Have Yourself A Melancholy Christmas

I've been thinking a lot lately about the future of Christmas in my family. My parents are in their 70s now, and though they both are in pretty good health, still they are the lynch pin that holds this holiday together for the family. What will it be like after they're gone?
Christmas has never been a religious holiday at our house, even though my brother and I grew up in church, and my parents are still very active in theirs today. Nor has it really been about Santa, even though we all look forward to the gifts, both as givers and recievers. It has been instead all about the family getting together, and even when it seemed that portions of the family were splintering, this holiday still brought us together.
Our house became the place the extended family came to for Christmas since before I can remember. I know that that's true, but the earliest Christmas I can actually remember was in 1969. It was truly magical for us. My brother and I woke to find an HO guage railroad set up for him, and a Hot Wheels track set up for me. At the time, it seemed gifts filled the whole room. That's the last year I remember believing in Santa.
My mom loves Christmas. She loves the tradition of it, she loves decorating the house, she loves the food, she loves entertaining (any time of year). But somehow, Santa was never a big deal at our house. My classmates at school would get into heated arguments in the lunch line about whether he actually existed or not, but I never participated, because I didn't care. (They also argued about whether "The Wizard of Oz" was a movie for "babies.") On the other hand, my mom, my brother and I had some serious discussions about which was the "real" Santa Claus: the one at Sears, the one at the tree lot, or the one at Penn Square. We decided the real one was at Penn Square, and I think it was because he had to park his sleigh at the Antique store on Classen Circle, just down the street from the mall.
My only other Santa memory is from a day in the middle of summer. I think I was six years old, my brother four. An older cousin of ours had come over with some large jingle bells. My brother and I were in the kitchen, when we heard him start shaking them. When we ran into the living room, my Dad said that Santa was doing a summer check to see if we were being naughty or nice. We raced out onto the front porch and stared at the sky while our cousin howled with uncontrolable laughter.
Somewhere between 1969 and 1971, Mom had casually mentioned that Santa was just Dad in a red suit. I don't remember why this came up in conversation, but I do remember that we were in the car on our way to a mall in the city on a sunny afternoon. It didn't surprize me, since Santa had my dad's handwriting, but I did wonder where Dad hid the red suit, because I'd never seen it. But from then on, everytime Santa was mentioned at Christmas time, my brother and I always responded with that smile one has when one is in on the joke.
Christmas of 1971 was celebrated on Christmas Eve for some reason. Santa was passé by that time, so there were no questions about how that would affect his visit. Previously that summer, I had discovered plastic model car kits, and I had spotted one that I really wanted. It was a Monogram model of a souped up fire engine called the Firecracker. That was at the top of my list for presents.
My Dad had a little shack out back of the house that served as his man-cave. That's where he had been hiding the presents that year, and my parents were not finished wrapping gifts when the family started arriving. I heard my Dad struggling with the back door, so I went to help him. When I opened the door, he started yelling "Go away! Get outa here!" I left, but not before I spotted the Firecracker in the stack of boxes he was bringing in. I had to act surprized when I opened it later. I may have overdone it.
I still have that model. It's in the china cabinet in my dining room.
For some reason, whenever I think of the family coming to that house, the face that stands out most is that of my cousin Gary. We never saw him any other time of year, and I could write a whole 'nother post about his sad life. He died of alcoholism just a few years ago.
In 1973, we moved to a new house, one that had a real dining room, and my mom became the hostess for the family's Thanksgiving and Christmas feasts. But her mother died in 1989, and there were marriages and divorces, and kids moving across the country, and other things that happen in the evolution of a family. Thanksgiving just seemed to disappear from the calendar in a way. And yet, Christmas always brings us together. The extended family is no longer there, and the significant others have changed. We don't even celebrate the holiday on the actual day anymore; we have to work it around everybody's schedules. (One year we celebrated on December 15, and another was in February.) But my mom works really hard to bring it all together, regardless of the changing circumstances.

I've always loved giving gifts, and I love it even more if they're truly appreciataed. My first Christmas as a working man (I was 16), I got my brother a Pachinko machine. He loved it, and I loved that he loved it. Now he lives halfway across the country, and I know little about his home life. As a result, I'm having trouble this year figuring out what to get his significant other. I imagined she might be having the same difficulty, so I sent her a suggestion for one particular family member. She reacted with anger, and I was confused by that reaction until I talked to my mom, who told me that the current economy has been bad for them. She apparently took my suggestion as a demand at a time when they could ill afford even the trip. Then we find out that she can't get off work, and won't be coming this year, which is very disappointing. So she's been on my mind a lot this season.
But that situation also made me wonder about the future of the holiday in my family. Without Mom and Dad, Scott's family actually has no use for Christmas, and I'm thinking in particular that I wouldn't ever see his daughter again. I'm seeing Gaby and myself, grey-headed, sitting in a Cracker Barrel, exchanging small gifts over turkey and dressing, and trying to get that game down to just one golf tee. I hope the future is a bit brighter than that. Who knows, maybe by that time we'll be able to take a cruise or something.

Thoughts on the Occupy Movement

My job involves driving the cars of a wide variety of people. Often those people will leave their radios on in the car, and I get a peek at the type of music they like, where they get their news, and their tastes in humor and religious programming. One night I heard Bill O'Reilly on FOX Radio talking about the Occupy movement, and it was pretty obvous that he was completely clueless.

At that time I had just finished reading Bethany McLean and Joe Nocera's book "All the Devils Are Here: The Hidden History of the Financial Crisis", so I had a decent understanding of how the whole financial crisis happened. Also, in the blogs I read, the wonkish economists have a lot to say about the perils of the current income disparity. It's not hard for me to understand why people are out protesting in the parks.

I have a good friend who is a left-of-left liberal. His Facebook page is filled with Occupy messages, some on the mark, some not so much, and I was inspired to write a blog post about my own impressions of the movement. But I never actually started anything until one of my friends from the other side of the spectrum posted a link to a story about Wall Street execs showering the OWS in New York with McDonald's employment applications. In the ensuing discussion he said this:
"I think whatever the Occupy movement tried to represent, it was co-opted long ago by anarchists, union thugs, etc. This movement won't help me pay my student loans. And, frankly, wanting a "free ride" is not what most Americans want. Hand-outs don't work. Never have, not long term. And that seems to be what the Occupy movement's underlying message is: 'You have something, and I want it. I'll have the government take it from you by force and give it to me.'" It was pretty much exactly what Bill O'Reilly had said that night on the radio.

So I started collecting notes from my various reading sources online, and collecting newspaper articles, just to have references to construct a meaningful blog post. But I didn't yet have the core piece that would bring it all together.

Then I found this. It's a comment on a post on the Frum Forum, a Republican blog with a centrist-to-right point of view. To me it summed up the whole thing and made all the rest of what I had collected unnecessary.

"Ray_Harwick // Dec 12, 2011 at 12:56 am
My sister is an RN at a non-union hosital where the Job Creators run the cartel. This year **all** of the staff, with the exception of the doctors and executive staff, were forced to take a pay cut; thereby widening the gap between the highest earners and even college-educated nurses and technical staff. For my sister, it meant she picked the wrong place to live because the amount of her pay cut was equal to the amount of money she spends on gasoline monthly to commute to work. Or it means about half of her mortgage payment for a two bedroom farm house of 1,200 sq. ft. that she had to save money for the downpayment for until so was 40 years old.
I get your point. Somebody has to win, right? And you want to continue the status quo of the top earners not only staying at the top, but holding the power of determining prosperity over everyone else. Win-win for the highest wage earners.
Gannett Publishing, owner of a couple dozen newspapers around the country, boasted about how they’d held down expenses for their stock holder’s benefit. Yes. They did. They layed off some 3,000 workers nationwide, mainly those on the news side, then rewarded their 57 year-old retiring CEO who “met Gannett’s challenges of the 21th century” with $39 MILLION good-bye present. I’m gonna say you’re beaming with pride over that, Mr. Foster, since it meets you ideal of keeping the living wage power in the hands of the Job Creators. Give yourself a pat on the back.
This is why I love to see the other extreme flaunt its power. I proudly point to the NBA Players Association which represent a couple thousand near, or actual millionaires who are the actual BACKBONE of the NBA. You know, the talent? Sort of like what the nurses who do all the work at hospitals are? Anyway, the NBAPA is equal in the argument for their sport. Too bad pro baseball is forbidden by law to do what the NBA players can do. But I suppose that’s why we can have minor leaguers playing for peanuts and holding down jobs at car washes in the off season.
The best question that came from last night’s GOP debate, in my opinion, was the one from a Yahoo commenter who asked “When was the last time you had to cut back on *necessities* in order to survive?” Did you notice that *none* of the candidates gave a direct answer and, of course, when Mitt Romney can bet $10,000.00 (or about 0.0055% of his net worth) on a *trivial* political point, it stands to reason why he’d have to admit that he *never* in his life had to cut back on *anything* in order to survive. He had to reach back into papa’s early days. Bachmann still clips coupons with her net worth in the millions! Poor girl. Rick Perry had to bath in a #3 wash tub, just like I did, and gee, what a great real estate oracle he turned out to be. So this millionaires club running for the nomination couldn’t even answer the question. Makes you feel cozy, don’t it. You’re working for them and as soon as you’re used up, the Job Creator cartel will dump you without so much as a going away party at the Motel 6 Hospitality Room."

The point of the Occupy movement is simply this: The system has been rigged, through a variety of methods, to send the wealth of the nation to a few at the top in such a way that the many at the bottom are deprived of the very opportunity to succeed, to advance, sometimes to even survive. It has nothing to do with a free ride, hand-outs or taking from rich to give to the poor. It has only to do with the removal of the artificial obstacles that keep people of good character and great potential at the bottom of the pile.

These Eyes

Gaby went to our optometrist's office today and picked up our new glasses. He didn't take any money with him, so I have to pay for them when I go to get my pair adjusted tomorrow. He did bring the bill, though, and boy am I glad we have insurance. My pair alone would have cost us nearly a thousand dollars. And I'm not even sure I like them. I'm practically blind, so picking out frames that look good on me is not easy. Now that I can actually see what they look like, I think my head needs to be taller and thinner. I guess I'll get used to them. If not, I'll just have to get poofier hair and lose some weight in my jawline.

Uhn Expeermnt in Communicayshn

Oklahoma, as a state, will be 104 years old this coming Wednesday, and I decided to try something on Facebook to celebrate: for one week I'm going to write all my posts with an Okie accent. I think I can do it well, but the hardest parts will be remembering to do it everyday, and rewriting reposts.

The seed for this idea was planted in my head a few years ago when I overheard a conversation among a family at an art show. One young man was bringing the food from one of the food vender's for the rest of the family, and when they asked him what took so long, he responded, "Stdnlahn fr boutnour." (I stood in line for about an hour.) For some reason, that got stuck in my head, and I wondered, 'how would you spell that?'

The second time I thought about this was when I was visiting my buddy Ted in New Jersey. He introduced me to two of his friends, who commented that I didn't talk like I was from Oklahoma. I said, "Well, I'm urban. But Ahcn tahk jss lahk my cuzznz down'n Antlers."

The third, and ongoing impetus is that I've been trying to teach myself Spanish for a while, and now that I have Gaby here to help, he tells me that I don't always pronounce my vowels correctly. This is a problem, because as an Oklahoman, I don't actually use vowels that much. In Spanish, if you don't pronounce your vowels, you might wind up saying a different word.

Gaby's family name is Guerrero, pronounced gay-r-r-reh-do (warrior), not guh-r-r-reh-do (dirty clothes.) As an Okie, I have trouble hearing the difference. We tend to not pronounce most of our vowels at all, and when we do, it's just a schwa (ə).

So, with these things in mind the other morning, I posted this: "Skina wundrin whut kina rsponss I'd git fi startd doin' awl my Facebk posts withnOkie axnt." (I was kind of wondering what kind of responses I'd get if I started doing all my Facebook posts with an Okie accent.)

The responses I got were:

"Huh?"

" i say, dear sir, your charming yet incomprehensible dialect has compelled me to leave you a rather generous gratuity. Cheerio!"

"Sum kinda cownty fair bringin the hayseeds intah town?"

"Weeel, idunnno, but ain't tooo muchin wrawg witit!"

This told me two things. One is that even people who are from here think Okie equals hick, and that just isn't so. We just have a definite way of talking. We don't sound like we walked out of a Ma and Pa Kettle movie or an episode of Hee-Haw. We don't have a drawl like Southerners; we speak at a normal speed. We don't double our syllables like the Tayuxans; that would require too many vowels. (In fact, the name of the state south of us has no vowels at all.) We do sound a bit redneck once in a while, but we don't flatten as many vowels as is done to the south and east of us. In fact, a lot of words are actually pronounced correctly in normal speech.

Besides the lack of vowels, we also tend to run words together to make new and often shorter words. Hence, "I was kind of" becomes "skina". We may use 'aint' and 'y'all', but we also have 'whollago' and 'yoosta'.

The other thing the responses told me was that people don't listen to the way they talk. For me, this is going to be an exercise in listening to myself. No exaggerations, no faking it for the laughs. When you read it, you should be able to hear me just the way I talk all the time.

One rule I plan to stick to wherever possible is that all punctuation, including capitals, will be correct (as in 'anOkie'). Apostrophes will be used once in a while for clarification (as in m'uthr).

So, I'm gunnaduit! Startn nex Wenzdy (Statehud Day), I'm gunna postenOkie awl week. Allyall Okies out thercn join me ifyalike.

Eavesdropping

Okay, I know this is none of my business, but you guys were talking loudly just a few feet from where I was working, and I couldn't help but overhear practically every word, and naturally I developed an opinion on what you were talking about.

First off, judging someone for being judgemental, I think, is the height of hypocrisy. Now that's not a criticism; hypocrisy is human nature. But it is a contradiction that weakens your argument.

Secondly, I'm guessing that you are, what? in your mid-thirties or thereabouts? So your parents would be at least in their mid-fifties, right? That would mean they've already settled into the people they will always be. If you can deal with that, good. If not, get out. If you want a change in the relationship, it's going to have to come from you, because they aren't going to do much changing.

Thirdly, most people aren't going to live their lives to meet your expectations. The only exceptions might be your kids or your employees, but even that's gonna have some huge limitations. If you don't like the people your brothers have become, tough. They're not here to please you; they have their own lives to live, whether you approve or not.

The big question that I see, and that your friends didn't ask, is 'Why do you feel the need to have everyone conform to the image that you think is right for them?' But like I said, this is none of my business.

Survivor

So I'm standing in the lobby working on my inventory when the decorative railing around the second story windows start to rattle as if the wind was blowing through an open window. I realized quickly that it might actually be an earthquake, but I didn't feel anything.

Moments later, someone from the 12th floor calls the front desk to report that their room was shaking. Did we have an earthquake? JS had been talking to MP, and was surprized by the call. He didn't know; we didn't feel anything in the lobby. Then someone called from the 10th floor to report the same thing. Then MP's wife called his cell phone to ask him if he'd felt it.

JS started hunting for news online, and discovered that we had indeed had a 4.7 magnitude quake. Later, on Facebook, my friend Mark reported that he'd felt it very strongly. His research revealed that the epicenter was actually very close by. He provided a map with the epicenter's coördinates, smack on top of his little hometown, 50 miles east of OKC.

Several other friends and my husband were reporting that they had also felt the quake. My buddy Jason, who also lives east of OKC, said he was feeling aftershocks till around 5:30am. So now I'm feeling a bit cheated.

Two Down. Way Down.

Yesterday was our 2nd wedding anniversary. I had plans, but had to work last night, so it was just going to be dinner at a new restaurant in town, and possibly a movie. I wanted to be there by 5:30 or 6. I expected Gaby to wake me in time. I also expected him to be close to ready to go. (It takes him an hour and a half to get ready to go to the grocery store.)
I woke up at 6:06. I found him in the kitchen, still in his sweats, microwaving a bowl of beans. I reminded him that we had plans. He had totally forgotten.
I'm trying hard not to be angry --he was, after all completely guileless, though I'm having trouble understanding why he would remember it was our anniversary but not that we were going to be doing something about it. But the truth is that I'm very disappointed and very unhappy.

Stories of My Life II

One day, when I was living in Stillwater, I stopped in at the supermarket to pick up a few items. I came to the register with a package of mouse traps, a can of spray paint, and a frying pan. When the clerk had rung them up, I discovered that I was a bit short of money. The clerk said, "I guess you'll have to put one of them back."

I said, "Yeah, but if I put one back I can't use the other two."

I remember the look of confusion on her face as she studied the three completely disparate items, wondering what the heck I was going to use them for. But I can't remember whether I ever told her I was just kidding.

Four Ad hominems and Me

I read something the other day that I liked: "Very Serious Narrative (VSN) will be trumped by Easily Checked Facts (ECF) every time." Ideally, that should be true, but I've bumped up against a couple of difficulties while pondering this.
My Dad, as I have mentioned before, has a proclivity toward chain emails. Usually, these emails contain a lot of Culturally Pervasive Misinformation (CPM), and CPM can often be dealt with using ECF. But the question always comes to mind: If the truth is so easily found, why does the false keep popping up in my inbox?
But what caught my attention this morning was that somehow I have been lumped in with four other blogs, the writers of which say things like

"Anyone who has read a newspaper or paid attention to world events–even only occasionally–in the last ten years knows that the Muslim world is a savage place that will never be civilized and whose only version of “democracy” is to elect fellow savages. Anyone who needed the Muslim invasion of the Israeli Embassy in Cairo, last week as a wake up call should go back to sleep. You simply haven’t been paying attention . . . "

and

"These's protests, like the supposed "anti-war" protests, are usually a bunch of children of upper-middle class families who convince those who've never made anything of themselves that capitalism is to blame for their sorry condition. Yeah right! Just another excuse to find drugs and maybe a hook up for tonight. Dumb hippies!"

In these kinds of cases, it's not just a matter of misinformation and lack of fact-checking. These are expressions of deep-seated prejudices which they justify using current events. It would take a book -- or several books, perhaps -- to explain that these current events have long histories going back decades, and even then they would fail to understand the motivations of the people they are judging.

No, people are going to believe what they want, and they will seek out others who will confirm or justify the things they believe regardless of the data, the numbers, the history or the evidence. To do otherwise would take too much effort.

Inside Job Insider

At the Oscars back in February, the movie that won the award for best documentary was a film by Charles Ferguson called "Inside Job," which detailed the causes and effects of the 2008 economic crisis. By coïncidence, I had begun trying to understand the whole crisis and macroeconomics through my own reading. One book, which I am currently in the middle of, is entitled "All The Devils Are Here," which covers the same topic.
I really wanted to see this film with my Dad, but I missed it in the theater when it was showing at Quail Springs. Later I found the DVD at SunCoast, and then at Target, but I never had the money to buy it when I was there.
Then last Wednesday I found four copies at the Edmond Library. I checked it out and watched it that same morning. It blew me away.
Saturday night I took it over to my parents' house, and we watched it as a family. When it was done, my Dad said, "Everyone in the world needs to watch this movie." The next morning, my Mom called to ask what the title was again because my Dad was going to Target.
The movie, essentially, is about how deregulation over the last 30 years has allowed powerful banks to grow more powerful by breaking basic rules of sound finance. So I thought it was funny, and I know my Dad would think so too, that The Financial Times reported in a front page article that Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan, was balking at new banking regulations, calling them "un-American." Too bad, Jamie.
Tonight I saw on my blogroll that Paul Krugman has something to say about it, too:

"September 12, 2011, 9:32 am
Satire Is Dead

"Last month I had a little fun with Jamie Dimon, putting in his mouth the words of the corrupt, embezzling banker in John Ford’s Stagecoach:

"I don’t know what the government is coming to. Instead of protecting businessmen, it pokes its nose into business! Why, they’re even talking now about having *bank* examiners. As if we bankers don’t know how to run our own banks! Why, at home I have a letter from a popinjay official saying they were going to inspect my books.
"I have a slogan that should be blazoned on every newspaper in this country: America for the Americans! The government must not interfere with business! Reduce taxes! Our national debt is something shocking. Over one billion dollars a year! What this country needs is a businessman for president!

"But today I read this: Jamie Dimon, CEO Of JPMorgan Chase, Calls International Bank Rules ‘Anti-American’.

Satire is dead."

Turmoil

I'm upset with a dear friend.
Last night he posted an invitation on Facebook to sign an online "petition" to rob 'Group A' of their basic civil rights because of their superficial resemblance to 'Group B'. This apparently is justified because the acts of Group B were so heinous that anyone who looks like them should be viewed with suspicion and contempt. Failure to oppress Group A might make Group C feel bad, even though Group A is in actuality a subset of Group C. Group A has no actual connection with Group B, in spite of the specious claims made by a cable "news" organization which are reiterated in this petition. The project that Group A is working on is being entirely mischaracterized in order to provide a rationale for the petition.
I have other friends who would gladly sign this petition, and that's just the way they are. But this friend surprized me because I have never known him to be bigoted or unjust. It's very disturbing.

A Well Written Police Report

Augusta, GA

Orville Smith, a store manager for Best Buy in Augusta , Georgia , told police he observed a male customer, later identified as Tyrone Jackson of Augusta , on surveillance cameras putting a laptop computer under his jacket. When confronted the man became irate, knocked down an employee, drew a knife and ran for the door.

Outside on the sidewalk were four Marines collecting toys for the "Toys for Tots" program. Smith said the Marines stopped the man, but he stabbed one of the Marines, Cpl. Phillip Duggan, in the back; the injury did not appear to be severe.

After Police and an ambulance arrived at the scene Cpl. Duggan was transported for treatment.

The subject was also transported to the local hospital with two broken arms, a broken ankle, a broken leg, several missing teeth, possible broken ribs, multiple contusions, assorted lacerations, a broken nose and a broken jaw -- injuries he sustained when he slipped and fell off of the curb after stabbing the Marine.

Breaking the Rules

I'm not allowed to blog about work anymore. However...

Happy New Year

The one and only art show that I've done this spring is over, and that frees up a lot of time to work on the backlog of projects piling up around here. As one of my co-workers put it, "Wow, the day after the show is like New Year's for you." An apt description.

So I got the studio cleaned up, mostly, and the show stuff put away, and most of the bookkeeping done, and I sat down at the drafting table. Gaby came in and asked what I was doing, and I said, "Just trying to figure out what to do next." He asked me what kinds of things I needed to be doing, and I started on the list. When I mentioned staining the tables for the living room, he said, "Ooh! Do that one!"

The tables in question are a trio of tables (an occasional table, a coffee table, and one of those tall skinny tables that goes in the entry or behind the couch) that I picked up at a garage sale last summer for $50. They have beautiful styling, but when I found them they were painted with a two tone finish, the paint on the tops of the tables was scratched, and they smelled like cat piss.

Last October, when my friend Ted was staying with us, he worked on stripping the tables and managed to get two of them done. After it got too cold to work outside, the project was put away. Ted got a job, his own place, and then moved to Oregon to escape his ankle-biting girlfriend, leaving us with doubts that he would finish this project.

Yesterday, I went to the Wally-world and got a can of dark walnut stain. My new framing table in the studio provided a lot of space to work, and I managed to get the occasional table coated twice, and the top of the coffee table coated once. The underside of the coffee table has one coat as of this morning, as well as a second coat on the top. They look good.

Staining furniture is a messy job.

I'm not sure when my next day off will be, but that's the day I'll be applying the polyeurethane, weather permitting. I'll give that a week to dry, and then we'll move them into the living room.

Advice from my Dad

While cleaning out my office today, I came across this list of rules for success in your career and thought it would be good to pass it your way.

Buckleys 18 Rules for Political Success

1. You need to exhibit good performance that pleases your supervisors.

2. You need to manage your career.

Be active in influencing decisions about yourself.

Pure effort is not always rewarded!

Don't rely on the kindness of strangers. Most individuals in an organization are concerned only with themselves.

3. Always take high visibility, high risk jobs.

If you fail, you will at least be recognized for your attempt.

If you succeed, you become the rising star of the organization.

4. Develop a sponsor within an organization.

Find a mentor. Find someone to help you navigate the waters of the organization -- someone with honesty, integrity and political savvy.

5. Nominate yourself for positions within the organization.

Modesty is never a virtue in the long run.

6. Always leave an organization on good terms.

Regardless of how bad it is, bite your tongue before you badmouth it.

7. Be aware of Politics.

You need to be aware of politics to be successful. Do politics well.

8. Realize your dependence on others and utilize it.

Nobody gets ahead alone.

Don’t forget those you depended on or those who depended on you.

9. Everybody has ethical dilemmas.

No research can show that dishonesty achieves goals faster.

Unethical decisions will always catch up with you.

10. Don’t gossip.

Don’t listen to it - don’t repeat it.

If you cant say something nice, don’t say anything.

11. Be persistent. Do not give up.

12. Failure occurs.

Everybody fails. You have to learn to live with it, and don’t let it destroy you.

13. Be Positive.

14. Do not engage in ingratiating tactics.

Don’t be an “ass-kisser”; its so transparent its resented.

15. Life is not always fair.

Don’t keep score.

Don’t feel like you are owed something.

18. Think before you speak.

If its worth saying, its worth thinking about.

17. Do not embarrass people.

Don’t use what you know to harm others; it only creates enemies.

18. Always wear a smile.

During my 48 years of working various jobs, I can say all these rules apply; regardless what kind of work it was.

I believe the most important element is rule #1, but in order to do that, you need to keep the other rules.

Reflecting back on all the jobs I had where I worked for someone else, the success came by supporting and making your boss look good. In all cases, the boss was more concerned about how he/she looked to his/her boss, and was less concerned about how the employee felt about it all (Rule 2). If there was someone in the organization that was a problem, they would find a way to get rid of the problem. As a manager, I had some experience with this. I lost track of the number of people I fired when I worked for AOL. I fired one while working for Honeywell.

Regardinging rule 3, while working for Honeywell, I took a job that my peers said they "would not touch with a 10 foot pole!" It was a new job and did not have any parameters set on how to do it. Therefore I was free to determine how the job was to be accomplished. I was successful in putting together a program and hiring a staff that resulted in recognition throughout corporate Honeywell. (That is why the SETH THOMAS ships clock hangs on my office wall. It was for OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE in this program.) But I had to get support from key people in Honeywell to make it happen (Rule 4).

When working with people, at all levels in an organization, make people feel good about themselves. They will want to keep you around! But don't forget to promote yourself (rule 5). And always wear a smile (rule 18).

Beyond Left and Right: It's About Reality

...For far too long, the public has suffered under the tyranny of dueling narratives served up by one or another interest group seeking self-serving shortcuts around nuanced truths, all the while shortchanging the clarity of important debates about the biggest issues of the day -- from health care reform to defense policy to education. Journalists have too often perpetuated the false notion that seemingly any issue can be cleanly divided into right and left, conservative and liberal, because these labels make our work simpler, supplying us with a handy structure we can impose at will on typically uncooperative facts.

Journalists so frequently deal in the false liberal-conservative dichotomy because it generates the sort of tension that feeds narrative, and narrative makes for more accessible stories. Simply dividing up the interests into two neatly-differentiated competing camps enables lazy beat reporters to claim to have painted all of reality with but two phone calls. Why venture outside and talk to ordinary people -- whose experiences and views almost always challenge the traditional labels -- when we can simply sit at our desks and dial up a D and then an R and gather a pair of quotes that supposedly cover the whole spectrum of the American take on anything?

Political hacks trade in the labels of right and left because it allows them to manipulate the public with shortcut phrases that demonize those in the other camp, making it easier to derail whatever initiative needs killing at the moment. Banking reform is neatly pilloried as a leftist assault on free enterprise by financial institutions intent on perpetuating corporate welfare policies. Organized labor too sweepingly dismisses expanded trade -- even foreign purchases of U.S. companies that create jobs for U.S. workers -- while decrying the trend as part of a an assault from the right.

Time and again, we see how these sorts of divisions function as a divide-and-rule strategy, nearly always choreographed by one special interest or another, usually in the service of some piece of legislation that is really just an employment bill for lobbyists or a means of raising campaign cash for incumbents. These crude labels reinforce a sense of division that cuts off the great majority of Americans from their own non-special interests -- the desire to work at a job that affords a decent living; to live in a decent home and secure health care; to educate their children, take a vacation every now and again, and eventually retire. What we need now is an active journalism engaged in figuring out how to restore those basic middle-class aspirations, without getting sidetracked into tendentious debates about right versus left and which side is winning.

What do these labels really mean, anyway, and who gets to assign them, and for what aim? Does anyone not paid to traffic in such labels really subscribe to the notion that we are so easily divided? Take, for example, the need to create jobs. Who is the loser in this undertaking? Labor unions -- a supposedly liberal concern, and certainly a key source of campaign cash for Democrats -- obviously benefit, but so do businesses both big and small, a slice of America that is supposedly part of the conservative core. When more people are earning paychecks and walking around with money to spend, that is good for retailers, for car dealers, for insurance companies, lawyers, short-order cooks and banks.

Who really wants businesses to suffer, as the anti-business label that gets thrown at self-identified progressives directly implies? Advocating that Wall Street banking giants ought to be reined in against risks that can trash the economy is not anti-business. Indeed, it is really pro-business, so long as we are not letting the financial lobby frame the terms of the argument. It is about making sure money flows to start-up companies whose new ideas can power the economy and create jobs. Who is for more bailouts of the financial system? Not liberals, who deride the socialization of losses while private hands keep the profits; not conservatives or libertarians, who tend to champion a smaller role for government in the private sector.

Who loses if we launch a serious effort to build out U.S. infrastructure? This is a way to create jobs, to create orders for factory-made machinery, to spur innovation by modernizing schools, upgrading research laboratories, easing transportation via high-speed rail and more efficient roads and ports. Who is among the constituency that would lose out in the face of the additional economic growth that would emerge if we embrace infrastructure building?

To which one might be tempted to consider the debate over the federal budget deficit, because the refrain goes: We cannot afford infrastructure. Here is the classic right-left divide in which Keynesian progressives argue for more spending now and supposedly callous conservatives focus on simply slashing spending to balance the books. There are divisions here, genuine ideological disagreements about how to approach so many of these problems, and only a naif would dismiss that. But journalism that simply elucidates those differences and effectively perpetuates them with crude labels rather than helping find the way to good policy is failing to offer a vital public service.

No liberal with any integrity would argue that we can simply ignore the deficit and need not fear the potential consequences -- higher interest rates, inflation, a debased dollar -- if we merely carry on. No conservative engaged in the genuine pursuit of enlightened policy would claim that we can simply slash away at discretionary spending, make speeches about living within our means, and thereby solve our problems. For journalists, getting beyond left and right means not allowing the agenda to be set by interest groups that are clearly stumping for votes and air time on cable television at the expense of reality. It means airing out the constructive arguments and helping get us somewhere useful -- a place in which the economy is growing and producing jobs, while we are credibly planning to pay off our burgeoning debts. It means not worrying so much about balancing up our stories with equal quotes from the dubious camps that frame our stories and putting the spotlight instead on basic truths.

Left versus right: These are overly-simplified labels that perpetuate division, and we ought not cater to them, because that amounts to lazy journalism. That is about who won the week, and who controls the conversation, as opposed to the much more difficult, nuanced and crucial questions that remain operative irrespective of phony ideological labels: How will we make the economy function again for the vast majority of Americans, for whom the last quarter-century has delivered downward mobility? How will we get our fiscal house in order while adding quality paychecks and making health care affordable? These are concerns that are common to nearly every household, regardless of ideology, and these are questions that must be pursued at face value, with good information, critical scrutiny and the pursuit of pragmatic policy.

But -- and here comes a major but -- ditching the bogus left-right frame is not about moving reflexively to the center. It is rather a rejection of the very concept that left, right and center are a good way to map the crucial debates of the day.

In the sort of journalism I am interested in practicing here, I want my reporters to reject the false idea that you simply poll people at both extremes of any issue, then paint a line down the middle and point to it as reality. We have to reject the tired notion that objectivity means the reader can get all the way to the bottom of the story and not know what to think. We do have to be objective in our journalism, but this does not mean we are empty vessels with no ideas of our own, and with no prior experiences that influence what we ultimately deliver: That is a fantasy, and an unhelpful one at that, because every time the reader discovers that personal values have indeed "intruded" into the copy, they experience another "gotcha" moment that undermines the credibility of serious journalism.

Rather, objectivity means that we conduct a fully open-minded inquiry. We do not begin our reporting with a fully-formed position. We do not adhere to the contentions of one think tank or political party or government organ as truth. We don't write to please our friends or sources or interest groups. Rather, we do our own reporting, our own independent thinking, our own scrutinizing. But at the end of that process, we offer a conclusion, and transparently so, with whatever caveats are in order. We do not concern ourselves with how others may describe our place on the ideological spectrum, and we do not hold back when we know something, or lard up our journalism with disingenuous counter-quotes to cover ourselves against the charge that we staked out a position. As long as our process is pure, so is the work.

...The point is that no ideological position can be counted on to deliver the facts, and any journalism that loses track of this ultimately reduces itself to a version of propaganda. Verifiable truth is our master, the one element that does not change when a new party takes over in Washington, when a new fashion sweeps the country, or a fresh approach prevails on university campuses. We work for no one but the reader, and we are advocates only for pragmatic solutions to real problems. We pursue our reporting through the lens of actual human experience -- a messy, internally-contradictory frame of reference that simply cannot be described by hackneyed labels like left and right. We are concerned with the real-life experiences of actual people, and these are things that simply refuse to be divided into false dichotomies.

Left and right are the props of the cynical class who use them to convey a sense of sophistication in place of the messy, difficult work of finding things out, uncovering truths and reckoning with social problems in their fullest human dimensions. We need to aim for better.

Peter S. Goodman

Original post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/10/beyond-left-and-right-its-about-reality_n_821582.html

Without Representation

July 16 2010

Dear Mr. Savage:

Thank you for your recent correspondence. As your voice in Washington, I appreciate being made aware of your views.

Your thoughts regarding S. 424, Uniting American Families Act of 2009, were informative. This bill has been referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Should it come to the Senate floor for a vote, I will keep your views in mind.

Even though I return to the state almost every weekend, I do not always have the opportunity to listen to everyone's ideas. These ideas are important, as they are the building blocks of Oklahoma's representation here in Washington. When you share these ideas with me, you are sharing them with Congress and, in turn, the nation.

Again, thank you for your comments. Please do not hesitate to contact me again.

Sincerely, James M. Inhofe United States Senator

__________________________________________________________

July 19, 2010

Mr. Ronald Steve Savage
Edmond, OK

Dear Ronald:

Thank you for contacting me about the H.R. 1024, the Uniting American Families Act. Understanding your ideas and concerns is important to me, as it helps me to better represent you and the Fifth District of Oklahoma.

If enacted, H.R. 1024 would allow permanent same-sex partners of United States citizens and residents to obtain lawful permanent resident status in the same manner as spouses of citizens and permanent residents.

Marriage is, and shall remain, a union between one man and one woman, unless and until the people decide otherwise. I oppose efforts to redefine marriage, an institution that has endured and worked for thousands of years and am committed to working with members of Congress to continue promoting Oklahoma values.

Thank you again for taking the time to share your ideas and concerns. As the 111th Congress addresses the many challenges facing our nation, I hope you will continue to share your thoughts and views with me. However, due to increased security measures, mail delivery may be delayed. Accordingly, I encourage you to visit my website at www.fallin.house.gov to contact me via email as well as find useful information about Oklahoma's Fifth Congressional District.

Sincerely,

MaryFallin

Member of Congress

_______________________________________________________

September 1, 2010

Mr. Ron Savage
Edmond, Oklahoma

Dear Mr. Savage,
Thank you for writing to express your support for S.424, the Uniting American Families Act of 2009. I am glad that you wrote, and I apologize for the delay in my response.
The Uniting American Families Act, also known as UAFA, is currently pending in the Senate Judiciary Committee. Two related bills are in the House Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security, and International Law. As you know, this proposal would amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to place a "permanent partner" on equal status with that of a legal marriage partner. The act defines "permanent partners" as individuals, age 18 or older, who are "in a committed, intimate relationship" and "intend a lifelong commitment."
I understand your desire to provide immigration options for same-gender couples, but I cannot support the proposal for two important reasons. First, it would create a new federal definition of marriage, and second, it does not provide adequate safeguards against immigration fraud.

This act would grant immigration status based on a relationship that is not recognized by federal law and that is expressly prohibited by most states. In fact, the Defense of Marriage Act, overwhelmingly approved by Congress in 1996, specifically defined marriage as "a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife," and the word "spouse" as only "a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or wife." If Congress were to recognize same-gender relationships through this Act, it would contradict federal law and the laws of 90 percent of our states.

The risk of fraud resulting from enactment of this legislation is also extremely high, because consulate offices will have no legal documents with which to verify the relationships of applicants. The only available options for verification would be self-reporting and statements from friends and family. The act requires the "partners" to be "financially interdependent," but they will have no joint income tax returns or any other federally recognized documentation of shared assets. Without adequate documentation, preventing fraud would be virtually impossible.

While individuals involved in same-sex relationships are eligible to apply for immigration under the same conditions as any other individual from their home country, I cannot support giving their applications the same urgency as those of legally married spouses.

I am sorry that we disagree on this issue, but I am glad that you wrote. I certainly encourage you to write again with any further thoughts. Best wishes!

Sincerely,

Tom A. Coburn, M.D.
United States Senator

Yikes!

This was a comment on one of Paul Krugman's blog posts (http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/13/the-wisconsin-effect/):

As an independent I try to look at both sides of the picture and what I am seeing on the republican side frightens me. I cannot believe that there are so many ignorant, gullible people out there who believe everything fed to them by republican congressmen/congresswomen, and pundits.
I was on active duty when George W. Bush was running for president. As you may or may not know the military has a majority of republican-leaning members and I was being told how wonderful George was and how he was going to turn the country around. Being an educated woman I decided to do some research and found that he had bankrupted a baseball team, an oil company and Texas was in financial trouble. I knew he was not going to be good and told everyone they needed to pull their retirement and put it in a safe place if he became prez. They laughed at me and told me I didn't know what I was talking about. Six months after he became president their retirement accounts failed and they lost not only what the gov't matched but it dipped into what they had contributed. They lamented and cried about what are we going to do now, and I explained I was still in the boat that had not capsized because I had moved my money, and had they listened and not laughed at me they would not be underwater. They were right George did turn the country around! Record losses and he took fed gov't from a surplus to a deficit.
Now we listen to repubs saying we need to drill more but what they are not telling you is that the US gov't pays subsidies to and gives tax breaks to companies drilling on our property. That oil does not come to us but is property of OPEC, and the US must buy their own oil at the going rate. The only thing drilling more will do is increase our deficit. You don't believe me ask the oil companies making record profits in the Billions of dollars.
Repubs say they need to give corporations tax breaks at the expense of our poor, middle class and elderly to promote job growth. How well has that worked? The tax breaks for the wealthy started under GW Bush and job growth for his 8 years in office is at about a million jobs. Tell me why would corporations hire more people when that would cut into their profits? If you can do more with less and make more money and the gov't is going to pay you more as incentive and you can keep getting that without hiring more people WHY HIRE? They can use some of the tax breaks to buy more republican congressmen/women to do their bidding.
The repubs can now spend unlimited amounts of money on ads (thanks supreme court) to brainwash you into believing they care about you when that is the last thing they care about.
Now that the repubs have control of many state congresses they can accomplish their mission at the state level. Have you ever taken the time to figure out what they are up to? Their mission is not targeting only democrats but republicans and independents alike. If they get rid of the unions ability to collectively bargain YOU may be working >40 hour work weeks without the benefit of overtime, and minimum wage will be gone. You will be working longer hours for less money, and the middle class will be gone. There will only be the very rich and the very poor.
They are defunding education. Have you asked WHY? Well if you cannot afford a higher education you will ever be qualified for the jobs that pay the higher wages. This is a way to keep a lower wage workforce and increase their profits.

Wake up America!!! The life as you know it is being taken away from you. Even though I can see what is happening, I am but one person. Do not let them brainwash you into believing they have your best interest at heart. THEY DO NOT!!!

I want one!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuIJRsAuCHQ&feature=popt02us03

Apple Does It Again!

Christmas gift idea!

Apple announced today that it has developed a breast implant that can store and play music. The “iTit” will cost from $499 to $699, depending on cup and speaker size. This is considered a major social breakthrough, because women are always complaining about men staring at their breasts and not listening to them.

My Dad sent this email. I might try it out this spring.

"We went with friends to Sweety Pies on Sunday for breakfast and sat in the patio section beside the house. We happened to notice zip lock baggies pinned to a post and a wall. The bags were half filled with water, each contained 4 pennies, and they were zipped shut. Naturally we were curious! Ms. Sweety told us that these baggies kept the flies away! So naturally we were even more curious! We actually watched some flies come in the open window, stand around on the window sill, and then fly out again. And there were no flies in the eating area! This morning I checked this out on Google. Below are comments on this fly control idea. I'm now a believer!

"Ann Says:I tried the ziplock bag and pennies this weekend.. I have a horse trailer. The flies were bad while I was camping. I put the baggie with pennies above the door of the LQ. NOT ONE FLY came in the trailer. The horse trailer part had many. Not sure why it works but it does!

"Danielle Martin Says: Fill a ziplock bag with water and 5 or 6 pennies and hang it in the problem area. In my case it was a particular window in my home. It had a slight passage way for insects. Every since I have done that, it has kept flies and wasps away. Some say that wasps and flies mistake the bag for some other insect nest and are threatened..

"Maggie Says: I swear by the plastic bag of water trick. I have them on porch and basement. We saw these in Northeast Mo. at an Amish grocery store & have used them since. They say it works because a fly sees a reflection & won't come around.

"DJ Says: Regarding the science behind zip log bags of water? My research found that the millions of molecules of water presents its own prism effect and given that flies have a lot of eyes, to them it's like a zillion disco balls reflecting light, colors and movement in a dizzying manner. When you figure that flies are prey for many other bugs, animals, birds, etc., they simply won't take the risk of being around that much perceived action. I moved to a rural area and thought these "hillbillies" were just yanking my city boy chain but I tried it and it worked immediately! We went from hundreds of flies to seeing the occasional one, but he didn't hang around long."

The Quick Blue Facebook Jumped Over The Lazy Blog

Wednesday is the two year anniversary of the start of this blog. As I stated in my first post the reason I started this blog was because a co-worker said that I expressed myself well. Since I like to tell stories of my life and the ponderings of my little brain, which is what this blog is about, I really have a lot of fun with it. I hope that people are amused by it, even if all I'm doing is venting.

A question came up recently about the content of my blog, and I didn't have a ready answer at the time (the answer is 'not since June, and she was mentioned in a post that she hasn't read yet'), so I went through the entire blog and came to a startling discovery: In the ten months before I joined Facebook I had written 77 posts. Since joining Facebook fourteen months ago, there have been 23. This is not good.

A friend of mine, Mark, recently wrote on Facebook, "I stopped blogging awhile ago. And I was active blogger. Facebook is easier, and I have control over who reads my posts. I much prefer facebook these days." His is an entirely different point of view from mine. Valid for him, but different.

In my point of view, the two serve entirely different functions, so "preference" is not a factor. Facebook is kinda like a post-it note: little quips we throw out there that we hope someone will notice. They can turn into a conversation, and that's the best part - especially when the participants are in varied locations around the world. Sometimes, though, that's a problem too. When my brother came to town for Christmas, he told me, "I would ask you what's going on, but since we're on Facebook, I already know." Face to face conversation became somewhat unnecessary, and I missed it. Scott and I do better in vocal conversations anyway. If he doesn't hear my voice, he often doesn't catch my meaning.

Writing a blog is more like writing a short story. I can go into more depth with the topic I want to write about, and not be worried about going over the alloted number of characters, or that someone will pull it off subject with their conversational input. Furthermore, like most authors, I really want a variety of people to read it.

Now, there are parts of my life I will not write about because I believe they are too personal, and another that I have written about a lot, but have been told I can no longer do so, so there is a little bit of self censorship going on. But there is still a lot going on in my life that I can write about, even if it is just a short paragraph. It's just a matter of actually doing it.

All The (Unused and Unusable) Time In the World

In the winter, typically, I am an idea hamster. I get a bunch of ideas about things I'm going to do as soon as the weather gets warmer. Relatively few of those ideas actually come to fruition, but they don't all go away just because they hadn't been accomplished. They just sit in the back of my head and develop into little bubbles of guilt and regret.

True, time and money do play a big factor, but a lot of times it's just poor planning or no planning or just plain old ordinary wasting my time (especially in front of the computer or TV). Then there is the backward thinking, which is really irritating (I can't do this till I do that, but i can't do that till I do the other, etc, etc, ad infinitim.) I also use my schedule as both a reason and an excuse; likewise the people in my life.

I was sitting in our "yellow room" (a spare bedroom that has been turned into a sort of lounge/reading room/ studio annex) just looking around and thinking. Gaby came in and asked what I was doing and I started telling him about all the things that I'm not getting done, and some of the reasons for that:

I have a model of the Lusitania that I got some 25 years ago, and little of it has been put together. (I also have a Titanic model in the same large scale that hasn't been touched yet.) The reason is because I don't have a space I can dedicate to that project. Plus, I am mixing my own paint colors to match the paintings by Ken Marshall in Robert Ballard's book. In short, I am making this into a very complicated project that I don't have time or space for. But it will be magnificent when it's done.

I have a number of things that I'm trying to sell on ebay. I just need to post the auctions. I don't particularly have an excuse for not doing this, except that I want the auctions to end at a particular time, therefore I have to post them at a particular time, and something always seems to come up. Or I just forget.

I'm supposed to be working on a research project for my brother. I have the materials to do it (three books, a pencil, and a yellow pad), but it requires a lot of reading and cross referencing and typing the results. I really don't have an excuse to not be working on this project except that it falls victim to "getting started is the hardest part," as many of my projects do, because the stuff gets put away or moved, and getting them out again and figuring out where I was before the stuff got moved is just too much trouble. I also need time to myself to think, and that's hard to come by.

Then there's my Spanish lesson, which I am also blogging about. Again, getting started is the hardest part. Plus, I'm overcomplicating it, while not getting enough practice. Time to myself is not a problem with this project, because having Gaby here is (usually) helpful. I guess I have no excuse.

I'm working on two pen & inks and six paintings. I got a lot done on one of the drawings last weekend (yay), but this weekend all eight projects either are or need something that is behind the wall of snow between the house and the studio. At this point, I'm not sure that I'm going to get anything done on these this weekend. (Truth be told, though, three of the paintings haven't been touched in years.)

I wasn't expecting the weather to get in the way of my current art projects. When I think of weather interference I'm usually just thinking that it's too cold to work in the garage, or too wet to work out on the patio. But right now it's 9½° outside and we have 10 inches of snow blown up into huge drifts that prevent us from doing a lot of stuff. We're stuck in the house because the snow is too deep to drive through, and we are using electric portable heaters because the central heat quit working this morning. We have a kerosene heater that is very efficient, but makes the house smell bad for weeks. Gaby is afraid to use it. I'm afraid not to, because if we don't use one of the electric heaters in the utility room the pipes around the washing machine may burst. We really need a new storm door and a new energy efficient window on that room. Things we need to do when we have money and nice weather.

Other things that require nice weather:

We have some tables for the living room, two of which need to be stripped, all four need to be stained.

The framing business has pretty much fizzled out, and I have hundreds of frame samples that I want to make into little wall shelves and other things to sell on ebay... which reminds me, I need a scroll saw. But I also need a warm garage.

But the big project is changing the arrangement of my studio to accomodate a new direction in the business. This will require moving a lot of stuff, most of it paper goods, out on the patio while construction is going on, so the weather has to be dry. It also needs to be warm, since the doors will be open through most of the project. Everytime I go out in the studio I am so distracted by the excitement of this project that I have trouble making myself do something useful. I've measured the room over and over again. I know the results will be the same every time, but I just can't help it. I repeatedly go over the details in my head, afraid that I will forget something when the time comes.

Anyway, that's how I am: obsessing over the things I can't do now, neglecting the things I should do now. I've been this way all my life. I do actually accomplish a few things, but it's never enough, and always at the last minute. And every year it's going to be different. But this year I have a plan.

Stuff from the Email

Oklahoma Trivia and Interesting Facts

1. The bread twist tie was invented in Maysville.
2. The shopping cart was invented in Ardmore in 1936.
3. The nation's first parking meter was installed in Oklahoma City in 1935.
4. The first Girl Scout Cookie was sold in Muskogee in 1917.
5. Cimarron County, located in the Oklahoma Panhandle, is the only county in the U.S. bordered by 4 separate states - Texas, New Mexico, Colorado and Kansas.
6. The Oklahoma State Capital is the only capital in the U.S. with working oil wells on its grounds.
7. Boise City, Okla., was the only city in the United States to be bombed during World War II. On Monday, July 5, 1943, at 12:30am., a B-17 Bomber based at Dalhart Army Air Base, Texas, dropped six practice bombs on the sleeping town, mistaking the city lights as target lights.
8. WKY Radio in Oklahoma City was the first radio station transmitting west of the Mississippi River.
9. The nation's first "tornado warning" was issued March 25, 1948 in Oklahoma City minutes before a devastating tornado. Because of the warning, no lives were lost.
10. Oklahoma has the largest Native American population of any state in the U.S.
11. The name 'Oklahoma' comes from two Choctaw words - okla meaning "people" and humma meaning "red." So the name means, "Red People." The name was approved in 1890.
12. Oklahoma has produced more astronauts than any other state.
13. Oklahoma has more man-made lakes than any other state (including Caddo County's Fort Cobb Lake).
14. During the "Land Rush," Oklahoma City and Guthrie went from vast, open prairie to cities of over 10,000 in a single day.
15. The nation's first "Yield" traffic sign was erected in Tulsa on a trial basis.
16. The Pensacola Dam on Grand Lake is the longest multi-arched dam in the world at 6,565 feet.
17. The Port of Catoosa (just north of Tulsa) is the largest inland port in America.
18. The aerosol can was invented in Bartlesville.
19. Per square mile, Oklahoma has more tornadoes than any other place in the world.
20. The highest wind speed ever recorded on earth was in Moore Okla., on May 3, 1999 during the Oklahoma City F-5 tornado. Wind speed was clocked at 318 mph.
21. The Will Rogers World Airport and the Wiley Post Airport are both named after two famous Oklahomans, both killed in the same airplane crash.

And Oklahoma Towns Offer It All

Love the Summer?
Poolville, Oklahoma
Sunray, Oklahoma

Want Something To Eat?
Cookietown, Oklahoma
Corn, Oklahoma
Grainola, Oklahoma
Hominy, Oklahoma
Olive, Oklahoma
South Coffeeville, Oklahoma
Sweetwater, Oklahoma

Why Travel To Other Cities? Oklahoma Has Them All!
Cleveland, Oklahoma
Orlando, Oklahoma
Miami, Oklahoma
Pittsburgh, Oklahoma
Santa Fe, Oklahoma
St. Louis, Oklahoma
Chattanooga, Oklahoma
Peoria, Oklahoma
Burbank, Oklahoma
Fargo, Oklahoma

Don't Forget The Wildlife!
Bison, Oklahoma
Buffalo, Oklahoma
Deer Creek, Oklahoma
Eagle, Oklahoma
Elk City, Oklahoma
Fox, Oklahoma
Wolfe, Oklahoma

There's A Town Named After A Number:
Fourty-One, Oklahoma

And A Town Whose Letters Don't Spell Anything:
IXL, Oklahoma

For The Sportsman Who Wants To Get Away From It All
Fisherman's Paradise, Oklahoma

We Even Have A City Named After Earth's Only Satellite!
Moon, Oklahoma

And A City Named After Our State!
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Feeling A Bit Chilly?
Cold Springs, Oklahoma
Snow, Oklahoma
Slick, Oklahoma

Oklahoma Is Full Of Love!
Bigheart, Oklahoma
Lovedale, Oklahoma
Loveland, Oklahoma
Lovell, Oklahoma
Loyal, Oklahoma

Like To Read About The Presidents?
Adams, Oklahoma
Carter, Oklahoma
Clinton, Oklahoma
Fillmore, Oklahoma
Grant, Oklahoma
Jefferson, Oklahoma
Johnson, Oklahoma
Lincoln, Oklahoma
Reagan, Oklahoma
Roosevelt, Oklahoma
Taft, Oklahoma
Taylor, Oklahoma
Washington, Oklahoma
Wilson, Oklahoma

Other City Names In Oklahoma To Make You Smile
Bowlegs, Oklahoma
Bugtussle, Oklahoma
Bushyhead, Oklahoma
Frogville, Oklahoma
Hooker, Oklahoma
Loco, Oklahoma
Slapout, Oklahoma
Slaughterville, Oklahoma

And Regardless What Side Of The Fence You're On
Gay, Oklahoma
Straight, Oklahoma