Unknown - March 2012 by Do South Magazine

unknown

march 2012 AtUrbanMagazine.com

lifestyle entertainment

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Urban Reader Now Hear This

people

MANAGING EDITOR

Catherine Frederick

Banquet Ignite: The Iceberg DIY: This Old Chair We Are Not Alone High Strangeness

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Back From Africa The Art of Letting Go The Jerky King & Swamp Mama Off the Grid

taste

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF PRESIDENT

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Morning with Leprechauns Stew & Brew

destination

@INSIDE

The Glory of Gaston’s

Marla Cantrell

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Marla Cantrell Marcus Coker Catherine Frederick Martha Heady Laura Hobbs Tonya McCoy Anita Paddock Buddy Pinneo Todd Whetstine

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS

Marcus Coker Catherine Frederick Laura Hobbs Jeromy Price Todd Whetstine

DESIGNER

Jeromy Price

WEB GURU

David Jamell

PUBLISHER

Read Chair Publishing, LLC

Advertising and Distribution Information

Catherine Frederick at 479 / 782 / 1500 Catherine@AtUrbanMagazine.com Editorial or Artwork Information

Marla Cantrell at 479 / 831 / 9116 Marla@AtUrbanMagazine.com ©2012 Read Chair Publishing, LLC. All rights reserved. The opinions contained in @Urban are exclusively those of the writers and do not represent those of Read Chair Publishing, LLC. as a whole or its affiliates. Any correspondence to @Urban or Read Chair Publishing, LLC., including photography becomes the property of Read Chair Publishing, LLC. @Urban reserves the right to edit content and images.

@LETTER FROM CATHERINE

love March! The weather has been hinting at Spring for weeks, St. Patrick’s Day is ahead, my husband, son, and dad’s birthdays are all in March and this could be the year my team makes

it to the Final Four. (Well, it could!) And this month, I have yet another reason to celebrate. I reupholstered a chair. Yep, an entire chair. When I started the project, I was all doe-eyed and optimistic. I picked out fabric, watched an online video, and thought, I could totally do that. By the time I finished, I was a little worse for wear, but proud I’d pulled it off. Do I think you should try it? Absolutely! But not before you read my story on page 10. Trust me on this one. I only got by with a little help from my friends. This DIY needed a little 911! It’s so much fun having you share in our adventures. This month, we’re taking you to a gem of a place that’s world famous for its hospitality and its spectacular fishing spots. We’ll introduce you to a young woman who spent eighteen months teaching children in Africa, and to a couple who gave up city life to build a legacy way out in the country. We’ll crank up the sound of Tennis (the duo, not the sport), give you a tour of an Iceberg, and cook up a little stew to warm you back up.

We’ll also tell you why 600 people are planning to attend next month’s UFO Conference in Eureka Springs, and let you hear from an award-winning journalist and documentary film maker who’s traveled the world investigating what she calls “high strangeness.” Not enough? We have a fix for that. You can tune in as we take on The Pioneer Woman every week at AtUrbanMagazine.com/blogs. We’re going to make ALL the recipes in her new cookbook, The Pioneer Woman: Food From My Frontier, that’s coming out on March 13. (We got an advance copy!) So, enjoy. And then fill out your March Madness bracket. I’ve got a good feeling about mine.

To reserve this space for your charitable non-profit organization, email: Editors@AtUrbanMagazine.com

@LIFESTYLE

@lines Martha Heady

She had the fairest skin, his Marie, translucent as the china she cherished. What meals she created, candlelit morsels spooned teasingly into his mouth. “I cook from here” – hand patting her heart – “Not from books.” So her love fattened him, sixty-three years of pasta, brioche, and kisses. The linen tablecloth, the batiste sheets – “Not so different,” she’d whisper. “Two ways to say the same thing.” When he found her lovingly measuring detergent into soup, flour into laundry, the kitchen became his. Each morning he caressed her cheek, held a cup to her lips, and murmured, “I’m Harold. Remember me?”

osh Clemence walks across the gray floor that’s buffed to a glasslike perfection. He pauses to survey the 5,600 square

feet of open space that is The Iceberg – a new home for the Northwest Arkansas Entrepreneurship Alliance. Josh is cofounder of NWAEA, and The Iceberg, his latest project, which is a gathering place where locals with differing talents and trades come together to share ideas. Just outside, cars pass by on Spring Street, as morning commuters make their way to work in Fayetteville, a city Forbes Magazine named one of the best places in the U.S. for business and careers. However, a couple of years ago Josh was unsure of his career. He would never have dreamed that he’d be standing in The Iceberg as president of NWAEA. He’d never pictured himself @story Tonya McCoy @images Megan Clemence Photography

as an entrepreneur. Actually, things looked bleak. Just a month after Josh graduated from the University of Arkansas Fay Jones School of Architecture in 2009, he was laid off from his intern architecture job in Dallas. Architecture wasn’t just a job to Josh; it was a lifelong dream. Even when he was a kid growing up in the small town of Mountain Home, he was always creating something. “I was a builder. I spent my days playing with Legos and building tree houses. I even tore apart my bike and tried to build a tractor out of it.”

As part of our Ignite series, @Urban is bringing you stories about extraordinary people making innovative changes in the way we live, work and think. We hope their stories ignite a spark in you to do something wonderful in your little corner of the world. 8

But his plans to be a successful architect would have to be set aside for awhile. Josh did what he needed to survive. “I worked anything and everything I could to get by. It wasn’t easy physically, economically or emotionally. I worked for the U.S. Census Bureau, at a liquor store, and stocking for Old Navy.” In the meantime, Josh did as much freelance design work as he could.

@LIFESTYLE

He also started meeting with his friend, Mo (Maurice) Elliot,

economic development for the region.”

now owner of Fayettechill Clothing, to share ideas. “We didn’t have any money, we didn’t have a network, we didn’t have a lot

The Iceberg is divided into lounge-type environments and

of resources and, for one, we didn’t have any experience. We

workspaces. There’s plenty of room for group collaboration,

said hey, if we can meet for an hour every Wednesday, we can

networking and presentations. There are two projectors, three

share what networks we have, and we can share experiences in

flat screens, and two iPads available for use as well as both WiFi

order to help each other become more successful. But the main

and wired internet connections.

reason we met was to support each other. That’s sometimes the hardest thing – no one supporting you when you’re taking a

Not only is Josh the president of the NWAEA, he’s now

huge risk and trying to start something.”

Interactive Marketing Director for Acumen Holdings, an e-commerce company in Fayetteville that operates a dozen

These casual meetings started around Mo’s coffee table, but

online stores. Pretty impressive considering he’s only twenty-

soon the two turned into a group of four, the four turned into

five. But he’s not completely giving up on architecture. When

twelve, and eventually grew to four hundred in a about a year’s

Acumen recently moved into a new building, Josh had a hand

time. This is how the Northwest Arkansas Entrepreneurship

in much of the design.

Alliance was born. It was clear that the group had outgrown Mo’s living room and needed a larger space. That’s when Josh

“I do what I love. I dream big. I dream a lot. If I say I am going to

and Mo found a building for lease in downtown Fayetteville that

do it, I am stubborn enough to risk looking like a fool in order to

they opened last month calling it The Iceberg.

make it happen. Making things happen makes me tick.”

Josh laughs, “For the last year or so, when people ask me what I’m doing, I just say that I’m building icebergs.” And the name stuck. “Basically we wanted to build a facility that allows for entrepreneurs, professionals and small businesses to come to collaborate with each other, to share resources, have an affordable workspace and also be introduced to a lot of serendipity moments. You may be an accountant working next to a web designer. You may be a photographer working next to a fashion designer, who knows. But there are relationships that form there, that can become something bigger than what you ever imagined. It’s those relationships that are going to build the economy and build more businesses and create more

Interested

joining

the

Northwest

Arkansas

Entrepreneurship Alliance? Log onto NWAEA.net. The group meets the first and third Wednesday of each month at The Iceberg. Memberships are $100 annually and include access to all group events and workshops for FREE. Members also receive a discounted rate for use of The Iceberg. Iceberg memberships start at $10 a day or $100 a month for part-time use. Or you can pay $175 a month and have fulltime access. The Iceberg is open 24/7.

@story

ck e Frederi Catherin s e g a and im

@LIFESTYLE

here’s something about a challenge. I love this DIY series, but last month’s DIY was simple - my only challenge was

finding a frame and selecting the photos. For this DIY, in the words of Emeril Lagassee, we’re kicking it up a notch! This month I stepped out of my comfort zone and reupholstered a chair. Yep, a chair. And I’m not talking about just a tiny old seat cushion. I’m talking the whole enchilada. Arms, sides, back you get the idea.

NOTE: I recommend choosing a simple frame for your chair and a fabric that will not require matching up or aligning stripes or other design elements.

gloves

permanent market

upholstery needle

piping or welt

mini long-nose pliers

upholstery fabric of your choice (my

embroidery thread

*upholstery tack strips

mini wire cutter

chair required 7 yards)

hammer or mallet

fabric scissors

disposable dust mask (optional)

electric staple gun staples

We’re friends you and I, so it’s time for full disclosure. I had a little help from my buddy named Will. He happens to own and operate Pappy’s Furniture Repair. I mentioned I was looking for a chair, and low and behold he delivered. Not only did he deliver the chair, he also delivered everything I needed for the job except my fabric! This chair had seen better days. The fabric, a faded shade of turquoise, was worn from years of use. The foam inside was so brittle most of it had disintegrated into golden dust. Intimidated by the sight of it, Will promised me the chair had “good bones.” I liked the sound of that. It was time to get to work.

spray adhesive cheap fabric to cover interior frame hot glue gun and glue sticks

*foam to size *soft cotton *batting

*These items can be purchased from your local upholstery supply shop. What I know now that I didn’t know then: 1. Don’t purchase anything other than the tools you need to remove the existing materials until after you have stripped the chair. 2. Start removing the fabric from the back of the chair first. You’ll be able to see how each section is attached once this piece is removed. Make notes! 3. Add one yard of fabric to the amount you think you will need to allow for error or additional piping.

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@LIFESTYLE

1. Mark each section of your chair directly on the fabric:

this step took two people. One person to steady the

front, back, arms, sides, etc. Keep each section of fabric

chair and one person to get the tack strip in the right

and foam you remove – you will use them as a pattern

spot and hammer it in.

later. Take photos along the way. As you remove each section, pay close attention and make a note of how

6. I can sew a pillow and hem, but that’s the extent of it.

and in what order it was applied (first the seat, then

I cheated here and had a lovely seamstress sew the

the arms, then the inside arms, etc). Wear gloves! Be

double piping along with the decking and the cushion

careful when removing staples. If one breaks, try to

cover for my chair. The piping (it’s also called welt) is

remove it with long-nose pliers or hammer it into the

adhered to the chair with hot glue.

frame. Depending on the age and shape of your piece, you may be able to re-use some of interior materials

There you have it. The down and dirty version of how to

such as foam, cotton or padding.

reupholster a chair. I’ve had several people ask me if I would do this again. The short answer is yes, I absolutely would. I’d

2. Once you have the removed all of the materials,

do it for myself; it was the most rewarding project I’ve ever

carefully inspect the piece and make any necessary

completed. But you could not pay me enough to do this for

repairs to the frame or springs. The burlap on the front

anyone else. Seriously, this was hard work! Even though I wore

of my chair was ripped, which required me to repair it

gloves, my hands were worn out and bruised (I pulled out at

using twine.

least 1,000 staples), my back ached for days, and I smashed my finger with the hammer (thank goodness there were no staple

3. Spread out your base fabric (any cheap cotton fabric will

gun incidents).

do), placing each section of base fabric you removed on top, also face down. Trace around each section, widening

Here’s what you really need to know. The cost of reupholstering

the pattern by at least 1 ½ inches on all sides to allow

a piece of furniture is far less expensive than you may imagine.

for error. Do the same for your upholstery fabric, placing

I love my chair, but it’s far from perfect, and remember, I

each section face down and trace, then cut.

had professional assistance! Have a question or need some

4. Start replacing materials on the deck first (this is the fabric that the seat cushion sits on), add the foam, then the base fabric, then the cotton or batting, then your upholstery fabric. 5. The back of the chair with the tack strip almost did me in. After some trial and error, I figured it out. For me,

professional help of your own? Call Will at Pappy’s Furniture Repair at 479.629.6758 - tell him I sent you. Want more details and more photos? Find me on Flickr and Pinterest. http://www.flickr.com/photos/urbanmagazine http://pinterest.com/catfrederick/

@story Marla Cantrell

@LIFESTYLE

ne of the first things Lee Clinton, organizer of the upcoming

Mars. “Hoagland was looking for a multi-authored document

Eureka Springs UFO Conference, says is this. “You either

NASA had commissioned from The Brookings Institute called

accept the fact that we’re alone in the universe or you don’t.

Proposed Studies on the Implications of Peaceful Space Activities

I think the majority of the population believes at least in the

for Human Affairs. Margaret Mead was involved with it,

possibility that there are other life forms in the universe,

anthropologists, sociologists, scientists, all contributed. One of

intelligent or otherwise. We’ll start with that premise.”

the key chapters was “What Would NASA Do If There Were Key Artificial Artifacts Found on the Moon or Mars.”

Already a line has been drawn. If you fall on the doubters’ side, the conversation ends. But if you accept the slightest prospect

In other words, what the heck would they do if they found

that we are not alone, a wide door opens and the sky lifts.

evidence that there was intelligent life actually building things on another planet?

What drew Lee into the study of “unexplained phenomena” was a NASA mission to Mars in the 1970s. Viking 1 and Viking 2,

There just happened to be a copy of the document in a

unmanned spacecraft, were sent to take photos and to see if

university library in Little Rock. And Lee found it, “I copied all

any life existed on the planet. The images had to be transmitted

280 pages and sent it to him and that became part of his book.

first to the deep space network and then sent as a line-by-line

It became his rationale as to why NASA is covering up things

reconstruction to earth. “This is how the story goes,” Lee says.

going on. ..This has been Hoagland’s smoking gun for the last

“In the control room, the picture was being constructed and

thirty years.”

most people said, ‘Hey, that’s a face.’ You could see eyes, a nose, a mouth. NASA dismissed it as shadows and light. They said

So there was Lee, living in Little Rock, and just starting to figure

there were subsequent pictures with different sun angles that

out that the world as he’d known might need to be reexamined.

made the face disappear.”

He heard about a UFO conference in Eureka Springs and decided to go. He met the organizer and offered to help out

The photo in question was from the Cydonia region of Mars, a

the following year.

place where an entire contingent of people believes there are forts and pyramids that were built by an intelligent life form. He

Since then, he’s heard hundreds of stories he calls unexplained

wanted answers, so he joined a letter writing campaign asking

phenomena. He’s had a couple of UFO sightings himself. “My

that future NASA missions photograph the same area where the

most interesting one was in 1994. I was living in Little Rock

face was seen.

and I’d just starting hosting a radio show called Encounters. It was a two hour show on Sunday nights. I was in Hot Springs,

In the meantime, Richard C. Hoagland, who is listed as a former

driving back to the station, and I was on I-30 near Benton. I

NASA consultant and as a consultant to CBS news during the

looked to my left and I saw this craft hovering parallel to the

Apollo program, was writing a book called The Monuments of

freeway, maybe 200 yards to the left. It had a row of red lights,

@LIFESTYLE

in a banana shape. I did a double-take. I’m familiar with aircraft,

direction. They have no idea what happened to them.

and you just don’t see things like this. At first I thought it was a helicopter. It was just cruising down the road. I had a decision

“He was God-fearing, straight-arrow kind of guy and I believe

to make: If I tried to follow it, I could have been fired because

every word he said. As a double-check, I checked his cell phone

I would have missed my show, and I was the chief engineer

bill because it was the station’s phone. He indeed received a

there.” Lee pauses and then says. “ I regret not finding the next

call. It was billed for like five minutes. There was no caller ID.”

exit and following it. Lee has met only three people in the last thirty years that he “I wasn’t afraid,” Lee says. “It felt mind opening, like, Wow,

thinks were truly abducted. So, why hasn’t he made the cut? He

that’s pretty cool.”

thinks part of the reason is because he’s out chasing answers. “I think it works against me,” he says. “I also think it’s the luck

But not everyone feels the way Lee does. The sight of a UFO

of the draw. No one in my family has had an experience. It

blinking above the interstate could be terrifying. Imagine what

tends to run in families. If a father’s abducted, more than likely

it feels like to go inside one.

the children will have some experiences, either as a child or a young adult.”

“I had a old co-worker tell me he was driving during the day from Russellville to North Little Rock, which is about an hour

Things happen every day that defy explanation. Lee is fine

drive. He made the trip in fifteen minutes. That trip involved

with that. He stays grounded, he reads a lot. And every

clouds going by very fast, fog all around him. This was during

spring he meets with 600 people in Eureka Springs at the UFO

the early days of cell phones. During the trip, he received a

Conference, to listen to the big names in this field, who come

call and he said, ‘Hello.’ And the voice said, ‘Are you all right?’

in from all across the country. This year the speakers include

He said, ‘Yeah, I’m fine.’ He was thinking it was a co-worker.

a retired U.S. Army colonel, an aerospace engineer, and an

The voice said, ‘Are you sure?’ He said yes. And then the line

award-winning documentary film maker. They spend two days

went dead. He looks up and sees the JFK exit. He looks at his

speaking on very different topics but all agree on one thing: we

clock on the dash and he’s panicked. He pulled over to a Waffle

are absolutely not alone.

House and he stays there for an hour, just shaking. Two days later, he comes to my office and shuts the door, and told me the story. I think he came to me because I was doing the radio

For more information on the Eureka Springs UFO

show. I believed every word he said.

Conference being held April 13-15, log on to ozarkufo.com. The cost is $65 until March 15 but

“There is a phenomenon called ‘missing time,’ with abductees where they are driving down the road, they look up, it’s three hours later and they’re going down a different road in a different

increases to $90 after that date.

@story Marla Cantrell

igh strangenessâ&#x20AC;? is everywhere. Step outside your safe

Emmy Award-winning TV producer, investigative reporter and author Linda Moulton Howe is one of the scheduled speakers for the Eureka Springs UFO Conference on April 13 through 15. Information available at ozarkufo.com.

little office, look up, and you could see what looks like a

mammoth, dragonfly-shaped aircraft in the sky above you. It happened to a woman in Fort Smith in November of 2007. Its legs, she said, looked like a spider. It was not a helicopter. It was the wrong shape and it was quiet as midnight. She stood beside her car, mouth open, and watched it move slowly toward the west.

@LIFESTYLE

In December the woman called her sister at her house in

morning, going for approximately five minutes.’ He said, ‘I couldn’t

Hartshorne, Oklahoma, just thirty minutes away from the

believe people weren’t coming out of houses and buildings.’

McAlester Army Ammunitions Plant. Her sister started to tell her own story of the day in 2003 when she say a similar craft.

“If it’s one person, it’s just a curiosity. When you get dozens

The body was like a cage that seemed to open and close. What

of people reporting the same thing around the world, you’ve

she noticed most were the long protrusions that jutted out from

got another phenomenon that’s hugely mysterious. What is

the core. There were markings on it the color of dark pewter,

causing these sounds? Why is the whole world not hearing it?

unreadable but faintly “Egyptian” looking. It could move in any

Why is it person specific or small geographic specific? I don’t

direction but chose to hover about fifty feet above her as she

have the answers, but I’m working on it.”

watched in dismay for almost an hour. While she’s gathering reports on the eerie chorus, she’s also It began to glow, the lights faded, and then it was gone. When

working on a case out of Bountiful, Utah. A thirty-year old

the Oklahoma woman mentioned it to her husband he dismissed

woman was driving home on I-15 between Logan and Salt Lake

it as a satellite. “It was not a satellite,” she insisted.

City. Suddenly she found herself on an entirely different road, Legacy Parkway, with no idea how she’d gotten there. Three

The same week, this time at night, it appeared again, higher in

other people ended up in the same situation. Above them was

the sky, about 200 feet away. The woman watched the bright

an aircraft, about 100 feet in diameter, with pulsing lights and

light in the sky, the spindly legs like a spider. She didn’t report

triangles. “I interviewed her,” Linda says. “She had taken three

what she saw to authorities. They’d think she was drinking, she

original photos on her cell phone. The GPS coordinates were

surmised, or worse, that she was crazy.

exactly on the Legacy Parkway. She said, ‘I can’t remember getting here. The people behind me were saying, ‘We were just

These are the kinds of stories Linda Moulton Howe hears again

in Bountiful.’ Behind them was an elderly man in a large car and

and again. She uses the term “high strangeness” for these things

he seemed to be in a complete daze.

that are not easily explained. “Well, if that happened,” Linda says, “and there have been cases Right now she’s trying to find the source of strange sounds that

like this in the last fifty to sixty years in various places across the

began in March of 2011. “Some of the video and audio tapes

world, then something physically transported those four humans

are so haunting they’re difficult to listen to,” Linda says. “I’ve

in three different vehicles from one freeway to another.”

interviewed people in the last two weeks that have heard these sounds. Outside of Memphis, the man had been asleep, he had

Linda estimates she’s filed more than a thousand reports during

been a sound engineer, and his profession was in music and he’s

her career. In 1979, when she was the Special Projects Director

very sensitive to pitches. He was the first one who said to me,

for a CBS affiliate in Denver, she starting hearing about strange

‘Linda, it sounded like a chorus of trumpets, arising at 3:45 in the

events taking place on outlying ranches. In the course of one

@LIFESTYLE

of her investigations, she met a retired sheriff who showed her

Eventually, Linda left the station to do a documentary for

266 photos he’d taken of ranch animals that had been killed

HBO. In 1999, she started her website, earthfiles.com. She

and dissected with surgical precision. After a long day talking

is legendary in the circuit that looks at unexplained events,

with him, he decided to cut to the chase. The killers, he told

appearing regularly on the radio program Coast to Coast AM.

her, were creatures from outer space. Would he say it on

But that is only part of what she covers. Linda is currently

camera? No, he would not. But he believed it. She worked nine

looking into the long-term effects of genetically engineered

months, talking to ranchers, medical experts, the military, and

crops, working on a quantum physics project with “the best

law enforcement, trying to find out who or what was killing the

minds on the planet” that focuses on time travel to the past,

animals. In 1980, she finished the Emmy-winning documentary

and is involved in another investigation into the probability that

called A Strange Harvest.

Mars once had two oceans, which could mean some form of life once existed there.

“It was like a bomb went off,” Linda says. “You could say that the ripples from that explosion in 1980 are still rippling through my

While extra-terrestrials don’t frighten her – she points out that

life today. There were no computers, no email. Our only means

while animals are killed, humans are returned intact – what man

of communication was the phone, some people had faxes, and

is doing to the planet does. Our carelessness with the planet,

letters. After that first broadcast, the post office began bringing

she believes, could be the end of us. “We’re living in a world on

my mail in these huge, gray canvas bags. I must have received

the edge.”

a thousand letters in the first week after the broadcast, and not just from the United States. I was getting illustrations of what

It’s one of the things she’ll likely discuss when she speaks at the

people had seen. Most of the letters started off, ‘I’ve never told

UFO Conference in Eureka Springs in April. The growing threat

anybody this.’ The switchboard operator said we can’t keep up

to the earth, the mysteries of outer space, the things that can’t

with your calls. This went on for at least a month.”

easily be dismissed as ordinary. All these intrigue her equally. “I’ve always been curious,” she says. “I was born loving truth

There was a thread that moved through each case, and the cases

and the pressure of facts,” she says. “That is the only driving

had happened across the world. The details were the same, she

force of my professional life.”

says, going all the way back to a report of a flock of sheep killed in the early 1900s, which was written by the BBC. The animals were always bloodless. The incisions looked as if someone with surgical training had done them. No footprints were found near the carcasses. “I realized that my nine months of work had only scraped the tip of the iceberg,” she says.

@ENTERTAINMENT

thirtieth wedding anniversary, the same place they spent their honeymoon. Their two children are grown. They’ve both lost their jobs, their house (too expensive, really, in the first place) has been on the market for over a year, and their credit cards are maxed out. Art has liquidated their savings and plans to

The Odds: A Love Story By Stewart O’Nan 179 Pages

bet it all at the roulette table in the casino at their hotel. If they don’t win, they’ll go home, get divorced (for tax reasons), and file for bankruptcy.

@review Anita Paddock

Art hopes that by getting away, they can rekindle their love, sightsee by day, and gamble by night. Marion just wants to endure the trip with some grace, get back home, and start the divorce paperwork. She is not foolish enough to believe that Art can save them at the roulette wheel. Earlier in their marriage, Art had an affair, and Marion has never forgiven him, or let him forget it. She, too, in retaliation, had a brief romance. Art doesn’t know about that. Nothing goes right. Lines are long, Marion gets a blister on her heel, the restaurant food makes them sick. Art’s hopes for

rekindled love don’t pan out.

or those of you not familiar with Stewart O’Nan, I bring this gift to you. I think he’s one of the best writers of his

With their lives on the line at the roulette table, Art follows

generation. This author of thirteen novels, including Emily,

the Martindale theory of betting: When you lose, you double

Alone, which is one of my all-time favorites, writes about

the bet. When you win, the bet stays the same. He’s tried it a

ordinary people living ordinary lives. There are no murders,

million times on internet gaming sites.

no bank robberies, no revenge killings. His prose and his ability to get to the heart of his characters are what make me

This is a story of a couple hoping to fix their finances. And

lift my head from the page and say, “Wow!”

maybe their marriage. Are the odds against them? Is love like life: always a gamble? O’Nan keeps you waiting until the very

In The Odds, Marion and Art Fowler travel by bus on a Valentine’s Day package trip to Niagara Falls to celebrate their

end for the answer. And yes, it’s well worth the wait.

@ENTERTAINMENT

surprise, however, when you learn that the man producing the album is none other than Patrick Carney of The Black Keys, easily one of the best retro-chic acts on the current musical landscape. Starting things off is “It All Feels The Same,” which opens with simple guitar strumming and tambourine, and from the opening lines of “took a train to…took a train to get to you,” Moore will have you hooked. The drums are soon added and the song builds and builds, eventually bursting into a steady groove that will have fans of bands like Stereolab feeling giddy. Next up is “Origins,” the album’s first official single. Based

now hear this tennis — young & old

@review Buddy Pinneo

on steadily chopping piano chords, it’s a moody mid-tempo number that will make you think of rainy days in Paris. The bittersweet vibe continues on “My Better Self,” which lyrically seems to be pondering the meaning of love,

et ready to fall in love. From the very first moment of Young

acknowledging its delicateness, but doing so in a beautifully

& Old, you’ll be enraptured by this second full-length

resigned way.

release from Tennis, a husband and wife duo from Denver. The energy rises again on “Traveling,” whose “do-do-do’s” Tennis is described by many as “indie pop,” but that overly

assure you that no musical guilty pleasure will go unexplored

generalizes what Aliana Moore and Patrick Riley are really

with Tennis. On “Petition,” Moore’s vocal agility is an eye-

doing musically.

opening standout. And so it goes, across this ten-song set of pop perfection, which will take you on the rise and fall of romance in

Their sound is heavily immersed in the tradition of early 1960s

the best ways imaginable.

popular music. Light, but spirited surfer-style guitars. Retro organs, cheerful piano melodies, irresistibly catchy percussion,

You can clearly see why Moore and Riley are married. And that

gorgeous vocals from Moore – it’s all here – with wall-of-sound

they love what they’re doing. Go ahead. Fall for Tennis. You

reverb covering everything in romantic, cinematic, nostalgic bliss.

know you want to. It’s audio cherry cheesecake.

The result is simply transporting, with the production sounding as if it was recorded in another time and place. This comes as no real

I Rate It

@story Anita Paddock @images Betsy Walker

@PEOPLE

etsy Walker is one of those people you just love being around. She smiles a lot, talking easily about her recent

trip to Africa, what led her there, and what she learned while teaching in Rwanda for a year and a half. Betsy, who’s twenty-six, was born and raised in Fort Smith. “As a child, I’d always loved maps and studying geography,” Betsy says. When she was in high school, she joined Southside’s Partners Club, which helped special-needs children. After graduating from the University of Tulsa, she became a kindergarten teacher in Tulsa in a high crime, high poverty area. “I loved my students, and I felt like I was making a difference in their lives,” Betsy says. When teaching in Tulsa, she learned about the program, “Beads for Life,” which involved teaching women in Uganda how to make bracelets and necklaces to sell. “I knew I wanted to go there and make a difference.” Tulsa. Then her sister, Lee, told Betsy about a Christian nonBetsy’s first hurdle was convincing her parents, Lynn Walker and

profit program called “Bridge 2 Rwanda.” One of the group’s

Bill Walker, that she’d be safe so far away from home.“I had met

missions is to bring teachers in to help transform the country.

a woman who’d been to Africa many times, so I had her as a

In the process, they believe the volunteers will also undergo

sort of guide. I flew to Chicago, met her there, and then we flew

a transformation. Once Betsy learned about the program, she

together to Uganda. I was overwhelmed when I got there. I had

knew it was her ticket back to Africa.

the ‘foot in the door’ experience in Africa.” In March of 2011, she flew to Kigali, the capital of Rwanda. She While there for two weeks in 2009, Betsy visited AIDS hospitals,

worked for four months at Sonrise Primary Boarding School in

schools, and orphanages. She helped make bracelets and

Musanze, a small rural village two hours away. She set up a

necklaces alongside the women she’s met. She also fell in love

library in the school, organizing the books and reading to the

with the people and the country.

children. She was the first American most of her students had ever seen.

When she returned to the U.S., she continued teaching in

@PEOPLE

“I brought my laptop and played music I’d downloaded,” she

so I was able to bring the skills I’d learned as a kindergarten

explains. “All the songs were in English, of course, but they’d

teacher in Tulsa to the teachers there. My Rwandan boss had

sing along with me. I’d hear them at play, singing the songs

been educated in Sweden, and she was very receptive to the

they’d learned. We also played games like “Doggie, Doggie,

idea of teaching outside of the box and bringing creative play

Where’s Your Bone” and had art projects. I wanted to stress the

into the classroom.”

creative part of an early childhood education.” Betsy also introduced the American way of taking field trips. blog,

“One of the most fun trips was going to a bagel and doughnut

documenting her experiences

factory. We all got to eat the samples, and most of the children

with the children in the village,

had never tasted a doughnut or a bagel.”

Betsy

and

also

posting

kept

hundreds

pictures. In all the pictures, the

Before leaving Africa, Betsy also took some side trips of her own

children are smiling, obviously

with friends she met over there. They took a driving safari that

happy with their teacher. One

began early in the morning when the sun was rising. “That was

picture shows Betsy sitting on

spectacular because that was the Africa I’d seen in movies and

a porch with an opened book

read about in books.”

in her lap, her feet in the dirt. She is surrounded by children

Betsy returned home this past December.

She’s currently

hanging on to her arms and her

enrolled in graduate school in Fayetteville. When asked if she

shoulders, leaning close as she

will return to Africa, she flashes her million dollar smile. “I have

reads to them. It exemplifies

to go back,” she says. “Half my heart is still there.”

the old saying: “A picture is worth a thousand words.” For more information, log on to bridge2rwanda.org Betsy’s last teaching months were spent back in the capital city at a private Rwandan school.

“Kigali is a big city with many

nationalities living and working there. In my classes of four and five year olds, I was teaching the children of parents who were from other countries like England, Bolivia, China, Korea, the United States, and the Czech Republic. Some were missionaries. Betsy was the only non-African teacher there. “African teachers aren’t trained to teach music and art along with the basics,

To read Betsy’s blog, go to betsywalker.blogspot.com

the art of letting go barbara loftin

@story Marla Cantrell @images Jeromy Price

@PEOPLE

t’s one of those rare, balmy days in the heart of winter. The temperature will reach seventy before day’s ends and the

wind is blowing so hard the street signs near Barbara Loftin’s Fort Smith house shimmy from the force. Barbara stands on her porch, arms crossed, and lifts her face to the sun. Downstairs, beneath a flight of newly installed stairs, her art studio is coming together. “My husband did this for me,” she says, standing near an unfinished wall that will soon hold dozens of her oil paintings. “I needed a place of my own, and he

at you. It’s impossible to turn away. “I was experiencing what

made it happen.

they call ‘chemo brain.’ I couldn’t concentrate enough to read. At night, laying in bed, I’d do this painting over and over in

“When we were dating and Christmas came around, he bought

my head and it was just perfect. Of course, it’s one thing to

me an easel. I’d been widowed in 1998, and I’d spent a lot of my

be perfect in your head. Getting it to work on canvas is much

life trying to make time to paint but I didn’t make it a priority.

harder.” She laughs. “It probably helped that I didn’t have any

I had a family, and a job, and I was so busy. I put it away for a

hair left to pull out. I’d paint when I could, maybe ten minutes

while, but oh how I missed it. When he gave me that easel, I just

at a time. It was my first attempt at a portrait. When I look at it

about fell apart because he was acknowledging that what I was

now I see determination. That helped me.

doing was more than just a pastime. “For a long time I wouldn’t show it anywhere. And then my “We married on February 2, 2002. 02-02-02. That,” she says,

friends, especially my friends at my support group at the

“was a perfect day.” Barbara runs her fingers through her hair,

Reynolds Cancer Support House, told me I should. So I did. It’s

which is soft and silver and extremely short. “I used to have hair

won a few awards,” she says. “You win awards and you go out

that fell about to my waist,” she said. “My husband loved that.

and buy more paint, which is great. The harder part is learning

We’d been married three years when I was diagnosed with breast

to like your own work. And the better part about this painting

cancer, and of course my hair fell out during the treatment.

is that I’ve heard from other people who had cancer and they understand it. They’d say, ‘I can see myself in it.’”

“I used to think my hair meant a lot,” she says. “It was dramatic when I lost it, but you know what I found out?” she asks. “I found

While she was struggling to recover, she was also growing as

out that hair is not important.”

an artist. “I already had the foundation. I’d been taking classes for a few years. I remember the workshop I took in 2003 out at

What is important is her art. She points to a self portrait that

Creekmore Park,” she says, “and I was standing in front of my

rests against the bare wall. In it she is bald, and looking right

easel with my brush in mid-air. The instructor came up to me

and said, ‘Just paint!’ So I did. I painted the trees in shadow. After that, I never looked back. “I love the pursuit of the right painting, the tactile concerns of painting. I like the smell of paint, the way the paint feels when it’s going onto a canvas. Something pulls me in, to a landscape, a still life, even a person’s head. It’s not important to investigate that. It’s not even important for me to get an exact likeness as long as I can grasp a subtle gesture. Things touch me, like the way someone turns their head, their smile. Even if everything else is blurred away, you get that and you can tell it’s them. I get lost when I paint. Everything else goes away.” Barbara’s portfolio now holds about 600 paintings.

She

recently signed with Out On Main Gallery in Eureka Springs, and she’s now in a mentorship program with Fort Smith artist Vernon Atterberry. “I was in a place where I didn’t know how to move forward. I’m going to work with Vernon for a year and I expect to grow a lot during the process.” This is an important time for Barbara. The cancer she battled in 2005 came back in 2009, metastasizing in her bones. “Now it’s called a chronic illness. I’ll always have cancer and I’ll just have to learn to live with it. I’m in and out of treatment,” she says, “that’s why my hair’s so short.” She shrugs. “But it’s coming back. When it gets a little longer I’ll dye it hot pink. I used to be kind of shy, now I don’t mind if people notice me. It gives me a connection to people. You’d be surprised how much happiness you can give by just opening up to people, being available, letting them talk. “I’m happy where I am. Cancer or not, I’m happy. I take yoga twice a week at the Cancer Support House. I also teach a

@PEOPLE

drawing class there. I used to worry all the time. Now I let go. I breathe. I’ve learned to live for today instead of worrying about tomorrow. Hard to do,” she says. “When I was diagnosed the second time, my whole family had to deal with it. It gets rough. My husband said, ‘All I know is, you’re going to be here tomorrow, and you’re going to be here the next day and the next. I’m going to hold onto that.’” He’s also holding onto Barbara, orchestrating the construction of her sunny new studio. It’s a kind of promise to her, proof that she has years left in front of the canvas. She sits down in front of her easel, working now on her latest self portrait, to document her second battle with cancer. Barbara looks at the painting, the light spilling in from the patio, and picks up her paintbrush. “This one,” she says, “is still trying to find its place on the canvas.” But already the painting is showing its power, and again it’s impossible to turn away. In it, Barbara looks like a fighter who’s not accustomed to losing. “Yes,” she admits, “I do see a little victory in it.” She smiles, and tilts her head to look at it from another vantage point. “It’s early yet,” she says. “But yes, there is victory there.”

For more information on Barbara, or to buy her work, log on to loftin-studio.com, or email her at barbara@loftin-studio.com.

f Shannon Binyon’s health hadn’t failed he’d still be “putting dopers in jail.” But the former cop’s back did give out,

and by then he’d already gone through bypass surgery. So in 2010, after twenty-five years in law enforcement, he left the drug task force that serves Crawford and Sebastian Counties. “There’s an adrenaline rush to it,” Shannon says. “Kicking doors in. Arresting people. Getting that stuff off the street. But I felt like after I started having problems, I couldn’t do the other guys justice if they got in trouble.” Shannon rubs the back of his neck and says, “That’ll keep you up at night.” While he’s telling the story, a blue light flashes outside the eight-by-twelve foot building that houses Swamp Mama’s Beef Jerky. Inside, Shannon sits behind a small table that holds a cash register, and an iPhone equipped with a credit card scanner and about a hundred bags of jerky. The thrumming light, which looks a lot like what sits atop a police car, directs people off Highway 64 between Van Buren and Alma, and into the parking lot. There are four signs that alert potential customers he’s open for business, and two more that announce there’s a drive through. When you’re looking to sell jerky, there’s no room for subtlety. Within an hour on one of the coldest days of the year, he’s sold more than $300 worth. “Everybody thinks the biggest customers are truckers. You know how many truckers I sell to?” he asks. “One. “About half my customers are little bitty, petite women,” he

@story Marla Cantrell @images Jeromy Price

says. “I don’t know why.” And as if on cue, a young mom in a big SUV pulls up, tastes a sample, decides on the mild kind – there

@PEOPLE

are only three flavors: mild, spicy and Swamp Mama hot – and doles out twenty dollars for two five-ounce packages. After she drives away, Shannon says, “There’s this one little lady,” Shannon says. “Must be eighty, at least. She’d come in and buy ten bags a week. I call her the ‘Fat Lady’ because she doesn’t like the fat cut off her jerky. I’ll make it special for her. I made the mistake of calling her the ‘Fat Lady’ to her face one day. And I really had to backtrack out of that one. “How all this got started,” he says, sweeping one beefy hand across the short expanse of the room, “was because of my local

“About a year ago I pulled my pickup over on the side of the

watering hole in Fort Smith, Faux Pas, back in 2009. There was

road up there,” Shannon says, pointing toward the section of

this guy who sold jerky there on Friday nights, and I thought,

the highway not far from Interstate 540, “and I’d sell it from my

I could do that. In December I went to Walmart and bought a

truck.

little roast and a little round dehydrator. I ordered a CD off the Internet with 100 jerky recipes. After about twenty recipes, I

“It got too hot in the Bronco. Finally I set this little portable

got tired of looking at them. I fiddled around for about a month

building up here in June, where I got air conditioning.”

before I got my own recipe working. I’d make up a batch, take it to Faux Pas and tell them to test it and not hold back. They

Shannon felt like he’d the big time when he started going

sent me out crying a few times. When they said, ‘Don’t change

through twenty pounds of eye of round roast a week. Now, he’s

a thing,’ I stopped and I haven’t changed nothing since.

up to 150 pounds a week, which equates to about 50 pounds of jerky, and he’s barely keeping up.

“After that I bought a big commercial dehydrator that held about eighty pounds of meat at a time. I have four of those now.

Shannon has his routine down. He trims the fat, and then cuts the roast into thin slices. “Now me and my sixteen-year-old son,

“Now the business, Swamp Mama’s, really belongs to my wife,

Dylan, we’re the only two knows how to mix the marinade. I’ll

B.J. I met her when she was working for the Sebastian County

put the roast in the marinade and refrigerate it, always for at

Prosecutor’s Office and I was with the police department. She

least six hours. Most of the time it sits overnight. Then I load

left that job when this business started taking off. We were

it on the trays for seven hours. After that we trim off the fat we

traveling around by then, going to sell at the County Line flea

didn’t get before we dehydrated it, bag and seal it up. My little

market, Ozark, up to Clarksville, all over around here. We can

girl, Faith, she’ll help sometimes with the labels.

sell forty bags traveling around in one day.

@PEOPLE

him I was just a little guy in Arkansas with about $100 worth of labels, nothing I was willing to go to court over. Turned out to be a real nice guy. He helped me research the Swamp Mama name, then he ordered forty dollars worth of jerky from me.” If you ask him, Shannon will say things have a way of working out. Watch him long enough and you’ll realize he’s the one doing the work. Every kid gets a piece of candy. He tells one customer he’ll come in on his day off if he needs him to. He ships to his regular customers just on their word, believing they’ll pay up when they can. “Yeah,” he says, “they always do.” “Last batch I made, I stayed up till one in the morning, and I was back up at four-thirty the next morning to get things going again.

Right now, the Swamp Mama empire is exploding. Beside the

Then I tried to sleep a little, because I have to be here by two.

jerky hut is a vending trailer that will soon be home to Swamp Mama’s Hogs and Dogs. “Folks around here don’t have a lot of

“I’ve sent it to soldiers in Afghanistan myself. I’ve had other

choices for places to eat out. I think they’ll stop in for hot dogs

customers do the same. I’ve shipped to New York. There were

and barbeque.”

some folks traveling from California to New York. They stopped in here and bought ten bags. Now they’ll email me and order

He’s also adding a snow cone machine. After last year’s 110

ten or twenty bags at a time. I got some other people that hear

degree weather, he thinks he could sell quite a few when the

about Swamp Mama’s. If they order by mail they’ll usually go

sidewalks start to sizzle. He wants to say more, but then another

ahead and get ten packages and that’s $100. Buy ten and you’ll

customer walks in, and Shannon’s back at it. “What kind you

get a free one. That sells a lot of jerky.”

like?” he asks the guy, only to watch him pull a list from his pocket. He’s come to buy for the crew he works with in Miami,

This undercover-cop turned jerky king gets marketing. “I sell a

Oklahoma. They tried Swamp Mama once, and like Shannon

good product,” he says. “Try it once and I guarantee you’ll come

predicted, they had to come back for more.

back around. It’s got a good name. Makes you happy just to say Swamp Mama.” Then he smiles. “Kinda got in trouble when I

first started. We named it Sasquatch Jerky, and then this fifteen

Swamp Mama’s Beef Jerky

page letter from a high-powered attorney comes in the mail. A

4806 Alma Highway

really big company was already using the name. I call him up

Van Buren AR

and he says, ‘Can you wait a minute?’ and I hear something click,

Tues – Sat from 2-7

so I ask if he’s recording the call and he said he was. So I told

479.769.5140

risty Floyd, thirty-three, lives on a farm in Mulberry and can’t stop smiling when she talks

about her cow, Peaches. She loves her chickens so much that she once sat under a full moon with a shotgun after a mountain lion killed several of them. Her favorite things include wearing aprons, growing vegetables, and teaching her daughters Summer, who’s twelve, and Autumn, who’s eleven, to crochet. Kristy looks like Audrey Hepburn, if Audrey Hepburn wore flannel. And to top it off, she’s both a dreamer and a hard worker. “If you want something you’ve never had before, you have to do something you’ve never done before,” says

Kristy,

who

@story and images Marcus Coker

@PEOPLE

recently left a $350,000 home in Greenwood for a mobile home

nose at people, you can’t

and her eighty acre farm in Mulberry. She and her husband

see up.”

Ty bought the land three and a half years ago after seeing an advertisement on a corkboard at a Mexican restaurant. “I grew

While living there, Kristy

up in California and have always been a city girl. But it’s so easy

and Ty began working the

to be distracted; there’s so much stuff. I think people that lived

land. Ty cut down trees and

on farms a hundred years ago had a stronger sense of family.

milled the lumber to build

And that’s what I’ve always wanted for my girls.”

their home, as well as a barn. Kristy planted an orchard

Originally, the land was ninety-five percent woods. “You

and two gardens, which she

couldn’t walk out here. It was just briars. We had a logging

named Broken Gate and

company come and log all the hardwood. So they created paths.

Second Chance. “I read in

We received a check for a little bit of money and were able to

the Farmers’ Almanac that

buy the lumber we needed to frame our own home.”

your first garden in a new area is going to fail—period.

For three years, that lumber lay out in the open, covered only

But I won’t fail again. It’s one

by sheet metal. While the wood was aging, Kristy and Ty spent

of my goals.”

their weekdays working their regular jobs. With the money they saved, they bought several rental houses.

Each year for the last decade, Kristy has made a list of one

On weekends, they’d camp in Mulberry. “We gutted the

hundred things she wants to

Airstream and put a bed in it. We piped a wood burning stove

accomplish. This year, she wants to learn to play the guitar, grow

because it got pretty cold in the winter.” Kristy leans against

her own food, and raise bees. “I grew a lot of flowers last year to

their trailer, its sides hand-painted with a blue sky and green

attract them.” Kristy walks to an open piece of land where the

trees. “We’d burn little brush piles and just daydream.”

bee hives will go. She calls it a bee garden. There will be a fence to keep their animals—cows, chickens, guineas, sheep, and a

Last February, Kristy and Ty’s dream began to take shape. Ty

pig—away from the honey makers.

had already quit his job, and they sold some of their rental property in order to make ends meet. They moved to their

Not far away is a three-acre lake, complete with a small island

farm permanently, living in a trailer. “We got the mobile home

and several ducks. Ty made the lake himself. It’s called Broken

because our daughters said something awful about one of our

Bone, named after the three bones Ty broke during the process

neighbors with a mobile home, and we said, ‘We’re not raising

of digging it. Ty designed the lake with a dam so excess water

snobs,’” says Kristy. “If you spend your life looking down your

can be used to feed their creeks and irrigate their gardens.

@PEOPLE

Despite the chill, she continues to decorate. Many of the overhead beams are painted aqua—a mixture of paint she had left over from years of rent houses. A homemade chandelier, fashioned from mason jars, hangs above the kitchen table. “I made it after I saw one in a catalog for $500. I think I have seven dollars in that one.” As she looks around her kitchen, Kristy says, “I’m a hoarder. That sink came from a rent house, and so did all those bricks. Some of them were moved four times.” It’s one of Kristy’s gifts—the ability to see treasures where others don’t. Kristy talks about what’s left to be done, about the future. There Between Broken Bone and the bee garden stands an unfinished

will be another lake, twelve acres in size, behind the house.

barn that Kristy says will be finished before 2013.

She plans to buy a spindle so she can make her own yarn for crocheting. “I want to have the cutest booth at farmers’ market

No doubt, she’ll meet her goal. “Ty and I are hands-on people.

with heirloom vegetables, all grown from our farm. I can’t wait

We work hard. The yearly list makes me grow. When I make it,

to milk my cows and make cheese. I read about it all the time

I get reflective. I see areas where I need to forgive and stretch

and think, That’s me, I want to do that.”

myself a little bit more. There are books I want to read. But the guitar is number one. I learn by seeing, so I’ve been watching

She thinks she might build cabins one day so people can come

guitar teachers on YouTube to prepare.”

and stay. The barn would be a great place to have weddings. “It’s pretty humbling to build a farm from scratch, to be walking

YouTube and how-to books have taught Kristy and Ty a lot.

in the days I spent so much time imagining. Our whole mission

Last summer, they started building their dream home and have

is about legacy, having an inheritance for the generations after

done the majority of the work themselves. They hired a stone

us. We want our kids and grandkids to always have a place that

mason to help with the outside, and all the rocks came from the

feels like home.”

land. The house is mostly complete, but still needs a staircase to the second story and a sleeping porch added to the master

To find out more about Kristy, visit her blog at

bedroom. Also, it’s still missing a ceiling, which means the family

sewminipennies.blogspot.com.

bundles up at night. “This is just a season. In the grand scheme of things, we won’t even remember it,” Kristy says.

@TASTE

derick ine Fre r e h t a e C @imag

1 1/2 oz Baileyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Irish CrĂ¨me 1 oz Irish Whisky

Combine all ingredients in a shaker

1/4 oz cherry brandy

Strain into a highball glass, filled with crushed ice

3 oz cold black coffee (strength of your likening)

@recipe & images Laura Hobbs

Dang. It’s been cold. Winter and I have had a longstanding love-hate relationship; differences aside, I have to give winter props for its ability to inspire a delicious array of cozy, comforting one pot meals. You really can’t go wrong with one pot meals; they’re easy, they basically cook themselves, they feed a crowd – or they last for several meals, only getting better as time goes on. Late last year, while looking through a stack of magazines, I came across a recipe for Cinnamon Chicken Stew. The recipe was written by Cheryl Redmond, who is a wonderful freelance food writer based in Vermont. In the recipe, Cheryl boldly combines flavors like cinnamon, lemon and ginger in a broth-based tomato sauce; and in the sauce, she boils a cut-up whole chicken, imparting a wonderful, spicy and lemony flavor to the meat. What’s

that,

you

say?

“Chicken

and

cinnamon?! Cinnamon and lemon?! Ginger and cinnamon?!” Fear not, faithful foodies: the combination may sound peculiar – perhaps even plain BAD – but they are put together in a way that melds the flavors in the most exotic, alluring and seamless fashion. In my usual fashion, I cut a few corners, made a few switcharoos, added and subtracted a

@TASTE

few things, and now claim the recipe as my own (which will, most likely, get me into trouble some day.) The original recipe calls for a whole chicken, cut-up, and skin removed. This, of course, is a wonderful way to cook the dish; I simply don’t have the time or the inclination to go all Julia Child on a chicken carcass. Instead, I used boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into two-inch pieces. This shortened the cooking time, which is perfect for my short attention span... What? The original recipe also calls for fresh plum tomatoes and chicken broth. This being March, the “fresh plum tomatoes” at the grocery store look more like pale pink, rock hard imposters. So instead, I opted for canned whole tomatoes – being sure to use all of their wonderful juices. And because no trip to the grocery store is complete without me forgetting something, I came home after my jaunt to the store, only to realize I’d forgotten the chicken broth. Fooey. So what else did I have around the house that would add liquid and impart flavor? BEER, of course! Destiny and fate were working in my favor. The beer added depth to the flavor, and I got to sneak a few sips before pouring it in. The stew comes together in about an hour, and the flavors are unlike anything you’ve had before. The cinnamon adds a heady, warm spice, the lemon adds the perfect zing, and the acidity is all balanced out with the addition of a good beer. Be sure to save a brew to drink alongside. Enjoy!

Cinnamon Chicken Stew

2 small onions, thinly sliced 1 Tbs. fresh ginger, peeled and minced 3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced 1/2 tsp. cumin 1/2 tsp. smoked paprika 2 cans cannellini beans, drained and rinsed 1/4 small lemon, seeded and very thinly sliced 1 can (14oz.) whole tomatoes, coarsely chopped with juice reserved 3 cinnamon sticks 1 can (12oz.) beer, preferably a light ale or Pilsner 1 1/2 lbs. chicken breast (or your favorite skinless chicken cut), cut into 2” chunks 1/4 cup chopped cilantro, plus more for garnish – salt, pepper and olive oil Heat about 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a large stock pot over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring frequently, until they are soft and translucent, about 10 minutes. Add the ginger, garlic, cumin and smoked paprika, and stir for another minute. Add the beans, lemon, tomatoes (and their juices), and cinnamon to the pot and cook for about 3 minutes. On a cutting board, season the cut chicken liberally with salt and pepper, and add it to the pot. Add the beer, nestling the chicken into the liquid. Bring the pot to a boil. Once boiling, reduce the heat to low and cover partially, simmering for about 30 minutes. Remove the chicken from the pot and set aside. Turn the heat to medium-high to reduce the sauce slightly. Using a potato masher or the back of a large spoon, mash some of the beans to thicken the sauce even more. Add the chicken back to the pot and stir in the cilantro. Adjust the seasonings with salt and pepper. Ladle into large bowls, garnish with more cilantro, and serve.

@story Todd Whetstine @images Wild Woods Photography and Gastonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s White River Resort

@DESTINATION

aston’s White River Resort is in Lakeview, just outside Mountain Home, on some of the prettiest land in the state.

It’s been around for more than fifty years, drawing in visitors from around the country and across the globe. One of the biggest reasons people come here is the fishing. It’s some of the best in the world. Al Gaston opened the resort opened in 1958, on twenty pristine acres. There were six cabins and six boats. His son Jim now runs an operation that covers two miles of river frontage, four hundred acres, seventy-nine cottages, and over seventy boats. They’ve also added a restaurant, private club, a gift shop, a playground, tennis courts, and two nature trails. All that experience and all that work sure paid off. They know how to make your feel at home. The staff greeted my dog Bo with organic dog cookies and I was given all the information I needed for a great weekend. We spent the night in our cozy little cottage that was sandwiched between the famous White River and the grass airstrip, yes I said airstrip, which accommodates small planes carrying in visitors. Some come just to eat at Gaston’s restaurant. And yes, the food is that good. food is served buffet style, with pancakes, french toast, eggs Fire wood and kindling are provided with the cottages. Some

Benedict and omelets made to order. In case you’re wondering,

cottages have kitchens and king-sized beds. All the cottages

the lunch and dinner menu includes great dishes like trout (of

have Internet access and TVs.

course), barbeque, steaks, shrimp and ribs.

The next morning, at the crack of dawn, I ate breakfast at

After breakfast I met my fishing guide and we headed out to

Gaston’s restaurant. The dining room is filled with antique boat

the White River to see what we could find. You might think that

motors, bicycles, typewriters, and historic photographs. Huge

since it was the dead of winter the fishing wouldn’t be so good.

windows provide a gorgeous view of the White River. The

Nothing could be further from the truth. My guide, Frank Saksa,

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is one of the finest fishing guides around. And since the White

Not only do they offer guides, they have lunches ready on the

River stays pretty close to the same temperature all year, there’s

shore when you get back to land and stops along the river at

no bad time to fish.

neighboring resorts for coffee or anything else you might need. They also offer fly fishing schools. These schools are two days,

Frank normally wouldn’t be fishing while out guiding, but since

for three hours each day. You’ll not only learn to tie the knots

I wanted photos, he tossed a stick bait a few times. Within

and cast the rods, you’ll learn a little history about the sport of

thirty minutes he’d landed two good-sized brown trout. Once

fly fishing as well.

he showed me how easy it was, it was my turn. Frank took care of everything, from baiting my hook to taking the fish off the

Gaston’s is also equipped to help those with physical challenges,

line. And boy, were the fish biting. In all, we caught nine fish,

which makes it a perfect destination for absolutely everyone

both rainbow and brown trout. The biggest was about eighteen

who wants to experience the beauty of Arkansas.

inches long. This won’t be my last trip to Gaston’s. I had such a great time, There’s nothing like being out in a boat on a cold day, the fish

and met so many nice people. The fishing is great, the food is

cooperating, and the sun shining. The thrill of the catch never

amazing, and the service is wonderful.

grows old, and the river is gorgeous in the morning light. I recommend you check it out for yourself. I know you’ll love it. We stayed in the boat for about three hours. Time flew by. Frank was telling stories about the river, and I was starting to get used to the star treatment.

For more information, log on to gastons.com, or call 870.431.5202.

Read Chair Publishing, LLC 3811 Rogers Avenue Suite C Fort Smith, Arkansas 72903