is it ketchup or catsup? - media.iadsnetwork.com
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Saturday, June 6, 20204A ◆ NEWS Yukon Review
State LegislatorsState Rep. Jay SteagallPhone: 557-7352email: [email protected] Rep. Rhonda BakerPhone: 557-7311email: [email protected] Sen. Stephanie BicePhone: 521-5592email: [email protected] Sen. Lonnie PaxtonPhone: 521-5537email: [email protected]
Congressional OfficialsU.S. Rep. Frank LucasPhone: (405) 373-1958U.S. Sen James InhofePhone: (405) 608-4381U.S. Sen James LankfordPhone: (405) 231-4941
City of Yukon OfficialsMayor Shelli SelbyPhone: 684-1381Vice Mayor Jeffrey WoottonPhone: 418-6826Council Member Donna YandaPhone: 350-0790.Council Member Richard CaciniPhone: 350-0448Council Member Aric Gilliland
Phone: 494-0227Police Chief John CornPhone: 354-1551Fire Chief Shawn VogtPhone: 354-2133Public Works Dir. Arnold AdamsPhone: 354-2121Development Director Mitch HortPhone: 354-6676Parks & Rec Director Jan ScottPhone: 350-8937
Yukon School OfficialsPresident Leonard WellsPhone: 354-6275Vice President Suzanne CannonPhone: 226-8152Board Clerk Member Rex VanMeterPhone: 213-6608Assistant Clerk Chris CunninghamPhone: 605-9928Member Michele HawthornePhone: 613-7796Superintendent Dr. Jason SimerothPhone: 354-2587
County CommissionersDistrict 1 – Marc HaderPhone: 262-4673District 2 - David AndersonPhone: 262-0589District 3 - Jack StewartPhone: 422-2427
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As far back as I can recall, I have enjoyed ketchup on my burgers, fries, and eggs. For sev-eral hundred years, it has been a table sauce with various spellings and ingredients. Over time, the mixtures set-tled on what we use today, containing toma-toes, sugar, vinegar, and spices.
Kekap, koechiap, caveach, catchup, and several other terms eventually became ketchup or catsup, with H. J. Heinz Co. now producing over 70 per-cent of the ketchup in America. Pickling the tomatoes with vinegar and sugar eliminates the need for preserva-tives.
The late actor and comedian Jerry Stiller had a great comedy sketch on the “King of Queens” television show about whether it
is catsup or ketchup. In the scene, Jerry claimed that refined people refer to it as cat-sup, while the common folk call it ketchup. Look it up on YouTube.
Thirty years ago, while I was healing up the scabs from divorce wounds, a buddy asked me to go with him on a weekend church retreat down by Lawton. I still recall it was a soothing spiritual experience and I was a better man from participating in it.
On the way home, we picked up some burgers and fries. His wife was at her sister’s home and we stopped by there to eat our food. The gals were visiting and as we prepared to eat, I inquired if our hostess had any ketch-up. Bertha acknowl-edged that she did, and handed it to me.
Up to that point, Bertha had always been the aloof older sister of my buddy’s wife. She handed me that bottle of ketchup, and our
eyes met. It was kind of like when you grab a live wire and it gives you a jolt. I minded my own business, ate, and everyone went their separate ways.
Several months later, as I have written about in this column previ-ously, we ran into each other again at my bud-dy’s home, and eventu-ally started dating. I asked her about the day she handed me that bot-tle of ketchup and she had a similar experi-ence, which she also
kept to herself.On June 9th, it will
have been 25 years since we said our wed-ding vows next to the waterwheel at the Wilds Restaurant northeast of El Reno. Since then we have raised our four chil-dren, welcomed three grandchildren, and built a life and a busi-ness together. Has it always been pleasant? Heck no; it takes hard work, commitment and total trust in God to lead us along. Our faith is the cement that glues us together and carries us every day.
I don’t care if its ketchup or catsup, I’m just glad Bertha had some that day!
Happy Anniversary, Cupcake!
Chicken Fried Steak is a copyrighted column by G.W. Thomas; any opinions expressed are those of the author and are not endorsed by the management of this newspaper.
G. W. [email protected]
uChicken Fried Steak
Is it ketchup or catsup?
If this year is like most election years, Oklahomans will receive campaign mail-ers from state Republicans decrying Washington, D.C.-style politics and proclaim-ing themselves fiscal conservatives. But in this year’s session — primarily because of House Republican lead-ers — lawmakers fully embraced D.C. politics and abandoned respon-sible financial steward-ship.
Few things highlight this sad reality more than House Republicans’ decision to increase Oklahoma’s unfunded liability by advancing an unfunded “cost of living adjust-ment” (COLA) for retired state govern-ment workers — a transparent election-year ploy to buy votes with other people’s money.
The negative conse-quences for working families will be signifi-cant.
When Democrats controlled the
Legislature, they also advanced unfunded COLAs in election years. That ultimately drained pensions so fast Oklahoma ranked 47th among the 50 states by 2007.
Between 2000 and 2010, the unfunded lia-bility of Oklahoma’s state pensions increased from $6 bil-lion to $16 billion.
Things got so bad that by 2010, actuaries predicted the teachers’ retirement plan would never achieve fully funded status.
However, when the GOP won power, that first generation of Republican legislative leaders — who not only touted conservatism on the campaign trail but practiced it in office — began reforming pen-sions. One major reform, abandoned this year by House Republican “leaders,” was to ban the raiding of pension assets through unfunded COLAs.
Major progress has since been achieved, but — contrary to the fiscal fairy tales offered by some lawmakers — state pensions are still
far from whole. Oklahoma’s govern-
ment pensions started the year with $7.8 bil-lion in unfunded liabili-ties. That figure is larg-er now, thanks to the unfunded COLA.
The teachers’ retire-ment system, in partic-ular, faces major chal-lenges.
The teachers’ system already had more money going out in benefit payments than what was coming in through employee- and-employer contribu-tions.
The system must make up the difference with investment earn-ings.
Now, those earnings are reeling due to the stock-market collapse tied to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Teachers’ Retirement System of Oklahoma portfolio has declined by $1 billion since June 30, and its funded status has fallen from 72.3 percent to around 64 percent.
The unfunded COLA further drained system assets, adding an esti-mated $400 million in unfunded liability to the teachers’ system.
I am a CPA who pre-viously served on the board of the Oklahoma Teachers Retirement System, so I understand what those numbers represent: reduced ben-efits for current teach-ers upon their retire-ment, diversion of funds from schools and other needs to retire-ment systems in the future, and tax increas-es for working families to cover unfunded lia-bilities (or some combi-nation of all three).
When incumbent Republicans dismiss the hard financial reali-ties created by their raid of pension assets — done amidst a global pandemic when the livelihoods of working Oklahoma families are being decimated — citi-zens must ask if those lawmakers are willfully ignorant of financial reality or deliberately misleading constitu-ents. Those are the only two possible answers, and neither inspires voter confidence.
Jonathan Small serves as president of the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs (www.ocpathink.org).
Unfunded COLAs are cause for concernBy JONATHAN SMALL
President, Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs
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