NEVADA
Debbie
Rivenburgh is the general manager of a bordello in
Pahrump, Nev., 60 miles from Las Vegas — one of 27 legal brothels
in the state. In 21 years, she says, no college has ever called to
request an intimate tour of her desert establishment. Then Randolph
College in Virginia, a private liberal arts college, decided that
the focus of this semester’s course on “American Culture” would be
the state of Nevada. After examining water rights and the wedding
industry, the 12 students in the class decided to extend their
study of prostitution by talking to the women themselves.
Rivenbaugh said 99 percent of her working girls refused to
participate in the seminar: “They worry about friends or family
finding out. They know how others see them. It can be
uncomfortable.” Yet two prostitutes, Alexis, 38, and Alicia, who
says she’s “over 30,” agreed to answer the students’ questions in a
filmed session. The women held court in the brothel’s
Victorian-themed parlor, usually the setting for the “lineup” for
clients, reports The Associated Press. They talked about how they
give companionship, time and “just the touch of a woman” to men,
how they wear the pants in the family, and they noted that the
Chicken Ranch still gives a military discount. Alicia, who’s
writing a book about her life, explained that working as a
prostitute means she can take care of her mother and grandmother
and also dabble in real estate. The downside? “Being confined,
being cooped up. I have to be here 24 hours a day.”
UTAH
Backpacker magazine called the
Everest-topping men from Nepal “climbing machines,” an
apt description. Apa Sherpa, 48, has summited Everest 17 times,
while his nephew, Lhakpa Gelu, 40, who holds the record for scaling
Everest faster than anyone alive — 10 hours, 56 minutes — has
climbed Everest 13 times. For the last two years, though, both men
have foregone the family climbing business for Salt Lake City,
which they’d gotten to know by taking part in the city’s Outdoor
Retailer trade show. They decided to move to the American West for
better schools and better health care for their children: “I want
my children to choose their own future and not have to climb
dangerous peaks if they don’t want to,” said Lhakpa Gelu. Yet
adapting to life in Salt Lake has been no walk in the park. What’s
harrowing is the driving, said Apa Sherpa: “In Nepal, we walk
wherever we like to go. But here, you cannot go anywhere without
driving. I thought Himalayan climbing was dangerous, but driving is
much worse.” For Lhakpa Gelu, life is tough because he works two
jobs — running an injection-molding machine during the day and
delivering pizzas in the evenings. He said he rarely has free time.
And sounding a theme familiar to Americans, Apa Sherpa complained:
Bills, bills, bills. “Once kids get through school, then I hope I
don’t have to work so hard.”
WASHINGTON
Police pulled
over a car on Washington’s San Juan Island after
radiation detectors found it to be suspiciously “hot,” reports
Northern California’s Eco-News. But there were
no bombs inside, merely a cat that had undergone radiation three
days earlier for cancer.
COLORADO
A culture conflict of startling vehemence has
broken out in Larimer County, which borders wealthy and
super-health-conscious Boulder County. The issue is road etiquette,
or more precisely the difficulty bicyclists and vehicle drivers
have with sharing the road. According to the Boulder Daily
Camera, Larimer County Sheriff Jim Alderden got everybody
going by seeming to mock cyclists who protested a remark made by
one of his deputies. (The deputy allegedly warned a group of
riders: “Don’t let the sun set on your behind in my county.”) In
his Web column, “Bull’s Eye,” the sheriff joked about the cyclists’
complaints, saying, “It must be the Spandex that causes people to
lose their sense of humor.” Judging by the scores of comments to
the newspaper story, just about everybody’s sense of humor has
taken a hike. Wrote one cyclist, “The sheriff seems like a cocky
redneck piece of trash.” Commented a driver, “I see bicyclists as a
menace to traffic and thus a menace to society.” Rejoined a
cyclist, the real menaces are “the fat overweight jerks driving
their gas-guzzling pickups and SUVs,” to which a driver fired back,
“Ride single file, and for PR purposes, stop at stop signs, stop
lights and wait your turn in traffic … then maybe there won’t be
so many people that want to see you as a hood ornament.” Riposted a
cyclist, “Good luck fatties with your $100 fill-ups!” And these
were some of the milder remarks. As a calmer commenter said, “It
sounds like this entire town is Prozac-deficient.” Meanwhile,
Sheriff Alderden said the public backs his crackdown on bikers 2-1.
Betsy Marston is editor of Writers on the Range,
a service of High Country News. 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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