Heard Around the West

Tired of basting and babysitting that big bird for Thanksgiving? Why not try SPAM, the pressed pink concoction that does not signify, as rumor has it, “something posing as meat.” No, SPAM is smooshed pork shoulder and ham in a can along with sugar, salt, water and sodium nitrate, reports the Santa Fe New Mexican. […]

Bicycles have been around for more than a century, but they’ve been getting a new look in the last five years, thanks to battery-powered motors that spin their back wheels. With that assist, hills can turn into no-pedal pieces of cake. In Grants Pass, Ore., the owner of a company called Solar Man says, “When […]

Las Vegas, Nev., detective John Zidzik was patrolling his city’s airport when he noticed something peculiar about a traveler, a man in his early 30s. There were “unusual bulges in his groin area not consistent with male anatomy,” said the police officer, who conducted a delicate search. The bulges, moving oddly, turned out to be […]

Two Wyomingites are trying to set the record straight about “real” cowboy attire. Studying old photos, mail-order catalogs and interviewing relatives of early range-riders, Tom Lindmier and Steve Mount conclude that the big-hatted denim look popularized by Hollywood is all wet. Their book, I See By Your Outfit, says that 19th century cowboys were more […]

Every tourist with a camera makes the same joke at scenic turnouts where the drop is precipitous: “Back up just another step – no, just kidding!” It’s part of tourist myth – that someone actually asked a spouse to back up near a canyon, and then it was “Goodbyeeeeee.” Here’s a variation, and it’s all […]

If you’re dying to see 70,000 nonpoisonous snakes, then a town of 20 people in Manitoba province, Canada, is the place for you to go. Narcisse, though tiny, boasts four limestone pits that shelter the gray and black snakes from minus-40-degree winter weather. In spring, the snakes wake up, and that’s when University of Oregon […]

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 […]

Could a man juggle 20 drinks sliding around a tray while walking in spike heels and looking sexy? Some cocktail waitresses in Reno, Nev., do that for eight hours at a time. They also say they’re sick and tired of it – the blisters, bunions and hammer toes caused by wearing high heels on the […]

In the West, people sometimes find bears scrounging for food in the kitchen or cougars pacing the deck. In the East, a chubby house cat can spook the neighbors. Residents of Bensalem, Penn., became alarmed when they saw what they thought was a 50-pound wildcat or worse, a “mysterious monster,” reports The Denver Post. Seven […]

Fast asleep at 5 a.m., while illegally camped in a parking lot in Yellowstone< National Park, two tourists from Oregon were rudely awakened " -- not by park rangers tapping on their window, but by a boom so loud they thought it was an earthquake. In a matter of minutes the couple was racing off, […]

A knitting society in Sequim, Wash., is making little wool sweaters to outfit little penguins who were drenched by a tanker’s oil spill in Australia. The one-foot-tall fairy penguins need the sweaters both for warmth and for protection. When the penguins preen their bodies the oil poisons them. “They look so cute,” said a member […]

“Quirky” is how the American Journalism Review describes the mottos of many newspapers, and in the West, one of the longer missions is stated by Washington’s Wenatchee World: “Published in the apple capital of the world and the buckle of the power belt of the great Northwest.” An in-your-face message comes from the Aspen Daily […]

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, […]

Old West shoot-outs? Gun battles these days have lost a lot of their family fun. In fact, people firing bullets at each other can be downright terrifying. As moviegoers were leaving a Las Vegas theater last July, many reacted with horror to a volley of gunshots out on the street. What they didn’t know – […]