Woo Pig Sooie!

Daddy Warbucks

The athletic department at the University of Arkansas opened its checkbook to help out the academic side last week. A $1 million gift — and it is an actual cash gift, not a pledge — will hopefully keep tuition costs from going up for the first time in 24 years if the powers that be keep their word. Woo Pig Sooie … one would think, but some narrow-minded callers to several of the radio Hog shows were a little bit sore. One caller thought it was wrong to try to wring $1.2 million from athletic donors for a synthetic turf for Razorback Stadium while throwing $1 million at the school for academics. Others with cooler heads prevailed on this deal. UA Athletic Director Jeff Long, who is also a UA Vice Chancellor, made his boss — UA Chancellor David Gearhart — very happy with the announcement. And why not? Would $1 million cover the academic needs of all the UA men and women athletes? Probably not. But the $1 million gift is a sign, a positive sign, that the UA’s athletic finances have finally come out of the double, deep-secret vaults and somewhat into the public light.
Gearhart said the school will decide soon how to spend the $1 million.
Long said the department was able to commit the $1 million because of a recent agreement with ISP for multimedia rights and predicted revenues from the Southeastern Conference’s TV agreement.
Seems like everyone is a winner … the UA, the students and the athletic department. And no one, oddly, appeared to be greedy for the first time in a l-o-n-g time with funds generated by the Razorbacks.

Big Question
What percentage of Wall Street workers said they would steal company data and take it with them if they were being laid-off and thought they wouldn’t be caught?
Nibblin’
She once just Nibbled around the kitchen. Now’s she’s cooking wide open and helping others do the same. Suzie Stephens is back in the cooking school biz and she’s got a menu chock full of classes covering everything from French cooking, to knife safety, mixology and wait staff training. Check out her new Web site: http://nibblesacademyofcooking.com/

Pizza Booze
Rogue Pizza at 402 W. Dickson St. is seeking an on premise beer permit. Beer and Pizza. Pizza and Beer. Not a bad combination. Kristi McCain is the applicant.

Under Bid
A large portion of the 215-acre Pleasant Crossing development, a mixed-use development along Interstate 540 near Rogers, is being offered for sale at a sealed bid auction to close on June 10.

Now For Brunch
Fans of the Greenhouse Grille are happy that the tiny, yet popular restaurant has added a Sunday Brunch menu. The 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. feast includes a long list of its excellent fare like grilled free-range chicken omelette with organic spinach and shiitakes and provolone served with Ozark vegetable hash or buffalo steak and eggs with the hash and even biscuits & gravy with choice of buffalo sausage gravy or tarragon gravy for the vegetarians among us.

Hot Lots
The Benton County Circuit Clerk plans to offer 42 Bella Vista properties at a judicial sale at 10 a.m. May 15, on the steps of the Benton County Court House in Bentonville. Get ’em while they last. These lots, all unimproved membership lots, do include member privileges and appropriate fees.

Book Wins
James Hall’s poetry collection “Now You’re the Enemy,” published in the University of Arkansas Press’s Poetry Series in 2008, has won the 2009 Helen C. Smith Memorial Award for Best Book of Poetry. The award is given out by the Texas Institute of Letters. Congratulations to Hall and the UA Press.

Big Answer
A whopping 58 percent of Wall Street workers said they would steal that data.