The Generosity of Wal-Mart December 2, 2003 12:00 am

ABATE Audio Spots December 5, 2003 12:00 am

 
Just uploaded is the audio track for the TV PSA promoting this year's real Toy Run, voiced by Fox23 News' Chera Kimiko.

Also, the current Secretary of ABATE, and the person who got me involved with the organization, did a radio interview with Bob Cooper on KOOL106.1FM less than an hour ago. Here's a recording of that bit.

In related stuff, yesterday's Tulsa World had a nice front page story about the controversy between the two Toy Runs. One of the ABATE officers interviewed said that instead of doing both runs, he was going to bring two toys to ours, so that his decision to only attend the one run would not affect any child receiving a toy. I recommend that everybody do this. Instead of attending both runs, just attend the ABATE run, but bring two toys to balance things out.

Also, for a brief history of the ABATE Toy Run and the reasons we dumped the Salvation Army as beneficiary, click here. 9:27am
 

I Take It Back December 5, 2003 12:00 am

 
Disregard the previous entry. It seems the woman who got trampled has a long history of claiming injuries at Wal-Marts and other Central Florida businesses. She and her sister are "frequent fallers" who have filed 16 previous claims, 9 at Wal-Mart stores.

If this is indeed the case, either the woman is an extortionist pure & simple, or she's very accident-prone and so stupid that she keeps going back to a store where she's inviting injury. I tend to believe the former. 8:13am
 

How Early Presidential Primaries Affect What You See On TV December 6, 2003 12:00 am

 
This past week, candidates for President has to register for the Oklahoma primary early next year. Therefore, the Rev. Al Sharpton is officially a political candidate in this state, as well as a couple of others where registration has already occured.

As a result, Oklahoma and those other states are not allowed to air tonight's new episode of Saturday Night Live, because Sharpton is host.

No problem in this house, because Channel 2 replaced it with a "Best of Steve Martin" special, which means SNL will actually be watched here for a change. 11:01pm
 

How the Mighty Have Fallen! December 6, 2003 12:00 am

 
OK, so OU beat OSU earlier in the year. Turned out to be all for naught. The conference championship, the most important game of the season to date and the one that would send OU into the national championship, was... well, I guess the Sooners thought they could phone it in tonight. After all, OSU defeated Kansas State earlier in the year, and OU beat OSU. Of course, both OSU and TU will likely be bumped down a bowl level because Texas can now not be a BCS team, but that's a small price to pay.

OU finally got creamed!

By a team that OSU defeated earlier in the year!

Sure, it's a degree of separation farther than I would've liked, but I can live with it. 10:51pm
 

How to Fix the BCS December 8, 2003 12:00 am

 
It is a total and absolute crime that OU is going to play for the national championship while USC, the top-ranked team in the country, isn't. The BSC needs to be fixed during the off-season, and I've figured out a quick and easy way to do it.

It seems perfectly obvious that, if you don't win your conference championship game, you don't belong in the national championship game. Granted, not every conference has a championship game, so that statement couldn't apply to everybody. So this is how you word it:

If you don't win your final game, you can't play for the national championship, regardless of your position in the BCS standings.

More ABATE Toy Run Stuff December 12, 2003 12:00 am

 
The ABATE Secretary reappeared on KOOL-106 about an hour ago for another reminder about Sunday's Toy Run. Once again, here's a recording of it.

The fun part that we didn't have to deal with in last week's interview is the weather. Sunday is supposed to be nice, partly cloudy in the low 40s. The problem is going to be what happens between now and then, and how much snow we're gonna get. The National Weather Service is currently forecasting 1-2 inches in Tulsa, while the other extreme has the meteorologists at Channel 6 predicting 4-8 inches. (Their Chief Meteorologist is on vacation, so I'm hoping the others don't know what they're talking about.) I just hope the City does a real good job cleaning the roads along the Toy run route. As a comparison, last year's Toy Run occured under overcast skies with temps in the 40s.

With very good roads and sunny weather, last week's first Salvation Army Toy Run attracted around 4000 bikes. Several ABATE members went down to the start of that run to remind people of the ABATE run, and I'm glad to say that most of the riders they talked to said they were going to participate in both runs. Good news for both groups. 10:03am
 

Toy Run a Big Success December 14, 2003 12:00 am

 
The ABATE Toy Run is over, and was an overwhelming success. Except for a few minor communication difficulties between the Tulsa Police and the Marines, everything went off without a hitch. Mother Nature even helped out: just a few minutes before the start of the run, the sun finally broke through the clouds.

Turns out we didn't have to worry about the Salvation Army's competing toy run after all. They reported around 4,000 bikes in their event last week (although independent sources reported only around 1200). Today's run brought out around 18-20,000 bikes, which would likely result in 30-35,000 bikers. Last year, which was a record for the Tulsa ABATE Run, there were only 17,000 bikes.

But all those numbers are just that: numbers. The girl in the picture (click on it for a larger version, or here for a list of all the pictures for the day) received her toy today. The smile on her face is the real reason why we were all participating in this event.

Sticking it to the Salvation Army was just the icing. 8:24pm
 

2003 Stella Awards December 18, 2003 12:00 am

 
The 2003 Stella Awards have been announced, awarding the most frivolous successful lawsuits in the United States. The Stellas were named for 81 year old Stella Liebeck who spilled coffee on herself and successfully sued Macdonald's. They've even got a web site where you can see past winners. While you have to subscribe to their newsletter (don't worry, it's free) to see the 2003 winners, I'm gonna show you who came in first:

This year's runaway winner was Mr. Merv Grazinski of Oklahoma City Oklahoma. Mr Grazinski purchased a brand new Winnebago Motor Home. On his trip home from an OU football game, having driven onto the Freeway, he set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmly left the drivers seat to go into the back and make himself a cup of coffee. Not surprisingly the RV left the Freeway, crashed and overturned. Mr.Grazinski sued Winnebago for not advising him in the owner's manual that he could not actually do this. The jury awarded him $1,750,000 plus a new Winnebago Motor Home. The company actually changed their manuals on the basis of this suit just in case there was any other complete morons buying their recreational vehicles.

E-Mail Problems December 19, 2003 12:00 am

Toy Run Follow-Up December 19, 2003 12:00 am

 
And this Friday KOOL-106 interviewed Lyndon once more, this time about the results of the Toy Run. Toy Run. Once again, Here's what it sounded like (sorry for the static).

In related news, FOX-23 will be airing a Toys For Tots special at 5pm Christmas Day. The special will include the numerous ways in which toys were being collected, so no doubt the Toy Run will be heavily featured in that half-hour. 9:30am
 

Threat Level December 26, 2003 12:00 am

 
Hope everyone had a nice Christmas. Just found my present.

Been looking for a while for a graphic that would display the current Homeland Defense Threat Level. Thanks to today's USA Today I've found one. Go here if you'd like to add a graphic to your web site similar to the one I've put over in the right column. 10:06am
 

Goodbye, 2003. And Good Riddance! December 31, 2003 12:00 am