Let the following replace the entry for “Oklahoma” in every encyclopedia.
Oklahoma
“Okla” means “nation”; “homa” means “red”. If I remember right, in his novel Amerika, Franz Kafka spelt it “Oklahama” (with three A’s). Think of Texas, Colorado, Missouri, New Mexico, Arkansas… Now imagine a giant meat cleaver striking the continental U.S. right in the gut. That’s basically what we have here.
Oklahama is famous for its flash floods, prolonged drought, tornadic dust winds, and slavery rings. (The state motto, “Work conquers all”, is reminiscent of the slogan displayed over the entrance of Auschwitz and other Nazi concentration camps: “Arbeit macht frei” [“Work sets you free”].) Oklahama once made so many rubber goods and chemicals that I lost count and fell asleep. The people who live here do not all look exactly the same.
Petroleum state: scenic lakes, diverse landscape, poisonous snakes.
O! & you must visit McAlester Penitentiary, the maximum-security prison that is nicknamed “Big Mac”. — You will not want to leave.
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