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SEMO Times web edition

TRANSCRIPT

WWW.SEMOTIMES.COM

also inside:

March 18, 2011

Exclusive Interview with Mark Twain Impersonator Local Blind Writer Introduces New Column Expert: Dr. Michel Discusses Back Cracking Back Cracking

The Bread Shed Reaches One-Year Milestone

of Feeding the Hungry

FREE

SOUTHEAST MISSOURI’S NEWS-MAGAZINE OF POLITICS AND CULTURE

www.semotimes.compage 2

semo times3.18.11 Volume 3 Issue 202725 N. Westwood Blvd.

Suite 17 Poplar Bluff, MO 63901

573-785-2200

Inside this edition

The Week in Review - 3The Social Network - 3

The Bread Shed - 4SEMO News Briefs - 5Your Local Expert - 6

Garden Club Report - 7Mark Twain Scholar - 10

Blind Insight - 11Tech Talk - 11

Exotic Grill Review - 11Luke Bryan Spread - 13Hooked on Science - 15

+bluffee event’s calendar - 15

Scott R. Faughn, [email protected]

Joe Clark, [email protected]

Tim Krakowiak, managing editor

[email protected] Norman,account executive

[email protected] Cozart,

distribution [email protected] DeBerry, [email protected]

It was a bad week for AME-REN UE, the huge St. Louis based utility company that is trying to build a new nuclear

power plant in Calloway County. The folks in the big tower could not have felt worse about the pictures of radioactive material spewing into the air.

It was a good week for the Black River Coliseum. Amazing concert last week. Luke Bryan rocked the

house, and on a side thumbs up, ma-jor thanks to Subrina Berger!

It was a bad week for gas prices. Our rural economy is really reliant on gas pric-es, and when gas gets over

$3 people here feel it in the wallets. Thumbs harkens back to the good ol’ days when the Middle East was run by dictators and gas was $2.45 a gallon.

It was a good week for PBRMC.

What an amaz-ing announce-ment this week that PBRMC will be forgoing seek-ing tax abatements and is going to pay its fair share of taxes on the construction of the new hospital on PP Highway. What that means for the commu-nity is over a mil-lion dollars a year to Poplar Bluff schools.

www.semotimes.com current events Section

SOUTHEAST MISSOURI’S NEWS-MAGAZINE OF POLITICS AND CULTURE

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The Week in Review

1. Become a friend of SEMO Times on Facebook2. Watch for ‘The Social Network’ questions3. Reply for a chance to be featured with your profile

pic in the newspaper

not since I left school

NoNo, but need one

No

Maurices and then hang out at the bread companyThe Bread Co.

Bread Co :)

Maurices

the social network

how to join our social network:

Tim KrakowiakManaging Editor

A retired registered nurse shared a story about a young Poplar Bluff student who was asked by a teach-er what he ate for dinner on Friday, and the boy replied: “Toast.”

The answer remained the same when asked what he ate for break-fast on Saturday. When the ques-tioning progressed one step further, the student revealed his family does not eat at all on Sundays.

“That’s what’s going on in our community,” Gary Farmer of Poplar Bluff said during the Bread Shed ministry after about 70 volun-teers handed out boxes of food to more than 300 families Saturday at the River of Life Church. “These kids don’t have nutrition.”

The purpose of the Bread Shed, which was granted 501(c)(3) sta-tus this week, is to fill a void for young people who are on the free and reduced lunch program, and may eat at the Boys and Girls Club after school and throughout the summer, but not necessarily on the weekends.

Established by a Christian fel-

lowship with no single church affiliation a little more than a year ago, the Bread Shed provides a pancake and sausage breakfast for children in need at 9 a.m. on Satur-days at 338 Hazel St.

“It’s bigger than feeding kids for a morning or a week,” said River of Life Pastor Brent Seawel, “it’s feeding people for the next life.”

Following breakfast on the second Saturday of each month, the Bread Shed sponsors a mobile food pantry provided by Southeast

Missouri Food Bank in Cape Girardeau from which volunteers give out boxes containing chick-en, frozen pizza, cereal and other perishables. Ad-ditionally, the Bread Shed has

been giving out donated clothing since the summer.

Last month, Bread Shed West was initiated in Ellsinore, where a sponsored trailer provided food for 180 families, according to organiz-er Tammy Townsend of Grandin. At 10 a.m. March 26, the mobile food pantry will be set up again in the parking lot of the Ellsinore Youth & Community Center.

“In so many of these rural com-munities, there are not a lot of pan-

tries to go to and receive food,” said Missy Rice, SEMO Food Bank agency relations and pro-grams director. “Carter County is in the bottom percentage in terms of pounds [of free food made available] per person in poverty.”

The Bread Shed movement has also expanded to Dexter. Central Gardens Residential Care spon-sored the mobile food pantry dur-ing Christmas time and distrib-uted food to over 250 families,

according to administrator Stacy Blocker, who participates in the Poplar Bluff operation.

“I was surprised how many

people came,” Blocker said, noting that arrangements are being made to sponsor the mobile food pantry again next month around Easter.

Last year, there were more than 2,900 students within the Poplar Bluff R-I School District on the free and reduced lunch program, about 15 percent higher than the state average, according to the Missouri Department of Elemen-tary and Secondary Education.

At both Eugene Field and Lake Road Elementary, where just under 90 percent of the students are eli-gible to receive federally assisted lunch, the Bread Shed has imple-mented a program through which 25 students, identified by school officials as severely impoverished, are sent home for the weekend with a backpack containing 10 pounds of food.

Come spring semester, the goal

is to bump the backpacks up to 50 per school, according to one of the Bread Shed organizers, Jim Ward, a Poplar Bluff businessman.

www.semotimes.com News Section

SOUTHEAST MISSOURI’S NEWS-MAGAZINE OF POLITICS AND CULTURE

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The Bread Shed Reaches One-Year Milestone of Feeding the Hungry

sean warrenThe Bread Shed offers a ca-

sual service for its guests and volunteers at the River of Life Church.

sean warrenDeana Ward, who works

for Lake Road Elementary, reads to participating chil-dren at the Bread Shed.

“All we have done is connect

people in need with people who want to serve,” Ward said. He esti-mates $50,000 will be spent locally to feed the hungry this year.

Linda Smith of Poplar Bluff, who grew up in the restaurant business, referred to the Bread Shed as her calling in life. “When I learned about the Bread Shed I realized, you can’t fix the world, but you can certainly make a difference in your own little bitty area,” Smith said.

The concept of the Bread Shed was conceived in February of last year when Northpoint Naza-rene Church Pastor Greg Gilberto shared with his nondenominational men’s group that meets weekly a dream about feeding hungry stu-dents Froot Loops.

“The dream was strong enough that it stayed with him, and he felt like the Lord was directing him,” his wife Jackie Gilberto explained. Jackie is a third grader teacher at Eugene and, according to Greg, her students have become his over the years.

The Bread Shed initially took off through word of mouth after volunteers passed out loaves of bread with flyers announcing the breakfast on the east side of town. Now updates can be found on the website, www.breadshed.org, or through ‘liking’ the Facebook page.

“I’ve figured out that it’s not how many people you can get into a building on Sunday, but what’s done outside of the church where the real ministering takes place,” Greg stated. “We call the table where we set out the food ‘18 inches of grace’ because through the grace of God, there is no differ-ence between those who give and those who receive.”

On Saturday, James Maclin of Poplar Bluff loaded his vehicle with a box of food to take home only after he helped serve some of the others in need.

“The Bread Shed brings the goodness out,” Maclin said. “It’ll change your life.”

Tim Krakowiak can be reached by e-mailing [email protected].

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www.semotimes.com News Section

semotimes.comdaily updates

MON - subfeature Tues - local expert

WEDs - almost famousthurs- guest column

fri - print edition

Nixon Appoints Dexter Funeral Director as Stoddard County

CoronerJEFFERSON CITY, Mo. –

Gov. Jay Nixon appointed Aaron G. Mathis of Dexter as the new coroner for Stoddard County. The position became available after the resignation of Morgan Sifford.

PBRMC to Pay Additional Million in Property Taxes with

New HospitalPoplar Bluff Regional Medical

Center announced that its parent company, Health Management, would not seek tax abatement for the proposed 250-bed medical campus that is to be built on PP Highway between the 67 Bypass and Shelby Road.

The Hinsons to Perform at LightHouse Evangelistic Center

on SundayLightHouse Evangelistic Center

is happy to present Eric Hinson and the Hinson Revival appearing live at 6 p.m. Sunday.

DAR to Sponsor Genealogy Workshop Tuesday

The Poplar Bluff Chapter Na-tional Society Daughters of the American Revolution will sponsor a genealogy workshop from 6-8:30 p.m. Tuesday at the West Side Church of God.

Photography Exhibit Slated for March 26 at Fay’s Place

Fay’s Place will host a photogra-phy exhibit for Dennis Minner Jr., from 6-10 p.m. March 26 at 2299 N. Main St. For more information, call 573-778-1122.

@ semotimes.com

Tim Krakowiak Managing Editor

(continuation of last week’s Q&A)Semo Times: What types of relief can a chiropractor offer a patient with back problems?M.G. Michel: Interestingly enough, 95 percent of my patients notice some immediate relief, 3 percent no change, and 2 percent get worse. That is because chiropractic does not cover up problems or take away pain, it gets to the cause of the problem and increases health potential. Some take longer to get relief, but we just have to be patient and realize that in some cases people have been without chiropractic care all their life. I tell people I am not Jesus. It may take some time to get this taken care of because of the time that [their] spine has been in a state of dysfunc-tion.ST: What do you have to say to patients who may have reservations about seeking help from a chiro-practor due to the hands on, back cracking stigma?Michel: I have had the rare pleasure of working with some of the biggest chickens in the country. I always tell my patients the procedure. First we do a detailed examination existing of five parts: consultation, neu-rological, orthopedic, spinal and physical examina-tion. Then we follow that up with the necessary X-rays to show how what you are feeling and the shape of your spine compare. By that time we have built a rapport, and I just go step by step and gain trust, and you would be surprised of the number of people who turn around and say, “I was scared to death and now I wish I had been doing this all along.” I have threat-ened to start a chiropractic chicken support group so that current chickens can talk to seasoned chickens and hear from them first-hand.ST: The final question is two-pronged. Do you con-sider the chiropractic discipline complementary and alternative medicine, and can drugs or surgery always be avoided when it comes to back problems?Michel: Health care reform has been in the news so much lately. We as people must realize that the reform

they have in mind is just who is pay-ing the bill. If we as people want true health care, we must move from sick care. We must take an active approach to our health and fix it before it is bro-ken. In my office I say chiroprac-tic first, medicine second and sur-gery last. I have found that if a person is not in an emergency crisis, many times chi-ropractic would get them healthier quicker, less expensively, [with] less time off of work.[To the latter:] NO, sometimes people wait too long to get chiropractic care. In that case, those people should get chiropractic as long as they can to get the spine to function better, then have the surgery that is the least evasive. No rods, use the ar-ticulating disc if possible, and then six weeks after surgery, resume the chiropractic care to try to prevent future surgeries. In rare cases, some people will need a second surgery if they are getting chiropractic care after the first surgery. Life does happen and the unexpected can happen.Tim Krakowiak can be reached by e-mailing [email protected].

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BusinessChiropractic Care

Dr. M.G. MichelOwner, Michel Chiropractic

Center

SOUTHEAST MISSOURI’S NEWS-MAGAZINE OF POLITICS AND CULTURE

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opinion & editorialPoplar Bluff Garden Club UpdateBy Cindy Boyers

The Poplar Bluff Gar-den Club recently met at the Bread Company for their monthly meeting with 13 members present.

In the past year, a number of businesses and individuals donated mon-ey and services to our many projects and activi-ties. Meg LaPlante donated printing, packag-ing and drawing of the Railroad Prints that are being sold for $20 to raise money for the depot restoration. Hillis Nursery donated annuals for the City Hall petunia flower beds. Katie Findlay donated material and quilting services for our last year’s “Rose Quilt” raffle. Cindy Boyers donated over 1000 daffodil bulbs to be planted by the Sears Youth Center at several businesses. Sherry and Rusty Wilson donated numerous meals for workers during the work days and projects. The club recognized and thanked these individuals for their contributions to the com-munity and the organization.

The Garden Therapy Committee reported that a workshop was held at the Manor Nursing Home in which residents made scented room fresheners by plac-ing cloves in oranges. The club also provides magazines for the resi-dents each season.

In other business, Gloria Wilson gave a report for the Conser-vation and Birds Com-mittee. The club is con-tinuing to add bluebird houses throughout the town. A new project will be started by this committee in the clean-ing of Black River dump sights. Gloria Wilson will head this committee with the help of Becky Powell to clean one area along the river. Students from Sacred Heart will help with this project. Wild-flowers and birdhouses will be placed in the area after the project is completed. To encour-age youth involvement in the “Endangered Species Program,” Wilson will be visiting area schools asking the art department to assist

Why I Am for Tax Credit Reformby Senator Jason CrowellMissouri’s past two state fiscal years have seen major

revenue declines of -6.9% ($585 million) in 2009, -9.1% ($676 million) in 2010, and a projected future budget gap of as much as $755 million. These economic times give Missouri a great opportunity to right size govern-ment. Now is the time to take a long look at where we are, where we are going, and what must be done to ensure that your tax dollars are used effectively and efficiently.

It is during this time when your representatives are go-ing through the process of examining where each dollar is spent that we can see where their priorities are. The areas protected and ensured full or expanded funding are those which they believe are important and vital to the state. And even though politicians claim education is their #1 priority, when it came to making the tough decisions to right sizing government, they balanced the past two years’ budgets through cuts and withholds to education.

The transportation line item provides school districts the needed funding to get students to and from school. Money withheld from this budget item results in schools having to cut classroom dollars to make up for any lack of funding in the transportation line item. So when the Governor withheld $52.5 million from this school year and proposed a permanent cut of $55 million to the next school year transportation budget, schools will in turn be forced to cut money from our children’s classroom education.

As long as tax credits are an entitlement, education will suffer because education funding and its transportation money stand in line with all of Missouri’s other expenses, which go through the appropriation process for funding. And while school districts wait in line to request funding for their buses, the politically connected who receive tax credits, cut to the front of the line, taking $521 mil-lion last year before one dollar can be provided for our children’s education. Then when school districts finally reach the front of the line, the politicians tell teachers and parents of students, sorry, we don’t have the money to fund your educational needs.

By listening to powerful lobbyists and allowing those who are connected to cut the appropriations line, gov-ernment is picking winners and losers and subsequently redistributing wealth based on this assessment. And for the second year in a row, the winners are those receiving tax credits and the losers are our children’s’ and grand-children’s education.

For example, Missouri’s politicians have decided that those who rent and do not even pay property taxes are more deserving of a tax credit than funding education. Last year, Missouri handed out $57 million in tax credits for the Circuit Breaker Tax Credit Program on property tax relief for renters. Many of whom are already living in low income housing tax credit subsidized apartments. So while people who do not pay property tax received $57 million first, our children wait in line for what is left over to fund their education.

The words of politicians claiming education is a priority are cheap; actions speak louder. In my opinion, it is time to put a system in place to allow the state to weigh a dollar spent on a tax credit against a dollar spent on education. This is why I have proposed that all tax credits be subject to the appropriations process. Here, we could prioritize between giving away $57 million dollars in property tax relief tax credits to those who do not pay property taxes against cutting $108 million over two years from our schools’ transportation funding.

As I go through this series, it is important to me to know your thoughts on tax credits and how we spend your money. Your elected repre-sentatives work for you, not the other way around, therefore, your feedback is extremely important.

To submit a letter to the editor or become a contributing columnist, e-mail the managing

editor Tim Krakowiak at [email protected].

in making posters.Sherry Wilson reported on the roadside

wildflower gardens. The club is planning on distributing wildflower seeds on Shelby Road, Hendrickson Park and Oak Grove School. The Forestry Department and the Missouri Depart-ment of Transportation will help provide some of the seeds.

The Poplar Bluff Garden Club agreed to participate in a Department of Natural Resource grant program for tire recycling. This grant pro-posal will be written by Bill Paxton. This year’s club incentive is to become more earth friendly and recycle and protect what we have. This will help emphasize the club’s goals.

The Garden Tour will be held on June 11 this year and local home and business owners are being asked if they would like to be on the tour. Bruce and Sharon Beck, and Dr. Rick and Lori Blaich have agreed to be on the tour. If anyone one has a yard/garden that would like to be considered for the tour, they may call Cindy Boyers at 573-785-3631.

The Yard of the Month was given to a business for the first time. Sterling Bank was selected for this honor for having a well-mani-cured area throughout all seasons.

Diane BatesAuthorized Distributor

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News section www.semotimes.com

Mark Twain to be Brought to Life March26 at Three Rivers College

Tim KrakowiakManaging EditorMark Twain traveled across the West on a stagecoach and toured Europe and the Middle East by ship,

but it was Missouri and life on the Mississippi River that provided the setting for his great American Nov-els, “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” and “…Huckleberry Finn.”

Professional actor Dr. Michael Mauldin, chair of the department of theater and dance at Cleveland State University, will portray the famous American author during his production, “An Evening with Mark Twain,” slated for 7 p.m. March 26 in the Tinnin Fine Arts Center at Three Rivers College.

“Having Michael Mauldin perform is fulfilling our mission of bringing high quality cultural entertain-ment to the community at an affordable price in a very special way with the tie-in to local culture,” stated Three Rivers Vice President for Learning Dr. Wes Payne, who is in charge of the Patrons of the Arts, a local philanthropy group. “Whether or not you are a Mark Twain reader, spectators will get a deeper look inside the person himself, and the era in which he lived.”

Born in 1835 in the village of Florida, Mo., which is practically nonexistent today, Twain grew up 35 miles east in Hannibal. He spent his mid-20s as a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi.

“It is fundamentally who he is,” Mauldin explained in a telephone interview Tuesday. Mauldin, who has been performing his production since 1975, recited a quote from Twain: “I loved the profession far better than any I have followed since.”

Mauldin first discovered Twain as a teenager. His initial research in recreating the lecture was conduct-ed in Hannibal at Twain’s boyhood home, and from there Mauldin visited Twain’s own house in Hartford, Conn., where his major writing went down.

Last year was a big year for Twain, in that it was the 175th anniversary of his birthday, the 125th anni-versary of “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” and the 100th anniversary of the writer’s death. As autho-rized under his own decree, the first volume of Twain’s autobiography was finally published in 2010.

This past January, a publisher of Twain’s announced that a new version of “Huckleberry Finn” would replace the N-word—used more than 200 times—with ‘slave.’

Asked to weigh in on the censorship debate, Mauldin commented that it was utterly preposterous. “Anyone who knows anything about Mark Twain knows what a staunch antiracist and leader of the anti-lynching movement in America he was,” Mauldin said.

According to Mauldin, Twain used the N-word as vernacular while Huck Finn, a white boy from an impoverished background, goes on a metaphoric journey down the river with his black companion Jim, whom he barely sees as human, but eventually comes to realize that Jim is more compassionate than he is.

“Quite frankly, I think that school-aged students are much more savvy than adults give them credit for in what seems to be an increasing eagerness to shield them from the real world,” Mauldin said. “Prejudice and bigotry do in fact exist, and the way to combat that is to recognize it, not hide from it.”

Mauldin referenced a part of Twain’s autobiography in which the author visits a public library in Brooklyn that banned “Huckleberry Finn.” Twain questions the librarian and she explains that the book is inappropriate, so he proceeds to bring to her attention sections of the Bible that contain sex and violence.

During part of his upcoming stage show, Mauldin said he will “cheat” by reading an excerpt from one of his favorite Twain compilations, “A Pen-Warmed Up in Hell,” where some of the author’s more controversial material derives from.

“He’s talking about his wife, how they met and how she died, which he would have never considered doing on stage because it was too private,” Mauldin said. “It’s important to me to bring out as many aspects of this incredibly intelligent humorist and novelist, and those writings are just so poetic, and lyrical, and gor-geous.”

Perhaps even more so than his act has changed over the decades—now darker—Mauldin said the audience today seems less adept at decoding satire.

“We’ve had so many generations of comics who basically cue you in when something is funny,” Mauldin said. “With Twain, it was usually done deadpan, and even with his most absurd, non sequitur that he came up with, he would never crack a smile—he made you work for it.”

Tickets for “An Evening with Mark Twain” cost $10 and are available in advance at the Greater Poplar Bluff Area Chamber of Commerce, or online at www.trcc.edu/tinnin.

Tim Krakowiak can be reached by e-mailing [email protected].

Columns www.semotimes.com

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Shut your Eyes, a New World may Open UpBlind or not blind; Is that a question? No it’s a choice.We are a visual generation; HD TV, 3-D movies, virtual

reality video games, books, magazines, CD’s and many other products that are packaged to catch the eye.

Public speakers’ uses of visuals seem to help one’s memory, and seeing [the presentation] helps [the audience] understand it better. We get pleasure from watching chil-dren play, or watching a sunset. A man looks at a woman, sees her beauty, becomes attracted. What about those who don’t see?

They can’t watch the programs on TV, can’t look at the visual the teacher is showing the class, watch the children play, gaze at the sunset, or see the beauty of the opposite sex. Are those who can’t see any less fortunate than those who can?

Have you ever smelt a rose before you saw it, or closed your eyes and listened to the rain? Have you ever stopped and just listened to someone talk, or felt a heart of a person before you knew how they looked. Where is your hearing, your smelling, your touch?

Your ears are not fully dependent on your eyes. Neither is your nose, mouth, or fingers. A beautiful world has been created for us to enjoy, but the real beauty is not what is seen, but what is felt.

Close your eyes and feel a baby’s face, or listen to the heartbeat of someone you love. You will find more to hear, more to feel. Smells linger longer and taste is far more delightful. Next time you watch kids play, close your eyes and listen. When you’re with the one you love, close your eyes and take in their sounds, how they feel and smell.

Choose not to be visual, but depend more on non-visual; a whole new world will be opened to you. You might be more eager to hold onto what you have.

Who has the better advantage? Blind or not blind; how would you answer that question?

Danny Sisco of Poplar Bluff is a pastor at Morgan Cor-ner Pentecostal Church, a published author working on his second fiction novel and a mixed martial arts practitio-ner, currently training for a grappling match slated to take place 8 p.m. April 2 at the VFW in Sikeston.

Outsmarting MalwareIt’s a typical day. You get on the Internet, key

in a search term and press enter. Ding! A message pops up, “Your system is infected.” It looks official. Urgent to be safe, you click the scan now button as directed. A virus scan begins and right away finds several viruses. You are informed to purchase an anti-virus tool to eliminate the viruses. You already have an antivirus installed, but this looks different. Do you really need to buy it? You decide to stop the scan and try to use your own tool. In trying to do so, you get a pop-up every so often telling you your system is infected. Your system has been hit with malware.

Malware typically comes in as a pop-up ad that looks legitimate in hopes that you will take the desired action. This action gives them permission to put software on your computer. Because the process is the same for accepting and installing any software, your antivirus tool may not catch the malware in the act. Many sites use pop-up windows for various rea-sons, one of which is advertisements. The malware window is such an advertisement cleverly designed as an official looking item from Windows or poplar antivirus tools. In some of these cases, the moment you get the pop-up window you have been had, as clicking anything will have the same results.

This kind of malicious attack has been on the increase over the last couple of years. So, how do you go about preventing these kinds of attack? Do you need to buy additional software? More likely, it’s recognizing and then knowing what to do when this problem occurs.

If you’re using the Internet and one of these pop-up windows occurs, STOP – don’t do anything! On PC, open a task manager (CTRL+ALT+DEL) and close all Internet windows. Restart computer in Safe Mode. Run an anti-malware tool specifically meant for the removal of malware such as Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware. The free version is sufficient to remove most of the current known malware. In any case, if you’ve been afflicted with malware before or this has happened frequently, you may want to seek profes-sional help to be sure all infections is found and removed.

Bret and Judy Ladewig are local business owners of 1-2-1 Computer Services providing Web services, online marketing, computer training and repair. Go to www.1-2-1computerservices.com.

Exotic GrillBy Mark CozartWhere else can you get Indian tempura, Thai

Pad Thai, and a thick burger at the same place than Exotic Grill in Poplar Bluff? Although the question may be rhetorical, the answer is “no-where.”

But I am not writing about the food this week (we have shamelessly done so in previous edi-tions). Instead, this is about a conversation I had March 9 with restaurant manager Tottee Soriano about the quality of food.

She talked about the special attention Exotic Grill chefs give to the ingredients, such as boil-ing produce, plus the thoughtful presentation. Soriano, a soft spoken lady, began to talk loving-ly and passionately with regard to getting the en-trées out to costumers, saying: “If it’s not right, I send it back... people come here after working hard all week and they deserve good food.”

This ethos was evident when a female cus-tomer asked for a seaweed salad. The chef did not care for the state of the seaweed, going as far as to throw it out. The young woman was disappointed because Exotic Grill is the only place for the salad, but was happy to learn that the chef had prepared her something special. It was a salad very similar in texture and color to the salad she had wanted, with a little extra flair for presentation. She left talking over-joyously about all the entrées she had sampled, and doted on the chef.

There is one thing that should never be foreign and exotic to Poplar Bluff, and that is sincerity and respect. Soriano, along with the rest of the staff of Exotic Grill, showed both qualities on this particular night.

Mark Cozart can be reached by e-mailing [email protected].

Entertainment section www.semotimes.com

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Entertainment section www.semotimes.com

lUKE BRYAN

An estimated 2,500 fans attended American country music artist Luke Bryan’s concert March 11 at the Black River Coliseum.

Jason Deberry can be reached by e-mailing [email protected], or on Facebook and Twitter.

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Entertainment section www.semotimes.com

Activity section www.semotimes.com

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10 am to Noon Friday March 18Margaret Harwell Art MuseumBuild It Up Building and Painting a Sculpture

730 pm Friday March 18Black River ColiseumProfessional Bull Riders

8 pm Saturday March 19The Wine RackThe Kingdom Brothers

6 am Saturday March 26Poplar Bluff Junior High CafeteriaKiwanis Pancake Day

6 to 10 pm Saturday March 26Fays PlaceDennis Minner Jr Photography Exhibit

7 pm Saturday March 26Three Rivers College Tinnin Fine Arts CenterAn Evening with Mark Twain

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