Tag: Gov. Kevin Stitt

Best of BlogOKC in 2025

Editor’s note: As the curtain closes on 2025, I’ve gone through everything written on BlogOKC for the past year for my annual ‘best of’ column in which I select what I consider to be the best 10 of the year. In looking at the posts, I see a trend in what appeals to me for subject matter: nostalgia. Maybe I look back too often for topics that interest me, but that’s a lot of what I write about. Enjoy the top 10:

Frank Day’s labor of love honors the dying art of quilting

Frank Day works on a hand-stitched quilt, accompanied by one of his favorite pets.

A personal favorite right at the top. I discovered that my long-time friend Frank Day from Roland, OK, has become a prolific quilter. Today Frank is 75 years old and retired after more than two decades as fleet sales manager for Fort Smith’s Randall Ford. I think he can best be described in 2025 as a one-man quilting bee. That’s right. Frank Day began hand-stitching beautiful quilts over two decades ago, and continues his quilting avocation today.  Read it here.

Best of the best: Top 10 episodes of the Andy Griffith Show

Andy Griffith and Don Knotts from an episode of The Andy Griffith Show

This post is on its way to becoming one of BlogOKC’s most read posts of all time. Here’s the first few sentences: “If I look at my friend Ed and say ‘how do you do Mrs. Wiley?’ he will know exactly what I am saying. In fact, he might reply with something like ‘I would recognize that accent anywhere. It’s definitely Back Bay Boston.’ Ed and I are true geezers, which means each of us has crossed over the retirement bridge and can indulge in pasttimes as we choose. And one of those is watching the Andy Griffith Show. Read it here.

Breaking News: Grape Nehi lives in 2025!

I discovered this bottle of grape Nehi during a recent visit to an OKC Cracker Barrel store.

So that brings me to August 2025. I discovered Cracker Barrel sells grape Nehi among the many nostalgic candy and soda brands it offers. When we arrived at the store along I-35 in far north OKC, it was filled with customers, and we had about a 35-minute wait for a table. As I sauntered through the store during our wait, I stumbled upon a soda display that had a grape Nehi right in the middle. Grape Nehi lives! Read it here.

Best of Barney: Quoting the greatest sitcom character in television history

Barney consoles Andy with a heart-to-heart talk

My friend Ed Godfrey shared what he considers to be the best 10 Barney Fife lines from the old Andy Griffith show. Here’s how he started the post. “The best sitcom character in the history of television is Barney Fife, played by the great Don Knotts. I’m sorry, if you don’t agree, you’re wrong.”  Read it here.

Theodora’s Elegante Wigs thrives amid generational ch-ch-changes

Linda (Faubus) Lewis is surrounded by wig-covered mannequin heads at her Theodora’s Elegante Wigs shop.

Another personal favorite because it reaches way back to my high school days. “When I saw the ‘Theodora’s Wigs” sign as I was driving past in Fort Smith, Ark., this week, it took me back more than 55 years into an earlier life. So, I veered off Towson Ave., into the Phoenix retail center lot and parked outside the wig shop. Read it here

Meet the International Man of Mystery from Stigler, OK

Hershel Prentice at recent OKC Thunder game

If you ask Stigler, OK, native Hershel Prentice where in the world he’s been lately, he’ll gladly tell you. Dubai? Check. Oman? Check? Poland? Check. Austria? Check. Germany? Check, Newfoundland? Check? Labrador? Check. Check. Check. Whew! And that’s just this year. Read it here.

Gov. Stitt, let’s value lives over dollars


I don’t often take a political position in this blog, but when Gov. Stitt vetoed legislation that expands access for women to imaging technology that can detect breast cancer, I had to speak up. I called my legislators urging them to help overturn Gov. Stitt’s veto of legislation that expands access for women to imaging technology that can detect breast cancer. My wife, Paula, a breast cancer survivor, called our legislators, as well. Then I published this post. Read it here.

Customer service, without the ‘service’

The tail of an American Airlines jet

More BlogOKC advocacy from a January post: Call me an entitled American, if you like, but there seems to be a wide gulf these days between the words “customer” and “service” in our society. I’m talking about when you call the “customer service” line of a major corporation and have to work through 15 AI bots that can’t help with any of your issues before a human finally comes on the line. Today, I’m ranting about a recent experience with the customer service department at American Airlines. (American fixed the problem after this post was published) Read it here.

Dunning-Kruger Effect: I knew it all until I realized I didn’t

When I graduated high school in 1971 — in the bottom half of my class academically — I plunged into my future thinking I pretty much knew everything I needed to know and could handle anything coming my way. However, I didn’t know what I didn’t know.  Read it here.

London Homesick Blues puts me back in that place
Some college nostalgia: Back to 2025. I’m not sure how or why, but I began listening to “London Homesick Blues” on replay over the course of the past couple of months. A wave of nostalgia washes over me when I hear it, and it really does take me back to that place — the ACU campus and the people with whom I shared classes and The Optimist newsroom. Read it here.

BONUS CONTENT

Why I’m living the Hallmark lifestyle
Read it here.

Drivers beware: Speed traps live on
Read it here.

Apple draws the line on altered reality in photos
Read it here.

Aging Well: 3 Old Geezers Podcast returns
Read it here.

Gov. Stitt, let’s value lives over dollars

Gov. Kevin Stitt’s Twitter/X post about his veto.

I took a step this week that I’ve never taken before. I called my legislators urging them to help overturn Gov. Stitt’s veto of legislation that expands access for women to imaging technology that can detect breast cancer.

My wife, Paula, a breast cancer survivor, called our legislators, as well.

Another first.

HB 1389, passed by big margins in both houses, would require insurance plans to cover not only mammograms, but other diagnostics such as “enhanced mammogram, breast MRI, breast ultrasound or molecular breast imaging.”

Paula and I were surprised that Oklahoma’s Governor vetoed legislation that would undoubtedly save lives because, as he said in a statement, it would result in higher health insurance premiums across Oklahoma.

Here’s the Governor’s full statement on the veto:

“I am deeply sympathetic to the women across our state who have bravely fought breast cancer. While early detection and access to care are critical priorities, this legislation imposes new and costly insurance mandates on private health plans that will ultimately raise insurance premiums for working families and small businesses.”

Here’s what I take away from the Governor’s veto:

  • He values dollars over lives.
  • He devalues the lives of women.
  • He demonstrates a complete lack of empathy.
  • He’s obviously influenced by the insurance industry.

I’m pretty sure that the price of treating an advanced breast cancer would be far more than the cost of early detection.

I’ve seen a lot of outrage on social media at Stitt’s veto, much of it by women whose lives have been upended by breast cancer — thinking of you, Savannah.

In fact, one of the authors of HB 1389, was Melissa Provenzano, D-Tulsa, who is caught up in her own battle with breast cancer. Click here to read a story from the online news service, Oklahoma Voice, that details reactions to Stitt’s veto and efforts to override it.

Republicans and Democrats alike supported the legislation as it advanced through both legislative houses.

Of course, Stitt said on X/Twitter that he anticipates ‘spin’ on his veto.  It’s not spin Governor. It’s outrage.

So, I’m urging readers of this post to pick up the phone, call your legislators and urge them support the move to override the veto. Or email. Find your local legislators and contact info through this link. 

It will take a supporting vote by two-thirds of state legislators to overturn the veto, so it’s a high bar.

Remind them it’s about valuing lives of Oklahoma’s women over any added expense of diagnosing what often is a fatal disease if not detected early enough.

Take a stand.