College football is almost upon us, and if there's one place we're going to discuss it in this newspaper I suppose it must be here in High Profile.
Who's the No. 1 college football team in the land? Why, those wretched Ohio State Buckeyes. Lord, I can still, if I wriggle my tongue way back in my maw, taste the nickel-cadmium scourge of that Sugar Bowl four years ago. Now, thanks to a pretty little trolley-stop tour from the Susan G. Komen Arkansas gals, I have another reason to shake my fist in a northeasterly direction.
In all the land, the only Race for the Cure more popular than Little Rock's is Columbus, Ohio's.
I'm from Michigan. I know firsthand what a knuckle-dragging circus of simian fandom comes from that over-voweled state -- I could say the same of Iowa, and verily, do -- and I can tell you I want to beat them at their own game! And by game I mean race.
And by Race I mean walk.
Civilly.
Executive director Sherrye McBryde is with me. She says that last year Little Rock was plumb abutting 30,000 walkers. Columbus had 35,000 or so. "We want to be No. 1," she says.
Incidentally, Arkansas football is ranked No. 10 in the preseason polls, quite a mark-up for a team that won its first conference game in two years on the Ides of November.
DOUBLE DOWN
For the fifth summer now Larry Betz and Chrissy Chatham over at Youth Home have mobbed up a poker tournament to the delight of Hold 'Em dilettantes the city over. Thumbed books by Phil Hellmuth or Annie Duke? Have a muse suit? Own Rounders? Come!
"If you can't spot the sucker in your first half hour at the table, then you are the sucker."
You won't see me there. (You might see me there.) I stay away from games of chance. (Love big fundraisers in July, though.)
Youth Home is the compound way out west along Col. Glenn Road that's kind of a Xavier Institute for emotionally troubled kids. (It's a residential psychiatric care facility, and not all of the clients live there.) Their big fundraiser we get out to every year is Eggshibition.
The fifth annual Casino Night and Texas Hold 'Em Tournament is Saturday at Next Level Events. It's a $50 buy-in. As with all area poker tournaments -- any advertised poker game, really -- the money goes in and prizes come out. Prizes like same-as-cash vouchers at Family Leisure. Hey, if cash came out we would be in Vegas -- or that big regular game in the basement of Verizon Arena. (Oh, what, Mayor Joe Smith, is it supposed to be secret?)
There'll be craps, blackjack and roulette games going, too, and organizers like to point out that, if you don't know how to play these games but have always wondered, this is your opportunity. Craps in particular is a fairly complicated casino game that's one of the most rewarding to master. Why? Because the odds are good, and it's played as a group. Misery and euphoria are shared.
For more, YouthHome.org and (501) 821-5500.
CHAMBER CHANGER
So the North Little Rock Chamber of Commerce is out looking for its next president and CEO? Terry Hartwick, the head of the 1,600-member chamber since roughly the beginning of the millennium, is taking a full-time job with the city.
When Hartwick began that chamber had about 200 members. The last chamber event I attended was the annual meeting at Verizon Arena -- Verizon Arena, that's how big it is now. On Monday, Steve Winchester, this year's chamber board chairman, called Hartwick a "visionary," "unique," "hard to replace." He said he really believes the chamber as it is today "rests on the shoulders of Terry Hartwick."
Then he said, the "reality is, we're ready to take it to the next level." Apologies to Hartwick if it sounds like a contradiction, the chairman said. It's not. It's business. It's chamber business, and momentum being what it is, if you're not crushing it you're crashing it.
So the one big question I had for the chairman is, is this seat going to be filled by a homer or someone outside the chamber's sphere? On the one hand, you want your chamber president to have roots in the city; Hartwick himself is a former mayor. On the other, a national search acknowledges the heft of this next hire.
It's a national search, he said. In fact, there's a candidate from Maine. (I hope his pitch is "Your Maine Man.")
"The president and CEO of the chamber of commerce in my estimation is probably the most visible, and certainly one of the most important individuals, in the whole community." Comparable to a mayor, really.
The search committee will continue accepting applications through this month. Winchester said he expects to have a candidate, maybe a hire, by the fall. Maybe.
You think salesmanship is the highest quality of a chamber director, I asked?
"Yeah, I hear that being said. I really think it's really about developing relationships, because let's say we hired somebody from out of the state, out of the region. A salesman's going to come in and do a sales pitch and it's going to get old pretty quick. Building relationships is really the true art form of leadership. That's my opinion. Long after the pizazz and shine off a great sales presentation goes away, you still gotta deal with those people who say yes or say no to us."
So I guess it's easy as ABC. Always Be Closing ... in on a new chamber head.
(Really? That's how I'm going to end this column? Where's Wally Hall -- I need a pinch finish.)
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High Profile on 07/12/2015