If you didn't see the article, AskMen.com put Oklahoma City as one of its Ten Hells On Earth (due to our weather), ranking even worse than Baghdad, Iraq. KOCO has an article about it here:

Mayor: OKC's Inclusion In Web Feature Could Be Seattle Slam - Oklahoma City News Story - KOCO Oklahoma City (http://www.koco.com/news/16138059/detail.html)


The mayor believes this was Seattle Sonics related. Here's the original article:

AskMen.com - Top 10: Hells On Earth (http://www.askmen.com/fashion/travel_top_ten_200/226_travel_top_ten.html)


I tried emailing AskMen.com but they have disabled sending comments to the author, Nick Clarke. I did some digging and found the author's personal website and his contact information. The guy looks quite young, and according to his blog he writes up articles for as little as $100. I thought AskMen.com was a real journalism website, but now that I realize they are owned by Fox it all kind of makes sense.

Anyway here's Mr. Clarke's contact information if you would like to comment on his story (he lives in Spain):

Nick Clarke - ghostwriter* (http://www.ghostwriterworldwide.com/about-me.htm)

nick@ghostwriterworldwide.com

Tel: +34 952 832 960 / +34 667 762 545

Yipes! Cornett might need to go on the ten most paranoid mayor list! I doubt this had anything to do with Seattle, they aren't this clever! LOL

Spain goes on that list. I mean, they Iberian Peninsula is a scary place to live. When they're not burning down whole cities in order to find a few heretics or fighting brutal and long civil wars, they're fighting off invasions of Moors or Romans.. Also, gypsies are insufferable.

Spain goes on the list.

This article did lead me to look at various blogs about visiting Chernobyl and surrounds. I liked this blog (Chernobyl Archives) (http://www.lindsayfincher.com/chernobyl/) a lot.

I had read the KIDDofSPEED blog (http://www.kiddofspeed.com/) when it was made and I notice it is referenced. It is still pretty interesting.

We're just past the 22nd anniversary of Chernobyl.

The comments on the askmen.com site are actually quite entertaining.

I'm thinking maybe this is a good thing to be compared to Chernobyl as it might help stop the influx of new people to Oklahoma City.

Oh yeah, we've heard about this and we're not happy campers ...read here:

http://www.okctalk.com/okc-metro-area-talk/12784-oklahoma-city-top-10-places-not-visit.html?highlight=askmen

http://www.okctalk.com/okc-metro-area-talk/12793-aol-listened-response-concerning-list.html?highlight=askmen

kiddofphotoshop

While it may be all hunky-dory on the musical front, Oklahoma City isn’t the kind of place you’d want to hang out in for too long if you like to keep your feet on terra firma. The weather is frighteningly unpredictable, with blizzards often descending on the city and winds that could knock a high rise clean off its feet. It is, after all, located in the direct path of “Tornado Alley.”

The worst time to visit would be from March to August, when The Day After Tomorrow-style weather is pretty much expected. In fact, the severe weather season makes Dorothy’s Kansas look positively calm, with Oklahoma City being the city worst affected by tornadoes in the United States. One of the most powerful tornadoes on record -- an F5 with wind speeds of 320 mph -- devastated much of the city in 1999, securing its place on our list of hells on earth.

...

It was stupid to post like that about us and to rate us as worse than Baghdad, Iraq. However, all that aside, the descriptions was rather funny. LoL

This is old news and has been apologized for. Why keep bringing it up?

The article serves only to demonstrate the ignorance of the author, and there most certainly must be hidden motives behind its publication. OKC has its imperfections here and there, but to rate it worse than the rotting, crime-infested, stink holes of this planet...??? It's really too bad we can't sue for slander. The article is damaging and unwarranted. I'd like to know its reasoning.