The Evenin' Shadders

  I first met Molly the Wonder Dog about twelve years ago. I had exited a difficult marriage and found, much to my surprise, a delightful brown-eyed mother of two who thought I was charming. Seriously, she did. Anyway, Karen had two children – Sara and Clayton – a couple of cats with questionable reputations and Molly the Wonder Dog. Molly wasn’t sure about me at first. She kept her distance, and looked at me me with eye of skeptical reporter. For a while, she watched every step I took when I ventured over to Karen’s house. I understood this. Karen was a single mother with two small children. Molly was Karen’s dog and Molly was in charge of security, a job she took very seriously. I was the outsider. And, because Karen shares the same DNA as St. Francis of Assisi, I knew that should I stay with her Molly and the other animals that crossed the threshold, would become part of our family. So Karen and I began to date. But it wasn’t until Molly witnessed the first of many kisses betwee...

  “…and then something went bump,  and that bump made us jump.  We looked and we saw him step in on the mat.  We looked as we saw him, the Cat in the Hat …”       In the annals of American History March 2 nd  is  not  the most noticeable of dates.  It can be claimed as the birthday of both Desi Arnaz and Mikhail Gorbachev and, for those whose tastes run somewhat darker, it’s the day cowboy actor Randolph Scott died. Of course, if we Americans were truly students of history, March 2 nd  would have more meaning: in 1923 the first issue of Time Magazine rolled off the presses. On that same date in 1927, Babe Ruth was listed as the highest paid player in baseball (he earned $70,000 that year) in 1933, King Kong premiered at the Radio City Music Hall. In 1950 Silly Putty was invented. Fourteen years later, the Beatles would film “A Hard Day’s Night” and in 1974 a federal grand jury would conclude President Nixon was involved in...

So I’m standing in a large darkened gym, watching a bunch of middle school kids fake like they are dancing — and for the record they’re not very good. I’m here, because in a moment of weakness, I told my school teacher-wife I’d help chaperone. The music is loud. Between 40 and 50 kids line the walls — boys on one side, girls on the other. The dance floor is empty. I’ve been here before. About 30 years ago. Over to the left, there’s the arrogant little twit who is sure he’s the perfect specimen of masculinity. He thinks he’s immortal and he honestly believes that every girl here is dying to hook-up with him. He struts around like a rooster, high-fives his buds, and practices that same look Rod Steward made famous in 1975. Rod’s version was way better. Thirty years ago this kid’s name was Jimmy; he started on the eighth grade football team and his Dad bought him a real motorcycle. He was just sure he had qualified as the Alpha Male of the eighth grade. Superjock is talking to the standar...

House Speaker Carl Albert, D-McAlester, center is shown in 1974. To Albert's left is his press secretary, Joe Foote . OKLAHOMA CITY – This is a story about power and politics. A story about the choices men are given and the choices those same men make.   This is also a story about history, a little-known tale regarding one of the biggest political scandals in American. This is a story about Watergate. But it’s not a typical Watergate story: It’s a story that few know and even fewer talk about.    This is a Watergate story about two Oklahomans: The late Carl Albert, then-Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and a young Justice Department attorney named Larry Nichols. One a Republican, the other a Democrat who, at the height of a national crisis, when the country was divided and people were furious and frightened, made an incredibly difficult choice.                  The Scandal That Brought ...