Commentary
David Blatt
The economic downturn has hit the Oklahoma state budget hard. With high unemployment and low commodity prices, we’ve seen revenues plummet by almost 25 percent.

Food and Drink Features
Malena Lott
They don’t call it “as American as apple pie” for nothing. Simple, cheap and quick have always been hallmarks of patriotic popularity (hot dogs and hamburgers, anyone?), and that goes double when it’s also piping hot and delicious. And popular.

Indie
Stephen Carradini
I hadn’t even heard the “Woodsporn” EP before I was impressed with Oklahoma City band Purple Church, because anything that comes handnumbered, hand-printed and sporting a mini-zine (complete with fold-out mini-poster!) as liner notes is pretty impressive.

Comedy
Rod Lott
At last month’s Golden Globes, when Paul Giamatti won Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture — Musical or Comedy for “Barney’s Version,” you, too, may have asked, “What the hell is ‘Barney’s Version’?”

Features
Jenny Coon Peterson

It can be hard when a store moves. Even with lots of notice, many people will miss the lead-up to the big move and just assume the shop popped its clogs. It doesn’t help when old addresses keep showing up in Google.

Music
Joshua Boydston

Johnny Cooper
10 p.m. Friday Wormy Dog Saloon
311 E. Sheridan
wormydog.com, 601-6276
$10

Science Fiction
Rod Lott

Summer Wars
7:30 p.m. Thursday, 5:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday
Oklahoma City Museum of Art, 415 Couch
OKCMOA.com, 236-3100
$8, $6 seniors

Letters to the Editor
Kevin Acers
I am not impressed with the Gazette’s glib celebration of alcohol consumption in the March 9 “Alcoholmanac” issue. Evidently, a business decision was made to use St. Patrick’s Day as a selling point to advertisers by capitalizing on the day’s associations with booze.

OKG7 things to do
Gazette staff
Even if you haven’t seen “Henry IV,” catch an all-female production of “Henry V,” as staged by Oklahoma Shakespeare in the Park.