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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.

Let me tell you about my friend Frank Day of Roland, OK, whom I have known since approximately 1971 when we both worked for Hunt’s Department Store in Fort Smith, Ark.

Frank was a recent graduate of Northeastern State University in Tahlequah and I was a senior at Southside High School.

Over the years, we drank gallons of coffee together, ran trot lines at 2 am in the Arkansas River and stalked raccoons in the middle of the night in the Paw Paw Bottoms, among other adventures.

But life took me to Oklahoma City in 1983 for a job with The Daily Oklahoman newspaper, so we haven’t seen a lot of each other in the intervening years.

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.

What?

That’s right. Frank Day began hand-stitching beautiful quilts over two decades ago, and continues his quilting avocation today.

Frank, I thought I knew you.

There goes my image of the typical quilter as someone’s grandmother.

Turns out that quilting is something Frank learned as a child from his mother, Dortha Day and turned it into an ongoing hobby many decades later.

“When I grew up, Mother was quilting all the time,” Frank told me. “She belonged to a quilting club, a bunch of women who got together at someone’s house and could finish a quilt in one day. I grew up watching her, and she showed me how to do it.”

Frank’s wife of more than 50 years, Vicki, added her perspective.

“Frank’s mother Dortha always had a quilt rack on the ceiling,” Vicki said. “I remember Granny, everyone called her Granny, quilting on the old quilting frames and singing hymns. When the grandchildren came along they would all play under the quilt frame.”

However, Frank had never made a quilt until his first grandchild was born more than 20 years ago. He produced his first quilt for grandson, Trevor, and has continued quilting through the years.

“I said I’m going to get some material and make a quilt,” Frank said of that first attempt. “Vicki said ‘you don’t know how.’ I said, ‘you watch me.’ I got the material and sat down and started sewing. And I got it done.”

That first quilt led into one for each grandchild, then special quilts for relatives and friends. Sometimes he makes them for folks who’ve had a stretch of bad health or difficult life situation, like a former coworker at Randall Ford to whom he presented a quilt.

“She started crying, but it was because she was happy to get it,” Frank said.

A quilt is not made in a day. Or a week. It might require more than a month of work for a solo quilter like Frank Day.

“From start to finish, if it’s a king-sized quilt, you have about 250 hours in it,” he said. “That’s cutting the material out — I hand sew everything, nothing is made on a machine. I hand stitch it, get the backing for it, get the lining for it and put the blocks on top.”

Did you catch that … 250 hours for a single quilt. That’s 6-1/4 40-hour working weeks of quietly sitting alone stitching blocks of material together into what can be a beautiful pattern.

My own grandmother was a quilter, and I recall she had a large wooden frame that she let down from the ceiling that helped her make her quilts.

Frank uses a ‘hoop’ that he holds in his lap as he quilts. Usually, one of his favorite dogs is sitting nearby or even on his lap as he quietly works.

Although he hasn’t made quilts to sell, Frank told me that comparable hand-made quilts can be priced at $1,800-$2,500 because of all the time required to produce one.

“It’s very time consuming, and most people don’t have the patience for it,” he said.

I learned that Frank was a quilter after Vicki posted some pictures of beautiful quilts on Facebook and I complimented her on her quilting talent. She corrected me and said it was all Frank.

“When Frank made his first quilt before Trevor, our first grandchild, was born, we had been married for 30 years and he never made one before,” Vicki said. “I asked him why he never made one before and his answer was “I never had a reason to make one.”

“Frank’s quilting has bloomed over the years. He made one for our son, Paul, as a wedding gift and then for our daughter Jenny. He made one out of cancer warrior scarves that Ford gave to dealerships for Breast Cancer Awareness.”

Each quilt is made with a purpose.

“Frank had a good friend, Dudley Sparkman, who was the best man and friend you could ask for,” Vicki said. “Sadly, he had a massive heart attack on his 50th birthday and passed around two weeks later. Tina Sparkman, Dudley’s wife, asked Frank if he would make a lap quilt out of some of his shirts. That was probably one of the hardest quilts he ever made because on the friendship they shared.”

Quilters like Frank Day who make the time to sit and hand-stitch a beautiful design are a rarity in 2025. Today, most quilts are machine stitched.

Frank calls hand-made quilting a “dying art” that he’s keeping alive in his corner of the world. Currently, he’s working on a quilt for Vicki as he recovers from a recent knee-replacement surgery.

“It’s helped me keep my sanity when I’ve had to sit for long stretches as I recovered from knee surgery that put me down,” he said. “I’ve finished one and got close to half of another one put together.”

It’s one stitch after another after another for a quilter like Frank Day. That translates into hundreds of hours to produce just one quilt.
It’s a marathon, not a sprint.

Frank has run that marathon for more than two decades.

And that’s why I describe him as the ultimate one-man quilting bee.

BONUS CONTENT:

I asked ChatGPT to explain the concept of a “Quilting Bee” to me. Here’s what it told me:

A quilting bee is a social gathering where a group of people—traditionally women—come together to work on quilting projects, usually a large quilt, while also enjoying conversation and community.

Key Features:

– Collaboration: Multiple people contribute to making one quilt. Often, the quilt top is pieced together ahead of time, and the bee focuses on quilting (stitching the layers together).
– Social aspect: It’s as much about socializing and bonding as it is about the sewing. These gatherings were historically important social events, especially in rural communities.
– Tradition: Quilting bees have roots in 18th and 19th century America, when they served as a practical and communal way to create bedding before mass production.
– Modern bees: Today, quilting bees still exist, though they might be less formal or might happen in quilting guilds, workshops, or even online.
Think of a quilting bee as a mix of a sewing circle, a social event, and a creative collaboration.

Oklahoma history repeats itself in law enforcement jurisdiction dispute

Cover of the Oklahoma Scoundrels book that described law enforcement dispute from the 1800s.

The introduction to “Oklahoma Scoundrels: History’s Most Notorious Outlaws, Bandits & Gangsters” about the state’s wild territorial days gave me a feeling of déjà vu all over again, as Yogi Berra used to say.

The book, authored by Robert Barr Smith and Laurence J. Yadon and published in 2016, describes the challenge facing Oklahoma Territory law enforcement in the late 1800s. Native American tribes relied on their own police known as the Lighthorse to keep order. The United States relied on U.S. Marshals and their deputies.

This is where the tale gets interesting, because it could have been written about eastern Oklahoma in the wild west of law enforcement in the 2020s.

Here’s a quote from the book about 1800s Oklahoma Territory law enforcement:

“Save for occasional abuses, the system worked well. Except for one problem. Tribal jurisdiction was very limited. A tribe’s Lighthorse law officer — say the Creek police — could arrest only members of his own tribe and men of other tribes who committed crimes within the Creek nation.

“The jurisdiction of the United States was similarly complex: a deputy marshal could only arrest United States citizens. A marshal could arrest an Indian only if a crime was committed against a U.S. citizen or involved alcohol (bootlegging being the perennial curse of the territory).”

Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

The Supreme Court’s landmark McGirt decision in 2020, which recognized the sovereignty of the Muscogee (Creek) tribe and eventually expanded to the rest of the Five Civilized Tribes, created confusion among entities that provide law enforcement throughout eastern Oklahoma.

In the wake of the McGirt decision, state of Oklahoma law enforcement agencies lost authority to prosecute many crimes involving Native Americans — either as victims or perpetrators — on reservation land. Instead, federal or tribal authorities now have jurisdiction in many cases.

Major crimes such as murder or rape involving Native Americans fall under federal jurisdiction via the Major Crimes Act. Tribal courts handle misdemeanors and other offenses.

While the five tribes — Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw and Seminole, in addition to Muscogee (Creek) — celebrated the decision as affirming their sovereignty, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt has been vocal in his criticism. He has been relentless in efforts to have the ruling overturned, claiming it has caused a public safety crisis in eastern Oklahoma, with criminal cases dismissed and prisoners released, as well as a threat to the state’s authority.

The tribes scoff at Stitt’s claims and say their law enforcement and courts are capable, plus they have signed enforcement agreements with multiple cities and counties across their territories in eastern Oklahoma.

A 2023 Tulsa World article focused on the ‘cross-deputization agreements,’ which allow local law enforcement agencies to jointly enforce tribal, state and federal laws.

“All Tulsa Police officers are cross-deputized with the Muscogee Nation Lighthorse and Cherokee Marshals,” the World article said. “As of 2022, the Muscogee (Creek) Nation had 63 cross-deputization agreements with entities within its sovereign boundaries.”

Back to the Oklahoma Scoundrels tale.

The book says the U.S. and tribal systems of law enforcement sometimes clashed over jurisdiction in the Oklahoma Territory. It describes a deadly shootout between U.S. Marshals and tribal court officials in eastern Oklahoma.

“The worst conflict came in 1872 near the Arkansas border at Going Snake Schoolhouse, then being used as a temporary tribal courthouse. U.S. officers tried to arrest the defendant, the court objected and the resulting shootout with court personnel, spectators and even the defendant left at least 10 men dead and the defendant on the run.”

Whoa! Ten men died over a law enforcement dispute.

Turns out, we’ve sort of replayed that confrontation in a real-world 2025 dispute. Only not as deadly.

In January of this year, a Muscogee Nation Lighthorse Police deputy chief got into a scuffle with a jailer at the Okmulgee County Jail, despite cross enforcement agreements in place.

Here’s how the Tulsa World described it:

“Body-worn camera footage from the Lighthorse officer shows jail official Matthew J. Douglas refusing the detainee, claiming that it was against the jail’s policy to accept prisoners from Lighthorse police. Some jail staff can be heard on the video saying Lighthorse officers are not ‘real police.’

“A physical altercation between Douglas and Lighthorse Deputy Chief Dennis Northcross began behind a closed door, video shows. As other Lighthorse officers tried to enter the room, a brief shoving match ensued at the door.”

Whew! At least in the 2025 version, no guns were drawn or officers from either side gunned down.

You know that old saying about history repeating itself. Well, it happens.

And that’s why I have déjà vu, all over again.

SPONSORED CONTENT: I came across Oklahoma Scoundrels while researching books on Oklahoma Outlaws for my mother in-law. Once I got into the book, from the first chapter on Belle Starr, I couldn’t put it down. It is captivating content on well known and not-so-well known Oklahoma Territory criminals from the 1800s. Buy it at Amazon and read for yourself. https://amzn.to/4medMMW

Bottom half of Oklahoma Scoundrels book cover

Why The Man in Black’s music, impact endures

In 1968, my parents went to see a concert by Johnny Cash while we were living as a military family on the island of Okinawa. That should tell you how big of a star the Man in Black was in the ’60s, because my parents never, ever went to a concert unless it was Southern Gospel like the Gaithers.

Cash was an Arkansas native, as were my parents, so there was a connection. We were among the nearly 100,000 American military personnel and dependents living on the island that year at the height of the Vietnam war.

Johnny’s concert for military personnel on Okinawa occurred the same year that my dad bought the ‘Johnny Cash Live at Folsom Prison’ album, which got a lot of play in our house over the years.

Maybe because I heard the album so often I became a fan of Johnny Cash, although my knowledge of his song catalog from among his more than 100(!) albums doesn’t go very deep.

My friend Ed Godfrey can offer much more insight into Johnny’s music.

Johnny Cash began as sort of a rockabilly star in the 1950s, recording at the famous Sun Studios in Memphis. Then he became a genuine pop culture phenomenon in the 1960s when a wider audience embraced his music.

In fact, he starred in his own network TV show in the late ’60s and early ’70s, and recorded popular duets with his wife, June Carter Cash, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty and many others.

If you saw the movie “Walk the Line,” you know that Cash had some well documented run-ins with the law in the ’60s because of a drug addiction. He revived his career with help of June Carter and the release of the Live at Folsom Prison album.

His star power dimmed a bit in the ’80s and ’90s, although it seems to me the impact and legend of Johnny Cash has only grown since his 2003 death.

I think his legend endures because he was the complete package, great music, songwriter, deep bass vocals, the familiar guitar licks, the hair and, most of all, the courage to stand up for those rejected by society when that was far from the norm among entertainers.

Johnny Cash made it a point to vocally support for Native Americans, the imprisoned, the poor, and the oppressed. He said that was why he always wore black when performing.

Listen to his song, “Man in Black,” to gain some perspective.

In his final years, with his health waning, Johnny Cash covered other artists’ songs that I think are some of his best, even if he was frail and his voice had lost a lot of its force. My favorites are Hurt, and, especially, Further on Up the Road, an awesome cover of a Bruce Springsteen song.

Anyway, I decided to make a list of my top 10 favorite Johnny Cash recordings, whether written by him or covers of other artists. I’ve also invited Ed Godfrey to weigh in with his list, too.

Here are my top 10 songs recorded by Johnny Cash:

No. 1 — Folsom Prison Blues
A song he wrote in the early 1950s while still in the Air Force, it became probably his more popular recording and his signature song.

No. 2 — Ring of Fire
The horns, the imagery … a great song that was co-written by June Carter Cash before she married Johnny. Must have been a hot romance!

No. 3 — I Walk the Line
Cash’s deep bass voice, the guitar intro, Johnny’s hum at the beginning of each chorus, the pledge of fidelity — I love it all. Of course, the Gregory Peck movie based off this song was all about infidelity. Oh, the irony.

No. 4 — Sunday Morning Coming Down
I can just see a lonely, broke alcoholic ambling along on a big city sidewalk on a Sunday morning, longing for a life in this awesome Kris Kristofferson cover.

No. 5 — Further on Up the Road
Another superb cover, this one written by Bruce Springsteen. Ed says that he’s adding it to his funeral playlist. Me, too.

No. 6 — A Boy Named Sue
My dad and I had a great time listening to this song together back in the ’60s. Written by Shel Silverstein.

No. 7 — Girl from the North Country
A great song of lost love, and wonderful duet with Bob Dylan, the song’s author.

No. 8 — Jackson
Fun duet by Johnny and June Carter Cash; this got lots of airplay over the years.

No. 9 — Hurt
A late-in-life cover of a Nine Inch Nails song, Great guitar, piano that backed Johnny’s delivery.

No. 10 — The Man Comes Around
Johnny wrote this song and recorded it one year before his death. It’s obvious that he saw the end coming

BONUS SONGS

Don’t take your guns to town — Johnny had a way of telling a sad story; this one fits right in.

Five Feet High and Rising — Might not be everyone’s favorite, but I’ve liked this song for decades. I can just see Johnny as a kid with his family panicked over water that’s flooding the family’s hardscrabble acres.

Now, I present the Johnny Cash top 10 list from Ed Godfrey that you should really respect:

No. 1 – Sunday Morning Coming Down
When Cash first performed this on his TV show, network executives asked him not to sing the lyric “wishing I was stoned.” Cash sang it just as Kris Kristofferson wrote it anyway. I guess the network executives had no problem with having a beer for breakfast and one more for dessert.

No. 2 – Cocaine Blues
Cash’s version of this song on his “Live From Folsom Prison” album is just fantastic.

No. 3 – Ring of Fire
Cash said the idea to add Mexican trumpets to June Carter’s and Merle Kilgore’s lyrics came to him in a dream.

No. 4 – Unchained
Unchained is a song on Cash’s album by the same name produced by Rick Rubin. Their collaboration caused a resurgence of Cash’s career in the ’90s. Unchained is an album of covers and my favorite Cash album, even eclipsing “Live From Folsom Prison.” I have left instructions with my family to have Unchained played at my funeral.

No. 5 – I Walk The Line
Cash wrote the song as a promise of fidelity to his first wife. That didn’t work out, but the song is still great.

No. 6 – Flesh And Blood
I love the details in the lyrics of this song. It begins, “Beside a singin’ mountain stream, where the willow grew, where the silver leaf of maple, sparkled in the mornin’ dew.” Then in the next verse after the chorus, “I leaned against a bark of birch, and I breathed the honey dew, I saw a north-bound flock of geese, against a sky of baby blue.” I close my eyes and picture myself there.

No. 7 – Meet Me In Heaven
Another song off the Unchained album that I have asked to be played at my funeral.

No. 8 – Hurt
I am not a big fan of music videos, but this song is actually better and more powerful with the video. It was another collaboration with Rubin.

No. 9 – Folsom Prison Blues
I mean, this song has to be included, right? I can’t leave off Folsom Prison Blues on a list of best Johnny Cash songs.

No. 10 – I’ve Been Everywhere
Did I mention how much I like the Unchained album? This is another song off that album. Hank Snow first adapted it from a song originally written with Australian place names, but nobody performs it better than Cash.

Honorable Mentions: God’s Gonna Cut You Down and The Kneeling Drunkard’s Plea. Two more songs that came from the six albums Cash made with Rubin. The Kneeling Drunkard’s Plea also is on the Unchained album.

BONUS CONTENT FROM KENT TAYLOR:

You know Jim, I’ve been thinking about your Johnny Cash article since you posted it. I also grew up listening to my parent’s Johnny Cash vinyls. I’d have to put A Boy Named Sue at the top because it reminds me of my dad every time I hear it. He loved that song.

I thought that, as a kid, I had heard every JC song ever sung. However, it wasn’t until the past 10-15 years or so that I’ve heard songs I’d never heard before. One that I have grown fond of is Chicken in Black. If you’ve not heard it, I’d encourage you to listen to it.

SPONSORED LINK: I purchased this Vekkia Rechargeable LED Neck Reading Light on Amazon, a book light for reading in bed, not knowing what to expect. I bought it so I could read in bed without disturbing my wife. Turns out, it’s perfect, because it shapes around your neck, with two LED lights that you can adjust to shine onto your book page. Check it out! https://amzn.to/3IPaDF4

Technology evolves, but Paul McCartney — and his music — live on

A turntable console with reel-to-reel tape much like my parents had in the 1960s.

When the Paul-is-Dead rumors began floating around in the late 1960s, I was devastated. There was evidence everywhere that Paul McCartney had died in a car crash and The Beatles went on with a look-alike substitute.

I was 16 in 1969 and read — and clipped — every article I could find that shared evidence of Paul’s demise. For instance, there was the hand over Paul’s head on the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club album that symbolized death. And the whole cover resembled a funeral gathering.

There was more. Paul was dressed as a walrus on the Magical Mystery Tour poster, said to symbolize death, and a line from the song Glass Onion says “here’s another clue for you all, the walrus was Paul.”

But the clue that sealed it for me was the rumor that if you played Revolution 9 backward you could hear the words “turn me on dead man” and the sounds of a car crash.

My family owned a giant stereo console that had both a turntable and a reel-to-reel tape player. So, I played Revolution 9 from the White Album on the turntable and recorded it on the reel-to-reel.

When I turned the tape backward and played it I heard those terrifying words. “Turn me on dead man.” And the sounds of what could be a car crash.

That clinched it for me, at least for the next couple of years until it became evident to me that Paul McCartney was indeed, Paul McCartney.

I’ve written all of this not to show how gullible I was as a teenager; rather to talk about technology and what we had then and what we have today.

In the late 1960s, our family had the latest and greatest in the giant console with the turntable and the reel-to-reel.

That’s how we rolled in 1969.

Vinyl records, both 33 rpm long play albums and 45 rpm discs that played a single song each on front and back, were as common then as, well, iPhones today.

Everyone I knew had a record player or two in their homes. My sister and I had a little portable record player that we would take out into the carport and play our favorite singles on.

When I was a sophomore in high school, I took all the money I had saved up and bought a portable stereo turntable at Kmart that served me well for years.

But advances in technology made turntables obsolete in the early 1970s as 8-track tape players became everyone’s obsession. I installed a cheap Kraco 8-track in my car, which seemed to ruin as many tapes as it successfully played.

Then came cassette tape players that were much smaller — and dependable — than 8 tracks. But analog taped recordings didn’t have much of a future, because they gave way to CDs — compact discs — in the 1980s.

I remember the frustration of my dad in the ’80s when he had to buy a CD player because it had become the technology on which most music was recorded and played.

“They keep changing the formats just so we will have to spend money to buy something new,” he told me.

But time advanced as did technology.

MP3 players began to emerge in the late 1990s replacing CDs and making music much more portable. And in 2001, Apple Inc. debuted the groundbreaking iPod, which CEO Steve Jobs famously said allowed you to carry “1,000 songs in your pocket.”

So, here we are in 2025.

Today we have massive music services like the iTunes Store and Spotify that allow us to hear virtually any song ever recorded at any time.

And technology advances continue to make yesterday’s formats obsolete. The old console turntable and reel-to-reel tape player my parents owned was probably sent to a landfill decades ago.

But some things remain. The memories of chasing down Paul-is-Dead clues on that big old console. Hearing my dad — who passed on in 2012 — complain about changing technology.

And Paul McCartney — the real Paul McCartney — endures. As of July 7, 2025, he’s as alive as he was in 1969. I continue to listen to his music, but now in a digital format that reaches my ears through a pair of AirPods Pro 2.

That’s how we roll in 2025.

BONUS CONTENT
So, what’s next in how music is recorded and enjoyed? I’ve read a lot about how future music will be made by artificial intelligence, but what I’ve heard of it so far lacks the creativity of human song writers and performers. I’ll take humans any day.

I asked ChatGPT what it sees for the future of music, and this is how it answered:

1. AI and Generative Music

AI tools can now compose, produce, and even perform.
Personalized or adaptive soundtracks for games, workouts, moods.

2. Immersive & Spatial Audio

Formats like Dolby Atmos Music and 360 Reality Audio offer 3D sound experiences.
Becoming popular in streaming and VR/AR contexts.

3. Blockchain & NFTs

Exploring decentralized ownership, royalty tracking, and digital collectibles.

4. Holographic & Virtual Performances

Digital twins of artists (dead or alive) performing live.
Integration into virtual worlds and the metaverse.

5. Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCI)

Experimental: Listening to or composing music via brainwaves.
Potential for direct neural engagement with music.

A white Ford Bronco, a slow chase on an LA freeway and a memory that can’t be erased

OJ Simpson car chase as seen on an LA freeway on June 17, 1994. LA Times photo

As I’m writing these words, it is the evening of June 17, 2025.

Do you remember exactly where you were 31 years ago, on June 17, 1994? I know where I was, because that’s the day of the infamous OJ Simpson ‘slow chase’ in the white Ford Bronco.

In case you are hazy on that event of three decades ago, authorities wanted to talk to OJ about the stabbing deaths of his ex-wife, Nicole Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman.

Maybe I should help you remember that OJ Simpson was a former record-setting running back with the Buffalo Bills of the NFL following an incredible college career at Southern Cal.

Anyway, OJ was supposed to turn himself to police in connection with the deaths in earlier in the day.

But late that afternoon he ended up in the Bronco driven by his friend Al Cowlings. Police suspected he was in that vehicle because he hadn’t shown up and Cowlings was his friend.

Strangely, though, Cowlings actually called police from the car and told them that OJ was in the back seat with a gun threatening suicide. Dozens of police cars pursued on an LA freeway, chasing at the breakneck speed of approximately 45 mph.

People lined freeway overpasses to wave and cheer OJ on.

The ordeal ended after 90 minutes when Cowling drove the Bronco back to OJ’s house, and OJ eventually gave himself up.

Here’s a link to an LA Times story on how it all went down.

So, why is that such a vivid memory for me?

Well, my wife and I were in St. Louis on June 17. We went to a St. Loius Cardinals’ game that evening and got back to our hotel about 10 pm, dripping in sweat from a hot, humid night at the ballpark.

We were wiped out, ready for a shower and lights out. But we got pulled into the OJ chase when we clicked the television on.

Each of us was mesmerized, our eyes glued to the screen as the car drove along the freeway and eventually to OJ’s house, all broadcast nationwide on live TV.

Before that night, we had kept track of developments in Nicole Simpson’s murder and knew that OJ was allegedly in Chicago at the time, but a suspect.

Paula and I had discussed the case earlier in the day and we hoped that OJ had nothing to do with it because he seemed like such a likable person.

I can no longer remember who the Cardinals played that night.

But I can still see that white Ford Bronco slowly driving down an LA freeway with dozens of police cars giving chase.

It was memory that can’t be erased.

BONUS CONTENT: I looked it up and the Cardinals lost 7-4 that night to the Pirates. Game time temperature was 90. Humidity 110 percent (writer’s embellishment).

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.

It didn’t take long to realize that I had few skills or knowledge to navigate both life and a career. My confidence in myself took a steep dive.

I’m writing about this because I saw a chart of what is known as the Dunning-Kruger Effect this week that perfectly described what I experienced. I’ve since found multiple versions of the chart online and posted one at the top of this column.

Developed by psychologists David Dunning and Justin Kruger in 1999, the Dunning-Kruger Effect describes what is called “unconscious incompetence,” when you truly don’t know what you don’t know and wrongly assume you know it all.

Many of the charts I’ve seen label the point at which a person has the most incorrect confidence in their knowledge or ability as “Mount Stupid.”

They certainly got it right in my case.

When I realized I didn’t know it all or possess any skills to actually have a successful career, my confidence hit bottom. Dunning-Kruger calls that the “Valley of Despair.”

Gradually, as you gain more knowledge and skill along the way, the Dunning-Kruger line begins to rise with the “Hope of Enlightenment” followed by the “Plateau of Sustainability.” No one knows it all, so even at the Plateau, there is still plenty to learn.

As I progressed in life, first in a retail job, then on to college and finally into a journalism career, I took tentative steps along the way, knowing I had a lot to learn.

Even at my current advanced post-retirement age, I realize there is so much I don’t know and struggle to sustain confidence.

So, where did I see the Dunning-Kruger Effect chart last week? It was projected onto the screen at the Sunday service at The Springs Church of Christ, a congregation of which I am a member.

Ryan Jones, a member of our church and a deep thinker, delivered the Sunday sermon as apart of our annual summer series when guests bring the message as a supplement to the work of our staff pastors.

I’m not sure he came right out and said it, but I’m pretty sure Ryan posted the Dunning-Kruger Effect because a lot of people in Christianity wrongly assume they have all knowledge when it comes to religion.

In other words, they don’t know what they don’t know.

Ryan’s sermon and the chart made me think not only of the younger me, but the hundreds of over-confident fellow Christians I’ve known over the years who assume that their corner of religion has it all down correctly and anyone who doesn’t do it their way is lost.

I’ve come to the conclusion that everyone’s faith journey is different. And that leads me to believe that I can’t condemn anyone whose journey arrives at a different spiritual perspective than me, or away from Christianity or to no religion at all.

Of course, my confidence level in all this is pretty low, because I’m still learning that I don’t know what I don’t know.

It’s a life-long lesson.

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

Don Knotts as Barney Fife from the Andy Griffith Show

EDITOR’S NOTE: My friend Ed Godfrey has memorized more word-for-word dialogue from The Andry Griffith Show than anyone I know. He can quote Don Knotts as Barney Fife from almost any scene. And they are some of the funniest lines in television history. So, I told Ed that if he would compile a list of his favorites, I would publish it in this blog. I’m proud to offer you Ed’s 15 favorite Barney Fife quotes:

By Ed Godfrey

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.

Not long ago, my good friend Jim Stafford wrote a blog post ranking his favorite Andy Griffith episodes. Pretty good list, although the Barney and the Choir episode was ranked much too low.

I mean, that scene where Andy is explaining to Barney how he has to keep singing softer and softer into a “powerful” microphone until his voice is less than a whisper rivals Abbott and Costello’s “Who’s On First” routine in my book.

Jim’s blog about The Andy Griffith Show has been his most viewed blog this year, so I suggested he keep it going and rank Barney’s best lines in the show. He told me I was the expert and that I should write the blog, without financial compensation, I might add.

So here are my favorite Barney Fife lines. If I missed one, well, just remember I am not getting paid for this.

Number one has to be his most famous quote which he repeated in many episodes and which I have on a T-Shirt. NIP IT IN THE BUD! He’s used it when discussing romance, crime, parenting, etc. It was his go to phrase, but my favorite is when he was lecturing Andy about raising Opie.

“I say this calls for action and now. Nip it in the bud. First sign a youngster is going wrong you got to nip it in the bud… You go read any book you want on the subject of child discipline and you will find everyone is in favor of bud nipping.”

Number Two: Barney lays down the law to the new prisoners at the Mayberry jail.

“Now men, there are a few things we ought to get straightened out right at the start to avoid any grief later on. Now here at The Rock, we have two basic rules. Memorize them so that you can say them in your sleep. The first rule is, OBEY ALL RULES. Secondly, do not write on the walls as it takes a lot of work to get writing off of walls.”

Number Three: Barney gets tangled up with a guy littering on the street and accidentally captures a fugitive. When Barney realizes what he has done, he turns into a peacock and starts strutting his stuff to the crowd who has gathered around, including his girlfriend Thelma Lou, who wants him to take the rest of the day off at Andy’s suggestion.

“I would like to, Thelma Lou, but I don’t guess I better… You just never know when another beast might come down out of the forest. You understand don’t you Thelma Lou? I really don’t expect you to. You see Thelma Lou, this is what we call the deadly game. I am in it for keeps.”

Number Four: In Barney and the Choir, Andy, Aunt Bee and Thelma Lou don’t want to hurt Barney’s feelings by kicking him out of the Mayberry choir before the concert, so they try to make him think he is sick because of the redness and lump they pretend to see in his throat. Barney immediately goes to the doctor to get checked out and returns with the good news after choir practice had ended.

“You know that lump you seen? That’s a uvula. Everybody’s got one. Did you know you had a uvula Andy? Open your mouth. Go ahead, open it. Yeah, there is a good ole’ uvula. They got a uvula. I got a uvula. All God’s children got a uvula!”

Number Five: In Opie the Birdman episode, a classic, Opie kills a mama bird with his slingshot and then starts caring for her orphaned young in a cage. Barney demonstrates how birds communicate with each other with their chirping.

“A bird that’s feeling chipper will chirp nice and chipper. Well, like, ‘Gee, I’m feeling good’… And then it works the other way around, too. When a bird’s feeling sick why he chirps, ‘Gee I’m feeling bad…Here comes a cat! Let’s fly away! OK.’

“Yep, the ways of the creatures of the wild are many and wonderful.”

Number Six: Barney sings A capella for Andy, thinking it is a song.

“A capella, a capella.”

Number Seven: Barney offers a comforting shoulder to Andy, who has been jilted by Peggy.

Barney consoles Andy with a heart-to-heart talk

“OK pal, there it is (tapping his shoulder). Cry all over it if you wanna. Get it off your chest. Talk it all out. That’s what a friend is for. It’s welling up inside of you so get it out…. I know you don’t want to but you got to. It’s therapetic.”

Number Eight. Barney offers another memorable line after unknowingly capturing a fugitive on the street.

“I might as well have me a look around town. You never know what might be coming up. You know Andy, I never thought our town would come to this. Mayberry, gateway to danger.”

Number Nine: Barney gets conned by a man pretending to be an FBI agent who is in Mayberry to give the sheriff’s office a reward for having a low crime rate. Barney explains why crime is so low in Mayberry.

“Well, I guess to sum it up you could say there is three reasons there is so little crime in Mayberry. There’s Andy, and me and baby makes three (while patting the gun in his holster.) Say, that is kind of a good phrase if you would like to write that down.”

Number Ten: In the Cyrano Andy episode, the first appearance of Betty Lynn as Thelma Lou in the series, Barney likes Thelma Lou but is too shy to tell her, so Andy calls on her on behalf of Barney. Thelma Lou makes Barney jealous by telling him Andy is interested in her, so Barney tries to even the score by paying a romantic visit to Elly Walker, Andy’s girlfriend. Barney, of course, gets rejected by Elly.

“I feel sorry for you, baby. You – you had your chance to fly with me but you wasn’t woman enough. Now the balloon’s gone up withoutcha.”

Number 11: In The Pickle Story, Andy and Barney swap out Aunt Bee’s homemade pickles for good store pickles, and Barney is dismayed when Andy suggests they are going to have to get rid of the store pickles and replace the jars with more homemade ones.

“You can’t be serious? You actually want her to make another batch of them kerosene cucumbers?”

Number 12: In Barney and the Choir, Barney drops a not-so-subtle hint to the Mayberry choir director about who could replace the first tenor who had to drop out (clip taken from same episode, but doesn’t include the quote).

“As my old voice teacher used to say, a choir without its tenor is like a start without its glimmer. You know who used to say that? My old voice teacher. That’s the teacher I had when I studied voice.”

Number Thirteen: In the episode Man in a Hurry, an out-of-town businessman whose car breaks down on a Sunday in Mayberry learns how slow life can be in the small town. He paces nervously back and forth on Andy’s front porch waiting for his car to be fixed while Barney contemplates how he will spend the rest of his afternoon.

“You know what I think I’m going to do? I’m going to go home and have me a little nap, then go over to Thelma Lou’s and watch a little TV. Yeah, I believe that’s what I’ll do. Go home. Have a nap. Then over to Thelma Lou’s for TV. Yep, that’s the plan. Right home. Take a nap.”

The impatient out-of-towner then yells at Barney, “For the love of Mike, just do it, do it! Go take a nap. Go to Thelma Lou’s for TV. Just do it:

Barney replies, “What’s the hurry?”

Number Fourteen: In the episode Barney’s Sidebar, Barney buys an old motorcycle with sidecar at an auction and sets up Checkpoint Chickie on the highway to catch speeders. His first traffic stop is a trucker who points out there has always been an understanding with law enforcement that they could go five miles over the speed limit to get over Turner’s Grade.

“Well, I tell you Eddie, I let you do 40 today, you will do 45 tomorrow. I let you do 45 tomorrow you do 50 the day after that. You do 50 the day after that, you’ll do 55 the day after that.”

Number Fifteen: Barbara Eden of I Dream of Jeannie fame guest stars as a manicurist and sets up in Floyd’s Barber Shop. She finally gets Barney to sit for a manicure, but Barney has one condition.

“Be extra careful with that one. That’s my trigger finger. You damage that and I might as well quit the business.”

SPONSORED CONTENT: Ed Godfrey gave this book, “Andy & Don,” to me as a birthday gift a couple years ago. I started reading and could not put it down. It’s that good, mainly because it reveals some behind the camera info on both Andy Griffith and Don Knotts, as well as other stars of Andy Griffith Show. For instance, Andy was quite the lady’s man, while Frances Bavier was not a fan of her role as Aunt Bee, nor of the show in general. Check it out on Amazon: https://amzn.to/4mb7RbA

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.

Be careful out there; it’s a deep fake future

Screenshot taken from deep fake video of Ja Morant post-game interview

My wife sent me a video interview she saw last week with Memphis Grizzlies star Ja Morant that was pretty shocking.

In what appeared to be a post-game interview with the media after the Grizzlies’ loss to OKC, Morant made some outrageous comments. He said that Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was not MVP-worthy, that the Grizzlies had no chance in the series and that NBA Commissioner Adam Silver had taken away his motivation.

It was such an eye-opening interview that I forwarded it to my friends Ed, Steve and Casey.

Trouble is that it was a totally fake video created with Artificial Intelligence. Ed tipped me off because he immediately started searching for articles about what Ja had said and found none. Zero.

But I fell for it, and I hang my naive head in shame.

I invite you to click on the video below and tell me that you could spot it as a fake, aside from Ja’s outrageous comments. Ja’s voice and the post-game setting are both realistic.

I find the fact that this fake video was so well done to be disturbing for what it portends about the future. It is part of a growing phenomena commonly known as deep fakes.

The Ja video was pretty harmless, but what if someone created a fake video of a presidential candidate saying incredibly racist things that he or she would never utter?

We can see where this is headed. I’ve read that such videos already exist.

Want an example? The video in this link isn’t exactly a political deep fake, but it that made the rounds shortly after the death of Pope Francis, created around his meeting with Vice President J.D. Vance the day before he died. The creators took an historic meeting and turned it into an attempt at humor that is pretty disrespectful.

Screenshot from Threads of deep fake video of Pope Francis taking a swing at VP JD Vance

I decided to seek an expert’s opinion and reached out to John Hassell, Ph.D., an Associate Professor of Software Development and Integration at the University of Oklahoma Polytechnic Institute in Tulsa. If you are not familiar, the Polytechnic Institute is OU’s newest campus that offers a host of technology degree tracts, including Artificial Intelligence.

Dr. Hassell has incorporated AI into software development for the past couple years, and shared his thoughts on the subject with me in a 2024 blog post.

When I asked him about the Ja Morant deep fake, he immediately put me in touch with Colin Torbett, an OUPI student who possesses a master’s degree in data science but is now pursuing another undergraduate degree in cyber security.

“Colin is actually doing research on that very topic now,” Dr. Hassell said.

So, Colin connected with me and shared some thoughts on the emerging flood of AI generated deep fakes.

“These fake videos (but also images and audio recordings) are called ‘deep fakes’ because they use an AI technique called ‘deep learning’ in order to create a fabricated, digital artifact,'” Colin told me. “They are indeed pervasive and I see new ones appear everyday on social media, though I typically find one’s which are humorous, benign, and easy-to-spot as fake. On the other hand, some are more nefarious and easily pass as real at first glance.”

A cyber security major at OU’s Polytechnic Institute campus in Tulsa, Colin Torbett is researching the deep fake phenomenon

Colin described a deep fake he recently saw that claimed to be an interview with a young woman on her dating preferences. Apparently, it was a well done video, but the person holding the microphone for the interview had six fingers. Dead giveaway.

“It does illustrate how pernicious deep fakes can be — and how easily duped anyone can be,” he said. “This can only become a concern for politics especially with all the chaos in the last decade. Obviously, fake video or audio of speeches would be detrimental — if not fatal — for a political career, but would sow discord among voters and the general public.”

My question: how can these deep fakes be more easily detected and even stopped before they are in widespread distribution?

“While there is no immediate antidote to the problem, I am confident that cybersecurity researchers and computer scientists will create digital watermarks and signatures which validate any digital piece of information (video, audio, document, email, etc.) as authentic,” Colin said. “The digital infrastructure and software for these solutions is still in it’s infancy, being developed by startups and university researchers. It might take 5-10 years for this technology to be refined and widely adopted.”

Wait. Five to 10 years for a real solution? The bad guys are going to have quite a head start.

“In the mean time, my only advice (unsolicited, I admit) is to take everything online with a few grains of salt — especially if it confirms something one already believes,” Colin said. “It’s easy to dismiss something if runs contrary to a belief about the world, but being skeptical about information that affirms a deeply held worldview is an effective antidote to confirmation bias, and the deep political entrenchment we see reinforced by social media today.”

Colin has worked for technology-based firms for about a decade, beginning with an internship at OKC’s Spiers New Technologies in 2015. He gained his interest in deepfakes and AI while in graduate school, earning his MS in 2017.

“Since then, deep fakes have exploded and are becoming a serious concern,” he said. “My interest revolves around helping to create a novel solution for a pervasive problem that affects everyone. What I really want to do is what every good engineer wants: to use my skills and science to solve complex problems for the world.”

I hope that one day Colin Torbett leads his own high tech company that creates antidotes to deep fakes and will keep videos like the Ja Morant interview out of my timeline.

Then I won’t get fooled again. Maybe.

BONUS CONTENT: My friend Don Mecoy shared a video with me that provides a deep dive into deep fakes and how they are evolving and their threats to society. Watch the video below:

DOUBLE BONUS CONTENT UPDATE:

Concerned that AI is coming after your job? Read what my friend Dr. John Hassell at University of Oklahoma Polytechnic Institute has to say on the subject. Spoiler alert: It’s not likely!
https://www.news9.com/story/68c731020ebc3adec64fbb37/is-ai-coming-for-your-job-ou-professor-weighs-in-on-widespread-fear

Friends, colleagues honor Michael McNutt in NonDoc retirement celebration

Michael McNutt tells a story as he addresses the audience at his Nondoc retirement ceremony

Michael McNutt’s retirement celebration from the NonDoc online news organization was under way earlier this week when he shared a story with me from almost 30 years ago and said I played a role.

A story for which I had no recollection.

Michael is a friend and former colleague at The Oklahoman who served as the newspaper’s Enid correspondent for probably a decade before moving to the Oklahoma City newsroom.

McNutt’s retirement ceremony, organized as a fund raiser for NonDoc, was outstanding. I’ll come back to it.

As for the memory that he shared with me, McNutt recalled that I was assigned to help him conduct a focus group for The Oklahoman in northwest Oklahoma in advance of the 1996 presidential election. Michael said that I called him on the day of the focus group and alerted him that I was going to be a no-show because my wife and I were having a baby — in Abilene, Texas.

I don’t recall the focus group assignment, but I do recall that on June 18, 1996, Paula and I received a call that the baby we hoped to adopt was to be born that very day in Abilene. We jumped into the car, drove 330 miles and arrived at Abilene’s Hendrick Medical Center in time for the birth of our son, Ryan.

Anyway, it was a story that took me back to that milestone event, and obviously was an event that stuck in McNutt’s mind over the remainder of his reporting and editing career.

A St. Louis native, McNutt worked as a reporter and editor for The Oklahoman for nearly 30 years. He had a distinguished post-newspaper career, as well, working for an Oklahoma governor and a state agency, before the recent tour with Nondoc.

NonDoc honored Michael with this week’s celebration because he is retiring as managing editor of the enterprising, not-for-profit online news organization that fills a lot of holes left behind by the decline of traditional newspapers.

McNutt’s retirement celebration brought me and about 75 others to the Will Rogers Theater events center on Monday evening.

Michael McNutt with Mick Hinton, a former colleague at The Oklahoman.

Throughout his 40-year journalism career, Michael earned the respect of his colleagues, as well as elected officials across the state and of the people he really served — readers of his reporting and editing through the years.

I didn’t work on a day-to-day basis with Michael at The Oklahoman, but I got to know him as a thoughtful, approachable, empathetic person, as well as a baseball fan who remains devoted to his St. Louis Cardinals in both good times and bad.

A University of Missouri graduate, McNutt began his journalism career for the Rolla, Mo., newspaper before taking a job at the Enid News & Eagle in the 1980s. His wife, Kathryn McNutt, is also a longtime editor/reporter and veteran of The Oklahoman who now works at OKC’s Journal Record.

McNutt told me that he left The Oklahoman’s Enid bureau position in 2000 to become an editor and reporter in the paper’s OKC newsroom. He held editing positions on the state and city desks, and also covered the state capitol for eight years.

After leaving The Oklahoman in 2013, Michael served as spokesman and communications officer for Gov. Mary Fallin, before assuming the role of communications director for Oklahoma’s Office of Juvenile Affairs. He took the Nondoc position about two years ago.

Former Gov. Mary Fallin shared the stage with Steven Buck, former administrator of the Oklahoma Office of Juvenille Affairs.

You could see evidence of the respect Michael earned in the audience at the NonDoc retirement ceremony. The room was filled with former newspaper colleagues, as well as state agency and elected officials, including former Gov. Fallin.

In fact, Fallin was a featured speaker, hailing McNutt for the work he did on her behalf, but also sharing some funny moments from his years on her staff. She was joined on stage by Steven Buck, who was OJA Administrator when Michael moved from the Governor’s office to that agency.

Buck shared his thoughts with me on the experience of working with Michael at OJA:

“When I found myself seeking a communications director for the Office of Juvenile Affairs, Michael quickly emerged as the best candidate. I had known him previously and greatly respected his work ethic but to serve as a lead advisor to me, I needed some one with great discernment, communication ability, confidence to hold me accountable and, of most importance, a commitment to mission and serving kids. There was not a single day in our work together that I regretted hiring him; he far exceeded my expectations and remains one of my most trusted colleagues.”

That’s the highest of praise.

I thought Tres Savage, NonDoc’s editor-in-chief, did a terrific job as emcee of the event, which served as a fundraiser for the Sustainable Journalism Endowment. The endowment provides funding for NonDoc to operate.

McNutt was the final speaker of the ceremony and told an intriguing story about how he was ‘almost fired’ from his job as a new reporter for the Enid newspaper just because he did his job. Michael said he received a tip that Enid city councilors met in secret at a local restaurant before each Council meeting and, along with a newspaper photographer, he “crashed” the meeting.

Michael McNutt speaking as Tres Savage, Nondoc’s Editor-in-Chief, looks on.

After his story appeared in the next day’s newspaper, a group of councilors marched into the editor’s office demanding that he be fired. The editor stood behind his reporter and told the elected officials to “follow the law.”

As for me, I had a terrific time at McNutt’s sendoff, greeting lots of my former Oklahoman colleagues, sharing time with both Michael and Kathryn and laughing at some of the stories I heard.

It was like a grand reunion.

Thank you, NonDoc, for giving him such a well deserved retirement recognition and to my friend, Steve Buck, for inviting me to sit at your table.

We’re all better off because of the work that Michael McNutt did over his career.

BONUS CONTENT — While Michael told me a story about an event I didn’t recall, I also shared with him about the first — and only — time I visited his office at The Oklahonan’s Enid bureau. Since I was from the “home office” of the paper and worked in the opulent (now former) newsroom along Broadway Extension, I had visions of McNutt working out of a similar abode in Enid. However, it turned out that he worked in a tiny office in a corporate building that was like a 1960s time capsule. I’m not sure exactly what I expected, but today all I can see in my mind is the bright green shag carpet in his office.

DOUBLE BONUS CONTENT — As I was visiting with Kathryn McNutt, along with other well wishers, someone brought up Michael’s avocation of making a daily, early morning run, no matter the weather. She told us that when the weather turned cold and the terrain ice covered, she made sure he wore baseball cleats on his run. One of the speakers at the retirement event spoke of once confronting a man in his neighborhood who was running in early morning darkness and wearing a ski mask, hockey jersey and baseball cleats. It was, of course, Michael McNutt.