Can you believe it’s already August? I’d be more concerned about where the year has gone if not for the excitement I’ve felt all month about this issue. You see, it’s one of my favorites of the entire year: Dog Daze of Summer. It’s an “ABowWow” You blowout here at AY About You this month.
First, how cute is this cover? This is my family’s “pawfect” little pooch, Charlie, hanging out in the pool on one of this summer’s scorching “dog days.” (See what we did there?) Also in this issue, the one-and-only Dwain Hebda tracked down a true hero who rescues dogs — by the hundreds — for a living. We also have the ins and outs of adopting, and why canines are so good for our mental health. You don’t want to miss any of it.
And you know it wouldn’t be an issue of AY without plenty of food talk. Our pride and joy this month is the AY’s Arkansas Bucket List: Asian Food. We also have some delicious Asian food recipes from contributors Nic Williams and Kaitlin Barger. Our food editor, Kevin Shalin, tracked down the venerable James Hale of Lonoke’s new shiny thing, The Grumpy Rabbit. The restaurant has been turning heads far and wide to the quaint little town, and Shalin set out to find the secret sauce to its success.
Oh, did you know that the famous author Ernest Hemingway has deep ties to Arkansas? Did you also know that the 60th anniversary of his death was this summer? Our northeast Arkansas contributor, Kenneth Heard, penned a fantastic piece on some of this interesting history. Then, we commemorated the occasion even further by featuring a few local authors, like Richard McKeown, Tina Johnson and our very own Joe David Rice.
Whew. It’s been quite a year for all of us, but even more so for our selfless health care workers, who have been on the frontlines of this ongoing pandemic since day one. That makes this edition of our annual AY’s Best Health Care Professionals even more special in my eyes, to be able to shine a spotlight on the people who deserve it most.
There’s so much more great content teed up for you in this issue, so I’ll leave you to it. As for me and my pooch? Time to hit the pool.
Heather Baker,
President & Publisher
