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Al Clauser and His Oklahoma Outlaws and Patti Page
Another blog article started long ago, July 26, 2021, but never quite finished, until now. In 1982, Oklahoma was celebrating its 75th anniversary, the Diamond Jubilee of statehood, and it was one of the focuses (along with Korea) of the Smithsonian Institution's 1982 Festival of American Folklife. The program book...
Election Eve 2022: Notes
An election eve assortment of thoughts: Last week, I attended and live-tweeted the Tuesday, November 1, 2022, Red Wave rally in Oklahoma City featuring Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Gov. Kevin Stitt, and State Superintendent nominee Ryan Walters; the Wednesday Tulsa rally with Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, and a Wednesday lunch-time...
ahha closes, OKPOP delayed: Is Tulsa's oligarchy competent?
Looks like Tulsa's billionaire overlords aren't as competent as they pretend to be. If they're going to insist on being in charge and push us to elect their minions, couldn't they at least show some signs of competence? And maybe a little frugality along the way?
Bob Gregory: A tribute from his son
After I posted my tribute in memory of Bob Gregory, I received an email from his son, Jason Pitcock, who included a copy of the eulogy he wrote for his dad and delivered at his service. What an amazing life he led! Like Bob Gregory's work, Jason's tribute to his...
Jim Halsey open house Friday, July 12, 2019
Legendary impresario Jim Halsey is giving Tulsans a chance to see his collection of awards, photos, and memorabilia collected over seven decades in the music business, this Friday afternoon, July 12, 2019. From Halsey's Facebook account: Open for selected viewing, Friday, July 12, our Country Music Museum/Office at 3225 S....
Oklahoma Growth and Opportunity Summit
If you're perplexed by all the wrangling and bickering at the State Capitol over budgets and taxation, here's an opportunity to hear specific facts and numbers from experts and analysts. It's tomorrow, starting at 9 a.m., but there's still time to register and attend. Registration is $20. I'm particularly looking...
OCPA Fallin State of the State; Bloggers Organized for Oklahoma Taxpayers
Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin delivered her final State of the State address to the Oklahoma Legislature today. Unfortunately, she did not use the occasion to announce her resignation. Instead she endorsed a series of of tax increases that are being pushed by a group of well-funded tax-consuming entities. Jonathan Small,...
Fallin budget veto reaction
On Friday, the Oklahoma Legislature approved a budget compromise that funded essential services, cut spending in other areas, and avoided raising taxes entirely. Later the same day, Gov. Mary Fallin used her line-item veto to remove all of the bill except for funding for the three agencies that would have...
Jerry Lewis in Tulsa at the Roy Clark Celebrity Golf Classic
Tulsa native and newsman Loren Cosby shared with me a couple of interesting anecdotes involving Jerry Lewis's appearance at a Tulsa golf tournament, and he gave me permission to share them with you. The Roy Clark Celebrity Golf Classic had a nine-year run at Cedar Ridge Country Club from 1975...
Luther at the Movies: "Here I sit!"
About 10 years ago, an intelligently entertaining (and often spiritually edifying) pop culture blog went on permanent hiatus. It's worth revisiting, in this year of the 500th anniversary of its pseudepigraphous author's great historical moment. The premise of Luther at the Movies: The Great Reformer, famed for his blunt speech,...
Merle Haggard, RIP: His role in the western swing revival
Legendary country singer and songwriter Merle Haggard died Wednesday on his 79th birthday. It might be going too far to say he saved western swing from oblivion, but Merle Haggard's efforts to honor Bob Wills went a long way toward introducing a new generation to the sound. In 1946 or...
Hack-proof your mind
Is the current generation of Americans especially susceptible to propaganda and emotional manipulation? Early this past summer, Stella Morabito wrote a column for The Federalist called How to Escape the Age of Mass Delusion. Morabito pondered the startling turnaround in societal norms on sexual identity issues, the backlash against modest...
Fred Thompson, RIP
Tribute image posted on Facebook by National Review I was sad to hear of the passing, on Sunday, of actor, lawyer, and former U. S. Senator Fred Thompson, who was felled by lymphoma at the age of 73. My condolences to his family and friends, with my thanks for...
Abolishing legal recognition of marriage is a bad idea
Scott Ott, the artist formerly known as Scrappleface, is an evangelical Christian and a writer for PJMedia. He has joined the chorus of too-clever-by-half folks who say the way to deal with societal disagreement over the nature and purpose of marriage is to abolish state recognition of marriage. Liberty-loving people,...
Apollo 13: 45th anniversary
We often speak of scientific 'miracles' - forgetting that these are not miraculous happenings at all, but rather the product of hard work, long hours and disciplined intelligence. The men and Women of the Apollo XIII mission operations team performed such a miracle, transforming potential tragedy into one of the...
Turning the Arkansas River into Joan Rivers
Tomorrow morning (Friday, September 19, 2014) at 8:05 am, I'll be on 1170 KFAQ with Pat Campbell to discuss "improvements" to the Arkansas River, the broad prairie stream that flows through the western and southwestern parts of the city of Tulsa. The "improvements" would involve renovating the Zink Lake dam,...
<em>Lovecraft Is Missing</em> no longer missing
UPDATE 2015/11/04: Larry Latham's recovery was all too brief. He succumbed to cancer on November 2, 2014, at the age of 61. Before his passing, Latham wrote that he had plotted out the remainder of the story and was working with other artists to . Upon announcing his death, his...
Sid Caesar, RIP
I'm struck by one detail in the obituaries for comedic actor Sid Caesar. He got married in 1943 to Florence Levy, and he stayed married to her until her death in 2010 -- 67 years on their way to together forever, as Paul Harvey used to say. Not a whiff...
The critiqued, not the critic, should feel embarrassed
An anecdote from an obituary of art and music critic Hilton Kramer, founder of The New Criterion: It did not please Hilton Kramer to make enemies. But he knew that the job of a cultural critic was to tell the truth and that the truth is often unpalatable. He loved...
American distinctive: Private organizations and civil society
Leadership Tulsa executive director Wendy Thomas, writing on Facebook back in late May 2013: Hannibal B. Johnson and I got to visit with a delegation of non profit directors and consultants from Belarus yesterday sponsored by the Tulsa Global Alliance. One of them posed and interesting question. He said they...
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