Linda Stowers: Support your local Democratic candidates

Message from Linda Stowers, Chair of the Laramie County Democrats (Go Linda!):

Dear Fellow Democrats,

I am proud to say I’m a Democrat in Wyoming. Not many people are saying that these days, but I think we need to step up and share our views and candidates with our neighbors. We have a great slate of candidates in Laramie County. At the County level we have Jeff Ketcham, County Commissioner, Wendy Soto, District Court Clerk and Tim Thorsen , County Clerk. All three are hardworking and dedicated individuals and we must elect them this fall. At the Legislative level we have Kathryn Sessions, Lori Millin, Ken McCauley, Robert Aylward, Jim Byrd, Mary Throne, Ken Esquibel and Gary Roadifer. We have the opportunity to pick up two additional House seats and a Senate seat. We must also help Leslie Peterson, Mike Massie and David Wendt with their statewide campaigns.

We have our office up and running. Stop by the office located at 408 W 23rd (across from the County Library) and pick up literature, signs or drop off a donation. If you can’t stop by give us a call at 307-634-9001 and we will have a sign delivered or literature sent. We can also use volunteers to help canvass, conduct phone banks or send out flyers on behalf of our candidates.

Upcoming events include an ice cream and pie social in Burns on September 18th, a Roadside rally on September 23rd ,a Chili Dinner on October 17th and a Victory Party on November 2. Candidates also have activities planned so there will be many opportunities to show your Democratic colors whether they be purple, red, blue, yellow or other colors of your choice. Stand up and be counted as a Democrat and support our Laramie County Candidates.

I have three campaign signs in my yard. How about you?

FMI: http://www.laramiecountydemocrats.org/

History of book festivals in Wyoming, part two

Smoke is in the morning air. Residue from the fire that destroyed the Hitching Post Inn, a Cheyenne landmark.

The Hitch was the site for the first Wyoming Bookfest on Oct. 26-27, 2001. We remember that fall for the 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers and the anthrax attacks on Congress. Then came the invasion of Afghanistan by U.S. forces. Smoke was in the air that year, too.

Meanwhile, in Cheyenne, a handful of writers and booklovers were organizing what we hoped would become an annual tradition.

If I remember correctly (and I don’t always) the idea started with a meeting of local writers Chip Carlson and Larry Brown with Gene Bryan, who then was in charge of events at the Best Western Hitching Post Inn Resort and Conference Center, a.k.a. “The Hitch.” That’s pretty much what everyone called it, then and now.

The three co-conspirators thought a bookfest was just the thing for Cheyenne. Unlike its surrounding states, Wyoming had yet to have a statewide book festival. It would benefit writers, booksellers and The Hitch.

Linn Rounds, then head of the Wyoming Center for the Book, was pulled into the committee. So was I. Kathy Murphy, secretary to Wyoming Dept. of Commerce Chief John Keck, volunteered to keep track of all the proceedings. She did a great job, Kathy, alas, died a few years later. In the end, we had a great collection of people, including Kathleen Gillgannon of the YMCA Writer’s Voice, and reps from the Laramie County Public Library and the Wyoming Humanities Council.

Warning for anyone planning a book festival – it’s a lot of work. Forty-two poets, writers, editors, storytellers, musicians and at least one wood sculptor participated in the Oct. 26-27 event. That doesn’t include booksellers and presses featured at the book fair. Committee members were running around like crazy people, getting people to the correct rooms and finding more chairs when needed.

It got off to a heady start with a Friday evening reading by four poets laureate: Robert Roripaugh of Wyoming, Mary Crow of Colorado, David Lee from Utah and Bill Kloefkorn of Nebraska. The crowd was SRO, and it was a real thrill to have four great poets reading their work at one event. Just think of how many square miles are represented by these people from four big almost-square states.

David Lee was fresh from his appearance at the first National Book Festival on the National Mall in D.C. That event was organized by the Library of Congress and First Lady Laura Bush.

We also had a guest speaker that evening in U.S. Sen. Mike Enzi. Sen. Enzi and his staff no longer had offices in D.C. due to the anthrax attacks. So he brought a batch of staffers with him to Cheyenne. He spoke about the recent happenings in the capital, but then launched into one of his favorite subjects – books. He’s a big reader – I’ve watched him buy bags full of books from Wyoming writers. For the life of me, I can’t understand how he can be a booklover and also tolerate some of the Know Nothing views of his Republican Party.

Sen. Enzi also was in town for a very somber event. This was the funeral of one of the first G.I.’s killed in Afghanistan. U.S. Army Spec. Jonn Edmunds of Cheyenne was on a helicopter bringing troops to the war zone when it crashed Oct. 19 in Pakistan. All aboard were killed.

Thousands attended the Saturday funeral. We had hoped for thousands that day at the bookfest, but fell a bit short. It wasn’t for lack of trying. We had fantastic sessions on writing cookbooks, westerns, mysteries and poetry. We had some of the best anthology editors in Wyoming talking about “Editing Western Anthologies.” Local writer C.J. Box, who’s now published more than a dozen mysteries and won the prestigious Edgar Award, talked about “Whodunits on the High Plains.” I was on a panel with writers Teresa Funke and Jeffe Kennedy talking about “Starting (and Maintaining) Your Writing Critique Group.” My group is still intact, as is Teresa’s. Jeffe’s group in Laramie is defunct – and she now lives in Santa Fe.

On the Children’s Stage in the now-destroyed Saddleback Lounge, my son and his pals at East High staged an open mike. It also saw performances by Aussie storyteller Paul Taylor and the Cheyenne Youth Symphony.

We were exhausted by the end of the day. In the ensuing weeks, we went over all the evaluations. Most negative comments were about lack of attendance and lack of book sales. Lots of people had lots of ideas about how to make it better. More publicity. More big-name authors. Bigger book fair. Get more people to do the work. Involve more local organizations and business.

Here’s on comment I liked: “A number of authors travel a great distance to attend —at last give them a sandwich for lunch.”

You want mayo or mustard with that?

Here’s a great comment from C.J. Box: “The bookfest shouldn’t be all things to all people… While musical performances and wood art may bring in some folks, the bookfest should be about books and authors.”

A few months after the bookfest, the committee met for a brainstorming session. We stormed our brains out. We all wanted to have another bookfest, but there wasn’t enough interest to form a solid committee to write grants, enlist sponsors and plan the myriad bookfest details.

It was five years before there was another book festival. This one was a true statewide book event, the Equality State Book Festival in Casper. It was six years before there was another bookfest in Cheyenne, and that was the Wyoming Book Festival in downtown Cheyenne. It’s a project of the Wyoming Center for the Book at the Wyoming State Library.

Planning for the first ESBF began in late 2004. It involved a very motivated and dependable planning committee. A big budget too – more than $100,000. Lots of sponsoring organizations in Casper and throughout Wyoming.

The third ESBF will be held Sept. 24-25 at Casper College and environs. I’m on the committee but the real work is done by the Casper people, especially the co-chairs Laurie Lye and Holly Wendt.

Here’s to you, bookfest organizers. Lots of work and little glory. But people come out to see their favorite authors and buy books. Every year, bookfest authors go to local schools to get kids excited about reading. Bookstores sell books. Authors read from their books. There’s a late-night slam for poets. Workshops for striving writers and poets.

We’ve all learned some lessons since that first bookfest when the smoke from 9/11 was still in the air.

The Hitch was not officially an historic site, just the place of many memories for many people. It fell on hard times, then sold to new owners and then closed by the health department. Nine years ago it was the place where some concerned citizens constructed the foundation for bookfests to come. Part of the state's creative economy, you might say.

Now it’s smoke and ruins.

See you in Casper as we keep building bookfest traditions.

History of book festivals in Wyoming, part one

Before book festivals arrived in Wyoming in the 21st century, we had many localized book events. I remember the mass book signing at the Western Writers of America Conference in Cheyenne in (not sure of the year but I think it was 1999). The writers took over Barnes & Noble, which is the way it should be. Lots of books sold, too.

Wyoming Writers, Inc., always has a bookstore room and an authors’ signing as part of its annual conference. I’ve participated in at least one Wyoming Authors’ Day at the Central Wyoming College Library in Riverton – and there have probably been more. I was part of a huge author signing in Denver in 2006.

I’ve attended many book fairs, such as the one held annually by the Mountains & Plains Booksellers Association in Denver. There is a huge book fair at the annual Associated Writers and Writing Programs annual conference. The last one I attended was in Austin and was trapped for days in the massive book fair, missing such enlightening literary sessions as “Hemingway’s Tiny Penis and How It Made Him a Terrible Writer” and “Chick Lit – Scourge or Menace?” Instead, I bought books and met editors of presses and literary magazines which might some day print my stuff. I attended an intriguing publishing session entitled “Mike Shay’s Stuff Sucks, Which is Why We Don’t Publish it in Our Prestigious Journals.”

But book festivals are a different animal. Lots of writers and lots of books and lots of workshops with writers. Fun, too.

I was on the committee that helped plan the first Rocky Mountain Book Festival in Denver. I served as a volunteer emcee at the 1995 RMBF and planned a reading of Tumblewords writers from Wyoming and the rest of the Rocky Mountain West at the 1996 RMBF. As an emcee, I met and introduced historian Robert Massie, activist/actor/writer Russell Means and children’s writer Jack Gantos. If I remember correctly, the slide projector’s bulb burned out and we couldn’t locate another one, which put a dent in Gantos’s presentation. Fortunately, he’s a forgiving soul, and now is coming to Casper for his second stint at the Equality State Book Festival.

The third biennial Equality State Book Festival is Sept. 24-25 in Casper. I’m the only non-Casper person on the planning committee. Despite my long-distance status, I’ve been on the committee since 2004 when we began planning the first bookfest for fall of 2006. Yes, it took almost two years to put the first one together. We had grants to write, venues to secure and writers to contact. First, the money. I wrote a successful collaborative grant to the National Endowment for the Arts. Co-sponsors were the Wyoming Arts Council, my employer, and the Casper College Foundation. The NEA saw fit to approve $10,000. The foundation came through with some big bucks and we were on our way.

What happened next? Why are book festivals different from literary conferences? Does this blog make my head look big? Tune in tomorrow.

Helpful links:
www.equalitystatebookfest.com
www.mountainsplains.org
http://arts.endow.gov
www.caspercollege.edu
www.wyomingartscouncil.org
www.westernwriters.org
www.wyowriters.org

The Bee... the Bee... the Bee is back...

...sucking nectar as a matter of fact. I think that Sir Elton would give me leave as I take liberty with his (Bernie's?) lyrics. If not, he can go suck nectar. It appears that this is the same bee I see every morning at my giant sunflower. Can that be? Not much bee activity in my garden this summer. Makes me wonder about the bee shortage reported these past few years. When I visited the CSU gardens last week, hundreds of bees swarmed the blossoms.

Bees find home in giant Wyoming sunflower

For this cellphone photo, I was trying to get very close to my giant sunflower. And then I saw the giant bee. It's great to see bees return to the garden. Just didn't want him to sting me in the eyeball.

News from the front: Irish look on as Scots march on Estes Park

I have all sorts of feelings when I go to the Long's Peak Scottish-Irish Festival in Estes Park.

Questions, too. For instance, why do the Scots get top billing?

My wife Chris has a great insight into this: Who better to organize something than Scots?

Talk about your stereotypes. Scots are a no-nonsense, business-minded, well-organized race who can plan the heck out of any event.

The Irish, on the other hand, are Guinness-swilling layabouts who attend the Scottish-Irish Festival to swill Guinness and lay about watching Celtic fusion bands, most of whom are Scottish.

As a disorganized Irishman, I can't disagree. I would much rather have a Scotswoman such as Chris organizing a festival, a checkbook, a life. Of course, she is Scots-Irish by birth and German-Irish by upbringing (she was adopted). If you take all those pedigrees and put them into one person, you should have a well-organized beer-drinking lass who, when offended, will either cut off your head with a William Wallace-style sword or invade your country. Or both.

But she knows her birth mother’s name and that was Cummings and now she’s an officially enrolled member of the Cumming clan. Its crest has a lion and the motto “Courage.

I took photos as she marched in Saturday’s presentation of the clans. A strong military theme infuses the festival. Cannons sound in the distance. True, those cannons are shooting bowling balls into the reservoir, and one errant bowling ball even sank the green inflatable Loch Ness Monster that is a festival tradition (R.I.P. Nessie). A Colorado pilot did a flyover in a British jet trainer. The Canadian general who now runs NORAD in Colorado Springs was the keynoter at Saturday’s opening ceremonies. World War II vets of Iwo Jima were introduced in a celebration of the 75th anniversary of that World War II battle. Some young marines even recreated the flag-raising ceremony on Mount Suribachi. It wasn’t quite as impressive as the fake flag-raising that opens “Flags of Our Fathers,” but it was pretty good.

And the day included many references to the Sept. 11 anniversary, and the wars that followed.

As a lifelong civilian and peacenik, I look at these military traditions as part of the whole. This is much like the Boy Scouts, which drips with military-influenced traditions but is – at its core – a worthwhile organization for your sons. Unless they are openly gay. Which brings us back to the U.S. military and its don’t ask, don’t tell policy.

Pipe and drum bands have origins in war. I spotted one large bearded gentleman wearing a black T-shirt that had the “Black Watch World Tour” stops printed on the back. Quite a list, including gigs in Guadaloupe and then North America in the late 1700s (we know how that turned out), France in 1916, all the way to Iraq in 2003-2005.

The Black Watch is a famous British military unit and a famous pipe and drum band. My father played Black Watch records real loud on his home-built stereo, and he took my brother and me to see them perform. When they launched into “Scotland the Brave,” you could feel it in your gut.

At Saturday’s Estes Park ceremonies, the music opened with a performance by the Marine Band from Twenty-Nine Palms, California. That’s the desert training base that launches the Marines who fight in Iraq and Afghanistan. Many casualties over the past nine years. More to come, alas.

The Marine Band was comprised of men and women with lots of different ethnic groups represented. Like all marines, they are trained in combat weaponry. Unlike most marines, they play a mean tuba. The few, the proud, the tuba players. Trombone, too, and drums. Flute, even. Or “pipe,” as in pipe and drums.

The Marines were followed by the police pipe and drum band from Ottawa, Canada. Then came the massed pipe and drum corps from a bunch of different places, including Wyoming. When they marched into view, I got a glimpse of the amazing sight and sound that once confronted African and Indian tribesmen as they lined up to fight the British invaders.

There looked to be hundreds of pipers and drummers. They made that kind of sound.

After her clan march, Chris joined me in the stands. We watched the proceedings together. When it concluded, we were torn. Head over to the clan tents for a wee dram of single-malt Scotch? Or find the Guinness stand for a cold brew? We opted for the latter, and some food. No cultural differences here.

The enemy has been spotted -- and he's right next door

In this cleverly doctored photo from Pavlovian Obeisance (thanks P.O.!), Gen. Petraeus points out the fact that we have much more to worry about from domestic terrorists than from the foreign variety. If you look closely, it appears that the general is pointing to the nest of right-wing subversive elements in Afton, Wyoming. Or is that Pinedale? Looking at it from a Glenn Beck perspective, one might assume that the general is pointing out one of the state's lone cadres of latte-swilling, veggie-chomping Liberal Democrats -- the ones in Jackson and vicinity. They must be eliminated! First Jackson, then prog-bloggers in Cheyenne!

You can read about the recent arrest of a right-wing domestic terrorist at Think Progress:

A study released today by former leaders of the 9/11 Commission finds that “terrorism is increasingly taking on an American cast.” Warning of “a much more diverse threat,” the report urges the U.S. government to prepare for “the radicalization and recruitment of Americans to terrorist ranks.” While the report rightly warns of threats from radical Muslim extremists, law enforcement officials should also be concerned about right-wing zealots, as a 2009 Homeland Security report warned.

For instance, this past Tuesday, the FBI arrested 26-year old Christian radical Justin Carl Moose in Concord, N.C. for “providing information to create explosives” to “blow up a North Carolina abortion clinic.” Through his conversations with an FBI informant and his Facebook page, Moose expressed virulent “anger at abortion doctors, President Barack Obama’s health care plan, and plans to build a mosque near ground zero in New York city.” He goes on to describe himself as “the Christian counterpart to Osama bin Laden” who “has learned a lot from the muslim terrorists and have no problem using their tactics”:

Long's Peak Scottish-Irish Festival

Members of the wandering Celtic clans of Wyoming

Book burning humor featuring that book burnin' guy in FLA (and fellow travelers)

Kurt Vonnegut's books were target of many a book burnin'. Unpatriotic (imagine that?). Bad words. Anti-Christian. Blah, blah, blah. He said he welcomed the bump in book sales created by the publicity. I've never been to a book burning, not even in Gainesville. Have you?

Senate Repubs as Groucho: "I'm Against It!"

Sen. Barrasso of Wyoming does look a bit like Groucho...

Even on Labor Day, corporations busily creating fewer jobs

As always, bona fide populist Jim Hightower is angry and is making sense when it comes to corporate greed. Great reading for Labor Day (or even the day after Labor Day):

America's corporate chieftains must love poor people, for they're doing all they can to create millions more of them.

They're knocking down wages, offshoring everything from manufacturing jobs to high tech, reducing full-time work to part-time, downsizing our workplaces, busting unions, cutting health care coverage and canceling pensions -- while also lobbying in Washington to privatize Social Security, eliminate job safety protections, restrict unemployment benefits, kill job-creating programs and increase corporate control of our elections.

It's said that the poor and the rich will always be among us. But nowhere is it written that the middle-class will always be there. In fact, it is a very recent creation in our society (and an unavailable dream for most people in the world). America's great middle class literally arose with the rise of labor unions and populist political movements in the 1800s, finally culminating in democratic economic reforms implemented from the 1930s into the 1960s.

Read the rest at truthout.

You can light a fire with "Ignite Cheyenne"

Hey, everybody. You can "Ignite Cheyenne." I first heard about "Ignite" last year from Jeff Fruwirth. He's been participating in Ignite Fort Collins for awhile. Here's the info, cross-posted from wyomingarts:

If you had five minutes to say something to the people of Cheyenne, what would you say?

Well think it over, because we are giving you a chance to say it. "Ignite Cheyenne" is a place where people from Cheyenne and southeastern Wyoming can come to share ideas, hobbies, socialize and have a great time. Ignite Cheyenne is about showcasing your ideas and your passion. Both of those things can make Cheyenne an even better place! We want to hear you talk at Ignite Cheyenne.

Location: Historic Plains Hotel, 1600 Central Avenue, Cheyenne

Date: October 5, 2010

Schedule:

6 p.m.: Doors open -- Come for mingling and drinks

7 p.m.:  First group of talks

7:30-8 p.m.: Intermission

8-8:30 p.m.: Second group of talks

9 p.m.: Go home enlightened

Tickets: Starting September 3 at 9:30 am.,. you can get them on the blog. Tickets are free, but you must register to attend.

Agenda: Presenters have not been picked. If you’re interested in presenting, head over here to read some guidelines on the talks, then contact us here

Event Curators: Anna Nowak, Jeff Fruhwirth and Juliette Rule

What is Ignite, exactly?

On the website, Ignite is called a “global movement.” Here we just like to think of it as a group of people gathering around to share stories, tips and tricks that make life and work easier, and a forum for people to talk about their passions.

How does it work?

Each speaker at Ignite will get 20 slides to tell their story. However, there’s a catch: each slide will auto-advance after 15 seconds, making the total time of the talk 5 minutes. The format of the slides embodies the Ignite tagline “Enlighten us, but make it quick.”

How much does it cost?

"Ignite Cheyenne" is free to the public, but you do need to sign up for a free ticket. You can sign up for tickets starting at 9:30 am on Friday September 3, here. Having you register helps us by letting us know how many people to expect, and in turn how much food and beer to provide (also free) at the event.

What do I need to do?

Just show up. If you enjoy yourself, make sure to tell your friends and come back next time (we are shooting to coincide with Global Ignite Week for Ignite Cheyenne 2). If you’re feel really brave, give a talk!

We will be uploading pictures from the event to our Flickr page and the talks to our YouTube Channel.

What are some possible topics? What about these:

Ideas for filling up the hole in downtown Cheyenne

Public arts in Cheyenne -- beyond the bucking bronco.

Oil boom or oil bust?

Cheyenne -- a state of mind or a mind of state?

Cheyenne Frontier Days -- Is that All There Is?

Etc.....

History of Haters in America, Part I

Passed along by always-vigilant activist Meg Lanker of Laramie.

Labor Day weekend is good time to order new "Working Words" anthology

A new anthology from Coffee House Press in the Twin Cities is Working Words: Punching the Clock and Kicking Out the Jams. It's edited by my old pal in Detroit, poet and performer M. L. Liebler. The foreword is written by Ben Hamper.

I would be negligent (and totally self-promoting) if I didn't mention that one of my stories is in the book. Entitled "The Problem with Mrs. P," it's in my first collection, The Weight of a Body from Ghost Road Press in Denver.

I was just reading another of the anthology's stories, "Turn the Radio to a Gospel Station" by Ohio writer, poet and nurse Jeanne Bryner. I met Jeanne at a YMCA Writer's Voice retreat at Fur Peace Ranch near Pomeroy, Ohio. The ranch is run by guitar great and bluesman Jorma Kaukonen and his wife. Some of you Boomers may remember Jorma from his days with a little group called Jefferson Airplane. M.L. was also at the retreat. That was back in the days when he ran the Detroit YMCA's Writer's Voice program. Bluiesman, writer and arts administrator Bob Fox was also in attendance. Bob passed away from lung cancer a few years later. I miss Bob.

All of us come from modest roots. Working people. Assembly-line workers. Oil well workers. Cowboys. Accountants. Nurses. Day laborers. Union people of all kinds. Maybe that's why we write about regular folks. Those are whom most writers are concerned with. Even Ayn Rand before she went loony.

But the late Ayn is not in this anthology. Here's some background on the book:

Jobs are at the forefront of the national consciousness, yet there is a dearth of literature written by and for workers. This anthology—of fiction, memoir, poetry, rock lyrics, and astute historical analysis—fills the gap for readers both young and old, as well as students of literature and labor history.

A collection about living while barely making one, about layoffs and picket lines, about farmers, butchers, miners, waitresses, assembly-line workers, and the “Groundskeeper Busted Reading in the Custodial Water Closet,” this is literature by the people and for the people—a transcendent volume that touches upon all aspects of working-class life.

Glad to be sharing the pages with M.L. and Jeanne. And all of these people: Bonnie Jo Campbell, Woody Guthrie, Edward Sanders, Willa Cather, Lolita Hernandez, John Sayles, Andrei Codrescu, Bret Lott, Quincy Troupe, Dorothy Day, Thomas Lynch, Jack White, Diane di Prima, Michael McClure, Walt Whitman, Bob Dylan, Michael Moore . . . and many more!

Happy Labor Day!

What the poem "The Hurt Locker" sounds like

I read Here, Bullet from Iraq War vet Brian Turner when it first came out. He has a new book and I will buy and read that too.

The Poetry Foundation web site posted a video of Brian reading "The Hurt Locker." Here's the narrative from that post:

Brian Turner’s “The Hurt Locker” started as a poem and ended as a Hollywood blockbuster. In his latest collection, Phantom Noise, the poet-soldier continues to explores the contradictions of war and the battles he fights long after returning home. Read a review by Courtney Cook at the Washington Post:


In his new collection, “Phantom Noise,” Turner is the same soldier, with the same keen eye, but he is even more battle-weary. Taken together, these books are an unusual two-part portrait of a decade of war: its strength, its wounds, its fantasies of home and, as it happens, the strange beauty of a stubbornly foreign culture. Taken alone, “Phantom Noise” is an unsettling plunge into a returned soldier’s dislocation. Through images that recur again and again, from Iraq to a podium in Colorado, from a field hospital to a pristine day on Puget Sound, we go deep inside this soldier’s relief, grief and alienation.

Feds to Pavillionites: Don't drink the water!

This post goes along with my earlier one about Laramie County Niobrara Shale drilling boom. At Tuesday's meeting, saw a nice film clip about horizontal drilling and fracking from Noble Energy, one of the boom's major players. It went into details about how drillers take pains to protect the water table. It rang with sincerity. But I wonder: Did Pavillion residents see a similar video before drilling and fracking started in their area?

See the PBS report at http://www.pbs.org/wnet/need-to-know/environment/feds-warn-residents-near-wyoming-gas-drilling-sites-not-to-drink-their-water/3338/

Oil making big "play" in Laramie County

Niobrara Shale -- the blob that ate Laramie County. Map from the Unconventional Gas Center web site.

Cheyenne is not a Wyoming “energy boom town” like Gillette, Rock Springs or Pinedale.

That’s about to change. The oil rush is on in Laramie County. This past spring and summer, I’d read in the paper that leases for the Niobrara Formation were selling like hotcakes. A couple million here, a few million there. Serious money was changing hands – around $90 million -- some of it (and I hope it’s a lot) going into state coffers.

The drilling has begun. Near Carpenter, new high-tech pumping stations stick their straws into the earth, drilling down and then under and over to taste some of that sweet, sweet crude. The oil is sucked out of the ground and put it into storage tanks. You can see them if you drive south on Campstool Road. We’re used to industrial-looking stuff sticking out of the prairie – nuclear missile sites, old-fashioned oil wells, windmills (the new huge wind power kind and the old-fashioned kind), cell towers, etc. But soon, 21st century oil wells will be everywhere.

Last night at the Laramie County Democrats’ meeting at the IBEW Hall, County Commissioner Jeff Ketcham was handing out flyers for the “Southeast Wyoming Oil Shale Seminar.” The first meeting is Tuesday, Aug. 31 (tonight!), 6-8 p.m., at the Laramie County School District No. 1 Administration Building Auditorium in Cheyenne.

“Learn and converse about the Niobrara Oil Play and how it may affect us.”

I meant to ask Jeff to define “oil play” but didn’t get the chance. I was too busy listening to some of the impacts already happening in the county. But here’s what I found out at the Unconventional Gas Center site at http://www.ugcenter.com/:

The Niobrara has the potential to be the industry’s next large oil-shale resource play. Niobrara shales are prevalent throughout the Rocky Mountain region. A thick and continuous Cretaceous source rock, the Niobrara is rich in organics and thermally mature.

I hate to brag, but this sounds like me: “rich in organics and thermally mature.” Maybe I should change my name to Michael Shale.

I still don’t know what a “play” is. More research needed.

Jeff said that there were four voice messages calls waiting for him when he got to work the other day. All were complaining and dust and traffic on the county’s rural roads. And this is just after a few wells. Imagine what it will be like in a few years.

Gary Roadifer, running for the seat in House District 10, said that his town of Pine Bluffs already is home to seven man camps. Man camps, in case you don’t know, are barracks or RV campgrounds that house the people working at the sites. I tried to imagine seven man camps in a small town such as Pine (as the locals call it). That really has to impact a place. Gary quipped that the town’s only café has gone from $3 meals to $16 meals. That’s a whopping increase – you could buy three BK Whopper meals for this price. If there was a BK in PB.

“Discussion highlights” for tonight’s meeting:

• Technical background: geology, technology, and process/time line
• Industry needs: physical and employment
• Environmental concerns
• Planning for socio-economic impact

Big topics all. I’m looking forward to soaking up all the info, including the meaning of “oil play.”

 Q: Can Oil come out and play?
 A: Not today, son – he’s slick in bed.

Get it? Better not tell that one on the Gulf Coast.

Two more of these meetings are scheduled for Torrington and Wheatland, both on Wednesday. More info available from Anja Bendel, High Plains Economic Development District, 307-331-0012; anja.bendel@gmail.com

LarCoDems meet Monday night at IBEW Hall

From Linda Stowers, chair of the LarCoDems:

The Laramie County Democrats will be meeting tomorrow, Aug 30, at 7 p.m. at the IBEW hall in Cheyenne. We will be discussing activities to get Democrats elected in November. Please come if you can.

Cow with 310 million tits? Not in Wyoming...

Stuff Alan Simpson Says is a new web site from http://www.boldprogressives.com/, a production of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee PAC. It’s a liberal group that supports a healthy Social Security system. To do that, the PAC is raising alarums by picking on Sen. Alan Simpson’s quaint Wyoming-bred phraseology.

Sen. Simpson has uttered no end of colorful quotes. You could probably fill a book. But he’s a moderate when compared with Republicans running for the House and Senate this year. He’s a moderate when stacked up against Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso and Wyoming Rep. Cynthia Lummis. He’s trying to bring attention to a huge issue, one that too easily gets swept under the rug.

The BoldProgressives site is very clever. On the home page, you get to take a quiz. Multiple choice, with only two choices. I easily guessed the cow with 310 million tits one. Here it is:

'I've made some plenty smart cracks about people on Social Security who milk it to the last degree. You know 'em too...We've reached a point now where it's like a milk cow with 310 million tits!'

As one web site commenter notes, cows have “teats” and not “tits.” But you have to excuse the senator on this one. Wyoming is not really a milk cow state, save for a few farms in the Star Valley. When we think of cows, we think of cattle. Longhorns and shorthorns on the trail, kicking up dust, guided by rugged cowboys. Sure, female cattle have teats. Cattle ranchers would know this. Simpson should know this. But the metaphorical part of his brain – and his loose tongue – got the best of him.

A cow with 310 million teats would be a sight to see. I have no doubt that downwinders in the West have seen mutant cows (a la “The Hills Have Eyes”). All that fallout from those Cold War nuke tests had an effect. Somewhere out in the remote stretches of Utah or Idaho or New Mexico, is a cow with more than the allotted number of teats. There are bloggers in those parts who have seen such a thing. Please immediately report sightings to the deficit commission.

Go take the quiz. See how many you can guess. Hint: Pick the most outrageous of the two choices and you’re in good shape.

The late William Stafford meditates (poetically) on peace in "Every War Has Two Losers"

This new documentary is about William Stafford, one of America's -- and the West's -- best poets. He was a conscientious objector during World War II and spent 1942-46 in a C.O. detention camp. The film has been screened at several film festivals and will be making the USA rounds through the fall. No screenings on the schedule for MT, WY, UT or CO, although there are ones for SD. You can order the DVD at http://www.everywar.com/ and it includes a doc on Stafford and his friend Robert Bly. I was reading on Facebook that Every War Has Two Losers will be shown at the Wine Country Film Festival in California's Napa Valley, along with a new documentary on poet Gary Snyder. I'm going to have to look for that one, too. Can't have too many films on this country's great poets