CALIFORNIA
Snap your fans for the late Beverly Allen, a petite woman
just over 5 feet tall who became a high-kicking,
feather-bedecked showgirl at the age of 80 with the Fabulous Palm
Springs Follies. This is a group you have to be at least 55 years
old to join, and Allen, reports the Los Angeles
Times, was the oldest showgirl still performing when she
stopped working at age 87. “A sparkling gem of a dancer,” as one of
her colleagues put it, Allen was 90 when she died late last year.
OREGON
There was
another loss in 2007: the nation’s largest Sitka spruce.
The tree was 700 years old and just over 200 feet tall when a
violent rainstorm broke off its trunk 75 above ground, reports
Newwest.net. Called “Klootchy” after its home in Oregon’s Klootchy
Creek County Park, the tree was a mere seedling back in the 13th
century, when the bubonic plague was wiping out much of Europe’s
human population. One reader commented that wood from a Sitka
spruce, now hard to find, is highly prized as soundboards for
guitars: “Perhaps Klootchy will be able to live on in the form of a
few hundred beautiful guitars.”
UTAH
Face it, writes columnist Robert Kirby in the
Salt Lake Tribune, when it comes to religion, just about
everybody believes in weird stuff. Take Republican presidential
candidate and Baptist minister Mike Huckabee, who needled Mormons
by provocatively asking, “Don’t Mormons believe that Jesus and the
devil were brothers?” As a Mormon, Kirby said, “I wasn’t bothered
because, well, it’s true.” What may be stranger than the thought of
Satan and Jesus as siblings, Kirby added, is the belief that “the
real god is a shape-shifting entity, born of a virgin, who cured
blindness with spit … a god you periodically honor by
ritualistically eating him so that he won’t kill you when he comes
back.” One of the ironies of religion, Kirby added, is that logic
applies to every religion “but yours.”
NEBRASKA
If the devil does
exist, a few disgruntled Nebraskans might say his name is Ted
Turner, the CNN founder, philanthropist, bison-lover and
well-known wealthy guy who keeps on buying huge ranches throughout
the West. Recently, a Turner representative bought at auction
26,300 acres of prime ranch land near Mullen, Neb., reports the
Associated Press, at a cost of nearly $11 million. This did not sit
well with those locals who were outbid. Many are suspicious of
Turner’s motives: “You don’t know what his plan is and what he’s
going to do,” said Cindy Weller, who lives on a family ranch near
Mullen. Some speculate that Turner wants to create a vast preserve
for bison and drive ranchers and farmers out of business. A Turner
spokesman, however, said the driving force behind Turner’s purchase
of rangeland in 11 states is “the desire to make money.” Hunting
expeditions on his land, for example, can cost $12,000 a trip, and
Turner now owns more than 50 restaurants serving bison-burgers,
called Ted’s Montana Grill.
IDAHO
Somewhat ruefully, a Sun Valley
resident admitted that the wealthy homeowners who infrequently
frequent her resort town can bestow unexpected benefits. When
forest fires threatened last summer, Diana Fassino told
Harper’s Magazine, “1,700 firefighters converged
on our small town almost overnight.” And while their priority was
saving the bloated homes of celebrity residents, Fassino said, all
those people dumping fire retardant from planes and digging fire
lines meant that her modest house was also spared. “But we are
shamed, too,” she added, “knowing that our salvation was due to the
proximity of a few superstars’ ‘starter chateaux.’ “
NEVADA
Though Nevada held
the dubious distinction of being the fastest-growing
state for 19 years, it lost that title last year to faster-growing
Arizona. But in the most recent count, Nevada snatched back its
trophy, reports the Las Vegas Review-Journal,
thanks to a 2.9 percent growth rate that raised the population to
2.56 million. Las Vegas economist Keith Schwer noted that more is
not always better: “Just getting bigger is kind of like sitting
around the table after Christmas dinner,” he said. “You’re getting
bigger, but you might not feel well.” Commute times get longer, for
instance, as traffic builds. Western cities ranked high last year
for a second dubious distinction – this one for the most identity
thefts, reports Governing magazine. Of 15 cities
with the most crimes in that category, six were in California,
although Phoenix had the most identity thefts overall. Las Vegas
and Denver also made the top 15.
Betsy Marston
is editor of Writers on the Range, a service of High
Country News in Paonia, Colorado. Tips of Western oddities
are always appreciated and often shared in the column, Heard around
the West.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Heard Around the West.
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