Daddy Warbucks
Daddy Warbucks
Big bucks keep coming to UA
The University of Arkansas was crowing last week it recorded $101.6 million in private donations during the 2008 fiscal year, which ended June 30.Woo Pig Sooie.
The university said the $101.6 million total includes outright gifts of cash, gifts-in-kind, planned gifts and new pledges. Now wait a minute, most of these gifts are not cash as in Benjamins, Hamiltons, Lincolns and Washingtons, you know.
Of the $101.6 million raised for academic and athletic programs in 2007-08, 32 percent came from “individual alumni and friends,” 38 percent from corporations, 17 percent from foundations and 13 percent from other organizations. One has to pause here —“other organizations,” like what? South Africa investments? Saudi gifts? A grant from the Knot Head Society of Archie Comics? Please explain, Daddy W. pleads.
The Sam M. Walton College of Business received $28 million in donations and pledges, some in the form of equipment, software and other non cash items, Daddy W. has learned.
But ah, The Razorback Foundation, which supports men’s athletics, received $12.2 million for the year. And folks the Razorback Foundation loves CASH. They will take stock, but cash gets the ticket turnstiles turning up on the Hill.
More on this later, but even in the breathless announcement, a new standard has been raised. Did the UA actually get more cash than ever? Or did they simply inflate the price of some software program to make it be more than last year? One has to pause and wonder.
Woo Pig Sooie. Let’s hope the trend continues, but until more “sunshine” is put on these ever increasing amounts of pledges, gifts, donations and information on where they came from, well, who really knows?
MORE BUCKS
Don’t say Jeff Long, the new UA Athletic Director and Vice Chancellor of CASH at the UA, doesn’t know how to turn a buck. He is moving the freebies from Press Row and replacing that area with $12,000 a year seats… a Courthouse Club status found only in major basketball programs and the NBA. Well, Long has gotta pay the bills. One has to wonder where all those who were not in the media, but always sat with the press will sit now. Hope they have a ticket.
GAYLORD GONE
Dining in downtown Fayetteville won’t be the same. Sad news reached Daddy W. of the recent death of the one, the only, Gaylord Willis. A native of Ohio, via way of San Francisco and heaven knows where else, Gaylord burst onto the mover and shaker scene in NWA years ago. His ribald style was legendary. He was a thinker. A great cook and a storyteller extraordinaire. He will be missed. Thank goodness Uncle Gaylord’s Mountain Cafe and Hiram will continue.
LEGACY AUCTION
The nearly empty condo and retail building known as The Legacy that looms over Dickson Street will be auctioned rain or shine on Aug. 21 on the steps of the Washington County Courthouse. Failure to meet a recent deadline to pay a $18.72 million note to Legacy National Bank forces the sale. The sale will be at 10 a.m. Suite 302. Yep, it’s a legacy all right.
BIG QUESTION
Does winning an NCAA football or NCAA basketball Division I Championship actually help a college’s enrollments?
DIXIE IS DOWN
Dixie Development, once the rising brainchild of Fayetteville eye doc Ben Israel, is, well, not much anymore. The once developer of strip malls and commercial space is now managed by one of the bigger property management firms in the area. The lawsuit and liens over his Commerce II office building out on Joyce was settled. Is Dixie Development dead? No answer on that one.
SIGNS OF LIFE
The apartment banners, street signs and other signs of active apartment life have sprug up almost overnight as classes at the state’s flagship land grant university will start soon. Sales of apartment wares are filling the discount stores, which will give them a lift. And we are a little over two weeks away from football. Woo pig.
NEW LOUNGE
Damien Armstrong of The Lit Lounge, 436 Watson St. in the Dickson Street area has applied for a private club permit and a beer permit.
OIL DROPPING
Yeah right. Just watch the gas-o-meter continue to cling to about $3.50 at the pump and then go higher later in the year. You’ll want to grab an extra pair of socks and a fleece blanket when you see what the natural gas prices will be this winter.
ON THE BLOCK
The house that was the University of Arkansas chancellor’s official residence from 1997 until July 2008 will be sold through a public auction. The toney hone at 611 N. Razorback Road was bought from a private individual and extensively redecorated for former Chancellor John A. White. Bidders can submit bids in writing or online. A minimum bid price of $450,000 has been set for the two-story home. Bidding will begin at 9 a.m. Friday and is expected to conclude sometime in early September. Find details at://uafrealestate.uark.edu.
ARVEST MUM
After all the hype and press for the auction of several hundred foreclosed properties, Arvest Bank is being coy about how much $$ the auction raised. Bad.
SOUP FOR YOU
A new strip mall occupant on Sixth street is the Phogen Qyen Soup Bowl. An ambitious venture. Noodles, soup and other exotic goodies. Good Luck.
NEW PERMIT
There is a new permit application for on premises consumption of beer and alcoholic beverages at Chuy Burrito or Acambaro No. 4 at 2605 S. School in Fayetteville.
MEAUX CHANGES
It seems Meaux Dad’s has not only changed its management, but its ownership. The Buffalo Wild Wing king is not longer trying to make a go of the Cajun restaurant in the Target parking lot in Fayetteville. Go figuraux?
BIG ANSWER
Studies show that after a university wine a NCAA football or basketball championship the institution will have a 7 to 8 percent increase in applications for admission in the following year. Go Hogs Go! Increase those applications.
