21 unanswered questions.. from Red Dirt Momma... enjoy!!

1. Ever wonder about those people who spend $ 2.00 apiece on those little bottles of Evian water? Try spelling Evian backwards: NAIVE
2. Isn't making a smoking section in a restaurant like making a peeing section in a swimming pool? (My sentiments exactly)
3. If 4 out of 5 people SUFFER from diarrhea...does that mean that one enjoys it?
4. There are three religious truths:
A. Jews do not recognize Jesus as the Messiah.
B. Protestants do not recognize the Pope as the leader of the Christian faith.
C. Baptists do not recognize each other in the liquor store or at Hooters.
5. If people from Poland are called Poles, then why aren't people from Holland called Holes?
6. Do infants enjoy infancy as much as adults enjoy adultery?
7. If a pig loses its voice, is it disgruntled?
8. Why do croutons come in airtight packages? Aren't they just stale Bread to begin with?
9. Why is a person who plays the piano called a pianist, but a person who drives a racecar is not called a racist?
10. Why isn't the number 11 pronounced onety-one?
11. If lawyers are disbarred and clergymen defrocked, then doesn't it follow that electricians can be delighted, musicians denoted, cowboys deranged, models deposed, tree surgeons debarked, and dry cleaners depressed?
12. If Fed Ex and UPS were to merge, would they call it Fed UP?
13. Do Lipton Tea employees take coffee breaks?
14. What hair color do they put on the driver's licenses of bald men?
15. I was thinking about how people seem to read the Bible a whole lot more as they get older; then it dawned on me...they're cramming for their final exam.
16. I thought about how mothers feed their babies with tiny little spoons and forks, so I wondered what do Chinese mothers use. Toothpicks?
17. Why do they put pictures of criminals up in the Post Office? What are we supposed to do, write to them? Why don't they just put their pictures on the postage stamps so the mailmen can look for them while they deliver the mail?
18. If it's true that we are here to help others, then what exactly are the others here for?
19. You never really learn to swear until you learn to drive.
20. Ever wonder what the speed of lightning would be if it didn't zigzag?
21. If a cow laughed, would milk come out of her nose?

OKLAHOMA TIES

‘I've just been amazed how many Oklahomans have called me asking if and my wife and daughter are OK.'
OKLAHOMA TIES

By Susan Simpson

Daughter evacuated

The daughter of Norman native Jesse Wilkinson attends Virginia Tech and was safely evacuated from a classroom on campus Monday.

Wilkinson learned of the initial shooting, when one person was reported dead, on CNN. He called his daughter and was relieved to find she was OK.

The sophomore was in a classroom building next to where shots were fired. Julia and her classmates ran across an open field to get to safety, which Jesse Wilkinson thought was a risky maneuver.

"But several students were attacked in classrooms as well,” he said. "The police and authorities were just scrambling to do what they thought best, in a dangerous and unclear situation.”

Wilkinson said he has worried about his daughter's safety but realizes it is impossible to guarantee safety on a public campus.

"You can't put up a fence around the university and screen everybody that comes along,” he said.

‘I'll know someone'

Cully Hession, who got his doctorate at Oklahoma State University in 1995, is an assistant professor of aquatic ecosystems engineering at Virginia Tech.

Hession said he was off-campus for a meeting Monday morning when the shootings happened. He works across campus from Norris Hall, the engineering science and mechanics building where multiple people were killed.

With more than 30 dead and at least 29 injured, Hession said he was worried.

"It's highly likely I'll know someone,” Hession said. "I'm in engineering, and that is an engineering building.”

"This is pretty weird. The town is mostly Virginia Tech. I don't think it's going to be normal for a long time,” he said.

Nonstop calls

The calls began coming in early and didn't let up most of the afternoon.

Ronald Tyler Jr. left Oklahoma less than a year ago to join the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine located on the Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg.

He was less than a quarter mile from where the first shooting took place Monday morning.

Tyler said friends from Oklahoma have called nonstop as news of the shooting spread

"I've just been amazed how many Oklahomans have called me asking if me and my wife and daughter are OK,” Tyler said.

Tyler said he was worried about his wife, who was in a class in the building next to the dormitory where the first shooting occurred.

Once he got in touch with his wife, his worries moved on to others.

"One of the individuals on my advisory committee is from one of the halls that had the most people killed,” Tyler said.

"You just wonder, ‘Are they OK?' I think everyone is going to know someone or know someone who knows someone. It's a small town.”

‘So shocking'

Larry Freeman never thought something like this would happen in Blacksburg.

Freeman, a 1974 Oklahoma State University graduate, has taught at Virginia Tech since 1980.

He said Blacksburg is a quiet town.

"It's a unique town because it's a small town with a relatively large university,” Freeman said.

"It's surreal. I'm sitting here just sort of incredulous that this has happened here.”

Freeman was on campus Monday morning for a lecture but left before finding out any details about the shooting.

His afternoon lab was canceled.

"It's so shocking it's almost hard to think about anything other than the tragedy at the moment,” Freeman said.

"Obviously, issues of security will be a topic of discussion.”

Details were sketchy most of the day Monday, but Freeman said a gunman would not have trouble moving around campus carrying a book bag, especially if he was college-aged.

"He may or may not be a student. It would be fairly simple to be among the students on campus and not be singled out as anything to be concerned,” Freeman said.

"One of the students was interviewed and said it was something like a college Columbine. All those kinds of issues come to mind.”

Freeman said he isn't sure how the university will finish classes this semester with so many people affected by the tragedy.

"There will be a lot of grieving and a lot of healing that will need to occur, I'm sure, in this town for some time to come,” Freeman said.

Questions will be raised

Wolt Fabrycky taught at Virginia Tech for four decades and still lives in Blacksburg.

Previously, he taught at OSU, which he said is a very similar campus: a land-grant university in a small town, a top engineering college.

Fabrycky said no one would have expected such tragedy.

But still, there will be criticism of the university's response.

"The question will be raised: Why, when the first shooting occurred just after 7 a.m., why was it after 9 a.m. when the campus shut down,” he said.

Several other former OSU professors also work at Virginia Tech, he said, and he believes none were injured.

Safety Here

OU: Locked 24 hours

Oklahoma university officials say they work hard to prevent situations like the shootings at Virginia Tech.

University of Oklahoma President David Boren said residence halls, which are locked in the evenings, now will be locked 24 hours a day for the rest of the semester "as an extra security precaution in light of these tragic events.”

Residents must use a student ID or room key to get into the residential buildings and hallways.

Boren said emergency phones around the campus link directly to 911 dispatchers. And the university can use mass e-mail to notify students and workers of dangerous situations.

On-campus counselors and campus police can report persons that might be a danger to themselves or others. Campus police and Norman police also train together to respond to emergency situations.

OSU: Procedures ready

Oklahoma State University Interim President Marlene Strathe said campus safety is always a priority, and procedures are in place to respond to emergency situations.

"It is impossible to understand and explain why something like this happens,” she said. "We will continue to evaluate our policies and procedures to make sure our campus is as safe as possible.”

OSU dormitories are locked at night, but not during the day.

UCO: Reviewing security

University of Central Oklahoma spokesman Charlie Johnson said his school also is reviewing security. The women's dormitory is locked all the time, but other dorms are locked only at night.

Sometimes you can not win....

Chinese Sick Day

Hung Chow calls into work and says, "Hey, I no come work today, I sick,
headache, stomach ache, legs hurt, I no come work."

The boss says, "You know something, Hung Chow, I really need you today.
When I feel like this, I go to my wife and tell her to give me sex.
That makes everything better and I go to work. You try that."

Two hours later Hung Chow calls again. "I do what you say, I feel
great. I be work soon.....you got nice house...!



Ed's Note: Doesn't matter what nationality... one just needs to be careful in their choice of words and their usage...

news...

A driver slows as a tornado crosses the highway east of the Northern Natural Gas Plant in Beaver County on Wednesday night. Photo by Chad Love for The Oklahoman BEAVER — A tornado tracked through southern Beaver County on Wednesday night, destroying a house and killing a couple who were taking shelter inside, authorities said.

All Things Oklahoma....

The cowboy and his six-shooter, songs and sex

By Ed Montgomery
THE NORMAN TRANSCRIPT (NORMAN, Okla.)

Once upon a time two Oklahoma educators decided to get some expert help and produce a book that would tell the world who the western cowboy really was.

The result was some good reading in a book named “The Cowboy: Six -shooters, Songs and Sex,” published by the University of Oklahoma Press.

One of the editors, Buck Rainey, admitted in the introduction that they had taken on a hard job.

“Fiction has created a myth,” he wrote, “and the myth has fashioned The Cowboy into the most romantic occupant of the West, consistently gunning down badmen and saving virgins from ‘a fate worse than death.’ Yet, if the truth be known, there were neither enough badmen nor virgins available in the Old West for the involvement of any sizable number of cowboys in either of the activities.”

Rainey at the time was business education chairman of East Central Oklahoma University at Ada. His partner, Charles W. Harris, was assistant professor of history at Southeastern University at Durant.

The six-shooters of the title were among the things that interested Philip D. Jordan, emeritus professor of history at the University of Minnesota.

“The average wrangler,” he wrote, “busy with range chores, roundups and the rigors of a long drive, was no professional gunslinger, although a few, to their chagrin, thought they were. Cowboy marksmanship with a handgun was about on a par with the shooting skills of town marshals, county sheriffs, United States marshals and yokels generally.

“A puncher who carried a gun for show or because it was the custom was a fool, but among them were those who ‘could not hit the side of a barn with all day to aim in.’”

Guy Logsdon, director of libraries at the University of Tulsa, wrote the cowboy songs chapter. He says people who think cowboy songs died with the old cowboys are mistaken. Too little attention has been paid to 20th century advancements, he feels.

“Cowboy music is very much alive and well in both traditional and popular cultures,” he wrote.

Clifford P. Westermeier, University of Colorado history professor, wrote about cowboys and sex.

Early writers of dime novels, who did much to create the popular image of the cowboy were on the prudish side, the author says. The dime-novel cowhand was “highly moral.” The real cowboy was something else.

“Perhaps the subject of sexuality does not deserve the attention it is given,” Westermeier wrote, “but whatever conclusion is reached regarding its relation to the cowboy — bad taste, sensationalism, iconoclasticism — it did exist in his life. ...”

A cowboy’s line of work seldom gave him the opportunity to meet the kind of women he might want to marry.

“His work did not encourage family relationships nor a normal pattern of dating, courtship, marriage and family,” the author wrote.

The feminine population of the saloons, dance halls and red-light districts were much handier.



Ed Montgomery writes for The Norman (Okla.) Transcript.

Six Native American Artists Awarded 07 SWAIA Fellowships

Six Native American Artists Awarded 07 SWAIA Fellowships
Diverse Backgrounds, Skills Included in Talented Group
Native American Times (nativetimes.com)
SANTA FE NM
3/26/2007





The Southwestern Association for Indian Arts (SWAIA), the organization that produces the annual Santa Fe Indian Market, is pleased to announce the recipients of its 2007 Fellowship awards for Native American artists: Roger Amerman (Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma) for beadwork/diverse arts, Diane Douglas-Willard (Haida) for weaving (basketry), Ira Lujan (Taos Pueblo) for sculpture (glass), Beverly Rose Moran/Bear King (Standing Rock Sioux) for beadwork/diverse arts, Rainy Naha (Hopi) for pottery and Penny Singer (Dine) for diverse arts (clothing design).

Established in 1980 to provide financial support to exceptionally talented American Indian artists from across the nation, the Fellowship program provides a substantial cash award, exhibit space at the Santa Fe Indian Market, and increased national exposure for the deserving recipients. George Toya, SWAIA Board Member and Fellowship Committee Chair said, "This year we received more applications than ever before, making the selection process even more difficult. However, we are really pleased with the breadth of the final recipient's talents, tribal backgrounds, and plans for using their fellowship monies."









Roger Amerman (Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma) - Beadwork/Diverse Arts
Amerman is an accomplished bead worker who is inspired by the history and traditions of southeast tribal peoples. His work draws on the strong, fluid movement and stunning symbolism which are typical of southeast-style designs, using sun, starts, serpents, mythical animals and cultural heroes in his colorful pieces. He is a multiple award winner including taking the Best of Show award at the Choctaw Nation Arts Show in Tushka Homa, Oklahoma twice, four times at the Speelyi-Mi Indian Art Market in Spokane, WA and once at the Indian Art Northwest in Portland, OR. He plans to use his fellowship monies to produce a full length Choctaw hunting coat, a project that for him will be akin in magnitude to "...Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel..." as it requires traveling to acquire buckskins and five different types (with over 30 colors) of beads, as well as research to learn about and replicate traditional designs. Amerman holds a Bachelor's degree in Geology from the University of Oregon and two Master's Degrees, one from Washington State University in Natural Resource Science, and another from the Colorado School of Mines in Geology.











Diane Douglas-Willard (Haida) - Weaving (Basketry)
Douglas-Willard is a traditional Haida weaver who uses materials such as cedar bark and spruce root to painstakingly create her pieces. Although she mostly makes baskets, she also does Raven's Tail and Chilkat weaving styles in clothing and accessories. She has been an instructor and demonstrator at the Totem Heritage Center in Ketchikan, Alaska, and an award winner at art centers and exhibits across the country. Douglas-Willard's work can be found in the permanent collections of the Alaska Native Heritage Center, and the Anchorage Museum, both in Anchorage, AK, as well as the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C. Her fellowship will be used to make a Raven's Tail robe using sea otter fur as the warp. In the past, Raven's Tail robes and leggings were made for those with chief status and very few of the old robes have survived intact. However, as Douglas-Willard notes, "I have studied with Cheryl Samuel, who wrote the book on Raven's Tail, so Raven's Tail weaving has not been lost." Her education includes American Indian Studies at the University of Washington, as well as a certificate of merit from the Totem Heritage Center in Ketchikan, Alaska.











Ira Lujan (Taos Pueblo) - Sculpture (Glass)
Lujan is literally one of a handful of emerging Native glass artists. He has studied with noted Native American glass artists Tony Jojola (at the Taos Glass Art and Education Center in New Mexico) and Preston Singletary (at Pilchuck Glass School in the Washington). He is inspired by the freedom he has found in incorporating everyday Pueblo utilitarian objects into glass and likes to compare glass to Pueblo pottery because "...both are more than just functional. Cups and vases transform into objects that serve to not only hold water, but light and spirit, as well." His work can be found at several galleries in the southwest such as Zane Wheeler in Taos, NM and the Institute of American Indian Arts gift shop in Santa Fe, NM. Lujan was on the first Native Underground panel at the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture in Santa Fe in 2006, as well. He plans to use his fellowship to help construct a portable "hot shop"-- the space in which hot glass vessels are blown and created, and which take a tremendous amount of time, energy and money to maintain.











Beverly Rose Moran/Bear King (Standing Rock Sioux) - Beadwork/Diverse Arts
Moran has exhibited mostly at the New Mexico State Fair until this time, receiving accolades for her elaborate and beautiful beaded traditional outfits. She regularly participates in powwows as a Northern Traditional Buckskin dancer, and has performed at the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra and Native American Music Awards. She attended the University of Virginia in Arlington, VA and Northern State College in Aberdeen, SD, but is a self-taught bead artist. She will use her fellowship to purchase supplies such as brain tanned hides and hair pipes to help her produce dance regalia, bone breastplates, and bags to show and sell at the Santa Fe Indian Market and other juried exhibits. She also states the fellowship will gift her with the opportunity to "professionally document by beadwork to share with all Nations."











Rainy Naha (Hopi) - Pottery
Naha is a third generation potter, primarily taught by her well-known mother, Helen Naha. While Naha has developed her own style, she has faithfully replicated the designs her mother used from the ancient pottery shards of Awatovi Village Ruins (near the Naha's home). She has exhibited at markets and shows around the country, winning many awards. She has also lectured for institutions such as the Crow Canyon Archaeological Society as she believes it is important to educate academic communities and provide them with historically accurate information about Hopi art and culture. Her pottery making process is traditional in that she uses natural brushes and pigments and gathers and harvests all of her own clay. With her fellowship she plans to purchase sheep manure (used as fuel for the firing process), as it is a substantial cost for creating her work. She will also set up a competition and awards program for Hopi youth, in order to encourage young artists to participate during workshops Naha gives during Elderhostel visits to her home. As Naha states, "There is no better way to give thanks to the Creator and to my mother than by passing on the legacy of pottery creation to our children and grandchildren."











Penny Singer (Dine) - Diverse Arts (Clothing)
Singer is a clothing designer who has won multiple awards at shows such as the Heard Museum Indian Market and the Santa Fe Indian Market for her contemporary Native fashions. Singer loved photography, beadwork and abstract drawing while a student at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, NM, and her photos of the Tec Nos Pos reservation and powwow circuit have become one of her principal design components. She often transfers photos directly to her pieces, creating wearable works of art. Her fellowship monies will be used to purchase an industrial grade sewing machine and Serger to help her fulfill the volume of orders she currently receives and to be able to do the more detailed work she is inspired to do.








SWAIA's Honoring Reception to formally recognize these award recipients will be held June 7th, 6pm at the La Fonda Hotel in downtown Santa Fe. Tickets are $50 and include hors d'oeuvres and wine. Proceeds will benefit SWAIA, a non-profit organization, and its programs for Native artists. To request information on the award recipients (including images of artwork) or for media access to attend the Honoring Reception, please call 505.983.5220 x 226 or email sgolar@swaia.org. To reserve space to attend the event, please call the SWAIA Development Department at 505.983.5220 before June 1, 2007. For more information about SWAIA or the Santa Fe Indian Market, please visit www.swaia.org.
###
SWAIA's mission is to be an advocate for Native American arts and cultures (particularly those in the Southwest), and create economic and cultural opportunities for Native American artists by: producing and promoting the Santa Fe Indian Market as the finest Indian art event in the world, cultivating excellence and innovation across traditional and non-traditional art forms, and developing programs and events that support, promote, and honor Native artists year-round.



NTN Article#: 8660

Cardrona Bra Fence

The Bra Fence in December 2002

The Cardrona Bra Fence was a controversial tourist attraction in Central Otago, New Zealand. The fence was on a public road reserve adjacent to farm property in the Cardrona Valley area southwest of Wanaka.

The Bra Fence began at some point between Christmas and New Year 1999, when four women's bras were attached to the wire fence alongside the road. The original reason for the Bras being attached to the fence are currently unknown. News spread of the addition, which was left on the fence by the local landowners, and more bras began to appear. By the end of February there were some 60 bras, but at about this time they were all removed anonymously. This was reported in the local press, and the story gained widespread dissemination through the New Zealand media, leading to more bras appearing.

By October 2000, the number of bras had reached around 200, and again the fence was cleared of bras and this time the story spread even wider, as the fence had by this time become to some a quirky tourist attraction, and media sources from as far afield as Europe became interested in the fence. Due to this interest the number of bras being added to the fence personally or sent to be added increased dramatically. As of early 2006, the number of bras attached to the fence stood at close to 800.

Although some locals welcomed the fence and regarded it as a tourist attraction, others viewed it as an eyesore and embarrassment and also as a potential hazard to drivers using the road. Frequent legal attempts were consequently made to see it removed. These attempts were increased in early 2006, accompanied by a further removal of some 200 of the bras.

On April 28, 2006, after discovering the fence rested on public road reserve, the local Council determined the bra fence was a "traffic hazard" and an "eyesore" and ordered the bras on the fence to be removed. On September 7, 2006, the local Council announced it would remove the remaining bras from what it described as a "dilapidated eyesore." Two days later, the local Council made good on its pledge and removed over 1500 bras.

Chester Gould, OSU’s most famous student

Chester Gould, OSU’s most famous student

Bob Darcy
Contributing Columnist

No wonder they put you on indefinite suspension.”

This quote is from the Aug. 4, 2002 Sunday Oklahoman. The speaker, Tess Tracy, refers to her husband, a police officer. Those were the last words from the “Dick Tracy” comic strip in the Oklahoman. The next day, “Dick Tracy” was replaced with “Hi & Lois.”

Dick Tracy began Oct. 4, 1931, in the Detroit Mirror and first appeared in the Sunday Oklahoman on Feb. 25, 1934. Between 1931 and 2002, “Dick Tracy” achieved enormous popularity.

The first “Dick Tracy” film came out in 1938. Eight others followed. The latest, from 1990, featured Warren Beatty, Madonna, Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman and Dick Van Dyke.“Dick Tracy” had various radio shows between 1935 and 1948, and of them, the musical “Dick Tracy in B-Flat,” featured Bing Crosby as Tracy and Bob Hope as the villain, Flathead. In 1995 there was a “Dick Tracy” 32-cent stamp.

“Dick Tracy” had little or no humor. The cops, by and large, were trustworthy and intrepid; the crooks, by and large, were murderous and

flawed. Bullets killed. Crooks died beneath the ice, machines crushed them, they were shot simultaneously through the head and heart or scalded to death. Sometimes the odd good citizen got killed as well.

The strip featured innovations over the years, such as the wrist radio and an atomic laser beam weapon, and eventually got involved with an advanced humanoid moon civilization.

The man responsible for all this was Chester Gould, born in 1900 in Pawnee.

Look through the 1918 and 1919 Redskins (the name of OSU’s defunct yearbook) and you will find Chester Gould’s high-school drawings.

In 1920 the Goulds moved to Stillwater. Gould’s father became editor of the local newspaper, and Chester was an Oklahoma A&M freshman. He’s on page 70 of the 1920 Redskin.

The family home was at 409 S. Lewis St. It’s in a quiet neighborhood a few blocks east of the campus and a few blocks north of downtown — an easy walk either way. I stood on the corner, near the two-story Gould home and tried to experience how it was 87 years ago. Today nothing can be heard. There are no smells. No people move about. Everyone is sealed within homes and cars.

Victor Hugo once wrote that at twilight one is able to experience a city street of an earlier time. In the darkness old sounds returned.

In 1920, windows were open. People were out talking, watching, drinking, eating. Children were running, calling. Cars were noisier then, as were dogs. Families kept chickens. Men and boys worked on car engines. There were smells: human sweat, animals, all sorts of savory cooking, baking, oil, gasoline and the smell of rain.

Wearing glasses and a suit, freshman Chester Gould took it all in, and eventually transformed it into a world of hardworking people, grotesque criminals, phonies, and cops.

Gould joined the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity and maintained ties until his death. I visited the Lambda Chi house on University Avenue. They have a Dick Tracy drawing Gould gave them on a 1970s visit, 50 years after he left. Some Lambda Chis showed me personalized drawings. In a Student Union room there is another Dick Tracy sketch.

But drawing sports cartoons for the Oklahoman was not enough. Gould transferred to Northwestern, near Chicago, and graduated in 1923.

Brooklyn born and bred Al Capone, a year older than Gould, moved to Chicago in 1918, a city with which he is forever identified.

A few years later Gould became part of the same Chicago, where he fictionalized and immortalized its battles between the cops and the Capones.

I stare at that 1920 Redskin photograph. Within the freshman Chester Gould I can see the elderly cartoonist. Same suit, same glasses, same haircut. Each of those Oklahoma A&M faces quietly looked out down their own roads.

yourwaitress.com = Time Mag's Top 50 cool websites...

yourwaitress.com

To the attentive eye, each moment of the year has its own beauty, and in the same field, it beholds, every hour, a picture which was never seen before, and which shall never be seen again. --Ralph Waldo Emerson

Inspiration of the Day:
Waitress Valerie J. Cochran started her photoblog partly as a reaction to customers who view restaurant workers as robots and not real people. Based in Berkeley, California, her photos are often of ordinary people and places. Lecturer David J. Nightingale is another photoblogger -- one of the thousands of people around the world using the net to publish photographs that offer a glimpse into life. His website has a different photo every day, attracting 4,000 unique visitors daily, and was chosen by Time magazine as one of the Top 50 coolest websites of 2005. Each photo captures a different aspect of his life -– from family portraits to studies of his environment and wider world. This BBC series showcases some of the inspiring work of these exceptional photobloggers. [ more ]

Be The Change:
To your attentive eye in this moment, what picture do you see that shall never be seen again? A particular cloud formation, a combination of people moving, the exact arrangement of your shoes at the door? [ more ]

[IF]

[IF]

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!

--Rudyard Kipling

The OKLAHOMA KID Trick Roper

The OKLAHOMA KID Trick Roper CLICK TO GO TO >>www.theoklahomakid.com Marty Tipton, otherwise known as the Oklahoma Kid is a public figure to many. Tipton is a fourth generation Wild West Show performer with family connections to the 101 Ranch Shows as well as the original Pawnee Bill Wild West Show, and the Tom Mix Circus. Tipton is a relative of Will Rogers, Oklahoma's Favorite Son. Tipton was introduced to trick roping as a child in 1978 at the age of 9. We can provide a variety of Wild West Performers for your Event. There is a great demand for performances this Centennial Year To secure your performance call for possible bookings as soon as possible. Now Booking Oklahoma Kid for Centennial Event Call: (405) 273-9017 You can also contact the Oklahoma Kid by E-Mail martytipton@lycos.com CLICK BELOW ON THE LINK TO GO TO THE OKLAHOMA KID WEB SITE http://www.theoklahomakid.com/index.html

Lessons From Geese

Editor's Note: "Lessons from Geese" was transcribed from a speech given by Angeles Arrien at the 1991 Organizational Development Network and was based on the work of Milton Olson. It circulated to Outward Bound staff throughout the United States. We share it here with the alumni community hoping that we can all learn these lessons.

FACT 1:

As each goose flaps its wings it creates an "uplift" for the birds that follow. By flying in a "V" formation, the whole flock adds 71% greater flying range than if each bird flew alone.

LESSON:

People who share a common direction and sense of community can get where they are going quicker and easier because they are traveling on the thrust of one another.

FACT 2:

When a goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag and resistance of flying alone. It quickly moves back into formation to take advantage of the lifting power of the bird immediately in front of it.

LESSON:

If we have as much sense as a goose we stay in formation with those headed where we want to go. We are willing to accept their help and give our help to others.

FACT 3:

When the lead goose tires, it rotates back into formation and another goose flies to the point position.

LESSON:

It pays to take turns doing the hard tasks and sharing leadership. As with geese, people are interdependent on each other's skills, capabilities and unique arrangements of gifts, talents or resources.

FACT 4:

The geese flying in formation honk to encourage those up front to keep up their speed.

LESSON:

We need to make sure our honking is encouraging. In groups where there is encouragement, the production is much greater. The power of encouragement (to stand by one's heart or core values and encourage the heart and core of others) is the quality of honking we seek.

FACT 5:

When a goose gets sick, wounded or shot down, two geese drop out of formation and follow it to help and protect it. They stay with it until it dies or is able to fly again. Then, they launch out with another formation or catch up with the flock.

LESSON:

If we have as much sense as geese, we will stand by each other in difficult times as well as when we are strong.

Hugh Meade: Another Happy Artist in Oklahoma

Vol. 2, Issue #1 Feb. 2nd - Feb. 15th, 2007

Hugh Meade: Another Happy Artist in Oklahoma
By: Aharen Richardson

Depending on your personal experience, you may or may not view furniture as art. If you don’t, then viewing Hugh Meade’s manufactured MDF masterpieces will surely change your mind. Hugh traveled to Oklahoma from Atlanta in 2003 to find an entrenched and supportive artistic community and has been diligently crafting furniture for local customers ever since. Like many artists it took him some time to decide which medium he would focus on to express his artistic vision; beginning with music and then moving on to film he eventually gave both up for a job as a shop assistant in a studio making custom furniture for the hospitality industry. There he learned the skills and techniques necessary for creating exclusive designs and finishes for the high-end custom furniture market. He took these same techniques and used them to express his own artistic vision, creating modern tables, bookcases, and chairs.

Hugh Meade’s designs are influenced by his attraction to Art Nouveau, Mid-Century Modern furniture, and the Arts and Craft Movement. And also by early science fiction movies and comics: the early industrial vision of the future from movies like Metropolis and Barbarella. And truly each of his pieces looks as if they would fit right into any fantastic cinematic landscape. The unique blend of curves and angles, all fit together by traditional joining, create an organic component that is heightened by rich earthen colors set of by thick lacquers. The use of MDF allows Hugh to create a visual plain that is devoid of visible grains yet enhanced by flowing lines and empty spaces. There is an element of growth and animation that sparks fantasy allowing a chair to become a throne for a Lewis Carroll character and a table to become the workspace for a futuristic philosopher.

Hugh describes his furniture style as unique and says it has been described “as either “organic modern” or “nouveau modern” because of the obvious Art Nouveau influence of the forms. I have also heard micro-bio-rococo, hyper-modern, and, of course swiss-cheese.”

Whimsy and sophistication are synthesized into functionality and that is what Hugh’s customers want. However functional his furnishings are, they are above all—artistic artifacts. Each piece is made by hand, sanded several times and given anywhere from 5-8 coats of lacquer. Hugh uses a technique that combines the latest furniture making technology with simple tools and readily available materials. He is a proponent of “micro-fabrication” and creates designs that can be “described” by a computer assisted design program and rendered as a 3D model on a computer screen. In the future Hugh’s customers will be able to choose a table from a library of designs and modify it to fit certain specified parameters, such as width, height, or finish type, creating true one of a kind pieces. MDF is a recyclable material and is becoming more environmentally stable with the reduction of formaldehyde and the inclusion of renewable plant fibers. His pieces can also be shipped flat and then put together by hand.

He is very happy to point out how supportive the artistic community has been since he and his wife moved to Oklahoma City. The warehouse studio he works out of belongs to Rob Johnstone and Rob’s business partner Brent Logsdon who are longtime members of the OKC theatrical community. The main work of the studio (which is officially called LogStone Studio) is the production of theatrical sets and backdrops and the occasional enormous puppet. “Rob has graciously allowed me to use his studio and many of his tools to produce my work. He has never asked me for recompense; although I try to help out as much as I can, whenever I can.”

Hugh has been accepted into the 2007 Art Festival’s Environs Exhibit and his work can be found in Estrella Evan’s Velvet Monkey Salons.

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