Up Bear Creek / 24nov25011

Proposing an Ancient North American Calendar for keeping track of the years

BEYOND THE GREGORIAN … Every culture in history has had their record-keepers. Oral societies depending on its elders to keep the stories alive. The old ways of the land passed on grandmother to granddaughter – a lineage most knew by heart, sometimes seven generations back. And then dreamed for the tribe into the present by vision-seekers – some good, some bad. In the end everything depended on the whim or wisdom of its elders … As the heirs of European expansionism, native to the place but schooled in the ways of an Old World some of us have never seen, we brought with us written histories stretching back seven thousand years. And for mestizo hapa italiano pioneers born haplessly into a history they were not responsible for, but had to acknowledge, it’s good to take the chronology we live by away from colonizing Christian safe-keeping, where it’s been for a couple thousand years, and move it back into the distant past, where it belongs … So, from now on, I’m going to be using my Ancient North American Calendar (ANAC) for dating things -- 25012 years BCE (Before the Current Era) instead of a mere 2012 AD (After Death, or Annus Domini – Year of the Lord).

SKI MAG … The prestigious flagship of winter resort  town magazines, Ski, featured Telluride prominently in its Winter Vacation issue (v. 76, #3). The cover touted its annual 30 Top Resorts for 2012. Telluride comes in at #10 (“Big charm. Big vertical. Far from everywhere. Snow can be fickle.” And “Telluride swings like a smaller Aspen after dark – with a little more soul.” … Deer Valley (Utah) gets #1, and then (in order) it’s Vail (Colo), Whistler (B.C.), Snowmass (Colo), Sun Valley (Idaho), Park City (Utah), Beaver Creek (Colo), Steamboat (Colo), and Breckenridge (Colo) … After us come Aspen Mountain (Colo), Jackson Hole (Wyo), Heavenly Valley (Calif), Winter Park (Colo), Crested Butte (Colo), Canyons Resort (Utah), Mammoth Mountain (Calif), Copper Mountain (Colo), Aspen Highlands (Colo) and Snowbird (Utah) … The final ten of the thirty are East Coast resorts – so different from western ski areas …  In the end, Colorado gets eleven of the top 20, and we rate 6^th in the state, according to Ski magazine, and 10^th in the nation … Not a bad start to a new ski season in the midst of the worst economic downturn in memory. And the resort’s marketing people capitalized on it – teaming up with Bollé eyewear to do a two full-page spread in the first few pages of the magazine … “Discover Gold” is the motto. Let’s hope lots of folks do this year.

FRIENDS OF THE LIBRARY … The Wilkinson is one of the true gems of life in Telluride, with its rich offerings and central social function in our mountain community. Even county residents outside of town make heavy use of the programs … Nancy Landau has run FOL for some time now, augmenting the public funds the Library draws with special money for special programs. This is Cash Saver collection week for the Wilkinson. FOL has its own special number (0007) and you can use and drop cash savers at the library until this coming Saturday, the 27^th … Sunday, Dec. 4^th at 6 p.m. FOL is hosting Chef Bud with recipes from the best of the Books & Cooks program over the last couple of years. The $40 ticket price will include cocktails, wine, seated dinner, live music, special guest Susanna Hoffman (always amazing!) and door prizes … Mark your calendars.

MINERS HOSPITAL … I thought we’d settled the historicity of the Telluride Hospital that became the San Miguel County Historical Museum, and is now the Telluride Museum, years ago. But seeing the current museum building referred to as the “Miners’ Hospital” has stirred the issue up again. My understanding that such a usage is a neologism … Certainly, miners were treated there. But it was never known as the “Miners’ Hospital” in its day. The brick building next to KOTO that the Miners’ Union (Western Federation of Miners) built was known as the “Miners’ Hospital” briefly before and during the Troubles of 1900-1904 that led to the railroading of union members out of town by armed vigilantes and state national guard … But our present museum building was run by various individual doctors – a common practice back then. And became known as the Telluride Hospital, even into the ‘40s, when Dr. George Balderston cut out his own appendix … My oldest son’s grandma was born there.

WEEKLY QUOTA … "If you're not careful the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing." -Malcolm X

THE TALKING GOURD

Bad News

Nuclear power’s

a Faustian

paradox

Hiroshima. Fukushima

The next Black

Swan in the wings

Is an all-Uranium

boom schtick

really back, lit?