Archive for January, 2009
Friday January 30, 2009
The business generated by Winter X Games is appearing to be actually better than the original projections. Although in past years the extreme event packs lodges and hotels throughout the roaring fork valley----because of the economy the best estimates by local reservations firms was that only about 75 percent of Aspen---and only 70 percent of Snowmass Village would be filled up and as it turns out: Occupancy in Aspen reached nearly 80 percent and Snowmass at 77 percent!
Continue Reading January 30th, 2009
By Frosty Wooldridge
Multiculturalism destroys America’s uniquely successful culture at an ever accelerating rate of speed. Once enough immigrants explode their numbers to a majority or ‘tipping point’, they manifest their own customs counter to American culture. They create enclaves of traditions, religion, language, poverty, conflict and separateness.
Examples abound in Miami, Chicago, New York, Detroit and Los Angeles.
One look at the world stage shows multiculturalism fails on all levels. Great Britain, once a paragon of Western thought and parliamentary law, buckled under the pressure of its accelerating 2.5 million Muslim immigrant population—and accepted the first round of Sharia Law. Never mind that Sharia Law runs counter to anything concerning logical, rational and reasoned thinking, i.e., democracy! Sharia promotes barbaric actions such as honor killings, beheadings, killing of non-believers, martyrdom, stoning and total domination of women.
Continue Reading January 30th, 2009
In a moment of weakness or heretofore invisible inner strength, I was coaxed into going on a hut trip in the backcountry of Aspen this weekend without having any idea what in the name of Davy Crockett I was getting myself into.
Full disclosure: I’m a city boy, bred and buttered on the streets of Manhattan.
Here’s what that means: the country is great, but after a couple of hours it gets on your nerves. Oh and by the way, I’m scared shitless.
Continue Reading January 30th, 2009
...to make a first impression, and that is precisely what the Republican Congressional Caucus did. They chose by a (wait for it) zero vote on the the 'stimulus bill' to thumb their collective nose at the new President. They did this after wringing concessions (see tax-breaks) out of a cooperative, open-handed reach across the 'green zone' (I mean this in the Lebanon 1982-4 sense) in the pathetically divided house. This is the coup de gras for me. It's breathless in its cynicism and arrogance. They actually still think they have a party with some trace DNA left in it. They actually think they have somewhere to lead us, other than off a cliff.
Continue Reading January 30th, 2009
ASPEN, COLORADO (Post Time News)—The lead researcher in embryonic stem cell therapies at the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine is predicting that effective treatment to repair severed spinal cords with be available “within five years.”
“This is really good news for people with spinal injuries,” Dr. Davies said.
Speaking at the CU Given Institute here in Aspen, Dr. Stephen Davies—an associate professor of neurosurgery based at the sprawling Anschutz Medical Center in Denver—said his work in repairing scar tissue and growing neural connections between the brain and the spinal cord also has potentially profound applications for patients with Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis (MS), traumatic brain injury, and even diabetes. The key findings of Dr. Davis and his CU team—including his wife, Dr. Judith Davies—were published in the Journal of Biology online.
Continue Reading January 29th, 2009
I must say, as I have in a previous post, how I miss the cookies the Aspen Ski Company used to give out. You know the little dutch boys. Now the treat of choice is the Nature Valley Granola bar, healthier and more filling to be sure. I used to love these as a kid, but some how they just don't pull me over to the hospitality stations as much as the cookies used to.
So, it was with great pleasure the other day that I saw something else being dolled out to the ravished skiers at Aspen Highlands. What this... A tiny little Cloud Nine Brownie. "Thats great!" the skico is going in the right direction. Wait a minute.....
Continue Reading January 29th, 2009
Thursday January 29, 2009
A Basalt couple, nearly killed by a drunk driver last year, appeared in Eagle County Court on Wednesday---saying the man who ran into them should serve time in prison.
Jeff Reese and Susan Grove were returning from a baseball game in Denver on May 8th----when their SUV was hit by a truck driven by Oscar Canas Portillo. Both were in a coma for months---and are still struggling with recovery. The victims expressed forgiveness for Portillo----but also asked the judge to sentence him to prison. Judge Thomas Moorhead is expected to sentence Portillo by the end of February.
Continue Reading January 29th, 2009
Wednesday January 28, 2009
Aspen bomber Jim Blanning has been verified as the man who also robbed several banks in the Eagle Valley. Investigators say that Blanning, 72, who shot himself after planting several bombs around Aspen on new Year’s eve, has been identified as the bank robber who held up a bank in West Vail ---twice—in a two year period.
Continue Reading January 28th, 2009
An astute listener to "Con Games with Michael Conniff: writes:
I'm sure you didn't know of this or it would have been mentioned on the show today, but Sarah Burke (arguably one of the best female skiers ever) broke her back at this years xgames in the slopestyle also the crash that gretchen took in the pipe was really not out of the ordinary in snowboarding. that exact same thing (the whiplash) happens tens of times on the 4 mountains of aspen every single day, but its not replayed in super slow motion so you never see that whip back of the head. What do you think happens when a beginner on snowmass catches a heel edge and gets slammed to the ground on there back? With Gretchen's crash, at least 50% of the energy that she was carrying was dissipated when she hit the lip, then she slid to the bottom on the transition dissipating even more only to flip over at the very bottom when she was not really going that fast.. if the pipe had been smaller she would have hit the lip then landed in the bottom of the pipe and more than likely she would have taken a sled ride to the ER.
Continue Reading January 28th, 2009
Durango Mountain Resort used to be called Purgatory. In all the time I’ve lived in Colorado, I’ve only driven by the place a couple times. It didn’t make a big impression on me because you can’t see most of the mountain from the highway. What you can see, even coming off Molas Pass, doesn’t look all that impressive, even though it dwarfs Sunlight’s 470 skiable acres by a good 730.
My son and I drove down there last Thursday so my son could participate in the Jesse Scott Memorial Super Giant Slalom. Any time someone’s name is attached to event like this, it peaks my interest, but Googling various permutations of Jesse Scott yields little more than references to this event. So I asked around to see if I sate my mild curiosity about Jesse Scott...
Continue Reading January 27th, 2009
Previous Posts
