Are San
Francisco residents rude to tourists? Of
course! But just to make it official, the San Francisco
Chronicle sent a reporter out with crutches. The hobbling
reporter then stood in a crowded bus or train waiting to see if
someone would give him a seat. The common response? “I got mine.”
One of the rare times a seat was volunteered, says reporter Steve
Rubenstein, he felt guilty but took it. A half hour later the good
Samaritan spotted the reporter bounding down the street, carrying
his crutches. “You must be feeling better,” the man noted, while
“odd glances were exchanged.” Another test involved helping
tourists. Standing on a busy corner and holding a map, the reporter
looked around for guidance. He could have waited forever. San
Franciscans also flunked when it came to letting a person with only
one item go first in a supermarket line. Yet San Franciscans as
well as people in Santa Rosa, San Rafael and Palo Alto were all
courteous when it came to holding open a door for the next person.
That’s nice, Rubenstein allows, though he calls door etiquette “a
relatively trivial act of decency that barely counts.”
“Billionaires
for Bush (or Gore)” say their target is
Green Party candidate Ralph Nader, since only he threatens the
corporate dominance of the Republican and Democratic parties. With
tongue firmly in cheek, organizer Douglas Trump explains that
plutocrats can always count on candidates George W. Bush and Al
Gore, since they do the bidding of Big Money. Come to think of it,
Trump adds, Gore and Bush may even be the same person: “We have
never seen them in the same place at the same time,” he told the
Colorado Daily.
Parking lots surrounding giant Wal-Mart
discount stores are beginning to fill up
with a new breed: camper-shoppers. RV drivers on vacation drive
their rigs from one Wal-Mart to another, and once there, park
overnight for free – in a manner of speaking. Bargains inside the
cavernous stores beckon. Some RVers told the
Missoulian that if they shop “til they drop,
it’s “because of The Wuz: You know, it wuz one price and now it’s
another.” The sleep-over phenomenon at Wal-Mart has not gone
unnoticed by campground operators, who see their potential
customers now lounging at night between painted white lines on the
asphalt. Recently, a campground owner in Durango, Colo., said
overnight drop-ins at Wal-Mart were ruining his
business.
Yellowstone aficionado Dan Paris lives in New
Hampshire but watches Old Faithful every
day: He clicks on the national park’s Web site and waits for the
geyser to blow. So do thousands of other people who visit the
park’s most popular Web site. But Paris was surprised recently,
reports the Billings Gazette, when he saw the
“park’s solicitation for corporate money pop up above the famous
geyser” in an advertising space called a banner. Yellowstone
officials say the push for sponsors is just an innovative way to
pay for Internet presence and environmental education projects.
Critics call it a desecration. “We wouldn’t, I hope, put a
billboard up next to … Old Faithful itself,” says Jon Catton of
the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. “This is the electronic
equivalent of that.” The Web site, www.parkcams.com, directs
potential corporate donors to the Yellowstone Foundation, a
nonprofit organization that raises money to support the park. But
on June 29, the group canned the solicitation. Park Service
Director Robert Stanton said, “Advertising is not allowed in parks
and will not be allowed in virtual parks.”
Flamingos, spotted cows, statues of
jockeys, even cutouts showing gardeners’
rear ends – all have found their way onto front lawns. But not for
long in Salem and a handful of other Oregon towns, where a recent
crime wave struck, and lawn ornaments vanished. Now, two Salem
women have been charged with stealing close to 300 of the outdoor
tchotchkes. Perhaps some people were grateful to see the lawn
statuary go. Reports the Idaho Statesman, “More
than 100 pieces are yet to be claimed.”
Embellished with statuary or
not, lawns can be hazardous to your health.
The Ouray (Colorado) County Plaindealer reports
that mowers kill 75 people a year and injure another 20,000 in a
grisly array of circumstances. Causes of mower manglings range from
children falling off riding mowers, to electrocution from damaged
electrical cords, to burns from leaking gasoline-caused fires. If
you add willful weed-eaters that zing operators with metal chains,
it’s perfectly clear: Letting lawns revert to weeds is surely the
safe and practical way to go.
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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