Category: On The Bricks

          Switzerland stays out of international disputes, so it’s ironic how its army because associated with what may be the best know, most beloved, and most commonly used pies of military hardware in the world, according to a chapter in The Book of Bizarre Truths.

          The multitool pocketknife was the brainchild of Swiss cutlery manufacturer Karl Elsener. A true patriot, Elsener bristled at the fact that Swiss soldiers go their standard issue knives from a German manufacturer. He set out to win the contract from his government.

          In the 1890s, he designed a unique spring mechanism for pocketknives that allows the handle to hold several blades. That was clever but the true genius was when he included several basic tools in his knife – a can opener, a hole punch, and a screwdriver.

          According to some, it was the screwdriver that won over the Swiss military brass. Their infantry had began using a new type of rifle and soldiers needed screwdrivers to perform basic maintenance on the weapon.

          Elsener dubbed his creation the “Soldier’s Knife” and followed it up with a lightweight version with a few more tools he called the “Officer’s and Sports Knife.” Before long, handymen around the world were carrying them in their pocket. It was in during World War II when American GIs dubbed it the Swiss Army Knife.

          Elsener’s company, Victorinox, is still in business and producing 34,000 knives a day in some 300 configurations. Almost any tool can be found on one model or another; corkscrew, wire strippers, toothpick, fish scaler, ruler, nail file, saw, chisel, magnifying glass, flashlight, ballpoint pen, or a tracheotomy knife.

          Famous Okie information: Oklahoma is the nation’s top manufacturer of automobile tires.

Keep Going on Your New Years Resolutions: Put your bills on autopay. If this won’t put you in financial stress, it is one less thing you have to think about and it will cut out those late fees.

Good advice: Never ruin an apology with an excuse. ~Ben Franklin

Made me laugh: What is the difference between a well – dressed man on bike and a poorly dressed man on a unicycle? Attire.

Happening now: Many people are getting their COVID vaccines now, but this doesn’t alleviate the importance of wearing a mask and being smart about keeping yourself safe from exposure to the virus.

Main Street Guymon is accepting applications for their Career Focus Workshop now. This is a chance for business owners to invest in themselves or their employee’s professional development. For more information call 580-338-6246 or email Director@MainStreetGuymon.com.

          See you on the bricks soon!

          As a young girl, my dad would give me $1.50 and let me go into Jonach’s and I would buy a Hardy Boys book. This didn’t happen that often, but it was a stellar day when it did. There was no problem picking out the book because I would have come in a dozen times and looked at them before the day I had money. But when I didn’t have a new book to read, I went to the library. They had so many of them and I eventually read them all.

          I read the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew books. Before them was Tom Swift and his books. Tom was a young inventor who resolved crises and foiled wickedness. One book of the series, Tom Swift and His Electric Rifle, came out in 1911.

Jack Cover read the Tom Swift books growing up. In 1967, as a NASA researcher, he decided to make one of the gee – whiz gadgets from the series, explains a chapter in The Book of Bizarre Truths. He finished designing an electricity weapon he named the Thomas A. Swift Electric Rifle, or TASER, in 1974. Tom Swift had never had a middle initial, but Cover inserted the A to make the acronym easier on the tongue.

Cover’s first electric rifle, the Taser TF – 76, used a small gunpowder charge to fire two barbed darts up to 15 feet. Thin wires conducted electricity from the weapon’s batter to the target, causing great pain and brief paralysis with little risk of death (except in the young, elderly, or frail). That worked fine with the police because they rarely felt compelled to take down children or senior citizens.

The police saw potential in the Taser. The TF – 76 held great promise as a nonlethal takedown tool.

Never underestimate the creativity – squelching power of government. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (BATF) wondered how to classify the Taser. Because it used gunpowder, they decided to group with sawed – off shotguns, which were illegal for most to acquire or possess.

That meant you could carry a .44 Magnum on your hip, but it was a felony to possess, much less use, an electric stunner that took neither blood nor life. The BATF ruling zapped Taser Systems (Cover’s new company) right out of business.

Taser Systems resurfaced as Tasertron, limping along on sales to police. In the 90s, a creative idealist Rick Smith wanted to popularize nonlethal weapons. He licenses the Taser technology from Cover, and began changing the weapon. To deal with BATF’s gunpowder buzzkill, Smith and Cover designed a Taser dart propelled by compressed air. They also loaded each cartridge with paper and Mylar confetti bearing a serial number. If the bad guys misused a Taser, they wouldn’t be able to eradicate the evidence.

A nightstick blow to the head or a 9mm police bullet are both deadlier than a Taser. So, today the debate revolves more around police officers’ over – willingness to use the Taser than whether or not they should carry one.

Good advice: Always and never are two words you should always remember never to use.

          Famous Okie information: Vinita, Okla., was the first town in the state to have electricity. It is also the oldest incorporated town in the state.

Keep Going on Your New Years Resolutions: Talk to yourself with kindness.

Made me laugh: You don’t need a parachute to go skydiving. You need a parachute to go skydiving twice.

          See you on the bricks soon!

          Looking on the bright side of things, choosing to be optimistic rather than pessimistic, is a skill. A skill that is learned.

          A person can be happier, often more productive, healthier, and at peace by practicing “conscious positivity” or choosing to look on the bright side.

          Research has shown people with anxiety can learn to worry less by adopting positive ideation. Stress can also be reduced by learning positive thinking skills. In fact, a Yale School of Public Health study of more than 4,000 people age 50 and older found having a positive view of aging can help you live longer.

          When you change your thoughts, you change your world.

          Rather than complaining, find things that you are grateful for. You can even start a gratitude journal and be sure to list your personal strengths and any acts of kindness you see or do.

          When you have a negative thought, choose to focus on something positive about your situation. When you’re nervous about a work deadline, imagine how it will feel when you finish a good product. When you’re procrastinating, promise yourself a reward for starting.

          Things won’t all go well, but you can train yourself to be positive rather than negative. Because if you allow your mind to pondering on your failure, you’re halfway to accomplishing the failure. When you hear that voice in your head, tell it to go away, take a deep breath, and concentrate on one positive thing about the situation or about yourself. Start to trust yourself.

          Simply interrupting the flow of negative thoughts can move you closer to being a positive person.

          When you feel stressed, concentrate briefly on what you are thinking and feeling at the moment – on what is causing your emotions. Then determine whether you can do anything about it. If you can do something to help it, do it. If you cannot, have the mental fortitude to let it go and not to worry about things you cannot control. Put it out of your mind. Do not allow something you can do nothing about shadow your day.

          When you can do something and do it, you are accomplishing something. You are being a person of action. You have taken control of your life. You might not solve the entire problem, but you made things better.

          You can become a calmer, happier, and more successful person simply by controlling your thoughts and following those thoughts that are positive. Quit wasting time on blame of yourself or others.

          Working hard to become positive and getting your mind off negative thoughts and in a mode to do something to improve situations soon can lead to helping other people when you’re not so busy worrying and thinking bad things.

          Pope Francis said, “Rivers do not drink their own water; trees do not eat their own fruit; the sun does not shine on itself and flowers do not spread their fragrance for themselves. Living for others is a rule of nature. We are all born to help each other. No matter how difficult it is … Life is good when you are happy; but much better when others are happy because of you.”

          It’s good for us to continually strive to be better versions of ourself.

          January 17 is Main Street Guymon’s Special Game Day in Goodwell. This is an event for families with special needs kids and our partners include the OPSU Baseball Team. It’s a great day and if you know someone who should be contacted about the event, please drop us a note at MainStreetGuymon.com or call 580-338-6246.

The most densely populated place on the planet, according to The Book of Bizarre Truths, is Mong Kok, a section of Hong Kong. About 200,000 people live in Mong Kok, an area just slightly larger than half a square mile. That equal out to about 70 square feet per person. Add in the building and you’ve got a district in which it is physically impossible for everyone to be outside at the same time.

Mong Kok’s bustling Golden Mile, a popular stretch of shops, restaurants, and theaters, compounds the crowding issue. A half – million or so tourists routinely jostle for a position in the streets.
Residents have reported that the streets are often completely full, with every inch of pavement covered.

The way they squeeze so many people into such a small area is that they build up. The area is home to an array of high – rise apartment buildings. Families who live in these apartments sometimes rent out rooms to other families. There might be ten or more people in a single apartment. They sometimes sleep in two or three rooms and share a small kitchen and a single bathroom. The apartments are so small that people sleep in bunk beds that are three or four tiers high, and they keep their belongings in chests and baskets that are suspended from the ceiling.

Famous Okie information: Juanita Kidd Stout is the first black woman to serve on a state supreme court. She was from Wewoka, Okla.
Keep going on New Years resolutions: Donate the clothes you never wear. If you haven’t worn it in a year, give someone else the chance to do so.
Made me laugh: Someone stole my mood ring. I don’t know how I feel about that.

Christmas wishes: For those of you who love Christmas, have a blessed holiday! For those of you that don’t participate in Christmas, I wish you a relaxing and enjoyable day. For those of you who have to work on Christmas Eve and Christmas, may God send you extra blessings for the holidays … and maybe even overtime! For those of you who are alone this Christmas, I wish you loving memories to wrap around yourselves and make you happy. Remember, it is the season of giving and each of us has much to give.
See you on the bricks, soon! Stay safe.

          Juiced, roid – raged, hyped, and pumped are all words to describe the effects of using anabolic steroids. For better or worse, The Book of Bizarre Truths says steroids have invaded the worlds of professional and amateur sports, and even show business.

          Anabolic steroids (also called anabolic – androgenic steroids, or AAS) are a specific class of hormones that are related to the male hormone testosterone. Steroids have been used for thousands of years in traditional medicine to promote healing in diseases such as cancer and AIDS. French neurologist Charles – Edouard Brown – Sequard was one of the first physicians to report its healing properties after injecting himself with an extract of guinea pig testicles in 1889.

          In 1935 two German scientists applied for the first steroid – use patent and were offered the 1939 Nobel Prize for Chemistry, but the Nazi government forced them to decline the honor.

          Interest in steroids continued during World War II. Third Reich scientists experimented on concentration camp inmates to treat symptoms of chronic wasting as well as to test its effects on heightened aggression in German soldiers. Even Adolf Hitler was injected with steroids to treat his endless list of maladies.

          The first reference to steroid use for performance enhancement in sports dates back to a 1938 Strength and Health magazine letter to the editor, inquiring how steroids could improve performance in weightlifting and bodybuilding. During the 1940s, the Soviet Union and a number of Eastern Bloc countries built aggressive steroid programs designed to improve the performance of Olympic and amateur weight – lifters. The program was so successful that U.S. Olympic team physicians worked with American chemists to design Dianabol, which they administered to U.S. athletes.

          The use of steroids has become commonplace in baseball, football, cycling, track, golf, and cricket. In a 2006 survey, steroid use was measured in eighth-, tenth-, and twelfth – grade students. A little more than 2% of male high school seniors admitted to using steroids during the past year.

          Steroids can promote cell growth, protein synthesis from amino acids, increase appetite, bone strengthening, and stimulate bone marrow and production of red blood cells. Side effects include shrinking testicles, reduced sperm count, infertility, acne, high blood pressure, blood clotting, liver damage, headaches, aching joints, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, loss of sleep, severe mood swings, paranoia, panic attacks, depression, male pattern baldness, the cessation of menstruation in women, and an increased risk of prostate cancer.

          Many countries have banned the sale of anabolic steroids for nonmedical applications. They are legal in Mexico and Thailand. In the U.S., steroids are classified as a Schedule III controlled substance, making possession a federal crime, punishable by prison time.

          Thousands of black – market vendors are willing to sell more than 50 different varieties of steroids. They are sold through the mail, over the internet, in gyms, and at competitions. Many of these drugs are submedical or veterinary – grade steroids.

          Lyle Alzado, the colorful, record – setting defensive tackle for the LA Raiders, Cleveland Browns, and Denver Broncos, admitted to taking steroids to stay competitive but acknowledged their risks.

          “Ninety percent of the athletes I know are on the stuff. We’re not born to be 300 lbs. or jump 30 ft. But all the time I was taking steroids, I knew they were making me play better,” he said. “I became very violent on the field and off it. I did things only crazy people do. Now look at me. My hair’s gone, I wobble when I walk and have to hold on to someone for support and I have trouble remembering things. My last wish? That no one else ever dies this way.”

          In 2008, 61 – year – old Rambo star Sylvester Stallone paid $10,600 to settle a criminal drug possession charge for smuggling 48 vials of Human Growth Hormone (HGH) into the country. HCHC is popularly used for its anti – aging benefits.

          “Everyone over 40 years old would be wise to investigate it (HGH and testosterone use) because it increases the quality of your life,” says Stallone.

          “If you’re an actor in Hollywood and you’re over 40, you are doing HGH. Period,” said one Hollywood cosmetic surgeon. “Why wouldn’t you? It makes your skin look better, your hair, your fingernails. Everything.”

          Steroids are one more medicine that does much good and is abused by humanity for vanity and competitive dominance. It proves you just can’t fix stupid.

          Famous Okie information: The nation’s first parking meter was installed in Oklahoma City in 1935.

Keep Going on Your New Years Resolutions: Avoid people who complain a lot. It doesn’t matter how positive you are, negativity spreads and will impact your life.

Made me laugh: My boss said to me, “This is the third time you’ve been late to work this week. Do you know what that means?” “It’s Wednesday?”

See you on the bricks, soon! Stay safe.

          Nostradamus was born in December of 1503 in a small town in southern France according to The Book of Bizarre Truths. He became a successful apothecary and even created a pill that could supposedly protect against the plague.

          It is believed that at some time in the 1540s, Nostradamus began taking interest in the occult, particularly in ways to predict the future. His preferred method was scrying, or gazing into a bowl of water or a mirror and waiting for visions to appear.

          He published a highly successful almanac for the year 1550, which included some of his prophecies and predictions. The almanac was so successful that Nostradamus wrote more, perhaps even several a year, until his death in 1566.

          In addition to creating his almanacs, he began compiling his previously unpublished prophecies into a massive volume. Released in 1555, Les Propheties (The Prophecies) contained hundreds of quatrains (four – line poems). It became one of the most controversial and perplexing books ever written.

          Nostradamus worried some might see his prophecies as demonic, so he encoded them to obscure their true meanings. To do this, Nostradamus did everything from playing with the syntax of the quatrains to switching between French, Greek, Latin, and other languages. Over the years, it became a common practice in the aftermath of a major historical event for people to pull out a copy of his book to see if they could find a hidden reference in his quatrains. It is a practice that has continued to this day and only gets more and more common.

          Soon after the Twin Towers fell, an e-mail started making the rounds that claimed Nostradamus had predicted the events, quoting the following quatrain as proof:

          “In the City of God there will be a great thunder, Two Brothers torn apart by Chaos, While the fortress endures, The great leader will succumb, The third big war will begin when the big city is burning. -Nostradamus, 1654”

          Some thought Nostradamus is describing September 11, the Twin Towers (“Two Brothers”) falling, and the start of World War III. Pretty chilling, except Nostradamus never wrote it. It was nothing more than an Internet hoax that spread like wildfire.

          First, Nostradamus wrote quatrains, which have four lines. This one has five. Also, the date Nostradamus supposedly penned this, 1654, was almost 90 years after he died.

          Nostradamus might have been able to see the future, but there’s no mention of him being able to write from beyond the grave.

Famous Okie information: James Gordon “Bo” Gritz was born January 18, 1939 in Enid, Okla. He is a former United States Army Special Forces officer who served for 22 years, including in the Vietnam War. He was the most decorated Green Beret officer during Vietnam. His activities in retirement, notably attempted POW rescues in conjunction with the Vietnam War POW/MIA issue, have been controversial.

Keep going on New Years resolutions: Be brave and do something that scares you.

Made me laugh: Working in a mirror factory is something I can totally see myself doing.

See you on the bricks, soon! Stay safe. Prayers for all those affected by COVID.

Not too long ago we were thanking our veterans. Here is an Oklahoma veteran that we should all hear his story.

William James Crowe Jr. was a United States Navy admiral who served as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush, and as the ambassador to the United Kingdom under President Bill Clinton.

Crowe was born in Kentucky on Jan. 2, 1925. At the beginning of the Great Depression, Crowe’s father moved the family to Oklahoma City. In June 1946, Crowe completed a war – accelerated course of study and graduated with the Class of 1947 from the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.

From 1954 to 1955, Crowe served as assistant to the naval aide of President Dwight D. Eisenhower. From 1956 to 1958, Crowe served as executive officer of the submarine USS Wahoo (SS-565). In 1958, he served as an aide to the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations. In 1960, Crowe took command of USS Trout, homeported in Charleston, S.C., and served as commanding officer until 1962. Crowe next earned a master’s degree in education at the Stanford Graduate School of Education, and then, turning down an invitation from Admiral Hyman G. Rickover to enter the Navy’s nuclear power program, earned a Master of Arts and a Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science at Princeton University. During the Vietnam War he was the senior adviser to the Vietnamese Riverine Force. In 1969, he took command of Submarine Division 31, homeported in San Diego.

A long string of assignments followed that included; Head of East Asia Pacific Branch, Politico – Military Division, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations; promoted to rear admiral and named Deputy Director, Strategic Plans, Policy, Nuclear Systems, and NSC Affairs Division, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations; Director of East Asia and Pacific Region, Office of the Secretary of Defense; Commander of the Middle East Force; promoted to vice admiral and named Deputy Chief of Naval Operations, Plans, Policy and Operations; promoted to admiral and named Commander in Chief, Allied Forces Southern Europe; named Commander in Chief, United States Naval Forces Europe; and named Commander in Chief, United States Pacific Command.

On July 10, 1985, Crowe was appointed by President Ronald Reagan to serve as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He continued to serve as CJCS through the Bush administration until 1989, when he retired from active duty.

After he retired in October 1989, Crowe returned to the University of Oklahoma and William J. Crowe chair in geopolitics. President Clinton named Crowe chairman of the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board in 1993. In 1994, Clinton appointed Crowe the United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom, and he served in that capacity until 1997. Crowe taught a seminar class on national security at the United States Naval Academy from 2000 to 2007.

Crowe died on Oct. 18, 2007, at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland at age 82 due to a heart condition. His funeral was held on Oct. 31, 2007, at the Naval Academy chapel; Bill Clinton spoke. Crowe was buried later that day in the United States Naval Academy Cemetery.

Think on it: We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand. ~Randy Pausch

Make me laugh: The problem with political jokes is that they get elected.

Remember those New Year’s resolutions: Go someplace you’ve never been. Step out of your comfort zone and do something daring for you. It’s good for the soul and forces you to learn new things.

Thank you to all who came downtown and shopped as part of the Shop Small Saturday on Nov. 28. We love you for supporting our local stores!

          See you on the bricks!

          One crop, the potato, failed in Ireland from 1845 to 1851 and more than a million people starved to death tells The Book of Bizarre Truths. The reason the Great Famine took such a toll is because those who starved were the poor.

          For generations, the impoverished in Ireland survived by planting potatoes to feed their families. They had little else. Ireland’s wealthy landowners grew many crops, but these were shipped off and sold for profit.

          In Irish history, the Catholics and the Protestants didn’t get along, just as the Irish and the English didn’t. Back then, the wealthy landowners were mostly English Protestants, with the poor were Catholic peasants. The Irish peasants grew their food on small parcels of land they rented from the English.

          In the 16^th century, the potato crossed the Atlantic from Peru, originally arriving in England and finally getting to Ireland in 1590. Spuds grew well in Ireland, even on the rocky, uneven plots of the peasants. They quickly became the peasants’ main food source. Potatoes require little labor to grow, and an acre could yield 12 tons of them, enough to feed a family of six for the entire year, with leftovers to feed the animals.

          Potatoes are loaded with vitamins, carbohydrates, and some protein. Add a little fish and buttermilk to the diet and the family could live quite happily. Potatoes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner fueled a population boom in Ireland. By the 19^th century, three million people were living on the potato diet.

          In 1845 the blight turned Ireland’s potatoes into black, smelly, inedible lumps. Impoverished families had no options. Their pitiful savings were wiped out, and they fled to the workhouses, the only places they could get food and shelter in return for labor.

          When the potato crop failed again the next year, and every year through 1849, people began dying in earnest. They died from starvation, scurvy, and gangrene (caused by lack of vitamin C), typhus, dysentery, typhoid fever, and heart failure. Overwhelmed and underfund, the workhouses closed. People weakened by hunger, died of exposure after being evicted from their homes. A cholera epidemic spread during the last year of the blight, killing thousands more.

          The exact number who perished is unknown, but believed to be between one and two million. At least a million people left the country, many of them dying at sea.

          All during this time, there was food in Ireland, but it was consumed by the wealthy. The poor had nothing and were left to starve.

          When we look back in history, it makes us realize that the story of COVID, as a medical emergency, is not new.

FYI: In 2005, three and a half years after the company filed for bankruptcy, Polaroid chairman Jacques Nasser received $12.8 million for selling shares of the company. Meanwhile, 6,000 former employees each got $47 and lost their benefits.

Famous Okie information: Recently I have been watching the television series “Leverage” via Netflix DVD. I love the series (there were five seasons) and the actors are great. I like them so much that I pulled the cast up on Google and found out Christian Kane who plays Eliot Spencer, the tough guy, is an Okie. He was born in Texas in 1974, but moved to Norman, Okla., when in eighth grade. He attended the University of Oklahoma. Besides being in “Leverage” he was also in “Secondhand Lions,” one of my favorite movies.

Keep going on New Years resolutions: Pay off your credit card every month and if something is so expensive that you don’t think you’ll be able to, don’t buy it.

Made me laugh: The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving.

See you on the bricks, soon! Stay safe.

          My personal Facebook has had everyone who is politically charged to preach their version of political rights and wrongs on “hide.” The other morning there were not many new posts on my page. It seems I have very opinionated friends, but certainly not with the same opinion.

          American politicians have always had dirty tricks. And Americans seem to fall for them. And then act surprised when they find out they have fallen for some politician’s lies.

          This months Oklahoma Humanities magazine had an interesting article about some of those nasty choices made in politics in the past.

          “In the 2000 Republican presidential primary, then – Governor George Bush of Texas was running against Senator John McCain of Arizona. McCain won the New Hampshire primary, and the race went to South Carolina where the Bush campaign knew they had to stop McCain. Using a tried and true strategy, the phony poll, opponents of McCain spread a complete falsehood. Phone calls to South Carolina Republican voters asked, “Would you be more or less likely to vote for John McCain … if you knew he had fathered an illegitimate black child?”

          “McCain and his wife Cindy had adopted a dark – skinned girl from Bangladesh in 1991 and that child, Bridget, was campaigning with them in South Carolina.

          “Confronted with attacks on their wives and children, candidates have a hard time defending themselves. McCain was distraught at this attack and his efforts to fight back only made his situation worse. He lost the South Carolina primary and the nomination.

          “McCain’s emotional reaction to an attack on his family was not unusual. In 1972, Senator Edmund Muskie was the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination to run against President Richard Nixon. While campaigning in New Hampshire, the editor of the all – important Manchester Union Leader received a letter from a New Hampshire citizen accusing Muskie of using the word “Canuck,” a derogatory term for French Canadians – a significant part of the New Hampshire electorate.

          “Muskie never did any such thing. The letter was later discovered to have been written by a White House aide to President Nixon, Kenneth Clawson. At the same time, the editor of the Manchester Union Leader insulted Muskie’s wife, calling her unladylike for drinking too much and telling jokes.

          “Muskie gave a press conference where he was furious and appeared to cry. Whether there were tears or a melted snowflake on his face, the damage was done. Muskie won New Hampshire, but by a much smaller percentage than was anticipated. The narrow victory devastated his candidacy, and he lost the Democratic nomination to George McGovern, who turned out to be the weak nominee Nixon preferred.”

          Such instances go on and on and have had devastating results for some candidates. Senator John Kerry served in Vietnam and was awarded a Purple Heart, a Bronze Star, and a Silver Star. In 2004, a campaign to sow doubt about Kerry’s war record began. The Navy conducted a review and found all medals were properly awarded, but the damage had been done. The big lie must sow doubt, and the closer the race, the more impact it can have.

          Be careful of the many lies being thrown at the public, from all parties, and try to not get involved in the foray.

          I know that personally, I hate when anyone demands I believe the same as they or the trash they are spewing. We should all be more honest, have more integrity, and think more independently.

          If not, then the saying, “I’m sorry I slapped you. You didn’t seem like you would ever stop talking (posting?) and I panicked” could come true. No, that wouldn’t be nice.

          And what new is happening in Guymon recently? Seems most of the events are being cancelled because of COVID again. It will be a good day when COVID retreats into the background. Then maybe we will start getting busy again and won’t have time to make fools of ourselves on Facebook. I hope it happens soon because I’m too old to look graceful as a fool.

          Stay healthy! See you on the bricks!

According to The Book of Bizarre Truth, our current marathon is descended from a legend about the most famous runner in ancient Greece, a soldier named Philippides. For much of the fifth century B.C., the Greeks were at odds with the neighboring Persian Empire. In 490 B.C., the mighty Persians, led by Darius I, attacked the Greeks at the city of Marathon. Despite being badly outnumbered, the Greeks managed to fend off the Persian troops.

After the victory, the legend holds, Philippides ran in full armor from Marathon to Athens – about 25 miles – to announce the good news. After several hours of running through the rugged Greek countryside, he arrived at the gates of Athens crying, “Rejoice, we conquer!” as Athenians rejoined.

Philippides then fell over dead. Despite a great deal of debate about the accuracy of this story, the legend still held such sway in the Greek popular mind that when the modern Olympic Games were revived in Athens in 1896, a long – distance running event known as a marathon was instituted.

In the first two Olympic Games, the Philippides distance was indeed used as the marathon distance. But things changed in 1908, when the Olympic Games were held in London. The British Olympic committee determined the marathon route would start at Windsor Castle and end at the royal box in front of London’s newly built Olympic Stadium, a distance of 26 miles, 385 yards.

The 26.2 somehow got ingrained in the sporting psyche. By the 1924 Olympics in Paris, this arbitrary distance became the standard for all marathons.

          Famous Okie information: Guthrie, Okla., has the nation’s only museum devoted to the collection of lighters. At the National Lighter Museum, nearly 20,000 lighters and “fire starters” are displayed.

Keep Going on Your New Years Resolutions: Strive to make your bed every morning. Making your bed helps you accomplish something first thing in the morning and thus starts your day with success.

Made me laugh: I think he’s one fry short of a Happy Meal.

You might want to sign up for the Gobbler Gallop that happens early on Thanksgiving morning, a run sponsored by the Texas County YMCA. All runners are welcome.

See you on the bricks, soon! Stay safe.