This Land

The last time I played for a sports team that wasn’t digital was in the summer of 1989, if memory serves, in the Weatherford, Oklahoma Little Leagues.

I was the smallest boy in my school. That, coupled with a lifetime struggle with allergies, has rendered me a lifelong non-athlete. I…

God, but it’s been an awful summer in Oklahoma. The grass has yellowed and gone brittle under the raging heat. For five weeks the daytime high temperature sat in the triple digits. We were teased with a short cold spell – mid nineties! BREAK OUT THE SWEATERS! – and then…

Oklahoma City native David Plummer had swimfans around the country scratching their heads and asking, “Who?” as he touched out 100-meter backstroke world champion Aaron Piersol at the wall at the U.S. National Championships in Irvine, Calif. this week. He clocked in at 53.60 seconds; Piersol was right behind at…

With a month and a half left until the official kickoff of football season, the NBA finals and the World Cup over and two more years before any Olympics, I decided to take some time off baseball and engage in one of my other favorite pastimes: exploring Oklahoma.

I’ve been…

I try to avoid Bricktown. “It’s for tourists,” I tell people. “If you really want fun in Oklahoma City, go to the Plaza District. Go to Paseo. Crown Heights. Hell, even the Gay Strip is more fun and less tacky. Or – tacky in a different way.”

Also, the…

One of the most gratifying moments of my life as a sports fan came when I was 20 years old, and Oklahoma beat Nebraska to take over the #1 spot in the country. It was the first weekend in November, and I was in Greece.

I missed the game,…

Every day or two, I run past the house where Vince Gill grew up, past the high school where Color Me Badd’s members met. I run past countless mid-century modern homes, past campaign signs I want to tear down (Randy Brogdon for Governor? Really?), past a British imports store where…

It’s a running joke in my family: if you want to know what Nathan’s brother is like, just picture his exact opposite. And you’ve nailed it. I’m bookish, small, unathletic, though I’ve recently rediscovered my love for running. I’m as right-brained as they come. My brother, on the other hand,…

The night the Oklahoma City Thunder lost for the final time this season to the Los Angeles Lakers I was sitting in a dark theatre in the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, watching Lily Tomlin’s show. It was my five-year anniversary.

My husband and I shared our table with an…

Look. I’m not going to sit here and pretend like I was the only gay dude watching the NFL draft; I’m just the only one I know. Did you watch it?

I love watching the drafts every year, for the same reason other people like watching American Idol; you are…