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Halloween in our Santa costumes?

November 2, 2014 /

Have you dragged the tinsel out of the attic yet? Halloween is just in the books and already Amazon and Walmart are offering holiday specials, because “Black Friday is not a day anymore – Black Friday is a season.”

That’s according to Mark LoCastro of DealNews, an online coupon site, as reported by the New York Post. Walmart’s chief merchandising officer, Duncan MacNaughton says we customers put away our costumes and “start prepping for Thanksgiving, buying Christmas trees and shopping for gifts.”

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I remember a time that “prepping for Thanksgiving” had nothing to do with shopping for gifts or trees. It was more about making plans for family get-togethers and who would bring what dish to the big meal. Of course, my son could never attend at Thanksgiving, since he was a part of the Black Friday corporate world. Even before his store started opening on Thanksgiving Day, he had to be at work getting ready for the Friday sales.

Amazon began its online “Black Friday” deals on Saturday – before most of the pumpkins and cobwebs have been removed from the trick-or-treat neighborhoods. The special offers will continue through December 22, almost a full two-month campaign for Christmas business.

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And don’t believe those stories about “Black Friday” being the day that businesses finally turn a profit, moving from the “red ink” in the ledger books to operating in “the black.” I traced the phrase through newspaper archives and found an early 1900s reference to the mad traffic and shopping mayhem associated with the day after Thanksgiving. “Black Friday” has always been a major jam-up and the phrase was used to describe it.

Our Rose District season starts early enough: the Thursday kickoff will feature a lot of special activities – including prizes – on the evening of November 13th.

You can use that evening to come see the changes on Main, if you haven’t yet visited the new Rose District. And – speaking of changes – you’ll be able to check the progress of the Andolini’s building next to In The Raw and Rooftop, as well as the major remodel project at the southeast corner of Dallas and Main.

There is a new look on the northside walk at Main Street Tavern, where an attractive black awning has been added. Those outside diners will appreciate the shade on sunny afternoons and evenings. (All those folks who repeatedly told me that people will not sit outside in Oklahoma, were just incorrect. It’s happening regularly.)

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There were plenty of visitors outside for the Grilles and Grills festival, the Rose District car show and food event. We got to see some fantastic vehicles and a crowd of car-lovers. Dustin and Rachel worked the sidewalk, and – if you haven’t stopped in for lunch lately – are also working daily at lunchtime, making it a lot easier to serve our guests. And now, we’re serving on Saturdays as well!

Come by at lunchtime and let us serve you!

McHuston

Booksellers & Irish Bistro
Rose District
122 South Main St. Broken Arrow OK!

Steel popping up changes in the Rose.

October 12, 2014 /

Things are reaching upward in the Rose District. Solid growth, too. Solid steel.

Some folks commented on Saturday about the changes in downtown Broken Arrow. They’d moved away and had just returned. Another fellow was visiting from Edmond and said he wondered whether BA even had a downtown. He mentioned how impressed he was with it.

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If it’s been a time since you’ve visited, you’ll spot changes once you get back here. (And that ought to be soon, by my reckoning!) On our block, things are up-to-snuff (there’s a grandpa-ism!) with the completion of the utilities at the sidewalk by the park on Broadway.

It’s a different matter from Commercial to Dallas.

You’ll encounter a road construction sign at the intersection, but no orange barrels or barrier fences. Most of the work is actually being done on Dallas and El Paso, with some detours required on some days. (Many days a single lane is kept open.) It also comes into play at night; the streetlamps have been dark south of Dallas Street for the past couple of evenings while the utility work is completed.

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Going up between Spoke House (bicycle shop) and the In the Raw, Rooftop, and Pinot’s Palette building are some sturdy-looking grey columns and girders that will be the supporting structure for what will amount to a skyscraper here in the Rose District. My small-town upbringing still keeps me marveling at any structure with multiple stair-landings. (I won’t go into my fear as a kid, riding up the rickety elevator at Diamond Hardware in McAlester, while delivering early morning newspapers to above-the-store apartments.)

The steel supports here in the Rose will provide the structure for upstairs apartments, which will be located above the ground-floor commerce. At street level will be Andolini’s Italian, with an anticipated opening next year.

Between Dallas and El Paso there is a similar crop of grey steel, as well as a wide staircase near the center of the project. The bank building will also feature a tower similar to a clock or bell tower, and if the completed structure looks anything like the architect’s rendering on posters at the bank-front, it’s going to be a beauty. That part of Main is going to be busy for quite some time, since voters approved funding to change the old bank building into a district Arts Center.

Exciting stuff.

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I was personally excited to get an invitation to the pre-opening of the Rooftop from Jason Scarpa, whose Main Street Tavern continues to attract crowds. Unfortunately, I had a previous commitment that kept me from attending. (Work related, you know, as my social life is as fictional as the stories I read…) It’s good to see the lights on up there, and I’m in hopes of paying a visit before too long.

Great to see Stogies, Fiesta Mambo, Pinot’s Palette, and Main Street Tavern open on Sunday. I’d love to be able to keep the bookstore open on Sunday, but there are things I can only finish while the door is locked, since I don’t have a clerk to tend the front counter. I know that Sunday is typically a slower restaurant day, but there are plenty of people looking for a place to eat, and the more businesses that remain open on Sunday in the Rose, the better it will be for everyone. (Goes for Monday, too. I can’t tell you how many apologies I’ve made to customers on behalf of my fellow merchants who remain closed on Monday. I have never been able to understand the logic, although it could have something to do with family or social lives, I don’t know.

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We’ll have the street blocked off next Saturday for Grills and Grilles, a car-show and food event that brought out some beautiful automobiles for the inaugural edition of the event. You can make a plan now to work in a visit in between your football games or pumpkin patch visits.

Chef Dustin is back in the continental US after his tropical vacation. The bistro will be open for business again on Monday after the short break, with fresh soup, stew, sandwiches, and specials prepared just for you.

Come visit!

McHuston

Booksellers & Irish Bistro
Rose District
122 South Main St. Broken Arrow OK!

New headlines, familiar stories.

October 6, 2014 /

A lot of talk and a lot of worries about Ebola. Misinformation and fear are the words used by the Center for Disease Control. Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins made a point of appearing without protective clothing when visiting the family of the Liberian man currently battling the infectious disease.

But this isn’t the first go-round.

Twenty years ago, Random House published a book by Richard Preston – a non-fiction effort – titled The Hot Zone. Above the author’s name on the front cover, in red letters, are the words “A Terrifying True Story.”

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Preston points out that “none of the living people referred to in this book suffer from a contagious disease,” and that his work covers events from 1967 to 1993. He writes about the history of the African virus and associated strains, and also provides details about the discovery of an Ebola virus-relative in Reston, Virginia – less than 15 miles from Washington, DC.

One edition of the book features a cover-blurb from Stephen King, who states that The Hot Zone was “one of the most horrifying things I’ve read in my whole life.”

Maybe that’s one of the reasons that folks are feeling a little bit nervous about the idea of such a disease landing on US soil.

The outbreak that Preston discusses was contained, but the last four words of the book text are: “It will be back.”

He was right.

If it is possible to have an up-side, the current US distress over the possibility – however remote – that the virus could have an outbreak here, may provide the attention needed to focus on relief for those areas in which the virus has its origin. History is filled with stories of those who won’t concern themselves with the problems of others, until they are caught up in the problems themselves.

I haven’t read The Hot Zone. Used to read scary books, but no so much any longer. Scary books that are non-fiction, even less. Having scanned through the text of a paperback copy on the shelf, I have reassured myself that it has plenty of information that would be of interest to someone, even if I pass.

That kind of Scary I can get enough of in the daily headlines. And I suppose that’s one of the reasons that last night I completed my revisiting of David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens. Mr. Murdstone and his sister are the scariest things in that book, and even they get their comeuppance from David’s Aunt Betsey. The Hot Zone is a little more open-ended.

You’ll find both sorts of stories on the shelves currently, un-quarantined and ready to go, so –

Come visit!

McHuston

Booksellers & Irish Bistro
Rose District
122 South Main St. Broken Arrow OK!

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