Missoula News | New West Network

Bob Wire Has a Point (It's Under His Cowboy Hat)

After our post-Rushmore lunch, we pointed the 4Runner east once again, and the antidote to my euphoria of natural beauty lay ahead in the form of Wall Drug. As we neared the Badlands, the Wall Drug signs multiplied like scabs on a ten-dollar hooker. We would have to stop, of course, although there was no way it could live up to the hype. I mean, a six-foot rabbit? I haven’t seen one of those since, well, I can’t remember, but I’m sure Jäegermeister was involved.

We hung out there for about 45 minutes, time which would have been better spent, oh, French-kissing a road-killed porcupine. What a colossal circle jerk. It’s a huge maze of third-rate curiosities constantly leading you to more cheap tourist gee-gaws, with everything from switchblades to swim diapers emblazoned with the Wall Drug name. Okay, so I bought a couple of postcards. But the capper was when we were leaving, and I asked a pizza-faced kid ringing up a rubber tomahawk where I could find some Advil.

“Oh, I don’t think we sell drugs,” he said. At that point I figured peyote would be out of the question.  [more]

Stand and Defend?

As a raging wildfire bore down on their carefully tended family compound in Big Sur last week, a determined family did what fire managers always tell people never, ever to do: they stayed and fought, and even lit a backfire, which ended up saving their property. One of the brothers, Ross Curtis, was arrested for his trouble. But as this terrific story in the Los Angeles Times recounts, this was not some luxury compound easily replaced with insurance money, and raises the very pertinent question of whether "evacuate at the first sign of trouble" is the only reasonable approach to fires in the wildland/urban interface.  [more]

blog: ON RIVERS AND RANCHING

In the morning I drove down to the hay meadow, got out of the truck and pulled on my hip boots. I dosed my hands, face and neck with insecticide and then crossed the fence slowly, making sure each rubberized leg cleared the barbs by a good six inches. I’ve learned to protect these boots—even a small hole can soak you in a hurry.

The grass was up to the rivets on my jeans. As I took my first steps into it, I marveled at how quickly irrigated crops spring up in the long, hot days of early July. Still wet from last night’s shower, leaves and stalks flicked droplets of water on me. Each step sent two small clouds skyward, a whining gray one of mosquitoes and a yellowish one of pollen. The mosquitoes mobbed me looking for a sliver of non-toxic skin. The pollen curled lazily in my wake, tying knots in the air like smoke off a cigarette tip.  [more]

As Barack Obama grilled burgers and hot dogs in Butte, Mont. this Fourth of July, Davis Guggenheim, the director of An Inconvenient Truth and his film crew were tailing the presidential candidate, filming for a project about Obama and Democrats in the West.

Jeff Zeleny has the tidbit on The New York Times The Caucus blog, reporting that the filming happened all day, at the picnic in front of the World Mining Museum and during Obama's trip to the "richest hill on earth."

The film will be shown in August at the Democratic National Convention in Denver.  [more]

Why the Rich Can be Annoying

In the "did she really say that?" department today, we have this from Jennifer Siebel, daughter of long-time Bitterroot Valley landowner Ken Siebel and bride-to-be of dashing San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. They'll be tying the knot at the ranch near Victor later this summer, and, as quoted in the Missoulian, the 33-year-old actress had this to say about Dad's place: “It was pure heaven - an old cattle ranch that since then we have nurtured back to health and which serves as a home for not only teems of wild flora and fauna but several farm animals,” she said. “It's probably my favorite place on this planet aside from eastern Africa's open plains and Botswana's Okavango Delta.”

Oddly, the Missoulian attributes this quote to an interview in the fashion magazine Lucire; I found the interview, but didn't seem to find that quote. But she's definitely cute, and the interview is, um, interesting.  [more]

Bob Wire Has a Point (It's Under His Cowboy Hat)

Our tour of the Big Rock Things in the Black Hills continued as we left Sturgis and headed for Mount Rushmore. We’d stopped at a coffee stand so I could snag a double Americano for the road, and Rusty perked up from the back seat when he saw a tip jar on the lip of the drive-through window. We explained how a lot of service-oriented jobs use tips to supplement their base pay. This, to him, was fascinating. At the tender age of 11, he’s already a capitalist at heart.

We drove through Rapid City and onto Highway 16, approaching the Rushmore complex. This particular stretch of blacktop contains the highest concentration of tourist traps on the face of the earth. We kept up a steady stream of “no” as the kids, predictably, begged us to stop at water slides, souvenir stores, putt-putts, rock & fossil shops, you name it. Some of the come-ons were clever, like the Reptile Gardens: a billboard with a cartoon of a boy with his arm in a sling, and the slogan, “This Ain’t No Petting Zoo!”  [more]

Sen. Barack Obama chose to celebrate the Fourth of July in Butte with his wife, Michelle, and daughters, Malia and Sasha. The Obama family attended the Independence Day Parade and hosted a "family picnic" at Montana Tech where Obama gave a brief speech, cooked hamburgers and chatted casually to fans. Photos by Alexia Beckerling  [more]

Montana in Play

Sen. Barack Obama celebrated July 4 in Butte, MT, honoring a spirited working-class town rich in history and signaling his seriousness about contesting the state in the general election. Jonathan Weisman of the Washington Post has a thorough analysis of the political dynamics of the Butte visit and the Democrat's New West strategy. Gov. Brian Schweitzer had nice things to say, which has not always been the case in the past. It was also a family occasion for the presumptive Democratic nominee. The Montana Standard has full local coverage and New West's Alexia Beckerling photographed the event.  [more]