I LOVE ARKANSAS!!!

Okay, since I have bored most of you to tears, and angered a few of you red-faced with my annual "We Hate Arkansas" week...I'll come clean. I love Arkansas.

Growing up just 45 miles from Arkansas, and 25 miles from Texas here in Northwest Louisiana, I can honestly say that I really hate Texas...but I love Arkansas. Half of my wife's family are Arkies...the other half Okies. So I have gotten to know well the good folks of both States.

I actually spent many years working in Arkansas, and even opened a branch office of my business in the 80's in North Little Rock. And let me tell ya'...I never had one problem with an Arkie not paying the bills I sent them. I wish I could say that for my Texas customers, but I digress.

Arkansas is a beautiful State. While the Ozarks aren't as grand as the Cascades, or the Western Slope of the Rockies (where I lived for several years), there is a "peaceful, easy feelin' " that comes over me every time I travel north to "The Natural State." (And, a whole lot less snow to shovel).

Truthfully, some of my best memories come from the time I have spent in Arkansas. From enjoying the beautiful State Parks while camping out with the boys when they were little, to Anniversaries spent at the Arlington Hotel in Hot Springs with The Mrs., to funny episodes working "on the road," to all the good times spent at The Mrs.' old family farm in Cecil (near Ozark), I can truly say that I have a deep affection for Arkansas.

Some of the most decent, loving, caring, yet no-nonsense folks I've ever known are Arkies. They work hard, enjoy life, invent, create, and occasionally brush their tooth (just kidding...they don't really brush their tooth).

Now the hard part (gulping twice...nay, thrice...that means 3 times for you Arkies), I grew up as an Arkansas fan. "RAZORBACKER" is the term. Growing up here so close to Arkansas, there are huge Hog fan clubs made up of displaced Arkies, and coonasses that were edjumacated in Fayetteville. In those days there was this thing called "The Southwest Conference." It was basically a bunch of teams from stinkin' Texas (Rice, Baylor, Texas, Texas A&M, Houston, TCU, Texas Tech), and Arkansas.

Oh man...it was easy to be a Hog fan, seeing as all the rest of the miserable lot was from stinkin' Texas. But some time back in the early 1990's, Arkansas got smart and left that miserable conference. The move out of the Southwest Conference by my beloved Hogs spelled "death" for the otherwise miserable conference...and it soon disbanded completely.

The bad thing was that Arkansas jined up with the SEC. Trust me when I tell ya' that I took it hard. Real hard. I had always been able to love both Arkansas, and LSU...always able to hate every opponent each team regularly faced. In fact, in my entire lifetime (up until Arkansas joined the SEC), LSU and Arkansas only faced each other once, in 1966 at the Cotton Bowl. So, this was "sweet." I could love two teams, and not feel like an adulterer.

So, it was their move to the SEC that made the stinkin' pigs the stinkin' pigs that they now are. I mean...I had to pick one or the other. So, it ain't my fault. Y'all Hog fans can blame y'all's own selves. You shoulda went to Conference USA, or the Mountain West, and then I could love ya' like I onest did.

As far as the game goes on Saturday night, I'll go ahead and make my prediction. LSU 20 - stinkin' Arkansas 32. Sigh... Following the game, Les Miles gets on the phone with The Pope, asking if he's got any "job openings"...