Ozarks At Large
Tonya Lewis Lee helped bring Christopher Paul Curtis' novel The Watsons Go to Birmingham to Tv this month. Tonight the film is being shown, for free, at Bentonville High School and today we talked with Ms. lee about the project that premiered earlier this month on the Hallmark Channel.
Late last week, the federal Department of Health and Human Services accepted Arkansas's plan for Medicaid expansion. The city of Bentonville will give away compost and wood mulch this week. A couple of roads close or otherwise reroute in the River Valley starting today. And gas prices dropped slightly in Arkansas over the past week.
With this morning's montage, we say several goodbyes; to Summer, to a famed Yankees pitcher, and to one of our longest-tenured colleagues at KUAF. Here are our 10 pop culture references we used to say goodbye.
- "So Long, Farewell" from the Sound of Music
- Lou Gehrig's farewell speech
- "Goodbye my Lover" by James Blunt
- ET says his goodbye
- The famous words from Gone With The Wind
- "Hello, Goodbye" by The Beatles
- The Friends leave the apartment for the final time
- "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" by Elton John
- Jim Carey tells his fare goodbye at the beginning of Dumb and Dumber
- Leaving Casablanca for the final time
- Johnny Carson bids his final farewell to the audience during his final time hosting The Tonight Show
The Arkansas Center For The Book this week made its selection for the 2013 If All Arkansas Read The Same Book Program. Kyle Kellams spoke with Vivienne Schiffer, the author of the novel Camp Nine, this year's selection.
State officials continue to seek a solution to the teacher insurance crisis in Arkansas. New numbers are out regarding Arkansas students' achievements on Advanced Placement tests. And, the Connecting Arkansas Internet Conference is being held in Little Rock this week.
You can go to a workshop at NWACC to learn about the state's Freedom of Information Act, or you can participate in one of many lake and other outdoor cleanups in the next few days.



Latest Edition of Ozarks at Large
Friday, May 9, 2014
Ahead on this edition of Ozarks, Michael Tilley talks about a new owner for some long-abandoned real estate in Fort Smith, and the official announcement of a Whole Foods in Fayetteville. Plus, Cletus Got Shot gets ready to perform at a few festivals in the next month.
Becca Martin Brown of NWA Newspapers tells us about a talk about the West Memphis Three with Mara Leveritt this week in Fort Smith, as well as everything else that's up this week in the area.
"Winter" from Vivaldi's Four Seasons
Katy Henriksen gives us a preview of tonight's Sunday Symphony, in addition to giving us another song performed by Damn Arkansan in the Firmin-Garner Performance Studio.
Web Esclusive: Another Performance by Damn Arkansan
Today is Chinese New Year, beginning the Year of the Snake. In honor of the holiday, Ozarks at Large's Christina Thomas visits the Reptile Museum in Fayetteville to take a look at some snakes, alligators and other scaly beasts.
Web Esxlusive: Images From the Reptile Museum
This is our list of items for this morning’s montage of snakes:
Kaa, the snake from The Jungle Book, sings a hypnotic tune. The voice is provided by the legendary Sterling Holloway.
Harrison Ford, as Indiana Jones, ponders his next adventure.
Jim Stafford, now of Branson, sings one of his biggest hits, "Spiders and Snakes."
The character Snake, from The Simpsons, watches his car get stolen.
A highlight of Kenny “The Snake” Stabler running for a touchdown for the Oakland Raiders.
A big (talking?) snake gets zapped in the Harry Potter movie Chamber of Secrets.
Electric Light Orchestra performing "Don’t Let Me Down."
The famous Spam skit from Monty Python. (python, get it…)
The only part of *the* quote from the movie Snakes on a Plane we could put on the air.
Duran Duran with the song "Union of the Snake."
A bill that would ban abortions early in a pregnancy moves forward in the Arkansas legislature, as does a bill on how the state handles executions of prisoners on death row. And, Senator John Boozman speaks out about potential gun control legislation in the U.S. Congress.
"Mary Jane's Last Dance" by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers