NWA EDITORIAL: Thursday's thumbs

It's Thursday and another chance to fire off a few up or down thumbs about some news developments in our neck of the woods and elsewhere:

[THUMBS UP] The Christian cross-bearing private property up on Fayetteville's Mount Sequoyah that's been a popular parking spot for views of the town below is, according to its owner and city officials, getting an upgrade. But because the changes will get rid of the parking spots right by the cross, we suspect some folks won't see it that way. It appears nearby neighbors' frets about the need for a few police calls there, along with a desire to slow down automobile traffic (it's Mount Sequoyah, but it's still Fayetteville, after all) has inspired a move to convert the land into a small park-ish setting, requiring visitors to park a football field's length or more away and take a stroll to get there. While it may not be as easy to get to, turning from a parking lot experience into a bit more of a peaceful oasis on high might make it all the more a draw.

[THUMBS UP] Credit Arkansas Razorbacks basketball Coach Eric Musselman for doing what a lot of Arkansans have long believed made sense. Faced with unexpected, covid-related opening in the schedule when Tulsa backed out of a game, Musselman thought offering the slot to other in-state teams made sense. So he did -- to Arkansas State, to the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and the University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff. On such short notice, though, the other schools ultimately declined. Maybe some other time?

[THUMBS DOWN] It's been a decade, according to data from Fayetteville's Drake Field, since the biggest snow year since 1950 -- 27 inches in 2010. In those 10 years have been four of the lowest recorded snowfall years since 1950. In 2019, only 1.9 inches were measured for the year. So maybe the question of whether public school snow days are a thing of the past is rather moot. The "remote" learning methods in place for the pandemic, we're told, is rendering the concept of snow days obsolete, but even as we write that we hear a Scroogish "bah, humbug" in the distance. Call us sentimental, but if we ever get a healthy dose of snow again, we'd recommend students be assigned hands-on, real-world physics lessons about gravity and the reduction of friction involved with packed snow.

[THUMBS DOWN] Leslie Rutledge, Arkansas' attorney general known for latching onto other states' cases for political effect, couldn't resist putting her stamp of approval on Texas' bizarre request to the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn election results in four battleground states. It's unfortunate Rutledge is so comfortable using the authority of her office for such partisan activities. Then again, as many times as she's flown to Washington and other locales to hobnob with President Trump, who can really be shocked at her response when Trump is calling in all favors in his effort to stay in office despite losing the election?