The worst thing about losing weight is the almost constant need for new clothes. Having lost somewhere around 200 pounds over the past year and a half, many of my old clothes resemble that of a...
Growing up in servile poverty, my parents raised me with an absolute dislike and, even more so, distrust of any eatery that they considered to be out of their hardship-strewn social strata. Those...
Norman’s Sooner Theatre, 101 E. Main Street, continues to be my favorite live theatre spot in Oklahoma, churning out the best movie-to-stage adaptations that Broadway has to offer. And even though...
Comedian Cristela Alonzo is not only one of my comedic heroes, but one of my personal heroes as well, a hilarious human that I can truly identify with: we’re both Latinos from Texas that grew up in...
In the long gone remnants of what I believe was once a moderately successful pizza franchise, Fung’s Kitchen, 3321 N. Classen, reigns supreme among the numerous Asian restaurants that run along the...
For many years, I have had a recurring sugarplum-infested holiday dream that I’ve held very close to my enlarged heart: to hear Mannheim Steamroller’s yuletide declaration of holiday thunder...
I usually try to avoid Campus Corner most days, its effervescent youthfulness strangling me silently as I stare into the dank depths of my own offensive middle age. Still, it’s the only place in...
The American tradition of the dysfunctional family fighting and crying during the holiday season has become a quintessential comedic stereotype in TV and movies, one that plays out, usually, with a...
Many eateries in Oklahoma City pretentiously claim they have the “best” burgers in town but, if you ask me, that really seems like an inordinate amount of pressure to put on yourself...
To paraphrase Fred Schneider, “If you see the big cock from the side of the road, make a quick left turn and head to the Chicken Shack, baby!” Luther is the type of place that’s filled with...
Over the past year or so, I’ve been to many small towns all across Oklahoma, sampling the diverse cultural pleasures (and cultish plagues) that each rural municipality of this state has chosen to...
How did I used to live like this? It’s around three in the morning and, for the first time in two decades, I’m hanging out in a lonely booth at a random Denny’s, nursing a cup of black coffee...
College campuses have always been something of a meeting point for human beings from all over this flat Earth, a place where young people come together in usually tense living situations and are...
Over the past few weeks, to many regular moviegoers across the metroplex, I seem to have become the bearer of bad celluloid after incessantly reporting on the handful of various local cinemas that...
My father lived in Oklahoma most of his life, yet I’m pretty sure he had never really seen most of this intrinsically moving state before he died, probably due to a mixture of punishing loneliness...
Surrounded by an all-consuming darkness that swallows the Oklahoma landscape come nightfall, a lone outpost in the Wichita Mountains somewhere near the aptly named Holy City is the Meers Store and...
I first became aware of the new Plaza District taco joint Mexican Radio, 1734 N.W. 16th—named after the analog ode to the eating of “barbequed iguana” by Wall of Voodoo—after a press release...
I’m pretty bad about eating breakfast, long referred to as the “most important meal of the day” by early risers of far more importance and social influence than me. My father, who grew up...
As the Hellish holiday of Halloween quickly approaches, this past weekend I needed a Heavenly break from the goblins and ghouls by taking in a Friday night showing of the Broadway musical Sister Act...
Oklahoma City, in case you didn’t know, has got a whole Hell of a lot of ghosts. Jeff Provine, a Professor of English at Oklahoma City Community College, moonlights as Oklahoma’s premier spectral...
I’ve only been to the original Oklahoma state capital of Guthrie once, and that was sometime way back in middle school. I think we were there to see a printing press and, on our way out of town, we...
It seems like most of Guthrie is a ghost-town by the early evening. As an old steel sign swayed unsettlingly in the wind as the shadows grew longer on the walls with each passing light, a lone couple...
On the way back from a middle school band trip a very long time ago, we unexpectedly stopped at Penn Square Mall for lunch. While most kids were blowing their cash on food court eats, I instead...
With its collective cheese history, miniature horses and non-racist mascots, Watonga is a great small town to visit and spend a few dollars in; I threw down some of my own cash this past Friday at...
We entered Watonga around 10 a.m. on a Friday morning. It was a strange time to stage the 42nd Annual Cheese Festival, but, in Oklahoma, anything goes at these small-town celebrations, including a...
