With deepest gratitude: Democrat-Gazette staff gives its thanks for many things

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette giving thanks photo collection
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette giving thanks photo collection

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, writers, editors and designers of the Democrat-Gazette have put together a list of what we're thankful for this year.

Most of all, we're grateful for you. Our readers are our neighbors, our friends. Thank you, during a trying time for our industry, for continuing to support this newspaper and allowing us to do what we so dearly love.

We wish you all a wonderful Thanksgiving!

I am thankful for the magical realm of Hillcrest with its abundance of shops, restaurants, coffee houses and most of all the beautiful and serene Allsopp Park. Known in my family as the Hundred Acre Wood, even though it's somewhat smaller, the park has been the setting over the years for many fond outings with our children and our dogs and remains a place of respite and invigoration nestled inside the city.

-- Terry L. Austin

I love this time of year. Stores and radio stations blast us with Christmas carols, and even though a lot of folks tire of them, I don't. I am thankful that those who love that part of the holidays can showcase their spirit with lights, inflatable figures and trees sagging under the weight of ornaments, tinsel and bows.

I'm thankful for channels like Hallmark, Lifetime, UP and Freeform that help fill my DVR with sappy, sweet Christmas movies that attempt to show the best in people and the reason for the season.

And lastly, I'm thankful they're opening a Taco Bueno on Pershing Boulevard in North Little Rock. Woohoo! It's far enough away to keep me from going on a whim, but close enough that I can go on a whim.

-- Rosemary Boggs

I've always been thankful for Damgoode Pies' (damgoodepies.com) online ordering and home delivery -- especially on those days I don't feel like cooking, or worse, when a recipe testing day results in recipe failure. But now that I can get Loblolly ice cream ($8 per pint of Double Vanilla, Fresh Mint Chip or Chocolate Sorbet) delivered to my door along with my Hog Pie Stuffy (pepperoni, Canadian bacon, sausage, crumbled bacon and cheddar) with pink sauce and red bell peppers added, I'm even more thankful. The fact that Damgoode's delivery drivers are always friendly, on time and not deterred by my 90- and 160-pound dogs makes it even sweeter.

-- Kelly Brant

I'm so thankful for the new Little Rock Dairy Queen that I couldn't wait to get ... and have visited exactly twice.

And I'm so thrilled about Little Rock's shiny new Lowe's and counted down the days until it opened ... even if I still have yet to actually shop there.

And I'm so glad after all these years, Little Rock is finally home to an H&M store in Park Plaza mall ... not that I've actually made it by. And that we'll be getting another one eventually in the Outlets of Little Rock ... which I've only managed to visit twice in two years.

Ultimately I guess that means I'm grateful that the options are many and my needs are few.

-- Jennifer Christman

This year has seen a deluge of music from Arkies that should have most fans filled with gratitude.

New albums from The Wildflower Revue (self-titled), Dazz & Brie (Can't Chase Girls & Your Money, Too), Isaac Alexander (Like A Sinking Stone), Recognizer (self-titled), Mark Currey (Tarrant County), Rodney Block (Trumphouse), Pallbearer (Heartless), Beth Ditto (Fake Sugar), Big Piph (Celebrate), Big Boots (self-titled), The Salty Dogs (Goodnight '47) Country Florist (Waveland) and Knox Hamilton (The Heights), among others, covered everything from jazz to doom metal, hip hop to soul, alt-country to alt-rock, indie pop to chill out dance.

And word on the street is that 2018 should start nicely with a new album from Adam Faucett in the first few months of the year. It's a good time to be a Natural State music lover.

-- Sean Clancy

I am thankful for the turn of fate that brought me 40 years ago to Little Rock, where I discovered exceedingly friendly, welcoming and resilient people who acknowledge with nods even folks they don't know as they encounter one another on sidewalks. And I'm thankful I've stuck around long enough to see the continuing growth of Little Rock from a very small big town to a very large small town.

-- Eric E. Harrison

More and more I feel grateful for well-made things -- the roof that doesn't leak, the well-set-up guitar, the marriage that sustains. I think we need a measure of constancy in our lives, as a cushion against our unknowable future. As the years go by, more and more chairs around the table empty, maybe to be re-filled for a while by a new niece or grandson, but inevitably the center shifts, families disperse and forget. "This too will pass," is about all we can say with certainty.

But, in the moment, we might be blessed by what is reliable and ordinary -- the same old stories from the same old friends, the songs that everyone knows, silly traditions started by children, old gray movies made before any of us were born. We might be happy to simply have our place in the line that wends through the mystery. As interesting as it has turned out to be, I am still thankful for our time.

-- Philip Martin

The Arkansas heat might mean more mosquitoes and higher air conditioning bills, but it also means a longer season for canoe trips; I am always grateful to get to spend a weekend out on one of the state's rivers

Buffalo River floats can include an eight to 10 mile trip that takes up the day -- Ponca to Kyle's Landing (10.6 miles), Steel Creek to Kyle's Landing ( eight miles) or Pruitt to Hasty (seven miles). The weather has also provided conditions suitable for multi-day floats, with camping in between like Ponca to Pruitt (26 miles) or Pruitt to Mt. Hersey (20 miles).

The Ouachita River also has some nice floats, although canoers may have to drag their boats over some shallow shoals. A few of the best places to start your float include Rocky Shoals on U.S. 270, Fulton Branch Recreational Area or Dragover Recreational Area.

-- Ginny Monk

Is it the accents? The manners? The creative approach to murder? Whatever it is, those Brits have a hold on many of us west of The Pond.

Luckily, in this day and age of advanced TV options, Anglophiles can get easily a daily dose of Brit.

The gorgeously filmed The Crown, a gift to royalists, history lovers and just plain fans of regal drama, has been a huge hit for Netflix and many are looking forward to Season 2, which will launch Queen Elizabeth II and her family into the 1960s.

On the big screen, there's Kenneth Branagh's new version of Agatha Christie's most famous novel, Murder on the Orient Express. As of this writing, it remains to be seen if this one will in any way hold a candle to the 1974 film starring Albert Finney and Lauren Bacall. The mere anticipation of the classic diabolical murder on board a snow-bound luxury train in the 1930s is enough to make a Christie-loving old movie buff giddy with excitement.

-- Jennifer Nixon

I am thankful for my new/adopted neighborhood of SOMA. The streets are lined with sidewalks where people walk their dogs, talk to their neighbors and admire the century-old homes -- many of which have been lovingly restored. I love sitting on my front porch and watch the world walk by. I love walking to some of the fabulous events in SOMA, including the Cornbread Festival, the Mardi Gras parade and the markets at Bernice Gardens. And I love all of the new construction and renovations taking place in my neighborhood.

-- Rachel O'Neal

Temperatures are finally falling, meaning bike rides along Little Rock's River Trail -- as well as Fayetteville's Razorback Greenway -- feel more like a luxury than a test of one's resolve. I'm so thankful for the Natural State's investment in our trail systems; I'm not sure there's a better way to unwind than spending a day catching the breeze off the Arkansas River, or perhaps Lake Fayetteville. Even better is the sense of camaraderie among the trail users. Seems everyone I whiz past bears a big grin -- I know I do.

-- Lauren Robinson

When the new Broadway Bridge opened in March, its silken surface and those 448-foot basket handles made crossing the Arkansas a pleasure. And I especially liked that its proper name, Veterans Memorial Bridge, remembered our heroes. But construction of an off ramp to La Harpe Boulevard dragged on and on. How tedious it was to detour to West Markham Street in front of City Hall.

Even when all 24,000 of the cars that use the span per day lined up to travel south at once, getting from midbridge to Chester Street's merger with LaHarpe never took me longer than 3 minutes. But there were five extra stoplights. Five extra intersections, five extra places where fate and fools collide.

Thankful prayers arose when the off-ramp opened June 5.

And now the gleaming white bicycle/pedestrian ramps have opened, too, reconnecting everyone to the River Trail. Oh, Broadway Bridge! You're just swell.

-- Celia Storey

This being Nov. 21, the first thing I'm thankful for is that I've lived to see another birthday today. Not that all Arkansas should celebrate, but go ahead. I don't mind.

Having been the newspaper's TV writer for almost a quarter century, I'm always grateful (and a little surprised) each year to find that television has once again come up with enough good new shows to keep us entertained and fascinated. This year has been no exception.

Among other shows, we enjoyed the surprise of Stranger Things (Netflix), cried with NBC's This Is Us, cheered as NBC's The Good Place rallied from disappointing to delightful and marveled that CBS' The Big Bang Theory continues to make us laugh even in Season 11.

In addition, our season-long nightmare of indecision and submission is over on The Walking Dead (AMC) and our heroes are finally fighting back.

But what every Arkansas TV fan can be most thankful for is that after seven seasons of hearing that "Winter is coming," Winter finally arrived on Game of Thrones (HBO). We hold our breath waiting for the thrilling final chapter next year. Maybe.

-- Michael Storey

Art can be a mirror to help us see and face our doubts, fears and prejudices as well as motivate us to be more aware and compassionate.

I am particularly thankful for these exhibitions:

• David Bailin's "The Erasings," at Little Rock's Boswell Mourot Fine Art from May 13-27. In trying to understand what his father was going through after his Alzheimer's diagnosis, Bailin experienced his father's changing world by creating, then erasing parts of his drawings.

• "Will Counts: The Central High School Photographs" was an emotionally riveting exhibition at the Arkansas Arts Center. Counts' powerful photographs, which hung at the Arts Center from Aug. 8-Oct. 22, gave viewers a chance for a new perspective on the Little Rock Central High School integration crisis of 1957. It brilliantly reminds of recent history that, despite its impact, seems even more distant to many. In light of recent events in our country, it was particularly timely.

• Three days after the Counts exhibit opened, The Butler Center for Arkansas Studies revealed "The Art of Injustice: Paul Faris' photographs of Japanese Incarceration Rohwer, AR, 1945." It is the second of a planned four-exhibition series over two years by the Butler Center to examine the Rohwer and Jerome camps, which imprisoned some 17,000 people of Japanese descent (most were American citizens) during World War II. You can still see "The Art of Injustice" -- it hangs through Dec. 30.

• V.L. Cox's unsettling and ultimately hopeful "End Hate" collection of multi-media works is now showing at the Longwood Center for the Visual Arts at Longwood University in Farmville, Va. Rachel Ivers, executive director of the museum, says "Cox's call for greater empathy and people talking to one another resonates with a lot of people." "Break Glass: The Art of V.L. Cox -- A Conversation to End Hate," hangs through Feb. 8.

-- Ellis Widner

As I continue to age -- gracefully in some respects, not so gracefully in others, I find myself quite thankful for:

• The educational TV shows and documentaries that make up for the increasingly wacky/incomprehensible dramas they dream up nowadays. I'm especially grateful for such shows as the Travel Channel's multiple "Mysteries at the ... " series, National Geographic Channel's The Story of Us with Morgan Freeman; Ken Burns' PBS documentary The Vietnam War and any profiles of ancient rulers/kingdoms/civilizations.

• Although I mourn the fact that the Little Rock metroplex has lost its Savers outlets, I'm thankful for the remaining thrift stores. A double thanks, Goodwill, for that $20, mint-condition, faux-fur car coat earlier this year!

• Verizon Arena and its ability to draw shows such as the Janet Jackson and Bruno Mars concerts ... big names that draw people of all ages. Those stadium stairs, though ...

• Spanx and other body shapers. These things should be mandatory underneath certain garments.

-- Helaine R. Williams

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Stranger Things

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This photo from “Will Counts: The Central High School Photographs” shows The Little Rock Nine gathered for Thanksgiving dinner in 1957.

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Democrat-Gazette file photo

Allsopp Park

Style on 11/21/2017

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