I had the best job in the world this December. I made 50 people laugh and then start to cry. Some looked at me as if I were crazy, while others hugged me tight. I was a “Mystery Shopper” in Montrose, population 13,000, in western Colorado, who “caught” people shopping in local stores and gave […]
The best job in the world
Posted inWotr
No surprises, and no solutions, from raids aimed at illegal immigrants
On the morning of Dec. 12, immigration and other federal officials launched a simultaneous raid — the biggest ever of its kind — at Swift & Co. meatpacking plants across six different states. At the plant in Greeley, Colo., about an hour’s drive north of Denver, agents surrounded the windowless, monolithic facility, then entered, carrying […]
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Christmas fuels the ‘bough industry’ in Washington
When my parents were first married, my father wanted to name their newly created logging company “Moonscape Logging.” Thankfully, my mother nixed that idea, although it was an apt description of the clear-cutting that happened on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula in the ’70s and ’80s. Once logs were taken out of the forest, whatever remained got […]
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A public-lands experiment needs to re-engage the public
Not long ago, a fat patch of private land lay isolated within the Jemez Mountains, surrounded mostly by Forest Service land. Though off-limits, many New Mexicans knew that this place, the Baca Ranch, supported an enormous elk herd and contained both geological and archaeological wonders. Today, that 89,000-acre private ranch is better known as a […]
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Democrats are still an endangered species in the West
Since last month’s midterm elections, Democrats have fallen all over themselves trumpeting their party’s gains in the Mountain West as the harbinger of a new political landscape. Many have suggested that the GOP now amounts to little more than a regional party with scant appeal outside the South. But a reality check is in order […]
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Chickens are roosting on private property in Oregon
Oregon’s Ballot infamous Measure 37 created an old-fashioned land rush as property owners, developers and opportunists raced to file claims for compensation before the recent deadline. An estimated 3,600 claims were filed with the possibility that the last-minute rush added 1,000 more. The total cost of the claims may top $7 billion, though no one […]
Posted inDecember 11, 2006: Old but Faithful
Heard around the West
MONTANA The Washington Post couldn’t resist a colorful headline about the outcome of Montana’s tighter-than-tight race for the U.S. Senate: “A true blue libertarian: Stan Jones, the also-ran who changed the hue of politics.” Jones, 67, is certainly known for his ashen-blue face — the unfortunate result of drinking a homemade medicine that contained silver […]
Posted inDecember 11, 2006: Old but Faithful
Dina’s Place
Dina takes me down to the river, to a place behind her house on the reservation. “I want to show you my secret spot,” she says. “C’mon.” The Big Sioux River smells like piss some days, or a wasting body. In my second summer working for the tribe, I have come to know the river’s […]
Posted inDecember 11, 2006: Old but Faithful
The art of an alien landscape
Westerners are always surprised to realize that critics often dismiss the region’s art and literature as an inferior, derivative part of the American canon. Luckily, we have Alan Williamson, a poet and scholar with roots on both sides of the country, to set the record straight. In Westernness: A Meditation, he examines what it means […]
Posted inDecember 11, 2006: Old but Faithful
Dancing to Biederbecke in Montana
In his first novel, Montana memoirist William Kittredge serves up a simmering potboiler, a deliberately old-fashioned stew rich with The-Summer-I-Became-a-Man mythology and a poor boy/rich girl romance. The mother of The Willow Field’s protagonist, Rossie Benasco, runs a sort of halfway house in Reno for divorcées: “By the time his voice changed, Rossie had seen […]
Posted inDecember 11, 2006: Old but Faithful
Travels in a sublime wasteland
It is a gift when an author transports you to the place he loves most. Writer Bill Broyles and photographer Michael Berman accomplish this in Sunshot: Peril and Wonder in the Gran Desierto, an exquisite portrait of place. Arizona’s Cabeza Prieta and Mexico’s Sierra Pinacate and Gran Desierto de Altar lie at the heart of […]
Posted inDecember 11, 2006: Old but Faithful
A river dribbles through it
Matt Jenkins did a nice job of covering stream restoration on the middle section of the Deschutes river, but he completely ignored the significant problems in the upper river. He writes, “Upstream from Bend, the river boils silvery green … charging through craggy chutes resplendent with ponderosa pine and Douglas fir (actually there’s a lot […]
Posted inDecember 11, 2006: Old but Faithful
The Jefferson state bird is not the spotted owl, either
It was exciting to see an article on the State of Jefferson. However, the article was not historically accurate. The State of Jefferson is not “a dream that has been around since 1941” as alleged by Emma Brown. Actually, a state was proposed for northwest California and southwest Oregon in 1852 — the State of […]
Posted inDecember 11, 2006: Old but Faithful
Pie in the sky, a la carbon
In the story about Montana Gov. Schweitzer, Samuel Western seemed confused by the terms “pollution” and “climate change.” In the science community, we rarely refer to either of these words. They tend to be used by people who study policy. Typically, climate change is used to mean changes in long-term average patterns of temperature and […]
Posted inDecember 11, 2006: Old but Faithful
So where does that leave Marie Antoinette?
I am always appreciative of those narrow-minded, ignorant folks who see themselves as bigots and fascists when they openly declare themselves as such. So it is with much thanks that I welcome the neon sign that Laura Pritchett has placed on her forehead blinking “FASCIST” — it will warn others to stay away from her. […]
Posted inDecember 11, 2006: Old but Faithful
Have knives and hooks, will travel
Name The Mobile Matanza Hometown Taos, New Mexico Measurements 36 feet long by 13 feet, 6 inches tall Items on her wish list Gloves, hook-eye sharpener, meat band saw blades, meat grinder plates, three-way oilstone, platters, long butchering aprons, butchering supplies and knives, brushes and scrapers. She’s sleek, full-figured and gleaming white, though not […]
Posted inDecember 11, 2006: Old but Faithful
Environmental change
In a startling post-election turn-about, Sen. Domenici moves to protect New Mexico’s Valle Vidal
Posted inDecember 11, 2006: Old but Faithful
River Redux
Thanks to a historic and grudging compromise, water and salmon head back to the San Joaquin River, six decades after they were taken out.
Posted inDecember 11, 2006: Old but Faithful
Two weeks in the West
“You guys caused the problem.” — John Mudre of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, blaming a biologist and the media for drawing too many people to a public hearing in Eureka, Calif., to consider Klamath dam relicensing. Two hundred people packed a hallway after the room reached its capacity of 350. FERC booked the same […]
Posted inDecember 11, 2006: Old but Faithful
Whistling in the park
Thanks largely to Bob Woodward and his trusty Deep Throat, whistleblowing is a vastly overromanticized endeavor. Government professionals who wish to publicize, and thereby alter, official behavior that they find unethical or illegal actually have few attractive options. Speaking openly about the problems of the agency that employs you is apt to be extremely unhealthy […]