America’s Town
In March, the owner of Di’s Diner in Bulls Gap, Tenn., reported that a “blond, heavy-framed female” tried to take out a catfish dinner without paying for it and that when confronted, the woman got angry and threw money at the cash register. When the owner followed her into the parking lot, the woman threw…
The Classic Middle Name (all new)
Arrested recently and awaiting trial for murder: Gary Wayne Ray Jr. (Oklahoma City, February); Larry Wayne Brigman (St. Paul, Minn., charged in February for a 1989 murder, but already in prison for a different murder); Lewis Wayne Fielder Jr. (Laurens, S.C., February); Robert Wayne Wyant (Charlottesville, Va., February). Confessed to murder: Timothy Wayne Shepherd (Houston,…
Henry appoints Roth to Corporation Commission
Governor Brad Henry announced today he has appointed Oklahoma County Commissioner Jim Roth to the state Corporation Commission. With the appointment, Roth becomes the state’s highest ranking openly gay official. “Every opponent I ever faced in an election made that their issue,” Roth said. “And I’ve made my work the issue. I’ve always…
Least Competent Criminals
South Carolina Highway Patrol officers arrested Howard Fisher, 54, in March and seized 43 pounds of marijuana from his car, after he for some reason was unable to avoid crashing into one of their cruisers, with which they had blocked two lanes of Interstate 95 while investigating accidents. Three men, allegedly carrying $4,000 worth of…
Family Values
In Bridgeport, Conn., in March, Fermin Rodriguez, 21, was charged with assault for stabbing his wife several times (after an argument over her alleged infidelity); police said that following his attack, he apparently handed his knife to the couple’s 2-year-old son and said, “Now, you stab Mommy.” According to the manager of BJ’s Pawn Shop…
Judge releases McCarty; rips former chemist
After sitting for nearly 20 years on death row for the 1982 murder of Pamela Kaye Willis, Curtis Edward McCarty is now a free man. Judge Twyla Mason Gray said during today’s hearing she believes that McCarty was involved in the murder but because of the actions of former Oklahoma City police chemist Joyce…
28 Weeks Later
Reviewer’s grade: A- What a difference five years makes. I wasn’t a fan of Danny Boyle’s 2002 sleeper smash “28 Days Later,” and not because I was against the then-novel idea of fast-moving zombies. I simply found the second half to be an utter bore following an enticing setup; its purposeful murky look made…
Unclear on the Concept
The Scandia Family Fun Center, which operates a super thrill ride (168 feet high, spinning at 60 miles an hour, pulling 3.5 g’s) called the Screamer, in Sacramento, Calif., decided in March that because of neighborhood residents’ noise complaints, riders would be prohibited from screaming (and subject to ejection from the park). The latest National…
People Different From Us
Officials in Apex, N.C., finally confiscated the 80 sheep that David Watts had long been keeping in his home as pets (he slept upstairs, they downstairs), with the final straw coming when some of the sheep wandered into the local cemetery and munched on fresh floral arrangements. The town had apparently tolerated Watts’s eccentricity for…
Hot Hot Heat recalls past Oklahoma concerts
Many Oklahoma music fans have grown used to the state being passed over by big-label rockers. Luckily for fans of garage rockers Hot Hot Heat front man Steve Bays can relate. “We grew up on a little island. It was a good population, but it was hard to get to and expensive for bands to…
Clemens returning to Yankees, but will he help?
On Sunday ” in the kind of dramatic fashion only the Yankees can conjure up ” Roger Clemens stood up with a microphone at Yankee Stadium and announced himself as the savior to all who wear pinstripes and bow down to small statues of Babe Ruth every night. OK, so those aren’t the exact words…
Purcell liquor-store owner turns tables on would-be robber
Who says this still isn’t the wild, wild West? When a man allegedly attempted to rob a Purcell liquor store recently, what did the owner do? He threw back the F-bomb “¦ and then some. Butch’s Cork & Bottle owner Butch Kluth was minding his business on a late afternoon in the small…
Black Book
Reviewer’s grade: B Nothing much new presents itself for thought or emotional response in Paul Verhoeven’s melodramatic “Black Book,” but the film pulls viewers along with its unremitting forward action and series of character twists. Starring a skilled group of Dutch and German actors, the film tells the story of a Jewish woman in the…
Flaming Lips contribute to ‘Spider-Man 3’ CD
Moviegoers checking out “Spider-Man 3” might hear something strangely familiar. Or familiarly strange. Oklahoma’s The Flaming Lips have contributed an original song, “The Supreme Being Teaches Spider-Man How to Be in Love,” to the sound track. The song is spacey, fun and quirky in the typical fashion of the Fearless Freaks ” a punchy digital…
Jewish community center breaks ground
On May 20, the Chabad-Lubavitch community in Oklahoma City will break ground on the new Chabad Community Center for Jewish Life and Learning. Rabbi Ovadia Goldman describes the facility as a place for the entire Jewish community. Chabad of Oklahoma City already has purchased two acres on W. Hefner Road between May Avenue and Hefner…
Cherokee Freedmen file for injunction
The descendants of Oklahoma Cherokee slaves filed an injunction in federal court in Washington, D.C., Tuesday asking a judge to throw out the tribe’s recent decision to remove their citizenship and voting rights in the Indian nation. Filed by Freedmen Association President Marilynn Vann and her attorney, Jon Velie of Norman, the injunction asks…
Oklahoma weather subject of photo exhibit
A photography exhibit titled “Oklahoma Weather: A Photography Exhibit by Mark Nault and David Ewoldt” will be on display at the Edmond Historical Society and Museum through June 30. According to Iris Muno Jordan, interim director, Nault and Ewoldt’s photographs are perfect for Oklahoma. “I believe Will Rogers quipped, ‘If you stay in Oklahoma very…
Kids’ kitty play holding final performances
“Puss in Boots,” a production of Oklahoma Children’s Theatre, takes the stage at 11 a.m. Wednesday through Friday. These three days mark the final performances of the show, which began April 26. According to an OCT press release, the participation of kids in the audience is key to this adaptation of the classic children’s fairy…
Can’t Possibly Be True
Britain’s General Dental Council found dentist Alan Hutchinson guilty in April of several hygiene violations, including frequent hand-washing lapses, failure to sterilize instruments that he had taken off treatment trays to clean his own ears and fingernails with, and, more than once, urinating in his surgery sink. The council said it needed another hearing to…
Late civil rights activist is first black woman honored with rotunda portrait
After more than a decade of planning, Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher will join black and white male leaders and a handful of women honored in paint next month in the state Capitol rotunda. The late Chickasha native, who paved the way for desegregation in higher education in Oklahoma, will be the first black woman featured…
Democracy: Can you do it?
The current state legislative session has been a good civics lesson, reminding us that our democracy exists only if we participate in it. Senate Bill 714, a bill that is bad for women, bad for physicians and nurses, bad for your health and bad for Oklahoma, almost became law last week. The bill…
Carnality Ball celebrates creative, sex drives
show, which will include such dance troupes as:” Perpetual Motion/Modern Dance Oklahoma, ” Hartel Dance Group and ” her own Pseudodance Theatre. “We’ve also got The Nightlight Readers, which is based off the old-timey radio shows which would read scripts and do the sound effects,” she said. “But it will be more suggestive, so that…
Ousted Muskogee County D.A. leaves sexy cyber trail
It seems a former employee of a district attorney’s office was pulling the old MuskogeeCounty shuffle with a computer when vacating the office. An audit of the files possibly reveals why. Desks were cleared after longtime District Attorney John David Luton was defeated in his re-election bid back in November. Luton had served as…
Umbrellas plan post-tour homemade EP
Umbrellas play gorgeous music that is full and melodic, bordering on orchestral. The band’s latest album, “Illuminare,” was recorded in a defunct comedy club in downtown Tulsa and released by California indie label The Militia Group. The band will finish its current tour up with an all-ages stop Friday at the Opolis in Norman, before…
Year of the Dog
g people, they say, can also be selfish, terribly stubborn and eccentric. Welcome to Mike White’s “Year of the Dog,” a film that gives a Chinese restaurant staple three-dimensional, often funny life. Molly Shannon delivers a lovely, nuanced performance as Peggy Bates, who goes into a tailspin of sorrow when her beloved beagle, Pencil,…
Haggling over the toilets in Christianity’s most sacred church
Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre most recently made News of the Weird in 2004 because of continued petty territorial fighting among the six Christian denominations that share management of the church, which is home to some of Christianity’s holiest sites, including that of Christ’s resurrection. As Easter approached this year, three of the groups…
Leadership Oklahoma City celebrates 25 years
Leadership Oklahoma City began as a one-day training program to talk about ideas, leadership and how to get involved. “It became something that people wanted to do,” said Greg Wheeler, president of this year’s class. “It’s really taken off ever since then.” What started out as 30 people 25 years ago has now evolved to…
The Continuing Crisis
New performance-appraisal rules by India’s Ministry of Personnel, for the country’s senior-level bureaucrats, included a request that females disclose the dates of their last menstrual period, according to an April Reuters dispatch (but within days of the rules’ release, the ministry rescinded that provision). In April, near New Orleans, motorcyclist Charles Warren, minding his own…
Stage Door performs Wilde’s ‘Earnest’
Oscar Wilde’s “The Importance of Being Earnest” dissects the hilariously inverted world of the genteel rich and, specifically, the marriage matches they make. Victorian social expectations insisted on passing marks in social position, income and morality, in order to make a respectable pairing. Complications of the Wilde-est variety keep everyone off balance before a resolution…
University of Oklahoma journalism student, dean air opinions
You know what they say about opinions. That old adage especially rings true with the University of Oklahoma’s student newspaper, The Oklahoma Daily, where viewpoints have been flowing faster than vetoes from the governor’s office. It all started when The Daily’s editorial board, under the guidance of Editor William W. “Tres” Savage III (a…
Lucky You
Reviewer’s grade: C- It’s an obvious title for an obvious story about a man who is compulsive about winning the World Series of Poker because his father has already won it twice and he’s got this Freudian thing going with Dad. What does he need in order to break this chain? I know. How about…
OKC would-be shoplifters looking to practice good dental hygeine
Oklahoma City police are on the lookout for two shoplifters who recently exited the Family Dollar at 3907 N. MacArthur, leaving some almost absconded items “¦ and one well-aimed punch to the face of a pregnant woman in their wake. As reported on KWTV Channel 9, surveillance tape shows a man and woman trying…
Paying attention
It’s time Oklahomans pay attention to how money has polluted the state’s political systems. What many Oklahomans, no matter their political affiliation, may well conclude after taking a close look at the current situation is this: Politicians often abuse the contemporary campaign-funding system, and only rich people and their organizations have influence and power…
Quality-of-life issues resonate in Norman, Edmond mayoral races
Voters in Edmond and Norman recently elected mayors whose priorities place “quality-of-life” issues ahead of “growth at any cost.” In a March 6 Norman primary, University of Oklahoma political science professor Cindy Rosenthal defeated two challengers for the post. And in Edmond’s April 3 runoff, retired federal personnel manager Dan O’Neil carried all four city…
Library celebrates “Star Wars” anniversary
On Wednesday, the Ronald J. Norick Downtown Library celebrates the 30th anniversary of one of the most successful and influential films ever made: “Star Wars.” Refreshments will be served prior to the 5 p.m. screening in the library’s auditorium. Attendees are welcome to show up dressed as their favorite character, as members of the Oklahoma…
Court denies appeal for Pavatt
Convicted murderer James Dwight Pavatt was denied appeal from the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals this afternoon. The justices voted 5-0 to deny overturning Pavatt’s murder conviction and death sentence. Pavatt was found guilty in September 2003 of conspiring and killing Oklahoma City advertising executive Robert Andrew at his home in 2001. Pavatt’s co-defendant and…
Henry declares State of Emergency for Oklahoma
Governor Brad Henry today declared a State of Emergency for all of Oklahoma’s counties. Tornadoes, rain and flooding have been widespread throughout Oklahoma since May 4. “The State Emergency Operations Plan has been activated and our emergency management officials are closely monitoring the situation,” Henry said in a statement. Providing a formal…
Garrett criticizes report flunking state education
State superintendent Sandy Garrett released a statement today in response to a recently publicized report criticizing Oklahoma’s education system, giving the state’s academic achievement an “F.” The U.S. Chamber of Commerce “Leaders and Laggards” report ranked Oklahoma 42nd out of all states and Washington, D.C. Garrett criticized it for using old data ” from 2003…
