Snowmobilers may be
another breed. “I tolerate cold real well,”
Dr. Bruce Hayse told the Jackson Hole News.
Riding around on frozen Jackson Lake, Hayse says he suddenly felt
the ice give way; in less than a minute, he found himself swimming.
As he looked up at the Tetons from his hole in the ice, Hayse says
he realized he’d been expecting a disaster like this to happen for
years. “If you’re going to die, it’s a beautiful place to happen,”
he recalls thinking. Not about to give in, he swam toward an edge
of ice and tried again and again to lift himself up. Finally, he
got a grip and hauled himself out. But afraid he’d plunge through
the ice again if he stood, Hayse crawled to shore on his belly. He
then lumbered – encased in ice – to a highway to hitch a ride.
Hayse says a person has up to 45 minutes before succumbing to
hypothermia in the water; he credits rough-palmed mitts for helping
him hoist himself onto the ice. As if one immersion weren’t enough,
however, the Jackson physician put himself back in the lake that
afternoon. This time he wore a wet suit. He dove 12 feet into the
frigid water to hook his snowmobile for retrieval later this
winter. Hayse says he now has a tip for snowmobilers: Wear a life
jacket when out on the ice.
Never satisfied with being just a blonde,
empty-headed babe, Barbie has morphed into
yet another persona: Tlingit Barbie of the Northwest Coast. Though
she wears a striped blanket and her black hair is held back with a
headband, she still stands on tippy-toes, primed, perhaps, for
wearing a pair of pricey Manolo Blahnik heels. She also sports a
waist that would measure 17 inches around a mere mortal, reports
the Anchorage Daily News. Though Mattel Corp.
acknowledges some off-the-mark generalizations in its description
of Barbie’s tribal ways, Tlingits interviewed in Anchorage said
they were pleased to see the $25.86 dark-skinned doll. Said Rosita
Worl, a Tlingit who works as an anthropologist, this Barbie shows
people that “we’re still alive.”
Lost and probably bewildered by
concrete – that was the plight of two young
cougars who wandered through pre-dawn Salt Lake City recently. The
cubs were spotted at South Temple and Main Street at about 4:30
a.m., reports the Salt Lake Tribune, whereupon
police began to give chase. Pursuit split up the siblings, one
finding refuge behind a concrete planter in front of a Subway
Sandwiches shop, the other hiding in bushes in Dinwoody Park.
Searchers swelled to 14 officers but all backed off when their
presence sent the Subway cat airborne, trying to jump through the
shop window. Even after getting hit by a tranquilizer dart, the
feisty cougar wiggled through a net and again ran through the city,
a line of officers racing to keep up after it. A state conservation
officer finally nabbed both wildcats. He said they were probably
motherless – and certainly clueless about life in the big
city.
In the
Jackson Hole area of Teton County, Wyo.,
commissioners have tried to hold the line against conspicuous
consumption, barring houses larger than 10,000 square feet. They
say the monster homes drive taxes up and working people out of
town. But there have been a series of flagrant breaches, reports
the Jackson Hole News. They range from building
houses on other people’s property, to a homeowner who recently
added an entire floor and a couple of thousand feet – after his
house had been inspected. That same homeowner now wants the county
to retroactively approve 15,000-square-foot houses on properties
larger than 10 acres. Jackson Hole Guide
columnist Jonathan Schechter calls that appeasement. “It’s
gut-check time for the county,” he says. “The only way to send a
message is to make him tear the whole thing down. A fine won’t do
it.” There is some support for village-size houses. Resident Alex
Mason says, “The only thing I see wrong with a 15,000-square-foot
house is that I can’t afford one myself.”
And in Colorado
Springs, developers are feeling thwarted
because the city insists on involving community groups in building
decisions. This hijacks the development process, complained builder
Bill Schuck in the Wall Street Journal. In a novel redefinition of
democracy, he added: “You can’t be an elected official and let
people dictate the law of the land.”
Heard around the West invites readers to get involved in
the column. Send any tidbits that merit sharing – small-town
newspaper clips, personal anecdotes, relevant bumper sticker
slogans. The definition remains loose. Heard, HCN, Box 1090,
Paonia, CO 81428 or betsym@hcn.org.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Heard around the West.
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