There are three ways to know if someone has been to Suger's on Campus Corner in Norman:
1. They know that it's spelled Suger's with an "E" and not an "A."
2. They get bitter-beer face when you mention the place.
3. Their last name is Eschbach.
I've actually been to Suger's twice. The last time was on Saturday, November 22nd, 2008. It was rainy and cold outside and my friends and I were desperately seeking a place to stay dry, warm and apparently smell other people's body odor. We ventured into Suger's, stayed for a few hours, and then this happened. Because of that, the nasty little strip club on Campus Corner has a special place in my heart.
And yes, I wrote all that with bitter-beer face.
I bring up that proud moment from my past because the Oklahoma Daily, the OU student newspaper, recently ran a big feature on the strip club where all sorts of dreams go to die. From a Steven Zoeller article:
Tucked in the alley between Sage’s Wellness Lounge and Fuzzy’s Taco Shop is a portal to another dimension.
Beyond its threshold, framed pictures of female anatomy adorn the walls of a lounge lit dimly by colorful bulbs. A woman in lingerie has the stage, her barely-concealed hindquarters aimed squarely at the audience as she dances. Over the noise of billiard balls colliding and beer glasses clinking, the men cheer and applaud.
The bar sits across the room from the stage, managed by a small woman in her mid-50s smoking a cigarette. Most wouldn’t even expect to see this severe-looking woman working here, and she doesn’t just do that — she also owns the place.
Karen Summers is a subversion, a wrinkle in the image most people have of strip clubs. The more she and the dancers talk about the story of Suger’s, the more wrinkled that image becomes.
First of all, Suger's really is located next to Fuzzy's Taco Shop. Someone should open a Saggy Boob Bakery across the alley to make this story even more ironic.
Second, this is what happens when you send an OU student who has obviously never been inside a strip club to write about a strip club. Seriously, was this assignment part of a 21st birthday present from his journalism professor? Not only did the kid describe the place with fancy, hyphen-dependant phrases like "Barley-concealed hindquarters" and "Severe-looking woman," but he totally buried the lede. If he really wanted to describe Suger's, he should have used this sentence from later on in the story:
Most of the dancers at Suger’s are mothers, and the late shifts allow some of them to spend the day with their kids.
Now that's how you describe Suger's.
Anyway, you can check out the rest of Steven's article at the OU Daily website. When you do, please be nice. The kid is probably going to write for the Oklahoman and the bolt for PR some day, so don't say anything too mean.
Also, keep in mind that these student newspaper strip club articles are more common than you think. A few years ago, the OSU student newspaper The Daily O’Collegian did this when profiling Stillwater's biggest strip club:
That's still one of the greatest print headlines in the history of Oklahoma journalism. Hopefully the Oklahoma Historical Society keeps a copy for future generations of Oklahoma journalism students to admire.
