And, the Emmy Award goes to …

We must celebrate Oklahoma every chance we get. I hope that you have been watching Ken Burn’s national parks special on PBS.

One of the spokespersons is a gentleman who had served as park superintendent at Chickasaw National Recreation Area in Sulphur from 1998-2001. I had the privilege of hearing him speak at Pauls Valley Rotary years ago.

Gerard Baker, currently serving as the superintendent at Mt. Rushmore “is Mandan and Hidatsa and (his) Park Service experience includes tenure at the Little Big Horn Battlefield in Montana and the Knife River Indian Villages in North Dakota…” was eloquent and soft spoken when he talked about his time at the Custer Battlefield and in his (then) new role just a few miles to our south.

It is good seeing a familiar and friendly face on this much anticipated photographic and history special. From the second episode: Learning how the great naturalist John Muir and President Theodore Roosevelt met on the future of our national park development by campfire under a tree is a story for the ages.

And now, “the envelope please.” Nope, it is not the Oscars, but television’s Emmy Awards.

The delightful Kristin Chenoweth from Oklahoma recently won a statuette for outstanding supporting actress in a comedy series for her role as Olive Snook in “Pushing Daisies.” She made light in her acceptance speech of the fact that the series had been canceled and she was more or less, “looking for work.” Visit her Web site to catch her enjoyment of the big win. Oklahoma is doing well.

I had quoted a column from Garrison Keillor last week and I was sad to learn that he recently suffered a stroke.

What a magnificent talent. My thoughts and prayers go out to him for a speedy recovery and continued good health.

The Pauls Valley Panther marching band, “The Pride of the Valley”, traveled to its first 2009-2010 competition season on Sept. 26 and made it to the finals. Well done everyone and keep up the great work.

Live from the Highlands: I was reminded that during the period from 1995-2000 I suffered through another, albeit shorter, theatrical dry spell.

In 1996 I directed a melodrama on the old passenger loading platform at the Pauls Valley train depot. Watching those actors, with true melodramatic posing, freeze their actions every time a train passed still makes me laugh.

Jumping ahead to 2000: In honor of the millennium I directed a staged reading of the first Kaufman and Hart play, their classic 1930 hit, Once In A Lifetime. The comedy centered on the advent of talking movies. That art form changed our world forever; now what would be its counterpart over the next thousand years?

Visit a national park, and Wacker Park, in our town.