PAPER TRAILS: Arkansas statue named most popular after Lincoln Memorial, Mount Rushmore, Statue of Liberty

SCULPTURE CULTURE: The New York Times recently identified "America's Most Popular Statues." Coming in at No. 4: Christ of the Ozarks in Eureka Springs.

The Times admits, "Because visiting the statue is free and doesn't require a ticket, it's hard to estimate how many annual visitors it attracts, but Carroll County, where the statue is, drew one million people in 2016, according to the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism."

Randall Christy, chief executive officer of The Great Passion Play, attributes renewed interest in the seven-story statue that was built in 1966 to its 50th anniversary and recent refurbishing.

He says about the Times piece, "I'm pleasantly surprised." But not shocked. He adds, "People are here all the time -- every day, seven days a week, year round. It's a phenomenal number of people who visit Christ of the Ozarks."

The only statues to rank higher: No. 1, the Lincoln Memorial; No. 2, Mount Rushmore; and No. 3, the Statue of Liberty.

Holy moly!

DINNER WINNER: Paige Ferguson, a seventh-grader at Atkins Middle School, showed her "skillet" cooking, coming in first place in Tuesday's episode of Chopped Junior, a Food Network youth culinary competition.

Paige won $10,000 that her mother, Amy, says will be saved in a trust for when she attends culinary school.

Originally Amy feared that her daughter, who was 11 when filming took place in New York in November, might be at a geographical disadvantage: "We live here in a small town, and we don't have a lot of fancy cooking stuff."

Still, Paige wowed the judges with her ability to improvise with ingredients including pickled ramps (wild onions).

Which we'd expect. Atkins folks do know their pickles.

SWINE WHINE: Using its so-called Fan Happiness Index, ESPN ranked the contentment of college football fans based on six categories (program power, rivalry dominance, coaching stability, recruiting trend, revenue growth and Twitter buzz).

The University of Arkansas, Fayetteville was ranked last in the SEC, designating Razorbacks fans as most miserable.

But we're refusing to wallow in such hogwash.

POSTS WITH THE MOST: A naked man who ran across the field of Little Rock's War Memorial Stadium during a high school football game between Joe T. Robinson and Hot Springs Lakeside last week became the "butt" of jokes on Facebook. Here are the cheeky thoughts of three Little Rock posters:

Tony R. Curtis: "And I thought streakin went away with disco.....maybe there is still a glimmer of hope."

Pryor Robertson: "And a streaker takes it all the way. Too bad Lakeside didn't hand the ball off to him -- he scored."

Gene Levy: "He may have been arrested, but the police had a difficult time pinning anything on him!"

Email: jchristman@arkansasonline.com

Metro on 09/03/2017

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