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Goodbye, Gilcrease
You have five more days (Wednesday, June 30, 2021, to Sunday, July 4, 2021) to visit Tulsa's Gilcrease Museum, before the museum, as you've known it for the last 57 years, goes away forever.
How did the Unassigned Lands become unassigned?
This past April 22, 2020, was the 131st anniversary of the land run that opened the central part of today's State of Oklahoma to homesteading by non-Indian settlers. These were lands owned by the U. S. Government and not assigned to any organized territory nor to any Indian nation or...
Tulsa Boy Singers farewell concert Friday (05/26/2017)
This Friday, May 26, 2017, at 7:30 pm, the Tulsa Boy SIngers will perform their farewell concert at Trinity Episcopal Church, 5th & Cincinnati in downtown Tulsa. The program includes many classical and popular favorites from over the years: Haydn's Missa Brevis, "Skylark" by Johnny Mercer, Palestrina's Sicut cervus,...
Roundup 2011/12/28
I got some potpourri for Christmas, so here's some potpourri for you -- an assortment of interesting articles from the last couple of weeks. Photo by Lathyrus on Flickr Warner Todd Huston: The newspaper typo that began NORAD's tradition of tracking Santa on Christmas eve in 1955. James Lileks invites...
Merry Christmas
... from the extended Bates family to your family. Photo by Cole Elijah Cunningham, featuring Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus at Philbrook....
Philbrook's Santa in the news
There was a nice feature in the daily paper on Thursday about the guy I've called Dad for the last four decades or so, but who's known around Philbrook this time of year as Santa Claus. The Philbrook Museum's Festival of Trees is in full swing - and one jolly...
Santa Claus, <em>Stinky Cheese Man</em> illustrator at Philbrook today
Santa Claus returns to Tulsa's Philbrook Art Museum for the 25th anniversary of the Festival of Trees. Today (November 21, 2009) is the members' opening of the Festival; the Festival opens to the public on Sunday. Santa will be at Philbrook each weekend of the festival (including the Friday after...
17 days and 3748.1 miles later
Over the last two and a half weeks, we packed five people and too much stuff into a minivan, drove it 3,748.1 miles through 11 states and the District of Columbia, reconnected with dear aunts, uncles, and friends, met a longtime e-mail and blog pal in person, bumped into a...
Holly and Shamrock: Santa Clauses parade in Tennessee
Tulsa's Santa David Bates is attending the 2009 Celebrate Santa convention in Gatlinburg, Tenn., this week, and he's posting daily updates on his website. This afternoon is the big event: The Holly and Shamrock Parade, with of hundreds of Santa Clauses, plus Mrs. Clauses, elves, and reindeer, in honor of...
Christmas 2008
Christmas 2008 so far: On the way to work the morning of the 24th, I spotted water flowing out from our street onto the nearest arterial. I doubled back and saw that the source a couple of springs emerging from cracks in the concrete. I called my wife, who called...
David Bates, Tulsa Santa, featured in <em>Urban Tulsa Weekly</em>
The December 18-24, 2008, issue of Urban Tulsa Weekly includes a feature story about Santa David Bates by managing editor Katie Sullivan. Some clips: Bates is in his fourth year as one of Tulsa's many Santas that grace the city's holiday surroundings and events. After retiring four years ago from...
Randi Miller campaign contributions: those "special agenda citizens"
Today I received a call from Merlyn Rios at the Oklahoma Ethics Commission, saying they had the pre-primary contribution and expenditure (C-1) reports for Randi Miller and Karen Keith for Tulsa County Commission District 2. I'll post Karen Keith's report later; since she's not a primary candidate (she's the only...
Show and <em>kvell</em>: That makes him holler
A little break from politics: Our littlest one turned two years old on Friday. His use of words has exploded in the last few months, although he mostly says the beginning sound of each word, which is adorable, of course. (That's him in the photo, during a visit to...
SWOSU "Christmas" ban update
Thursday, it was reported that employees at Southwestern Oklahoma State University (SWOSU) were banned from using the word Christmas. Here's the latest statement from SWOSU president John Hays on the matter: Update: No Ban on Christmas December 21, 2007 After the stories about Christmas were published stating that Southwestern Oklahoma...
Even Santa vacations in Branson
Earlier this summer, the Branson, Missouri, Convention and Vistors Bureau asked about a dozen members of the Amalgamated Order of Real Bearded Santas (AORBS) to spend a weekend in Branson. They were filmed riding roller coasters at Silver Dollar City and clowning on stage at a number of Branson's...
A Santa Claus that isn't the least bit hacked
To balance out that last post, I should mention that my dad has been having a lot of fun as Santa's helper this month. He filled in at Philbrook a couple of weekends and has appeared at some Christmas parties. He's had kids from 9 weeks to 94 years on...
Santa's bringing you a bundle of switches... and potentiometers
My friend Daaaaaave Russ wrote from Florida to tip me off about a nifty electronics project that was done right here in Tulsa by one Josh McCormick -- modifying a $50 singing/dancing Wal-Mart Santa to produce different sounds and movements: I've had a Parallax BASIC Stamp for some time. The...
Need Santa?
Since retiring in January, my dad has been letting his beard, which is nearly all white, grow out to what is now an appropriately Santaesque length. He intends to put it to good use by making appearances around Tulsa on behalf of jolly old Saint Nick this Christmas season. He...
Do beards give voters the warm fuzzies?
I was amused by this article about the facial hair of U. S. Sen. Jon Corzine, Democrat of New Jersey, in today's Asbury Park Press. Corzine, the only member of the U. S. Senate with a beard, will become the only sitting governor with a beard if he wins New...
Gene Scott, RIP
UPDATED after the jump with links to other blog reminiscences of Gene Scott. And don't miss my multimedia homage to Doc's fundraising style. Another UPDATE 11/29/2005: The Wittenburg Door, a Christian satire magazine, has a short video of Gene Scott in one of his fundraising rants. My parody of him...
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