Entry 11: 18 October 2002, 6:17am

On one of his Saturday news broadcasts in 1998, veteran radio newsman and Tulsa native Paul Harvey read a letter that had already been floating around for a few years. I fell in love with the article the first time I heard it (I've still got the recording around here somewhere) and decided to re-post the transcript when I got the chance. Well worth a read.

The article can be found here, in the first entry of a new section I call Side Trips. Basically it's stuff that would kinda be too big to put here.

If you go there, or to the main Side Trips page in the left column, you'll see some new graphics resembling road signs. Came across the program that made these signs whilst roadgeek-surfing (entries and side trips on what I discovered coming soon). If you'd like to give the program a shot for yourself, then head this way.


Entry 12: 19 October 2002, 7:13pm

Oklahoma State has finally beaten Nebraska, 24-21. YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! First time that's happened since four years before I was born. I guess those slaughters by Penn State and Iowa State weren't flukes after all. Nebraska really does suck this year!

Now if Arizona can beat Dallas tomorrow (a lot more probable than what happened today) and Jeff Gordon can screw up another engine in Martinsville my weekend will go from great to spectacular!


Entry 13: 20 October 2002, 1:48am

Did you know that Tulsa has a third interstate? Most people don't, because they don't see it when they're driving. In fact, the only place you'll ever see the shield for Interstate 444 is on a road map.

I-444 was the planned designation for the East and South legs of the downtown Inter Dispersal Loop (I-244 already comprising the West and North legs). When those sections were under construction back in the early 80s I even remember the main construction sign saying something to the effect of "Future Route of Interstate 444."

But for some reason, once the road was completed, the I-444 signs were never put up. They aren't really necessary, as both of those IDL legs are also US Highway 75, while the South leg is also US-64/OK-51. The road maps put out by the State Transportation Department removed the I-444 shield from their maps of downtown Tulsa several years ago, but other maps--including the online Mapquest maps and the brand-new 2003 Rand-McNally Road Atlas--still shows these sections as 444, which would seem to me very confusing to someone for an out-of-towner trying to find a place the map shows to be just off I-444, only to get totally lost trying to find our secret interstate.

One suggestion put forth as to why I-444 was never shielded was that the state could never get the federal funding to do so. However, other sites have mentioned that federal funding is not necessary for a highway to become designated an interstate. The Feds don't even have final say as to what the number would be, as the ill-named I-99 in Pennsylvania and I-238 in California would attest. (Check out those links if you're interested in their stories.)  The only requirements the federal government put forth are that the highway meet certain specifications required of all interstate highways (widths, emergency lanes, etc.), and that they follow the standard numbering procedures required of all 3-digit interstates.  Interstate 444 therefore meets all of the federal requirements to call it an interstate.

Which brings us back to why it's not signed on the roads. The best theory I could come up with is that the signs on the south leg already look crowded, being it's already US-75, US-64 and OK-51. Adding another shield would bunch the signs up even worse.  That, or a multicolored shield on those BGSs (a roadgeek term for "Big Green Signs") cost extra, more than the state was willing to spend.

Either way, something needs to be done: either put up the signs along the highway or do something that would force the mapmakers to stop calling it 444. My suggestion: give it a new interstate number. Call it Interstate 144, which is a 3-digit designation for a spur that goes out of town, and extend it along the Cherokee Expressway (US-75 north out of downtown) until the expressway ends in Washington County and it becomes a regular divided highway. That way Tulsa would have a real third interstate and the thousands of people who work at the Cherokee Industrial Complex (of which I am one) would be able to tell others they work "just off the interstate."

Well, I think it'd be cool...


Entry 14: 24 October 2002, 6:16am

Got bored, so I started spinning a quarter on the table, one of this year's Indiana state quarters. Oddest thing happened: every time I was spinning it with my right hand, therefore spinning it clockwise, without fail it landed Indy-car-side (tails) up. Every single time. Just figured it had something to do with weight distribution within the coin, that the heads side was probably heavier so that side always landed face down as a result.

Then, being even more bored by this point, I started spinning the quarter left-handed, so counterclockwise. This time around it landed heads up. Every single time!

I'm sure there's some nice explanation for it, probably dealing with centrifiga... centrifu... that spinning force thing, maybe with relation to the size and/or weight of the quarter and the speed of the rotation. Darned if I know what it is though.


Entry 15: 26 October 2002, 4:11am



May be a little hard to see what the picture above is of, but it's one of the more interesting pics floating out there on the web. What you're looking at is a 360-degree panoramic view from the literal top of the earth: the summit of Mount Everest, taken by one of its conquerors back in 1989. Click on the picture to go to the page it originally appeared on. Or, click here and to go the picture they're showing today. They, by the way, being NASA.

Yesterday one of  the great actors of the 20th Century died, and it hit me that different generations would best know him for different things. Most youngsters would know Richard Harris as Professor Albus Dumbledore in the Harry Potter movies, while my parents' generation probably know him best as King Arthur in 1967's Camelot. Meanwhile, what does my generation remember him for? That stupid "MacArthur Park" song about melting cakes.

Now don't get me wrong, I love the song, I just think those lyrics are weird. Course, it did come out of the late-60s, during all that "flower power" stuff, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised. No, it's not the lyrics that make it one of my favorites, nor the singer, nor that it's some sort of pop-rock-ballad hybrid. It's that it's long. It's 7½ minutes in length.

Ever since I first started listening to FM radio back in the mid-70s, long songs quickly became my favorite. Probably because they weren't played that often on the radio due to their length. It started with "MacArthur Park," "American Pie" and "Stairway to Heaven" and it's never stopped. If it's over seven minutes long, chances are I'm gonna like it. Genre of music doesn't seem to matter. From Benny Goodman's "Sing Sing Sing" (8-12 minutes depending on which recording), to Donna Summer's disco version of "MacArthur Park" (which somehow actually came out 2½ times longer that Harris's version), to Iron Butterfly's 17-minute "In-a-Gadda-da-Vida." Love 'em all. Except for Grand Funk Railroad's "I'm Your Captain." Way too repetitive.

One last rememberance while slightly on the subject of 70s music. One of my favorite groups in my early days (and they had a couple of long songs of their own) was Wings. I remember the DJs at the time talking about Paul McCartney, and that he used to be with some other group. Every once in a while they'd play some of the songs from that other group, and I didn't care for them. (Most of the songs were too short.) To me, Paul McCartney will always be first and formost, a Winger.