magnoliareporter.com welcomes back as a seasonal advertiser the 2022 Columbia County Fair and Livestock Show. The fair is Monday, September 19 through Saturday, September 24. You can go for the rides, shows and exhibits but for our part, it’s the fair food. People who click on the ad will be redirected to the fair’s 2022 catalogue. It will tell you everything that you need to know about the fair and how to enter its large number of contests and special events. We appreciate the opportunity to tell everyone about the plans for the fair, which is now only a month and a half away.
We wrote about Gracie, the Magnolia Printing cat, just last week. So, we regret to inform our readers who do not already know that Gracie passed away overnight Thursday at the grand old cat age of 21. Gracie bounded into the lives of Banner-News employees in 2001 when she appeared at the back dock of the print shop. She quickly found a job keeping mice at bay and worked her way up to the newspaper’s unofficial mascot. We worked in the same office with Gracie for 10 years. Gracie had to find a new home in 2017 when the newspaper shut down its office supply store and print shop, but she landed on all four feet with Deadra Litzsinger at Magnolia Printing. Everyone who worked at the newspaper for a 16-year period has a Gracie story. One of ours had to do with an office tour for Leadership Magnolia. The tour included the print shop. Gracie wasn’t allowed into public parts of the building during the work day, but the print shop was her home. On this particular tour, Gracie positioned herself on the corner of a table. As each person came through the double doors, Gracie gave them a polite “mrow.” Sleep well, Gracie.
We can’t give you a direct link for legal reasons, but we can tell you that Rex Nelson’s Saturday column in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette was headlined, “The SAU Miracle.” He discusses at length recent developments at Southern Arkansas University and the role of his childhood friend, SAU President Dr. Trey Berry, in that progress.
Football season is already well under way. High school teams were in helmets last week, and start practicing in full pads today.
Toto.
That’s literally big news in El Dorado. First Financial Bank will assume the seven-year-old building that Murphy Oil left behind in 2020 when the company moved to Houston. The bank is moving its headquarters away from the city’s chief landmark, the eight-story building most residents of the region still call the Lion Oil building. Diversified Construction and Design will own and expand into offices in the former First Financial building. The Lion Oil building was for many years the tallest office building in Arkansas. The real estate deal allows El Dorado to salve the sting suffered by the town’s civic pride when Murphy Oil left, and keeps the iconic, 95-year-old Lion building in service. This is a huge win for El Dorado.
We tried to find an old Lion Oil TV commercial with Beauregard T. Lion. But no luck.
Flattered to hear that a sermon got preached on our current online poll topic: “If the world was going to end tomorrow, would you want to have that information in advance?”
Ten years ago, we reported that funds were being raised to name the student lounge in the new SAU ag building after a student who was killed in a car crash. CLICK HERE to see the story.
A little trouble brewing off Africa, but it does not look like it will pose a hurricane threat to the Gulf Coast.
Mike McNeill is publisher and editor of magnoliareporter.com. Email him at news@magnoliareporter.com or call him at 870-904-3865. Opinions expressed in this column are his own. If you don’t know the difference between a Facebook post and a direct message, we can’t help you.
