I'm pleased to join line-up of presenters at this summer's Wyoming Writers, Inc., conference

Gayle Irwin sent out a Facebook message today that the Wyoming Writers, Inc., 2013 conference brochure was going out in the mail. She urges poets and writers in the region to come out to the conference set for June 7-9 in Laramie. I'm pleased to be one of the conference presenters along with Colorado author Margaret Coel (author of the Wind River mysteries and Catherine McLeod novels), poet and essayist Rick Kempa of Rock Springs, children's and young adult writer and educator Gene Gagliano of Buffalo, Casper author and historian Tom Rea and literary agents Sandra Bond and Katharine Sands. Additionally, Chris Madson, editor of Wyoming Wildlife magazine will be speaking on Friday evening, June 7. I will be talking about short stories, online publishing and blogging. Get registration info at http://www.wyowriters.org.

One more thing about the conference... My old pal Page Lambert will be conducting a pre-conference workshop at the Vee Bar Guest Ranch near Laramie June 1-6. If you can't make it for the six-day workshop, check out the special two-day "Mini-Retreat" June 6-7 prior to the Wyoming Writers Conference in Laramie: Literature and Landscape of the Horse. Learn more at http://www.pagelambert.com/horse_literature.html

I'm big on writing and eating and campfires and camaraderie but not much of a horse guy. But if you are, you can't go wrong with this mini-retreat near the ramparts of the Snowy Range that moves right into the conference a few miles away in Laramie. 

Habitat for Humanity of Laramie County holds "Jump Into Jewels" fundraiser April 27

Kate Wright sends this news about a fundraiser sponsored by the organization she leads, Habitat for Humanity of Laramie County. I was on Habitat's first board back in 1992-93. I don't have much in the way of jewels to offer but there must be hundreds of you out there who do. The proceeds from Jump into Jewels will benefit Habitat's Women's Build Project that will build a home for a hard-working Cheyenne family. Kate urges you to donate your new and gently used jewelry and accessories to the cause. The event is free and open to the public from noon until 6 p.m. A Champagne Brunch Preview Party will be held from 10 a.m.-noon. Tickets to the preview party are $15.

May I Have an Atom Heart, Mother?

My dream heart

I was treated to an echo cardiogram at CRMC on Wednesday. If you're not a heart patient, you might know the "echo" as the Ultrasound test performed on pregnant women. "Hooray -- it's a boy." or maybe "Good God -- triplets."

My echo was scheduled to determine the shape of my heart following a Christmas heart attack and an early January angioplasty and stent placement in my LAD artery (a.k.a. "The Widowmaker"). I "presented late" (as my doc puts it) due to the fact that I was futzing around with our family doctor who didn't know what he was doing so my heart muscles were damaged. Ideally, heart attack patients get to the ER ASAP so the blockage can be cleared or so the docs can get to work on a bypass. I was late to the ball. But I got my stent, a dozen or so medications, 36 weeks of cardiac rehab and lots of TLC.

Wednesday's echo showed that my heart still had some healing to do. The docs think I should have a defibrillator implant but I'm a bit unsure. I'm going to get a second opinion from heart docs down in Colorado.

Or I might get an atomic heart. The story, according to The Atlantic:

In 1967, the National Heart Institute and the Atomic Energy Agency began a ten-year effort to develop an artificial heart powered by plutonium-238. The atomic hearts would have pumped human blood with the energy provided by the radioactive decay of that isotope. The effort failed thanks to technical challenges, intra-governmental infighting, and the souring of the public mood about both medical devices and atomic energy, but it remains a fascinating episode at the confluence of two grand American dreams.

This is the story told by Shelley McKellar, who teaches the history of medicine at at the University of Western Ontario in the most recent issue of the quarterly journal Technology and Culture.

The Federally funded programs continued for a decade, sometimes at cross-purposes, and they foreshadowed the rhetoric that came to surround later attempts at creating other types of artificial hearts in the 1980s. There are lessons to be learned, McKellar implies, about how people receive a particular technology changes along with the social and regulatory environment. Ideas that make sense one decade can seem totally ridiculous ten years later.

But, you might be asking yourself, "What in the hell was anyone even thinking trying to stick a radioisotope generator into a human being's chest cavity?"

 Because, that's why.

Tale of a Wasted Youth, Part One

News comes from afar (OK, I read it on my laptop) about the demise of the Boston Phoenix. The late great alt-weekly was not alt enough for the 2010s. Its wise-ass editorial attitude was no match for multitudes of snarkmeisters on the blogosphere. Its advertising dollars migrated to Craigslist and a whole roster of Boston area web sites.

As is the case with most alternative newspapers, the Phoenix rose out of the sixties counterculture in 1966. Its rock-and-roll soul made it a must-read for a 21-year-old college dropout like me who was trying my luck in the big city. On my way home from my night-shift hospital job, I would drop a quarter in some longhair's palm to claim my weekly copy. It was fat with articles and music listing and bar ads and personals.I would take it back to my shabby walk-up on the cheap side of Beacon Hill (there was such a thing in 1972) and devour it while sipping a pre-Starbucks coffee and scarfing down a few doughnuts. Articles covered local politics, the antiwar movement, music, drugs, food and a 1,001 other topics.

 I'd read a variety of alternative papers during my cross-country travels: Atlanta's Great Speckled Bird, the Village Voice, the Berkeley Barb, and others whose names I can't remember. They were a refreshing change to the stodgy daily papers with their reliance on the 5 Ws and deference to all sides of an issue. Phoenix writers took a stand on the left (or at least the iconclastic) side of most issues which was just fine with me. After a lifetime of Catholic school and two years of college ROTC, I was fairly new to the counterculture. I wanted to roll around in it. I was openly living in sin with a wild Protestant girl namd Sharon, growing my hair long, smoking pot whenever I felt like it and reading alternative weeklies from cover to cover. I was hauling around bedpans at night at a local hospital, but a guy had to make a living. As soon as Sharon and I saved up enough, we were hitting the road again. At least that was the plan.

I lived in Boston from August through March. I read every issue of the Phoenix and its cousin, the Real Paper. I briefly flirted with the idea of becoming a nurse. My boss thought I was pretty good at hauling bedpans and wondered if I'd like to pursue a higher calling of administering enemas and starting IVs. She said the hospital would pay for it.

Unfortunately, the Phoenix was ruining me. I'd always wanted to be a writer but didn't know how to start. First the nuns and then the U.S. Navy said I should major in something practical, something in the sciences. Medicine, for instance. Or marine biology. But after a steady diet of wise-assery courtesy of the Phoenix and then Rolling Stone, I started writing in a journal. I made pithy observations. I recorded snatches of conversation overhead in local bars. I began to chronicle the break-up of my relationship with a wild Protestant girl who wondered why I was spending so much time scribbling in journals. She finally packed up and went back to school at UConn, leaving no forwarding address. I packed up my journals and Phoenix copies and headed back to Florida. It took me awhile to actually publish something. I then started writing feature stories for the Independent Florida Alligator in Gainesville. I free-lanced for some regional and national mags. I graduated and went on to write sports for both Denver dailies and then manage a weekly alternative newspaper called Up the Creek that got its start as an advertising sheet from suburban softball leagues and saloon-sponsored wet T-shirt contests. I wrote a wise-ass column and features about street gangs and local politics and religious cults and sports. I had a small staff of good writers, although they didn't stay around long. It wasn't the Phoenix but, hey, you take what you can get.

I publish short stories and essays in literary magazines. I've written more than my share of press releases and business articles. I've been prog-blogging since 2005. I can't say I have hordes of devoted readers. But I write what I want. I believe it was A.J. Liebling who said this: "The free press belongs to those who own one."  I don't own Blogger but I do lay claim to my little part of the blogosphere. I provide an alternative voice within the Wyoverse. I could fold at any time. But it won't be due to stodginess or lack of advertising. One day, I may just decide to fold up my tent and go home.

Thanks for the memories, Boston Phoenix. I haven't read you regularly in 40 years. But just knowing that you no longer exist makes a hole in the creative universe.

Marking the tenth anniversary of the Iraq invasion with a photo sampler

These three photos come from The Atlantic magazine's series of photo essays commemorating the tenth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. This is only a sampler of the 150 photos featured in The Atlantic. They each spoke to me in different ways. The above photo was taken on Wednesday, March 13, 2013. It shows a view of Baghdad's Firdos Square at the site of an Associated Press photograph taken by Jerome Delay as the statue of Saddam Hussein was pulled down by U.S. forces and Iraqis on April 9, 2003. Ten years ago on live television, U.S. Marines memorably hauled down a Soviet-style statue of Saddam, symbolically ending his rule. Today, that pedestal in central Baghdad stands empty. Bent iron beams sprout from the top, and posters of anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in military fatigues are pasted on the sides. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

I work in the arts and have often wondered about the fate of artists and musicians and writers during the war. A student practices playing the oud (above) at the Institute of Musical Studies in Baghdad, on October 21, 2012. The once quiet courtyards of Baghdad's Institute of Musical Studies, located in the busy Sinak area, where violence was rife during the height of Iraq's sectarian violence in 2006 and 2007, are thriving again as the Iraqi capital enjoys a noticeable ebb in violence (for now). Many of Iraq's most talented musicians fled during the rule of Saddam Hussein, fearing persecution for their political views and suffering from a lack of funding and exposure if they refused to glorify the leader in their art. Now, slowly, some musicians are making plans to come back, hoping to revive Iraq's rich musical tradition on home soil. (Reuters/Mohammed Ameen)

I've written a lot about veteran suicides during the past decade (go here and here and here). In the above photo, Matt and Cheryl Ecker hold a photo of their son, Army veteran Michael Ecker, in Champion, Ohio, April 19, 2012. In 2009, Michael committed suicide, shooting himself in front of his father. Veteran suicides remain a serious problem in the U.S. A recent Veteran's Administration study using data from 21 states between 1999 and 2011 suggested that as many as 22 veterans were killing themselves every day. (Reuters/Jason Cohn)

Hal Holbrook's "Mark Twain Tonight" reminds me of some of his wry observations about 1861 Wyoming

I finally got around to seeing Hal Holbrook in Mark Twain Tonight. I've been trying to it most of my adult life. Coincidentally, Holbrook has been performing it most of his adult life, nigh on 60 years. He was 29 when he first assumed the guise of the famous author. Now he's 88, looking a lot closer to what Twain looked like on the lecture circuit in 1905, when he was 70.

Holbrook resurrected Twain Saturday night before a capacity crowd at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts' Buell Theatre. Twenty-two Democrats, most of us from Cheyenne along with a few from Denver and Colorado Springs, thought that Mark Twain Tonight would be the perfect venture. In the show, Twain lambastes Democrats and Republicans, professing to a more independent nature than allowed by the two-party system. As he aged, though, he grew more radical, blasting organized religion, disorganized politicians and life's assorted vagaries.    

Mark Twain traveled by coach through Wyoming in 1861 on his way from Missouri to California. He wrote in his 1872 book Roughing It about Laramie Peak:  

"We passed Fort Laramie in the night, and on the seventh morning out we found ourselves in the Black Hills, with Laramie Peak at our elbow (apparently) looming vast and solitary -- a deep, dark, rich indigo blue in hue, so portentously did the old colossus frown under his beetling brows of storm-cloud. He was thirty or forty miles away, in reality, but he only seemed removed a little beyond the low ridge at our right."

Later, Twain described his passage through Wyoming's South Pass City:

Toward dawn we got under way again, and presently as we sat with raised curtains enjoying our early-morning smoke and contemplating the first splendor of the rising sun as it swept down the long array of mountain peaks, flushing and gilding crag after crag and summit after summit, as if the invisible Creator reviewed his gray veterans and they saluted with a smile, we hove in sight of South Pass City. The hotel-keeper, the postmaster, the blacksmith, the mayor, the constable, the city marshal and the principal citizen and property holder, all came out and greeted us cheerily, and we gave him good day. He gave us a little Indian news, and a little Rocky Mountain news, and we gave him some Plains information in return. He then retired to his lonely grandeur and we climbed on up among the bristling peaks and the ragged clouds. South Pass City consisted of four log cabins, one if which was unfinished, and the gentleman with all those offices and titles was the chiefest of the ten citizens of the place. Think of hotel-keeper, postmaster, blacksmith, mayor, constable, city marshal and principal citizen all condensed into one person and crammed into one skin.

Thus Twain became one of the many chroniclers of Wyoming. Many, like Twain, were just passing through, noting for posterity the rugged landscapes and quirky characters. Others stayed, noting the quirky landscapes and rugged characters. 

I am one of them. I love Twain's humor and attempt to honor it by imitation. Laramie's Bill Nye was another humorist from Wyoming, spending time as a newspaperman in Laramie. He founded the Laramie Boomerang, naming it after his mule. Contemporary Wyoming writers such as Tim Sandlin follow in Nye's footsteps. 

Viewing O'Keeffe on St. Patrick's Day in Denver

Your humble blogger (far left) with Georgia O'Keeffe peeking over my shoulder on St. Patrick's Day at the Denver Art Museum's O'Keeffe retrospective. Next to me in my wife, Chris, followed by Kate McMorrow Wright, Lori Brand, Rachel Kelley and Ray Brand. A batch of Democrats from Wyoming let loose on the big city. Photo by Unsuspecting Bystander using Kate's iPhone.

Start Roaming, Try Wyoming

This intriguing photo was on the Buffalo Bill Center of the West Facebook page. It shows a Wyoming delegation to Washington, D.C. in 1925 with President Calvin "Silent Cal" Coolidge and Wyoming Senator John Kendrick. The banner must be a tourism promotion. Note that the president is wearing a cowboy hat. Coolidge was from Vermont and served as governor of Massachusetts. He probably had little use for a cowboy lid. The catch-phrase on the banner is nice for its near-rhyme. It's often hellish to find rhymes for "Wyoming." But if I was in the tourism game, I'd have a phrase that said: "Start Roaming, Try Wyoming." Wyoming was made for roaming. By horse. By car. By foot. Lots of room to roam. In 1925, the interstate highway system was 30 years in the future and most roads weren't paved. 

On St. Patrick's Day weekend, I ponder the possibility of a Pope Howdy Doody I

As a kid, I bore a startling resemblance to TV's Howdy Doody.

Each St. Patrick’s Day, I ponder what it means to be an Irish-American. This year, as a new pope takes the reins of Mother Church, I’m also pondering about what it means to be Irish Catholic.

I just had a flashback. I get those occasionally. I wonder if it’s my damaged heart playing tricks on my brain.

Back in those black-and-white days of the 1950s, my younger brother Dan and I found ourselves in the same ward at Denver Mercy Hospital. We had double pneumonia, which is twice as troublesome as single pneumonia. It sound worse, too, doesn’t it? Our mother was a nurse at Mercy, a graduate of the hospital’s nurses’ training program at the tail end of World War II. 

The Mercy nuns were in charge. They wore full habits back then, which lent them an air of authority and mystery seasoned with a dollop of menace. They were neither the horror of the nuns portrayed in some books or plays written by lapsed Catholics. Nor were they the sweethearts portrayed in “Sister Act” or “The Sound of Music.” They were tough yet fair. They seemed to treat Dan and I a bit better than the others. This was probably due to our mother.

One day, Dan seemed to have a brainstorm. He waited until one of the nuns was in the ward, and he sat up and said, “I want to be a priest.”

The nun scurried over. “A priest, is it?” The Mercy nuns all spoke with an Irish brogue, yet another import from that benighted isle. 

“Yes, sister.” Dan beamed angelically. 

“That’s a good boy,” said the good sister, patting Dan on the arm. “And how would you like some ice cream, Daniel boy?”

“Thank you, sister.” More of the beaming. My brother had black hair and blue eyes, Black Irish like my mother. I had bright orange hair and was covered with freckles from head to toe. The kids at school called me Howdy Doody, who was a red-haired, freckle-faced TV puppet. He was an agreeable sort but dopey looking. I didn’t like him.

The nun returned with Dan’s ice cream. None for us. After all, we didn’t want to be priests. This was the highest calling a kid could attain. Parish priests ruled the Catholic roost. We know now that some of them were less than saintly. But back in those patriarchal days, they could do no wrong.

The next time a nun entered the room, Tommy piped up: “I want to be a priest.” The nun came over, patted Tommy on the head and said he was getting some ice cream too. So half of the kids in the ward now had ice cream and I had none. Before the fourth kid, the one in the bed by the wall, could speak up, I also said: “I want to be a priest.”

The nun walked over, put her hands on her hips sand said, “I suppose you want to be a priest so you can have some ice cream.”

“No sister.” I was no dummy, although I looked like one. “I had a dream. In it, I was a priest.” 

This got her attention.  “A dream?”

I nodded. “Yes sister.”

“And in this dream were you eating ice cream?”

“No sister. I was dressed like a priest and was saying mass.”

“You’re a fine lad, saying mass in a dream.  You almost could call that a vision.”

“Yes, sister.” 

She looked down at me. “We’re out of ice cream. I’ll get you a popsicle.” She frowned and walked out.

“Copycat,” said Dan.

“Not,” I said.

“Popsicle.” Tommy snickered. He bit into his ice cream bar.

I got a cherry popsicle. The nun broke it in two so the kid in the far bed could have some. 

As I ate the popsicle and stared at the two ice cream eaters, I vowed that next time I would be quicker on the draw and fake my priestly calling with much more alacrity than I had earlier. Perhaps I should be a bishop? Or pope? Too grandiose, perhaps. But imagine the world’s surprise when Howdy Doody the First donned the papal garments and those bitchin’ red shoes.

The Argentine pope and Borges and a building inspired by Dante's "Divine Comedy"

Our new pope, Francis, is from Argentina and is the former Archbishop of Buenos Aires.

I say "our pope" because I'm a cradle Catholic, attended Catholic School and received all the sacraments in the church, except for holy orders and extreme unction (I'm holding off on that last one). But because I'm a Liberal and don't go to church, I'm usually considered a cultural Catholic or a lapsed Catholic or not a Catholic at all. Listening to NPR during this popapalooza, a conservative caller agreed that the new pope should adopt a zero tolerance policy on sexual predators. But she went on to say that the new pope should also adopt a zero tolerance policy for Liberal Catholics who criticize the church. People like me.

No matter my Catholic status, I'm pleased that the new pope is from a country other than a European one. I know very little about Argentina. I know that the great writer Jorge Luis Borges was an Argentine, as is Manuel Puig ("Kiss of the Spider Woman") and Julio Cortazar, the "modern master of the short story." Alfonsina Storni was a great modernist poet from Argentina. She's the character in the song Alfonsina y el Mar, based on Alfonsina's suicide by walking into the sea. The country has a great literary tradition. In fact, retired writers with at least five books get a special pension from the government. I was ready to pack my bags for Buenos Aires when I discovered that you have to actually be from Argentina and write in Spanish or one of the native languages to qualify. Que?

I wish American writers got literary pensions. We are, after all, part of Mitt Romney's 47 percent. We just take verbs and nouns with no thought of ever giving them back. I'd be happy to give them back if I could find a publisher.

Did you know that here is a building in Buenos Aires inspired by Dante Alighieri's "The Divine Comedy." You can take a look at it here. I don't know of a single American skyscraper inspired by a literary classic.

Argentina was also site of "the dirty war" of the 1970s in which the ruling junta was responsible for the 30,000 "disappeared." The church was criticized for its cozy relationship with the generals whose death squads were murdering at will.

From a story in the Digital Journal:

"We have much to be sorry for," Father Ruben Captianio told the New York Times in 2007. "The attitude of the Church was scandalously close to the dictatorship to such an extent that I would say it was of a sinful degree." Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/345612#ixzz2NTVKbz3X

Read still more on this subject in The Guardian.

I wish Pope Francis a long life. Let's hope he has time to read, and to ponder his role in his country's past.      

3-D printing transforming us from passive consumers to active creators

Amazing stuff. This 3-D printing technology may be an immediate threat to manufacturers but what about artists and crafters? Our work may be covered by copyright, but that hasn't prevented online purloiners from lifting digital images and written work from web sites. The music world faced this a decade ago and they seem to have reached some sort of compromise, one that walks the line between getting stuff for free and paying for it.

Many left behind as Wyoming continues its opposition to Medicaid expansion

Wyoming is one of those Obamacare-hatin' states that have (thus far) refused Medicaid expansion.

This snippet by Virally Suppressed on Daily Kos seemed to be relevant to the issue:

With the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid expansion and mental health parity law all taking place at the present, it is difficult to anticipate where we will end up in ten years time. It is a fairly safe bet that Federal spending on mental health will continue to rise at a lightning pace due to the nature of the Medicaid expansion, which places a minimum of 90 percent of the costs on the Federal government while extending comprehensive mental health care to tens of millions of low income Americans. It is also more than likely that the health gap in this country will become exacerbated by this new legislation, an idea which seems counterintuitive considering the entire point of the Affordable Care Act is to reduce barriers to health care and create a more egalitarian health system. However, thanks to the infinite wisdom of The Supreme Court, state governments have been given an irresponsible amount of power in their legal right to refuse Medicaid expansion and essentially tell their constituencies that they will have to forgo medical care because of an ideological tiff between two political parties who don't have their best interest in mind. This latitude which has been given to state governments and which is arguably in violation of the supremacy clause of the Constitution, will create a two-tiered mental health system in which the healthy get healthier and sick continue to be ignored by the system that is supposed to be protecting them. Thus far, 24 states (and DC) have said that they will be participating in Medicaid expansion, while 14 states have stated that they will not be taking part. Of those 14 states, only 3 are in the top half of the nation's health rankings and 5 rank among the bottom 10. It looks like some states are replacing old state funding with Federal funding, while other states aren't replacing old state funding with anything.

Read the rest here.

If Sen./Dr. Barrasso isn't going to legislate, he can at least medicate at Wyoming health centers hit by sequestration cuts

Sen./Dr. John Barrasso, Sen. Mike Enzi and Rep./Gazillionaire Cynthia Lummis don't have to depend on the Cheyenne Health and Wellness Center on Fox Farm Road for medical and dental care. They get free care courtesy of the U.S. taxpayer. But hundreds of other southeast Wyoming residents are not as fortunate. These low-income individuals will be impacted by the sequestration cuts soon to hit the Cheyenne center and a similar one in Casper, Community Health Center of Central Wyoming. Since both Enzi and Lummis call Cheyenne home during their many vacay days, and Barrasso is from Casper, perhaps they could look in on some of the people who will be affected by their dilly-dallying and political gamesmanship. Better yet, maybe Dr. Barrasso could take some time out of his lackadaisical schedule to minister to those Casper folks needing sutures or prescriptions. If he isn't going to legislate, he could at least medicate. Read about the cuts in today's Casper Star-Trib.

Tickets now on sale for Cheyenne Little Theatre's production of "Rent"

"Rent" casts rehearses title song at Historic Atlas Theatre. "Rent" opens April 5.
Get your tix here.

If you like 21st-century Cheyenne, thank the gubment

Joyce Kilmer at the High Plains Arboretum: I think that I shall never see/A poem as lovely as a tree.

Cheyenne owes its existence to government or, as it's pronounced in certain quarters, gubment (sometimes, gubmint).

That darn federal gubment was nice enough to station troops at Fort D.A. Russell to drive the pesky indigenous residents from the High Plain, thus making way for settlements, ranches and rodeos. This also made the region safe for the railroad, which owes its transcontinental success to the sweet deal it got from that darn federal gubment. The fort eventually grew into F.E. Warren AFB, home to the Peacekeeper Missile and thousands of income-generating Air Force personnel. Further economic development was fueled by federal office for the BLM and IRS. And state gubment grew, too, with hundreds of state employees driving Cheyenne's economic engine, buying weed-whackers at Lowe's and dining on prime rib sandwiches at The Albany Bar & Restaurant downtown. Many of us were forced to go to Fort Collins for more exotic fare, thus allowing the regional economy to grow. It's still a challenge to get good sushi in The Magic City of the Plains. But one must make sacrifices to live in this low-tax, sparsely-populated paradise with its always-entertaining legislature.

According to the Cheyenne Botanic Gardens web site, Cheyenne had 5,000 people and 12 trees in 1876. I now have almost as many trees on my north Cheyenne lot. I have two huge spruces in my front yard, trees that sometimes give me pause during our occasional 50-mph gusts that blow in from the mountains. I sometimes wonder if they will come crashing down on the house, causing yet another call to Neil, my insurance man, who's supervised multiple damages caused by hailstorms and sewer back-ups during the past two years.

It's not easy growing trees in "one of the harshest growing environments in the country," according to the Botanic Gardens.

Again we can thank the gubment for our lush landscape. The USDA's Cheyenne Horticultural Field Station (now High Plains Grasslands Research Station) researched and grew varieties of plants that could stand up to our harsh climate. The Cheyenne Botanic Gardens now is working on a 62-acre High Plains Arboretum on the site. Trees have always been a necessity. Next week at the library, we get to hear from a tree expert. Says the Botanic Gardens:

Early settlers struggled with the arid climate, alkaline soil and constant wind. Hailstorms often hastened the end of an already short growing season. Now Cheyenne can grow trees but it isn’t easy and you need to know what to plant. 

Don’t miss the lecture on Tenacious Trees with expert arboricultureist, Scott Skogerboe.

When: Saturday, March 16, 1 p.m.
Where: Laramie County Library Cottonwood Room
Price: $15.00 ea.
Purchase tickets online at www​.brownpapertickets​.com, type in “Gardening with Altitude,” or purchase at the Cheyenne Botanic Gardens (cash or check only)
NOTE: Lecture Room has limited seating. Advanced tickets are recommended as tickets at the door may sell out. Sponsored by the Laramie County Master Gardeners and the Cheyenne Botanic Gardens

I almost forgot to thank city gubment and its support (since 1986) of the Botanic Gardens. Thank you.

Republican Sequester brings pain to Wyoming

Sequester causes cuts in funding for special needs students: http://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/post/sequester-might-cut-funding-special-needs-students

Mayors from communities around Yellowstone National Park have petitioned Gov. Mead to use state funds to plow the park's roads so it will open on time for tourist season. Yellowstone's budget has been cut by more than $1.5 million due to sequestration. The Governor wonders why the state should have to spend money for federal obligations: http://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/post/governor-ponders-sequestration-help

Cheyenne Airport may have to shutter its air traffic control tower: http://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/post/cheyenne-regional-airport-might-lose-air-tower

April 6 Bluegrass Hootenanny features Hillbenders, Blue Grama and BeatGrass

If you attended the Feb. 9 concert by the Jalan Crossland Band at Terry Bison Ranch, you know that Alicia Padilla knows how to put on a show. A great time was had by all on a snowy winter night. Alicia's Wagon Ruts Productions is staging another show at the ranch on April 6. She sent this info:

On April 6, we're having a Bluegrass Hootenanny featuring the Hillbenders with very special guests: 

Blue Grama -- the massively talented, 6-piece ensemble from Northern Colorado. Blue Grama draws from their Bluegrass heritage and breathes joy, fresh life and excitement into their amazing, rich melodies.

Wyoming's finest, BeatGrass. BeatGrass's diverse sound is an unprecedented coalescence between BlueGrass and innovative originals, jazz standards, Motown classics and covers of some of the more newfangled hits. Their impactful complexities have been packing the house (and the outdoors) since their formation in 2010 across Wyoming.

PRESENTING: From traditional roots, springs the high-octane, instrumental mastery of the HillBenders. Hailing from Springfield, Missouri, these boys have been tearing up the bluegrass circuit, leaving their audiences reeling. Winners of the Telluride BlueGrass Band Competition in 2009 and taking First in the National Single Microphone Championship in 2010, the HillBenders are a contemporary force to be reckoned with. Their latest album, Can You Hear Me?, is an eclectic, compelling rouse to the senses. The richness of their upbringings in traditional BlueGrass provides a foundation upon which they innovate a unique and unforgettable sound. Each member has a jaw-dropping mastery of their instruments, which will hoist you right out of your chair. 

The quintet consists of Nolan Lawrence (Lead-singer/ Mandolinist), cousins Jim Rea and Gary Rea (Guitar and Bass), Mark Cassidy (Banjo), and Chad "Gravy Boat" Graves (Dobro). Their meticulous arrangements ripple into a cascade of improvisational brilliance. Experiencing the bands' skilled harmonies is comparable to drawing a five of a kind Aces, every hand.

TICKETS: $15 Presale, $17 Day of show at the door. $5 for Kids under age 12. Presale tickets available in Cheyenne at Ernie November (217 W. Lincolnway); Colorado presale: Attend one of Blue Grama's March concert dates for purchase. For dates: http://www.bluegramabluegrass.com/shows.html

PRESENTING: From traditional roots, springs the high-octane, instrumental mastery of the HillBenders. Hailing from Springfield, Missouri, these boys have been tearing up the bluegrass circuit, leaving their audiences reeling. Winners of the Telluride BlueGrass Band Competition in 2009 and taking First in the National Single Microphone Championship in 2010, the HillBenders are a contemporary force to be reckoned with. Their latest album, Can You Hear Me?, is an eclectic, compelling rouse to the senses. The richness of their upbringings in traditional BlueGrass provides a foundation upon which they innovate a unique and unforgettable sound. Each member has a jaw-dropping mastery of their instruments, which will hoist you right out of your chair. 

The quintet consists of Nolan Lawrence (Lead-singer/ Mandolinist), cousins Jim Rea and Gary Rea (Guitar and Bass), Mark Cassidy (Banjo), and Chad "Gravy Boat" Graves (Dobro). Their meticulous arrangements ripple into a cascade of improvisational brilliance. Experiencing the bands' skilled harmonies is comparable to drawing a five of a kind Aces, every hand.

TICKETS: $15 Presale, $17 Day of show at the door. $5 for Kids under age 12. Presale tickets available in Cheyenne at Ernie November (217 W. Lincolnway); Colorado presale: Attend one of Blue Grama's March concert dates for purchase. For dates: http://www.bluegramabluegrass.com/shows.html 

Terry Bison will be introducing their delicious Taco Bar Buffet for a steal at $8.95, in addition to regular menu items... They're ready for the PARTY! 

The venue has been designated NON-SMOKING FOR THE EVENING! I apologize for any inconvenience, but, smokers, please come and keep me company on the porch while I puff a couple down! Stay tuned to 103.3 The Range for contests and giveaways!

Marguerite Herman takes A Look at Wyoming Government

Marguerite Herman of Cheyenne ran an unsuccessful campaign for county commissioner in 2012. Instead of a learned, experienced Democrat, we got a Tea Party Republican. So it goes. 

This little setback was just a bump in the road for Herman, who is usually busy with 101 things. She's been writing a book and will stage a signing March 16 in Casper. Here's the info from the Casper Star-Tribune:

Marguerite Herman, author of A Look at Wyoming Government, will sign copies of the book this month in Casper. This is the seventh edition of the book, published by the League of Women Voters of Wyoming. Originally written in 2006, it includes updates in legislative districting, governing of the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapahoe tribes, the creation of circuit courts and other topics.

Herman has been the League’s lobbyist at the Wyoming Legislature for 15 years. She covered state government for The Associated Press from 1980 to 1986 and traced the development of school finance reform through the 1990s. 

“I wrote the seventh edition of A Look at Wyoming Government to cover issues that are useful for people to understand their government, how it raises revenue and spends it, how it passes laws in the Legislature, executes them in the Executive branch and interprets them in the courts,” Herman said in a release.

What: Marguerite Herman book signing

When: 1-3 p.m., Saturday, March 16

Where: Wind City Books in downtown Casper 

Info: http://www.windcitybooks.com/

Rep. Mary Throne (D-Cheyenne) to be honored at Wyoming Race for the Cure

A letter to state legislators from Wyoming Susan. G. Komen Race for the Cure Chair Laurie Heath:

Dear State of Wyoming Legislators:

Thank you for your appreciation of the Wyoming Susan G. Komen efforts on the Day of Hope. 2013 is a very exciting year for Wyoming Komen and in addition to the annual Race for the Cure to be held on August 10, 2013 in Cheyenne, at the Capitol, we have other exciting events going on across Wyoming. We will pass email bites of other awesome Komen or partner efforts over next few months. As always 75% of all monies raised in Wyoming for Komen will stay in Wyoming. The other 25% will be granted by Komen National to various research efforts.

We are glad to honor your very own Representative Mary Throne as our 2013 New Balance Survivor. As a national sponsor for every Race across the country, New Balance® will provide full athletic gear to Mary and our Race committee will honor her with a special tribute to her battle and survivorship throughout this year and at our Race. We appreciate particularly her spirit to serve Laramie County and Wyoming as she fights daily to ‘race for the cure’. Thoughts and prayers are with you Mary!

Time out for a sunny Saturday strawberry moment

I have no pressing reason for posting this. It's just that I was in the backyard looking at my fallow garden and the sun was shining and it was warm on my skin and I was thinking of strawberries.