Sweetie and I went on a bike ride recently one evening. I kept stopping to take pictures. She left me behind! I had the keys to truck though. So I didn’t have to ride in the dark all the way home. đŸ˜‰
I had a bad shock recently. I got reacquainted with the notion that there is evil in the world. I learned this week that the little sister of a high school classmate of mine was brutally murdered 20 years ago. The murder was never solved. I didn’t know anything about it until this week.
My classmate’s name is Robin Arquette, her sister’s name was Kaitlyn Arquette. She was murdered July 16, 1989 in Albuquerque, New Mexico at the age of 18. The killer was never found. The police have given up. The family has a web site “Who Killed Kaitlyn Arquette” that tells the story and contains a ton of information about the murder and leads that were never followed by the police.
Robin was an acquaintance rather than a friend but still I knew her fairly well but had not kept up with her. I last talked to her at our 15 year reunion the year before her sister was killed.
Doing some research I find out that the Arquette’s are a talented family. Robin and Kait’s mother is Lois Duncan, who wrote the book “Hotel for Dogs” that was recently released as a movie. “I Know What You Did Last Summer” is also her book. She also wrote a book about her the murder of her daughter “Who Killed My Daughter?” and a sequel that came out in 2013, One to the Wolves, on the Trail of a Killer. She always had several projects going including the filming of a movie for the Lifetime Network. She taught at the University of New Mexico and has 300 published magazine articles, and was a contributing editor to Woman’s Day. She had a very nice web site. I don’t ever remember even meeting Robin’s mother.
The Arquette family is amazing. They are devastated by Kait’s unsolved murder but are moving forward with their lives, while diligently and patiently pursuing justice for their daughter.
17 June 2016 Update: Lois Duncan died at age 82 on June 15 at her home in Florida. She leaves a great legacy.
The Tulsa Club Building was built in the 1920’s by the Tulsa Club and the Tulsa Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber occupied the lower floors and the Club occupied the upper floors.
The building is in a city known for Art Deco and the building fits in well with Art Deco buildings but it is not Art Deco. It was designed by Bruce Goff and the building is known as a “Modern” Design. Mr. Goff was known for basically doing his own thing with buildings.
Undated photograph*, presumably from the 1920’s or 30’s. Any car folks out there who can date the cars parked? What interests me about this photograph is that the distinctive black tile work now on the building was not present in the earlier photograph. It’s a mystery to me. Its not just the tiles, there appears to be a narrow addition or facade to the entire front of the building.
Above is a closeup of the tiles, below is a detail. I have studied them and I confess I think the design is totally abstract.
The new facade detracts from the clean lines of the original building, but maybe contributed to a more modern look. I could find no information at all about the addition.
In its heyday the club was a place for the elite to meet and party.*
Unfortunately, the building is not well preserved. The Tulsa Club folded in the early 1990’s. The building was gutted for its fixtures and then sold to somebody in California, who apparently didn’t do anything with it, including pay the annual assessments. The interior was badly damaged by vandals and squatters. The City is trying to foreclose and the owner is trying sell the building according to this article. The MODERNtulsa blog has a post with recent photographs of the interior. The photographs are hard to look at.
The future of this building concerns me.
For other views of the world we live in check out That’s My World.
*The black and white photographs are courtesy of the Beryl Ford Collection/Rotary Club of Tulsa, Tulsa City-County Library and Tulsa Historical Society.
Sweetie and I headed downtown Saturday afternoon to see “Wicked” a touring Broadway musical. It is the backstory to the Wizard of Oz. Judy Garland gave us only one side, this play gives us the truth!. As one character put it, something to the effect of, “Can you believe she took the shoes off my dead sister. You would think she was raised in a barn.”
Sweetie and both thought this production was one of the best we have ever seen. The special effects are awesome, the music and singing are superb, and the choreography is wonderful. (I cannot figure out how the producers and directors can pack so many people on a stage all dancing and singing amongst props and nobody ever bounces into somebody else.)
Helene York was awesome as Glinda but Marcie Dodd stole the show as Elpheba. Ms. Dodd played the part on Broadway. The young lady can really sing.
The total time, including a short 15 minute intermission took about three hours, but it went very quickly.
I give Wicked four stars out of four and a special Do Not Miss this Show recommendation.
As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust. As for man, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field, the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more.
Psalm 103: 13-16
“Gone Tomorrow” by Lee Child is another Jack Reacher novel. Jack Reacher is an ex Army MP who is tough as nails, smart as a whip, and fierce. He carries everything he owns without a bag. When he buys new clothes, he throws away the old.
Legions of bad guys have found that when you mess with Jack you are messing with fire.
This time some punks from the middle east decide to mess with him. About 20 of them. They should have brought more help. It doesn’t go well for them.
I can’t tell you much else without spoiling the fun.
I rate this 3 stars out of 4. It was a little slow to get started.
Moon was setting in the west.
Check out other photographs of the Sky from all over
at Skywatch Friday.
I hope eveybody has a great weekend!
What is going on in Washington these days? Used to be, if a congressman got caught conducting an affair their career was over. Done with, gone. Remember Wilbur Mills, Gary Hart, and others. It was over. We have entered a new era. Mark Sanford has an affair with a woman in Argentina. Goes to see here while leading his staff and his wife to believe that he is out hiking and gets caught by a reporter in an airport returning from Argentina. He admits to the affair on TV.
So the next step is that he resigns his office and seeks forgiveness from his wife right? Wrong. He is “trying to fall in love with his wife again” and He compares himself to King David. King David was a cool guy, I mean he wrote the Psalms right? Oh, but he did some bad stuff, he was an adulterer and a murderer. But he accomplished great things. So now Senator Sanborn tells us that he can stay Senator because King David got to stay king. What is going on here? I think he thinks he is a king is what I think.
Now another Senator, John Ensign of Nevada, another admitted adulterer, who has paid (or more accurately his parents paid) almost $100,000 to the wife of David Hampton, his former chief of staff, is also not going to resign. He sees no reason to do so. What is up with that?
Now comes our own Senator Tom Coburn, of Oklahoma. Who apparently urged Senator Ensign to end the affair and “make the family whole.” In an interview with the Las Vegas Sun, David Hampton says that Senator Coburn urged John Ensign to pay $1.2 million to the Hamptons so they could move out of Nevada to Colorado. (Senator Coburn has denied urging any financial payments to the Hamptons.)
Senator Coburn has further said he is not going to say anything because he, as both a physician and a church deacon, at least some of his discussions with Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., can remain off limits, even to the Senate Ethics Committee. He described those discussions as “privileged.”???
So what is the common denominator between these three Senators, besides huge egos? It turns out that they are all associated with a house in Washinton D.C. whose address is 133 C St. SE. Senators Ensign and Coburn live in the house. Senator Sanford has attended bible studies and meetings there. Hillary Clinton, our Secretary of State and former Senator from New York, has attended meetings there.
Who runs the house, including the bible studies? It is an organization called “The Family.” The segment below explains further, better than I can.
Sorry about dragging you through all this. This whole affair shows what happens when powerful individuals forget who they are and what they are and deceive themselves and others as to the true nature of Christ and Christianity. These three conservative Christians (Sanford, Ensign, and Coburn) have provided fodder for those who deride Christianity and I resent it.
I find this whole thing incredible and disturbing.
I opened up the Tulsa World this morning and they had an article about Martha Berryhill of Okmulgee, Oklahoma, a Muscogee (Creek) citizen who celebrated her 109th birthday yesterday. She may be the oldest person in Oklahoma. That is quite a feat in anybody’s book.
What makes it even more amazing is that she is the tribes last surviving Dawes allottee. The Dawes Rolls are the basis of membership in many of the tribes in Oklahoma. The whole process of the Dawes Rolls that were compiled in from 1898 to 1907 is described very well in Angie Debos, “And Still the Waters Run.“
Anyway, enough for that, Happy Birthday Martha!
One day last week SuperPizzaBoy and I decided to go to the ball game. Tulsa’s Drillers, our AA Minor League team. They played the Corpus Christi Hooks (like in pirate Captain Hook, get it?) The Drillers are affiliated with the Colorado Rockies.
He is not called SuperPizzaBoy for nothing folks.
After the Star Spangled Banner: “Play Ball.”
Got to have a little ice cream, right?
The kid takes a half decent picture. Of course, he didn’t have much to work with.
Lights are getting a little low. We left early. Look at the view from our seats. $6 each, free parking!
The Drillers are moving next year to a new ballpark downtown, ONEOK Stadium.
Can’t wait.
Check out My World Tuesday for other great views of the world.