Mind & Body
OF FAIRWAYS AND ECONOMIES AVOIDING THE ROUGH
Will Golf Erode Jackson Hole’s Competitive Edge?As new golf courses proliferate across the West, bringing with them more high-end development into former rustic valleys and retooled ski resorts, the perception is of a game on the rapid upswing. That's not necessarily the case, says lifestyle economist Jonathan Schechter, a frequent commentator at New West. In fact, Schechter notes, the number of Americans involved with golf is headed for the same kind of downward parallel turns as the ski industry.
Schechter says that Jackson Hole and ritzy Teton County, Wyoming—one of the wealthiest per capita communities in the U.S.— serves as an excellent case study for examining whether golf will remain the social icon of the upwardly mobile leisure class or be remaindered tomorrow as an activity of yesterday. Do people who come to Jackson to golf really appreciate what the place is all about? One thing is certain, Schechter says: It's the rare things found only in certain locales that retain their social value across generations. In this latest essay, Schechter ponders if the number of new courses springing up in the Tetons are creating an oversaturated market and what it bodes for fairway-style development. It's a commentary that should reverberate throughout the Rockies and the booming western Sun Belt.
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Weasel Words
How Did Hunger Become Food Insecurity?It would seem that the Bush Administration has redefined hunger as "low food security." The words have a real and technical use. Extension agents use "low food security" to describe people who don't know if they're going to be able to afford both food and rent. Low food security can lead to hunger, but it's not the same as hunger. Conflating the two is a nasty political trick. If you'll forgive the pun, it's a way of making starvation seem palatable. The news that 35 million Americans are going hungry sounds so much better when we take terms like low food security and turn them into weasel words. [more]
Victim Reported in Good Condition
Student Stabbed on University of Idaho CampusThe Moscow-Pullman Daily News and The Daily Evergreen have reported that a University of Idaho student was stabbed by an alleged robber in the ground-floor restroom of the Engineering and Physics Building. According to the Evergreen, "The victim told police he entered the restroom and saw three other males. As he moved into a stall, two of the males left the restroom. The remaining male then kicked in the victim's stall door and demanded identification and money from the victim." The victim pulled out a cell phone instead, at which point his assailant pulled out a black pistol, pointed it at the victim, and then attacked him with a knife held in his other hand. The victim, who was treated at Moscow's Gritman Hospital, suffered superficial wounds on his ear and back.
Police are looking for a suspect approximately five-feet ten inches tall and between 160 and 170 pounds in weight. At the time of the assault, the suspect was wearing a black hooded Idaho sweatshirt with white lettering. Anyone with any information is encouraged to contact the Moscow Police Department at (208) 882-2677.
8-Man Football
Nederland Football Proves a Cinderella StoryIn my preseason pigskin preview I spotlighted the Nederland Bulldogs, who hadn't won a game since 2003 and who switched this year to 8-man football. The Bulldogs finished their season this week, and a remarkable season it was: Nederland went 6-2, made the playoffs, and played in their first post-season game at home since 1969.
That they dropped the first-round game 43-6 to powerful Haxtun barely dented the resurgence engineered by coach Aaron Jones, quarterback John Beck, and the rest of the senior class, who'd never won a game in their high school careers until this fall.
Nederland's Cinderella story is enhanced by the presence of junior nose guard Danny Dalldorf, who has Asperger Syndrome, considered by many physicians a less severe form of autism.
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State of the Rockies
Nevada May Got to PotOn the upcoming Nevada ballot: Question 7, which would make possession of up to an ounce of pot legal under Nevada law while regulating and taxing the sale of marijuana and funneling half the revenues towards the state’s general fund and half towards education and alcohol and drug treatment. The measure would also increase penalties for driving under the influence and selling pot to minors. Neal Levine, campaign manager for the Committee to Regulate and Control Marijuana (CRCM), the local organization responsible for getting the proposition on the ballot, argues that legalizing marijuana would put a kink in drug lords’ business plans and free up law-enforcement resources for more serious crimes than possession, now a misdemeanor.
A September poll by the Review-Journal shows the initiative, which lost in a different form in 2004, falling short again fifty-one percent to forty-two percent, with seven percent undecided. Levine, however, believes the measure will pick up enough momentum to pass before the November election.
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CBM Power Politics / Wyoming Media Grok
Ag Wins, Loses In CBM Water DebateIt is always interesting to watch the dominant political powers at work in Wyoming. Ag and Energy, which are often cozy allies, were pointedly at odds yesterday during a Water & Waste Advisory Board meeting. Ag and Energy came away with significant and conflicting wins.
Elsewhere in Wyoming media, Riverton geared up for a crow invasion that never arrived; Fremont County bans nighttime ATV activity on a popular trail; citizens support smoking bans and Wyoming sites make a "Too Wild To Drill" list.
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Damn HJR2 and Damn My Scruples!
I’ll Never Be Mrs. Idaho AmericaA few days ago, I received an invitation from Amanda Feely (call her Mandi!) to enter the Mrs. Idaho America beauty pageant. The rules are simple: fill out and sign the application form, send them a photograph and fifty bucks, and find myself a couple of suckers . . . I mean sponsors. Then, I might, just might, qualify as an entrant. What's the hold up? Well first, although I've been happily married for 14 years, I am not legally married. Under current Idaho law, same-sex couples cannot wed. Second, entrants are required to have been born female. As far as I know, I was born female, but without a genetic test, who can say? Not you, not me, and not the damned fools running this beauty contest. [more]
Open Water Championships
The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Swimmer
Long-distance, open-water swimming -- an athletic pursuit that, to say the least, doesn't receive a lot of press attention in this country -- will experience a surge in visibility in two years at the Beijing Olympics, which will include a 10-kilometer open-water swim championship. In advance of that event, the solitary pursuit of open-water swimming held one of its biggest annual events last Saturday: the 10K national masters championship at the Horsetooth Reservoir, near Fort Collins.
The Horsetooth Open Water Swim has been going on since 1999, when 15 hardy men and women crawled, dog-paddled and breaststroked the 6.2-mile course in 68-degree water. This year more than 90 swimmers completed the course. The winning time (turned in this year by Brooks Felton, who at age 20 was ineligible for the masters' championship) has dropped by almost 18 minutes in the race's seven years.
One of the swimmers at Horsetooth was Boulder resident Matthew Moseley, a Friend of New West who is also a former statehouse operative and a current marketing executive in Denver.
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Boulder's Top Triathlon
Athletes in Peak Form
Voted one of the top 5 triathlons in America earlier this year by Inside Triathlon magazine, the Boulder Peak race, held on Sunday, is an entertaining, often thrilling, combination of a local athletic get-together with many competitors who train and socialize together and a world-class competition. This year's edition had its share of great stories, including that of Boulder's Mary Beth Ellis, who last year won the age-group (i.e., amateur competition), and this year, in her fourth race since turning pro, took second in a field stacked with world-class competitors.
Ellis trains under former world champion Siri Lindley, who coaches a group of professionals and top-flight amateurs under the banner of Team Sirius (get it?). A graduate of Brown whose sunny demeanor, expressiveness and good looks have led to a second career as a TV analyst, Lindley is exhibit A in the case for triathlon, one of the fastest-growing participatory sports, deserves a more prominent spot on the media-saturated stage of big-time American pro sports.
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Real Estate Tidbit
Bozeman Company Plans First “Spa Living” DevelopmentBozeman-based Sage Spa Living is dipping its toe into the real estate development market -- starting immediately in Helena with plans to expand to Missoula, Big Sky and elsewhere in the West.
Sage, which operates spas in Bozeman, Whitefish and Billings, announced its plans today to begin its series of "spa living" developments by working with Helena developer Alan Nicholson and Artisan LLP to design and develop a 3,000-square-foot spa and lifestyle store and six luxury residences in Helena's Great Northern Town Center.
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