Foxes And Skaters On The Loose In Ponca City.

           “The Lion And  The Fox” was what historian James McGregor Burns  saw fit to title the first volume of his biography of President Franklin Roosevelt, and that title was inspired by Niccolo  Machiavelli’s observation  in “The Prince” that a wise rule must have the strength of a lion and also the wiliness of a fox, and the biographer concluded that FDR exhibited both qualities in an impressive manner during his first presidential term. It would seem that the community of Ponca City in Oklahoma  is seeking to foster a degree of wiliness in it’s citizenry with the placement of plaster foxes of various colors and color combinations in different locations  that were painted by local artists as part of an undertaking known as the “Fox Project” that was overseen by the City Arts entity that supports many artistic endeavors there. Those beasts were  originally of a pale albino like appearance but have been transformed into true works of art prior to their being  released into the wild. Further  review of the subject reveals that there  colorful presence is actually a tribute to the  foxes that live  today in  relative peace with the other inhabitants of the community, and are the descendants of foxes who where brought there by oilman and future Oklahoma Governor   E. W.   Marland in an effort to encourage the development of the sport of fox hunting, and had cleverly eluded their pursuers. Marland was originally a resident of Pennsylvania  and he brought  the foxes from the that state, but apparently the sport never really caught on, but several years ago local artists began to draw images of those foxes in public and sometimes private  areas throughout the community of Ponca City. On social media   a site maintained by the Ponca City Main Street organization  that details where many of those images are located in the Downtown area.
In addition to fox hunting,  in Downtown Ponca City people of various ages and ethnicities have  been observed  in recent days gliding effortlessly in a location  known as the “Veterans Plaza,’ and upon further examination it has been revealed that they are ice skating on a synthetic frozen pond  that   was put in place  there  earlier in the  holiday season by the Ponca City Main Street Association. Children of various backgrounds have been observed making their way warily  and sometimes clumsily  onto the ice on skates, and some of them who mastered the art are said to have displayed a new found confidence  as they made their way around the rink  that may carry over into other aspects of their young lives. And the important life lesson of getting up after falling down has also been in evidence there as well.

Grand Opening Of Bad Chx Hot Chicken Food Truck At 3700 Portland Ave On Saturday, December 10th, 2022.

In recent days a new  stationary food truck has been observed in place  on the 3700 block of   North Portland Avenue  in Oklahoma City , and it now sports   a name, “Bad Chx Hot Chicken,” with the wording “Nashville Style Hot Chicken,” and a menu  in bold lettering that offers   under the heading of “Sandwiches” items that  are identified as “Waffle Sammy,” “Burrito Chx,” “Bad Tacos,” “Royal Sub,” and a dish that is labeled “Loaded Fries,” that is presumably served between two pieces of bread.  A clue to it’s presence is contained in the  immobilized Arab food truck  that is situated  across from it that has been in successful operation for several year’s time that has the name “Abu Omar Halal” embossed on it in bold lettering, where  patrons  are often seen standing in line before it  from midday until late in the evening.  There are also several wooden tables in place under a covered area where customers are often seen eating their fare in the warmer weather. A possible hint as   to the  origins of the somewhat   Hispanic culinary nature of the new vehicle’s offerings may be contained in the presence of   Quesadillas, a popular Mexican item,  on the  Abu Omar  menu, and the success of that fusion of traditions may have resulted in the decision to add Hispanic fare to the new truck.  The popular Zam Zam Mediterranean Grill on MacArthur Avenue  in Warr Acres has also offered Quesadillas with an Arab flavor for some time. Those vehicles and the store that shares the property with them will be under the supervision of an energetic young man, Musah Bassam, who is a U S citizen originally from Jordan who cut his culinary teeth at the Old School Bagel Café in  Quail Plaza on May Avenue, where he was said to have impressed his co-workers with his genial nature and deep religious faith, and earned the nickname “Moose”  due the frequent   mispronunciations of his first name by staffers and patrons. He  currently serves as a chef there and he recently detailed how much of the food that will be served from the Bad Chx truck are the work of Qusai Musalmen, a dynamic Arab-American chef who is the owner of the vehicles and the adjacent  Farah Mart Store, and he  has long been a proponent of such fusion.  He is also the owner of other food trucks located in   various parts of Texas. A fellow chef  who currently employed there is Fabio Nasr, a smiling young man  who had  formerly been cooking at a  Cajun eatery in the Oklahoma City area and is a citizen of Argentina as a result of the fact that his parents emigrated there from Lebanon prior to his birth, and he is fluent in Arabic, Portuguese, English  and Spanish as a result, and he currently  stationed in the new truck and preparing food there for customers in what appears to be an ongoing  soft opening. Both  Bassam and Nasr  report that they are excited about the   grand opening that  is scheduled for the Bad Chx food truck on  Saturday December 10^th, 20022 and are pleased to be part of the ongoing expansion of the Oklahoma  City food scene.

Impending Opening Of New Wing Stop In Edmond

 Before President Franklin Roosevelt imposed the Bank Holiday on  March 6 1933, that closed the nation’s banking institutions, runs on banks  in which frightened customers demanded that their deposits be returned in full were frequent occurrences. Oklahoma was not immune to those panicked  events, and one rural community  in the southwest region of the state suffered two such runs  in a short period of time, and the one remaining  financial institution there prepared for an onslaught of panicked customers on the following Monday. But the operators of that establishment  had a relationship with an Oklahoma City bank, and the  presiding officer of that financial house was contacted and agreed to have a pilot fly a substantial supply of currency to it before it was scheduled to open. While the expected crowd materialized on it’s doorstep, the bank in question was able to satisfy their demands, and by the close of business still had cash on hand due to the assistance received from the bank in Oklahoma’s capital city. A somewhat similar event took place recently at the Wing Stop Restaurant that is located on Pennsylvania Avenue off of NW 122^nd Street when their cooks ran out of the popular chicken patty that is used to prepare their chicken sandwiches and patrons standing in line began to mutter darkly about the failures of our national supply chain.  While some customers expressed disappointment that they could not get that favored dish, and others chose to avail themselves of the other items on the menu such as chicken wings and corn on the cob, one of the operators of that establishment, a resourceful  Senegalese immigrant known as Max, contacted several of the other Wing Stops in the Oklahoma City area, and found that one of them that is situated on the Northwest Highway had an ample supply of those items to meet their customer’s needs and agreed to share some of their supply with the one on Pennsylvania Avenue, and in short order patrons  were ordering them in one of the twelve different flavors that are offered.   While Spanish is the language  frequently heard in the commercial kitchens of Oklahoma City, patrons of the various Wing Stop’s in the Oklahoma  City are more likely to hear the French tongue spoken due to the number of West African immigrants who are from nations   that were formerly colonies of  France that are employed there. And the popularity of their fare has resulted in the impending opening of a new location at 3320 N Broadway in Edmond, and it is anticipated that patrons there will be soon devouring chicken sandwiches there as they hear the French language spoken.

Former Judge James S. Bryant Of Garfield County And the Ruby Bridges Print.

 In the early fall of 1984 a young attorney from Stillwater made a journey to Enid, the county seat of Garfield County, to try a  case in which an indigent young woman was seeking to have her minor children returned to her by her former husband who had kept them in his custody in violation of a court order. The advocate was then in the employ of a nonprofit entity that provided such services to those of modest incomes.  The advocate approached the Enid City Limits as well as the Garfield County Courthouse with a marked degree of trepidation  stemming from his relative inexperience and the nagging doubts he had as to his ability to adequately represent  individuals in contested legal proceeding’s due to his gentle and uncompetitive  nature, and he sought to strengthen his resolve as he stood before the model of the Statue of Liberty that is in place adjacent to the entrance to the Courthouse. And his anxiety was further  heightened when he was advised  that the judge who had been assigned to the case was ill, and it would be heard a Judge James  Sears Bryant as a result. The attorney, who had met his client in the hallway, dutifully made his way to Judge  Bryant’s chambers to inform him of his and his client’s presence. Once there, he noticed that  a Norman Rockwell print  that was titled “The Problem We  all Live With” that  featured a six year old Ruby Bridges being escorted into a public school in New Orleans Louisiana by  four federal marshals  was on a prominent place on  his office’s wall. The wall behind the child included handwritten racial slurs and pieces of tomato that had been thrown at her  by an angry mob of white citizens. While many judges in the area had art object on their walls, some of them were of Confederate generals such as Robert E Lee and Stonewall Jackson, that was the first one the attorney had seen of such a humane and compassionate nature .The attorney, who had formerly lived in New Orleans, immediately recognized it, and also recognized  the fact that the bow tie wearing jurist who  was then conferring with his staffers in a friendly manner  who would be presiding over the proceeding was obviously an individual of humanity and compassion. And that insight was confirmed by Judge Bryant’s hearing of the proceeding , where he  displayed a friendly countenance and treated all participants with  fairness and respect before he issued a ruling  at the conclusion of the proceeding that directed that the children should be returned to their mother. While the mother’s family members congratulated the advocate on his victory, he realized that he had won an even greater victory over himself and now knew that there was a place for him in the law. 

Lunch At The Cajun King In Warr Acres.

 Passengers on the St. Charles Avenue Streetcar  in New Orleans Louisiana  were  said to have been surprised by the length of the motorcade that  recently transported French President Emmanuel Macron down that fabled thoroughfare  to the French Quarter in that city. The French chief executive had previously met with Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards during his visit to the U S, and the two leaders had agreed to work together to address environmental issues as well as efforts to encourage the rebirth of French language and culture in the state.  Upon arrival at that historic  French Quarter,   Macron spoke fondly through an interpreter  of the historic links between France, Louisiana, which had been a French colony at one time, and the continent of Africa. Those ties have been expanded in recent years to include  a new restaurant there, Dakar Nola, that was opened several months ago  by a young  James Beard Award nominated  French speaking chef, Serigne Mbaye, from Dakar Senegal, which had formerly been a colony of France. Those ties are also  evident today in the Oklahoma City area at establishments such as the Cajun King Restaurant on 63^rd Street of off MacArthur Avenue in Warr Acres where Nigerian immigrants Simeon Adda and his gracious wife Christy serve a diverse and tasty  fare that trace it’s origins to Louisiana and Africa.  Recently a patron at the popular  Granny’s Kitchen  on Memorial Avenue in Oklahoma City where copious amounts of champagne is delivered to tables filled with joyous customers   saw fit to share with the industrious and attentive  wait staff of that institution a to go order of the French inspired beignets that are served at  the Cajun King. While several of them saw fit to inquire as to what they were,  a French speaking staffer originally from Senegal recognized them immediately. And while most of the family owned restaurants in New Orleans were swept away in the  aftermath of the  turbulent waters of Hurricane Katrina, the Cajun King retains much of the atmosphere that was found in those places with  it’s modest interior and the warm relations that are found between the owners and  many of their regular customers. Tribute to New Orleans and  Louisiana  is also found there in the bright Mardi Gras beads that dangle from the ceiling and the music that flows from speakers in place on the walls. Like many eateries in the Oklahoma City area that survived the coronavirus, the Cajun King  prepares many to go orders, and patrons are often seen picking them up at the cash register. Several days ago, an individual appeared at that location and he was overheard asking if there was any work that he could do since he needed cash to pay the rent due on the place he lives in with his two sons. Shortly thereafter, Christy Adda was observed handing him several bills of U S currency. And such  actions reveal something of the character of Simeon and Christy Adda.