News - Friday, May 24, 2013

May 10 was a celebration and a homecoming for the UALR family at the Clinton Library. Famed actress and Little Rock Junior College alum Julie Adams was presented with the Distinguished Alumni Award. “I have wonderful memories of growing up in Arkansas and of going to movies as a little girl,” Adams told a capacity crowd. “I loved the movies and when I was a little girl I had dreams of being up there myself one day.”

Hearing the phrase that popular law shows have familiarized, that begins with “All Rise,” signaled a tone of severity in North Little Rock’s District Court earlier this month. 

However, the severity was coupled with celebration. Students and participants from North Little Rock’s Teen Court 2013 program received awards for their hard work and growth throughout the year. 

I have a secret identity. I guess it isn’t so much a secret if I’m widely admitting it in this column, but I figure only a handful of you read it anyway, so my secret is probably safe.

Still want to know what it is? My secret is that by day I’m Lisa Henderson, Lawyer Extraordinaire, and by night, I’m Lisa Newlin, Citizen Extraordinaire. Okay, I might have elaborated a little on the extraordinaire part. I’m not that great of a citizen. I’m just a normal citizen.

I have a staff member who recently made a trip to Great Britain which is a country which really embraces dog ownership.  She said everywhere she went she was greeted with information on pet insurance.  She found it on billboards at the train stations and in the grocery stores.  I know most Americans care just as much about their pets as the Brits.  However, polls show that a large number of pet owners say they are worried they won’t be able to afford health care for a sick dog or cat.  If one is considering pet insurance to help with veterinary expenses, there are some things to consider.  Just like health insurance for you or a family member, there are several types of pet insurance policies.  As with your health insurance policy, these policies typically itemize covered treatments, deductibles, and lifetime or pet illness maximums.  The cost of a pet health insurance policy will vary based on the amount of coverage, the type of coverage, the species and age of the pet, and even what breed of animal.

For a few days in the past week I had an opportunity to work on a flower farm. Despite the unbelievable ache in my lower back from several hours of pulling weeds, the strange rash on my arms, and the two creepy ticks I brought home, my primary experience of this work was a kind of quiet joy at being able to spend time away from my desk, in the sun, amidst these beautiful gardens.

By this time of year summer’s nagging-presence has made its grand entrance into Arkansas’ weather arena. 

For me, summers have lost a sense of magic and freedom. School no longer book-ends the wondrous time in which being lazy and sleeping in are acceptable and even understood within the parameters of “summer break.” 

Tony Stark is having trouble sleeping. One can understand how watching aliens pour through a rip in the sky above New York City can do that to a guy. Still, he saved the world, he has the love of a good woman, and he can spend his days tinkering in his shop, making cooler and cooler toys. So why can’t he sleep?

Do toning shoes live up to their claim of firming and shaping your legs and butt better than regular sneakers? Several trial “runs” have been done on the different shoe brands that make those allegations, and there have been some startling results.

My late mother was born in 1929 – one of those watershed years in the U.S. 

I always picture the food lines; those stockbrokers, hurling their commission-conscious selves from Manhattan windows; black and white faces like Tom Joad; and gin joints.

It’s that time of year. The time when just about everyone you know is racing the clock to get in shape before they have to don that cellulite-bulging, fat-roll showing bathing suit. Eventually the opportunity will pop-up and…if you are like me, you won’t be any closer to looking svelte and debonair than you were last year at this time!

With good weather finally arriving in Arkansas also comes delicious fruits of the Earth. Little Rock is no stranger to Farmers’ Markets, and many dapple the city’s map every day of the week. A popular Sunday destination, The Bernice Garden houses a market on South Main from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. 

A shot I recently took at the dam at Blanchard Springs after a long hard rain.

Surprisingly, I was not chosen to speak to my law school class upon graduation. Michelle Odom was president of the Student Bar Association at UALR Law School, and she spoke about the importance of trying to be relevant in the world as we wandered off into the practice of law. At least, that’s what I remember from it. If anyone else spoke, I don’t remember a word.

I love to watch Wheel of Fortune, as million of Americans do, according to the ratings and the length of time the program has been on the air. See how much you know about Vanna and Pat by answering the following questions. Have fun!

1. What was the original name of the show? The Wheel of Fortune; The Shopping Game; The Wheel of Shopping; Shoppers Bazaar.

(Continuing my apologies to Schmick, Wheelan, Rowling, Lamott, Wallace, Sedaris, and others, I offer Part 2 of the graduation speech I’ve never given. Part 1 ended On Election Day, 1996. Executing a plan to visit 25 polling places, I got caught in traffic, went down a road I’d no intention of traveling, and wound up at a polling place I’d not intended of visiting. It was 5:30 p.m., and the volunteers at this place expected only a dozen or so voters in the next two hours.)