Before a certain Ohio insurance outfit gifted the world with Flo, she of the white apron and Progressive price checker, another TV character owned the “Flo” brand.
The 1974 film Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore introduced sharp-tongue waitress Florence Jean Castleberry to movie-goers, and the hit TV series spawned from it by CBS in 1976 — Alice — cemented Flo as a national TV icon. (Well, actress Polly Holliday’s portrayal of the character was iconic for her five-year run on the show, anyway.)
Flo’s catch phrases, including “Kiss my grits!” and “When donkeys fly!,” became pretty close to national catch phrases for a while in the late ‘70s.
All of which has little to do with anything, other than a connection to the show’s opening theme, sung by none other than series star Linda Lavin, and which haunts me still.
“There’s a new girl in town, and she’s looking gooooood!”
Well, one 11-year-old thought it had a good hook, anyway. Which brings me, finally — perhaps even mercifully — to the point: this month’s issue of Arkansas Money & Politics. You may have noticed the new look.
As Alice sang in that opening theme, “There’s a new girl in town, and she’s looking good.” The “girl,” in this case, isn’t brand new anymore — AMP closes in on two years since its print relaunch — but the look is new. And we think it’s looking pretty dang good. (Cue production manager Rebecca Robertson and art director Jamison Mosley for a bow.)
We think the new look will help further distinguish our growing little pub and entice more readers to pick it up. (As our publisher notes below, more Arkansans now will have the opportunity to do just that.)
READ MORE: Publisher’s Letter: Technical Colleges Offer More Options
Once they do, we hope all readers – old and new — like the inside as well. And what’s not to like? We’ve got mountain biking’s rise to Arkansas tourism tour de force, the emergence of technical colleges as an alternative to the traditional college path, the one-and-only Skip Rutherford on the transformation of state politics and the esteemed Kelley Bass — currently the chief at Little Rock’s Museum of Discovery but a local print legend and album rock aficionado (he’s our Cameron Crowe, basically) — on how old is new again with the Arkansas Rocks radio network.
Plus, David Moody tells us in the Last Word how launching a successful startup is like trying to hit a Major League fastball. The effort is built around failure. Until it isn’t. Good stuff.
As always, thank you for reading. We hope you like the new look. Let me know what you think. I’m always open at mcarter@armoneyandpolitics.com.