POPNOTES | COLUMN: You better, you better, you best

Anyone can have an opinion

Anyone can join in and jump

-- Pete Townshend, "Jules and Jim"

I've recently read a couple of columns in other Arkansas newspapers that struck me as strange; the writers lamented the shortcomings of other writers of newspaper columns (the weirder, more reflexively curmudgeonly one, seemed to argue against anyone expressing an opinion at any time, because everyone has opinions).

The other column was much more artful, with a genuinely appealing wistful tone, but it mentioned me in an odd way that could have been (and initially was) interpreted as his telling me to essentially "shut up and dribble." Though I've primarily worked as a daily newspaper columnist since 1985 -- with a few years wandering in the wilderness of investigative journalism for so-called alternative publications -- some people try to hurt my feelings by calling me a movie reviewer.