Life-Saving Properties of Sewage
In April, a woman hanging out laundry on the sixth-floor roof of a building in Nanjing, China, fell off but was only slightly injured when she happened to land in a shallow pool of the contents of the building’s septic system, which workers were cleaning. A fiery auto crash in July near Augusta, Ga., had…
Recurring Themes
News of the Weird has reported several times on various designers, and even engineers, who claim to have invented a more comfortable bra. In July, a team from Hong Kong Polytechnic Institute, citing “the complex 3-D geometry” of the breast, offered a mathematical equation that they said would yield greater comfort, producing a larger variety…
Sooner freshmen make record-setting debut
The University of Oklahoma football team kicked off the season tonight in record-breaking fashion as the Sooners beat North Texas 79-10 at the Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. Two redshirt freshman football players, quarterback Sam Bradford from Oklahoma City and running back DeMarco Murray from Las Vegas, each set individual records in the contest. Bradford threw…
103-year-old Sooner fan provides inspiring performance
nd DeMarco Murray, the next best had to be 103-year-old Caroline Blue. The Norman resident was honored as a longtime Sooner season-ticket holder during a second-quarter timeout. Blue has been attending Sooner games since The Great Depression and walked — unassisted — to the end zone to be honored on the SoonerVision jumbo video screen for all…
Halloween
Reviewer’s grade: B No offense to the Rick Rosenthals and Dwight H. Littles of the world, but after John Carpenter never looked back, all installments in the enduring “Halloween” series have been helmed by for-hire directors. Until now. Say what you will about Rob Zombie’s films, but the man keeps the auteur theory alive…
News That Sounds Like a Joke
Two Port Washington, Wis., inmates brawled in July, started (said officials) when James Lala (who has served time for having sex with an underage girl) asked another man what he thought of Woody Allen’s having married the teenage daughter of his then-girlfriend Mia Farrow. When the man responded that he thought that was perverted, Lala…
Wanda Jackson: The Sweet Lady with the Nasty Voice
Reviewer’s grade: B+ In a world in which it seems that nine out of 10 rock legends wind up dead in a car crash, in a plane crash or choking on ham sandwiches, it’s nice to see a documentary about a rock pioneer who’s not only still alive, but never stopped performing at all.…
Oklahoma senator aboard aircraft shot at in Iraq
While visiting in the Middle East, a plane in which U.S. Senator Jim Inhofe (R-Oklahoma) was traveling was shot at leaving the airport in Baghdad. The C-130 military aircraft was en route to Amman, Jordan with Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Alabama), Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Florida) along with Rep. Bud Cramer (D-Alabama) aboard. Inhofe’s Washington,…
People Different From Us
In July, a California appeals court rejected the challenge of Nizameddine Chokr, 51, leaving in place his five-year-plus sentence for repeatedly masturbating in public. However, Chokr, a suede-pants-wearing, facially discomforting, secret FBI agent (according to him), shamelessly lamented that women are constantly demanding sex from him, leading him once to proclaim in court, “I am…
Least Competent Fraudsters
Belleville, Ill., psychiatrist Ajit Trikha pleaded guilty in June to defrauding Medicare and Medicaid of at least $1.85 million, including invoices claiming he worked more than 24 hours a day on 76 different occasions (40 hours on one day and treating 83 patients in 2 1/2 hours on another). He also claimed to treat patients…
Death Sentence
Reviewer’s grade: B+ The lesson of “Death Sentence”: You mess with Kevin Bacon’s family, he’s likely to burn you to a crisp. Bacon sizzles in this essentially ugly tale of score-settling, as a well-to-do family man who becomes unhinged when one of his sons is slain by gang members, and the guys plan to…
Trooper killer taken off death row
The man convicted of murdering an Oklahoma Highway Patrol officer is off of death row after a ruling today from the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals. Ricky Ray Malone was convicted of first-degree murder for the December 2003 killing of Officer Nik Green. Malone received the death sentence from Comanche County Judge Mark Smith. A…
Balls of Fury
Reviewer’s grade: B If you thought “Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story” was hilarious, then you probably will have a great time seeing “Balls of Fury,” which follows the downfall of ping-pong legend Randy Daytona (Dan Fogler, “School for Scoundrels”). When child pong prodigy Daytona fails at the big match, his gambling military dad is…
Former state senator faces competency exam
An Oklahoma federal judge ordered former state Sen. Gene Stipe to undergo a mental evaluation at a Missouri federal inmate hospital on Tuesday, records show. According to the ruling filed in the Eastern Oklahoma District Court by U.S. District Judge Ronald White, Stipe appeared disoriented at a probation revocation hearing in Muskogee, prompting the decision. …
The Will Rogers Collection: Volume 1
1935/2006 In Oklahoma, a state that has elevated Will Rogers to the status of icon, it’s easy to lose sight of the actual flesh-and-blood humorist and the sizable influence he had on popular culture in the early 20th century. A Hollywood superstar of the Twenties and Thirties, Rogers wielded his homespun wit and aw-shucks…
Cello
2005 First-time writer/director Woo-cheol Lee’s “Cello” is a creepy little gem working from the assumption that we create our own ghosts. Hyeon-a Seong stars as Hong Mi-ju, a brilliant cellist who is haunted by the spirit of a woman she knew as a student, a cellist who was never as good and was killed…
Some Like It Hot: Collector’s Edition
1959/2006 The American Film Institute has ranked “Some Like It Hot” as the funniest American film of all time, and who am I to disagree? This Billy Wilder-directed jewel remains nearly as fresh and daring as it was upon its 1959 theatrical release. Set in Chicago circa 1929, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon portray…
Dinosaurium – Laura Buller and Carey Scott
DK Books For the budding paleontologist in your family, the ginormous board book “Dinosaurium” is worth more than an all-day pass to Jurassic Park. And far less dangerous.It’s literally 10 books in one. The more pages you turn, the more publications are revealed, hidden in die-cut nooks and crannies. For example, a “Dino Bio” comic-strip…
The Nanny Diaries
1:place w:st=”on”>Upper East Side ice queen Mrs. X (Laura Linney) and her son, Grayer. Annie lies to her nurse mom, who only wants the best for her daughter, and tries to keep her best friend (singer Alicia Keys) in good graces, while she decides if she can stand breaking Grayer’s heart to live her own…
Common – Finding Forever
GeffenCommon’s latest release, “Finding Forever,” is a pretty bland collection of soulful hip-hop tracks that makes you wish Common, who earned four 2006 Grammy nominations for his album “Be,” would release something a little less common and a little more interesting. To his credit, the Chicago hip-hop native’s voice doesn’t sound like anyone else, but…
Woman discharged from military for being gay says experience devastating
Military dismissals on the basis of homosexuality “basically devastates people’s lives,” according to Peggy Johnson, a lesbian and former petty officer second class on the USS Puget Sound. “Individuals and individual personalities handle things differently,” Johnson said. “I kind of struggled. I wound up in Oklahoma and kind of struggled.” With the current war in…
State Department of Education releases preliminary School Improvement List
Oklahoma State Superintendent of Public Instruction Sandy Garrett announced today there are 62 state schools on the preliminary 2007 School Improvement List. Schools are placed on the list if the students’ test scores indicate they has not made sufficient adequate yearly progress for two consecutive years and can only be removed from the list if…
New Route 66 landmark combines cutting-edge design with soda
Landmarks must be unmistakable, and with a 66-foot, lighted, steel soda bottle out front, the new Pops gas station/restaurant is a can’t-miss addition to Route 66. Located in Arcadia, just six miles east of Edmond at 660 W. Highway 66, Pops is a streamlined building possessing a Sixties “Jetsons” sensibility, simultaneously futuristic and retro. Pops’…
The Entrepreneurial Spirit!
World of Warcraft, too, is an online game as popular as Second Life, with warrior-players amassing digital gold coins from every opponent they vanquish, and the greater the lucre, the higher they advance in the WOW ranks. Some players take the easy route, though, and buy their WOW gold coins from dealers, who mostly get…
Lisa Curl gives up job to commit to music full-time
Lisa Curl and the Triplets soon will be stepping out of the familiar and into the more uncertain world of regional gigs, label hunting and broken tour vans, in the hopes of making a break and moving to the next level. She quit her day job and the band will record one last demo Thursday…
Changing You!: A Guide to Body Changes and Sexuality – Dr. Gail Saltz and Lynne Avril Cravath
Dutton Children’s Books$16.99ISBN: 9780525478171 I’m all for leveling with kids when it comes to explaining the birds and the bees. But that doesn’t mean I want a book sitting on their shelf with a cutaway cartoon illustration of a penis ejaculating into a vagina. “?Rod Lott
100-year-old Oklahomans focus of photo exhibit
Journalist M.J. Alexander is celebrating centenarians across the state with her “Salt of the Red Earth” photography exhibit in the Tulsa World Gallery at the Gaylord-Pickens Oklahoma Heritage Center, 1400 Classen Drive. Alexander’s exhibit features photos of 35 Oklahomans and their thoughts about life, love and living to be 100. For this project, Alexander traveled…
VHS or Beta – Bring on the Comets
Astralwerks It’s rare to slide an album into your CD player and immediately know you are going to love it. VHS or Beta hails from Louisville, Ky., and writes and performs danceable rock-punk tunes that are easily likable and hummable. Many of the songs have just enough keyboards and synthesizer effects to appeal…
Kidnapped – Alan Grant and Cam Kennedy
Tundra Books$11.95ISBN: 9780887768439 Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic 1886 novel may not be as accessible to kids weaned on the Internet as it has been to previous generations, so this graphic novel adaptation may be the best way to interest reluctant children in the work, and perhaps the joy of reading in general. It’s been decades…
Mr. Bean’s Holiday
Reviewer’s grade: B That gangly human marionette Rowan Atkinson is back with another side trip into absurdity as the one-of-a-kind Mr. Bean. This time, Bean is on his way to a week on the beach at Cannes when he loses his wallet and passport, and eventually teams up with a young boy (Max Baldry) on…
Mae – Singularity
Capitol Always super-poppy and catchy, Norfolk, Va.-based band Mae has released its third full-length album, “Singularity,” easily its most polished to date. The sheen, mostly due to producer Howard Benson (Relient K, My Chemical Romance) comes at a price, however, but that likely won’t be a dearth of record sales. “Singularity” sounds great…
University of Oklahoma football fan allegedly gets physical with Texas aficionado
A University of Oklahoma fan allegedly assaulted a Texas Longhorns fan by tearing his scrotum in a local bar, according to a recent story. Allen Michael Beckett, 53, faces an aggravated assault and battery charge after the incident, which court docs indicate occurred in June at the Henry Hudsons Pub at 3509 N.W. 58th,…
Oklahoma County Oklahoma State University Cooperative Extensive Service sends out wasp warning
Just when we stopped worrying about giant octopuses “¦ On CFN’s list of reasons not to go outside: 1. the sweltering heat, 2. the sweltering heat, 3. the sweltering heat. And now, 4. giant wasps! Warns Samantha Snyder, horticulture educator at the Oklahoma County Oklahoma State University Cooperative Extensive Service, giant wasps are…
Leading Economic Indicators
The New York Times reported in July that at least eight buyers were vying to purchase one of the five parking spaces in the basement of the new condominiums at 246 W. 17th St., for $225,000 each. And in Chappaqua, N.Y., the owner of the Via Genova water bar told WCBS-TV in July that she…
OU Medical Center and The Jimmy Everest Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders in Children make the G
Everyone wants to find a way to make it into the Guinness book of world records. Ashrita Furman reportedly has the record for most deep knee bends in one minute while standing on a Swiss ball (it’s 30, if you really want to know). Suresh Joachim holds the record for the longest time spent ironing…
Heroes: Season 1
2006/2007 When NBC’s “Heroes” debuted last fall, I avoided it, thinking its concept of real people discovering unreal powers incapable of being done justice by network television. Leave it to this seven-disc set to shatter my theory. Sometimes, I’m pleased to be wrong. Instantly addictive, it follows the individual, soon-to-intersect stories of everyday citizens coming…
Blades of Glory
cross which the characters glide, but “Blades of Glory” is a film designed strictly for big laughs, and in that aspect, it takes home a gold. Its “plot keywords” on the Internet Movie Database strongly hint at its level of intelligence “? “hit in crotch,” “decapitation,” “incest overtones” “? but Ferrell is its not-so-secret weapon.…
Eye of the Dolphin
piritual qualities of unsullied nature teaches the island locals a lesson about life; warm fuzzies are shared all around. Designed to be the kind of movie only a 13- or 14-year-old girl could love, the overriding message of “Dolphin” is that rational thought only messes up your head and “following your heart” is the only…
Plains Indian art show kicks off with two-day preview
American Indian art once evoked sweeping plains, tragic scenes of oppression and a reverence for tribal cultures. But according to Patrick Riley, an artist and coordinator of the 25th annual Gallery of the Plains Indian Art Show, said the genre is no longer so narrow in scope. “There was a definition for Native art, but…
Censoring Oklahoma artists
Something strange is going on down at the state Capitol, where an Oklahoma artist named Narciso Argüelles has a show of his photography in the North Gallery. Two of his pieces were censored, and then he said he was told to keep quiet about it. The show, called “Human Landscapes,” depicts Chicano people and their…
Limited-edition guitar recognizes state centennial
The first Oklahoma centennial electric guitar has just rolled off the assembly line and will be presented to centennial officials in the fall. The guitar was made by Sand Dimas Guitars, and though the company is headquartered in Southern California, it has its roots ” and its products undergo their final assembly ” in Tulsa.…
Stillwater country band No Justice set to storm Bricktown
Stillwater’s rowdy five-piece No Justice will play the Wormy Dog Saloon, on Wednesday, Sept. 5, in Bricktown ” the band’s second show in a three-day home stand. The band also will play Okemah’s Red Dirt Harvest Festival on Labor Day weekend before heading back to Texas. Then, it’s back home to Stillwater to showcase the…
Oh, Yeah, Tough Guys!
Lamont Cooke was arrested by a SWAT team in Vernon, Conn., in July after spending the last year on the run from Philadelphia and Maryland authorities, who wanted him for charges of kidnapping and murder. According to the arresting U.S. marshal, Cooke surrendered quietly, except that he wet his pants. A police task force in…
Public meeting fills City Hall’s council chambers
The first public meeting regarding Oklahoma City’s General Obligation Fund exceeded expectations, said City Public Relations and Marketing Director Kristy Yager. Held at City Hall in the council chambers with the rows of seats filled, the public listened to presentations from various city officials regarding proposed allocations for public works, police, fire, parks and…
Jewel Box celebrates golden anniversary
Now 50 years old, the Jewel Box Theatre at 3700 N. Walker enjoys a base of season ticket holders who finance the theater completely, and a network of directors, actors and volunteers who keep coming back year after year. Artistic director Chuck Tweed took off the pressure of selecting such an important season by asking…
Some Oklahomans advocate creating U.S. peace department
Under the auspices of a national organization called The Peace Alliance, a local group works tirelessly to convince the public of the need for a U.S. Department of Peace, with a cabinet-level secretary of peace. In 2001 and again in 2003, Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio introduced legislation to create a Department of Peace. His…
High school football keeps ’em coming back
In today’s world of big-business college football, there remains a certain measure of innocence and purity at the high school level that help define its unwavering popularity. It is witnessed every autumn Friday night by millions of people who lock up their homes and shut down their businesses in time to make the opening kickoff.…
Our cup overflows
I was driving on Interstate 270 in Columbus, Ohio, listening to my favorite talk-radio station, when a news alert interrupted the otherwise mind-numbing droning of the host. The alert indicated that an explosion had taken place in Oklahoma City, and authorities weren’t sure the cause. Something instinctively told me to cancel my appointments for the…
Oklahoman loses U.S.’ oldest female Marine veteran
The United States’ oldest female veteran of the Marines ” an Oklahoma woman ” died in Owasso this August. Ninety-seven-year-old Maye Ryan passed away Aug. 13, following a brief hospital stay after she broke her hip in a fall, according to the Tulsa World. Born May 18, 1910, in Red Oak, she graduated…
Science on the Cutting Edge
Solving Two Female Problems at Once: Cytori Therapeutics (cited in a recent Chemistry and Industry Magazine report) has developed a procedure to grow breast tissue from a mixture of stem cells and fat liposuctioned from the recipient’s belly, thighs or butt. A spokesman for British plastic surgeons said he was hopeful for success, on behalf…
Recent weather mishaps keep Oklahoma calling for federal aid
Should President George Bush approve federal assistance for the state’s latest weather-related disaster, it will set a new high-water mark. Since the federal government began helping states when disasters struck, Oklahoma has been a common customer. At least 51 times, the Sooner State has called for federal help, the first in June of 1955 due…
Capitol exhibit censored, says artist
A University of Central Oklahoma art instructor has claimed some of his works on display in the state Capitol this summer were censored. Photographer Narciso Argüelles said two of his pieces (above and below) for the “Human Landscapes” exhibit, showing in the North Gallery through Sept. 2, were taken down because they were deemed too political.…
Illegal Tender
Reviewer’s grade: BThis unassuming genre film about a mom and her two sons defending themselves against an evil coming at them from 20 years ago is pretty effective and a lot more realistic than pictures of this kind usually are. Wanda De Jesus is terrific as Millie De Leon, and Rick Gonzalez, as college-aged son…
Year of the Dog
2007 At the center of Mike White’s “Year of the Dog” lies a strong, serious, honest-to-God performance by “Saturday Night Live” alum Molly Shannon, who never once lapses into the slapstick shenanigans (
Multi-artist ‘Merge’ show seeks to frustrate art critics
e show runs through September, but the opening will feature live music from Divisible by None. “I’m using this as a way to make fun of art critics “? the kind of people who go into a show and try to find meaning in the paintings,” he said. “I look at my paintings like a…
Resurrecting the Champ
Reviewer’s grade: B Rod Lurie, a film critic turned director, has a bad film (1999’s “Deterrence”) and a pretty good one (2000’s “The Contender”) among his feature film credits; “Resurrecting the Champ” falls somewhere between the two in quality. Starring Samuel L. Jackson as a down-but-not-out former fighter and Josh Hartnett as an…
Kids build skills reading to dogs at library
Anyone who ever said you can’t teach an old dog new tricks obviously hasn’t spent a Thursday night with his or her kids at the Edmond Public Library. For the past year, children have looked forward to that weeknight at the library to enjoy their favorite books with their four-legged, furry friends, as certified therapy…
El Paso Hot Button – When I Needed Sympathy
0pt”> “?Charles Martin
AAA names Skirvin Hilton as a Four Diamond hotel
Just six months after its grand reopening, the Skirvin Hilton found out today the American Automobile Association has named the hotel among its Four Diamond recipients for 2008. “It’s been on our list of things to accomplish but it came quicker than we expected,” John Williams, general manager, said. “It’s a huge thing for…
University of Oklahoma announces upcoming Colin Powell speech, event
The University of Oklahoma announced today former Secretary of State Colin Powell will speak at the school Sept. 12 presenting “The Challenges Facing America.” The speech will be at 4 p.m. at Paul F. Sharp Concert Hall in Catlett Music Center and will be open to OU faculty, staff and students with overflow seating…
