LexisNexis News

Copyright 2008 Little Rock Newspapers, Inc.

August 3, 2008 Sunday

HIGH PROFILE

1072 words

BY KYLE BRAZZEL

Forget Shark Week. Last week in Arkansas was Ghost Week.

The Discovery Channel feebly tried to extend its brand while everybody else has moved on to other monsters. (You can go to the network's Web site, upload your photo and see what you'd look like as a shark. Or for a low-tech simulation, imagine your grin with a jagged row of triangular teeth.) Newton County yawned over news of Barack Obama's family skeletons there. The grandson - with a prefix of five "greats," that is - of an early Ozark blacksmith doesn't seem likely to become a Northwest Arkansas Favorite Son, at least judging by the aloof replies Matthew Cate collected around the Huntsville town square.

At the barber shop, Huntsvillians sounded like they were trying to practice the art of saying nothing when what you want to say isn't nice. Surnames with shorter-than-average degrees of separation from the senator include Combs, Hargis and Holt.

Here's something we'll come out and say: We like the idea that Jim Holt, the former Arkansas senator with a particularly hardline and merciless view on illegal immigration, could be related to someone whose middle name is Hussein.

Meanwhile, the Mystery Machine - wait, that was the groovy van from Scooby Doo - we mean the MRV, or Mobile Research Vehicle, of the paranormal detective agency Spirit Seekers - pulled up to the state Capitol for an overnight lockin.

This we know for sure: On its Web site, the group posted a photo of its truck, complete with a cartoon ghost wearing a jaunty yellow bandanna and holding binoculars, parked outside the building, with "additional evidence" to be added later.

This, members of the Spirit Seekers - a cheerful-sounding ghost squad based in Roland - say they know for sure: A gentlemanly ghost roams the Capitol halls, tipping his hat to strangers as a show of courtesy. This may or may not be the same male ghost the Spirit Seekers encountered last week, but we have our doubts: That ghost gave his name as simply "Edward," but it doesn't add up - a man of the hat-wearing generation would give his first and last name. It would occur to him impolite and indecorously common not to.

(Side question: Do these ghost hunters help or hurt their cause when they set up an online gift shop - www.cafepress.com/thespiritseeker - where you can buy a shirt that says "Spirit Seekers Do It in the Dark"?)