Even more Shots of Short

I have really not kept up on my short story reading in a while for the “100 Shots of Short” Reading Challenge. Following is an update.

“The Limner” by Julian Barnes -A limner is a portratist. In this case a deaf man who travels the country on his mare painting portraits of those who hire him. He has been hired by a customs collector, a pompous oaf, who desires “more dignity” in his portrait while mistreating not only the limner but the family and hired help. The story is about dignity, communicatin, and consequences. A big Thumbs Up on this story.

“Al Roosten” by George Saunders -Al Roosten is a loser. We meet him as he is about to go down the runway in a Gondolier outfit at a celebrity auction behind Larry Donfrey who is wearing just a swimsuit. Larry is a wineer, Al is a loser. This is a story about male anxiety. An anxious ridden Thumbs Sideways on this.

“The Slows” by Gail Haraven – A chilling sci-fi piece about a scientist studying “Slows” in “the Preserve.” Slows are humans who resist A.O.G. (“Accelerated Offspring Birth”). A big Thumbs Up on this.

A Better Day

This Sunday I helped Sweetie teach the four year olds at Church. The lesson was on Moses parting the Red Sea. It was fun, while the kids were at “Big Group” I put a couple of blue tablecloths over two rows of chairs and taped up some “fish.” So when they came back they got to see what the parting of the sea looked like.

Kids are a lot easier to please than adults. You just sell the story, pass out crayons, round up the stranglers, keep the peace, and hand out the snacks. They are happy. Plus four year olds will believe whatever you thell them.

Murder in the Latin Quarter by Cara Black

Murder in the Latin Quarter by Cara Black is a murder mystery featuring private detective Aimee Leduc. The ninth in a series and my first. Aimee is minding her own business in her office in the Latin Quarter of Paris when a Haitian woman shows up claiming to be Aimee’s sister. The woman bugs out though and so Aimee spends the rest of the book looking for her while investigating three murders involving a mysterious water company in Haiti.

The book is set in Paris and there all sorts of scenes in obscure little bars and bistros with lots of cigarette smoke, expresso, wine, and cognac. There are all sorts of colorful characters and many twists and turns in the plot.

I enjoyed the book, but could have used more of a story to go along with the atmospherics, and rate it 2.5 stars out of 4.

This is my third book completed in conjunction with the 2009 Pub Challenge.

Torture – Why Are We Debating if it is Justified?

There has been a lot of news and discussion about torture in the news lately. President Obama released some torture memos recently that shocked many people. You can read them here.

Pretty grim stuff, suits in Washington providing legal cover for torturing prisoners held in in secret prisons overseas. Basically they were saying that we just declare that the prisoners are not subject to the protections of the Geneva Convention. Also, we don’t call it torture, call it “Enhanced interrogation techniques.” That doesn’t sound so bad does it. What the memos also say is that Americans taken prisoner in those same areas would not be subject to the same protections. Hey, that’s not the suits problem though, they aren’t going anywhere near the war zones.

The American torture method of choice is waterboarding. I’ve had people tell me that it isn’t that big a deal. You can read about it here. It sounds absolutely awful to me. The CIA was using a proven torture technique, endorsed by the Spainish Inquisition and the Khmer Rouge among others.

Now, a big question is, “Does it work?” That is where things get a little fuzzy. You Google that, and there is all sorts of information out there. The politicians and political appointees during the Bush Administration seem to insist that it does work and that all sorts of attacks were prevented by its use. The experts in intelligence are much less definite about it. This seems to be a fairly balanced article about it. The consensus is that waterboarding makes people talk. They will tell you anything, even if they don’t know anything about the subject.

It turns out that the use of official torture methods was more widespread than what the Bush Administration claimed publicly. For example Abu Zubaydah, who the Administration claimed was waterboarded for only 35 seconds total, was actually waterboarded 83 times. Also, he did not give up any more information than he did before the torture started. I’m not trying to generate sympathy for these thugs. They deserve far more punishment than what we can give to them, but torture?

Now on top of this comes a report from the Pew Research Center on the religious dimensions of the torture debate. They surveyed a cross sample of the American population on attitudes toward torture with startling results.


It looks like the more religious a person is, the more likely they are to support the use of torture. People who are unaffiiliated with a religion, are the least likely to support torture. I find this incredible. Where have we Christians gone wrong? Is Christianity just a matter of going to Church, tithing, and reading your Bible? Is there anything else to it?

Why are we even having a debate on whether torture is wrong? I always thought that the United States of America was special. We had a higher standard than other countries. We stood for what’s right. Are we special? What do you think?

Will Work for Coffee and Beer

The Oklahoma Rig Count is dropping faster than you know what in a punchbowl. If this keeps up we are going to find an answer to the question:

Does McDonald’s still requires Masters Degrees for their Geologists?

I’m not a Geologist, I’m not sure what I am. But I can cook excellent pancakes and great fried chicken. Does anybody have any openings for chemical engineers with MBA’s who can cook?

Caz’s Chowhouse – Tulsa

We had some customers come in for a meeting. They were flying in and out the same day with time for dinner. I work downtown so I needed a place that was convenient to downtown and the airport.

I thought of Caz’s Chowhouse in the Brady District at 18 East Brady. I hadn’t eaten there in several years. So I called them (918 588-Chow) and made reservations.

So we went and were not disappointed. It is in a funky old building, is nicely appointed and had blues and jazz music going on. The service was very attentive but not obtrusive. We stayed there for a couple hours and had a great time.

The prices are quite reasonable, most of the entrees are under $10. They have a wide selection of comfort food, salads, hamburgers, and salads. My companions had the grilled salmon, and a salmon salad. They all thought their food tasted very good.

I had my favorite. Sweetie laughs at me about it and so do my coworkers. My customers were very polite but you could tell they were amused. I had the chicken and waffles.

Yep, that’s right, chicken tenders on a waffle. With syrup, with a side of black eye peas. Hey don’t knock until you try it. My suggestion, do like I did, ask for a go-box right away. That way you can put half of it away until the next day. Otherwise, you will be bloated.

For desert, we shared the bread pudding. It is made right there in the restaurant, and it is great.

I rate Caz’s Chowhouse 3.5 stars out of 4.

Rough Day for 666BOI at Church

At Church, nobody will even park around me anymore!
(just kidding folks)

The last two Sundays have been a little eye opening. Our Adult Sunday School class began a study of Genesis and I found that many people in the class. Meaning, almost all who spoke up, do not believe in the Theory of Evolution. I was surprised. Shame on me!! I spoke up the first Sunday, played nice the second, shame on me again!!!

So I guess that I could refute what they believe in, but guess what, I won’t. I don’t want to argue. Has anybody ever won an argument?

Instead I’ll talk about what I believe. Don’t worry, this is going to be short, I’m spreading it out.

I’m taking a lot of material from an excellent web site called Theistic Evolution – One Christian’s Perspective. There is also an excellent post on the New Scientist web site.

What do I believe about how man came to be here: I find no conflict whatsoever between Evolution, including Natural Selection, and the Creation Account of Genesis. I do not feel like I am “rationalizing” the two or twisting the concepts or anything. I believe that God made man (and woman).

Some of my fellow Christians make fun by saying “So you think that man came from the ooze.” I say no, the Bible teaches that God made man from dust. (Gen 2:7). Not much difference to me between dust and ooze, besides a little moisture.

I’ll tell you one thing. I’m not sitting silent any longer. I may be sitting somewhere else but I’m not keeping my mouth shut on this subject.

See I think this fake conflict between Spiritual matters and Scientific matters is important. I think that it is important because I think many people think they have to choose between believing in God, or believing in Science. I think Science reveals God’s creation to us. I don’t think it refutes it. I think that Science is a tool, it is not a religion. I love Science. The more I learn about our World and our Universe, the more I am in awe of God and his wonderful creation.

That’s all for now. What do you think? I would like to know.

Just so you know. I like my Sunday School Class and all the people in it. They are great folks. I just didn’t know them as well as I should. They are not shunning me. I think they feel a little sorry for me. It doesn’t change my high opinion I have about any of them. Also, they all know loads more about the Bible than I do. They are all spiritual warriors. They are also first in line to help just in case anybody needs a helping hand.

My World – Philtower Building

Philtower was completed in 1928 by oilman Waite Phillips, brother of the more famous Frank Phillips of Phillips Petroleum Corporation. Its not really art deco but a neo-gothic design with art deco touches. It fits in very well with the other buildings downtown.

Its a great building and all that but the real interesting thing about it, to me, is that Phillips deeded the building to the Boy Scouts of America in 1941 to finance operations of the Boy Scout camp Philmont a huge ranch in northern New Mexico, that he also donated to the scouts. If you have been involved in scouting you should have at least heard about Philmont.


In 1977 a group of local investors purchased the building from the Boy Scouts. They have kept the building in excellent condition. They converted 10 floors to residential apartments. If you are in the market you can check it out here. The site has a lot more photographs (better photos to be sure) and more historical information.

Philtower has its own gallery on the first floor with original floorplans and architectural drawings. It is very cool.
The building has a very ornate lobby. It is not gold leaf like the Philcade across the street but still just as spectacular.
I just love stairways like this.

For more views of our shared world check out That’s My World.

Road Trip – Kansas

Last Thursday coworker Dave and I went on a road trip to Kansas. We needed to talk to some of our field guys up there plus go to an energy industry meeting. I love going to Kansas. It is very scenic (yep, I think so, really), and the residents take great pride in their state. Regulatory wise in my industry it is a little more restrictive than what I’m used to so sometimes I irritate our Kansas based employees by calling it “The Peoples Republic of Kansas.” But I’m just kidding, they know that.

Dave and I each had new navigation systems. Same manufacturer, different models. We had to check them out so we used both. Let me tell you, you don’t want to go to Kansas without a backup GPS.

We took the back roads. We went through Sharon, Kansas. Home of Martine Mcbride. We happened to run into her. She let us take her picture. Very pretty lady with a great voice. Still runs around the praire barefoot.

We also went through Medicine Lodge, Kansas. Home of Carrie A. Nation. She’s deceased so we didn’t see her. At the cocktail party we went to that night though I led several toasts to her memory.

You know, if she took those glasses off and set that hatchet down she wouldn’t look that bad.

Spent the night in Pratt, Kansas very neat tidy midwestern town. Brick streets, all that good stuff. They have their Miss Kansas pageant there. Several have won the Miss America pageant. I don’t think Carrie would have won. Smashing whiskey bottles isn’t much of a talent, and the bathing suit segment would have been a problem for her.

After our meetings, dinner, and cocktail party I went geocaching. There a couple dozen caches in Pratt. I did not find a one. Made a bad decision on the route to them (I walked) by the time I got in the vicinity it was way dark. I had a great walk though. About seven miles all told. Most of it was out in the country.
Sweetie doesn’t like it when I going exploring on foot, especially late at night. But I see great stuff that I wouldn’t see sitting in a motel room. Like this sunset.

Or this house. Sorry for the blurriness. I didn’t have a tripod.

Pratt has a park called Lemon Park. Great lighted walking trails that meander all over the place. 10 PM and there were all sorts of people walking their dogs and walking together, I loved it. Not a hint of the creep factor that one sees sometimes in parks late at night.

Next day, time to head back to T town. Dave and I loaded up on Fat Tire Beer. (I mean we bought a couple cases of it, not go on a drinking binge.) Cannot get it in Oklahoma because of our strange liquor laws.