The Catoosa Blue Whale

Entered May 15, 2011

Whales are everywhere.

From my novel BACK AND FORTH a 1974 cross-country homage to Jack Kerouac.

Vickie sped east out of Tulsa on the ghost of Route 66. The land was flat farmland with long lines of trees acting as windbreaks. The houses dated back to the Dustbowl. The wind tugged at their hair.

The Le Mans was the fastest car on the road.

After twenty minutes at 80 mph Vickie pulled into a dirt parking lot bordering a pond on which floated a large concrete whale painted blue.

“The Blue Whale?”

“One and the same.” Vickie left the car.

Teenagers were diving from the whale’s head. Young girls were basking in the sun. It wasn’t Encinitas, but this spring-fed pond was America at its best. Families were gathered around the pool. The benches and tables were crowded with hungry kids. Hot dogs sizzled at the refreshment stand. They drank sodas on the grass.

“Nice place.” Sean toed off his sneakers. The grass was lush under his feet.

“Everyone in Tulsa loves it.” Vickie unbuttoned her shirt.

Everyone there was white.

“And no one seems to mind our longhair.” AK tugged off his shirt.

“Maybe in 1969 they would, but also this isn’t Muskogee.” Her one-piece bathing suit complimented her long slender body. “

“A place where even squares can have a ball.” Merle Haggard had immortalized the small town in his 1969 country bit OKIE FROM MUSKOGEE.

“There’s no college there, but there are some hippies.”

“Wearing sandals and beads.”

“More cowboy boots and hats.” Vickie slathered on suntan lotion. AK was dying to do her back.

“I’ve performed in school plays in Muskogee. Romeo and Juliet.” Sharlene was cute enough to be on the silver screen. “Daddy doesn’t like my acting. Thinks it’s unholy, but he loves me and puts up with it.”

“She played Juliette last spring.”

“And you probably had a hundred Romeos.”

“Not even one. I’m saving myself for my wedding night.” The teenager regarded her older sister. Vickie had slept with Nick. The med student from Staten Island had been her first beau.

“Nothing wrong with that as long as you don’t wait until you’re a hundred,” joked AK and the Spear girls laughed at the prospect of Sharlene ending up a spinster.

“I’m sure we can marry her off before then.”

“Enough talk about marriage. Let’s go swimming.” AK ran into the pond. Vickie, Sharlene, and Sean followed closely behind. They dove under the cool water and surfaced in the middle.

“This is great.” Sean hadn’t been in fresh water all summer.

"The water rises from natural springs,” explained Vickie.

“Just like the quarries near my house south of Boston.”

“Are you a good swimmer?” Marilyn asked AK.

“Okay enough.” He had spent three hours a day in the ocean.

“What about a race?”

“Sure.”

Vickie counted out the start.

Sharlene and AK swam the crawl. She won the race by several body lengths.

Vickie and Sean returned to the sandy beach and blew up rafts. They floated in the sun. Her blonde hair hung in the water like a mermaid stranded far from sea

Oklahoma Isn't Kansas

Back in May 2013 Oklahoma City was devastated by a massive tornado whipping winds over the prairie at speeds greater than 200 mph.

The BBC reported that a record-breaking tornado that struck in precisely the same region in 1999, during which the fastest winds ever seen on the Earth's surface were recorded: over 500km/h (310mph).

While the early warning system alerted many people to the impending tornado, the two-mile wide storm ravaged the suburbs with a murderous intensity. Over twenty people were declared dead and hundreds were missing in the storm's aftermath. Schools and hospitals were not spared from the devastation and hundreds of houses were smashed to toothpicks by the EF5 or Enhanced Fujita rated tornado.

Meteorologists point to a number of factors leading to the creation of such a powerful event; the collision of hot and cold fronts of varying temperatures, but they are not discussing a major cause of its intensity which has to be the ground heat generated from the drought-stricken plains same as a hurricane gathering strength over the tropical warmth of the Gulf Stream.

This Monday the New York Times published an article about the vanishing aquifer.

Less water in the High Plains Aquifer, less cooling effect to the Bible Belt states of Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas.

And it isn't going to get any better.

The ancestors of Tom Joad from THE GRAPE OF WRATH will be hitting on the road again.

To read about the collapse of the High Plains Aquifer, please go to the following URL

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/20/us/high-plains-aquifer-dwindles-hurting-farmers.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Elephants on Acid

What happens if you give an elephant LSD?

On Friday August 3, 1962, a group of Oklahoma City researchers decided to find out the what.

Warren Thomas, Director of the City Zoo, fired a cartridge-syringe containing 297 milligrams of LSD into Tusko the Elephant's rump. With Thomas were two scientific colleagues from the University of Oklahoma School of Medicine, Louis Jolyon West and Chester M. Pierce.

297 milligrams is a lot of LSD about 3000 times the level of a typical human dose. In fact, it remains the largest dose of LSD ever given to a living creature. The researchers figured that, if they were going to give an elephant LSD, they better not give him too little.

Thomas, West, and Pierce later explained that the experiment was designed to find out if LSD would induce musth in an elephant musk being a kind of temporary madness male elephants sometimes experience during which they become highly aggressive and secrete a sticky fluid from their temporal glands. But one suspects a small element of ghoulish curiosity might also have been involved.

Whatever the reason for the experiment, it almost immediately went awry. Tusko reacted to the shot as if a bee had stung him. He trumpeted around his pen for a few minutes, and then keeled over on his side. Horrified, the researchers tried to revive him, but about an hour later he was dead. The three scientists sheepishly concluded that, "It appears that the elephant is highly sensitive to the effects of LSD."

In the years that followed controversy lingered over whether it was the LSD that killed Tusko, or the drugs used to revive him. So twenty years later, Ronald Siegel of UCLA decided to settle the debate by giving two elephants a dose similar to what Tusko received. Reportedly he had to sign an agreement promising to replace the animals in the event of their deaths.

Instead of injecting the elephants with LSD, Siegel mixed the drug into their water, and when it was administered in this way, the elephants not only survived but didn't seem too upset at all. They acted sluggish, rocked back and forth, and made some strange vocalizations such as chirping and squeaking, but within a few hours they were back to normal. However, Siegel noted that the dosage Tusko received may have exceeded some threshold of toxicity, so he couldn't rule out that LSD was the cause of his death. The controversy continues.

Hottest July Ever USA USA USA

The national weather service reported that July of 2012 was the hottest on record. The relentless heat wave scorched the south and central states with a merciless stretch on triple-digit temperatures, yet three days ago on the floor of the Senate Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe argued that global warming was a hoax. Several of his opponents booed his assessment as denialism. I beg to differ, since my counterpart in religion, the ex-nodel from Paris, has sent a damning email claiming the prime reason for global warming is that many people have lost their faith in God and after dying they are sent to Hell. More sinners to burn, the warmer the planet, plus that people are fatter than before so they burn in Hell hotter. Repent sinners and save the world. Thanks for that insight. I was in Thailand for July. It was hot every day and rainy as to be expected from the monsoon season, but not as hot as Oklahoma.

Elephants on Acid

What happens if you give an elephant LSD?

On Friday August 3, 1962, a group of Oklahoma City researchers decided to find out the whys and hows.

Warren Thomas, Director of the City Zoo, fired a cartridge-syringe containing 297 milligrams of LSD into Tusko the Elephant's rump. With Thomas were two scientific colleagues from the University of Oklahoma School of Medicine, Louis Jolyon West and Chester M. Pierce.

297 milligrams is a lot of LSD — about 3000 times the level of a typical human dose. In fact, it remains the largest dose of LSD ever given to a living creature. The researchers figured that, if they were going to give an elephant LSD, they better not give him too little.

Thomas, West, and Pierce later explained that the experiment was designed to find out if LSD would induce musth in an elephant — musth being a kind of temporary madness male elephants sometimes experience during which they become highly aggressive and secrete a sticky fluid from their temporal glands. But one suspects a small element of ghoulish curiosity might also have been involved.

Whatever the reason for the experiment, it almost immediately went awry. Tusko reacted to the shot as if a bee had stung him. He trumpeted around his pen for a few minutes, and then keeled over on his side. Horrified, the researchers tried to revive him, but about an hour later he was dead. The three scientists sheepishly concluded that, "It appears that the elephant is highly sensitive to the effects of LSD."

In the years that followed controversy lingered over whether it was the LSD that killed Tusko, or the drugs used to revive him. So twenty years later, Ronald Siegel of UCLA decided to settle the debate by giving two elephants a dose similar to what Tusko received. Reportedly he had to sign an agreement promising to replace the animals in the event of their deaths.

Instead of injecting the elephants with LSD, Siegel mixed the drug into their water, and when it was administered in this way, the elephants not only survived but didn't seem too upset at all. They acted sluggish, rocked back and forth, and made some strange vocalizations such as chirping and squeaking, but within a few hours they were back to normal. However, Siegel noted that the dosage Tusko received may have exceeded some threshold of toxicity, so he couldn't rule out that LSD was the cause of his death. The controversy continues.

On His Knees

James Inhofe has long been the GOP's leading critic on global warming. His faith has convinced him that Man is incapable of altering his God's plan for Earth. As late as July 2010 the Oklahoma senator stated, "I don't think that anyone disagrees with the fact that we actually are in a cold period that started about nine years ago. Now, that's not me talking, those are the scientists that say that." People in Oklahoma might disagree with his opinion. Yesterday the temperature in Tulsa was 103. Last year the governor of that Bible Bible state asked the faithful to pray for relief. Cooler weather arrived in the fall, although the prayers to Zombie Jesus also failed to win OU # 1 in football. ps I googled James Inhofe prayer without any success of finding a single image of the senator praying to any God.