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…
Rocketplane, NASA agreement looks to be over
NASA officials are only halfway confirming a story that the federal agency is terminating its contract with Rocketplane Kistler. Melissa Mathews, NASA spokeswoman, told Oklahoma Gazette the agency is taking the first steps toward terminating the contract with the Oklahoma City-based company. “On Friday, NASA’s associate administrator for exploration systems, Scott Horowitz, notified Rocketplane Kistler…
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…
Elementary schools set MAPS improvements meetings
With a new school year under way, MAPS for Kids community meetings are picking up at area schools slated for improvements. Three elementary schools will host the first of their meetings in the next weeks: ” Hillcrest, ” Pierce and ” Edwards. At the other end of the process, Wilson Elementary, an Arts…
Fate of proposed Red Rock plant seems imminent
The Oklahoma Corporation Commission Monday implied it would reject an application by Oklahoma Gas and Electric to build a $1.87 billion dollar coal-fired electric plant. During deliberations in instructing staff to prepare an order, the commission indicated that such an order ” to be issued possibly by next week ” would reject the plant,…
Live Sass!
The Sooners hold the Hurricanes to a three and out in their first offensive series. Marcus Walker did a great job of trying to sell that would-be interception, even convincing one official. Too bad the officials’ review system works better at Oklahoma than Oregon. Having Gino Torreta and Toby Keith announce the starting offensive and…
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…
Two officers charged in child’s shooting death
ere certified police officers, although one had been only a month out of training. The other was a five-year veteran of the Noble police force. “I felt that I had no choice in filing the charges,” he said. “? Ben Fenwick
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…
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…
Shoot ‘Em Up
Reviewer’s grade: B Those uncomfortable with heavy violence, gratuitous sex and scenes of infants in peril are going to hate “Shoot ‘Em Up.” For all others, enjoyment will rest on one’s tolerance for a cartoon without the animation. Michael Davis’ quasi-tribute/spoof to exaggerated action cinema fires on all cylinders from the get-go, but…
The Simpsons: The Complete Eighth Season
1996-97/2006 The easiest way to start a vicious slap fight among the “Simpsons” faithful is to ponder precisely when the beloved sitcom began its inexorable downward slide; most generally would agree that the cracks in the show’s foundation were beginning to be most visible here, in its eighth season. That shouldn’t discourage anyone…
Brick
2005 The most harebrained ideas can also make for great art. Then again, they can also result in harebrained art. Rian Johnson’s “Brick,” an audacious indie that transplants a film-noir detective into the middle of high school intrigue, falls somewhere between whack and wacky. In this dense and ambitious telling, Joseph Gordon-Levitt portrays Brendan…
The Wicker Man
1973/2006 This is the real “Wicker Man,” the one released in 1973 and starring Edward Woodward and Christopher Lee. Woodward is a mainland policeman sent to the off-Scotland island of Summerisle to locate a young girl who’s gone missing. Funny thing about the local population: They deny knowing the girl and they act funny.…
Book Beat celebrates first decade with concert
Book Beat & Co. was born out of the back of a thrift shop where Shilo Brown, then a 20-year-old book lover, started his shop with $500 and a few hundred books and CDs. A decade and three moves later, Brown still is stocking his shelves, just with more space and loyal clientele. He’ll be…
Masters of Horror: We All Scream for Ice Cream
2007 Behind one of the most visually interesting covers for Showtime’s macabre “Masters of Horror” series lies its worst episode these eyes yet have witnessed, in “We All Scream for Ice Cream.” Despite revolving around the tried-and-true horror element of a clown “? because all clowns are scary, thanks to “Poltergeist” “? and…
Riddle of Steel joining Okie label-mates for Conservatory show
With St. Louis-based Riddle of Steel having finished recording its third album, guitarist and vocalist Andrew Elstner expounded upon the task of choosing a moniker for the new release through a simile. “We’ve been throwing around some ideas, but I don’t know if I want to give you a label yet,” Elstner said. “It’s like…
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…
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…
Oklahoma, stated
What does the rest of the country think about Oklahoma in 2007? To answer this question, I recently completed an unofficial and unscientific survey of news stories about Oklahoma found in newspapers and broadcasts across the nation. My methodology was simple: I typed “Oklahoma” into a Google news search and read stories from non-Oklahoman sources.…
Arts Council has right to edit Capitol exhibits, says spokeswoman
Narciso Argüelles, an artist and art instructor at the University of Central Oklahoma, said two of his pieces were removed from his photography exhibit at the state Capitol because the curator felt they were “too politically loaded.” One of the pieces, he said, was taken off the gallery wall after the exhibit had formally opened.…
Singing Zoologist’ visiting four metro libraries
What do you get when you mix Dr. Doolittle, The Crocodile Hunter and Bill Nye the Science Guy? A high-energy, charismatic animal-lover with a penchant for communicating with children and nature in some of the most off-the-wall ways. His name is Lucas Miller, but he’s better known as “the Singing Zoologist.” Children in the metro…
Couple’s pottery, paintings showcased at JRB Art
Living and working together is not easy, and when that work is art, logic holds that it would be only a matter of time before any relationship so tightly tethered would snap. Matt Seikel and Denise Duong have managed to thrive, though, as they work out of the same studio in the back of their…
Trio of folksters share studio, stage and love of Americana
With decades of experience as songwriters and performers, as well as two previous albums that have topped the Americana music charts, Kevin Welch, Kieran Kane and Fats Kaplin have a seemingly casual approach when they record an album together. “We pretty much sit down and go, ‘Whattaya got?'” Welch said from his home in Nashville,…
Six homes featured on Lincoln Terrace tour
Step out of the present and walk through the doors of the past this weekend at the Lincoln Terrace Neighborhood Association’s historic home tour. Located directly south of the state Capitol complex, this historic neighborhood will open the doors to six of its grandest residences to anyone and everyone interested in catching a glimpse of…
Building strong children
The famous abolitionist Frederick Douglass had it right about education in this often-cited quote: “It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.” Those words are as true today as in the mid-19th century when Douglass, a former slave, became the conscience of America, standing up boldly in speech after speech…
The Best Creative Nonfiction: Vol. 1 – Lee Gutkind, editor
ct, a few read so pretentious and flowery that I’m not convinced they’re entirely factual. But, as the saying goes, the truth hurts, at least on occasion. There’s still enough fascinating bits here to merit a purchase, and a hope of more volumes to come. “?Rod Lott
Swizz Beatz – One Man Band Man
Universal Hey, guess what? Just because you can flip enough knobs in a studio to make beats for other hip-hop artists doesn’t mean you can or need to make an album of your own. But New York producer, beat-maker and studio guru Swizz Beats didn’t learn from his 2002 mistake “Presents G.H.E.T.T.O. Stories,”…
John Vanderslice returns to Opolis
Indie rocker John Vanderslice will be playing his fifth show in three years at Norman’s Opolis ” a remarkable feat, considering even most local bands haven’t accomplished that. “We’re pretty loyal to the clubs and promoters we really know and believe in,” said Vanderslice, who currently lives in San Francisco. “It’s really more than trust…
Gov. Walton’s fight with Ku Klux Klan raises questions
In 1923, John Calloway “Jack” Walton became the first Oklahoma governor to be impeached. His less-than-a-year tenure was dominated by two forces: corruption and the Ku Klux Klan. Corruption ultimately led to his downfall, but his dealings with the latter may be his lasting legacy. Walton spent most of his days as governor waging war…
Forty Minutes Of Hell – Gimme Some Delay
If you ever have seen Norman’s Forty Minutes of Hell, you know the kind of live inferno the guys in the band let loose on the stage, their instruments, the audience and themselves. The sonic pummeling, self-mutilation and vocal writhing almost has been fully replicated now so you can take it home with…
Norwood failed to break OU football color barrier, but has no regrets
No one could blame Sylvester Norwood if he never wanted to set foot in Oklahoma again. But the 71-year-old Kingfisher native wants to return to Norman, a place he has not seen since he was 18. It was there in 1955 when he helped write a small chapter of history for the University of Oklahoma…
Dean Martin – Forever Cool
Capitol Despite joining forces with the Grim Reaper a dozen years ago, Dean Martin has a new album out. Taking a page from the Frank Sinatra “Duets” cash cow, the record finds the Rat Pack vice president sharing songs with very-much-alive artists of later generations. Any suspicions that the merger might be jarring…
12×12′ art show previewed
The Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition is putting one square foot in front of the other to raise money at its 18th annual “12×12 Art Show & Sale.” More than 150 Oklahoma artists took on the challenge to prove that bigger isn’t always better by creating their own masterpieces to fit the 12-inch-by-12-inch dimension limitation. These…
Every Time I Die – The Big Dirty
l style=”MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt”>”The Big Dirty” is the latest from the band, which follows 2005’s “Gutter Phenomenon.” ETID may not appeal to the metal purist. There isn’t a lot of dark dragon imagery, machine-gun double-bass drums or all-out guitar shredding, but vocalist Keith Buckley, whose voice actually gets better album after album, is about…
Oklahoma judge refers to ‘Dr. Who’ in ruling
Some of us here at Chicken-Fried News are sci-fi aficionados, but it’s unsettling when a federal judge includes “Dr. Who” references in his rulings. That’s what U.S. District Judge Ronald White did in a ruling commanding that former Oklahoma state Sen. Gene Stipe be remanded to the care of a prison hospital for evaluation.…
Linwood students shining, thanks to innovative education
According to a new No Child Left Behind report, Linwood Elementary students exceeded NCLB’s “annual yearly progress” benchmarks for the fifth year running, at the same time an increased number of state schools were placed on a needs-improvement list. Linwood’s achievement crossed the board, among all students and ELL, male, female, Hispanic and economically disadvantaged…
Cardio tennis marries sport with fitness
Cardio tennis takes place on a tennis court, but a racket is involved only half of the time. The Greens Country Club, 13100 Green Valley Drive, recently introduced the class, which focuses more on footwork drills, medicine balls and stamina-boosting routines, rather than just smashing little yellow tennis balls over the net. “We get a…
Muskogee man wins wing-eating contest in Maryland
Now, that’s a spicy poultry appendage! The Muskogee Phoenix reported that an Oklahoman man ” and apparently his cast-iron digestive system ” took top honors at last week’s Wings to Go Homicide Hot Wing Challenge in Baltimore. Representing a Wings to Go location in Muskogee, Mike Yoss of Connerville downed 20 hot wings…
Seminole leader advocated independent nation in 1800s
Wewoka was the location for a series of secret conferences within the Seminole Nation during the summer of 1846. The attendees did not dare let their hosts, the Creeks, learn of what they were discussing, fearing the wrath of the larger tribe. Before them stood the tall, athletic Coacoochee, spending hours trying to convince an…
Jewel Box’s ‘Nunsense’ is ‘holy’ hilarious
It feels like homecoming at Jewel Box Theatre right now. Kicking off its 50th season of shows, artistic director Chuck Tweed was able to gather nearly all of his original cast for its opener: a reprise of the theater’s most produced show, “Nunsense.” Even Mark Croston’s original choreography is intact. Writer Dan Goggin’s comic crowd-pleaser…
Tornado Alley Roller Girls assemble travel team
Oklahoma City’s Tornado Alley Roller Girls have been taking their skates, elbow pads and high-octane antics on the road recently with their new off-season travel team, the Trailer Thrashers. One of the team’s new co-captains, Brooke Burleson, aka Sally Strych9, said the new team is comprised of 20 players from the league’s four teams. “We…
Dallas Cowboys football game brings Sallisaw woman riches
There are many ways to pick numbers for the lottery. But, a Sallisaw woman found the right combination of sports and betting. Sixty-year-old Nita K. Jacobs, a Texas transplant, got an Aug. 25 call from her neighbor, who wanted to know if Jacobs was interested in picking any Powerball numbers, The Associated Press reported.…
Discarded photos, documents live on in Jerrod Smith’s art
Worn photos and family albums discarded in estate sales or sold to thrift stores: Jerrod Smith sees art in these aged images of past generations. “They have a preexisting life to them, which I like,” Smith said. “It’s been touched before, it’s been held before. I’ve found photos and birth certificates in thrift stores. I…
Norman police identify three shooting victims
Norman Police Capt. Leonard Judy confirmed the identities of three women shot and killed at a Norman residence Tuesday as: ” Tami Link, 52; ” Sheila Ellis, 56; and ” Letannah Bishop, 87. The three women were shot at an east Norman residence — 1517 Oklahoma Ave. — owned by Link and her husband, 54-year-old Brent Link.…
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…
Chickasha woman’s boyfriend alledgedly shares too much information
Some guys like to brag to their girlfriends about their past exploits. Usually it’s ill-advised ” but especially when the implied incident allegedly was with the girlfriend’s mom, as one guy found out in Chickasha. According to the Chickasha Express-Star, Minco Police Chief Gus Handke recently responded to a call from a trailer park…
