Blog Heap of Links for the day 20 March 2011

How and when does a restaurant management learn that FLOTUS and/or POTUS are coming? ["squares of suckling pig"?... guess they aren't all that Muslim!]

Life changed suddenly and permanently for David Tallman in 1992. At age 48, after 26 years at Phillips Petroleum in Bartlesville, he was laid off. "I was naive; I was unsuspecting. I thought as a loyal, faithful employee, I was safe," said Tallman, who will be signing his book at a booth next week at the Tulsa Workshop, an annual conference sponsored by the Memorial Drive Church of Christ.

The father of a Lawton soldier killed in Afghanistan told his Facebook friends to "remember the good times." Staff Sgt. Travis M. Tompkins, 31, died Wednesday after insurgents attacked his unit with a rocket-propelled grenade. Tompkins was serving as a military policeman with the 10th Mountain Division. "I am numb, as hours ago we got word our wonderful son, Travis, was killed in action on his first mission upon returning from leave here with his wife and family," Leland Tompkins wrote. "I am glad to hear that no others of his platoon died with him. Thank you for all thoughts, and those that knew Trav, remember the good times."