Cheyenne's Yellowstone super-computer will bring new precision to climate research

This L.A. Times article on Cheyenne's new super-computer has so many cool, mind-blowing facts in it, and it's so well-written by Scott Gold, that I hate to point out one annoying oddity.

So I won't do that right now. Instead, read these opening paragraphs and feel proud about Laramie County's new claim to fame:

Out on the shortgrass prairie, where being stuck in the ways of the Old West is a point of civic pride, scientists are building a machine that will, in effect, look into the future. 

This month, on a barren Wyoming landscape dotted with gopher holes and hay bales, the federal government is assembling a supercomputer 10 years in the making, one of the fastest computers ever built and the largest ever devoted to the study of atmospheric science. 

The National Center for Atmospheric Research's supercomputer has been dubbed Yellowstone, after the nearby national park, but it could have been named Nerdvana. The machine will have 100 racks of servers and 72,000 core processors, so many parts that they must be delivered in the back of a 747. Yellowstone will be capable of performing 1.5 quadrillion calculations — a quadrillion is a 1 followed by 15 zeros — every second. 

That's nearly a quarter of a million calculations, each second, for every person on Earth. In a little more than an hour, Yellowstone can do as many calculations as there are grains of sand on every beach in the world.

Our new computer, Yellowstone, is amazing. One of the goals of all that wizardry, according to the article, is to replace the guesswork of climate sience with precision. It is, after all, a project of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, or NCAR. The National Science Foundation paid $50 million of the $70 facility. The rest was paid by the University of Wyoming. UW aims to plumb the mysteries of carbon sequestration, which makes sense for a university that gets giant coal shovels full of money from the energy industry. Wonder what will happen if long-term, safe carbon sequestration turns out to be as viable as spinning straw into gold?

But we're getting ahead of ourselves. Those quarter of a million calculations per second will solve the riddle in due time. Meanwhile, climate scientists all over the globe will be crunching numbers and analyzing data about global warming, polar ice melt, super hurricanes, prolonged droughts, weather effects of solar flares, etc.

NCAR hopes to bring "regional accuracy" to forecasting. As NCAR's Richard Loft says: "The disaster of climate change happens on a regional scale. Everything is connected.""  

Everything is connected. What I like is that Cheyenne will be connected to the super-computer because it is right next door, or nearby. Whatever insights are gained about climate in the next decade, the data will come from Yellowstone. The computer, not the national park.

Which brings me to the one strange fact in the story. Yellowstone is a "nearby national park?" Well, Rocky Mountain National Park is two hours and about 120 miles from Cheyenne. That's nearby. But Yellowstone? That's 450 miles and a good eight hours from Cheyenne. O.K., maybe that's nearby if you live in Wyoming. But I wonder if Yellowstone (the super-computer) would think so? How would a super-computer quantify "nearby?"

Wanted: Wyoming scenic vistas to showcase at Democratic National Convention

Imagine if there were as many active Democrats in Wyoming as there are scenic vistas. This request for Wyoming photos comes from Ricky Kirshner, Executive Producer for the 2012 Democratic National Convention (via Wyoming Democratic Party web site):

On behalf of the Democratic National Convention Committee, the Wyoming Democratic Party has been asked to contact you to secure photographic imagery showcasing Wyoming. This photography will be incorporated into the large video screens used during the upcoming convention. The producers of the screen content have requested the following type and format of photography:

"State photography should include wide landscapes, iconic locations and scenic panoramas. The state should provide imagery as high resolution still photography in one of the following format options: JPEG, PSD, TIFF”

We want to provide the producers with "approved" photography void of rights issues and licensing costs. By submitting said photography you acknowledge that you have the authority to do so and indemnify the DNCC and RK Corporate Productions for its use of the photos as indicated herein.

Photos can be uploaded to the following ftp site:
www.mightydotsclient.com
username – stateimagery
password – dnc (all lowercase)
*Click on the name of the folder that represents your state or territory, then use the File Upload protocol on the left side of the page to upload up to 10 files at a time.  For best results when uploading several photos, compress the photos into one zip file and upload the one zipped file

Please contact Juli Pritchard at 323-219-9974 or pritchard.juli@gmail.com to coordinate this effort or to answer any questions you may have. The deadline for receipt of your state's photography is Tuesday, July 31, 2012.  We want to make sure each state is represented visually at the upcoming convention so please make this request a priority. We look forward to receiving your imagery and to helping you coordinate this effort.

Aurora connections bring tragedy closer to home

My 19-year-old daughter was at the midnight showing in Cheyenne of "The Dark Knight Rises" on Thursday night. When I awoke Friday morning, I had no idea about the shootings in Aurora. I skipped the news and watched the Weather Channel to see how hot it was going to get in Cheyenne. Very hot, as it turns out in this normally temperate place. It wasn't until I got to work and fired up the computer that I understood the scope of the tragedy. Sick at heart -- that would be a good way to describe it. I was sad for my home state of Colorado, site of so much tragedy with this summer's fires. I was sad for Aurora, too, the now-huge Denver suburb that was the site of my parents' first house, one that was a block away from the old Fitzsimons Army Medical Center where, as fate would have it, was the place where my paternal grandparents met after World War I. He was a soldier recuperating from gas attacks and she was a nurse. Fitzsimons closed in 1999 and that now houses the sprawling hospital campus where many of the shooting wounded were taken. When we moved from Florida to Denver 30-plus years ago, my wife and I lived in an apartment in Aurora. It all hits close to home. But you don't have to have any connection to Colorado at all to be affected by this. Any of us could have been in that movie theater. One of the wounded was on a cross-country jaunt and decided, on a whim, to go to a movie Thursday night. A young female sports reporter had to talk her boyfriend into going to the film in Aurora that night. She didn't make it. While I can only imagine the loss that her family feels, I have enough empathy to do so. It is a tragedy and our prayers are with you all.

"American Exotic" films use magic realism to illuminate the fringes of American society

I like indie movies for the places and the characters that they portray.

They can be USA places, or somewhere far away, such as Bombay or a Ukrainian village or some remote Chinese outpost.

That’s probably the short story writer in me speaking aloud. My stories are set in a place, usually Wyoming or Colorado, and they are about the dilemmas of real people. There is not a single super-hero or mutant battleship-on-steroids in any of my stories. They are about real people. Period.

I am delighted to read this piece by Tom Shone on Slate. He has the same complaints about movies! They are planetized, bland entertainments. And boring as hell to anyone with half a brain or an ounce of empathy.

No longer the indigenous film industry of North America, Hollywood is now the world’s jukebox, pumping out what Michael Eisner once called “planetized entertainment.” It’s one reason the Oscars have turned into such a mad scramble of late, even fishing overseas for quality crowd-pleasers—The Artist, The King’s Speech, Slumdog Millionaire—while reserving a spot on the nominations list for something flinty and home-spun from the indie world. Two years ago it was Winter’s Bone, which plunged audiences into the meth labs of the Ozarks. This year it is most likely to be Benh Zeitlin’s Beasts of the Southern Wild, which takes us deep into the swamplands of Louisiana. Together they almost amount to a new genre: the American Exotic, mixing myth and magic realism to trawl the furthermost reaches of the American disaster zone for wide-eyed urban audiences, the same way they used to trawl the Third World.

He then takes the next step. Many indie movies now employ the magic realism elements of the Latin American master novelists – Cortazar, Marquez, Borges, and the rest – to portray the fringes of American society, what he calls "American Exotic.” The hot new film, “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” fits in this category.

Even the genre is telling: Magic realism used to be the genre of South America, not North, the way storytellers make sense of the everyday absurdities and violent disparities of the developing world. That the genre has found any purchase on the northern American continent is a subtle but damning indictment, both of how broken down America has gotten around its edges, but also of just how foreign the country now seems, even to Americans. It’s a whole other world out there. Somebody really ought to make a movie about it.

What movies, large and small, actually rely on a real place and time and real people to make its point? I think of the films by Victor Nunez, who lives and works in Tallahassee, Fla. He made the great “Ulee’s Gold” and “Ruby in Paradise.” The latter film starred a young Ashley Judd and gave viewers a stark and strange and funny view of Panama City Beach during the off-season. “Little Miss Sunshine” portrayed a family full of exotic, down-on-their-luck Americans from Albuquerque who accompany their young one to southern Cal to compete in a beauty pageant. Albuquerque – you can’t get any more Americana than that. Just ask Walt in “Breaking Bad.”

Real people in real places in real situations. Is that too much to ask? He does finds some Hollywood exceptions:

Among their generation, maybe only the Coens are out there taking soil samples, dirtying their mud flaps in Mississippi in the 1930s (Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?), Arkansas in the 1880s (True Grit), LA in the 1940s (Barton Fink), Minnesota in the 1960s (A Serious Man),Texas in the 1980s (Blood Simple, No Country for Old Men), and—in their latest—the Greenwich Village folk scene of the 1960s (Inside Llewyn Davis).

Read the rest at http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2012/07/john_ford_s_westerns_hitchcock_s_north_by_northwest_woody_allen_s_upper_east_side_remember_when_american_movies_were_set_in_america_.2.html

House Republicans, including Wyoming's Cynthia Lummis, vote themselves health care for life while voting against health care for the rest of us

This article comes from Michael McAuliff in the Huffington Post. Make sure to watch the video in which Rep. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming is asked by a reporter: "Why did you just vote yourself health care for life?" Lummis screamed response: "What?" Lummis is one of the wealthiest members of the U.S. Congress:

Democrats are mocking Republicans in the House of Representatives for voting to repeal the health care reform law and keep their own enhanced medical care. 

When Congress passed the health care law, it required members of Congress to get their insurance on exchanges with the rest of the public. But in voting to repeal that law, Republicans and a handful of Democrats were also voting to go back to the old system where the lawmakers get a sweeter deal than most of the rest of the country..

They also voted against a Democratic motion that said members of Congress who support repealing the health care law must also repeal the good stuff they get, such as lifetime care and insurance regardless of pre-existing conditions.

Democrats tried to demonstrate how Republicans distanced themselves from voting to protect their own deal by capturing a slew of GOP members on video saying they didn't vote to protect their own care, as seen below. The clip features a number of Republicans in tight races this year, as well as GOP budget guru, Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin.

“House Republicans refuse to admit they voted to give themselves taxpayer funded lifetime guaranteed health care instead of having the same health care as their constituents,” said Jesse Ferguson, spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, referring to the fact that members of Congress are eligible for retirement benefits after just five years.

“House Republicans didn’t just vote to protect insurance company campaign donor profits this time, they’re even helping themselves to lifetime taxpayer-funded government health care and now they need to be honest with their constituents and admit it,” Ferguson said.

Dear Gov. Mead: Make Wyoming a healthier place by embracing Medicaid expansion

When Rodger McDaniel writes about mental health and substance abuse treatment in Wyoming, he knows his subjects. Under Gov. Dave Freudenthal, the Rev. McDaniel was Director of the Mental Health Health and Substance Abuse Division of the Wyoming Health Department. Today in his blog (and on the op-ed pages of the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle), he makes the modest proposal that the Great Conservative State of Wyoming should embrace Medicaid expansion. It's a hard sell because Wyoming and its Governor were parties to the Affordable Care Act lawsuit that recently was spured by the conservative-dominated Supreme Court. Read on:

The enormous investment Wyoming made in mental health and substance abuse treatment in the last decade puts the state in a position to cash in big on the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). Governor Mead and state legislators should weigh the opportunity before rushing to join other Republican governors rejecting federal funding of Medicaid expansion. 

Today Wyoming taxpayers spend more than 95 million dollars each budget period on mental health and substance abuse services. If Wyoming implements the Medicaid expansion under Obamacare, most of that money can be returned to the general fund.

Read the rest here.

Wyoming is not always a trailblazer when it comes to mental health and substance abuse programs. But its Children's Medicaid Waiver has been a godsend to many Wyoming families in crisis. The Medicaid Waiver has helped both uninsured and underinsured families who've sent their children to a treatment program that is usually hours away from home, often out-of-state. When our daughter was diagnosed as bipolar, we had to send her to treatment for four months in Colorado and seven months in Casper. We signed her up for the Medicaid Waiver which kicked in when our insurance company limited her treatment. Before Obamacare, insurance companies either placed caps on mental health treatment or disallowed it as a pre-exisiting condition. The same held true for substance abuse treatment. When our son needed help for substance abuse almost ten years ago, our insurance lapsed after 50 treatment sessions. Since he was in a residential center and had daily sessions, the insurance was up way before the therapy could bear fruit -- nine months before he successfully returned home, clean and sober. We spent my father's inheritance to pay for some of the treatment and our son worked on the center's landscaping crew to pay for the rest. Expensive but worth it.


Many other families share our experience. Others will face problems in the future. The Medicaid Waiver helped pay for our daughter's treatment and for the "wraparound care" that followed her return to the home. A treatment team of parents, siblings, relatives, friends -- led by a certified mental health professional -- guided her back into her community. This beats the old approach of letting our teens sink or swim on their own, which didn't work our too well. Teens with mental illnesses or substance abuse problems have enough problems without having to readjust to school and home and work all by themselves.


Many families never use the Medicaid Waiver or similar programs because they don't know about it. There's a great statewide organization, UPLIFT, that is a resource for these services. I'm on the UPLIFT board and that's how I found out about the waiver. Get more info by calling UPLIFT at 307-778-8686. And be not afraid to go directly to the source at the Wyoming state offices. Yes, I know, it's a big state agency located in a monolithic grey building. But you can talk to real people there -- I did.


This web site is a good place to start: http://www.health.wyo.gov/mhsa/treatment/SystemofCare.html. As you'll see, the waiver program is now focused on keeping the child in the community by providing that wraparound care I talked about earlier.


I do not know how Obamacare, with or without Medicaid expansion, will affect these programs. But in a time of budget cuts in state funds, more Medicaid money from the Feds is a good thing, is it not?


No surprise that health care will be a major topic at this week's National Governors Association conference in Virginia. Also on the agenda is a discussion about the needs of military members returning home from the wars. Gov. Mead co-chairs the NGA committee addressing this issue. Some of the most pressing needs involved mental health care, not only for veterans but their families. The Veteran's Administration Hospital in Cheyenne recently expanded its services by hiring four new psychologists. 

Cheyenne's "Bibles & Beer" featured in USA Today

My Liberal Wyoming pals Rev. Rodger McDaniel and Jason Bloomberg. Rodger started "Bibles & Beer" at Uncle Charlie's Tavern last year and it was featured in today's USA Today. I love the final line of the story:  McDaniel says he got questions in the beginning from people concerned about associating alcohol with the Bible. His answer: "Jesus didn't change wine into water."

Wyoming gets creative with its roadside public art

"Wind Code," Stan Dolega

Mountain range or snow fence or mountain range fashioned from snow fence building blocks: Stan Dolega's cool new sculpture, WIND CODE, will be installed at the Southeast Wyoming Welcome Center this coming Monday, July 16. The sculpture is composed of welded steel and natural rock, and resembles the classic and iconic Wyoming snow fence. The Welcome Center will be open to the public late this summer. This is a Wyoming 1 Percent for Art Project. The Welcome Center is a work of art in itself.

Southeast Wyoming Welcome Center, south of Cheyenne on I-25

Happy 100th birthday, Woody Guthrie -- "He loved writing!"

On the eve of Woody Guthrie's 100th birthday, Nora Guthrie talks about her father's love for writing in an NPR piece: "He loved writing — he loved it. My mother would say, 'He loved the feeling of a pen on paper' — just that visceral experience. He loved that. It was his energy coming out of his fingertips." Pictured is one of Woody's notebooks (circa 1942) from his extensive archive.

Save the Date: Dinner in Jackson July 12 with Mitt and Dick and Lynne for only $30,000

Courtesy of jh underground, which shares with us the address of Dick and Lynne, 4205 W. Greens Place, just in case you lost the invitation.

"Love Can Build a Bridge" concert July 12 in Laramie, July 13 in Denver

From the Matthew Shepard Foundation:

The Matthew Shepard Foundation is proud to present Love Can Build a Bridge featuring the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus and the Denver Gay Men’s Chorus. July 12 the choruses will present a concert in Laramie, WY at the the University of Wyoming at the Fine Arts Building, 1000 E. University Ave, 8PM. You can by your tickets for that concert here. July 13 they will perform at St. Johns Episcopal Cathedral in Denver, CO, 1350 Washington Street, 7:30PM. You can buy tickets for this concert in our store. If you have any questions about tickets or the event, please call (303) 830-7400 ext 16

Note that a portion of ticket proceeds will go to Wyoming Equality, an organization that works tirelessly for LGBT equality in our state. Check out the WY Equality web site.

Check out the new Wyoming Democratic Party web site and blog

The new Wyoming Democratic Party web site is a lively change from the old static site. It was launched yesterday during the grand opening of the new WDP headquarters at 1909 Warren Ave. in Cheyenne. Read Ken McCauley's "push back" against against Republican Sen. John Barrasso's recent radio address blasting the Supreme Court's ACA decision. In the "Featured Democrat" section, read about retired airline pilot Patrick Vann and his bid to re-energize his fellow Goshen County Dems. There's a comprehensive list of county parties with contact info. Find Democratic Party candidates running in this year's elections. There's a blog by Communications Director Brodie Farquhar that will need constant feeding -- you know how those blogs are! Links to political articles and op-eds in WY media outlets. Make sure you check it out and add your comments. Find the WY Dems on Facebook and Twitter, too.

No hurricanoes for "King Lear" but plenty of rain

Yesterday I joked about watching King Lear rail against "thunderbolts and hurricanoes" while the real thing was happening. The Weather Channel predicted a 60 percent chance of rain with possible flash floods.

The Wyoming Shakespeare Festival Company did perform "King Lear" yesterday evening at the Cheyenne Botanic Gardens during a rapidly escalating storm. The lightning and thunder did arrive before cue -- act one instead of act three -- but it only added to the anticipation. The actors persevered as the rain waxed and waned and finally just poured down. The bodies of Lear and Cordelia and all the rest (living and dead) were soaked by the time the curtain came down about 7:15 on the 13th season performance of the Lander company.

The audience was a bit drier under umbrellas and ponchos. We were appreciative, giving the cast a rousing round of applause before we headed to our cars. Thanks to Diane Springford and her cast for a great performance and a demonstration of what it takes to be part of a traveling acting troupe. The show must go on!

A final note: Botanic Gardens Director Shane Smith introduced the performance and spoke about the upcoming vote Aug. 21 for additions and renovations to the facility. Interesting to note that interior spaces large enough for theatre performances are included in the plan. Although Shakespeare in the rain is an experience not to be missed, it would be nice to have a place to keep performers and audience members warm and dry. A number of people gave up and left midway through the play, which was a shame.

Shakespeare in the Botanic Gardens -- as long as the thunderbolts and hurricanoes stay away

Cassie Marple as Cordelia and Dave Geible as King Lear

Barring a monsoon downpour to rival the storm that’s part of the play, the Wyoming Shakespeare Festival Company performs "King Lear" at 5 p.m. this evening at the Cheyenne Botanic Gardens. Based in Lander, the company enters its thirteenth Summer Season bringing great classical theater with an entertaining Wyoming twist to audiences throughout the state. Last night they performed in Torrington's city park. Saturday's performance occurs north of the Botanic Gardens greenhouse and south of Discovery Pond on the lawn. This event is FREE thanks to Cheyenne, Light, Fuel and Power, Holiday Inn and Davis and Cannon LLP Attorneys. Donations to the troupe will also be accepted.


King Lear during the storm in Act III, Scene II:


Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow!
You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout
Till you have drench'd our steeples, drown'd the cocks!
You sulphurous and thought-executing fires,
Vaunt-couriers to oak-cleaving thunderbolts,
Singe my white head! And thou, all-shaking thunder,
Smite flat the thick rotundity o' the world!

So where is Wyoming's Health Exchange?

Ever since the SCOTUS ruling on the Affordable Care Act, healthcare topics have been back in the headlines -- with a vengeance. Rodger McDaniel writes today about the Wyoming Health Exchange, and why it's important that the state's lawmakers get busy on this issue. They've already wasted a lot of time in the hopes that the Supreme Court would make the ACA magically disappear. That didn't happen!

Governor Mead earned his spurs opposing the Affordable Care Act. So when he says it's now time to roll up our sleeves and get to work, the Legislature should listen.

Are you listening, Republican-dominated Legislature? I have my doubts...


And Barb Rea of Casper reminds us on Facebook that there will be a public forum about healthcare and Medicaid expansion on Tuesday, July 10, 5-7 p.m., at Laramie County Community College in Cheyenne. The stakes are high.

If Wyoming decides to opt out of the Medicaid expansion 30,000 low income adults will be left again, with no where to go for insurance contributing to the same cost drviers that are plaguing the entire system. The state is conducting surveys about "the cost drivers of Medicaid and evaluate design options for Medicaid programs mandated by the ACA" (whatever that means).

Whatever that means. That's the problem, isn't it? These are complicated yet crucial issues. Get out to the forum and make your voice heard.

Casting call for Cheyenne Reality TV show

Alan O'Hashi's Wyoming Community Media makes fine films, launched the Cheyenne International Film Festival and is the impetus behind long-range planning for the Hynds Building in downtown Cheyenne. This guy's the real thing. He also has a sense of fun: 

Wyoming Community Media is casting locally for a TV show pilot. Please pass the info on to 100 of your closest friends. You don't need to be an actor or actress. This is reality TV!

Do you want a chance to be on TV? WCM is working with a New York City based television production company is looking for regular people to drive taxicabs for Cheyenne Frontier Days. 

This is an opportunity to drive for a local cab company, with the potential to participate in a new reality television show. If you appear between the ages of 25-45, and have a valid driver’s license, please send your name, location, phone number, a photo, and a brief description of yourself to cabcasting@gmail.com

Wyoming Dems open new HQ in Cheyenne

From the Wyoming Democratic Party: 

The Wyoming Democratic Party has moved its headquarters and staff from Casper to Cheyenne. For the first time in a decade, Party HQ will be just a few blocks from the Capital, ready to support our Democratic Legislators. To celebrate the move, come for a chili cookoff, see our new website, meet staff, candidates and friends for an afternoon of fun! Beginning at 3 p.m. on Saturday, July 7, 1909 Warren Ave.

BTW, I've seen to the test site of the WDP's new web presence. A vast improvement, with actual up-to-date material and a place for us prog-bloggers to sound off. Come to the party tomorrow and check it out.

Summer is the time to relish good books

When I was a kid, books were my constant companions. I also lived in a house filled with other constant companions -- my family -- which included two parents, four brothers, four sisters, and and an assortment of dogs, cats, lizards and gerbils. That was one crowded house.

I mentioned books first. They weren't more important than Mom and Dad and Molly and Tim and Shannon the dog and Polonius the cat. But books did enable me to escape the sometimes frantic pace of daily life. They also helped me understand some odd human behavior. My brother Tommy, for instance, liked to sit down to a bowl of sweet pickle relish for breakfast. While the rest of us munched on Cheerios, Tommy relished his relish. In the beginning, we gave him a hard time, as siblings do. But after awhile, we just had to accept this quirky behavior as you might if coming across something similar in a Dickens' novel.

Summer reading was especially important. We had chores to do and we played baseball and went swimming and spent as much time outdoors as humanly possible. But at some point during the day, I needed time with books. I don't remember official summer reading programs. But Mom took us to the library as often as we needed to recharge the book supply. In elementary school, I read my way through the Hardy Boys series and had a special fondness for dog books ("Lad a Dog," etc.). In junior high, sci-fi was king. I started with the classics -- Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, the Tom Swift series -- and then moved on to the harder stuff. Nothing like spending a lazy summer afternoon sprawled under a cottonwood tree while I traveled to exotic worlds with Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke or Ray Bradbury.     

We moved a lot, so I got to know a libraries in a dozen different places. Just entering a library gave me a feeling of belonging in a strange new town. Whether it was Denver's big main library or the tiny one in Moses Lake, Washington, the books were all arranged in the same order and the card catalogs (remember those?) all looked the same. The librarians, too, all had that schoolmarmish look, or that's how this 11-year-old boy saw them, anyway. 

I was in our local Cheyenne library on Tuesday evening. I selected two novels from the "new books" shelf, and then my laptop and I spent several hours on the third floor revising a short story. The third floor at the Laramie County Public Library is the quiet floor. Back in the day, every floor of a library was quiet (or else!). But libraries are a bit more freewheeling these days, more interactive, and a bit more hectic. So I was working on a story, the gentle tapping of my laptop keys the only sound. A storm blew in and I watched from the big window as lightning snaked across the sky. Below, a mom and her kids clasped their summer books and made a mad dash for the car. At closing time, I checked out my books and realized I hadn't signed up for the summer reading program. I sign up every year, buy a T-shirt, fill in the scorecard to earn ice cream cones and various discounts at local businesses. There wasn't time to do that on this library trip (the guy on the P.A. system was telling me to check out my books as the library was closing), but I knew I would return soon. I always come back to the library.

By the way, if you haven't yet signed up for "Dream Big," LCLS's summer reading celebration, you can by going here. 

Nora Ephron: "Reading is everything"

Flash mob to swarm downtown to query city candidates

Picked this up on Facebook via Wyoming Community Media:

Flash mob! Meet and greet the candidates for Cheyenne mayor and city council on Sunday, July 1, 3-5 p.m., 415 W. 17^th St., downtown Cheyenne

Stop by and visit about the issues facing the broader community with the Mayoral and City Council candidates for each of the three wards:
* Downtown Development
* Optional Sales Tax Projects
* Streets, Water Rates
* Police and Fire Protection Issues
* The Kitchen Sink

While this is primarily an event for municipal candidates, other local, statewide and national candidates are welcome!

If you can or can't make it, this is a flash mob, social media activity, so please invite 100 of your closest friends and family members to attend the event!

See a play in Fort Collins, donate to firefighters

The Bas Bleu Theatre Company in Fort Collins is only one of many arts organizations coming up with ways to support local firefighters who have been battling the devestating High Park fire. Ticket sales for tonight's Bas Bleu presentation of "Buffalo Gal" at 7:30 p.m. will go to the Rist Canyon Volunteer Fire Department. See a play and donate to a great cause. Get tickets at http://www.centerstageticketing.com/sites/basbleu/showdates.php?s_id=202

Governor's Capitol Art Exhibition at the Hynds Building downtown this weekend

For the first time, the Governor’s Capitol Art Exhibition will be held at the Hynds Building in downtown Cheyenne. It features 70 artistic pieces by artists from throughout the state. The exhibit will be open to the public on Saturday and Sunday, June 30 and July 1, from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Eight of the artists have received purchase awards and will be recognized during the show’s awards presentation ceremony Saturday, 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. 

These eight artists include: Mack Brislawn, of Laramie, for his painting “Somewhere in the Powder River Basin;” Travis Ivey, of Laramie, for his painting “Spring Thaw on the Little Laramie;” Tony James, of Cheyenne, for his photograph “High Plains Thunder;” and Georgia Rowswell, of Cheyenne, for her mixed media composition “Paint Pot – Yellowstone.”

GCAE purchase award: Georgia Rowswell, Cheyenne, "Paint Pot - Yellowstone,"
mixed media - compressed fiber, 21" x 21", $1,500.00

Also included are Shane Steiss, of Green River, for his mixed media composition “Aspen #14;” Michele Farrier, of Alta, for her pastel “Stateline Road;” Michael Flicek of Casper for his photograph “Prehistory Revealed;” and Joy Keown, of Laramie, for her painting “Rising From the Plains.”

“In a Hard Place,” a painting by Laramie’s Jerry Glass, received the Juror’s Choice Award.

David Newell, curator of art at the Wyoming State Museum, put this show together.

Take time out this weekend to drop in on this exhibit. Meet the artists and buy some original "Made in Wyoming" artwork.

Democrat Joe Fender kicks off Campaign for Wyoming Legislature June 29

Joe Fender is a Democrat running for the Legislature in House District 7. He's a firefighter, a working guy who says on his web site that he's "a public servant" who looks at this as a way "to give back to the community that has been so good to me and my family." He pledges to stand up for the workers of Wyoming and strengthen worker retirements. He'd have my vote on these issues alone. We need someone who will stand up to the extremists who want to gut the state retirement system. Alas, I'm not in Joe's district but an adjacent one. So I can donate and volunteer. And party, too. Joe's having a "Meet, Eat and Greet Kickoff Party" on Friday, June 29, at 5 p.m. at his home, 92 E. Ole Maverick Road (Yellowstone and E. Ole Maverick). Go to his web site for more: http://www.joefender.com

"The Hole" in downtown Cheyenne remains whole, for now

Two interesting front section stories about downtown Cheyenne in this morning's Wyoming Tribune-Eagle. First, a bid to buy and build something in "The Hole" has fallen through. Alan O'Hashi of Wyoming Community Media had plans to combine a revamp of the Hynds Building with construction in "The Hole." He had an option to buy the site from Capital Management LLC of Kansas City but he no longer has the option. "That's just how real estate goes," said O'Hashi. He still has plans to build up to 28 condos in the Hynds and to expand on the artistic space known as LightsOn! He says there's about a 65 percent chance this will happen, but mentioned no details.

Meanwhile, the Cheyenne Downtown Development Authority (DDA) plans on joining Wyoming Main Street. This will make it eligible for $20,000 to pay for downtown projects. It also would put them in league with 14 other Wyoming communities, some of whom have accomplished some amazing things with neglected downtowns. Green River and Rawlins come to mind. Laramie has a very active Main Street program and its downtown is thriving -- not just during special events but all the time. The Buffalo Downtown Association (BDA) was recently named the “Wyoming Main Street Affiliate Community Of The Year.” There was a time in the recent past when the BDA was about to call it quits. Now look. None of the 14 Main Street Wyoming communities has a gaping hole in the middle of its downtown. What's their secret?

The Wyoming Tribune-Eagle locates my long-lost twin, Matthew Shay

Bio from book jacket with photo that looks a lot like me (and Matthew)

The Wyoming Tribune-Eagle has apparently found my long-lost twin, Matthew.

On today’s WTE op-ed pages, Matthew Shay penned a rational argument for the Marketplace Fairness Act “which would require online retailers to to comply with state sales tax laws.” I didn’t find too much to argue with in the editorial, although I'm not totally up-to-speed on internet retailing and the tax laws in all 50 states.

But I didn’t write it. Matthew did.

The reason I think he’s my long-lost twin is the head shot accompanying the article. He looks exactly like me. He has the same chiseled good looks and is wearing the same glasses. The haircut is reminiscent of the one I had several years ago right before a friend took a photo that looks a lot like this one for my book jacket. I can’t see much of it but the shirt also looks very familiar.

If I didn’t know better, I’d say that it was me. In fact, several people asked me already today if I had switched jobs from arts administrator to president and CEO of the National Retail Federation. I haven’t, although I’m open to offers. Another friend just wondered if the paper had gotten my name and job title wrong. I said, that couldn’t happen, could it? I wondered if the editors had just pulled the wrong photo to go with the article. Could it be? I tried calling the newsroom but no answer. Lots going on today so the newsroom must be deserted. 

I concluded that Matthew must be my twin. I’m glad to discover him, at long last, on the op-ed pages of the WTE. I wish him well with the Marketplace Fairness Act. Matt – can I call you Matt? – feel free to call any time so we can get reacquainted. We have a lot to talk about.

Campaign season ramps up with gigantic yard signs, Rothfuss on the radio and a Superday candidate invasion

Campaign season is in full swing. In my neighborhood, I've been seeing increasingly larger signs for county commission candidates. C. Bud Racicky talked one homeowner to put a huge sign in his yard but it was partially blocked from northbound Yellowstone Blvd. traffic by an evergreen hedge. Today a guy was cutting down the hedge. So much for planning ahead... and isn't that one thing that county comissioners are charged with, planning?

If you like progressive radio, and you happen to live in the Laramie Valley, do this (says Meg Lanker-Simons):

Tune into 93.5 KOCA tonight, 10 p.m.-1 a.m. and keep your dial locked for fab music + Legit Conservative + d-bag o' the week! Our special guest tonight is Wyo. Sen. Chris Rothfuss from SD 9 in Laramie. Have a question for Sen. Rothfuss? Post it! Taking your requests for songs, dedications & d-bag nods til 8 p.m. See us at Laramie Civic Center, rm #255.

Chris really distinguished himself during the most recent legislative session. We need him back to fight the Right Wing loonies.


And Cheyenne's Superday is tomorrow. It is quite super, with a 5K run, the Tour De Prairie bike race, food trucks, vendor booths, good music and candidates galore. They'll be swarming the place so beware. Of course, you could do a good turn and support one of the local Democrats running for a legislative seat. If you need some campaign literature or assorted nifty giveaways, visit the booth of the Laramie County Democrats/LC Grassroots Democrats. Get your photo taken with (a) President Barack Obama (life-size cardboard replica)! Get a whole album's worth of photos to amaze your Facebook friends -- and infuriate your Republican brother-in-law.

Wonder if the Laramie County Republicans will have a booth and, if they do, will feature a cardboard replica of Mitt Romney. Cardboard cutout and Mitt Romney. Isn't that redundant?

Gathering of the Celtic tribes this weekend in Cheyenne

Everything you need to know about this weekend's Celtic Musical Arts Festival at the Historic Depot in downtown Cheyenne: http://www.cheyennedepotmuseum.org/plaza-event/cheyennes-celtic-musical-arts-festival-7th-annual

Dems hold Meet the Candidates Open House June 24

From the Laramie County Democrats:

Dear Friends and Fellow Democrats:

Please join us at a Meet the Candidates Open House Sponsored by the Laramie County Democrats Grassroots Coalition  at the home of Joe Corrigan, Treasurer, 3626 Dover Road, Cheyenne, on June 24, 2012 1-5 p.m. 

We are suggesting a minimum donation of $25 for this event, but all donations will be greatly appreciated. If you can't attend the Open House but you want to show your support for the Laramie County Democrats Grassroots Coalition, please send your contribution to LCDGC at PO Box 2986, Cheyenne, Wyoming, 82003. We hope to see you on June 24!!!

Please RSVP by calling Joe at 630.6192 or Wendy at 635.2609 

My grandmother, the nurse: "We are in the real war zone now"

My sister Eileen is transcribing the World War I diaries of our grandmother, Florence Green Shay.  The entries begin in July 1918 and end in February 1919. If you're counting (or even if you're not), that's almost 100 years ago. Grandma -- or "Mudder" as we called her -- was a 25-year-old Army nurse from Baltimore when the good ship Baltic took her and the personnel of Base Hospital 42 American Expeditionary Force to Liverpool.

During the crossing, she's in high spirits. She dances with a major named Pinky – “the major is some dancer.” She worries about rumors of German submarines – “we are in the real war zone now.” She marvels at the clunky rubber floatation suits they were supposed to wear in the event of a sinking – “they are supposed to keep us up in water for three days.” One evening, she attends “ a dandy entertainment” conducted by the 62^nd Coast Artillery.

It's a young woman’s voice – flirtatious, weary, funny and peeved. I never heard this voice in person -- it would be several decades before me and my eight brothers and sisters would hear her speak. By then, she was a Denver matron in her fifties, a woman who enjoyed her evening highballs, bridge with friends, and cheering from afar for her hometown Baltimore Orioles.She wasn't old exactly, just Grandma, the woman who shrieked with joy when the grandkids came to call and squeezed us into her mighty bosom. 

At Eileen's request, I'm writing the intro for the book. I'm her big brother, after all, and a writer. I thought that I'd read the entries and dash off a jaunty introduction to a book geared mainly for family. But a strange thing happened. By the third entry, I could hear my grandmother's voice. It's a treat to hear her youthful voice. One of her favorite terms is "dandy." She wraps up a long shift at a frontline hospital and makes fudge with other nurses or gets ready for a date with a major or a captain of maybe even the mysterious Lieutenant Colonel S.

We are only 18 and 21 and 25 once. Our voices reveal our hopes and dreams and fears. Grandma didn't seem especially concerned about the future -- the present was plenty interesting.  

There is very little about the suffering of the men under her care. She goes to the Front in August and is the thick of it through Nov. 11. She mentions “those poor boys” and her many shifts in the pneumonia and mumps and surgical wards. In one entry, she talks about working for 42 hours straight. She works through numerous air raids and shellings. ”If we have many more air raids, I am afraid my hair will turn white. No bombs struck our place but oh my."

"Oh my!" An air raid might bring other words to my lips. But that "oh my" says a lot about Grandma. I can hear her say it. It is as fresh as if she were whispering in my ear. And she is, in a way. Diaries are secret things. It's as if she's talked into the pages and the words are now lifting into the air to tell us what Florence was like on a September day near Verdun or Chateau Thierry. People were dying, yes, and there was plenty of suffering, but Florence was alive and bored and hungry and ready for a night out with a fella from Pittsburgh or Charleston who wasn't going to be her boyfriend or husband but was also young and alive and far away from home.

She speaks. I listen. It's more than a dandy entertainment. Thanks to my Sis for transcribing the diary. Now, Eileen, about that intro...

If you're a RINO, CROW wants you to go

Great letter to the editor by Ken McCauley in Sunday's Wyoming Tribune-Eagle. In it, he explores the new ultra-conservative Republican group, CROW, which is making a lot of noise in an effort to unseat RINOs in the Wyoming State Legislature. To learn more about this new political menagerie, read Ken's letter at http://www.wyomingnews.com/articles/2012/06/18/opinion/featured_letter/letter01.txt  

Sample regional beers and music this weekend at Wyoming Brewers' Festival

The Wyoming Brewers' Festival in Cheyenne June 15-16 has beer and music, including Another Kind of Magick Friday night. FMI: http://www.wyobrewfest.com/

Out West at the Autry explores "Same Sex Dynamics" among 19-century Mormons on June 16

My friend, Gregory Hinton, grew up in Cody and spent some quality time there last year on a research fellowship at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center. He shared some of his research on these pages. Go to http://hummingbirdminds.blogspot.com/2012/01/gregory-hinton-at-bbhc-in-cody-out-west.html.

Greg, who's creator and producer of "Out West at the Autry" in L.A., always has some unique offerings about LGBT life in the West, especially the rural West. Here's his latest venture:

Dear Friends of Out West:

Please join us at the Autry in Griffith Park this coming Saturday, June 16, 2 p.m., in conversation with scholar D Michael Quinn and USC Associate Professor William Handley discussing Quinn's "19th Century Same Sex Dynamics Among Nineteenth-Century Americans: A Mormon Example," winner of the Herbert Feis Award from the American Historical Association and named one of the best religion books of the year by Publisher's Weekly.

This ranks among our finest programs - twenty-five and counting - in partnership with museums, libraries and universities in ten states. 

I am so grateful to the Autry National Center, Tom Gregory, HBO, David Bohnett Foundation, Gill Foundation and the Gay & Lesbian Rodeo Heritage Foundation for their continuing support. 

I am especially proud to announce that the CIty Council of Los Angeles has formally recognized Out West as an "Angel in the City of Angels!" 

Gregory Hinton, Creator and Producer, Out West at the Autry at
gregoryhinton@earthlink.net

Get your "slow food" on at Tuesday Farmers Market

Cindy Ridenour, president of the Tuesday Farmers Market board of directors, says that the market will bring in two "slow food" chefs during the summer to teach buyers about using fresh ingredients. Said Ridenour in today's Wyoming Tribune-Eagle: "These chefs will be showing how to get back to cooking with real natural foods that you can get at our market rather than reaching for the Cheez Whiz or Bisquick." So stroll onto the Depot Plaza in downtown Cheyenne to find fresh local foods and fine handmade crafts. Products featured this Tuesday, June 12, 3-6:30 p.m.:

• Locally-raised fresh vegetables
• Colorado Western Slope cherries
• Locally raised mushrooms
• Grass-fed beef, lamb, and bison, pork, poultry, goat's meat
• Farm fresh eggs
• Bratwurst, chowders, bisque, smoked wild-caught salmon, tamales
• Dine on the plaza or take-home BBQ
• Locally produced honey, jams and jellies, hot sauce
• Gourmet pastas, flavored oils and vinegars
• Fresh breads and baked goods
• Natural, locally-produced body care products
• Hand-crafted glass gifts, wood working, alpaca fiber crafts, photo cards and other crafts

Live Music by Franklin Taggart

In memoriam: Colorado writer Ed Quillen

Freelance journalist Ed Quillen died at 61 last Sunday in Salida, Colo., a place he put on the map with his humorous, curmudgeonly columns. For decades, his columns were a must-read for me. His final piece was in the June 6 Denver Post and focused on Colorado’s rep as “home of the Red Scare,” a tradition that goes back to the 1870s, with the labeling of Utes as “indigenous communists” who must go. Big Bill Haywood and other union leaders got the commie label later and now we have the Denver Republican Party inviting Fla. Repub Rep. Allen West to speak about modern-day commies in the ranks of the Democrats. Who’s a Colorado commie in Congress? Rep. Jared Polis, millionaire entrepreneur turned public servant. Ed, We are going to miss you! Read his final column at http://www.denverpost.com/quillen/ci_20543845/yet-another-red-scare?source=pkg. Read his obit at http://www.denverpost.com/obituaries/ci_20781716/denver-post-columnist-ed-quillen-dies-at-age