonartscenter.org. Call (479) 443-5600.
The hoot heard 'round the world
11 International Mirth Month.
Banjo-a-go-go
12 Spring Bluegrass Festival through March 14 at Ozark Folk Center State Park, Mountain View. Details at ozarkfolkcenter.com. Call (870) 269-3851.
Out on a limb
13 Celebrating Trees programs through March 16 at Petit Jean State Park near Morrilton. Details at petitjeanstatepark.com. Call (501) 727-5441.
Skins-folk
Southwestern Regional Rendezvous fur trade re-enactment with tomahawk-throwing and marksmanship through March 21 near Leslie in Searcy County. Details at lesliearkansas.org. Call (501) 255-5801.
Whistlin' Dixie
Arkansas Chamber Singers concert, Music of the Civil War Era, 7 p.m. March 13 and 14 and 3 p.m. March 15 at the Old State House Museum, Little Rock. Details at ar-chambersingers.org. Call (501) 377-1121.
Space has ripples, Ruffles have ridges
14 Albert Einstein's birthday, 1879. Potato Chip Day.
St. Patrick steps off early
The early leprechaun gets the pot o' gold. Several of Arkansas' St Patrick's Day festivities are March 14, ahead of actual St. Patrick's Day on March 17, including:
• Little Rock St. Patrick's Parade, 1 p.m. from Dugan's Pub through the River Market District, across Main Street Bridge and past Cregeen's Irish Pub to finish at Sixth and Main, North Little Rock. Details at irisharkansas.org. Call (501) 868-6416.
• Eureka Springs St. Patrick's Parade, 2 p.m. downtown. Details at stpaddy.ureeka.org. Call (225) 405-9673.
• Fayetteville St. Patrick's Day Parade, 11 a.m., leads to 1-7 p.m. festival on the downtown square. Details at stpatricksonthehill.com. Call (479) 871-0376.
Ids of March
15 "Beware the ides of March" is Shakespearean talk that means Julius Caesar should have known a bad day when he saw one coming. Or maybe Shakespeare wasn't much of a typist, and what he really meant to say was "ideas." Beware the dangerously wrong ideas of March:
• The idea that winter is over.
• The doldrums are done with, and TV is bound to get better.
• Tax time is a long way off.
On-the-job straining
16 How to celebrate Employee Spirit Month: after work.
Erin go-go bragh
17 St. Patrick's Day.
World's Shortest St. Patrick's Day Parade with Grand Marshal Mark Martin, 6:30 p.m., downtown Hot Springs. Blarney Stone Kissing Contest, 4:30 p.m. Details at shorteststpats.com. Call (800) 772-2489.
St. Patrick's Day buffet and Celtic music show with Joe Jewell, 6 p.m. at Ozark Folk Center State Park, Mountain View. Details at ozarkfolkcenter.com. Call (870) 269-3851.
Forward March
18 March was named after which old source: (A) Mars, Roman god of war; (B) Marche, a region of central Italy; or (C) Marvin the Martian, wielder of the Uranium Pu-36 disintegrator ray.
Answer at March 24.
Documentary Lioness about female soldiers in ground combat in Iraq, 6:30 p.m. at the MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History, Little Rock. Details at arkmilitaryheritage.com. Call (501) 376-4602.
High lonesome sound
19 Vince Gill and Friends -- daughter Jenny Gill, Ashley Monroe and Charlie Worsham -- 7 p.m. at the El Dorado Municipal Auditorium, El Dorado. Details at mainstreeteldorado.org. Call (870) 862-4747.
Alzheimer's Arkansas Advocate of the Year Dinner for Sharon Heflin, Melissa Longing and Jana Wineland, 6 p.m. at The Metroplex/Team Summit, Little Rock. Details at alzark.org. Call (501) 224-0021.
Tra-la hoopla
20 First day of spring.
Hot licks
Valley of the Vapors Music Festival through March 24, various venues, Hot Springs. Details at valleyofthevapors.com. Call (501) 321-2277.
Searcy County: Chocolate Roll Capital of the World
21 Chocolate Roll Contest and Festival, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. at Marshall High School, Marshall. Call (870) 448-6224.
Eau de pain au chocolat
Fragrance Day.
Goat gloat
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Is today your birthday? If so, that makes you the ram-what-am. Don't wait to be invited: Go ahead, butt in. You share this mountain pass with celebrity goatherders Justin Beiber, March 1; Dr. Seuss (Theodor Geisel), March 2; and Queen Latifah, March 18.
The hole truth
22 The basics of Credit Education Month:
• IOU: Money owed.
• (interest rate) IR: Money owned on money owed.
• LOL: Money remaining.
Tiptoe through
Tulip Extravaganza through April 19 (approximately, depending on what the garden's 150,000 tulips have to say about it) at Garvan Woodland Gardens, Hot Springs. Details at garvangardens.org. Call (501) 262-9300.
Rock opera
23 Near Miss Day remembers the asteroid that nearly clobbered the Earth on this day, 1989. Whew! And here's the word from science on what to do next time: Duck!
"We can all just sit here on Earth, wait for this big rock to crash into it." -- Bruce Willis, Armageddon.
Hup, hup and away
24 Marching along together quiz answer: (A) Mars, the god of one foot in front of the other.
Batter up
25 How to celebrate Waffle Day: with iron determination.
Fiddle-dee-dee
26 Arkansas Fiddlers Convention through March 29 at North Arkansas College South Campus, Harrison. Details at harrisonarkansas.org. Call (870) 429-6174.
Fire and ice and rice
Poet Robert Frost's birthday, 1874. National Frozen Food Month. Spinach Day.
For spinach, I have no desire;
I hold with those who favor fire --
A steak and spud, and bake it twice,
But rice is nice, and will suffice.
Not all jams are traffic
27 Winter Jam with Skillet, 7 p.m. at Verizon Arena, North Little Rock. Details at verizonarena.com. Call (800) 745-3000.
String theory
28 Kite Fest at Turpentine Creek wildlife Refuge near Eureka Springs. Details at kaleidokites.com. Call (479) 253-6596.
"When you send it flyin' up there,/All at once, you're lighter than air." -- Bert the Chimney Sweep.
Craft show, 8 a.m.-4 p.m. at Mountain Home Masonic Lodge, Mountain Home. Call (870) 580-0074.
Sound advice
29 How to celebrate International Listening Awareness Month: all ears.
Northern blue light special
30 The United States buys Alaska from Russia, 1867.
Flame on
31 Bunsen Burner Day celebrates the birthday of the flame's inventor, Robert Wilhelm Eberhard von Bunsen, in 1811. Blow on the candle and make a whoosh.
Coming next month: April! Call (501) 399-3633, write to Ron Wolfe, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 121 E. Capitol Ave., Little Rock, Ark. 72203, or e-mail
by March 15 to suggest April calendar entries or how to celebrate breezy April as Straw Hat Month, such as: with the type of hat most likely to blow off in the lake, a boater. Each event requires a phone number that is answered during business hours or by an answering machine that identifies the event or its sponsor.
Style on 02/24/2015