Wilma Mankiller 1945 - 2010

I really can't say much, other than she was perhaps the greatest and most inspirational Oklahoman I ever knew.

Date A Nerd

Advice to Sandra Bullock: Date a Nerd

By Tony Panaccio

First of all, can anyone say they were that darn surprised?

Sandra Bullock, America’s sweetheart, Oscar© winner, Razzie winner and still the best darn bus driver that the movies has ever seen (anyone remember Speed?) marries a biker. Who makes Bikes. In a bike shop. Stars in a TV show with other bikers making bikes for rich bikers. Is named Jesse James, one of history’s most notorious outlaws. This guy was the poster child for bad boys. OF COURSE he was going to cheat on her. His cheating on her was better odds than Bill Clinton having a heart attack on intern orientation day.

And Sandra, come on. Did you REALLY think the biker bad boy with the outlaw name was going to stay home, read comic books, play video games and eat French Bread Pizzas for months at a time while you were filming movies? That’s like expecting Donald Trump to forego the combover and shave his head (which might not be a bad look for him, really… okay, not so much).

But don’t feel bad. You’re not alone. Smart, beautiful, successful women from all over the world love the bad boys, and invariably wind up getting screwed over by them. I’m sure there’s a Facebook group for them. I think they made T-shirts. But the truth is, you have GOT to break the cycle. It’s time for you, and frankly all the other successful women nursing shattered dignity and wounded pride at the hands of a rock star or reality TV star, to see the light and change your life for the better.

It’s time for you to date a nerd.

Nerds, by and large, are rich, stable, loving and would be so knocked out to date a smart, beautiful, successful hottie, that they’d be utterly and irrevocably devoted to you. They’d cook, clean and do laundry for you. They’re good with electronics and computers, so you’d never have to worry about your computer crashing. Chances are they’d hack you free Internet service, anyway.

They’d pledge their lives, bank accounts and comic book collections to you. And the fact is, many of them aren’t just rich, they’re famous. Renown and unrepentant comic book and video game geeks include Keanu Reeves (Remember him? Tall guy, had the sense not to be in Speed 2?), Will Smith, Samuel L. Jackson, Mark Hamill, Star Trek director J.J. Abrams, Jon Favreau, Saturday Night Live’s Bill Hader, Jerry Seinfeld and Nicolas Cage (who sold his comic book collection to satisfy Lisa Marie Presley when he was married to her!).

Now, you may have to put up with a pantry full of Twinkies and Doritos, comic books on the floor, and every so often in bed they might cry out “It’s Clobberin’ Time!” or “Flame on!” or “Excelsior!”

I figure it’s a small price to pay for a guy who isn’t going to cheat on you with the nearest tattooed circus freak the second you go off to win an Oscar.

(Tony Panaccio, Senior Campaign Strategist for EMSI Public Relations, is a 25-year veteran writer, marketer and producer in the entertainment industry, having worked with luminaries such as William Shatner, Stan Lee and Michael Uslan. He has been a journalist and a senior executive with several of the world’s largest PR firms.)

A Healthy Celebration

For those of you celebrating St. Patrick's Day today, just a reminder to be good to yourself - drink Guinness and be healthy!

Risking Everything To Vote

Imagine risking it all to vote.

I don't mean figuratively nor am I speaking metaphorically. In Iraq, at least 25 people have died this weekend just attempting to vote in their national election.

And they kept coming after the attacks.

The violence and acts of cowardly terrorism didn't halt men and women from leaving their homes and risking their lives in order to participate in Democracy. Some had to walk because of a ban on cars, yet still they came. Polling places were blown up, mortars fired and still they came to vote.

Sahib Jabr, a 34 year old taxi driver, said defiantly "We came to participate in this National Day
and we don't care about the explosions."

Kind of makes it sound silly when you hear people say they "didn't have the time to vote" doesn't it?

Happy Birthday Pete

I want to wish my friend Pete Liesenfeld a Happy 34th Birthday. I'll share in his embarrassment with the photo above from back in 1992 when we were both in the Norman High School Band. All these years later he still puts up with me...

Happy Birthday Mom!

I'm smart enough not to mention her age, but I do want to wish her a Happy Birthday today. The picture above is from her birthday party last year at Blu in Norman.

October 2nd

The date October 2nd might not mean much to you, but it matters a great deal to me. You see, it's my birthday.

But you're asking yourself "Why does he have a picture of Gandhi with this post?" Simple - it's his birthday, too.

Lots of other famous people actually. Some well known in modern culture such as Sting (born Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner) or Kelly Ripa (who is older than me born in 1970 though she looks much better). Yet other celebrities like Groucho Marx (of the Brothers), Don McLean (American Pie) and Bud Abbott (and Costello) were also delivered on the 2nd.

If you're a Star Trek fan - and make no doubt I am - both Avery Brooks (Captain Sisko on Deep Space Nine) and Persis Khambatta (Ilia from The Motion Picture) share my birthday.

Significant to history both Cordell Hull (American Secretary of State and Nobel Peace Prize recipient) and Richard III (King of England and of Shakespeare fame) came into the world this day.

The more literate might be interested to know Graham Green (author of books including The Quiet American) and Wallace Stevens (American poet) also celebrated 10/2 as a birthday.

A few significant events occurred on the 275th day of the year, unless it was a leap year when it would have been the 276th day.

The Texas revolution began in 1835 which was notable because they lost their first battle. In 1789 George Washington sent a list of proposed amendments for the new American constitution to the states for ratification. These you will remember as the Bill of Rights.

For Charlie Brown fans this day is remembered for the first publication of Charles Shultz's Peanuts comic strip in 1950. Just a few years later we first were invited to travel into The Twilight Zone which premiered on this day in 1959.

One of my personal heroes, Thurgood Marshall, was sworn in as the first African American Supreme Court justice on an October Thursday in 1967. Another great American, President Woodrow Wilson, suffered a debilitating stroke on the second day of the month in 1924.

Perhaps this doesn't interest anyone or maybe you find it amusing I would ramble on with such. It does interest me and has shaped my world. Rather than simply looking at this day as a party, I've spent a good part of my life learning a little bit about people born on the same day or historical occurrences. Why else would I know Vasily Shukshin died on the very same day I was born? Or that he was on the Volga river filming the Russian epic They Fought For Their Motherland?

It is all a little bit of me and now you know some of it as well.