Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art

  One doesn't usually think of Bentenville, Arkansas as a cultural hub. Well, in some ways they should. Bentonville has several things to see that make the trip worth while.One is Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. It is a great place. If you can think of an American artist, he or she has work displayed on the walls or  in one of the beautiful galleries. I saw paintings by James Henry Beard, Andrew Wyeth, Edward Hopper, Jamie Wyeth, Andy Warhol, Fredrick Remington and Georgia O'Keefe and perhaps another hundred I haven't mentioned.


The grounds are impeccable. Crystal Bridges sits on top of Crystal Springs , thus the beautiful bridges and outdoor areas. It sits on 120 acres with several walking paths, a place for outdoor concerts and public venues.


There is no admission fee. Walmart pays for everyone to see the exhibits. But it is still a money maker. The gift shop is an eclectic collection of hats, shirts, purses, jewelry , books and miscellaneous sundry that will keep you occupied for hours.


There is a restaurant called Eleven. It is in a long corridor with massive windows on each side and a wonderful view of the grounds from almost anywhere. How was the food? There in lies the only problem I see with the entire place. You must stand in line to order and your food is brought to the table. No problem there. My discontent was with the food itself. I most likely would not have fussed about the price had the cuisine been palatable. My friend and I ordered shrimp and grits. I had just seen it made on the food channel and it was gorgeous. Not so with what we were served. They said the grits were from War Eagle Mill. My friends, they were not grits. It was chicken scratch and I know that because I have been throwing it to my chickens for years. It was cracked corn, and it wasn't cooked properly. This gruel was too thin to chew and too thick to swallow. It came with shrimp, four of them, with tails on. Not a problem if the grits are thick enough so the shrimp don't fall into the bowl and make for some pretty sloppy eating.


My other friend (yes, I have more than one) ordered chicken and waffles. Again, it wasn't anything to write home about. It was two small slices of waffle with a small piece of fried chicken between them. One reason she ordered it was because it boasted jalapeno maple syrup. No one could taste the jalapeno and there wasn't enough of it to taste anyway.


Okay, do you feel like you have just watched an episode of Chopped?
Well, I was sorely disappointed by the food.
Would I go back? Absolutely. I would even spend the night somewhere so I could further explore the museum and Bentonville's Town Square and the 21C hotel and art museum.
What I would NOT do is eat at Eleven again.

Law and Order.

 I would not want to be a law officer. The thought of walking up to a car, not knowing who or what is in it, is above my bravery level. Even worst would be to get a call and go to a house where a domestic quarrel is in progress. Nine times out of ten, the battered woman sides with the husband or boyfriend, after the anger subsides, and the officer becomes odd man out.
That being said, there is a lot to be learned from the Sheriff.

Let me say, it is my belief, that most people who commit a violent crime would do just about anything to take back that 15 minutes where they lost their temper or made a very bad decision.
I am not talking about serial killers or whackos. I am talking about the average joe who is 40 or 50 years old,and goes to work everyday. His life goes south after a divorce or another of life's missteps he can't handle. He begins to drink or starts doing drugs and his since of right and wrong jumps out the window.

Then there is the other type of criminal who believes the world owes him something. He breaks into cars to steal computers and stuff he is too lazy to earn because he wants drugs or whatever and he doesn't care how hard you worked for anything. How dare you drive a new car, live in a nice house with the lawn mowed and eat three meals a day while he was beaten and battered by a drunk uncaring father and a mother too scared to make a move. I am NOT defending this scenario.  I firmly believe some people are what they are because of the way they were raised and others are the way they are in spite of the way they were raised.

But, I am not telling you what I learned. So here is some of it.
Always treat the criminal with respect. It goes much easier when you want to talk to them to find out what actually happened. They will open up more to the guy who lets them smoke a cigarette and have a coke than the guy who pushes them around and treats them like scum.

The faster you can get a suspect isolated and get him to talk, the more likely you are to get the true story. The longer they sit alone or with someone else involved in the crime, the more time they have to think about what they can say to justify what they did and make it seem not as bad as it is.

One man I met should have been protected by the Castle Law. The law says if you are in your home and someone comes in to harm you, you can shoot them and not be charged with a crime.
In this case, the intruders came in, harassed the home owner.  He had a gun on is coffee table.
Dumb, it think. Anyway, the situation was defused and the guys left but the homeowner was so angry he followed them out and got into a scuffle with one of the men. Subsequently, someone was shot and now the man is charged with murder.

Another man shot a guy in the eye because he "didn't respect" a pick-up truck he borrowed several years before and since then the man let it fester and fester until when the guy came to his house he shot and killed him.

Anyway, we didn't have much to do the night I rode with the Sheriff. We helped a motorist who was stranded on the highway and patrolled. I heard lots of war stories and how people make a bad situation worse by lying and saying things that just could not have happened.
I plan on incorporating these stories into my next novel.

Any law officer who reads this will probably think I am being simplistic or off the mark, but comments are always welcome and discussions are good for the soul.