What bothers me most about sites like Facebook is not the level of access they offer to my personal information. No, what bothers me is that Facebook, by virtue of its ability to add (and subtract) Friends, assigns math to what has historically, and pleasingly, been a shapeless, unquantifiable process.

To the Editor:
This is in response to Bryan Newell’s letter from July 29.

Acting City Manager Phyllis Loftis  has been appointed as a director on the Greater Shawnee Area Chamber Board and will serve through the end of this year.

Come back

Last year after we called about the shrubs trees and weeds on St. John’s road you came out and did a real good job. Now you need to come back. It’s really overgrown and becoming a fire hazard.

As voters head to the polls for Tuesday’s primary election, there may be some confusion about who can vote for certain races. I received an inquiry from a local resident who has moved here from Kansas since our state’s last primary election, and she was unsure about who all she can vote for on Tuesday. She said she is a registered Republican.
Any registered voter in the Shawnee city limits may vote for any of the candidates running for mayor, and the ward 2 and ward 3 city commission posts. City commission candidates are elected at-large, and are not affiliated with any particular political party.
But candidates on the ballot seeking county, state and/or federal offices are affiliated with their respective parties. So only registered Democrats and Republicans can cast ballots in those races in Tuesday’s primary.

Our state recently lost a true legend and a great Oklahoman. Clem McSpadden, who served the people of Oklahoma in the state Legislature and in the halls of Congress, and was an admired rodeo announcer across the continent, died recently at the age of 82.

This year’s International Finals Youth Rodeo, which concludes today with the finals beginning at 2 p.m., has a connection to the late Clem McSpadden. He died July 7, and his funeral was held in Bushyhead Arena near Claremore a week ago.

It’s not like we don’t know they’re clogged. One look tells us the billions of maple seeds that fell last month now are spouting trees. Then it rains, and the water cascades down the sides of our house.

Because Science is difficult and includes many absurd words and phrases with which I am not familiar, such as "continuum" and "polyphenols" and "mice," I have enacted a new personal rule wherein I only read studies in the news that pertain directly, indisputably to me.

Dr. Marian Salwierak is joining the Shawnee School District as a high school English teacher after spending more than 30 years at St. Gregory’s University. She was among the hirings approved this week at the monthly Shawnee Board of Education meeting.
She earned her doctorate recently, and has taught English and served in a number of capacities at St. Gregory’s. The local school system’s gain will be SGU’s loss.

Suppose you are wearing a flag pin ... but it’s made in China? Does that mean you aren’t really walking the talk? And how true-blue are those Yanks who import and sell such foreign-made Americana?

“When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with another, and to assume the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind require that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”

What a great, great cause. Anything we can do to prevent the spread of breast cancer I’m all for. It is one of our most predominant killers and one that can attack any woman at any age, and even men.

Here’s an example of the need to have as many facts as you can before you come to a conclusion just about anything:
A freshman at Eagle Rock Junior High won first prize at the Greater Idaho Falls Sciences Fair on Jan. 26. In the project he urged people to sign a petition demanding strict control or total elimination of the chemical “dihydrogen monoxide” based on the following problems:

I have good news today for the edgy people out there, the embittered, the dark, the endarkened, the snarky, the snippy, the snooty, the ensnarkened, the tragically comic, the comically tragic and everyone that I am related to or friends with.

High temperatures raise the concern of heat stress on cattle. Hot weather and high humidity can reduce breeding efficiency, milk production, feed intake, weight gains and can sometimes cause death. Management can be used to reduce the problem when hot and humid weather is forecast.

Shawnee’s Chamber board of directors has endorsed the proposition to make the county one-cent sales tax permanent beginning July 1, 2013. A countywide vote on the proposal is scheduled for Aug. 26, the same day of the runoff primary and the Tecumseh municipal election.

The high price of gas in the United States is obviously changing the way many of us live and act. People are driving less so they don't go to faraway stores as much as they used to. Big gas-guzzlers are gathering grime on auto lots. Many businesses are suffering, so they've come up with creative ways to survive the "gas crunch." Chrysler offers potential new owners of some of their cars a guarantee of paying $2.99 a gallon of gas to travel up to 12,000 miles a year for the next three years. I don't know if you'll be able to pay less if the price of gas dips below $2.99 again, but don't hold your breath on that one.

Last week I tried to give you some ideas on fuel-saving behaviors. You are all having to pay more at the pump, but the issue of fuel is much bigger than the pain at the pump everyone is feeling these days.