Paul Rolly seems a jolly fellow, at least judging by the picture that accompanies his column in the Salt Lake Tribune. On second thought, that amused look might mask a certain fed-upness. Here’s what’s bugging him lately: A state legislator who professed to be an expert on the U.S. Constitution proposed a bill saying “any […]
Heard Around the West
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Religulous love and hate
San Tan Valley in the orbit of Phoenix is foreclosure-central these days, with 863 properties on offer. So it’s probably not surprising that a man’s prayer stand along a busy highway is doing a boffo business with commuters. In fact, Matthew Cordell, 38, is so much in demand that he has backed up traffic for […]
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World’s largest sand trap
Where is a golf-ball-collecting fox when you need one? Although it might take more than one to round up the 3,000 or so golf balls that a 57-year-old man has scattered around Joshua Tree National Park in Southern California. Since 2007, Douglas Jones has been “just tossing them out of his vehicle,” a park spokesman […]
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Foxy golfer
Why would a red fox collect golf balls? Nobody knows, but then again, nobody really knows why grown men walk around with sticks trying to wallop them. The fox in question lives in Steamboat Springs where it has become obsessed by Tom Houk’s backyard putting green. Houk, who likes to practice a few putts every […]
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UnBEARable
An adventurous bear in Snowmass, Colo., didn’t need surgery, just a ladder. Apparently hoping to do some rad riding, he dropped into the town skate park’s bowl. Unable to skate vert, he was then busted down there, with no way out. One can imagine young onlookers confusing him with some shaggy old-school skater, before realizing […]
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Serpentine Siamese Split
The cow that belonged to the aforementioned tongue didn’t fare very well except, perhaps, as carne asada. But a rather unusual pair of rattlesnakes is doing just fine after a 45-minute surgery at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum outside of Tucson. The two snakes were found as one – conjoined just below the head – […]
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Animal Farm Gone Crazy
At first glance, it seemed like just another mundane story about horse massacres and the role they will play in starting the next American Revolution. Then we dug deeper and learned the details about the ex-CIA agent and his hog-tied co-worker, not to mention the duck-killing dog. Ultimately, we confronted the dark truth of the […]
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Magical encounter
Michael “Skeeter” Pilarski admits he has never seen a fairy, but that doesn’t mean they’re not around. “Fairies manifest themselves differently to different people,” he told The Seattle Times, “and besides, only about 10 percent of people have ‘the sight.’” Pilarski is the founder and organizer of the ninth annual Fairy and Human Relations Congress, […]
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Commuter commune
City parks in Phoenix stand empty much of the year, sizzling in the beastly heat that routinely climbs over 100 degrees. Fortunately, the valley’s new light-rail system has become a cool and movable feast, reports the Arizona Republic, in a story that was headlined “Singin’ on the Train.” The 20 miles of track linking Phoenix […]
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Suspicious habit
Can running from the cops become a lifestyle? That was the explanation in the Kitsap Sun from a 33-year-old man in Bremerton, Wash., who hightailed it to a roof as police searched his neighborhood for a suspect. After police got the man to climb down and asked him why he was hiding, the man explained: […]
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“Go ahead, make my EPA”
Usually, the EPA isn’t the kind of agency that shoots it out with polluters, but there’s always that first time. Consider the owner of a truck-wash company in Utah who told friends he’d “go down in a blaze of glory” before facing federal charges of illegally disposing of hazardous chemicals. Larkin Baggett, 54, wasn’t kidding; […]
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Enlightened llama
The other day, while reading the Recorder Herald, a venerable community weekly established in Salmon, Idaho, 123 years ago, we came upon the curious story of a llama that had apparently lost weight to a fatal degree. Or, as the headline put it: “Llama killed by lightening.” The animal was found on its back, “with […]
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Cuddle-fish?
California is so broke, it’s closing 219 state parks. But wait, a nonprofit group best-known for its in-your-face advertising has offered to ride to the rescue, money in hand, to save one of them. PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, says it will pay to keep Pescadero State Beach open. There is a […]
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Scorpions take wing
And you thought the notion of Snakes on a Plane was unnerving? On July 19, according to the IndyStar.com, Douglas Herbstommer of Gilbert, Ariz., felt a sudden, sharp sting on his finger while flying from Phoenix to Indianapolis. He quickly realized what the problem was: an Arizona bark scorpion, whose bite, though painful, is very […]
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Careful with that chainsaw…
If a hungry mountain lion comes after you, how should you respond? Most experts recommend that you stop and make yourself look as large as possible, aggressively defending your position. But Dustin Britton, a mechanic and ex-Marine from Windsor, Colo., didn’t need no stinkin’ experts; according to The Associated Press, he just picked up his […]
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Striking finish
At 6 a.m. in the chilly dawn of the second Friday in July, about 140 people, wearing neon-colored petroleum-derived clothing and encumbered with packs and water bottles, start running. From the small southwestern Colorado town of Silverton, they head into the rugged San Juan Mountains, where they will attempt to complete a 100-mile loop across […]
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“God ain’t a great co-pilot”
Christopher Hitchens and his godless views attracted only a dozen cadets from the Air Force Academy recently, probably because the get-together, which took place at a Colorado Springs restaurant, was forbidden on campus. An Academy spokesman said Hitchens was not welcome because he’d made comments that were “degrading to others,” reports the Colorado Springs Independent. […]
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Scrounging in Seattle
A 2-year-old black bear, sympathetically described by wildlife experts as lonely, scared and kicked out of home by his mother, raced around Seattle backyards recently, for days eluding police, who dubbed him the “urban phantom.” Kim Chandler, a Washington state Fish and Wildlife officer, told the Seattle Times that the 125-pound bear was as wily […]
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Soused in the saddle
A police sergeant in Arvada, Colo., said that in his 15 years in law enforcement, he’d never charged a guy on a horse with drunk driving. But when the tipsy rider ambled into a busy strip mall on his horse, you couldn’t help but notice that he was falling out of the saddle, reported 9news.com. […]
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Houseboaters beware
During the West’s last nine years of drought, the level of Lake Mead, which backs up behind Hoover Dam, has plummeted 100 vertical feet, causing unexpected and peculiar things to happen. Where there used to be flat water with no pizzazz on the reservoir’s edge 120 miles east of Las Vegas, a dangerous rapid has […]