infobong.com

Wow, today's New York Times has a photo of the owner of Starbase 21. Starbase 21 was like one of two places in Tulsa to buy gaming miniatures and other nerd gear when I was a kid. My parents never wanted to take me there, partly because it was about a 9 mile drive from our house, and partly, I'm sure, because they didn't want me to turn into one of the guys hanging out in the store. (Ha ha mom! I wear untucked black t-shirts nearly every day, I haven't had a girlfriend in years, and I hang out in geeky record stores instead.) I didn't have much disposable income when I was a kid, either. It would have taken me two months to buy a packet of miniatures, so mostly I would just be sad looking at all the blister packs.

Anyway, I guess the reporter didn't realize that Starbase is also a store in T-town, since the caption reads, "John Harper, of Tulsa., Okla., in Starbase 21, his booth of memorabilia at the "Star Trek" convention in Los Angeles." I went to Starbase 21 the last time I was in Tulsa because it was sort of near the transmission shop that fixed my truck. It was pretty depressing, actually. It just seemed sad, dirty, and poorly lit - and barely stocked with miniatures or sci-fi ephemera. I remember it being such a carnival of nerddom. I remembered buying a green patch as a freshman that read "Live Long and Prosper under a Vulcan hand sign. I had my mom sew it on my backpack, but I later realized I probably just got it to fit in. I never really got into Star Trek.

BTW, it should be mentioned that Starbase 21 is in the same shopping center as Casa Bonita. 21st and Sheridan is surely the epicenter of Tulsa's tacky plastic underworld.