Stephanie Smittle

“Weird Al” Yankovic ‘WEIRD AL’ YANKOVIC SATURDAY 6/20. Simmons Bank Arena. 8 p.m. $35-$128. Authenticity circa 2026 is such a strange bird. How, in a time when our five senses were nurtured to maturity by swimming in a neurological sea of 24/7 digital impressions and signals, does one thoughtfully do the work of figuring out which opinions and quirks and mannerisms were generated on one’s own, and which ones were assimilated, consciously or subconsciously, from the external vastness of that sea?

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP RUNNING OF THE TUBS SATURDAY 6/6. Bathhouse Row, Downtown Hot Springs. 9 a.m. Free. If there’s one thing we can glean from the modern-day Guinness Book of World Records, it’s that the key to achieving global distinction in this hyper-documented world of ours is to get very, very specific.

Lucky for state Senator Bart Hester and for this guy, the swamps of Arkansas remain decidedly undrained: Our revered weather wizard, Todd Yakoubian, shared the video earlier of an alligator in a boggy area of Sherwood, sniffin’ shrubs and floating free.