Life in a Northern Town

tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32136742011-07-07T22:42:51.089-07:00Life in a Northern TownBack by (I guess) popular demand... Your humble blogger now shares with you life in a different northern town, Cheyenne, WY as well as the odd tidbit from Saratoga.Abrahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04693225706656136073noreply@blogger.comBlogger3031100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-1067876916719309572003-11-03T08:28:00.000-08:002003-11-03T08:28:35.160-08:00

HOME EC, HUH? Another of my famous "remote" posts. I'm sitting in the classroom/kitchen that houses the Home Economics program (wait, isn't that called "consumer science" now?) at the Encampment School. I'm pretty glad to be here after a scary, slushy drive down 130/70 to get here, first putt, putt, putting along after a schoolbus, then dodging snowplows. All good material for my NaNoWriMo novel

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-1067588823902500082003-10-31T00:21:00.000-08:002003-10-31T00:27:02.896-08:00

THE STUNT BEGINS ANEW As I've mentioned earlier this week, I have signed up once again to participate in National Novel Writing Month, which begins, as I type this, in 22.5 hours. I will again be trying to write a complete start-to-finish novel of at least 50,000 words in 30 days. I pulled it off last year, after all, and last year I was the chamber chick! But for my regular readers, this

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-1067582241026100542003-10-30T22:23:00.000-08:002003-10-30T22:37:19.916-08:00

I AM ONE BUTCH CHICK! This is the verdict of a website called The Gender Genie, which applies an algorithm developed by Moshe Koppel, Bar-Ilan University in Israel, and Shlomo Argamon, Illinois Institute of Technology and described recently in the science journal Nature to analyze submitted text and determine whether or not the author of same is male or female. I submitted one blog entry (my

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-1067559903181790042003-10-30T16:14:00.000-08:002003-10-30T16:25:02.220-08:00

SHOPPIN' FOR COATS My first day off what I was again thinking might well have been my death bed (am I the wimpiest sick person in the world? Surely I'm a contender for the title. But at least I'm not a hypochondriac. I hate being sick. I'm using the word HATE here) and the sky stayed grey all day and I hung in the house listening to Cat Stevens (along with Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman and Howe and

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-1067443714904022262003-10-29T08:01:00.000-08:002003-10-29T08:08:34.253-08:00

BUMPING UP THE RATIO, OR SOMETHING Like Mark Ames, much-maligned (mostly deservedly, but still) editor of that bitchy alternative paper I like in Russia, the eXile, my basic economic ratio is fame:work, i.e., how much fame can I squeeze out of how little work? I would appear to have squeezed out a little more, though honestly, I don't know who is going to notice, apart from a lot of bureaucrats

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-1067387838585882882003-10-28T16:32:00.000-08:002003-10-28T16:37:17.623-08:00

SURE GLAD I GOT MY FRIGGIN' SHOT My health, since I left the chamber, has been outstanding, but I knew the day I got my license to be a substitute teacher that threats to same would soon be looming, so on the very first day it was possible (aside from the very first day it was available, on which day I was over hanging out with the 3rd/4th grade class at Elk Mountain Elementary) I went and got

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-1066709067146591122003-10-20T20:45:00.000-07:002003-10-20T21:10:27.790-07:00

A GENUINE PITY OK, television is/was good for something after all. Speaking from my vast experience of a whopping five days as a substitute teacher in good old Carbon County School District No. 2, I see one glaring deficit in the way this next generation of children is being raised. OK, generation check here. Do you know the preamble of the United States Constitution by heart, but only if

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-1066411672592914442003-10-17T10:13:00.000-07:002003-10-17T10:27:52.330-07:00

CH-CH-CH-CH... (That's a David Bowie reference for all you pop culture-impaired people) OK, OK, I guess you folks do care that I've not been here in a few weeks. Sometimes, circumstances just force a break. And I'm not going to lie to you, dear readers (well, those of you who are left and haven't just deleted this URL from all recall in disgust): the break may not be completely over yet.

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-106343903981707052003-09-13T00:28:00.000-07:002003-09-13T00:43:59.856-07:00

A THEORY TO BE TESTED! Apologies to my male readers, but except for those of you who swing in interesting ways that drive the likes of Trent Lott NUTS, this post is basically going out to the WOMEN READERS OF LIANT. Tonight marked the second foray for the Whistle Pig*'s "Bikini Bullriding Contest" in which, in theory, various and comely members of my own dear personal sex, that being the female

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-1063384491477599852003-09-12T09:22:00.000-07:002003-09-12T09:34:51.520-07:00

WEARING BLACK FOR THE MAN Some mornings it just ain't worth checking the papers. The very first bit of information to penetrate my pre-coffee brain this morning was the news that Johnny Cash had died last night. It should surprise no one who knows me or reads this blog regularly that I am not, and never have been, a fan of country & western music. I hate most of it. But there have always been

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-1062995242214890322003-09-07T21:27:00.000-07:002003-09-07T21:27:22.310-07:00

TWO AND OH! That's right, the boys in purple won their second game, on the road in Shoshoni, beating out the Wildcats 28-8. My Own Dear Personal Dad, their bus driver, said they all looked good and pretty much everyone got to play, even the tiny little 105-pound freshmen. Looking good for this Friday, when they'll host the Wyoming Indian Wildcats at 4 p.m. to kick off the Saratoga High School

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-1062790523528476642003-09-05T12:35:00.000-07:002003-09-05T12:35:23.480-07:00

OH DEER, PART DEUX When our local Rabbit Sheriff calls me out of the blue and invites me for coffee, I know something is up. I had naturally been expecting a lecture about how that couldn't possibly have been a wolf my Inventing Uncle encountered near Lincoln Park Wednesday, but I didn't get one. On the contrary; the RS said it was entirely possible, maybe even likely. There are wolves all

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-1062741472179262442003-09-04T22:57:00.000-07:002003-09-04T22:57:52.123-07:00

MORE LEXICAL MUSINGS, OR SOMETHING I have often, in these pixels, observed that one of the most useless phrases in the English language is "supposed to," i.e., any time someone uses it in a sentence, that person is pretty much just whining about something that isn't going to change. "Well, that check was supposed to have been mailed to you yesterday." "There aren't supposed to be any maggots

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-1062669921937336822003-09-04T03:05:00.000-07:002003-09-04T03:05:21.910-07:00

UNACCEPTABLY CLOSE So, raise your hands if you find it merely coincidental that yet another one of my blog chickens has come home to roost in an alarming way? Actually, it is quite unpardonably silly to open this entry with a metaphor treating of a prey animal, but it's 3:35 a.m. and I've spent the better part of five days cranking out story after story for the two statewide publications that

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-1062668359235354262003-09-04T02:39:00.000-07:002003-09-04T02:39:19.220-07:00

MEA CULPA Oops! In my recent slapdash account of the very exciting Saratoga Panthers football opener on Friday, I committed a gaffe unforgivable, and at least one of my faithful (and decidedly not imaginary) readers called me on it. They're the Lyman Eagles. Eagles, not Wildcats. Whatever. We plucked 'em like chickens and sent 'em home sobbing to their eyries. Many thanks to My Own Dear

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-1062212210384462052003-08-29T19:56:00.000-07:002003-08-29T19:56:50.423-07:00

SO THIS IS WHAT VICTORY FEELS LIKE I had almost forgotten! Just a scant hour ago at Fort Sherrod, My Own Dear Personal Dad and I were pinching ourselves, asking in wonder when was the last time we left Saratoga's Robert Hileman field after a Saratoga High School football game with actual by-god smiles on our actual by-god faces. We concluded that at the very least it was back when Robert

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-1062184438226216042003-08-29T12:13:00.000-07:002003-08-29T12:13:58.266-07:00

COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE! Bill Clinton is narrating a "wolf-friendly" version of PETER AND THE WOLF From the article (for those of you too lazy to click on the link): Prokofiev's version ends with Peter capturing the wolf and leading a triumphant procession to the zoo, paining music-loving environmentalists with romantic visions of wolves in the wild. In the new version, narrated by former U.S

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-1062180375225275282003-08-29T11:06:00.000-07:002003-08-29T11:06:15.236-07:00

LIVE, WITHOUT A JET Hey, I didn't think it was possible, either. Well, that's not entirely true. I've never thought about it at all, really. And I bet none of you have, either. Unless you're far stranger than I, I bet you've never, ever asked yourself, your dog, or your Indian Companion, hey, do you think it's possible to get jet lag without actually leaving home? Uh huh, I thought not. I am

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-1062043257118614102003-08-27T21:00:00.000-07:002003-08-27T21:00:56.983-07:00

OTHER FUNNIES O' THE DAY Oh, and it was great fun sitting next to Ambassador Tom Strook and quietly heckling the EOR panel as we waited for their standard issue crappy Dell laptop to finally get itself sorted, boot up (giggle, snort) Windows ME and interface with the overhead projector. Strook and I pointed out, for instance, that had the boys not been so very committed to being high tech and

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-1062042735027179192003-08-27T20:52:00.000-07:002003-08-27T20:56:08.986-07:00

THERE REALLY IS ONLY ONE OF ME! Saw this over on Reason magazine's website. Q: How many bloggers does it take to change a light bulb? A: Two -- one to change it while the other apologizes for the recent lack of illumination and explains that they've been really busy lately. Not that I feel any real need to apologize, since I've known for years now that there's no one to whom to apologize. I

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-1061848937221913412003-08-25T15:02:00.000-07:002003-08-25T15:02:17.280-07:00

NOSE-TALGIA Regardless of the ultimate fate of the newest/oldest business venture in Encampment, I have to publicly express my gratitude to the guys making it go. I just toddled down to 44 Lumber & Timber, formerly the Hammer Sawmill, down there to take pictures and gather quotable quotes for an article I'm doing, and had to stop several times on my way down there to gawk and marvel at how...

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-1061791004560125442003-08-24T22:56:00.000-07:002003-08-24T22:56:44.606-07:00

SICK! I'm wondering if maybe a disproportionate number of my readers out there have not been keeping up with their antivirus software? I just checked my yahoo email address to which this page links where it says "Email me, dammit!" and there were over 200 messages that were obviously versions of the SoBig virus, at least judging from the subject lines, which included all of the classics...

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-1061334199110683912003-08-19T16:03:00.000-07:002003-08-19T16:03:19.153-07:00

THIS IS JUST WRONG Coffee narratives the last few days have been kind of overwhelmingly icky, even for us. I was fully expecting a small share of animal mishap/scatology/gross injury/whatever narratives from our Fat Cat Republican Banker, newly returned from several weeks' chasing his children's 4-H beasties around the county and then the state fairs... But we've had hardly a word about those.

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-1060986498103841832003-08-15T15:28:00.000-07:002003-08-15T15:28:15.196-07:00

MOLLY DOLLY DOO I've decided that whoever it was who created Scooby Doo must have really had a dog who acted like that. It used to seem impossible to me, this proposition, but then I took Molly the Collie of Folly on her first extended camping trip. We just returned from same this afternoon and she made a rapid, furniture disarranging, blurry black beeline from the front door to her little

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-1060577993931664362003-08-10T21:59:00.000-07:002003-08-10T22:05:40.206-07:00

AT LONG LAST, A THEME... I had originally thought that this summer would be all about me and the Rock Star (she who takes the most unique rocks known to man and makes of them the most elegant jewelry known to woman) givin' the boys hell at coffee, but since she is wholly occupied in helping out Saratoga's own dear personal fashionista instead, what it's actually all about is pretty well summed

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-1060490462955050472003-08-09T21:41:00.000-07:002003-08-09T21:41:02.970-07:00

I'M STILL MODERATELY OBSESSED... ...With the idea of completely messing with the ads that appear in the bar section of this here web page because YHB, complete hobo that she is, is too cheap to actually pay for hosting for this here page. So, I'm open to suggestions for the best way to screw with the system that one day has COIN DEALERS sponsoring my page and the next day feeder systems based

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-1060326847995452982003-08-08T00:14:00.000-07:002003-08-08T00:27:49.436-07:00

GUESS I'LL BE HOUSE-HUNTING SOON... The Unabomber wants his stuff back. Actually, this particular archive, brought to us by The Smoking Gun, is damned interesting. And a little spooky, personally, for Your Humble Blogger. Among the documents you can access from that main link are an eight-page list of his books that were seized. Our libraries are similar, to the point where we have 32 volumes

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-1060302050744488632003-08-07T17:20:00.000-07:002003-08-07T17:20:50.783-07:00

OH, THAT EXPLAINS IT On the same day that I wound up pulling an all-nighter trying to rescue my beloved iBook from oblivion (it completely lost the operating system), and only finally succeeded at about 9:30 a.m. after having finally resigned myself to losing the text of all three of the novels I've been working on, all my digital music files, etc. (in other words, all my data as I restored from

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-1060184204349838202003-08-06T08:36:00.000-07:002003-08-06T08:36:44.323-07:00

JUST A GENTLE REMINDER That dumb things happen all over the place, and not just here. A clerk at a comic books store in Dallas has been fined $4000 and sentenced to a term on probation for selling an adult comic to an adult "undercover agent" (what exactly was he trying to uncover?) from the adult section of a big comic book store. The U.S. Supreme Court denied the man's appeal (effort funded

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-1060030733189813032003-08-04T13:58:00.000-07:002003-08-04T13:58:53.043-07:00

IN CASE ANYONE'S WONDERING... Here are the results from last month's little poll on what to do about the deer problem. A total of 56 unique Saratoga residents* signed at least one of the four forms; not all indicated an opinion on all four, however, so the numbers which follow reflect only those registering opinions on each issue. HOUSE WATCH - 39 total signatures; 8 YES, 31 NO TALLER FENCES

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-1059783863424812282003-08-01T17:24:00.000-07:002003-08-01T17:24:23.443-07:00

HE'D HORN A KESTREL!! SO I just discovered the Internet Anagram Server and confirmed that my name (my actual given name, Kathleen Sherrod, not the nickname of Kate) is an anagram of NOR A THRESHED ELK as well as LETS HONK A HERDER, HE'D HORN A KESTREL, A HELD THORN REEKS and much, much more. Using my common, ordinary, YHB name, I get (among others): A HORDE TREKS, A HERD STROKER, ADHERE STORK,

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-1059781665701833792003-08-01T16:47:00.000-07:002003-08-01T16:47:45.636-07:00

YOU REALLY JUST NEVER KNOW... So, wow. About an hour and a half ago, I sold a cowboy hat to Robert Heinlein's cousin. Who'da thunk it?

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-1059751381369225992003-08-01T08:23:00.000-07:002003-08-01T08:23:01.393-07:00

THE FRIDAY FIVE Some moderately entertaining questions this week, so what the hey. 1. What time do you wake up on weekday mornings? Whenever the birds do. As I've discussed elsewhere on this blog, the birds are what wake me up, and they're in tune with the sun, so it all depends on the time of year. For the last week or so, it's been about 5:45 a.m. or so. The more interesting question would

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-1059751031027702992003-08-01T08:17:00.000-07:002003-08-01T08:17:11.166-07:00

BLOGOOGLE ADS So I guess my silly post about American change and how it confuses EuroTouros had an unintended side effect. I've noticed for the last few days that the Blogspot ads you see in the banner above this here page because I'm too much of a hobo to pay for webhosting have all been about coin collectors and coin dealers. I wonder what will come up next?

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-1059624123742297002003-07-30T21:02:00.000-07:002003-07-30T21:05:06.620-07:00

MYSTERY (PARTIALLY) SOLVED! A number of family members and coffee buddies of mine have expressed some puzzlement over the last few days about why Wyoming's sole member of the U.S. House of Representatives voted against the prescription drug re-importation bill, since none of us can find a single Wyoming resident (whom Ms. Cubin ostensibly represents) who is not delighted by the idea. I will not

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-1059605602659081902003-07-30T15:53:00.000-07:002003-07-30T15:53:22.573-07:00

TRUTH IN MISREADINGS? I was just reading a hand-wringing article in Salon about the DLC and the Democratic party's presidential hopefuls, and I totally misread Joe Lieberman's last name as "Liberace," i.e. for a moment there I had John McCain's running mate – er, partner in a global warming bill that serious lefties view as the ultimate litmus test for your Senator and his or her commitment to

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-1059424508478333892003-07-28T13:35:00.000-07:002003-07-28T13:36:03.100-07:00

OK, THIS ONE'S DEFINITELY NOT MY FAULT Amidst all the (lack of) fun this last weekend, I was subjected to variations on the following lecture not once, not twice, but thrice. Your Humble Blogger: Ok, with the tax that comes to $34.78 (or some such number) Random European Tourist hands me two $20 bills, stands tapping his or her foot as I count back his or her change. Then RET contemplates the

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-1059273373950900482003-07-26T19:36:00.000-07:002003-07-26T19:36:13.920-07:00

MARCHING ORDERS Everybody go look out your window right now. I'm typing this at 20:33, MDT. The sky out of all of my windows, east, west, north and south is a shade I can only call hot rose as the sun goes down and the clouds of a kickass thunderstorm hover. The lightning makes the entire sky – and my entire house – glow eerily as it flashes from very close by. The willow trees that flourish on

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-1059191138681628472003-07-25T20:45:00.000-07:002003-07-25T20:47:37.456-07:00

NO ME IMPORTA, PERO... So, I violated my grocery shopping restrictions today – hobo rations include meat, milk, club soda and tinned soup – and bought a can of Pringles. It's been a long, long time since I've had at these things in any quantity, so I was only dimly aware that they came in the variety I brought home – reduced fat – so perhaps I may be forgiven my lateish-night astonishment at the

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-1058975594575025222003-07-23T08:53:00.000-07:002003-07-23T08:53:14.530-07:00

SOOOOO NOT A GOOD IDEA Readers of Cadillac Desert and/or of Sam Western's book will not be surprised to learn that I think this is stupid: Officials weigh intrastate water transfer According to the Wyoming Water Development Commission, the Green River basin has a surplus, and because it has a surplus and the North Platte River Basin (that would be us, here in the Good Times Valley, among

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-1058919996369725522003-07-22T17:26:00.000-07:002003-07-22T17:26:36.356-07:00

MAYBE I SHOULD TRY AGAIN... A few years ago at about this time, I wrote a newspaper column about a dumb pseudo-science experiment. My Teenaged Lackey and I, having noted that the Rawlins National Bank's digital thermometer did indeed read 100 degrees (and having gathered suitable photographic evidence of same) decided to verify, once and for all, whether or not it was possible to fry an egg on

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-1058378825215718802003-07-16T11:07:00.000-07:002003-07-16T11:07:43.846-07:00

MORE HOBO-VANTAGES Retired people and people like me have many wonderful things in common... a tendency to spend the middle of the day napping, time for multiple coffee klatches, formidable penny-pinching skills, intimate knowledge of the per-pill cost of our allergy medicines... And we also have one other advantage over the conventionally employed: We get to go camping in the middle of the

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-1057771849132518052003-07-09T10:30:00.000-07:002003-07-09T10:30:49.163-07:00

TICK, TOCK I just came back from a quick visit to the Saratoga Town Hall, where I had a gander at the polling sheets I placed there on Monday. Opinion expressed thereon is, so far, divided, as I expected, with one exception. So far everyone who has bothered to register a preference has said "yes" to the proposal to ban deer feeding in Saratoga. Of course, not a one of the known deer feeders

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-1057521399467408792003-07-06T12:56:00.000-07:002003-07-06T12:56:39.370-07:00

IT IS TRULY SUMMER Dateline Saratoga, 4 p.m., July 4. The telephone rang, still a surprising sound in the Unabomber Cabin, one that sends the Collie of Folly into the closet. On the other line was none other than Erin-Go-Braless, a.k.a. the Punk Martha Stewart, who "just wanted me to know she was thinking of me on the holiday" and was I doing the usual that evening? The usual being, of course,

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-1057352757585522452003-07-04T14:05:00.000-07:002003-07-04T14:05:57.636-07:00

FOURTHWITH I don't know how people in places that are actually hot deal with it. I'm now gratefully sitting right in front of the air conditioner in the Unabomber Cabin and I feel like one of those collapsible containers for campers after all of the water is gone. I sag in my chair, my eyes half-closed, and it's taking a real effort of will to type this. It's already been quite a Fourth of

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-1057226067481620852003-07-03T02:54:00.000-07:002003-07-03T02:54:27.383-07:00

OH DEER, OH DEER, OH DEER! This is where it gets interesting. Only about 22 people showed up for "the deer meeting" Wednesday night, so let me say first thing that... 22 people doth not a majority make, except maybe in Riverside, which this ain't. So don't anybody go jumping to any conclusions just yet. Yes, there was one unanimous vote in the straw poll that ended the evening, but that doesn't

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-1057178976756518462003-07-02T13:49:00.000-07:002003-07-02T13:49:36.673-07:00

DEER GOD... As of this typing, I am less than four hours away from what could well be the greatest spectacle/debacle in Saratoga municipal political history since the junk car ordinance... or a whole lot of nothing. We're going to talk about the much-bitched-about "deer problem" in Saratoga, yet another on a long list of "issues" by which my fellow citizens here feel uniquely plagued – though

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-1057012006603335342003-06-30T15:26:00.000-07:002003-06-30T15:28:25.140-07:00

OH, NYCTI, YOU'RE SO FINE... I bet not a one of you out there in LIANTland realized just how richly varied our complement of avian fauna really is. Well, except those of you who join the Collie of Folly and me on our morning walks around Saratoga Lake, there to take in the antics of, in addition to two "water" dogs who swim about as well as muskoxen might, playful pelicans, ogling osprey,

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-1056845463019943482003-06-28T17:11:00.000-07:002003-06-28T17:11:35.693-07:00

GAME TIME OK, pop quiz, LIANT readers. Which of the following do Tad the Grocer and the Lord Macklebrains have in common? A. They both drive fancy vintage cars B. They are both my coffee buddies C. They both have Y chromosomes D. They are both losers as of today E. All of the above Today whilst I was busy peddling dustcatchers and brushing up on my tourist baiting skills, our local electric

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-1056761535561061772003-06-27T17:52:00.000-07:002003-06-27T17:52:15.446-07:00

71.5 HOURS TO GO! A half hour ago, I made a pre-emptive strike against the legion of telemarketers who are doubtless just waiting to pounce on me (I say waiting because it's only as of Tuesday that I've had an honest-to-dog land line to the Unabomber Cabin. Ted K. got along a lot better without regular 'net access than I did). I surfed on over to The Federal Government's Do Not Call List and

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-1056727869945341482003-06-27T08:31:00.000-07:002003-06-27T08:31:09.910-07:00

WHY I'M KIND OF A FATALIST I got a new reminder yesterday of what we're up against when we want to take on institutions like the Forest Service, which, remember, is an arm of the federal government, which is beholden to all of the people of America but mostly to the majority – which ain't us. A friend from high school is getting married Saturday, and has imported all of her midwestern pals for

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-1056627086533249212003-06-26T04:31:00.000-07:002003-06-26T04:33:02.523-07:00

RISING EARLY I was never a morning person, and still would not describe myself as one if asked, but, well, facts is facts. Everything changed when I moved back to Wyoming lo these... five years ago? Six. Six years ago. Everything, including the hour at which I wake. It's the birds, you see. Right now as I commence writing this, it is a quarter to 5 a.m. on what looks in the dim offing to be a

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-1056496220561350282003-06-24T16:10:00.000-07:002003-06-24T16:10:20.606-07:00

MORE INTERFERENCE The single greatest threat to my writing career is, of course, other people's writing. Try as I might, I cannot read and write simulataneously, at least not in any extended, meaningful way. And so, if I'm reading someone else's book, I am not writing my own. If I'm reading other people's blogs, I'm not adding to this one. Etc. Well, it's about to happen again. But only for a

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-1056207054639114752003-06-21T07:50:00.000-07:002003-06-21T07:50:54.510-07:00

THERE'S WRITING, AND THEN THERE'S... This week marked the "sort-of" completion of the most difficult, hair-tearing, sleep-losing writing assignment I've had at least since my Senior Project at Beaudacious Bard College. Actually, no, this was worse than my Senior Project. I'm talking, of course, about my business plan, which was due before close of business this last Tuesday, which has haunted

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-1055635104459290222003-06-14T16:58:00.000-07:002003-06-14T16:58:24.370-07:00

POST-CONVENTION BLUES So this is the horrible side of going to meetings like the WAM convention: the way they end. Three or four whirlwind days of exchanging ideas, networking, having a complete blast with total strangers, reconnecting with people who feel like incredibly close friends even though I only see them twice a year, scribbling down book citations, commiserating, drinking, playing

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-1055514122246219172003-06-13T07:22:00.000-07:002003-06-13T07:22:02.160-07:00

WAM 2003 This year's WAM (Wyoming Association of Municipalities) convention is right here in Carbon County, and so far it's been kind of astonishing. Yesterday the Historian and I wound up serving as "guides" for a delegate tour of Saratoga... for all of three ladies. About 30 people came down from Rawlins (where most of the actual convention action is taking place), but trust a bunch of local

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-1055375598048520392003-06-11T16:53:00.000-07:002003-06-13T07:13:18.413-07:00

BLOGGING ON THE DRIP You're in luck, dear readers: for the first time in many, many days, I am a) ahead of schedule (well, temporarily) and b) seated at a computer for a few minutes. I'm early for our monthly Joint Powers Board meeting (a.k.a. the Sewer King and All His Court). There is some debate floating about town about whether this was to be at 5:30 or 6:00 p.m.; apparently Tad the Grocer

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-953300932003-06-05T08:20:00.000-07:002003-06-05T08:20:20.920-07:00

WHAT, ONLY TEN YEARS LATE? OR SO? Lest anyone doubt my assertion that Wyoming is not only the place where the visitor must set his clock back ten years or that it is, in fact, a cargo cult-ish third world nation in many respects, attend the following: My Own Dear Personal Mother and I are currently driving my father crazy with our cussion, discussion, analysis and complaints about... Myst. Yes

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-952501582003-06-03T12:34:00.000-07:002003-06-03T13:08:26.000-07:00

YAY, CHUCK! Winterkill By C.J. Box (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2003) Winterkill is, quite simply, the novel I have been waiting for Wyoming mystery novelist C.J. Box to write. His first two novels, Open Season and Savage Run, established his potential and garnered him critical acclaim and bestseller status – for good reason. Box has pretty much created a whole new sub-genre of murder

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-945952242003-05-19T12:44:00.000-07:002003-05-19T13:09:21.000-07:00

THE MATRIX: RELOADED I could also name this essay Hunger, Satisfied, for lots and lots of reasons. Even though there is still no spoon. There are several films I've been eagerly awaiting of late. A drooling comic book fan from way back, I was delighted to learn that Ang Lee was taking on the Incredible Hulk. A sequel to the excellent X-Men movie would be welcome. Of course I look forward to

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-944977332003-05-17T06:57:00.000-07:002003-05-17T07:04:16.000-07:00

GLASS ASS I am seriously wigged out by this whole Stephen Glass thing. For those of you who have been busy fishing or running your businesses or otherwise not being media junkies, Stephen Glass is a writer of approximately my age and education who has recently published a novel, The Fabulist, that has caused quite an uproar, pious and otherwise. See, before he made his true bullshitting

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-941602642003-05-11T12:20:00.000-07:002003-05-11T12:20:00.423-07:00

SO, WOW It's rare in my experience that anything one has been anticipating lives up to the expectations of one's hopeful imagination. It's even more rare when those expectations were exceeded. Such was my experience in meeting Sam Western, the man to whom the Casper Star-Tribune and a little publishing firm who originally didn't expect to sell more than 1200 copies of Pushed Off the Mountain,

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-940168372003-05-08T15:36:00.000-07:002003-05-08T15:36:31.500-07:00

HE'S COMING! HE'S REALLY COMING! But I've blown it, too. It's been a little over a week since I posted here, and I could have been beating the drums all along. Mea culpa, dear readers, mea culpa. But it's not me who's the author of this wonder, that being the fact that SAM WESTERN will be in town TOMORROW NIGHT to speak at the Saratoga Inn. So it's not 100% my fault that very few people around

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-932551372003-04-25T11:51:00.000-07:002003-04-25T11:51:31.666-07:00

FRIDAY FIVE, AGAIN Just because I'm stumped for something to write about during this, my lunch break from Retail Heaven doesn't mean it's OK for you, my dear readers, to go another day without hearing from me. Thank goodness for Jill and the girls over at The Friday Five for breaking the ice in Your Humble Blogger's Humble Head. 1. What was the last TV show you watched? I watched CSI last

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-930659732003-04-22T13:11:00.000-07:002003-04-22T13:11:32.783-07:00

WHAT IF THEY GAVE AN INFO SESSION... ...And nobody came? Well, now I know. Last night marked Rawlins' turn to host a public information session regarding the proposed capital facilities tax and, well, the choir showed up but the pews were empty. Our good sheriff gave his County Jail Slide and Pony Show, in other words, for a hauntingly empty room at the Jeffrey Center, his audience consisting

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-928665652003-04-18T18:37:00.000-07:002003-04-18T18:37:14.716-07:00

BLOGGING FOR DOLLARS? Well, dear readers, I knew all of that whining about being an unemployed hack for hire of a hobo wannabe writer fending off ridiculous job offers and jacking up your water rates would pay off someday. Somebody wants to pay me to blog! Now, before any of you wailing and crying and gnashing your teeth and pouring ashes over your head at the thought of having to pay to read

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-928078442003-04-17T17:10:00.000-07:002003-04-17T17:10:59.483-07:00

BACK TO WORK... SORT OF I started an extremely part-time job today. It was fine, really. I'm back in the wonderful, wacky world of retail, just in time to join a good friend of mine in completely freaking out getting everything ready for the end of mud season, when the tourists come back with their disposable income, unreasonable demands, and terrible taste in tee shirts. She insists that lots

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-926616892003-04-15T10:33:00.000-07:002003-04-15T10:33:44.000-07:00

LIBRARY MUSINGS Just now I finished my latest library book – since I became a full-time hobo, I'm able to catch our little branch library when it's open, and of course I have ample time for reading – and happened to look at the date due slip on the front page. The library acquired this book (Frank Herbert's God Emperor of Dune for those of you who care) in June of 1982, when it was first

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-926616282003-04-15T10:32:00.000-07:002003-04-15T10:36:13.000-07:00

PATTERN RECOGNITION Pattern Recognition by William Gibson (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2003) Science fiction is usually an attempt to make the unfamiliar familiar, to bring us ordinary car-driving, Guiness-swilling, paper-wasting, TV-watching humans into worlds where cars fly, Guiness comes in pill form, paper is rationed and TV is fully interactive. Outer space. Alternate histories where the

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-926608132003-04-15T10:18:00.000-07:002003-04-15T10:18:15.436-07:00

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-925385492003-04-13T12:42:00.000-07:002003-04-13T12:42:06.746-07:00

YOU THINK I SHOULD WHAT? So, while I desperately cast about for enough paying work to keep the Unabomber Cabin heated and dog food in the Collie of Folly's bowl, I have swallowed a bit of my pride (there's still plenty left, I assure you) and done the paperwork to go on unemployment for a bit while I await the college transcripts that will allow me to become a substitute teacher, responses from

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-924406772003-04-11T10:52:00.000-07:002003-04-11T10:52:20.043-07:00

NOTHING GETS CHEAPER, DOES IT? Morning strolls around Saratoga Lake with My Own Dear Personal Mom and the Collie of Folly are much noisier than a few weeks ago, as our teeming populations of migratory birds begin to return. The herons are back, with their deep, bullfrog grunts, the blackbirds have taken up residence again amongst the reeds, chirruping in their sing-song-y way. And back at

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-922423922003-04-08T13:25:00.000-07:002003-04-08T13:37:56.000-07:00

FLYING ELEPHANTS...? I've seen a peanut stand, Heard a rubber band, I've even seen a needle wink its eye ...But I think I've seen 'bout everything, when I seen the Oracle sing. It was a very weird weekend in LIANTland, dear readers, and not just because of the temporary stretching of LIANTland's borders. First of all, thank you all for your condolences on the poor performance I turned in with

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-919478762003-04-03T16:40:00.000-08:002003-04-03T16:40:26.856-08:00

"FIVE IS GOOD..." With just two days left before the Big Cribbage Tournament at the Crazy Liver Cantina (not its real name), My Own Dear Personal Dadand I decided it would be in our best interest to maybe start thinking about, you know, training. A retiree and a newly-minted hobo have to be careful about spending that much money to enter (the fee is, after all, $10) and we'd best make sure we

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-918498572003-04-02T08:08:00.000-08:002003-04-02T08:36:02.000-08:00

"CHIEFS" "Some days it's a good day to die, some days it's a good day to play basketball." - Victor Joseph in Chris Eyre's "Smoke Signals" Wyoming almost never makes it to basketball's "Sweet Sixteen" and wipes out spectacularly on those rare occasions when we do. It may, then, seem strange to those who aren't in the know to say that Wyoming is one of the great basketball capitals of

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-918498322003-04-02T08:07:00.000-08:002003-04-02T08:07:46.530-08:00

SKATE PARK DILEMMA OK, dear readers, here's where your youngest councilman really, really needs your help. This is not a rhetorical request; I really need to hear from any of you who actually care about the following. No matter how we've looked at it, in Saratoga and elsewhere, the municipal revenue situation pretty much sucks. Sales tax collections are down, and with them many other revenues

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-917230412003-03-31T10:44:00.000-08:002003-03-31T10:47:32.000-08:00

SAVE THE SNOW SNAKE! aka "Lynx, schmynx" Let me start off this entry with a great big "mea culpa." I've been totally wrong in my attacks on the Medicine Bow National Forest's draft management plan. Totally wrong. Oh, don't get me wrong; I still consider this document to be 25 lbs. of the worst quality of crap imaginable. I have just been laboring under a delusion that this was so for all the

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-913843692003-03-25T18:31:00.000-08:002003-03-25T18:31:45.920-08:00

PRETZEL LOGIC Now this is just mean. I was just taking a peek at my own blog to see who's sponsoring me lately - to my amusement recently, it was for quite some time a resort in Jackson Hole, the town that is ultimately to blame for my entire blogging career and much else besides (it is my birthplace), but I see today that it has changed. Some really dumb antiwar protesters (and bear in mind,

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-913637052003-03-25T11:59:00.000-08:002003-03-25T12:04:14.000-08:00

THANK GOD ALMIGHTY... OR SOMETHING! Oh my dear readers, I've been trying these last few days to come up with the right way to break the news to you, and finally, subscribing as I do to the notion that it's better to rip the band-aid off in one swift ouch of a motion rather than peel it back slowly and agonizingly so that one feels the rip of each individual hair from its follicle, I'm just gonna

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-910761242003-03-20T11:43:00.000-08:002003-03-20T11:43:57.716-08:00

THIS AIN'T MY MOMMY'S WAR As My Own Dear Personal Mother and I enjoyed a round of harumphing about how we were going to miss finding out who got voted out of the Amazon because some trigger-happy goon in Baghdad tawt he taw a missile coming (Mountain Standard Time meant that TV news went on full splash coverage alert halfway through Survivor), something became abundantly clear as we surfed

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-910073602003-03-19T11:16:00.000-08:002003-03-19T11:16:41.763-08:00

GOT MILK? We don’t. It’s something like day three of our one and only serious winter storm of the season, and all of the roads to anywhere are closed, meaning no merchandise deliveries of any kind have been made, meaning there is no milk for sale at any price anywhere in our little valley, unless you count the powdered kind, and since this is day three, I betcha that’s all gone, too. No,

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-908705012003-03-17T11:23:00.000-08:002003-03-17T11:23:02.560-08:00

SPEAKING OF AIR QUALITY We might yet need gas masks, since we're not going to be cutting down trees anymore (if the Forest Service gets its way): As detailed HERE and in a recent issue of the science journal Nature, "Coniferous forests around the world may be emitting more smog-causing nitrogen oxides than traffic and industry combined". Of course, no one is yet brave enough to seriously

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-907340312003-03-14T14:37:00.000-08:002003-03-14T14:37:39.340-08:00

SO, UM, WOW... Because this week hasn't been weird enough yet, of course I had to get a phone call completely out of left field. I was just asked if I would accept a nomination to serve on the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality's Air Quality Complance Advisory Committee (let's see... that would be the WDEQAQCAC?). I've never even heard of this board, the members of which are appointed

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-906625092003-03-13T11:32:00.000-08:002003-03-13T11:40:05.000-08:00

UGLY MUSH Some days I just get a reminder that it’s wise to trust my instincts. I have certain bedrock prejudices that occasionally get me labeled closed-minded, a snob, an elitist, a coward – which means that every once in a while I feel compelled to try to violate them, to test them against reality, to see if they’re still justified. Some are more justifiable than others. For instance, I

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-906047802003-03-12T12:12:00.000-08:002003-03-12T12:12:32.450-08:00

AAAAAAAAAAAYYYY! FHWA-WY-FONSI 03-01 Finding of No Significant Impact on the Environmental Assessment for FHWA-WY-EA-99-01 Wyoming Highway 130 Saratoga-Centennial Brush Creek Section - Phase I Carbon County Wyoming Project 0103(33) (Cheyenne, WY: US. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration, and Wyoming Department of Transportation, 2003) The Finding of No Significant Impact

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-905384392003-03-11T11:42:00.000-08:002003-03-11T11:42:21.560-08:00

WE MAKE THE NEWS... For the stupidest reasons! Attend an e-mail I just got from Sen. Goodenough, who had the wacky idea that maybe making rodeo Wyoming’s official state sport wasn’t the most important or necessary item on this year’s legislative agenda, and is trying, along with good folks like Sam Western, to open our lovely state up to new ideas, new archetypes. Goodenough proposed an

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-904747902003-03-10T12:15:00.000-08:002003-03-10T12:15:02.496-08:00

DISCONNECTION AND ITS DISCONTENTS I’ve read a lot of funky stuff over the last few weeks, all purporting to explain why it’s a good or a bad thing to attack Iraq, but nothing has stuck with me as much as the following: THE PENTAGON’S NEW MAP, by Thomas P.M. Barnett I’m too high (got the crud again, and the attendant dependence on dextramothorphan hydrobromide-laden remedies in order to breathe

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-901879912003-03-05T11:04:00.000-08:002003-03-05T11:04:54.890-08:00

OOH! ANOTHER GOOD GUY Somehow I knew that when I finally published my little report on who does and does not answer his or her e-mail over in the Capitol in Cheyenne that a late entry or two would report in. In all fairness, though, today is the first time I contacted Rep. Chris Boswell (D-Green River) though I've long held a certain fondness for him ever since he put up a banner that read, in

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-901325362003-03-04T13:12:00.000-08:002003-03-04T13:18:23.000-08:00

ANOTHER REASON TO PRETTY MUCH LOVE WYOMING A friend who recently ventured out into the rest of America and was amused at how impressed his companions were by his political connections has observed, to them and to me, that in Wyoming, if one has any kind of life at all, everyone is politically connected. In what other state do front-running gubernatorial candidates make the morning coffee

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-900764832003-03-03T15:29:00.000-08:002003-03-03T15:29:56.123-08:00

FRIDAY FIVE OK, I've been bugging you guys enough about politics and chamber events lately, so, as Monty Python's crew would say "And now for something completely different..." The Friday Five is a blog-related phenomenon in which five questions are posed each Friday, I suspect to help the millions of us out there who occasionally run into writer's block keep these here web pages going. I

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-899263902003-02-28T15:01:00.000-08:002003-02-28T15:01:16.810-08:00

THE MEDICINE BOWIFICATION OF WYOMING COMMENCES... Caveat lector (as always): What follows, whatever follows, is written directly from the spleen. I'm posting relatively late in the day because I thought I'd need a "cool down" period after reading the news that set me off this morning, but now I realize that no amount of time is going to cool me down. Only reconsideration, retraction or other

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-897390892003-02-25T15:05:00.000-08:002003-02-25T15:05:59.826-08:00

USEFUL HOME DECOR I can't think of anything more useless, sinister and downright creepy as the rash of home redecorating gimmick shows that have infested our young century. They creep me out, even as I occasionally find myself taking in high dosages of same on holidays and other "down time" with My Own Dear Personal Parents. It's not just the stupid ideas (turning a bedroom into a pullman car!

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-896606932003-02-24T11:46:00.000-08:002003-02-24T11:46:39.360-08:00

QUICKIE BILL NOTE HB 264 (that's the "Business Ready Communities" bill setting aside money out of the Permanent Mineral Trust Fund to be turned over as grants or loans to Wyoming towns for economic development infrastructure spending) made it out of the Senate Minerals, Business and Economic Development Committee on Friday, so now it's "on General File," meaning its next stop is a first reading

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-894546522003-02-20T13:13:00.000-08:002003-02-20T13:13:50.050-08:00

INVISIBLE ENEMIES... ...Would appear to have invaded my bloodstream after all. I have sat, only a little smugly, pleased with myself for having managed to stay healthy through this ferocious flu epidemic that has swept our valley, figuring it was my turn to weather the storm unscathed, for once, after bouts with every other goddamned bug that has come to town since I did... But it would seem

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-893312702003-02-18T14:22:00.000-08:002003-02-18T14:25:00.000-08:00

MARCHING ORDERS House Bill 264, a measure to help create "Business-Ready Communities", as previously reported here, in the Red-Star Trombone, and other publications, made it out of the House of Representatives and into the Senate last week, subtantially altered as per the wishes of LIANT and its many allies. Thanks to all of you who tweaked the tails of committee members and House members in

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-892654482003-02-17T14:40:00.000-08:002003-02-17T14:43:21.000-08:00

BELATED MORAL QUALMS It was Sunday afternoon as I found myself, my Enabling Assistant, and several other assorted hangers-on hooting “Tent of Decadence” at everyone who came to visit us during the 23rd Annual Donald E. Erickson Memorial Chariot Races this weekend that I first really began to ponder some of the less morally salutory aspects of my job as your chamber chick (having long ago

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-891140552003-02-14T14:09:00.000-08:002003-02-14T14:09:55.896-08:00

AH, CURST, CURST CLEVERNESS! I have already taken my lumps for sic'ing the Squawkers on the Sewer King; as I stood out in the messy drizzle that can't decide whether it is rain or snow, hauling mightily on the canvas of the chamber's 14x14 tent, my cell phone rang. "You have a Valentine's Day greeting," my Enabling Assistant proclaimed on the other end, with an ominous snicker. And so the

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-891095742003-02-14T12:32:00.000-08:002003-02-14T12:32:23.096-08:00

WEIRD ENOUGH Readers often ask me if the stuff I print on this website is really true. Can one person’s life possibly be this weird? Am I demented? Where can they get some of whatever it is the Sewer King, the Lord Macklebrains and I have all been accused of smoking? Etc.? And how weird does something have to be before I’ll write about it. Oh, anything will do, really. Sometimes, even just

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-890629022003-02-13T16:57:00.000-08:002003-02-13T16:57:43.883-08:00

IN CASE ANYBODY IS INTERESTED... There's some good news on the Legislature's web site. One of those bills I'm always on about, HB 91, creating a sales tax exemption for the purchase of agricultural implements, made it out of the Senate Revenue Committee today and is on the Senate's General File. Thanks to everyone who wrote to the committee members. But it's not done yet. Keep calling and

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3213674.post-890493632003-02-13T12:17:00.000-08:002003-02-13T12:17:06.420-08:00

APOPHENIA Once in a while, the world outside that I left behind when I returned home to “Brigadoon” still manages to intrude into mine. Usually it does so in very weird ways that leave me pinching myself and suspicious, or confused and bleary-eyed, or peeking over my shoulder every few minutes to see if David Lynch is hiding behind a curtain, directing the scene. This morning before I set down

Kate Sherrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08706419613939420574noreply@blogger.com