Pinstripe Suits And Second Generations At Pinpoint Resource Fine Wear In OKC

   Canterbury Tales, which was written by Geoffrey Chaucer, is one of the classic works of English literature,  and consists of a collection of stories regarding the lives of pilgrims who were visiting the tomb  of the martyred  Thomas Becket, who had been murdered in  Canterbury Cathedral  in 1170. Written in what today is known as Middle English, in  one chapter  a sergeant at law is described  as being attired in “a homely parti-coloured with a silken belt of pinstripe stuff.” By the early Nineteenth Century pinstripes had made their way onto business suits and banks in the United Kingdom often required their employees to wear them and they had made their way across the pond to the US probably at that time. Such stripes have adorned the official uniforms of the New York Yankees Baseball Team for well over a century. More recently, it was reported that former President  Donald Trump objected to one of his attorneys in his second impeachment proceeding wearing a pinstripe suit which he described as a ‘gangster suit.” Several days ago,  a row of pinstripe suits were on display at the Pinpoint Resource   Fine Wear that is situated on the first floor of the Fifty Penn Place structure on the Northwest Expressway  in several different dark colors and were being tried on by a seemingly earnest young man who appeared to be law abiding and indicated that he planned to wear it to his office. He was later followed by another young man who indicated that he was in pursuit of a solidly colored business suit, and it was subsequently revealed that the was a member of the illustrious Salous family who made their way to Oklahoma’s capital city decades ago and have since prospered in several different fields of commercial endeavor and have also become known for the good works that they perform in the community. On Christmas Day years ago, one of the Salous brothers was observed on Christmas Day in an impoverished area of Oklahoma City dispensing blankets and coats to shivering street people, but asked a writer who was present not to identify him by name because his religion required that works of charity had to be done anonymously.  Of Palestinian heritage and of the Muslim faith, a new generation of the original immigrant family are now making their way into the professions, and the younger Salous told of how he is in the employ of a local insurance company and had previously obtained a degree in computer science.  The smiling young man departed  carrying a suit that he had selected with advice from Chris Khrais, the proprietor of the establishment, along with several dress shirts that the haberdasher had recommended to him. Journalist Leslie Berger, who currently serves as the press secretary for the bold  Oklahoma Attorney General  Gentner Drummond, and she was in the custody of her teenage  son who was in pursuit of footwear appropriate  for a youth of his stature and ambition, and  after he tried on several different  types, they  departed  brandishing the winning shoebox.

Popular Restaurants Inspire Imitation In Oklahoma.

“This fellow Hitler is stealing your act, Charlie,” an old vaudeville  performer who had previously acted on stage with Charlie Chaplin is said to have warned   the comedian  as newspapers began to feature pictures of a rising  German politician who had a toothbrush mustache of the type that Chaplin wore in his  comedic films that were popular throughout the world at that time. Subsequently, Chaplin received a clipping from a  foreign newspaper that told of how after Adolph Hitler had been installed as chancellor of Germany he had banned the showing of Chaplin’s films there. The comedian was troubled  by Hitler’s government’s mistreatment of Jews after he took power, and he later went on to make a now classic talking film titled “The Great Dictator” that satirized Hitler and his pompous pretensions as well as his cruelty. And  Stillwater  restaretuer Mohammad Mahmoud may now fell that his concept  has been stolen  by the operators of the newly opened Hatch eatery that is on the same thoroughfare, Main Street in Stillwater, where his popular and successful restaurant, Granny’s Kitchen, is situated. Several years ago, Mahmoud, who began his career in the hospitality industry in Oklahoma as a staffer at IHOP, acquired the Granny’s Kitchen that was then  situated on a less prosperous  section of  Stillwater’s Main Street, moved it to it’s current location, broadened the menu to  include a variety of breakfast and lunch items, and also obtained a liquor license from it that allowed him to serve a variety of alcoholic beverages that include mimosas that are now  frequently served with  food.  He saw fit to retain on the menu  the sweet cinnamon rolls that are now one of the  items that it is now known for. The success of his transformation of  Granny’s prompted  him to open two new ones in Oklahoma City and a third one is planned to open on the Northwest Expressway and Rockwell  in the  early new year.  It may also inspired  the  creator’s of   the Hutch to replicate  Mahmoud’s  successful concept in close proximity to his place, and the Stillwater  media has told of how the manager of the establishment began his career with the Louie’s restaurant and bar  chain in Oklahoma and that there is currently one other Hutch of that type currently in operation in the state. It has been said that the restaurants  in the tourist destination of New Orleans, Louisiana, do not see one another as being in competition, since the locals  and visitors like the culinary diversity that is found there as a result,  and frequent the popular eateries  on a rotating basis, and the local media there reports on the occasional defections of one chef from one popular place to another  just as avidly as it details the city’s  Byzantine politics.  A recent holiday report from New Orleans detailed the wide variety of eateries on Magazine Street that offer a wide variety of culinary styles. And as Stillwater expands as a destination for visitors from various locales, it may also have a variety of upscale restaurants.

Whiskey Dinners Coming To Sean Cummings’ Irish Pub In OKC

    The foodie community of Oklahoma City has recently been enthused about the talk  on social  media and in print  about the “Seven Course Whiskey Dinners” that will be offered  early next year  on January 28^th and  on two occasions  on  February 4^th,   at 5: 30 and 7:30 at the popular  Sean Cummings Irish Pub on May Avenue in Oklahoma City. Those dinners are in large part the brainchild of a creative  staffer,  Diana Ogle, who recently explained that she is a long time associate of both Sean and his wife Cathy Cummings who is the owner of the attached Vito’s Ristorante  and is now a partner in the Pub. She tells of a visit to the  Emerald Isle  that she went on last year and the experience of visiting the distilleries there that produce   Irish whiskey, including one that  distilled under the name of  West Cork, that inspired her idea for the whiskey  dinners.  That company distills a wide variety of  Irish whiskeys that will be featured as part of those meals. That establishment was  started by a group of Irish college chums who founded it in the early years of the current century and since that time it has become very popular in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.  The first course will include pork scratchings that are somewhat similar to pork rinds, and will be followed by beer battered  fried cabbage that she insists is better than it sounds, and has developed a following among the staffers at both the pub and ristorante. That will be followed by a salad  and then vegetable barley soup, succeeded  by a  baked potato shepherd’s pie. The final  course will be  braised pork with mashed potatoes and glazed carrots.  The last serving will be tipsy  laird, a whiskey infused triffle  that is filled with  cake, heavy cream  whipped with whiskey and berries. A different whiskey will be served with each course, Ogle explained. Reservations for the first dinner have already been filled, but openings are still available for the second ones. The enthusiasm expressed by many of their regular patrons to the dinners will probably result in them being held on a monthly basis at the pub. The  server also told of the upcoming New Years  Eve event at the pub that is part of a tradition that includes a toast  at 6:00 PM, since that is when the new year begins in Dublin Ireland, and then is followed   by the regular dinner service and live entertainment by Irish singers and musicians. She further detailed how the entire staff at both the pub and ristorante are excited at the prospect of hosting the whiskey dinners and bringing aspects of Irish culture to Oklahoma’s capital city.

Remembering Days Past In The Payne County Courthouse In Stillwater

 Recently, two men  well into their respective  seventh decades who had formerly served as assistant district attorneys in the  Payne County Courthouse in Stillwater  braved a cold sun and strong winds to meet for morning  coffee at the Granny’s Kitchen on Memorial Avenue in Oklahoma City. As old men  are wont to do, the duo spoke fondly of days past that have been glazed  by memory  as they sat at the bar of that establishment, and spoke warmly  and with affection of some of the individuals that they had the good fortune to come into contact in the performance of their duties there years ago. They reminisced  about former Judge Charles Headrick, whose reserved and officious manner concealed a warm heart and a perceptive intelligence  as well as  a dedication to duty, as well as Judge Lois  Belden,  a warm and gracious woman who was tasked with arraigning those charged with crimes as well as traffic offenses in Payne County. Judge Belden would tell those charged with crimes the  individual charges that they faced without emotion or rancor and would ask them if they wanted to see if they could possibly be eligible for the services of a court appointed attorney. But for some reason, those who appeared before her  who had received a ticket for driving without a license served to arouse her ire, and she would often say sternly  “driving without a valid license, How did you get here today?” and  tell them that they should not operate a vehicle until their driving privileges were restored to them. Defendants who were charged with violations of speed limits often elicited a similar lecture  from her,  and she would read the ticket and remind them that the thoroughfare they were ticketed on was heavily trafficked  and their rate of speed had placed pedestrians and other drivers at risk. The duo also fondly recalled the late Joe Staley, who  also served in the district attorney’s office who was a man of compassion and insight.  Several of the attorneys that they dealt with including the efficient and thorough Cheryl Ramsey  and the unfailingly professional  and committed Chris Szlichta  and the warm and charming  Roger McMillian as well as the smiling Michael Morgan, and the often humorous Melissa Delacerda were also recalled with fondness. While the   former officials  spoke, the owner of the restaurant, Mohammad Mahmoud entered, and they were told of how he is now also the owner of the original Granny’s Kitchen in Stillwater, which both men had frequented when they resided in that community decades earlier and had overseen it’s transformation into  a trendy place with an enlarged menu and a license to serve alcoholic beverages and how  he had brought the Granny’s name and his concept to Oklahoma City where it has been well received and that additional eateries that bear the Granny’s name and logo are planned. The two individuals also spoke somewhat wistfully of things such as  the sight of the sun shining brightly on Boomer Lake, the swirls of frost that formed on the campus buildings on the OSU campus during the  winter breaks there, and the scents of fall that graced  the autumn air of Stillwater in early October. “Tell Dublin I Miss Her,” was the title of a work written by then exiled Irish  author Sean O’Casey, and it seems that many of those who have had the good fortune to live in Stillwater for a time harbor  a similar sentiment.

Christmas Day Brunch At Granny’s Kitchen In OKC

George Washington Cable was a  celebrated  Louisiana author who wrote about the French speaking Creoles of New Orleans  and the surrounding area after the American Civil War at a time when  those individuals were still struggling to adjust to the being part of the US after Napoleon had sold the Louisiana Territory to the Americans in 1803 without consulting them. Like many people before and since, the Creoles struggled to maintain their cultural customs in the face of an onslaught of people from different traditions, and Cable’s fictional characters told of how the Creoles  adjusted to requirements such as the use of English in government documents. In one of his novels, he has one wealthy Creole planter tell of how that while he speaks English, he also speaks Choctaw, and that both languages are good to use for business, he would never  allow English spoken at his dinner  table. The Creoles also clung fiercely to their Roman Catholic faith and many of them attended Mass on a daily basis in the St. Louis Cathedral that stands today in the French Quarter of New Orleans and is said to be oldest house of worship in the nation at this time. The Creoles were a proud lot, and the  above ground tombs in New Orleans that contain the remains of young men of that era that reference “Affaire de Honour” as the cause of their early deaths   indicate that they died in duels with other young men who were part of their community. The first  American Governor William Claiborne’s efforts to outlaw dueling was also a source of resentment that Cable tells of. One tradition that they maintained was known as “Reveillon” that entailed attending Mass and then returning home or to a popular restaurant on Christmas Day and also on New Year’s Day  to celebrate those occasions. And that tradition remains in place to a degree in present day New Orleans  where some eateries remain open to host guests after Midnight Mass or later  religious services  on December 25^th. In Oklahoma City a similar tradition may have been born on Christmas Day this year when the  popular Granny’s Kitchen on 2121 W Memorial  offered  guests a Christmas Day buffet from 9:00 AM through 2:00 PM. Several French speaking staffers there who are originally from the West African nation of Senegal, which was a French colony until 1960, told of how the  Reveillon tradition is now part of Senegalese culture as well, despite the fact that it is not a majority Christian  nation, and that many people fill restaurants there in the capital of Dakar on December 25^th every year and again on New Year’s Day. Like many of  their counterparts in New Orleans, the guests at Granny’s Kitchen were offered two buffet that  tables that included breakfast items and were attired in a manner that suggested that they had previously attended religious services. They were also offered champagne, mimosas, and other alcoholic beverages from the well stocked bar that is in place there. By midday lines were in place at both tables as patrons filled large plates with food and often returned for more. And perhaps appropriately, the Christmas soundtrack that serenaded them contained  several different holiday tunes sung by New Orleans native Louis Armstrong.

Jurors Award $148 Million In Damages to Women Who Had Been Libeled By Giuliani

The release of the lengthy  and detailed RICO  indictments issued last summer  by the Georgia  Fulton County Grand Jury generated a considerable amount of commentary in various publications as well as on social media, and perhaps one of the more insightful ones was authored by Irish  author Fintan O’Toole in the New York Review of Books who perceptively  detailed  how the MAGA ensemble that surrounded Donald Trump did  a considerable amount of damage to the nation’s political institutions, but that the indictments also  revealed   how it adversely impacted the lives of ordinary citizens who were performing their civic duties  as documented in the case of the African-American  mother and daughter team, Ruben Freeman and Shaye Moss,  the election workers who were publicly maligned by Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani as well as by Trump himself in the recorded phone conversation in which he sought to compel the Election Board Secretary of Georgia to  find more ballots cast for him so that the state’s electoral votes would be switched to his column.  And the recent trial in Washington DC that resulted from the defamation suit those women brought against Giuliani, which resulted in an award of $148 million  damages against him, which  was  larger than what  they had originally sought,  affirmed the truth of O’Toole’s observation. The jury that awarded those damages to them  heard at times tearful testimony  from them in which they detailed how their lives were upended  by the malicious and false statements that alleged that they had been involved in the fraudulent assigning  of votes to Biden’s column and that they had  shared a thumb drive that contained those false votes like they were exchanging a vial of illicit narcotics. They also testified as to the threats that they both received along with the racial epithets that were hurled at them as a result of those false assertions. The women are also listed as witnesses in the list submitted by the Fulton County district attorney, and it would seem probable that their testimony will have  similar effect on the jury that is assembled there who will hear the criminal case against Trump, Giuliani, and the others named in the indictments. When Giuliani entered the courthouse for the first day of the trail he repeated his false claims against those women,  which suggested that he was taking a page from Trump’s playbook by defiantly repeating the falsehoods hat he had previously made, but that resulted in the filing of  yet another libel suit by the attorney for the duo, and the judge who presided over the trial has authorized collection efforts on their behalf, which may account for the former New York City’s chief executive filing for bankruptcy court protection  in which he alleged that he had $10 million in assets  immediately afterwards. And it may be that the judicial system will hold the MAGA  people to account  to a much greater degree than the political system has to date.

Earl Long Of Louisiana’s Perspective On Tax Cuts Is Shared By Attorney Sam Wargin Grimaldo, A Candidate for the Oklahoma Legislature

‘Well, what do you want me to do, close the school for spastics?” was Louisiana Governor Earl Long’s response whenever a citizen asked him to reduce taxes in the  Bayou State. That story is contained in what is now a classic of American politics,  “The Earl Of Louisiana,” by New Yorker correspondent  A J Liebling, who journeyed to Louisiana when national reporters were questioning the sanity of Earl Long based on some of his seemingly odd public utterances.  But when Long, who served as governor from 1956 through 1960, said he felt that he was ‘forty percent Catholic and 60 percent  Protestant,” which led some  observers to wonder if he was suffering from the onset of schizophrenia, Liebling studied the federal  census reports from Louisiana  and found that that pronouncement roughly  reflected the actual religious affiliation of the citizenry there. And when the Louisiana chief executive said that  he was the friend  of all religions except the Snakechunckers, which led some to wonder if he was delusional, the New Yorker correspondent did some research  and found out that the Snakechunkers were an obscure religious sect that prohibited it’s adherents from voting in elections. Liebling’s work would later inspire an 1989 film that featured Paul Newman as Long titled “Blaze” that told of his infatuation with a Bourbon Street stripper in New Orleans, Blaze Starr. Earl Long has been overshadowed by his brother US Senator Huey Long, but he also had another  sibling,  Julius Long, who  had been a dentist  in Shawnee, Oklahoma and later relocated to Tulsa where he was elected to the Oklahoma Legislature  and his picture is in place in the hallway of that structure. And a current member of that body, Republican Speaker Charles McCall, has recently filed bills that if enacted, will reduce  the amount of income tax currently being paid to state government by both individuals and corporations. But one party who has expressed reservations about those measures is  attorney and senatorial candidate Sam  Wargin Grimaldo, who reports that as he has visited with those residents who he hopes will be his constituents he has found that many of the services that they receive from state government are now difficult to access due to previous tax cuts  enacted by the GOP majority in the Legislature. The aspiring office holder  has spoken of the need for more mental health services in the state, and pointed out that  additional tax cuts at this time could serve to jeopardize the services that are currently being offered in that field. And Sam Wargin Grimaldo, like Earl Long before him, realizes that the cutting of taxes serves to ultimately hurt people.

Celebration Of Birth Of Son At Portland Auto Body In OKC

 On a recent  morning a  grey Mercedes Benz  sat with pride in front of the Portland Paint &Body  Shop on South Portland Avenue  in Oklahoma City  under a cold sun with a sign on its windshield that indicated that it was available for purchase.  Inside the establishment were found a variety of vehicles in various stages of automotive disembowelment  that seemed to be patiently waiting the attention of the various male members of the Bawatna family who own and operate the  place. Large pieces of  automobile equipment  that were destined to be implanted  on those cars and some of them were being carried to their new homes as the morning progressed.  Despite the relative cold, there was a warmth  in the air that flowed in large part from the jubilation that surrounded the birth of Nassar Bawatna’s son, Zain Bawatna, who was born several days ago and has already been memorialized in selfie photos  that have been proudly shared  with those who enter the place as well as relatives in the Middle East from where the Bawatna family originated. The bearded Nasser beamed with the pride that is found in first time fathers, and expressed admiration for his wife for how she bore the difficulties  of child birth and  her devotion to their son. Mohammad Bawatna,  who is the patriarch of the family, had photos of his smiling countenance with  his new and first  grandson. The importance of family in the Arab culture was reflected in the fact that several other members of the family who were there saw fit to explain that Nassar will now be known as “Abu Zain” which translates to father of Zain, and another picture that the senior Bawatna  displayed was an image of him with the handsome young  son of his nephew, Kevin Bawatna, who is also employed in the family undertaking. Friends and customers  made their way into the office where Kevin Bawatna is frequently situated at the desk and  English and Arabic were spoken interchangeably, and on occasion legal title to cars changed hands with signatures written on titles that were exchanged. Large  silver bags that contained holiday gifts  were given to  some of the visitors who accepted them with a smile and words of gratitude. But the joyous nature found there was tempered  by the large television screen  located there that was tuned to the Al Jazeera news station that  was covering the ongoing assault on the  Gaza Strip that documented  the ongoing destruction  being inflicted on that area by the Israel Defense Force. Houses and buildings were shown being reduced to rubble  while people sought shelter in still standing structures.  Scenes of injured people groaning in pain  as they awaiting treatment in medical facilities was displayed as well, and hopes were expressed for a ceasefire and an end to the violence were expressed by those present.

LBJ’s French Cuffs And A Morning At The Pinpoint Resource Men’s Fine Wear In OKC

  The Pinpoint  Resource Men’s  Fine Wear  establishment that is located  within  the  50 Penn Place structure situated on Pennsylvania Avenue and the Northwest Expressway  in Oklahoma City  featured a  man of a refined manner who told proprietor Chris Khrais of how he was there  on a mission to get his nephew, who is of approximately thirty years of age and is a young man of promise, to begin dressing like a grownup in the hope that that would result in his  assuming more personal  responsibility, and was seeking dress shirts and ties to present to him to encourage his transition to sartorial and personal   adulthood. The haberdasher, who indicated that he had been involved  in the same process over the years  for other young men who were reluctant to surrender the privileges  and pleasures of early manhood, and he began to show the customer several different dress shirts of different colors and stripes. He then adeptly  selected ties  from his rows of bright  rolled  neck wear that is found in  abundance there  protruding from  a series of small cabinets.  After  he  purchased several shirts and ties on behalf of his younger kinsman, Khrais had him trying on dress suits for his own wardrobe and was detailing how the would be appropriate for the ongoing Holiday season festivities, and assured him that whatever alterations  that may be required could be done in a timely manner  by those that Khrais employs for that purpose.  Robert Caro’s masterful and still uncompleted and unclaimed  multi volume biography of Lyndon  Baines Johnson has been an ongoing undertaking for more that forty years, and Caro has recently   spoken in an interview conducted on National Public Radio in which was he was interviewing LBJ’s widow Lady Bird about a woman of sophistication and style, Alice Glass, that LBJ had been associated with when he was first elected to Congress who played a major role in his development into a master politician in our nation’s capital.  The biographer  told as how he took  notes from what she was saying about the woman he was reluctant to look her in the face as she told of her influence on her husband. Like many very  tall men, Johnson had ungainly long arms that often subject him to ridicule in his early days in Washington, and   Lady Bird related how Alice Glass  persuaded him to wear French cuffs with  cufflinks  to  make an advantage of the lengths of his arms, and he continued that practiced throughout the remainder  of his career of public service.  And Chris Khrais was observed telling a customer of the  of French cuffs  and their utility  for those  endowed  with long limbs  in a similar manner.  Later a tall  and distinguished looking African American man entered the store to purchase several  shirts and he told of how he serves as a principal for Millwood High School and that he will be retiring in several months time and  told with a visible twinge of sadness of how those were the last dress shirts that he will purchase.

Sam Wargin Grimaldo’s Run For The State Senate

Recently the readers of the Oklahoma City Journal Record publication  saw fit to designate the prominent  law firm of   Senator Michael Brooks  Jimenez as to be one of the best law firms for the providing of legal representation  in criminal matters, and it was noted that that firm also provides quality representation in other areas including immigration law, and on any weekday individuals can be seen entering it’s  expansive offices on 5708 South Western  Street in South Oklahoma City. But on several    Saturday afternoons  people were observed  departing the structure on occasion on what was termed “Days of Action” to begin  canvassing on behalf of the senatorial candidacy of one of the attorneys who is associated with the firm, Sam Wargin Grimaldo, who is seeking election to district 46   in the Oklahoma Senate  that is situated in large part in South Oklahoma City. Those individuals, who displayed the true enthusiasm of those who are working on behalf of a candidate of promise with a bold agenda,  were armed with literature that told of Grimaldo and his plans to improve the lives of the citizenry through legislation. The senatorial aspirant  is the son of a Mexican immigrant who struggled to support him like many other immigrants have done, and   their joint experience  served to endow him with a compassion  for the less fortunate  and a keen insight  that prompted him to advocate policies to improve  their collective lot. His campaign platform  calls for the strengthening of pubic education in Oklahoma that is currently under siege as the GOP majority  works to allow public funding for private schools, and the candidate has spoken of how he has been troubled by the antics of Ryan Walters as  State Superintendent  of Education and will work to transform that post into a nonpartisan office that will  work to improve public education throughout the state. The dramatic rise in the cost of housing in the Oklahoma City area in recent years has resulted in the candidate’s advocacy of what he has described as ” A Tenant’s Bill Of Rights” that would expand the rights and options of residential renters  and also decrease the number of homelessness people that are now found  shivering on thoroughfares  throughout the city. The attorney’s proposals also include an expansion of mental health services that he believes will also serve to lessen homelessness and crime in Oklahoma’s capital city. More than twenty states and the District of Columbia have seen fit to extend driving privileges to residents without  current legal residency status, and Grimaldo asserts that it is now time  to authorize such a procedure in Oklahoma, which  he maintains  will allow many now marginalized  individuals to fully participate in the economy  and also serve to reduce the price of automobile insurance for all residents of the state.  Like many other politicians of vision, Grimaldo’s first foray into electoral politics was not successful, and he lost a primary race for the Oklahoma City Council. But he was unfazed  by his defeat and his commitment  to public service  remains undaunted, and it is possible that  his innovative proposals may in time be transformed into legislative proposals.