Paul Ryburn’s Journal

Back to the workweek and back to spewing out the news in lunchtime update posts…

Star power forward Zach Randolph has bought 500 tickets to the Grizzlies’ home opener, and is giving them away on a first-come, first-served basis at 3 PM today at the FedExForum. The opener is tomorrow night at 7 PM versus the Oklahoma [...]

Last week I mentioned that I was reading a book about North Korea: Its history, its politics, and its people. It’s a huge book (or, it would be if I wasn’t reading it on Kindle) and I’m still only about 30% of the way through.

I bought it to learn more about North Korea, since the “Dear [...]

When I come to Little Rock to visit family, I book my hotel room very carefully. It has to be within close distance. Not within close distance of the retirement community where my mother lives – that’s what the car is for, after all – but rather, within walking distance of the Little Rock Flying Saucer. [...]

If you live in the Downtown core, you might pass these trees quite frequently as you walk down the Main Street Mall. You’d pass them on a walk to South Main, or to the Civil Rights Museum, or to the Orpheum.

Or, if you’re me, you pass them every day on [...]

Downtown’s new speakeasy, the Blind Bear, had a preview party for its Facebook fans last night. I’d been eagerly awaiting the opening of this bar for several months. I knew it would be a smashing success because it’s owned by three of Downtown’s best bartenders – Jamie and Jeannette, formerly from the Silly Goose, and Colin, [...]

New scientific evidence suggests that our feathered friends who share Downtown with us may be smarter than we think. This New York Times article cites a recent study, which concluded that pigeons are capable of understanding abstract mathematical concepts. The birds were trained that 2 is greater than 1, 3 is greater than 2, etc. But [...]

I bought a new Kindle book this week. It’s a book about North Korea – the history, the politics, the people. Interesting fact I learned while reading last night: There was a research institute to protect the health of Kim il-Sung, the “Great Leader” who passed away in 1994 and who was Kim Jong-il’s father. Among [...]