BatesLine

A notice posted on the County Clerk Public Records site (found via Dustbury):

THE DELAWARE COUNTY COURTHOUSE WILL BE CLOSED THE FOLLOWING DAYS FOR ELECTIONS: TUESDAY AUGUST 14/TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 11^^THE ELECTION BOARD (TWO BLOCKS NORTH OF COURTHOUSE) WILL ANNOUNCE LIVE RESULTS OF THE ELECTIONS @ THEIR OFFICE ABOUT 7:30 PM^^BRING LAWN CHAIRS****PLEASE DO NOT BLOCK ALLEY!!

It warms the heart to think that elections could still be a community event somewhere.

It happens that we have film from outside the Delaware County Election Board on August 14. Take it away, Leon:

(Side note: So now 27 more Oklahoma counties have their county clerk's land records on the internet. When will Tulsa County catch up?)

Here are a couple of new blogs dealing with specific aspects of public policy in Oklahoma:

Two Tulsa attorneys Matthew B. Free and J. Spencer Bryan have set up a blog called Opinions from Oklahoma & the Northern District, providing summaries of and links to recent decisions by the Federal Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma and the appellate courts of the State of Oklahoma. They also have a useful set of links to court websites and other online legal resources, including nationally-known legal blogs.

Their most recent entry is about the Oklahoma Supreme Court's denial of certiorari in the lawsuit brought by the Oklahoma Education Association and the Jenks, Foyil, and Western Heights against the state legislature:

The plaintiffs alleged that the legislature thereby deprived school children of a constitutional right to a uniform opportunity to receive a "basic, adequate education according to standards set by the legislature, and deprived school districts of the ability to fulfill their constitutional and statutory duties to meet "contemporary educational standards established for every child."

In a nutshell, the OEA and the Jenks school board wanted the courts to take over the state education system and force state taxpayers to fork over another $4 billion.

And government-funded education -- and the seemingly insatiable appetites of school administrators at every level of government -- is the topic of another new blog. I've been the recipient, along with every reporter in Tulsa covering the education beat, of many an e-mail from Stan Geiger. His columns by e-mail were always well written, well reasoned and full of tempered outrage at the tax-funded education establishment. After getting a few of these e-mails, I strongly encouraged him to start a blog: Rather than lobby media people to cover the issues that concern you, become a part of the new media and make your analysis directly available to the public.

At last Stan has a blog, and he's writing about city and county politics as well as education at all levels.

You'll find both linked in the sidebar, and links to new posts will show up on my NewsGator page.

Good news: I mentioned that we drove by the Bartlesville Playground -- the Kiddie Park -- this last Saturday to see how it was affected by the flooding of the Caney River, the worst since 1986. KOTV is reporting that they're in the process of cleaning and repairing everything and have hopes of reopening by August 1.

The Kiddie Park holds a special place in my memory -- as a small child, I lived about two blocks away -- and now it's a special place to my children as well. I remember taking our oldest there when he was barely three, watching him riding in the boats, pulling the rope to ring the bell, and remembering what it felt like to be there when I was his size. The toddler is big enough to ride this year, and I know he'll love it too.

I just came across a blog called Medicine Park Posts, which is devoted to the historic resort town of Medicine Park, Oklahoma. The town was founded 99 years ago and is a few miles north of Lawton and Fort Sill, and just east of the entrance to the Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge. The town sits in a shady valley along Medicine Creek and is famous for the number of buildings made of cobblestones. It's a pretty place, and it reminds me a bit of Luckenbach in the Texas Hill Country. The people there seem very serious about making it a destination once again while preserving its history.

Medicine Park Posts has the happy news that the old Medicine Park Music Hall is open for business once again and serving food, with plans to offer live entertainment in the near future. (They serve cheddar-garlic biscuits -- reason enough to stop in.)

For newcomers to town, this post explains the etiquette of small-town covered dish suppers.

Next Friday night at 9, OETA, Oklahoma's public television network, will air "Islam in Oklahoma":

Oklahoma is home to more than 30,000 Muslim Americans. Join leaders from Oklahoma's Muslim community as they address the questions and issues raised by America at a Crossroads, Friday May 4 at 9 p.m.

(Is it just me, or does the background of that title image look more like Hebrew than Arabic?)

OETA says more panelists will be announced, but for now they only list Sheryl Siddiqui, a leader in the Islamic Society of Tulsa, Imam Imad Enchassi, Ph.D., president of the Islamic Society of Greater Oklahoma City, and Dr. David Vishanoff, Associate Professor of Islamic Studies, University of Oklahoma.

The facilities of the Islamic Society of Greater Oklahoma City and of the Islamic Society of Tulsa are owned by the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT), which is part of a network of Saudi-funded organizations working to extend the influence of Wahhabism in the US. (There's more detail about NAIT and its related organizations -- the Wahhabi lobby -- in this post I wrote some months ago.)

There's a name that ought to be on that list of panelists discussing Islam in Oklahoma -- Jamal Miftah. His name belongs on the list for his eloquent condemnation of terror in the name of Islam. But it also belongs there because of the response that he received from the leaders of the Tulsa mosque, who confronted him angrily in the prayer hall and in the corridor of the mosque, saying that because of his column he was anti-Islamic, a label that could be heard by others as a thinly veiled incitement to violence against him.

Just this week, two more threatening comments targeting Miftah were posted from a Pakistan IP address at JunkYardBlog, simply because he condemned those who use their religion to justify their acts of violence.

If OETA spends an hour talking to two leaders of Wahhabi-connected mosques, without hearing any other Muslim voices, viewers will not get the complete story of Islam in Oklahoma. If you agree, drop a line to info@oeta.tv. OETA says they want input on the show's content, so let 'em (politely) have it.

UPDATE: A reader sent the following note to OETA:

I have always thought of OETA as an educational channel that was fair. However; regarding the upcoming program on “Islam in Oklahoma”, Oklahomans deserve an unbiased discussion. If OETA has two leaders of Wahhabi-connected mosques on the discussion panel without hearing any other Muslim voices, viewers will not get the complete story of Islam in Oklahoma. Please do the right thing in providing a fair and balanced program by inviting other Muslims such as Jamal Miftah.

Oklahomans are not stupid, please don’t portray us as such.

Here's the reply from OETA public information manager Ashley Barcum:

Thank you for sharing your concerns about Islam in Oklahoma. Please note that OETA worked with the Oklahoma Governor’s Council on Ethnic Diversity to select the panelists and to ensure a balanced panel.

We do have a non-Muslim academic on the panel, Dr. David Vishanoff, who is Associate Professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Oklahoma. He will be on hand to provide an objective viewpoint. Due to the short time of the program, the producers would like to keep the panel limited to the three panelists, which includes Dr. Vishanoff.

Please note the panel discussion will primarily involve a discussion of the experience of Muslims in Oklahoma. What the program intends to do is provide a look at the local experiences of those practicing one of the state’s minority religions. It is an ongoing conversation sparked by the recent PBS series America at a Crossroads.

In addition, the program will be moderated by Gerry Bonds, a veteran broadcast journalist.

Please let me know if you have additional questions or concerns.

Why, that makes it all better, doesn't it? The governor says these two Muslims are representative of the diversity of Oklahoma Muslims so it must be so. Never mind the ethnic diversity within Islam -- Arab, Pakistani, Indonesian, Turkish, North African. Never mind that there are other views than the Wahhabi view, even if those other views aren't as well funded.

And how can you have a panel discussion about local experiences of practicing Muslims while ignoring a very local, very recent experience of an Oklahoma Muslim that made national news?

Notice that the website statement that there would be additional panelists has been contradicted by Barcum, who now says that those three are it.

MORE about "America at a Crossroads," the PBS series to which "Islam in Oklahoma" is a follow-up: Okie on the Lam had this entry on April 9 about PBS's decision to suppress one of the films in the series. The film was called “Islam vs. Islamism: Voices From The Muslim Center.” It was one of 34 proposed films for this series selected for a research and development grant by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Here's the description in the list of grant awards:

Islam vs. Islamism (Martyn Burke, Frank Gaffney and Alex Alexiev, ABG Films Inc., Los Angeles) will explore how Islamic extremists are at war with their own faith, and how the consequences of their ambitions and policies devastate the socio-economic potential and well-being of the Muslim world. The filmmakers will follow the stories of several Muslims who have been victimized by the radicals and who are fighting back.

Sounds like a story that needs to be told, right? The CPB thought so, because it then selected the film for one of 20 production grants -- the money needed to get the film made.

But now PBS is refusing to broadcast the film. One of the film's executive producers, Frank Gaffney, explained why in an April 12 Washington Times op-ed:

As it happens, I was involved in making a film for the "America at a Crossroads" series that also focused on, among others, several American Muslims. Unlike Mr. MacNeil's, however, this 52-minute documentary titled "Islam vs. Islamists: Voices from the Muslim Center," was selected through the competitive process and was originally designated by CPB to be aired in the first Crossroads increment.

Also unlike Mr. MacNeil's film, "Islam vs. Islamists" focuses on the courageous Muslims in the United States, Canada and Western Europe who are challenging the power structure established in virtually every democracy largely with Saudi money to advance worldwide the insidious ideology known as Islamofascism. In fact, thanks to the MacNeil-Lehrer film, the PBS audience soon will be treated to an apparently fawning portrait of one of the most worrisome manifestations of that Saudi-backed organizational infrastructure in America: the Muslim Student Association (MSA). The MSA's efforts to recruit and radicalize students and suppress dissenting views on American campuses is a matter of record and extremely alarming.

In an exchange with me aired on National Public Radio last week, however, Robert MacNeil explained why he and his team had refused to air "Islam vs. Islamists," describing it as "alarmist" and "extremely one-sided." In other words, a documentary that compellingly portrays what happens to moderate Muslims when they dare to speak up for and participate in democracy, thus defying the Islamists and their champions, is not fit for public airwaves -- even in a series specifically created to bring alternative perspectives to their audience.

The MacNeil criticism was merely the latest of myriad efforts over the last year made by WETA and PBS to suppress the message of "Islam vs. Islamists." These included: insisting yours truly be removed as one of the film's executive producers; allowing a series producer with family ties to a British Islamist to insist on sweeping changes to its "structure and context" that would have assured more favorable treatment of those portrayed vilifying and, in some cases, threatening our anti-Islamist protagonists; and hiring as an adviser to help select the final films an avowed admirer of the Nation of Islam -- an organization whose receipt of a million dollars from the Saudis to open black Wahhabi mosques is a feature of our documentary. The gravity of this conflict of interest was underscored when the latter showed an early version of our film to Nation of Islam representatives, an action that seemed scarcely to trouble those responsible for the "Crossroads" series at WETA and PBS.

You can read an independent perspective on the dispute here. The film may yet air, but there are no guarantees.

Back a few months I let out a "hooray" on the linkblog at the news that Thomas Gordon Smith, a classical architect, had been named Chief Architect of the United States, a position with the General Services Administration, with responsibility over the design of Federal courthouses and other Federal buildings. The decision seemed to offend all the right people:

Others are worried federal architecture will lose its cutting-edge focus. Henry Smith-Miller, of Smith-Miller + Hawkinson, a New York firm, which designed a border station under construction in Champlain, N.Y., said he finds Mr. Smith's appointment "deeply troubling." He called Mr. Smith's traditional views "anti-progressive."

The appointment even brought out a bit of Bush Derangement Syndrome:

Smith is a crawl-back-into-the-womb kind of guy, addicted to buildings that look like Greek Temples and Roman palaces, seemingly right in tune with the Bush administration's mindset of empire.

And more:

But not everyone in the architecture community so sanguine. “A representative of the U.S. government needs to act on balance in the selection of architects,” Stanley Tigerman, principal of Tigerman McCurry Architects in Chicago, tells ARCHITECT. “And with Jeff Speck [director of design at the National Endowment of the Arts, appointed in 2003] and now Smith, there seems to be a right-wing Republican pattern…. To have [Smith] as head of GSA—shocking barely begins to describe it.”

Blair Kamin, the Chicago Tribune architecture critic wrote:

Some modernists were apoplectic, charging that Smith's devotion to traditionalism would set back the progress made by former GSA chief architect Ed Feiner. Feiner spearheaded a design excellence program and recruited leading modernists such as Thom Mayne of Santa Monica, Calif., and Richard Meier of New York City to design federal buildings.

In classical quarters, there was rejoicing about a resurgence of marble and white columns. "Modernists have had their chance to shape the nation's appearance, and few people would say that it's more pleasing today than it was before," wrote the editorial page of the Providence Journal, which serves as a sort of Fox News of architecture criticism.

I guess that Fox News reference was supposed to be a slam. A newspaper that expects beauty in taxpayer-funded buildings must be a robo-supporter of Chimpy McBushitler's fascist regime. These critics of Smith's appointment seem to be angry that the government will no longer fund buildings that set out to insult bourgeois notions of aesthetics using the bourgeoisie's own money.

Here's an entry on Veritas et Venustas with photos that contrast the classicism of Thomas Jefferson's University of Virginia campus with the work of Smith-Miller, the anti-anti-progressive mentioned above. Would you rather live, study, and work among classical rotundas or modernistic versions of deer stands?

A look at Thomas Gordon Smith's online portfolio does not reveal a slavish devotion to Greco-Roman columns and marble, but rather a willingness to draw from traditions that are appropriate to the locale, the urban context, and the building's purpose.

One of his projects is the Clear Creek Priory, a Benedictine monastery under construction near Hulbert, Oklahoma. The directions of the client to the architect: "We want a monastery to last a thousand years." Smith's project page gives this description:

The site is in the foothills of the Ozark Mountains. The monastery consists of a church and a cloistered residence. The architecture is reminiscent of Cistercian monastic structures. A porter’s lodge responds to the Benedictine tradition of providing hospitality in enclosed communities such as this. The complex corresponds with the traditional pattern of organizing function and orientation.

Do you see any Roman columns in this drawing?

Normally Okie hate and Okie love are Okiedoke's department, but I spotted this bit of appreciation for Oklahoma in the midst of a general trashing of Red State voters (the old "What's Wrong with Kansas?" theme), in a comment thread on Pandagon, the blogospheric flagship of foul-mouthed feminism and as regular as Old Faithful when it comes to spewing forth against advocates of traditional values and the sanctity of human life. (Pro-life author and blogger Dawn Eden is a frequent target of their eruptions.)

Here's the comment, posted by "Truly B." earlier this week, in which she compares life in red-dirt Red State Oklahoma City to life in Blue State Maryland. She reports that she had to travel a long way from her Oklahoma home to encounter ignorant and hurtful rudeness. (I bowdlerized the "n" word, but otherwise left this as is.)

i’m a female, native, black oklahoman from oklahoma city. i am an alumna of the university of oklahoma, and have traveled the world extensively. i currently live in maryland (counting the days until i leave!) and go home on a regular basis. suffice it to say that i’ve seen no evidence in oklahoma city of “forced” allegiance to certain views. i grew up learning that people are different and they are going to do what they want to do–you can’t really change others, only yourself–THIS IS WHAT I LEARNED IN OKLAHOMA CITY.

i find it funny that people who simply drive through my state can decisively diagnose all the people who live there…especially when all they’ve done is no more than possibly fill up their gas tanks…or as little as leave their exhaust fumes behind.

i also find the stereotype of what oklahomans are supposed to be, do, and think, laughable. i’ll just say that i’ve never encountered so much idiocy, racism and small-mindedness until i came to maryland in 1997, where i was stationed on an army post (and unfortunately still remain in this state while trying to recoup losses from my divorce and finish my graduate degree).

i’ve never been called a “n----r” for making a left turn into my correct lane until early 2006 in maryland. i’ve never been ignored at a restaurant (while whites who came in after me were seated) until 2005 in washington dc…that same year i was at a maryland farmers market where a white shop owner stuck a watermelon inches under my nose and joked about how he knew i “just couldn’t wait to dig into” the fruit because he could “see my lips twitching.” these are simply the newest affronts that i haven’t suppresed yet…

i know other blacks in baltimore city who tell me they are afraid to travel to the county i live in–20 minutes from baltimore–and they’ve told me i should expect the treatment that i receive on a daily basis, because it’s “klan country.” here, the klan marches REGULARLY in annapolis, md, home of their state capitol…SHOCKING. reports have been made of maryland schools that have had all class reunions–but none of the blacks that had attended were invited, interestingly enough.

oh yes, life in blue state maryland is so much better for me[/sarcasm]…NOT!

please know that everything is NOT what it seems…nor what the media tells you it should be. i am of the opinion that all this “red/blue state” rhetoric is nothing more than a way to divide americans, invest some with a false sense of superiority and distract everyone from the true issues at hand, such as shrinking political rights and increased lies told by governmental entities.

i love oklahoma city and i’m on my way home. EVERY PART OF THE U.S. has problems with ignorance…not just the “red states.” i am well aware that there are no utopias, so let’s just keep a balance in talking about things, shall we?

Well said.

The gist of the rest of the discussion is that Red Staters have been hypnotized by our churches to vote based on sex-related issues like abortion and gay marriage. Otherwise we would be voting for Democrats who, they say, are on the right side of the issues that should matter to us poor, ignorant crackers -- i.e. Federal entitlements.

What's ignorant is the left's failure to understand that issues like the sanctity of human life really do matter to us in the pews. Far from being brainwashed during the Sunday sermon, lay people have led the movement to get conservative Christians involved in politics. Plain ol' Christians read their Bibles and began to apply what they read to what they saw happening in the political realm. They saw the horror of abortion and the threats to traditional values, and they got involved in campaigns and ran for office. These same lay people then tried to mobilize their friends at church to pay attention and get involved. Clergy were often the most reluctant to engage political issues at any level, partly for fear of alienating parishoners, partly for fear of the IRS.

The left also fails to understand the political maturity that has developed among politically active conservative Christians over the last 30 years. We've read books like Blinded by Might and learned lessons from the failures of the Moral Majority and the Christian Coalition. We understand why Kipling referred to "Triumph and Disaster" as "those two impostors"; we know that no victory in politics is total or permanent -- but neither is any defeat. We know the value of incrementalism in politics. We regard Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson as fringe figures at best, embarrassments at worst. We don't take our marching orders from James Dobson. We understand the need to work alongside people of common immediate aims but disparate values and ultimate goals. We know that politics is not a tidy business, and we are not going to cloister ourselves because we got a bit of dirt under our fingernails.

Most of all, we are not going to stay home on November 7, just because we aren't 100% satisfied with the Republican Party.

In acknowledging his own nomination for an Okie Blog Award, Ron of Route 66 News called attention to a worthy but overlooked Oklahoma-based blog:

Regrettably, I didn�t find out about the nominating process until late, and forgot to do anything about it. If I had, I would have nominated my favorite Oklahoma-based blog, Yet Another Small Town Moment, which isn�t one of the nominees.

The premise by OKDad�s blog is this: �Moving from Los Angeles to a small, rural town in Oklahoma has proven to be an interesting experience for my family and me.� His observations about the Sooner State are wry, affectionate and even touching.

This is how good of a blog it is: The first time I encountered it, I went to the archives and read every entry. I haven�t done that with a blog before or since.

It is as good as all that. It's fascinating to see your home state through the eyes of someone who is experiencing it for the first time, the good and the bad alike, but mostly the good. Semi-regular features of the blog include comments on items in the small town's paper and the "Stay-at-Home-Dad Knowledge Base".

Worth a regular spot on your tour de blogosphere.

A bomb went off outside the OU-Kansas State game at about 8 p.m. on Saturday. Here's the official statement from the University of Oklahoma. Sunday's Daily Oklahoman reports that the bomber and sole victim was Joel Henry Hinrichs III, a junior. A cache of explosives was found at Hinrichs' apartment. Although the initial press release mentioned that a second bomb was found and detonated, OU is now saying that it was not a bomb, just a "suspicious object."

It's interesting that for a photo of the bomber, the Oklahoman published "a mugshot... provided by the FBI." So the FBI was already tracking this guy?

Norman photojournalist Lam Lamphear heard the explosion from his home a mile away and was on the scene soon after. He isn't buying OU's version of events. Via Dustbury. In a comment on that entry, Mike Swickey links to this collection of media reports, images, maps, and observations on the bombing.

Jared, of the blog 10,000 Fists in the Air, has a list of free WiFi hotspots in his Oklahoma City. (Via OkieDoke, who adds a list of free hotspots in Norman.)

Wherein our heroine sees antiques that were exactly like household items that might have belonged to President Eisenhower's parents and visits Oklahoma for the first time, puzzling through the Delphic utterances of a Sonic call box and visiting a temple of the state's established religion:

Imagine your local community rec center. Now shove in as many slot machines as it�ll hold. Ok, now put a big TV and a room full of phones in the back. Get some betting slips and turn on OTB. We�re almost there. Now squeeze the slot machines together, making some room for about five or six blackjack tables, put the unhappiest people you ever saw behind the tables; fill the place with stale cigarette smoke and lonely desperate people.

It's another hilarious installment of Dawn Summers' travels. Go read the whole thing. (Y'all come back sometime -- there is more to Oklahoma than Sonics and casinos.)

Jerry Buchanan, chairman of the Tulsa County Republican Party, toured Camp Gruber on Tuesday with a group of state legislators. Camp Gruber, near Muskogee, is the first location in Oklahoma to receive a large number of refugees from Hurricane Katrina. Here's Jerry's report -- it's encouraging:

Today, I had the privilege to tour with a delegation from Tulsa, the displaced Americans from Louisiana placed at Camp Gruber, near Muskogee. We talked with people that were in the Astrodome, people that were from the Communities around New Orleans that lost everything in Hurricane Katrina, people that lost family members, friends and pets.

The delegation was made up of your own State Representatives Fred Perry, Pam Peterson, John Wright and John Trebilcock. Tulsa County Assessor Ken Yazel, Ken McConkey from Senator Jim Inhofe�s office,
Clay Bird, Chief of Staff from Mayor LaFortune�s office, along with Stacy Ward, CERT program director of Homeland Security in Tulsa, and Tulsa Police Chaplain Director Danny Lynchard traveled with us.

Oklahoma Senator Jim Williamson and Representative Dan Sullivan toured the Camp yesterday. They found what we found, people that are being treated with respect and dignity. The Oklahoma National Guard and Oklahoma Highway Patrol are in charge and they are organized, friendly and compassionate with authority that is appreciated by all. The Red Cross volunteers move like angels to and fro tirelessly like a breath of fresh air.

Our guests at Camp Gruber are not thugs that looted the businesses. Nor are they dirty, drugged out or rude. They are people that have endured hardships that most people have only imagined in a nightmare or in a horror movie. They are people that have lost their homes, cars and all material things, but they have not lost their pride or their spirit to start over.

Today, I spoke with five men outside a dining facility. One was a construction worker, one was a backhoe operator, one was a brick mason, one was a floor tile cutter and one was a cable layer. All, however, said they could do many other things to make a living if given the chance. The question we heard over and over was �where can we get work. We love Oklahoma and the people here have just overwhelmed us with kindness and generosity. Does Tulsa have jobs for us? We would love to move to Tulsa if the people are like the rest of the Oklahomans we have encountered.�

Most everyone at Camp Gruber have accepted the fact that all of their worldly goods have been lost in Louisiana and are ready to relocate in Tulsa, Oklahoma City or where ever they can find a job and make a living for themselves and their families. Over and over I heard �God Bless Oklahoma!� A little girl actually kissed my hand and said �thank you for all you have done for us�, making me feel awkward and humbled.

These guests are not blaming God or the federal government for their predicament. They are just trying to deal with a very bad situation as best as they can. They now realize that the Governor of Louisiana did not act promptly. They know when Louisiana�s Governor Blanco did allow the National Guard to take charge, things begin to happen for the better and it is getting better every day.

In their living quarters, twenty or more people gather around a single TV set trying to see the latest news. Some try to nap in the heat of the day to pass the time. Others watch with anticipation the activities of the Red Cross, National Guard, Highway Patrol and in today�s case your own elected officials shaking hands giving signs of hope and words of encouragement.

Today�s events make me even more proud to be an Oklahoman. Proud to have elected officials that are willing to roll up their sleeves and pass out water, toiletries and what ever it takes to help these desperate people from the sister states of Louisiana and Mississippi. Proud of a President that has three times, that we know of, visited the devastated area and prays for the families and victims daily.

If it seems to you that I am somewhat overwhelmed, you are correct.

I was going to include this in the roundup post below, but this deserved its own entry.

I first came across the Oklahoma Department of Transportation (ODOT) county highway maps back in the mid-'70s, when I would take the MTTA bus downtown from school on Wednesday afternoons and hang out at Central Library until Dad got off work. I could spend hours poring over maps, and became particularly fascinated with the ODOT county maps, which showed rural roads and locations of homes, businesses, farms, cemetaries, and schools outside the city limits. The maps indicated which roads were dirt, which were gravel, and which were paved. City limits and fence lines were shown, along with the odd exclaves -- places like the Tulsa Fairgrounds which are in the city but outside the city limits.

The ODOT map of Wagoner County included, as an inset, the first street map I had ever seen of my neighborhood, Rolling Hills, at the time an unincorporated subdivision in the northwest corner of the county. (We lived there from 1969 to 1978.) Most commercial city maps of the time didn't bother to show Tulsa beyond "Tulsa proper" (the pre-1966 boundaries), but even if a map did go out all the way to the new city limit, it stopped abruptly at 193rd East Avenue. So it was interesting to see, at last, how my mental map of the neighborhood, sketched by years of walking to church, riding my bike to the UtoteM and the In-N-Out (convenience stores), and visiting friends, matched up to the real distances and proportions shown by the map.

What really caught my imagination were the names and boundaries of townships -- county subdivisions that, as far as I am aware, have had no official function since the 1910s. These townships sometimes matched up to the Northwest Ordinance 36-square-mile townships, but mostly didn't. Tulsa County had Boles, Frye, Willow Springs, Lynn Lane, Wekiwa, Red Fork, Dawson, plus townships that bore the same names as still-extant towns: Collinsville, Owasso, Skiatook, Jenks, Glenpool, and Bixby. I had the idea that the old township boundaries could be put to use for city government. Tulsa (then governed by a board of city commissioners elected at-large) could have boroughs, just like New York City, using the old township boundaries to create some geographical element to city government.

When I was in college, my roommate had posters of the Landers twins and Morgan Fairchild next to his loft bed. I ordered some county maps from ODOT, used colored pencils to highlight the township boundaries, and put up Wagoner, Rogers, and Tulsa County on my side of the room. I wasn't making a statement. I just liked looking at the maps (although I'm sure not as much as he -- or I -- liked looking at the Landers twins).

After college, newly empowered with my own car, I bought an atlas collecting all 77 county maps in a single book: The Oklahoma Wildlife Federation's County Maps and Outdoor Guide to Oklahoma. The counties were each squeezed down to a single page, two at most, which made the maps hard to read at times, but it still was a helpful companion on my Saturday rambles around the state. I'd look for paved routes that were off the state numbered highway system: a shortcut from Skiatook Lake to Prue, Kenwood Road in Mayes and Delaware Counties, the road from Oaks to Rocky Ford to Moodys in Cherokee County, Jones and Hogback Roads in Oklahoma County. The atlas was also handy for spotting old highway alignments, like old US 75 as it winds through Vera, Ramona, and Ochelata, another segment of old 75 from Beggs to Preston to Okmulgee, and US 62 through Headrick, Snyder, Indiahoma, and Cache -- places where a beeline connecting cities 50 miles apart replaced the twists and turns that connected one little town to its neighbor.

Some years later, Shearer Publishing incorporated data from these ODOT county maps with topographical data to produce The Roads of Oklahoma, a full-color atlas with a consistent scale throughout.

So it was nice to see that ODOT now has the full set of county maps online, along with the current official state highway map and other publications.

I learned about these online maps from a fascinating new blog about our great state: blogoklahoma.us. And I learned about blogoklahoma.us from Mike of Okiedoke's latest Okie roundup.

This is Class Warfare links to an extraterrestrial extension of Google's brilliant maps site. Be sure to zoom down to the smallest scale to learn the shocking truth!

Mike of Okiedoke took a trip to Fort Worth on Amtrak's Heartland Flyer, which was quite pleasant, but didn't get to come back the same way, which wasn't. Learn how not to miss the train, and what your alternatives are if you do. (Last I read, the Heartland Flyer is the only profitable Amtrak route outside the northeast corridor. UPDATE: Not so. See comments for details from Mike.)

Mike also links to a McCurtain Daily Gazette article, which examines the strange exclusion by the FBI of information pointing to links between the Oklahoma City bombers and the Elohim City paramilitary camp.

Chase McInerney writes about his visit, as a 12-year-old, to the humble Oklahoma County home of baseball legend Lloyd Waner, aka Little Poison. He asks why Major League Baseball still hasn't done anything to provide for the handful of surviving MLB veterans who aren't covered by the MLB pension plan.

A commenter ("Shadow6") on my entry about the Edison High School stadium proposal mentioned a site full of stats on Oklahoma High School sports: the Oklahoma High School Sports InfoNET. The site has schedules, scores, stats, and standings going back to 1998 in most sports.

For official info on high school sports in Oklahoma, there's the website of the Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association. No archives, standings, or schedules, but they do have the overall calendar for the coming year for sports seasons and championship tournaments, eligibility rules, and (promised for the future) the classification for each participating school.

While looking up that info, I came across an interesting one-page history of Skelly Stadium. It has a list of biggest crowds and milestones, but no mention whatsoever of the late, unlamented Tulsa Mustangs semi-pro football team, coached by legendary University of Tulsa head coach Glenn Dobbs.

Northwestern Oklahoma blogger Mark Allen reports that an exhibit of the work of Oklahoma-born and -based cartoonists will be a part of the Pauls Valley Toy and Action Figure Museum. Pauls Valley is a lovely little town, the seat of Garvin County, just off I-35 south of Norman.

The Oklahoma Cartoon Collection will include original editorial cartoons (e.g., Dave Simpson, who used to be funny when he drew for the Tulsa Tribune), comic strips (e.g., Broom Hilda by Russ Myers and Bizarro by Dan Piraro, both cartoonists from Tulsa), comic books, and humor magazines. The late Don Martin, who drew for Mad for many years and later for Cracked, is listed among the participating cartoonists -- I had no idea he had any connection to Oklahoma.

(Someone has compiled a dictionary of sound effects from Don Martin cartoons, from "AAAAGH! EEEEEOOOW ACK! UGH UGH MMP AGH! AEEK!" to "ZZZZ ZZT-ZNIK SNUFFLE SNORK.")

Happy news from BRAC (not to be confused with Brak) -- none of Oklahoma's major military facilities will close, and in fact the number of military personnel in the state will increase by 3,448, plus another 474 civilians, nearly all at Fort Sill. Altus AFB will "be realigned" and will lose 16 people. Vance AFB gains about 100. Tinker gains over 300 civilian personnel. The Tulsa area will lose the reserve center near Broken Arrow and the Navy-Marine Corps Reserve Center, but will keep the Air National Guard Station at the airport. You can find the list of facilities and impacts, organized by state here. The Army Ammunition Plant near McAlester is gaining some new roles, too.

According to the detailed recommendations (PDF documents which you'll find linked from this page), the Altus realignment involves relocating a Logistics Readiness Squadron along with another at Little Rock AFB to a new Logistics Support Center at Scott AFB in Illinois. The Air Defense Artillery Center and School will move from Fort Bliss near El Paso to Fort Sill and be combined with the Field Artillery Center and School -- over 3,000 personnel will be involved in the move, which is expected to result in a net savings to the taxpayer of $319 million. The Red River Army Depot in Texas is closing -- the McAlester Army Ammunition Plant will pick up the storage, demilitarization, and munitions maintenance functions from Red River's munitions center, and Tinker AFB will gain the "storage and distribution functions and associated inventories of the Defense Distribution Depot."

Congratulations to our Oklahoma military bases and to the towns that depend on them.

Friday the 13th is going to be a very unlucky day for some number of cities near US military bases. That's the day that the Base Realignment and Closure Commission (BRAC) will announce its recommendations. Spook 86 has published the draft list he received back in January, emphasizing that the list is only a draft. The draft list has 49 bases slated for closure and three for realignment. One of the distinguishing aims of this round of realignment is to put common functions of different services at the same location, rather than continue to have bases that are exclusive to a single service.

Two of Oklahoma's three Air Force bases were on the draft list for closure: Altus AFB, near the city of the same name, and Vance AFB, near Enid. The closing of either would hurt the surrounding community, but Enid, twice as big as Altus, and the largest city in northwestern Oklahoma, is better positioned to weather the blow.

Altus AFB trains 3000 students a year as pilots, boom operators, and loadmasters for C-5 and C-17 cargo aircraft and KC-135 tankers. With flat terrain and over 300 days of good flying weather a year, it's a great place to train pilots.

I visited Altus many times during my years with Burtek and FlightSafety, working on C-141 and KC-135 simulators, and it was always awe-inspiring, as I approached the town on US 62, to see the massive C-5s float across the sky, like flying whales. They used to park one of them, with the nose open, on the apron facing one of the base's streets, so that as you drove down the street, you looked straight into the maw of the massive aircraft.

The economy of the City of Altus, which has a population just over 20,000, is very dependent on the air base. In addition to military personnel, many civilian contractors work there, like the employees of FlightSafety Services Corporation who maintain and operate the flight simulators for the C-5 and KC-135. Altus has a couple of other major employers, like Bar-S Foods and Luscombe Aircraft Corporation, but they don't employ anywhere near the numbers of people that the base does. Mike Andrews, a columnist for the Altus Times wrote:

The numbers are stark. A town of just over 20,000 has more than 4,000 people employed on base. And that's not including subcontractors or the people who make a living selling cars and houses to people who work on base. Saying that losing the base would be bad for Altus is much like saying the Dust Bowl was bad for Oklahoma.

Altus is not a very exciting place, and as we used to say, "It's not the end of the world, but you can see it from there." They have done a lot to spruce up their downtown in recent years, thanks to their award-winning Main Street program. The people there are friendly and welcoming, as I found during some longer stays back in 1987, when I visited several different churches. A surprising number of Air Force folks like it well enough to stick around, even after retirement. One such retiree opened a popular Italian restaurant, Luigi's, in the town of Blair, eight miles to the north. Even if the base closes, Altus would still serve a purpose as the biggest place for over 60 miles in any direction, but I imagine that at least one of the two nicer hotels would close, along with many restaurants and small service businesses.

The BRAC process is a good one. Decisions about the location of bases should be based on military advantage and cost efficiency, not on who sits on the House Armed Services committee. The U.S. military doesn't exist for the purpose of keeping small towns alive. Still, it's sad to see those small towns suffer, and we'll be rooting for and praying for Altus this Friday the 13th.

(Hat tip to Michelle Malkin for the link to Spook 86. She has links to more articles on the subject.)

It's been a summer tradition for Oklahoma Baptist teenagers, going back almost 90 years, to spend a week in the hottest part of Oklahoma, in the hottest part of the summer, sitting on hard wooden benches and sweltering in an immense open-air tabernacle to sing hymns and choruses and hear the Word of God preached. My parents first met there as teenagers. I went three times to Falls Creek Baptist Assembly as a camper, once as a sponsor. While the cabins where campers ate and slept were renovated and air conditioned over the years, the tabernacle remained open on the sides, with only some big fans to try to make a breeze on a still summer evening. (The fans had to be turned off when the choir was singing, as they would have inhaled some of the more petite vocalists.)

The preaching and singing will continue, but the old tabernacle at Falls Creek Conference Center south of Davis is being replaced with an air conditioned auditorium with theater-style seats. The wooden benches, up to 20 years old, covered in graffiti, and ranging in size from four to twelve feet, are being auctioned off. Unfortunately for old campers, the auction house does not provide a searchable index of doodles, so the odds are slim of you finding the bench where you and your sweetheart de la semaine proclaimed your everlasting love with a penknife.

There's an opportunity for graffiti of a sort in the new auditorium, but it's only the one chance and it'll run you $500. For that price, you can "save a seat" and have it inscribed with the text of your choice. You could commemorate your conversion, remember a departed loved one, or honor your church. I suppose a camper could still get an inscription in the time-honored form AB+CD, but $500 is a bit much to pay and a brass plaque is a bit permanent for what may turn out to be wistful memories of the girl you surreptitiously held hands with during the sermon. It might be worth it, though, if that week-long romance turned into 44 years (and counting) of marriage, as it did for a couple I know.

(Found via the dead-tree version of the Baptist Messenger.)

You're encouraged to carve your favorite Falls Creek memories in the comments.

I cannot connect all the dots, but I can't help but see a trail from the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993, to Oklahoma City in 1995, to TWA Flight 800 in 1996, to the embassy bombings in 1998, to the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. I don't doubt that McVeigh and Nichols were responsible, and that they were motivated by hatred for the U. S. Government, but I wonder whether they were supported by or cooperating with terrorists from outside this country who not only hate our government but hate the very idea of America.

After Oklahoma City, we were told that we caught the bad guys and we could all breathe easier. We were told that those mean radio talk show hosts were why the bad guys were bad. After TWA Flight 800, we were told that Boeing was the bad guy. Nice tidy endings, and no need for voters to start worrying about foreign policy and foreign threats. We could continue to enjoy our "peace dividend." Is it foolish or partisan to wonder whether 9/11 could have been avoided, if the government of the day had been willing to pursue the possible connection to Islamofascist terrorism, regardless of the political cost?

For the last 10 years, reporter Jayna Davis has been looking into the possible connection between Islamofascist terrorism and the Oklahoma City bombing. You can read about her investigation here and judge for yourself.

Much has been written by those who were in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995. Rather than try to improve on their work, or even try to meaningfully excerpt it, I'll send you their way. They are all must-reads.

Jan, the Happy Homemaker was picked up by a friend and they went to volunteer at University Hospital. She ended up carrying equipment to the triage site and was overwhelmed by what she saw there.

Don Danz felt the explosion four blocks away, then went with a coworker to look for her dad, who worked in the Murrah Building. Don has a map showing damaged buildings as distant as a mile away.

Mike's Noise has a series of posts: His memories of the day of the bombing, a gallery of links, photos he took in the days and weeks following the bombing, profiles of the perpetrators, and unanswered questions -- what about John Doe No. 2, stories of multiple bombs and multiple explosions, and rumors of advance warning of an attack.

Charles G. Hill links to his reaction to media coverage on the first anniversary of the bombing, and on the 10th anniversary his thoughts on what the perps intended to teach us, and what Oklahoma Citians learned instead about themselves. In a separate entry, Charles links to several other first-person accounts, including this one by Chase McInerney, who was on the scene as a working journalist.

Downtown Guy was there, too:

I was there on April 19th. No, thank God, I wasn't a victim, and I wasn't in the buildings when the blast went off. But I was out there soon after. Without risking letting out who I am, let's just say I was out there serving the public. I saw horrible things I never thought I'd see. I saw a person die. And with all the hype out there right now, the image is haunting me again.

I didn't know how much the bombing effected me until the second anniversary. A procession of victims marched through downtown. I watched. I started sweating. My head felt like it was about to explode. I rushed to an alley next to the old library. I threw up in the weeds.

I remember the initial reports, speculating about a natural gas main explosion, then the suggestion that this might be linked to foreign terrorism (remember, it was just two years since the first attack on the World Trade Center), rumors that some Middle Eastern man had been apprehended at the Oklahoma City airport. They found a part of the bomb truck, tracked the VIN back to a rental outlet in Junction City, Kansas, and before long we had sketches of two John Does. It wasn't much longer with John Doe No. 1 was apprehended near Perry, driving a car without a license plate.

I visited the site three weeks later, just after my second nephew was born a few miles away at Baptist Hospital. The building still stood there, agape, awaiting demolition. Teddy bears, flowers, photos, and other tokens of remembrance lined the chain link fence.

Mikki and I visited the memorial on Sunday. I am not fond of the memorial. I don't think we know how to build memorials any more, and I don't have high hopes for what will be built at Ground Zero in New York. It's too big, too grand, too sleek, too clean. But there are a few things about it, mainly small, simple, untidy things, that touch the heart:

• Among the Field of Chairs, 19 chairs aren't as big as the others.
• The Survivor Tree -- an elm that once stood in the middle of an asphalt parking lot across the street from the blast is now the focal point and the symbol of the memorial. It's the one spot of shade and shelter at the memorial.
• The graffito, spraypainted on the Journal Record building by a rescue worker: "Team 5 / 4-19-95 / We search for the truth. We seek Justice. The Courts Require it. The Victims Cry for it. And GOD Demands it"
• The fence -- it's still there, still hung with memories of lives cut short, beautiful young women, bright-eyed kids, moms and dads. It must have driven the memorial's designer nuts to know that this garden-variety chain link fence and its jumble of sentimental trinkets would continue to stand next to the sleek and stark gates.

Two neighboring churches have built their own small memorials across the street. St. Joseph's Old Cathedral has a statue of Jesus, weeping, facing away from the building and toward a wall with 168 niches. A message from the Roman Catholic Bishop of Oklahoma, Eusebius Beltran, explaining the significance of the statue and the design of the memorial, is posted nearby. First Methodist Church built a small open-air chapel shortly after the bombing as a place for prayer and worship for those visiting the site. These two simple shrines far better capture the Spirit that drew rescue workers and volunteers from across the state and the nation to comfort the dying, tend the wounded, search for the lost, clear away the debris, and begin to put a city back together again.

Anyone else notice this? The blooming Bradford ornamental pear trees are lovely, but the smell of the blooms is rather, um, pungent. The mildest way I can say it is it smells like old damp dog food.

As a resident of Oklahoma's Green Country, where our dirt is a lovely dark brown and we enjoy an abundance of non-Martian vegetation, I can laugh at this item on Sean Gleeson's blog.

One question for the scientists involved: Weren't the tumbleweeds and prairie dogs a tip-off that something was amiss?

Okiedoke links to a post by Sister Scorpion about black history in Oklahoma, including the freedmen -- black slaves of Oklahoma's Indian tribes who were freed after the Civil War and granted tribal membership. These freedmen founded a number of towns in Indian Territory, mainly in Creek and Seminole lands. They were joined by blacks who came to participate in the land runs that opened Oklahoma Territory. There was even hope of making Oklahoma a black state -- a place where African-Americans could enjoy self-determination and freedom from official and semi-official persecution. (It's sadly ironic that the first law passed by the Oklahoma state legislature was a "Jim Crow" law.)

Sister Scorpion's post includes a lot of links on Oklahoma black history as well as links related to Martin Luther King, Jr.

Were the Sooners that bad, or were the Trojans really that good? I stopped watching in the middle of the second quarter, stopped listening in the middle of the third.

At least Oklahomans have this to console us: Our wily Boy Governor, Brad Henry, didn't bet over his head in the traditional friendly wager between the governors of the warring states:

If USC wins the game in Miami, California National Guard troops will receive a side of Oklahoma beef and other Sooner state products.

If Oklahoma prevails, Schwarzenegger will send that state's troops a basketful of Golden State products, including zesty avocados, garlic, strawberries, caviar and salmon. And he'll throw in tickets to some of the state's top ski resorts and tourist attractions, including Squaw Valley and Disneyland.

``We have the finest agricultural products and the most scenic and diverse tourist destinations in the country. And on Jan. 4, we will prove we have the best college football team, too,'' Schwarzenegger said in a statement issued last week.

The California governor will be preparing for Wednesday's State of the State address and won't be able to watch the game. But Henry, a third generation Oklahoman, plans to attend.

If his team loses, Henry will provide a gift basket filled with Oklahoma products, including cornbread, cheese, jellies and chocolate.

Cornbread or caviar? Jellies or Squaw Valley lift tickets? There's a lot of state pride in Gov. Schwarzenegger's wager. Oklahoma's bet reeks of, "Sorry, it's not much, but it's the best we could do." Which is how many of us feel about Governor Henry.

Joe and I saw OSU's last home game of the season today -- his first college football game ever. The Cowboys whipped Baylor. Most of the excitement came in the last four minutes of the game -- three touchdowns, including a punt return for a TD.

We were not appropriately dressed, as we own no orange clothing. I haven't seen so much orange in one place since the National Association of Parking Lot Attendants convention.

We didn't know the fight songs, but that seemed to be OK, because we didn't hear anyone around us -- and we were surrounded by season ticket holders -- singing either. The OSU fight song is quite complicated -- I think I heard three distinct movements. There's the part where you wave, then some part where you chant "O-S-U".

It was senior day -- 17 senior players, playing the last home game of their college careers, were honored before the game, escorted to the field by two relatives or close friends. The names of the escorts for each player were announced over the PA system. Of the 17 seniors, only 7 players were accompanied by their fathers. (Another had his stepfather with him, and another had his grandfather along.) The rest were accompanied by mothers, grandmothers, and fiancees, but no father figure. Not a good sign.

Pre-game, we found a parking spot on the street, in front of student rental houses with front porches collapsing under the weight of rump-sprung couches which had been "recycled" in the wee hours of trash pickup day. We peeked into Eskimo Joe's, which was packed, then bought lunch (1/3 lb. burgers) at their satellite food tent across the street.

The new stadium is lovely, but it was strange walking into a place named for the man who indirectly ran my dad out of a job back in the mid-80s.

After the game we strolled around campus, noticing all the folks who were making a huge production out of tailgating parties. On the way back to Tulsa, I decided to take a detour and drive home through Cushing and Drumright -- towns I like (especially Drumright, attractively set on a hill) but rarely have occasion to pass through.

...Billy Sims Barbecue Sauce and Selmon Brothers Barbecue Sauce.

But these Sooner greats aren't just to be found in the stores. Heisman Trophy winner Billy Sims has a barbecue place at the Farm Shopping Center now, where the dishes are named after the opponents of the Sooners -- e.g., the beef brisket plate is the Bevo Plate. And Outland Award winner Lee Roy Selmon (youngest brother of Lucious and Dewey) has a couple of theme restaurants in the Tampa area, where he played pro football.

In the course of "researching" this story, I came across this funny Oklahoma retelling of Hansel and Gretel -- "Harold Dean and Grettie Mae." You'll find four more Okie fairy tales linked from this page. They made me laugh so hard my wife figured out I wasn't working and told me to do some chores. Darn it.

NOTE: Started this last week. Wanted to add photos, but it was not to be -- haven't had time to edit them down to a reasonable size.

Thursday afternoon (June 17) I took off work and we drove up old 66 to Miami to see Light Opera Oklahoma's road performance of Gilbert and Sullivan's "HMS Pinafore". Yes, we could have seen it in Tulsa, but I have always wanted a look inside Miami's Coleman Theatre Beautiful and thought it would be wonderful to see a performance there.

First stop was the Blue Whale in Catoosa. I remember a field trip to Hugh Davis's ARK (Animal Reptile Kingdom) as a second grader at Catoosa Elementary School, and after the whale was built and opened to the public, I remember our family going to swim there. You can't swim there any more, but the Davis family has opened the whale and the grounds to the public for looking around and picnicking. Joe and I climbed up the ladder into the top of the whale to look out the portholes. The souvenir stand was closed when we visited -- they sell blue whale souvenirs and sets of old postcards from the roadside attraction's heyday in the '60s. I was pleased to see how well-kept the place is.

Found some lovely images of the Glass House restaurant, now known as the "World's Largest McDonald's" over the Will Rogers Turnpike near Vinita. Linked from the same page is a picture of the Turner Turnpike Midway, showing the Howard Johnson's and the pedestrian bridge.

On our frequent trips to visit relatives in OKC, we'd stop and get a kick out of "running over" the cars and trucks. The HoJo had a souvenir shop with the usual collection of generic trinkets stamped with the word Oklahoma, along with a lot of Indian stuff, and, of course, car bingo. Coming back to Tulsa, we'd always walk over the bridge to get to the vending machines at the filling station (Phillips?) on the westbound side -- none of us liked HoJo Cola.

These pictures are on a site primarily devoted to the "Oasis" over-the-highway restaurants built on Illinois toll roads.

Dale Amon, on Samizdata, reports that he's coming from Northern Ireland to Oklahoma City to attend the National Space Society's 2004 Space Development Conference , which starts tomorrow. Lt. Gov. Mary Fallin, Chair of the Aerospace States Association, is one of the scheduled speakers, as is Fred Haise, the lunar module pilot on Apoll 13.

It's being held at the Clarion Convention Center, at I-40 and Meridian west of downtown, which is a small convention center with no attached arena. And that goes to show you don't need a big arena and convention center to draw international visitors to an important convention.

And speaking of former Lieutenant Governor Cowboy Pink Williams, have you ever wondered where the Cowboy Pink Williams Memorial Bridge is located? How about the Cliff Bogle Memorial Highway or the Bill Bright Bypass? The answers are online, at ODOT's website!

(Shouldn't the Bill Bright Bypass feature the Four Spiritual Laws, presented on sequential signs, Burma Shave-style?)

Here's another exciting feature for us highway and map nerds: Links presenting the history of changes to state and US Highway designations through the years. For example: US 66, State Highway 51, US 62, and US 169.

A web ring is a collection of related sites arranged to allow you to browse through all of them and end up back where you started. Last July, the Blog Oklahoma web ring was started -- I found out about it tonight through TheTulsan.com. It is, as you might expect, a collection of blogs by and about Oklahomans. I've submitted batesline.com for membership, and have added something to the sidebar (look along the right side and scroll down) to allow you to navigate the webring. The punctuation marks allow you to, respectively, visit the previous site, list the previous five sites, go to a random site in the ring, go to the webring home, list all the sites, view statistics, list the next five sites, or go to the next site in the ring.

Just below that you'll find my "blogroll" -- a list of weblogs I've visited and found interesting -- many of those on the blogroll are Oklahomans as well.

As always, please realize that I cannot monitor and do not endorse all the content on these sites. While I try to be family-friendly, many bloggers assume an adults-only audience and may refer to topics or use language inappropriate for children. These sites still have material that is often thought-provoking, humorous, or well-written. I trust grownups to be able to be at least as discriminating as a cow, able to eat the grass but spit out the sticks. Still, if it gets to the point that the bad outweighs the good in a site I link, I will drop it off my list. Let me know if you follow a link and find that to be the case.