What's hot? There's a lot

Eighth month whooshes in with pickin’ and grinnin’ and round things spinnin’

main calendar art for style-watermelon
main calendar art for style-watermelon

August sizzles like a smelter; even bugs and lizards swelter. August is the parched month that cries out, "water! -- water! -- watermelon!" Camels go dry, but elephants -- white elephants -- are for sale by the yard.

1 Moby Dick author Herman Melville's birthday, 1819, explains that feeling of dragging through August like a beached whale.

Whale of a sale

Yards and Yards of Yard Sales through Aug. 2, Eureka Springs. Details at eurekaspringschamber.com. Call (479) 253-7333.

Grass-toots movement

Colorado admission day, 1876. Colorado admits that legalized marijuana gives a whole new meaning to high in the mountains.

Spidey senses tangling

Spider-Man's 52nd birthday. If Spider-Man can do whatever a spider can, better watch out for him crouching in the bathtub.

Counted out

2 First U.S. census, 1790, demands to know:

• How many adults dwell in yon cabin?

• Person One: Did George Washington sleep here?

mPerson Two: Are ye able to see the forest for the trees?

• Person Three: At what time exactly doth ye rooster crow?

Rackensack Folklore Society Salutes Local Music Heritage, 7 p.m. at Ozark Heritage Arts Center at Leslie, near Marshall. Call (870) 448-2557.

Yellow journalism -- smeared again!

National Mustard Day with Colonel Mustard in the kitchen with the candlestick.

Girls, girls

3 How to celebrate Sisters Day: with a sis, and a boom, and a sis-boom-bah.

The King Tut Strut

Banjo-man Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers, 7:30 p.m. at the Walmart Arkansas Music Pavilion, Fayetteville. Details at waltonartscenter.org. Call (479) 443-5600.

Rhea Lana's children's consignment sale through Aug. 9 at the Conway Expo Center, Conway. Details at rhealana.com. Call (501) 499-0009.

Take a cold pertater

and wait

4 Arkansas native Billy Bob Thornton's 59th birthday: too many candles to blow out, not enough to claim retirement.

Pretty enough to eat

5 The flower for August has something in common with: (A) doughnuts, (B) biscuits or (C) bagels.

Answer at Aug. 11.

Free breathing restored

6 National Fresh Breath Day, and three kinds of breath worse than garlic breath:

• Dog breath.

• Dragon breath.

• Last breath.

Melon balls

7 Hope Watermelon Festival through Aug. 9 in Fair Park, Hope; David Nail concert Aug. 9. Details at hopemelonfest.com. Call (870) 777-3640.

Cave City Watermelon Festival through Aug. 9 in City Park, Cave City; rodeo Aug. 8 and 9. Details at cavecityarkansas.info. Call (870) 283-5959.

Think pink, yell yellow

Hope's watermelons are pink inside. Cave City's are yellow. The moral: Color doesn't matter -- it's the sweetness of the splatter.

Road slogs

8 Traffic Awareness Month, and this from our traffic watch eye-in-the-sky, Hawkman of the Justice League:

• Interstate 40 is at a standstill between Fort Smith and West Memphis due to everybody stopping for a good long gander at a run-over possum.

• Traffic is gridlocked in all directions at I-430 and Stagecoach Road in Little Rock because of a tractor-trailer that lost control and spilled its load of whipped topping. Highway Patrol is investigating the question: Which is it? Cream -- or oil?

• Avoid the intersection of Dickson Street and College Avenue in Fayetteville, where a dump truck dumped a heap of dump cakes on a heap of heaps.

Art show and reception, "John Harlan Norris: Cast," 6:30 p.m. at the Thea Foundation, North Little Rock. Details at theafoundation.org. Call (501) 379-9512.

Elvis Elysium

9 Elvis Week, Aug. 9-17 in Memphis. Details at graceland.com. Call (800) 238-2000.

Trial and flair

Sippin' on Sixth Street: Judge Clayton's Southern Soiree, 7 p.m., Fort Smith. Bourbon tasting and gun auction, benefits the Fort Smith Heritage Foundation and 1882 Clayton House. Details at claytonhouse.org. Call (479) 783-3000.

Happenstance

10 Happiness Happens Month -- also hippiness happens. Mississippiness happens. Hoppiness hoppens.

Poppiness poppens

11 Seedy quiz answer: Poppy seeds go on (C) bagels. And so we add to the list of foods banned from the bed: poppy-seed bagels.

Made from scratch

12 Vinyl Record Day, when one good turn deserves another.

Birthday for the birds

13 Alfred Hitchcock's birthday, 1899.

"Drama is life with the dull parts cut out." -- Alfred Hitchcock

Going to the mat

14 Get Ready for Kindergarten Month. Nappin' happens.

How high's the top row, papa?

15 Johnny Cash Music Festival with Reba McEntire, Loretta Lynn and Bobby Bare at the Arkansas State University Convocation Center, Jonesboro. Details at johnnycashmusicfest.com. Call (888) 278-3267.

Able to leap three rings

Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Circus: Super Circus Heroes at Verizon Arena, North Little Rock, through Aug. 17. Details at verizonarena.com. Call (800) 745-3000.

16 National Model Aviation Day in Arkansas. Mid-Arkansas Radio Control Society events benefit the Wounded Warriors Project. Details at themarcs.org. Call (501) 372-0373.

Deep subject

Secchi Day on Beaver Lake, 9 a.m.-1 p.m. at Prairie Creek Recreation Area near Rogers. Pontoon boat rides and Beaver Water District-led science experiments including Secchi disk readings to measure water clarity. Details at bwdh2o.org. Call (479) 756-3651.

Back to the bat cave

River City Comic Expo at the Metroplex, Little Rock. Details at rivercitycomicexpo.com. Call (501) 492-9007.

Coonskin chap

17 Davy Crockett's birthday, 1786, and how he came to adopt his trademark chapeau:

Born on a mountaintop

In Tennessee;

Off he went

On a shopping spree;

Tried on a fez, but changed his tune;

Picked up an off-the-rack

Raccoon

Bike and Hike, 7 a.m. from the Dam Riverboat Co. parking lot, North Little Rock; riverboat cruise at 8 a.m., benefits ALS Arkansas for Lou Gehrig's Disease. Details at riverboatcruiseforals.com. Call (501) 470-8559.

Some Gaul

18 The Romans named August after Emperor Augustus. Also, by some accounts, they snatched a day off February to make August one day longer. History has no answer to the question: Who wanted August to last longer?

Bill's passage a cake walk

19 Bill Clinton's 68th birthday.

Spout on

20 National Water Quality Month.

Hula whoop

21 Hawaii admission day, 1959. Call it Hawaii Five-5.

Civil affairs

22 Win with Civility Month, or in the words of Beyonce: "You said hello to me. I said hello to you."

Astrology psychology

23 VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Is today your birthday? If so, indulge your Virgo nit-pickiness with the only kind of cake that won't leave crumbs -- a cake of soap.

Shootout shout-out

Showdown at Sunset gunfight re-enactment, 6 p.m.; Logan Mize concert, 7 p.m., downtown El Dorado. Details at mainstreeteldorado.org. Call (870) 862-4747.

Everybody loves a lava

24 Vesuvius Day. Erupting Mount Vesuvius buried the ancient city of Pompeii. Today's version: The boss dumps extra work on the whole staff.

Remember

what's-his-name

25 What Will Be Your Legacy Month -- a challenge to achieve greatness:

• Julius Caesar: "I came, I saw, I conquered."

• Bruce Wayne: "I shall become a bat!"

• The rest of us: I made it through another Monday.

Pup, pup and away

26 How to celebrate Dog Day: with a meal fit for royalty. Here, King.

27 Nothing is so rare as a day in June, and nothing is so bare as a Wednesday in August.

Singin' in the kitchen

28 Anais Mitchell, 7:30 p.m. at South on Main, Little Rock. Details at anaismitchell.com. Call (501) 244-9660.

Monster bash

29 Frankenstein author Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's birthday, 1797, and what makes people act the way they do on a hot day in August:

"I am malicious because I am miserable." -- Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

Shake, rattle and roll

National Championship Chuck Wagon Races through Aug. 31 at the Eoff Ranch, Clinton. Details at chuckwagonraces.com. Call (501) 745-8407.

Blue who

Hot Springs Blues Festival through Aug. 31 with Larry Garner, Barbara Blue, Ghost Town Blues Band at Hill Wheatley Plaza and other venues, Hot Springs. Details at spacityblues.org. Call (501) 815-2939.

Blue who II

30 Legendary Blues Festival with Mel Waiters, Sir Charles Jones, Sweet Angel at Cherry Street Pavilion, Helena-West Helena. Details at force3radio.com. (870) 572-9506.

Witness at wit's end

31 Bystander Awareness Month remains off to the side. August is the month that refuses to get involved. This hot month, it's hard to get anybody involved in anything. Where's the ice cream truck when you need one?

Coming next month: September! Call (501) 399-3633, write to Ron Wolfe, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 121 E. Capitol Ave., Little Rock, Ark. 72203, or email

rwolfe@arkansasonline.com

by Aug. 15 to suggest September calendar entries or how to celebrate September as National Coupon Month, such as: clipping along. Each event requires a phone number that is answered during business hours or by an answering machine that identifies the event or its sponsor.

Style on 07/29/2014

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