Asked & Answered

It’s time to check my inbox and answer the questions some readers have emailed…

Asked: You aren't from Childress, are you?  Where did you live before moving to Oklahoma?   -Sue

Answered: I lived in Childress when I was little, and we moved to Amarillo when I was in the third grade. Growing up, I spent every spring break and a lot of every summer in Childress. I also worked at the Index the first two summers after I graduated high school.

My husband and I were living in Amarillo before we moved.

Asked: If you don't like Oklahoma, why do you live there?   -D.S.

Answered: It’s not that I don’t like it here. I do. Mostly. I just can’t get past the fact that I don’t live in Texas. Some call it denial, but I call it… Well, I don’t call it anything. It’s too sad.

 

Asked: Do tornadoes scare you?   -K.L.

Answered: Yes, but on the plus side, the storm tracking technology here is state of the art, and this is where meteorologists from all over the country come to learn. That’s big comfort when the warning sirens start to blow.

Asked: Are you an OU fan?   -L.J.

Answered: Nope.

Asked: What do you think about the OKC NBA team? -Smith

Answered: What a great opportunity! The New Orleans Hornets’ temporary relocation to OKC after Hurricane Katrina was a boon to the economy and a fantastic (no pun intended) entertainment avenue. The games were a blast, the team was very well supported, and the fans in the Ford Center were the loudest in the NBA. 

Though local team name suggestions included the “Oklahoma Boomers” and “Oklahoma Sooners of the NBA” (I kid you not), and the NBA has filed trademark rights for the Barons, Bisons, Energy, Marshalls and Wind, it looks as though the team name will be the Oklahoma City Thunder. In fact, for a very brief time last week, nba.com had “Oklahoma City Thunder” posted on it’s website.

I’m not crazy about the name; it’s a sound, after all, but it is what it is. I’ll still go to games as often as I can. In fact, I can hardly wait to take my nephews!

Asked: Gob Bluth ROCKS!   -Joe

Answered: Well, Joe, I appreciate that you are an Arrested Development fan. It’s one of my all-time favorite TV shows. (And I know that’s not a question, but I can’t let an AD comment go unacknowledged, can I?)

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Keep those emails coming, and we’ll open the inbox again soon!

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How unfortunate is it that China’s shiny Olympic façade is cracking? Some of the impressive opening ceremony fireworks turned out to be computerized images. A sweet voiced 7-year-old was deemed not pretty enough, and fifteen minutes before the opening ceremony she was yanked and replaced by a seemingly cuter girl, who lip-synched the song. An American was stabbed to death. And one of the Chinese women’s gymnastics team, all of whom were verified via their passports to be 16 or older, lost a baby tooth between the time the Games began and the team finals. Huh. Age verified by passport when the Chinese are the only ones who don’t need passports to travel to the Olympics. Go figure.

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Wasn’t it sweet that the french (yes, lower case F, the jerks) didn’t “smash the US” in the men’s 4x100 meters freestyle swimming relay? And yes, I know that french trash talker Alain Bernard won a gold medal Wednesday, but still, though he sure talked the talk, he didn’t walk the complete walk.

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Have you been paying attention to US men’s gymnastic alternate-turned-medalist Jonathan Horton? We hear a lot about him here, because he’s an OU student. He’s also a Texan.

Don’t you just love Texas boys?