Saturday, August 29, 2009

Law and Order in the Ozarks (Part XXXVI): County Fair Time

A few issues of the Newton County Times have piled up while I've been busy getting underway with the fall semester. There's not a lot of law-and-order-type news, but there is a lot of news of the Newton County Fair, including photos of all the beauty queens associated with it. As I've noted before regarding other local beauty pageants, I find this aspect of Southern rural culture rather off-putting, but it is clearly thriving. Not only is there the Miss Newton County pageant, which was around when I was a teen, there are now many other divisions, including Baby Miss, Wee Miss, Toddler Miss and even Baby Mr.

Some of the other headlines are a bit more substantive and interesting. These include stories of the county seat's annexation of seven residences on a road called Cardinal Lane; an announcement of a honk-and-wave event on the courthouse square to "call attention to and support the national health care reform proposals"; and news of Arkansas and Missouri officials meeting to discuss water issues.

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