Planet Jackson Hole 7.26.17

JACKSON HOLE’S ALTERNATIVE VOICE | PLANETJH.COM | JULY 26 - AUGUST 1, 2017

Health care in Wyoming places a price tag on life some families can’t pay.

Forest of Despair

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| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

2 | JULY 26, 2017

HEY DUDE,

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Per Town of Jackson municipal code: No trespassing on private lands.

Open alcohol containers are strictly prohibited on Flat Creek.

Dogs are prohibited in public parks.

No dogs at large.

Public urination is prohibited.

Please respect private property at all times. Utilize designated public access locations when accessing Flat Creek.

Be considerate of neighbors and environment by limiting noise and disturbance to riparian habitat.

Respect wildlife.

Glass containers are prohibited. Please dispose of garbage in designated receptacles.

Float at your own risk – no safety personnel present. Dangerous and swift flowing cold water, low clearance bridges shallow Respect our community! water occur in some locations.

For additional information and maps of public access points the Town of Jackson or the Parks and Recreation Department: www.townofjackson.com or www.tetonparksandrec.org

Teton County strives to keep recyclable plastics clean and of the highest quality.

Recycle #1 and #2 plastic bottles only.

Remove ALL food residue – NO peanut butter, mayonnaise, milk, ketchup, mustard, oil.

No opaque mustard and ketchup containers.

No #3-7 plastic containers.

Remember: Reduce and Reuse before Recycling.

Go STRAW FREE or Try REUSABLES.

JACKSON HOLE'S ALTERNATIVE VOICE

VOLUME 15 | ISSUE 29 | JULY 26-AUGUST 1, 2017

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12 COVER STORY FOREST OF DESPAIR Health care in Wyoming places a price tag on life some families can’t pay.

Cover illustration by Jory Dayne

5

GUEST OPINION

16 CREATIVE PEAKS 18 MUSIC BOX

7

20 DON’T MISS

THE NEW WEST

29 COSMIC CAFE

9 THE BUZZ

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THIS WEEK

JULY 26-AUGUST 1, 2017

By Meteorologist Jim Woodmencey Counting the rain that has fallen through the first three weeks of July, we have already exceeded our average monthly rainfall total in town, with 1.36 inches of precipitation as of this past Monday. This last week of July should push that total even higher with monsoon related rain showers & thunderstorms. We are still at the peak of the warmest days of summer in Jackson Hole during this week, according to the averages, which always coincides with Fair Week.

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The average high temperature this week is the same as last week, 83-degrees. Again, that qualifies these as our warmest weeks of the year, on average. The record high temperature this week is 96-degrees, which was set back on July 31st, 2000. Other exceptionally warm years with record highs that occurred during the last week of July were, 2003, 1994, 1988, 1946 and 1934. Apparently, the 1950’s to 1970’s were not good decades for record highs in late Julys.

83 42 96 27

THIS MONTH AVERAGE PRECIPITATION: 0.94 inches RECORD PRECIPITATION: 3.2 inches (1993) AVERAGE SNOWFALL: 0 inches RECORD SNOWFALL: 0 inches

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JULY 26, 2017 | 3

Jim has been forecasting the weather here for more than 20 years. You can find more Jackson Hole Weather information at www.mountainweather.com

The average overnight low temperature this week is 42-degrees, qualifying this week and last week as the warmest of the year for overnight lows. The coolest we have ever been this late in July is 27-degrees. That record low temperature has occurred twice in our weather history during this week, once on July 29th, 1959 and also on July 30th, 1966.

Those temperatures would be cold enough to damage plants, and make for a very short growing season.

NORMAL HIGH NORMAL LOW RECORD HIGH IN 2000 RECORD LOW IN 1966

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JH ALMANAC

| WELLNESS | DINING | A & E | NEWS | OPINION |

6 DEMO IN CRISIS

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| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

4 | JULY 26, 2017

FROM OUR READERS From Rockefeller and Albright to the Present Planning the future is like building a house without knowing what kind of material will be available.

In 18th century France, the building of a new society order from Louis XVI to Napoleon produced unexpected outcomes.

Using a mild comparison, the long fruition of the Grand Teton National Park, brainchild of Rockefeller and Albright, created a conservation of nature already impaired by human activities. The results are far from what they would have hoped.

GTNP made this area an idyllic place attracting millions of people each year. These visitors had to be looked after so lodging properties were built and consequently a service industry followed suit. This in turn attracted workers from the region at first, but also nationwide. For many years it had positive effects and improved the economy of Jackson Hole.

When sightseers decided to settle in “paradise” among the locals it took a turn for the worse. Our pioneers were eager to sell land to the highest bidders after decades of being on the brink of poverty.

Not unexpectedly, the rich and super rich out-bid each other. The “ I gotta have it “ syndrome overcame sanity. The zoning laws made it possible for the wealthy to keep the value of their assets. How? The regulations favor bigger holdings with sparse housing, under the righteous reason of protecting the environment, as a whole. It is very astute because who could argue against such a noble cause? Wealth is power, as we all know. Taxpayers’ money has been wasted in numerous revisionist plan charades that have never served the very people who make this place work. There was seldom any planning done with an eye toward helping the working folks. Through time, town and county, have served the rich. Is it coincidence? You be the judge. Going back to the beginning statement did Rockefeller and Albright, creators of TNP; have in mind to create an exclusive retreat for the super rich, probably not.

However, even in the 1930s the dude ranches owned by Eastern blue blood were exclusive, but there was respect for the people who had pioneered the land. Nowadays giving money to the local nonprofits, which is great, monetizes the deference but it only goes in a small way to help the social conditions of the working class. The reality is that less than 25 percent of the donations go to support the underserved.

Giving is a deeply emotional act but it can be motivated by the ambition to purchase social eminence.

The owners of big properties empty 90 percent of the year pay their property taxes and they could argue that they give money for services they scarcely require. The problem with that reasoning is that if their properties were subdivided in smaller parcels the taxes collected will be significantly higher. Thus, the exclusive rich consequently are a hindrance on the potential revenues stream. A lot of those absentee owners are here for one reason: the Wyoming tax system and are usually against any tax. Without taxation we could not have fire brigade, hospital, police, schools. Where would the funding come? Even minimal request meant to improve infrastructure and

government are opposed by those people.

Our lack of land is the root of a lot of our tribulations. Creating a beautiful nature reserve to conserve it for every American or Citizens of the world was a good idea.

I, for one, am part of the quandary; I came as a skier with one of my children, then as a second homeowner subsequently as a local businessman in the tourist industry and retiring as a commercial building owner and a permanent member of the community.

Those activities are much more nourishing for my soul than being a trader on the world markets.

Solution! We talk a lot but we are in no way prepared to take drastic actions to take care of our workers, the salt of the earth. More than money the solution should have to do with our conscience. The solution is to elect local representatives with a mandate of drastically restructuring our zoning to make room for the workers. We, the elders, have failed to energize the youth of our county, who at heart are more progressive.

I call the younger members of this valley to take hold of their destiny and get involved.

– Yves Desgouttes

On “Reporter’s Notebook: The Space to Speak,” July 19 I just wanted to personally thank you for writing that article. This is probably a huge overshare but I really I can’t even express how much it means to me that someone is verbalizing this issue. Growing up with that kind of culture was so devastating. It affects me every single day of my life and has held me back from so much. I look back on things that were just accepted in high school, From being completely unconscious when I “lost my virginity”, to being forced into sexual situations because I didn’t know I could say no, to being called a whore daily, and being slapped in the face by peers on “slap a slut day”, to the countless times I was unable or pressured to consent.

It breaks my heart to think of how many girls went through similar experiences. Thank you for being brave enough to start to voice these issues for every girl who has felt silenced or like they couldn’t speak up. I am so, so grateful.

– Anonymous

It seems that the adults: parents, teachers and counselors are not engaging our children, providing settings and encouragement to talk through these difficult issues, modeling good behavior, enforcing rules, being present and active in their children’s lives, talking about drugs and alcohol and perhaps refraining from the second or third glass of wine or beer. Our kids are watching what we do, what principles we practice and how we show up in life.

– Robert Moeller

Thank you for putting words to this discrepancy between male and female experience and how we lose our sense of self and must then regain it. I am raising a son and your memoir here will be required reading.

– Jen Fox

On “Culinary Confessions: The Kid is All Right,” July 19

Hooray for Cassina! We were fortunate to have her grace our kitchen and our lives and they were both better for it. I speak with utmost confidence that whatever she sets her sights on she will succeed with amazing results.

– Max Brody

On “The Buzz 2: It Happens Here,” July 12

It is a brave thing to tell your story like that. “Anne Carter” should feel no shame. Yes means yes, and everything else means no. It really is that simple.

– Marielle A Lien

REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK Open Air, Open Carry Wyoming’s open carry laws create tension for citizens and police officers.

BY MEG DALY @MegDaly1

R

that he was a cop did not instantly quell the anxiety that had built up in me. I persisted (as feisty women do) and told him that I didn’t know that off-duty police officers carried weapons and that his weapon seemed menacing.

By now, his wife was looking at me like she was ready to tear my face off. He made a move to leave and told me, “Thanks for ruining my evening.”

“Thanks for ruining mine,” I called after him.

I stewed about this altercation all weekend. I decided I needed to talk with Todd Smith, Jackson’s chief of police, to get a broader perspective.

Smith explained Wyoming law changed about five years ago (around the time Thin Air Shakespeare began here) to allow citizens to carry firearms openly and concealed without a permit. He said that law enforcement was not initially a fan of open carry, as it made their job tenser. I asked him what the public should do when they see someone wearing or carrying a gun.

His answer was instructive, and validated my rapid recognition that our state’s gun laws have changed the face of public spaces.

“If you would have asked me that question five years ago, I would have told you if you see a gun, be a good witness and give us a call so we can come check it out,” Smith said. “Today, I would tell you not to be alarmed and to notice the person’s behavior instead of their weapon,” he continued. “Guns used to startle us in law enforcement. Now we will assume you are a Wyoming resident.”

Smith was good-natured in response

In my opinion, they jumped the gun. In their defense, I’m sure they were trying to avoid any issues with electric motorcycles. But I think they’re preventing many people from enjoying the trails. I’ve spoken with several older people who lament the fact that they can no longer enjoy the trails the way they once did. I also know of couples who would have a much more pleasant experience if the slower rider was on an E-bike.

Electricity will undoubtedly allow a person to climb faster. But they don’t make the descent any faster, and that’s where most conflicts occur. I’d feel safer meeting a grandma on an E-bike than a blond kid straight-lining all the trails on a Trek Slash.

And perhaps E-bike users would quit shuttling or driving to the trailheads, and that’s better for everyone.

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JULY 26, 2017 | 5

Anybody want to guess what is the fastest growing segment of bike sales? If you said E-bikes, pat yourself on the back. So let’s talk about them. The majority of E-bikes are electric assist, meaning you have to be pedaling to get any sort of help. There’s no throttle and they’re governed to stop helping at 20 mph. The E-commuter bikes have already become popular here in Jackson Hole and for good reason. Our bike lanes and paths are extensive and the traffic is horrendous. It makes total sense to ride an E-bike in our valley and I’m excited to see people taking advantage of this technology.

There are also a growing number of E-mountain bikes, many of which are based on popular trail bike platforms. As soon as these bikes were being produced the Forest Service took the stance that they would not be allowed on our trails. Signs went up overnight.

JACKSON HOLE’S SOURCE FOR WELL-MAINTAINED BIKES, ACCESSORIES AND RIDING CLOTHING.

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SINGLE-TRACK MIND

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to my description of the incident. He said he understood my alarm. But he firmly advised me that I should expect to see people carrying guns openly in Wyoming. “A lot of people open carry in this state, almost to make a statement out of it,” he said.

Regarding off-duty cops carrying guns, Smith said the hope is that they will conceal their weapon so as not to alarm people around them. But he wants his off-duty officers to carry their guns.

“We encourage our people to carry,” Smith said. “Part of that is that we have a small police force here and few of them live in town. If they have their weapon, we can call on them in an emergency.”

I don’t doubt that what Smith told me is true, that an off-duty police officer is carrying his or her weapon as part of a sworn duty to protect. It’s also true that for some people, like me, guns make us nervous no matter who is carrying them. How do we coexist in this state and in this country where disagreement about gun laws continues at a fevered pitch?

While I may never agree with the proliferation of guns in the U.S.—and the ratcheting up of tensions between law enforcement and citizens because of those abundant guns—I can at least try to see things from the off-duty cop’s perspective. “The rarer action is in virtue than in vengeance,” Prospero, hero of The Tempest, said.

I hope the off-duty police officer will take that rarer action too and think about my perspective as well. PJH

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ecently a few friends and I threw a picnic together and attended Thin Air Shakespeare on the Center for the Arts lawn. The convivial community event is a highlight of the summer—the productions are excellent and the atmosphere is friendly and welcoming. This year’s production of The Tempest was indeed no exception. We laughed and sat captivated by the excellent costumes, staging and acting.

When the lawn is full of spectators, as it was the night I attended, each person’s blanket or camp chairs abut the other.

Seated adjacent to us was a middle-aged man and woman on a blanket. The man was disinterested—as the play started, he took out his phone and started playing a card game. He was lying on his back, not even looking at the stage.

I’ll admit I was annoyed. He wasn’t bothering anyone, but why come to the play in the first place? Didn’t he understand how lucky we are to have such great local theater? Why not enjoy the community and the magical feeling of dusk falling while

the age-old words of The Bard resounded?

Whatever. His loss, right? My attention turned to the play, where it was meant to be.

At some point later in the play, however, this man again became a focal point. My friend nudged me and said, “Did you see that guy’s gun?” Sure enough, a large black handgun was strapped to his belt, openly displayed for all to see. He continued to play on his phone while his gun stared me in the face.

This was the first time I’d been confronted with the reality of Wyoming’s open carry gun laws. The man was totally within his rights to carry and display his gun. It did not matter if people sitting near him felt uncomfortable or threatened. His right to carry outweighs my wish to not encounter firearms in crowded public venues.

But was this just a case of me being… feisty or naïve? I wanted to let him know that he had made me feel uncomfortable and had disrupted my enjoyment of the play. I couldn’t figure out why someone would wear a gun to Shakespeare in the first place, and why the person who clearly didn’t want to be there thought it was a good idea to bring his firearm along for his reluctant outing. So, after the play ended, I tapped him on the shoulder and asked (not in the friendliest tone): “Why did you wear your gun to our nice community event?”

To which he replied, “I’m a police officer. My gun goes where I go.”

Some savvy readers may have anticipated this revelation. But I wasn’t expecting it at all. And it didn’t calm my frustration. For 45 minutes I’d been wondering if I needed to be afraid of this person, and the fact

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| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

6 | JULY 26, 2017

GUEST OPINION We Were Wrong A brother speaks to the sexual dynamics his sister endured in Jackson Hole.

BY FULLER ROSS

T

he rape/sexual assault culture that exists among youth in Jackson Hole, which Sarah Ross discussed last week (“Reporter’s Notebook: The Space to Speak,” July 19), is an all too familiar story. It is one that I heard from Ross—who happens to be my older sister—during her high school experience, and then one I lived and saw during my time in Jackson. Before I talk about my experience, I think it is important I admit that as a male growing up in Jackson, I am responsible for reinforcing the culture of emotional, social and physical violence that exists in our schools. This is something that no male in Jackson can deny.

My sister went to Jackson Hole High School from 2007 to 2011, and I attended Jackson Hole Community School from 2011 to 2015. Our time in the high school system was separated by three months. Nevertheless, I remember as a freshman being told that the trauma my sister described was in the past, that it was nonexistent.

In my health class, we had the important discussion of unequal relationships as an abstract view. We talked about the culture of “freshman slaying.” However, these conversations did not translate into real world changes. Instead each discussion was in the past tense, and it told us that what we were seeing in school wasn’t wrong, but instead it was the previous years, grades and students who had been in the wrong.

Yet, this was not recent history, it was happening in the classrooms, parties, sport practices, and homes. The reality of the matter is that the boys in school were still actively or passively taking part in this abusive culture. Instantly, I saw that my sister and I were treated different in high school. There was no pressure for me to drink, party or have sex. Instead, I was celebrated for academic and athletic achievements.

Meanwhile, my peers who were girls

were not given any respect, from sports to the classroom, and the expectation that younger girls would hang out with older guys made it so their experience was so much more violent than that of me and my male friends.

When I was about 16, I finally started to socialize more, attending parties and going on dates. Looking back on it now, it was clear that at this point girls and boys were on very unequal ground. The girls had already been sexualized and given labels for the entirety of high school. This gave a disproportional amount of power to the boys.

It meant that even though I always thought I engaged in safe, consensual and non-threatening behavior, I was still supporting and perpetuating the worst parts of this system just by being a boy in this culture. My behavior could have terrible social consequences for girls and inflict emotional damage on them.

But as a straight white male, my sexual and social behavior never hurt my social standing, or reputation in athletics, academics and beyond.

Even if we had tried to have safe relationships, there was so much damage that had been done in the social scene.

I remember entire rooms of people at parties chanting people’s names when they would go into bedrooms, or playing strip games that would target girls.

This weird, macho, celebratory system was not limited to parties, though. At school dances, guys would high five while they were dancing with different girls (something I regrettably participated in).

On social media it was worse. There were apps like ask.fm and the Twitter page Wyoming Confessions. Girls were now being called “sluts” or “prudes” from people around the state or by anonymous folks, and being exposed for their behavior, true or not.

I can vividly remember sexist jokes being made by coaches, teachers, and other adults about girls’ ability to ski, drive in the snow, play sports, and more. As a boy, I grew up being told Jackson Hole was my playground. This idea translated into a culture of entitlement that spanned from the law to relationships to what we said to and about girls.

This, of course, is not a problem unique to Jackson Hole. I am in college and have the same conversations with my friends from Pittsburgh, Chicago, New York and beyond. However, like

The reasons three 20-something women from Jackson hooked up with boys during high school n So I could go home n To not feel guilty n So he would like me n Because I’m supposed to n I should be wanting this n Because he bought me dinner n Because it was easier than saying no from “Reporter’s Notebook: The Space to Speak,” July 19

all things in Jackson, these is extreme.

It is so extreme that no boy can escape it or act like they didn’t participate in reinforcing the culture (something that I continually told myself during and after high school).

I always knew that there was a problem in Jackson Hole. Now I realize that I was part of the problem, not above it.

As a man who grew up here, I think it is critical that we speak up for the injustices we reinforced, participated in and introduced to women that we grew up with.

“I am learning to name the patterns and feelings that went unacknowledged for so long,” my sister wrote. “In high school, it felt impossible to talk about any of this, but pain, shame, and confusion all thrive on the unspoken, the hidden. It’s time to break the silence.”

Boys and men in Jackson Hole must listen and acknowledge the patterns of emotional and physical abuse that exist around them, despite the fact that they were told they’re not doing anything wrong.

No matter how easy it is to cast blame, it is critical to acknowledge that we are responsible for the pain, shame, and confusion of the unspoken. It is time to break the silence and tell people we were wrong. PJH

Activist Medea Benjamin doesn’t stop working long enough to reflect much on her long career.

BY BAYNARD WOODS @DemoInCrisis

some of these organizations, you’ll find the Democratic Party,” she said. She doesn’t mind working with Democratic activists, but fears they will fall away when the Democrats regain control in Washington.

Benjamin does light up a little bit when Sen. Bernie Sanders walks into the cafeteria to buy lunch, but it’s more like she’s recognized a friend than spotted a star.

And then it is cheerfully back to work, going over details of a video with Code Pink intern Kristina Brunner. Brunner, who lives in the Code Pink house in D.C., seems really, really excited about the work. But Benjamin, who has been fighting for so long, seems equally enthusiastic about, say, what they can do with Facebook Live.

Wondering how she maintained such passion for so long, I asked Benjamin about self care, a common topic among a younger generation of activists. Did she have any advice?

Her privilege, she said, requires her to keep working.

“Don’t stop long enough to get depressed. Don’t stop long enough to think you need self care,” she said. “I just keep going, because I learned really early on that it’s a luxury to feel like you’re so burned out you might have to stop.” PJH Send tips to baynard@democracyincrisis.com.

“Don’t stop long enough to get depressed. Don’t stop long enough to think you need self care.”

JULY 26, 2017 | 7

certification program.

The government, she said, has been harder to sway. “They don’t have a brand they want to protect because there are so many interests at play.” She ran for the U.S. Senate herself in 2000, on the Green Party ticket, but said she isn’t interested in trying that again.

In an effort to stop the Iraq War, Benjamin and other activists founded Code Pink, a women-led radical group that uses costumes, satire, and direct action to fight against militarism and defend human rights. When the group protested the confirmation of Attorney General Jeff Sessions earlier this year, two people donned Klan garb and greeted Sessions like an old friend.

They were arrested and maybe expected to be. Desiree Fairooz, a l ibr a r ia n who was sitting beside Benjamin in the gallery, was also arrested during the hearing—for inadvertently laughing.

Code Pink is more radical than many of the groups, such as Indivisible, that have arisen in the wake of Trump’s election. Benjamin finds hope in the new wave of activists, but she has been around long enough to be a little skeptical. “You scratch beneath the surface of

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

Global Exchange, which Benjamin founded with her partner, Kevin Danaher, helped organize the protests against the World Trade Organization, and she was arrested in Seattle in 1999.

“We slowed down that entire global governance infrastructure,” she said.

In 2000, when she announced plans for demonstrations outside 30 different Starbucks to protest conditions in coffee fields, the company approached her before the demonstrations even happened and created a fair-trade

Medea Benjamin

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M

edea Benjamin, the firebrand activist and author of a dozen odd books, looks surprisingly small in the midst of the lunchtime crowd jostling one another in the basement cafeteria of the Dirksen Senate Office Building. Her pale face is framed by straight-cut bangs that are pretty darn close to pink in color.

I was surprised at her size because I’ve seen her twice at recent protests, and on both occasions she seemed to rise up and loom over the people around her, as if a projection of sheer will made her appear positively gargantuan.

But hunkered down at the long table, where she often sets up a makeshift office with other members of Code Pink, the radical feminist-oriented activist group, she seems almost invisible. That’s probably a good thing for someone who has made a career out of making trouble.

Across from her are an assistant and an intern working on laptops. A Code Pink sticker glowing on the back of one of their gleaming Macs reads “Make Out Not War.” It’s hard to keep track of what they are talking about, there are so many projects and issues to deal with: a trip to Cuba, a book on Iran, mobilizing against the Senate health care bill, fighting the proposed increase in the Pentagon’s budget, and advocating for a bill that would halt arms sales to Saudi Arabia.

“We were here running up and down in the halls all day yesterday and all night until the police kicked us out,” Benjamin said with a sly grin.

BAYNARD WOODS

Raising Hell in the Halls of Power

Benjamin, who is also the president of the Benjamin Fund, which reported a value of more than $12 million in 2013, started her career as an activist nearly 50 years ago, when she was in high school.

“My sister had a boyfriend who was sent off to Vietnam and about six months later sent her home the ear of a Viet Cong as a necklace to wear,” she said. “I was so disgusted by that, I remember throwing up and saying I’m going to become an anti-war activist.”

That was when Medea Benjamin was born. Before that, she was Susan. “I was studying Greek mythology right after I finished high school. I thought as soon as I was 18, I wanted to change my name,” she says.

At first she just liked the way the name sounded. Over the years, people who didn’t know she chose the name have always asked why someone would name their child after the queen who, in Euripides, kills her children when her husband leaves her. But Benjamin read about a different version of the myth where Medea didn’t actually kill her children—but was blamed for it because she was a powerful woman in a patriarchal society. She liked it.

She did not legally change her name, which gives an activist of her visibility another kind of invisibility. That could come in handy for someone who estimates that she’s been locked up somewhere around 80 times.

“When I was doing work more on the economic issues, getting arrested outside a store or embarrassing a company would have almost immediate results. It was quite remarkable,” she said. “I would do a lot of work around the sweatshop issues and we would do demonstrations and get arrested outside the stores of The Gap or Nike.”

8 | JULY 26, 2017

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE | | OPINION | NEWS | A & E | DINING | WELLNESS |

Defense Mechanisms Can we love a resource without killing it?

BY TODD WILKINSON @BigArtNature

I

Rick Bass wields the power of his pen to raise awareness about imperiled places.

per se; he believes, at the very least, it needs to be smartly re-routed because it would put 4,000 hikers a year—that number is certain to swell—into the middle of habitat refugia for grizzlies. He isn’t alone in his concerns. Earlier this spring in Bozeman, I met with Lance Craighead, the independent scientific researcher who had just returned from the Yaak.

Craighead, the son and nephew of the late legendary wildlife biologists John and Frank Craighead, made an assessment of how the proposed hiking path would negatively impact solitude-seeking bears already navigating a highly traumatized landscape.

The issue is not whether the trail can be re-routed; it is whether promoters of the trail and the Forest Service will listen.

Bass raises a notion as poignant for Greater Yellowstone as any wild backyard: “One can love a resource without killing it. There are still a few places in the world that are simply not appropriate for high-volume industrial recreation,” he wrote. “To argue otherwise is like arguing that because we drive cars, we should drill in the Arctic—as if there is no sanctity, as if everything must be diminished or destroyed. And here, it would be done in the name of fun—our fun. As if there is nowhere else to play.” PJH

JULY 26, 2017 | 9

Todd Wilkinson has been writing his award-winning column, The New West, for nearly 30 years. He is author of Grizzlies of Pilgrim Creek about famous Jackson Hole Grizzly 399 featuring 150 pictures by renowned wildlife photographer Tom Mangelsen. Autographed copies available at mangelsen.com/grizzly.

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

and carving up wildlife habitat, federal foresters and the timber industry denied there were problems. Only by holding the Forest Service to account, by forcing it to uphold environmental protection laws, was the damage halted.

“The good news is that the Kootenai forest is on the mend. Trout, mostly small, rise for caddis flies on the Yaak River,” New York Times columnist Timothy Egan, a friend of Bass’s, wrote last week. “There are almost enough new-growth trees to keep the sediment load down. This special place, this empty place, is healing, and feels ever more wild with every passing summer.”

Had a defense not been mustered, much of the wild Cabinet-Yaak ecosystem would’ve likely been thoughtlessly cut over, and that would’ve spelled doom for a small cluster of grizzly bears still clinging to life there. It’s a place where the number of reproducing female bruins can be counted on a couple of hands, at most, and it’s one of just three island populations of grizzlies in the Lower 48; Greater Yellowstone being one of the other two.

Now there’s a new threat: a hiking trail. Not just any trail, but a stretch being added to the Pacific Northwest National Scenic Trail running 1,200 miles from Glacier National Park to Port Townsend, Washington.

Bass isn’t opposed to outdoor recreation; far from it, he’s an avid hiker and subsistence hunter. What worries him is the Forest Service’s ongoing approach to industrializing the use of public lands without considering—or often even knowing—the long-term consequences of its actions. He makes his case in a recent High Country News essay titled “Why thru-hiking would be a disaster for the Yaak Valley.”

Bass certainly isn’t opposed to the trail

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f your favorite place on earth was facing a threat, an impact that you know will only grow in magnitude, what would you do to defend it?

Rick Bass has become one of America’s best-known literary environmentalists by marshalling sweet narratives to safeguard “the Yaak”—a rugged and remote river valley wedged between a line of the Purcell mountains in far, far northwestern Montana.

The Yaak sits astride an ecological transition zone flanked by the Pacific Northwest rainforest on one side and the drier harsher climes of the northern Rockies on the other.

I’ve not taken a hike with Bass through the Yaak yet. But I’ve accompanied him on numerous treks through hundreds of thousands of printed words he’s devoted to celebrating his wild backyard. Over the years, through brilliant short stories and non-fiction essays, Bass has told the tales of solitude-seeking humans and wildlife set in this dell along the U.S. border with Canada.

For as remote as the Yaak is, as obscure as it is to most people, Bass has refused, much to the chagrin of the U.S. Forest Service, to let the agency’s shortsightedly bad resource management legacy occur out of sight and mind to the rest of we Americans.

During the height of the timber wars in the 1980s and 1990s when the Forest Service stubbornly adhered to a policy of identifying the biggest trees on public lands and unsustainably liquidating them to produce cheap merchantable timber, Bass, hunters, anglers and a coterie of others put the Kootenai National Forest—“the largest timber producer in the Forest Service’s Northern Region”— under a high beam of unwanted scrutiny.

Even as severe soil erosion caused by massive clear-cuts silted in stretches of local rivers, decimating fish populations

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10 | JULY 26, 2017

THE BUZZ Needs and Wants The sole housing project voters approved in the SPET election is on pause.

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BY SHANNON SOLLITT @ShannonSollitt

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he only housing project voters approved in the May SPET election is stalled for now. A sole construction bid for the Teton County Parks and Recreation housing and maintenance project came in almost 80 percent over the anticipated budget, and while many of the conversations about the housing crisis have focused on supply versus demand, it seems the community is currently oversaturated with development projects and short the people to complete them. Now, town and county electeds will have to decide what to prioritize: voter-approved housing dollars, or critical Parks and Rec maintenance building updates.

Voters approved $2.9 million of funding for a housing project on the Parks and Recreation maintenance facility in the May SPET election, but the total cost of the housing project plus maintenance facility upgrades has brought housing to a halt for now. The housing development as proposed would put 21 rental units above a new Parks and Rec maintenance facility and administration building.

At a town and county joint meeting Monday afternoon, Parks and Rec director Steve Ashworth explained that after fielding 14 general contractors, 10 of which expressed interest in the project, only Shaw Construction came through with a bid. Their estimate is $11.3 million. Parks and Rec estimated a budget of $6.8 million. The available fund, however, is $5.5 million.

It’s disappointing, Ashworth said, that costs have escalated so much in the 16 months since the project’s inception.

But the project’s size has also grown.

Some of that is because we have a scope increase, Ashworth said. Added basement space and extra material come with added cost.

But Mayor Pete Muldoon also suspects that the lack of bids stems, at least in part, from a lack of resources.

“The capacity is not there to build both [housing and maintenance],” Muldoon said. “Are there literally enough bodies here to pound the nails? We’re kind of throwing fuel on the fire here.”

Still, despite being the only bid on the table, Ashworth said he felt Shaw’s bid is competitive. The question now is how to move forward when the town and the county together don’t have enough money allocated to fund the project.

“It’s hard to recommend as a staff on a direction without a conversation with you all,” Ashworth told elected officials. “The funding that has been allocated is not sufficient in order to move this forward.”

The housing project approved in the May SPET election is bound to the Parks and Rec maintenance facility location.

The project in question includes an affordable housing unit for Parks and Rec employees, in addition to a maintenance shop, administrative offices, and basements for equipment maintenance and storage. But future decisions will require either a balancing act of different priorities, or a complete annexation of parts of the project.

“Our first and highest priority from the very beginning was to get our equipment inside, and then we talked about housing and we went to SPET,” Ashworth said.

“The public definitely voted on employee housing,” Teton County Commissioner Greg Epstein said.

Indeed, $2.9 million worth of employee housing was approved by voters.

Putting off that portion of the project would essentially bind $2.9 million in tax revenue. And every penny of that money is specific to that location. SPET ballot language specifically said housing would be built at the Parks and Rec maintenance facility, so the housing portion could not be decoupled from the maintenance facility without another vote.

“I think the question really is, since the SPET money is already allocated to this location for housing only, do we move forward with housing … and not do anything else with Parks and Rec except for housing,” Epstein said. “If we want to get it back down to five or six million dollars, we have to move the Parks and Rec facility project.”

The town and county have a handful of options to consider: Parks and Rec staff presented four different ways to split the project into phases and lower immediate costs, but the cheapest option will still cost $8.7 million dollars, which neither body has. They would have to reallocate funds from 2018 or even 2019 capital projects.

“Are there literally enough bodies here to pound the nails? We’re kind of throwing fuel on the fire here.”

Alternatively, they could ask for a complete redesign that might bring total construction costs down. But that’s not a guarantee, and just the redesign would cost more money—the original design plan cost half a million dollars.

“A redesign is going to cost as much,” Bob McLaurin said. “In this environment, when everybody is so busy, you’re not going to get it any cheaper.”

Or they could take no action any time soon, and hope the market improves.

But that’s even less of a guarantee, and the clock is ticking.

“I’m OK waiting and working with everyone,” Chase Beninga of Shaw Construction said. “But I’m worried about some of the subcontractors pulling their bids, which are obviously tied to ours.” Waiting too long, Beninga said, risks workers braving winter conditions, and losing some key subcontractors.

“Two major trades want to know whether they want to take on other work. In this market, there’s plenty out there,” Beninga said.

Neither the town nor the county needed to take definitive action Monday afternoon. Instead, they agreed to continue hashing out the options, and to hopefully make a decision at the August 7 joint information meeting. “We owe it to ourselves,” Muldoon said, “to really take a hard look at whether we believe this is the new market, and a sustainable cost. This isn’t a five percent increase or a 10 percent increase, this is a significant increase … I don’t like making these kinds of decisions out of desperation.”PJH

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on June 21, uncovering what they believe is a golf cart chop-shop operation, along with illegal drugs, in the sprawling complex near Ocala. Souped-up golf carts are a popular way to get around in the community, which is home to more than 150,000 people.

Windshields, seat cushions, wheels and tires were found in the garage, along with drugs “in plain sight” in the home, Deputy Gary Brannen said. Five people, ranging in age from 38 to 63, were arrested.

WEIRD

If you visit Dawson City in Canada’s Yukon Territory, you can’t skip one of its famous traditions: sipping on a Sourtoe Cocktail at the Sourdough Saloon. The drink, conceived in 1973, comprises the cocktail of your choice garnished with a pickled amputated human toe. (“You can drink it fast, you can drink it slow, but your lips have gotta touch the toe,” says “toe master” Terry Lee.) On June 18, one of the saloon’s toes went missing when a patron, who identified himself as “a drunken fool,” took the digit (specifically, a second toe). Although the thief mailed the toe back with an apology, Travel Yukon has launched a campaign for an “insurance toe,” saying, “Our toe was returned, but we can always use backups!”

The Continuing Crisis

Demit Strato of New York took to Facebook on June 26 from his throne room to excoriate his local Starbucks for making his venti iced coffee with regular milk instead of soy milk, as he ordered it. “I’ve pooped 11 times since the A.M. My bottom hurts from all the wiping. Do you think I enjoy soy milk? … I don’t order soy milk because I’m bored and want my drink order to sound fancy. I order soy milk so that my bottom doesn’t blast fire for 4 hours.” For its part, Starbucks sent Strato a $50 gift card, and he told Buzzfeed that “many women are trying to go out on a date after this, too.”

A China Southern Airlines flight between Shanghai and Guangzhou was delayed for five hours on June 27 after an 80-year-old passenger, identified only as Qiu, was spotted tossing coins into the engine as she boarded “to pray for a safe flight.” Passengers already onboard were asked to deplane while crews searched inside the engine and around the area, ultimately finding nine coins totaling the equivalent of about 25 cents. Local news outlets estimated the cost of the delay and the search at $140,000.

Compulsions

Odd Hobbies

The Wall Street Journal reported in June on a small group of enthusiasts who participate in the esoteric sport of container spotting—discovering and documenting unusual shipping containers. Spotting a distinctive box “is analogous to the satisfaction that bird-watchers get from spotting a very rare breed of bird,” noted Matt Hannes, who maintains the Intermodal Container Web Page. Unusual boxes, known as unicorns, include those with outdated names or logos, or sporting discontinued colors, and those from very small shipping companies. Charles Fox of Indianapolis may be an extreme hobbyist: On his honeymoon, he spent two 12-hour days taking photos of a variety of boxes in Belgium. Mrs. Fox was not amused.

What We’ll Do for Love

Brandon Thompson, 35, had just one request before Muskogee, Oklahoma, police officers took him into custody on July 4: “I asked the officer if I could propose.”

Officers Bob Lynch and Lincoln Anderson agreed and moved Thompson’s handcuffs from his back to his front so he could put the ring on Leandria Keith’s finger. Thompson had six felony bench warrants out for his arrest, but he told CNN he has been “doing a lot to turn his life around.” Keith apparently agrees, as she said “yes.”

Government in Action

n A serial underwear thief in Tokyo was finally snagged July 4 when he was caught on surveillance video stealing nine women’s undergarments that had been hung out to dry. Yasushi Kobayashi, 61, told police that he’d been lifting lingerie for 20 years because he enjoys wearing them.

Police found more than 1,000 pieces during a serach of his home.

n Natwaina Clark, 33, of Gainesville, Fla., was fired and charged March 28 with larceny and scheming to defraud after it was discovered that she had used city credit cards to steal more than $93,000 from the parks, recreation and cultural affairs department between November 2015 and March 2017. Most notably, Clark spent $8,500 of her take on a Brazilian butt lift procedure.

Police Reports

Send your weird news items to weirdnewstips@amuniversal.com

A SWAT team from the Sumter County, Fla., Sheriff’s department raided The Villages retirement community

Rabbit Hash, Ky., elected a 2-year-old mayor in November—a dog named Brynneth Pawltro, who won the race by a landslide 1,000 votes. She’s the small town’s fourth canine mayor, having beaten her chicken, donkey and cat opponents, along with other dogs. Running on a platform of peace, love and understanding, Brynn is very outgoing, according to Bobbi Kayser of the Rabbit Hash Historical Society: “There’s always inappropriate licking going on.”

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n A California man’s 2,000th visit to Disneyland in Anaheim on June 22 made him a celebrity in the park. Jeff Reitz began visiting Disneyland every day after receiving an annual pass as a gift in 2012. At the time, he was unemployed, but he continued his habit even after finding a job, using the $1,049 Disney Signature Plus Passport. “Until today, cast members would think I looked familiar, but now they know who I am,” Reitz said. “It’s been positive, it’s been a motivator, it’s been my workout gym. This past year I’ve lost about 40 pounds.”

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Could it have been overconsumption of caffeine that provoked Londoner Kit Lovelace to scan all 236 episodes of “Friends” to chronicle how much coffee each character drank? Lovelace told the Huffington Post in June he was disappointed that no one had ever collected data about the characters’ coffee habits, so he meticulously studied how much they drank, how their consumption changed over the years and how much they spent on coffee.

(Spoiler alert: Phoebe drank the most coffee, and collectively the group spent more than $2,000 on joe over the course of the 10-season series.)

n A hopeful driver, pulled over by Dakota County, Minn., Deputy Mike Vai in June, produced a “get out of jail free” card from a Monopoly game in an effort to escape charges on a controlled substance warrant. The amused officer shared the incident on his department’s Facebook page, but took the unidentified man into custody nonetheless.

Intermountain

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People Different From Us

n A determined pregnant woman in Asheville, N.C., was charged June 28 with misdemeanor assault with a deadly weapon after she ran over the man who had been caught rifling through her SUV. Christine Braswell, 26, confronted Robert Raines, 34, in a Walmart parking lot, but when he ran, she couldn’t run after him. “Me being five months pregnant, I chased a little ways, then come back, jumped in the car, threw it in gear and come across the curb and ran him over. I was not going to let him get away with it,” Braswell said. Raines sustained minor injuries.

••••

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12 | JULY 26, 2017

Health care in Wyoming places a price tag on life some families can’t pay.

Forest of Despair

By Natosha Hoduski

@Nattie_11

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developmental disabilities, affording families the chance to keep their loved ones at home, rather than in expensive medical facilities. Without that help, the Crabtree family could not get the specific in-home care Isaac needed.

The Developmental Disabilities Waiver, or the DD Waiver, would have been useful to Isaac, because there are multiple providers registered in Teton County, but Isaac couldn’t apply for the DD Waiver while receiving help from the Mental Health Waiver. Ultimately, his family surrendered their Medicaid coverage in hopes of getting Isaac on the DD Waiver. Isaac still has not been approved, however, and with massive cuts to the DD Waiver looming, he probably never will.

For families with children in need of costly medical attention, this is a perfect example of where Medicaid could have stepped in to fill the gap, ensuring a parent can hold their child’s hand after open heart surgery instead of feeling the slow constriction of mounting medical debt.

To qualify for Medicaid in Wyoming, people must meet some of the most stringent income rules in the nation. Statistically, half as many people qualify for Medicaid in Wyoming when compared to the national average. Nationally, 20 percent of the population benefits from Medicaid, but in the Cowboy State, barely 12 percent do, according to the 2016 Wyoming Annual Report.

Further reductions to the program—a key part of the Senate bill that Republicans drafted to replace the Affordable Care Act—would have horrific fallout for tens of thousands of people in the Cowboy State. The Kaiser Family Foundation estimates the Medicaid cutbacks and caps proposed would leave 24,000 of Wyoming’s most vulnerable citizens without coverage.

The fallout

Access denied

JULY 26,2017 | 13

Even without strict qualification standards for Medicaid, access to even basic health care is limited for many Wyoming citizens.

The Wyoming Department of Health lists low population density and rural populations as lead contributors to the state’s lack of medical coverage. As the nation’s least populous state, the Department of Health reports: “Nearly three-quarters of Wyoming’s residents live in rural areas that are designated as health provider shortage areas for most, if not all, provider types. As a result, many individuals travel to neighboring states for health care, particularly for specialty care, and Wyoming

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Under current Republican health care proposals—there are four floating around that Republican senators voted Tuesday to debate—Medicaid, a program already underfunded in Wyoming, is likely to see the largest cut of any program that’s on the chopping block. Further cuts to the program could financially destabilize millions of families that depend on that money every day.

The Congressional Budget Office projects the Senate’s proposed Better Care Reconciliation Act would reduce federal funding for Medicaid by $772 billion over the next decade. Cinching the coffers even tighter, those caps and reductions to Medicaid under review in the Senate could leave as many as 15 million people uninsured by 2026.

Wyoming receives about half of its Medicaid budget from the feds each year, but it’s not just federal cuts the Wyoming Department of Health needs to worry about.

WDH is looking at cuts on the state level

as the state’s tax dollars dwindle. Thomas O. Forslund, director of WDH, released a statement compiling a line-by-line breakdown of where Governor Matt Mead’s cuts would come from for the 2017/18 fiscal year. Medicaid was a key target.

“While most agencies were asked to reduce their general fund budgets by 8 percent, larger agencies such as the WDH were asked to reduce more. ...WDH was asked to reduce its general fund by $90 million for the biennium, which equates to a 9.23 percent reduction,” Forslund wrote. He also has to account for reductions in matching federal spending. The projected loss of matching funds is expected to be more than $43 million, bringing the reduction total to more than $133 million.

So who are the biggest losers if Wyoming sees major health care cuts? Kaiser Family Foundation estimated Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program covers 61,000 people statewide, focusing largely on children with disabilities, seniors, pregnant mothers and families living below 128 percent of the poverty line (that’s a yearly income up to $25,728). Reductions in Medicaid at the national level will affect these demographics almost exclusively. The Congressional Budget Office estimated the proposed reductions to Medicaid would eliminate coverage for more than 23,500 people in Wyoming. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, of those Wyoming citizens on Medicaid, 70 percent are children.

Medicaid has had a shaky presence in Wyoming for years. The Cowboy State is one of 19 states that chose not to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. About 30,000 additional Wyoming citizens would have qualified for Medicaid assistance if state lawmakers had approved the expansion.

The waiver that would help Isaac the most, the Developmental Disabilities Waiver, is especially susceptible to budget cuts, because Wyoming isn’t required to provide those services under the federal government’s Medicaid program.

Forslund said budget cuts from last year already caused an enrollment freeze for Wyoming citizens with developmental disabilities in need of in-home care.

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iffany Crabtree thumbs through a stack of medical bills with the calm of someone who has routinely experienced suffering. She tells her family’s story with gentle precision: “Isaac needed open heart surgery, and so much of me wished we could just be parents,” she said.

“Just be there, holding his hand instead of needing to wonder, ‘How are we going to pay for this?’ ‘Where will we get the money to take care of him?’”

She paused, perhaps how she always does when it comes to this part of the story. “We thought we were going to lose him. He was hospitalized about every month from when he was born until he was six or nine months for failure to thrive, hernias, aspiration, he had an iron infusion…” her voice trailed off as she tried to remember every time she almost lost her youngest child.

Isaac Crabtree is the light of his mother’s life. At 11 years old, he chimed in during our family interview, asking questions and interjecting facts about his medical condition.

He has been diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder called Williams Syndrome, so rare the condition only affects, at most, one in 30,000 Americans. Williams Syndrome is characterized by “pathological friendliness” and an unsubdued eagerness to love anyone and everyone. The disorder also comes with very serious side effects, and because the condition is so rare, the Crabtrees must often seek out specialists and medical professionals hundreds of miles from their Jackson home.

The remoteness of Jackson Hole indeed contributes to the cost and availability of care for many Teton County citizens. “When we have to see specialists, getting quality care requires traveling to Salt Lake City,” Crabtree said.

In cases of emergency, the distance can be even more expensive and dangerous. “I wish I didn’t have to know how much a life flight is [about $10,000], or how much a room in the ICU can cost for a few nights. When Isaac was four years old, he needed open heart surgery.

The room bill alone was 96 thousand dollars.

Not the surgery, not the medication, or anesthesia, just the room bill,” she said.

Medical bills have drained the Crabtrees’s finances. “The hardest part,” Crabtree said, “is looking back at it now. I had good insurance.

But even with good insurance, you’re still paying your premiums, and we would hit our absolute max every year. The stuff we had to pay out of pocket just destroyed us, and year after year after year, with hospital trips almost every month, it was very hard.”

Open heart surgery was just one of a dozen procedures Isaac needed. After a two-year wait, Isaac, at age 7, qualified for a special Medicaid allowance under Wyoming’s Mental Health Waiver. But there are no respite care providers registered in Teton County through the Mental Health Waiver. Respite providers offer one-on-one care for those with

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14 | JULY 26, 2017

Medicaid covers treatment by many out-ofstate providers.”

The report highlights that a two-hour drive is considered acceptable for health care coverage, citing cities such as Fort Collins, Colorado; Salt Lake City, Utah; Rapid City, North Dakota; and Billings, Montana as common places the citizens of Wyoming migrate to for treatment.

These cities have large enough populations to support higher caliber medical care than much of rural Wyoming can reasonably sustain.

Seven counties in Wyoming are classified generally as “medically underserved” by the Health Resources and Services Administration. More alarmingly, still, HRSA lists the entire state of Wyoming as a Mental Health Professional Shortage Area. The three ways to qualify for shortage are geographic distance from mental health professionals and facilities, accessibility to medical professionals in ratio to population density, and the existence of proper behavioral health hospitals and facilities. HRSA gave Teton County a failing score of 14 out of 25 for access to behavioral health services.

For the Crabtrees, even routine visits to specialists require trips to Utah, but in cases of emergency, the cost of health care is astronomical. Life-flights have cost them more than $30,000. So, for their family, medical attention can be a zero-sum game.

The price tag on life But it’s not prohibitive geographic distances or even cuts in Medicaid that top the Crabtrees’s fears. It’s the repeal of lifetime maximum protections provided under the Affordable Care Act. Parents of children with pre-existing medical conditions, or those who need other forms of long-term, expensive medical treatment could lose coverage under the current full-court press to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare.

With the repeal of Obamacare on the table, the Crabtrees’s financial anxieties take a distant second place to their concerns for the health and future of their son. Isaac’s lifetime health care expenditures, Justin Crabtree ballparks, have already exceeded a million dollars just in his short 11 years on earth, and more likely than not, he will continue to need extensive medical attention.

The Affordable Care Act dictates private insurers cannot put a dollar amount on the value of a human life by explicitly abolishing lifetime maximums for health care coverage. Before the Affordable Care Act became law, lifetime limits were the norm across the nation. The actual dollar amounts insurers were required to provide were left up to individual states to decide, generally ranging from $1 to $5 million dollars before those in need of medical attention were expected to pay their own bills.

If lifetime maximums return, Justin

Crabtree said he and his family will not only be forced to uproot their lives from rural Wyoming, but also from the United States.

They are considering Panama. The developing Latin American country has an affordable public-private health care system that has lured many ex-pats south.

Insurance woes from patient to company

patients that are suffering under the growing pains of new health care legislation. Insurance companies are facing backlash after GOP-led health care reforms have floundered in the Senate, especially in the face of Medicaid cuts.

Upset by the bill’s struggles, President Trump has threatened to withhold reimbursement subsidies promised to insurance companies through a system enacted by the Affordable Care Act called cost-sharing reductions. Essentially, cost-sharing reductions is assistance for certain low-income families and individuals, paid for by the federal government and insurance companies to help manage premiums and out-of-pocket expenses based on financial need.

Wendy Curran, spokesperson for Blue Cross Blue Shield Wyoming, fears withholding this money could drastically destabilize health care markets. Curran told PJH, “Cost-sharing reductions help those who are most in need by helping cover their out of pocket expenses, deductibles, and co-pays when they get care.

They are very important to lower income families and individuals who face large deductibles. The position that the government might withhold this money is worrisome, and we would like to see some certainty going forward. We think Wyoming residents deserve that as well.”

The fees of cost-sharing reductions are fronted by the insurance companies, and those costs are later partially reimbursed by the federal government.

If insurance companies do not recuperate the money they spend helping vulnerable individuals in Wyoming pay for their coverage, Curran predicts rate hikes, meaning average

With reductions to Medicaid in the forecast, we need only look at history to see what reductions in health care coverage and access, coupled with increases in uninsured/ underinsured populations, can do to a society.

A study by Dr. David Middlestein for the American Medical Journal investigated the direct correlation between unmanageable medical expenses and bankruptcy filings. In 2007, his study conservatively estimated 62 percent of bankruptcies in the U.S. were medically related, either from the bills themselves, or from loss of work due to illness or injury.

“Ninety-two percent of these medical debtors had medical debt over $5,000, or 10 percent of pre-tax family income. The rest met criteria for medical bankruptcy, because they had lost significant income due to illness or mortgaged a home to pay medical bills,” the report said.

Bankruptcy declarations can indeed derail a family’s future for years to come. Depending on the type of bankruptcy declared, filers might be forced to sell off almost all their possessions to cover part of the debt. In addition, a bankruptcy declaration can stay on a person’s credit report for up to 10 years, making it difficult to get lines of credit that would allow him or her to purchase a vehicle or home, sometimes even restricting a person’s ability to get a job.

Since the adoption of the Affordable Care Act, there has been a significant reduction in medical-related bankruptcy declarations.

Consumer Reports estimated medical bankruptcies have dropped by nearly half since the Affordable Care Act was Isaac Crabtree at four years old, post-operation after he underwent a patch aortoplasty open heart surgery. The procedure was the first of several implemented. open heart surgeries he will need.

It’s not only

The land of the sick and the free

JULY 26,2017 | 15

But the Congressional Budget Office’s non-partisan assessment of the new bill concluded that deductibles could skyrocket for most middle-class Americans, projecting a typical plan under the new legislation could see average deductibles reaching $13,000 by 2026.

Enzi and Barrasso have, respectively, received a 0 and 14 percent rating out of 100 by the American Public Health Association, which indicates an “anti-public health voting record.”

With this voting record, it might be surprising

that Barrasso happens to be a physician and member of the American Medical Association.

His AMA colleagues have come out vehemently against the proposed Better Care Reconciliation Act as it stands in the Senate.

A letter drafted by the American Medical Association addressed to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell–R, KY, said, “Medicine has long operated under the precept of Primum non nocere, or First, do no harm. The draft legislation violates that standard on many levels.”

In other words, AMA members say the bill so strongly violates the Hippocratic Oath, doctors cannot conscionably support it.

During a CBS interview, Barrasso called the American Medical Association “misguided” for disparaging the Better Care Reconciliation Act. “…the doctors I talk to at home, and the nurses, and the patients—I was there yesterday—continue to say we need to get rid of this Obamacare. We need to replace it! With something that actually lowers the cost, that makes health care more affordable. Health care is very, very personal, and we need to make sure that we do it right.”

Justin Crabtree, though, wonders how his senators have come to that conclusion. “I don’t know why they call it a health ‘care’ bill; there’s no ‘care’ in it. There’s no decrease in costs or cost controls that would actually benefit people in the long run. And if you’re not going to help the people in our country where you serve, why do it?”

Now that the Crabtrees have lived through the costs and fears associated with the instability of health care, they are faced with a difficult dilemma: if the GOP has its way with health care and Medicaid is reduced and lifetime maximums return, leaving the country might become a very real necessity for them.

For their family, it boils down to this: nothing ranks higher than the health of their son. And if the United States doesn’t value his life, they will be forced to find a country that does. PJH

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

The Crabtree family just wants to put a face on Medicaid coverage. Tiffany and Justin Crabtree wish Wyoming senators would look their son in the eye and explain to him what a lifetime maximum would mean for him, or what reductions to Medicaid could do to his family.

“Until you’ve lived through it, I just don’t think you have any idea.

You just don’t know,” Justin Crabtree said.

“I always say I would love to be ignorant towards health care,” Tiffany Crabtree concluded. “I don’t think people understand the full impact of these changes until you live that life. We didn’t know what life flight cost, or open heart surgery, or that we would be making great money but still face financial hardships, because of medical expenses. We just didn’t know.”

The Crabtree family believes a single-payer system would work best for the country, but

even improvements instead of “hamstringing” the Affordable Care Act would go a long way for millions of citizens.

In the Crabtrees’s home state, however, universal healthcare doesn’t have quite the same reception from lawmakers. Historically, Wyoming’s U.S. Senators Mike Enzi–R, and John Barrasso–R, have both voted for reductions in Medicaid and Medicare (specifically voting against expanding the Children’s Health Insurance Program) and are fervently opposed to the Affordable Care Act. They are among the all-men team that drafted the Senate’s latest health care bill.

Enzi, Senate budget chairman, voted down an amendment proposed in January that would have protected the public against cuts to essential services, such as Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security provided by the Affordable Care Act. Enzi attempted to persuade fellow Republicans to vote against the bill by saying, “A vote in favor of this amendment is a vote against repealing Obamacare,” which has been at the top of Enzi’s to-do list since before the Affordable Care Act’s passage in 2010.

Max D’Onforio, Enzi’s press secretary, told PJH, “Senator Enzi understands that Obamacare is unsustainable and insurance exchanges are in crisis. Many are facing imminent collapse amid soaring prices. This year, 70 percent of U.S. counties will have little or no choice of insurers on the exchanges. Next year, at least 44 more counties are projected to have no insurer on the exchange. Premiums have more than doubled since 2013, and in Wyoming, we have only one insurer and some of the highest premiums in the country.

Without action to stabilize these markets now, it will only get worse.”

| WELLNESS | DINING | A & E | NEWS | OPINION |

citizens would face higher premiums for less coverage in the future.

Curran, however, put to rest rumors circulating that Blue Cross Blue Shield was going to pull out of the insurance marketplace because of the federal government potentially reneging on cost-sharing reductions. “Wyoming citizens can rest assured that we will be there in the fall. Our concern is primarily about making certain that our members will have some security, knowing that there will be insurance available in 2018 and the following years.

Open enrollment is only about three months away.”

But not all insurance companies are as prepared to recommit to enrolling in the ACA marketplace this fall. Many companies, like Covered California, are holding out before releasing new premiums to see if the Trump administration will hold up its end of the bargain for cost-sharing reductions.

Curran hopes, most of all, that there are no dramatic changes in insurance. Ideally that means “allowing the market time to adjust, introducing changes gradually, in order to allow the market time to adapt. I understand fully that you need the right mix of people in an insurance pool for it to work.”

If citizens are no longer required to have health insurance, it will be the young and healthy who will drop their insurance coverage first, leaving the ill and infirm disproportionately represented, sending their premiums through the roof, pricing more people out of insurance.

| OPINION | NEWS | A & E | DINING | WELLNESS |

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

16 | JULY 26, 2017

CREATIVE PEAKS

Beauty and the Block Teton Artlab opens its doors for a woodblock printmaking party.

BY SHANNON SOLLITT @ShannonSollitt

F

or non-visual artists, a “block party” might mean a mid-summer neighborhood potluck. In fact, it took this non-artist a good minute to understand the double entendre in Teton Artlab’s upcoming show. The cornerstone of the evening, and of Teton Artlab at large, is woodblock printing.

In true block party fashion, there will be burgers and hotdogs on the grill for attendees to enjoy. New this weekend, however, is that much of the art for sale Saturday night will be made live, on site.

All the large blocks, for example, will be printed at the show. It’s a chance for prospective art buyers to see the artists at work, and to really understand the oft-misunderstood art of printmaking, Artlab founder Travis Walker said.

“Many people in the digital age associate prints with digital prints,” he said.

“They don’t actually come from any matrix. Here, people are making things by hand.”

While woodblock prints come from an original etch, a stencil of sorts, each product is unique, like a fingerprint. “It still has a limited-edition feel to it,” Walker said.

“Each one’s a little different. They have real value that digital prints do not.”

While printmaking is one of the less understood art forms, it is also perhaps the most accessible to artists and viewers alike. In Teton Artlab’s 10th year, printmaking is still a “big part of what we do,” Walker said. “It’s how we reach out to the community through art.”

To buyers, prints are often more affordable than, say, an original painting. A young art collector might not be able to afford a Katy Fox painting, Walker said, referring to the fellow Artlab artist and painter, but they could likely afford a screen print. “It’s a lot more democratic than painting or sculpture,” Walker said.

“It allows a different crowd to purchase art.”

And where paintings and sculptures are full of nuance that can feel “pretty intimidating” to an average viewer, printmaking is straight-forward but still endlessly creative. Artists can print any design they want, on whatever medium they want: T-shirts, canvas, wood blocks, cardboard. “Print-making uses the mind and creativity more than any real drawing ability,” Walker said. “You can go back and forth between different techniques to really take it further… it becomes a lot more personal in a lot of ways.”

Indeed, for Artlab artists like Fox, printmaking is a constant, collaborative

process. Fox is a painter by training and by trade, but working in the Artlab is a chance for her to continually explore other mediums and push creative boundaries. “I get really excited about things I don’t know about,” she said. “That’s why I want to have my studio at the Artlab.

There’s a community of artists, people better at my craft than I am, so I can continue to grow.

Walker agreed. “We all make work together in the studio, there’s a lot of back-and-forth together. Our work can be enhanced by sharing ideas, techniques, and failures. It really does help you a lot to watch another artist fuck up.”

As this conversation transpired, for example, Fox was mixing paints into a color that Walker described as molé brown—like the traditional Mexican sauce. Fox couldn’t decide if she liked it, but tested it out on one of Walker’s prints—tree rings with the words “You are here” printed in the center of the trunk. It was a perfect fit.

Of course, it’s also a perk for artists to sell their work. “You can actually make some money selling prints,” Walker said.

“That’s incentive too… It’s a lot easier to show an artist love at a $20 price point.”

Saturday’s show features Artlab’s regulars: Walker, Fox, Scotty Craighead, Mike Piggott, Taryn Boals, Claudia Bueno. But Walker is also excited to include visiting artists, new and veteran. Courtney Cederholm offers her fashion design background to T-shirt printing, which the Artlab has never done before. Nick

Stonecipher will display his work in the studio for the first time. And for this show, Walker also brought back resident alumnus Claudio Orso and his wife Rian Brown-Orso.

Originally from Torino, Italy, Orso makes “really beautiful politically, socially charged pieces,” Walker said. Orso’s gift is his ability to really tap into whatever community he’s in and understand it “instinctively.” One of his prints, for example, is a critical observation of the way Jackson treats—or mistreats—its Latino community: a man in a stereotypical lucha libre mask, and another man behind him, hand over his mouth, wearing a hat that shows just enough of the words “great” and “again” for the viewer to understand the reference to President Donald Trump’s campaign slogan.

Another more light-hearted print is simply titled, “Spicy 5, Teton Gringo,” because Orso always orders a spice five level from Thai Plate, and the restaurant’s employees have appropriately dubbed him “Spicy Five.” PJH

Teton Artlab will open its doors to the public 5 p.m. Saturday, July 29 at 130 S. Jackson St. Food and drinks will be served and printmaking happens until 9 p.m.

The event is free, but if you want to buy art, Artlab accepts cash, credit cards, local checks, and sometimes canoes. (Walker says he once traded art for a canoe. It seemed like a pretty good deal.)

THIS WEEK: JULY 26-AUGUST 1, 2017

WEDNESDAY, JULY 26

THURSDAY, JULY 27

JULY 26, 2017 | 17

n Teton County Fair 7:00am, Teton County Fairgrounds, 307-733-5289 n Community Volunteer Day 8:30am, Grand Teton National Park, Free, 307-739-3379 n Graphic Fashion Studio 9:00am, Art Association of Jackson Hole, 307-733-6379 n Wild About Animals 9:00am, Art Association of Jackson Hole, 307-733-6379

n Elevated Yoga on the Deck 9:00am, Top of Bridger Gondola, $25.00 - $30.00, 307733-2292 n Yoga on the Trail 10:00am, National Museum of Wildlife Art, Free, 307-733-5771 n 6th Annual Driggs Plein Air Festival 10:00am, Driggs City Plaza, Free, 307-690-2234 n Filmmaking & Screenwriting 10:00am, Art Association of Jackson Hole, 307-733-6379 n Raptor Encounters 2:00pm, Teton Raptor Center, $15.00 - $18.00, 307-203-2551 n Docent Led Tours 2:30pm, Murie Ranch of Teton Science Schools, Free, 307-7392246 n Girls Who Tech 3:30pm, Valley of the Tetons Library, Free, 208-787-2201 n Writer’s Club 3:30pm, Valley of the Tetons Library, 208-787-2201 n Tween Metalsmithing 4:00pm, Art Association of Jackson Hole, $100.00 $120.00, 307-733-6379 n Covered Wagon Cookout 4:30pm, Bar T 5, $38.00 $46.00, 307-739-5386 n Alive@Five: Wild Things of Wyoming 5:00pm, Teton Village Commons, Free, 307-733-5898 n Josh Riggs 5:00pm, The Deck at Piste, Free, 307-733-2292 n Jackson Hole Community Housing Trust Chamber Mixer 5:00pm, Jackson Hole Community Housing Trust Above Two Grey Hills, Free, 307-733-3316 n REFIT® 5:15pm, First Baptist Church, Free, 307-690-6539 n Bar J Chuckwagon 5:30pm, Bar J Ranch, $25.00 $35.00, 307-733-3370 n Covered Wagon Cookout 5:30pm, Bar T 5, $38.00 $46.00, 307-733-5386 n Eclipse Build 5:30pm, Valley of the Tetons Library, 208-787-2201 n Dine to Music at the Chuckwagon 5:30pm, Dornans Chuckwagon, Free, 307-733-2415 n Music on Main 6:00pm, Victor City Park, Free, 208-399-2884 n Jackson Hole Shootout 6:00pm, Town Square, Free

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

SEE CALENDAR PAGE 20

$46.00, 307-733-5386 n Dine to Music at the Chuckwagon 5:30pm, Dornans Chuckwagon, Free, 307-733-2415 n Open Studio Modeling: Figure Model 6:00pm, Art Association of Jackson Hole, $10.00, 307-7336379 n Jackson Hole Shootout 6:00pm, Town Square, Free, n Silver Projects: Fabrication and Stone Setting Varieties 6:00pm, Art Association of Jackson Hole, 307-733-6379 n The Unsinkable Molly Brown 6:30pm, The Jackson Hole Playhouse, $37.10 - $68.90, 307-733-6994 n Creating Confident Communicators 6:30pm, Valley of the Tetons Library, Free, 208-787-2201 n The HOF BAND plays POLKA! 7:00pm, The Alpenhof Bistro, Free, 307-733-3242 n Bob Greenspan “Down in the Roots” 7:00pm, Moe’s BBQ, Free n Screen Door Porch 7:30pm, Mangy Moose, Free, 307-733-4913 n GTMF Presents: The 2017 Van Cliburn Competition Gold Medalist 8:00pm, Walk Festival Hall, $25.00, 307-733-3050 n KHOL Presents: Vinyl Night 8:00pm, The Rose, Free, 307733-1500 n James McMurtry 8:00pm, Knotty Pine, $20.00 $22.00, 208-787-2866 n Karaoke Night 9:00pm, The Virginian Saloon, 307-733-2792 n Nathan Dean Band 9:00pm, Million Dollar Cowboy Bar, $5.00, 307-733-2207

Compiled by Caroline LaRosa

| WELLNESS | DINING | A & E | NEWS | OPINION |

n Teton County Fair 7:00am, Teton County Fairgrounds, 307-733-5289 n Dubois Museum and Mountain Shoshone Sheeptraps Hike 7:00am, Teton County/Jackson Recreation Center, 307-7399025 n Plein Air Painting & Drawing 9:30am, National Museum of Wildlife Art, 307-733-6379 n Historic Miller Ranch Tour 10:00am, National Elk Refuge, Free, 307-733-9212 n 6th Annual Driggs Plein Air Festival 10:00am, Driggs City Plaza, Free, 307-690-2234 n Filmmaking & Screenwriting 10:00am, Art Association of Jackson Hole, 307-733-6379 n Fables, Feathers & Fur 10:30am, National Museum of Wildlife Art, Free, 307-732-5417 n Vertical Harvest Tours 1:00pm, Vertical Harvest, 307201-4452 n Tech Time 1:00pm, Valley of the Tetons Library, Free, 208-787-2201 n Raptor Encounters 2:00pm, Teton Raptor Center, $15.00 - $18.00, 307-203-2551 n Free Family Concert at Teton County Library 2:00pm, Teton County Library, Free, 307-733-2164 n Docent Led Tours 2:30pm, Murie Ranch of Teton Science Schools, Free, 307-7392246 n Read to Rover 3:00pm, Valley of the Tetons Library, Free, 208-787-2201 n Jackson Hole People’s Market 4:00pm, Base of Snow King, Free n Covered Wagon Cookout 4:30pm, Bar T 5, $38.00 $46.00, 307-739-5386 n Alive@Five: Teton Raptor Center 5:00pm, Teton Village Commons, Free, 307-733-5898 n Rebecca Ryan 5:00pm, The Deck at Piste, Free, 307-733-2292 n Bar J Chuckwagon 5:30pm, Bar J Ranch, $25.00 $35.00, 307-733-3370 n Covered Wagon Cookout 5:30pm, Bar T 5, $38.00 -

| OPINION | NEWS | A & E | DINING | WELLNESS |

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

18 | JULY 26, 2017

MUSIC BOX

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Indie and Proud, Mr. Watson Teton County Fair brings Aaron Watson, GTMF features gold medal pianist Yekwon Sunwoo.

BY AARON DAVIS @ScreenDoorPorch

E

ighteen years into a country music career and Texan Aaron Watson remains independent.

To borrow from the name of his 2015 Billboard chart-topping album, Watson is The Underdog and the rare bird has little regard for the mainstream country machine.

Watson owns his own label and distributes instead through premier distribution company, Thirty Tigers. Funny thing is, many of his songs would fit like a glove in Nashville. He has songs about trucks, rodeo queens, horses, Christianity and small town blue-collar struggles. The two biggest differences

are that Watson pens most of his own songs and the production on most of his recordings is rather down-to-Earth, far from the slickness and formulaic sounds of mainstream country radio that has yet to give him full attention.

“We have a lot of blood sweat and tears invested, and it’s exciting,” Watson recently told The Boot. “I’m independent not because I’m not good enough.

I’m independent because I’m unwilling to sell out on my music or my fans. I’m independent by choice.”

A Music Row executive once pushed Watson to bend his sound to fit the industry, even going so far as telling him that he’ll never make it. Watson uses it as a badge of honor and negotiates the indie musical landscape with a positive outlook.

“I’ve never thrown out any fightin’ words,” the 39-year-old told Taste of Country. “At the end of the day, I have a dream. If you aren’t going to be a player, then I had to figure out another way to skin that cat. From day one it was like, ‘Guess who came up with the album art cover?’ Me. ‘Guess who wrote 12 out of the 14 songs?’ Me. If you’re an independent artist, you’re only as good as your next record. That’s the truth. We live and die by putting out quality records.”

A family man, Watson has had a slow and steady climb working the Texas circuit and refining his songwriting

FRIDAY Scriptkiddie (Boondocks in Pinedale); Groovement (Town Square Tavern) SATURDAY Buffalo Ruckus (Mangy Moose); Hogan & Moss (Silver Dollar); Funk Felonz DJs (Town Square Tavern) SUNDAY Tasha (Silver Dollar); Stagecoach Band (Stagecoach)

Yekwon Sunwoo

Piano Competition in Fort Worth and he’ll be featured by the Grand Teton Music Festival to perform some of the pieces that led him to the achievement—Haydn’s Sonata in C, Major Ravel’s La Valse, Grainger’s arrangement of Ramble on the Last Love-Duet from Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier, and an original work by pianist-composer Marc-André Hamelin.

Sunwoo gave his recital and orchestra debuts in 2004 in Seoul before moving to the United States in 2005 to study with Seymour Lipkin at the Curtis Institute of Music. He earned his bachelor’s degree there and his master’s at The Juilliard School, and also studied with Richard Goode at the Mannes School of Music.

GTMF presents Yekwon Sunwoo, 8 p.m. Wednesday, July 26 at Walk Festival Hall, $25, students are free. GTMF.org.

PJH Aaron Davis is a singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, member of Screen Door Porch and Boondocks, audio engineer at Three Hearted Studio, founder/ host of Songwriter’s Alley, and co-founder of The WYOmericana Caravan.

MONDAY JH Hootenanny (Dornan’s); Open Mic (Pinky G’s) TUESDAY One Ton Pig (Silver Dollar); Stackhouse (Mangy Moose)

Football is over.

Let the BRUNCH begin!

Sat & Sun 10am-3pm •••••••••••

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1/2 Off Drinks Daily 5-7pm

••••••••••• Monday-Saturday 11am, Sunday 10:30am 832 W. Broadway (inside Plaza Liquors)•733-7901

JULY 26, 2017 | 19

Dramatic and intense, highly technical and melodically fleeting, 28-yearold Yekwon Sunwoo of South Korea is a masterful pianist. Sunwoo was recently crowned 2017 gold medalist at the renowned Van Cliburn International

THURSDAY Kris Lager Band with Groovement (Victor City Park)

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

Wooed with ivory

WEDNESDAY James McMurtry (Knotty Pine); Aaron Watson & Major Zephyr (Fairgrounds); Yekwon Sunwoo (Walk Festival Hall)

| WELLNESS | DINING | A & E | NEWS | OPINION |

with each release. His eleventh album, Vaquero, is a sprawling 16-track set with musings about the good ole days and love songs, presumably for his longtime wife. It’s not necessarily a fresh sound, but it’s sensible and accessible without having tunnel vision like most of country radio. It’s not traditional and its not pop country, and existing somewhere in between is a space that Watson’s contemporaries could tip their cowboy hats to.

Mayor Pete Muldoon’s outlaw country six-piece Major Zephyr is a solid fit for opening the show. While Muldoon has yet to release an album, he’s got a satchel full of good original material, a commendable baritone voice, and a killer band comprised of Andy Peterson (drums), Marshall Davis (bass), Jeff Eidemiller (guitar), Ted Wells (pedal steel/banjo), and Mark Longfield (keys).

Teton County Fair Concert with Aaron Watson and opener Major Zephyr, 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 26 at Teton County Fairgrounds, free. TetonCountyFair. com.

PLANET PICKS

| OPINION | NEWS | A & E | DINING | WELLNESS |

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

20 | JULY 26, 2017

DON’T MISS n Silver Projects: Fabrication and Stone Setting Varieties 6:00pm, Art Association of Jackson Hole, 307733-6379 n The Unsinkable Molly Brown 6:30pm, The Jackson Hole Playhouse, $37.10 $68.90, 307-733-6994 n Proximity: A Film by Teton Gravity Research and Taylor Steele 7:00pm, Pink Garter Theatre, $12.00 - $15.00, 307-733-1500 n Free Country Swing Dance Lessons 7:30pm, Million Dollar Cowboy Bar, Free, 208870-1170 n Canyon Kids 7:30pm, Mangy Moose, Free, 307-733-4913 n Major Zephyr 7:30pm, Silver Dollar Showroom, Free, 307732-3939 n Chamber Music with Mezzo-Soprano Kelley O’Connor 8:00pm, Walk Festival Hall, $25.00, 307-7333050 n Salsa Night 9:00pm, The Rose, Free, 307-733-1500 n Nathan Dean Band 9:00pm, Million Dollar Cowboy Bar, $5.00, 307-733-2207 n Con Brio 9:00pm, Knotty Pine, $10.00 - $12.00,

FRIDAY, JULY 28

n Teton County Fair 7:00am, Teton County Fairgrounds, 307-7335289 n Open Studio Modeling: Portrait Model 9:00am, Art Association of Jackson Hole, $10.00, 307-733-6379 n Graphic Fashion Studio 9:00am, Art Association of Jackson Hole, 307733-6379 n Wild About Animals 9:00am, Art Association of Jackson Hole, 307733-6379 n Festival Orchestra Open Rehearsal: Mahler’s Farewell 10:00am, Walk Festival Hall, $15.00, 307-7333050 n Historic Miller Ranch Tour 10:00am, National Elk Refuge, Free, 307-7339212 n 6th Annual Driggs Plein Air Festival 10:00am, Driggs City Plaza, Free, 307-690-2234 n Filmmaking & Screenwriting 10:00am, Art Association of Jackson Hole, 307-733-6379 n Friday Float with Feathered Friends 10:30am, Teton Raptor Center, $69.00 - $79.00, 307-203-2551 n Summer Grilling Series 11:00am, Jackson Whole Grocer, $5.00, 307733-0450 n Vertical Harvest Tours 1:00pm, Vertical Harvest, 307-201-4452 n Raptor Encounters 2:00pm, Teton Raptor Center, $15.00 - $18.00, 307-203-2551 n Docent Led Tours 2:30pm, Murie Ranch of Teton Science Schools, Free, 307-739-2246

SEE CALENDAR PAGE 22

Dangerous Communication Scientists discuss seminal research about cell phones and other health hazards.

BY KELSEY DAYTON @Kelsey_Dayton

D

r. Devra Davis’s first grandchild was born in 2004 and by the time he was nine months old, he could grab a cell phone, turn it on and even start a game. At first, Davis was a proud grandparent and marveled at her clever grandson. But then the founder/president of the Environmental Health Trust realized there was a lot about cell phones she didn’t know, especially when it came to the impact on young brains.

In her 2007 book The Secret History of the War on Cancer, she titled the final chapter “Presumed Innocent” and raised questions about cell phone safety.

It was the only topic in her book she received pushback about. No one debated tobacco could kill you, or air pollution was bad for your health. “Because you had dead bodies and statistically significant evidence,” she said.

At the time Davis was a typical busy professional, carrying and using multiple cell phones.

Today, there is plenty of evidence, Davis said. She’s gone onto write several books on the topic, including Disconnect: The Truth About Cell Phone Radiation.

Yet people still don’t understand the risk of cell phones when they are used directly on the body, instead of through car systems or on speaker phone. Cell phones emit radiation that can damage the brain, when the phone is placed directly next to the head. The body also absorbs radiation from the phone when it’s in a pocket, or tucked in a bra, she said.

On Monday a panel of experts from the United States, Canada and France will discuss the latest research on cell phones and what people should know to keep themselves and their children safe.

The goal is to make people aware of the growing body of experts, from organizations like the American Academy of Pediatrics to researchers and governments that recognize the dangers of cell phones. “The solution isn’t to say ‘no’ to

technology, but ‘yes’ to health and so we want our technology as safe as possible,” Davis said.

The Environmental Health Trust has hosted forums on the topic, but not for about five years.

Speakers include Anthony Miller, a doctor and professor emeritus at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto, who is also an advisor to the World Health Organization; Iris Udasin, a doctor and medical director of employee health at Rutgers University’s Environmental Health and Occupational Health Sciences Institute; Cindy Lee Russell, a surgeon at Palo Alto Medical Foundation and vice president of environmental health for the Santa Clara Medical Association; Annie Sasco, a doctor and team leader of epidemiology for cancer prevention at the Victor Segalen Bordeaux University in France; Frank Clegg, founder and CEO of Canadians for Safe Technology and former president of Microsoft Canada; and Marc Arazi, a French physician. Davis will also speak at the event.

The forum comes only weeks after the National Frequency Agency of France released research showing nine out of 10 cell phones exceed government radiation limits when researchers tested the way people actually use them— directly next to the body, Davis said.

Manufacturers, however, don’t have to test phones directly on the body, like in pants pockets, she said. It’s a major finding in France and internationally and a topic panelists will discuss.

The forum is a way to update people on the latest science and research happening around the world. “Bring your most scientific questions,” said Theodora Scarato, director of educational resources with the Environmental Health Trust.

But it also will be an introduction to those just now learning of cell phone radiation. “I actually find most people know nothing about this,” she said.

Scarato, a social worker and therapist, only learned about the dangers of cell phones a few years ago. She had no idea that phones weren’t pre-market checked for radiation exposure for kids. The more she learned, the more she realized the significance of the issue. “The science is very much raising a flag,” she said.

Cell phone companies are waging a battle similar to those of tobacco companies that didn’t want warning labels on packaging, or more research looking at long-term health effects, she said.

Scarato learned how people in other

American Academy of Pediatrics Recommendations n Use text messaging when possible, and use cell phones in speaker mode or with the use of hands-free kits. n When talking on the cell phone, try holding it an inch or more away from your head. n Make only short or essential calls on cell phones. n Avoid carrying your phone against the body like in a pocket, sock, or bra. Cell phone manufacturers can’t guarantee that the amount of radiation you’re absorbing will be at a safe level. n Do not talk on the phone or text while driving. This increases the risk of automobile crashes. n Exercise caution when using a phone or texting while walking or performing other activities.

“Distracted walking” injuries are also on the rise. n If you plan to watch a movie on your device, download it first, then switch to airplane mode while you watch in order to avoid unnecessary radiation exposure. n Keep an eye on your signal strength (i.e. how many bars you have). The weaker your cell signal, the harder your phone has to work and the more radiation it gives off.

It’s better to wait until you have a stronger signal before using your device. n Avoid making calls in cars, elevators, trains and buses. The cell phone works harder to get a signal through metal, so the power level increases. nRemember that cell phones are not toys or teething items.

countries were more aware of the issue than people in the U.S. and how other countries already had policies in place.

She hopes the talk teaches people about the radiation issues and is a way for the experts to talk about what is next in terms of research and needed regulations.

“If to me, as a parent, if there is doubt something is safe and research is showing effects—that’s all I need to know because my children’s health means everything,” she said.

Expert discussion on cell phones, wireless radiation and health, sponsored by the Environmental Health Trust, 6 to 7:30 p.m. Monday, July 31 at Teton County Public Library, free. PJH

Thursday, JULY 27: w/ ARKANSAS opener:

Watch talented artists in a “Quick Draw” competition. Vote on your favorites!

6-10 p.m.

NEXT WEEK, AUGUST 3: see the full series line-up at www.TetonValleyFoundation.org

W/ LOCALOPENER:

SNEAKY PETE AND THE SECRET WEAPONS

JULY 26, 2017 | 21

THE MOTET

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

PLEIN AIR FESTIVAL

Victor, Idaho City Park

| WELLNESS | DINING | A & E | NEWS | OPINION |

KRIS LAGER BAND Groovement

| OPINION | NEWS | A & E | DINING | WELLNESS |

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

22 | JULY 26, 2017

CINEMA

SATURDAY, JULY 29

n Teton County Fair 7:00am, Teton County Fairgrounds, 307-7335289 n Farmers Market 8:00am, Town Square, Free n REFIT® 9:00am, Dancers’ Workshop, $10.00 - $20.00, 307-733-6398 n Peaked Sports Targhee Hill Climb 9:00am, Grand Targhee Resort, 800-TARGHEE n Historic Miller Ranch Tour 10:00am, National Elk Refuge, Free, 307-7339212 n 6th Annual Driggs Plein Air Festival 10:00am, Driggs City Plaza, Free, 307-690-2234 n Advanced Papermaking 10:00am, Art Association of Jackson Hole, 307-733-6379 n Library Saturdays: Mini Music & Movement 10:15am, Teton County Library, Free, 307-733-6379

SEE CALENDAR PAGE 23

Beneath the Sheet A Ghost Story transforms a simple image into a meditation on attachment and mortality.

A24 FILMS

n Read to Rover 3:30pm, Valley of the Tetons Library, 208-7872201 n FREE Friday Tasting 4:00pm, Jackson Whole Grocer & Cafe, Free, 307-733-0450 n Friday Tastings 4:00pm, The Liquor Store, Free, 307-733-4466 n Game Night 4:00pm, Valley of the Tetons Library, 208-7872201 n Friday Night Bikes 4:00pm, Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, $10.00, 307-733-2292 n Covered Wagon Cookout 4:30pm, Bar T 5, $38.00 - $46.00, 307-739-5386 n Whiskey Mornin’ Duo 5:00pm, Top of the Bridger Gondola - the Deck @ Piste, Free, 307-733-2292 n Bar J Chuckwagon 5:30pm, Bar J Ranch, $25.00 - $35.00, 307-7333370 n Covered Wagon Cookout 5:30pm, Bar T 5, $38.00 - $46.00, 307-733-5386 n Jackson Hole Shootout 6:00pm, Town Square, Free n The Unsinkable Molly Brown 6:30pm, The Jackson Hole Playhouse, $37.10 $68.90, 307-733-6994 n Ian McIver 7:30pm, Mangy Moose, Free, 307-733-4913 n Hogan and Moss 7:30pm, Silver Dollar Showroom, Free, 307732-3939 n Festival Orchestra: Mahler’s Farewell 8:00pm, Walk Festival Hall, $25.00 - $55.00, 307-733-3050 n Free Public Stargazing Programs 9:00pm, Rendezvous Park, Free, 1-844-9967827 n Nathan Dean Band 9:00pm, Million Dollar Cowboy Bar, $5.00, 307-733-2207 n Groovement 9:00pm, Town Square Tavern, Free, 307-7333886 n Friday Night DJs 10:00pm, The Rose, Free, 307-733-1500

BY SCOTT RENSHAW @ScottRenshaw

Casey Affleck (under the sheet) in A Ghost Story.

I

t is, of course, perfectly ridiculous to think a person in a sheet with two eyeholes could represent something transcendently mournful about humanity. The iconography calls to mind It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown more than it evokes mystery and wonder, and it doesn’t suggest much would be possible in the way of nuanced performance— what with, you know, no visible face and also no spoken dialogue. Yeah, no one would blame you if you shook your head at the whole concept of A Ghost Story.

The ease with which writer/director David Lowery disintegrates every one of those assumptions is only part of what makes the film a stunning achievement.

It’s high art overlapping with high concept, flying through past, present and future in a way that’s both head-spinning and mind-blowing. Here you find a masterpiece of shifting scale, a narrative that manages to be both deeply personal and truly cosmic—and all of it guided by a person in a sheet with two eyeholes.

It’s best to go in mostly blind regarding plot details. Suffice it to say that a married couple—Lowery’s Ain’t Them Bodies Saints protagonists Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara, here identified only as “C” and “M,” respectively—is involved, living in a rented house subject to the occasional unexplained bump, bang or discordant sound of something banging on the piano. They seem blissfully in love—until a linens-clad spectre intrudes into their lives in a more unsettling fashion.

What follows isn’t easy to unpack

without telling too much of the story. The mostly dialogue-free narrative—augmented by Daniel Hart’s creepy-triumphant score—brings a majestically zen sensibility to the notion of attachment to places, the inability to move on from tragedy and how we try to find purpose in anything in the face of our own mortality. Them’s some heady ideas, and the fact that it’s mostly dead serious—save for a couple of hilariously terse exchanges when ghosts encounter one another—is bound to leave some viewers reaching for what it all means, or if it’s all just a big ponderous joke.

But this is one of those achievements that reminds you of the unique power film can have to move through time and space, as Lowery employs brilliantly concise edits to convey the passage of days and years; one sequence of exactly six cuts carries us over a span of decades with magnificent efficiency. One moment A Ghost Story might have us occupying a Blade Runner-esque near-future cityscape, and the next it might find us with a family of homesteaders in the 1800s.

Lowery traps all of these images in a vintage 1.33:1 aspect ratio, even curving the corners so it further resembles something that might have been emerging from a 1960s-era television. As epic as its scope might be, A Ghost Story never stops reminding you that this is also a story about being constrained and limited by the confines of a single place.

It’s not easy for wordless, even faceless performances to capture these feelings, but A Ghost Story finds room for uniquely evocative performances. Mara brings turmoil to moments as potentially mundane as listening to a piece of music or eating a pie—and she’s actually got the easier job. Affleck is left to bring a soul to that cotton-draped apparition, moving with resignation that only occasionally bursts into poltergeist-like rage. The slow stride of that ghost has to carry us through a kind of existential horror connected to wondering if there’s ever a time when you can be at rest.

If A Ghost Story ever comes close to stumbling, it’s when a scene at a party focuses on one guest (Will Oldham) who begins expounding on human attempts to cheat death through creating art. The monologue comes perilously close to feeling like an “in case you missed it, here’s our thesis statement” capitulation, but it also captures something about how we attempt to intellectualize fear of death.

Lowery embraces every possible facet of that fear in A Ghost Story, and the result is absolutely haunting—and not just because of the person in the sheet with two eyeholes. PJH

A GHOST STORY BBBB Rooney Mara Casey Affleck Will Oldham R

TRY THESE “The Seventh Seal” (1957) Max von Sydow, Gunnar Björnstrand NR

“Ghost” (1990) Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore PG-13

“Ain’t Them Bodies Saints” (2013) Rooney Mara, Casey Affleck R

“Manchester by the Sea” (2016) Casey Affleck, Michelle Williams R

CORNHOLE PRESENTS THE

n Vertical Harvest Tours 1:00pm, Vertical Harvest, 307201-4452 n Raptor Encounters 2:00pm, Teton Raptor Center, $15.00 - $18.00, 307-203-2551 n Pre Symphony Buffet Dinner 4:00pm, The Hof in The Alpenhof, 307-733-3242 n Covered Wagon Cookout 4:30pm, Bar T 5, $38.00 $46.00, 307-739-5386 n Bar J Chuckwagon 5:30pm, Bar J Ranch, $25.00 $35.00, 307-733-3370

n Covered Wagon Cookout 5:30pm, Bar T 5, $38.00 $46.00, 307-733-5386 n Festival Orchestra: Mahler’s Farewell 6:00pm, Walk Festival Hall, $25.00 - $55.00, 307-733-3050 n Jackson Hole Shootout 6:00pm, Town Square, Free n The Unsinkable Molly Brown 6:30pm, The Jackson Hole Playhouse, $37.10 - $68.90, 307-733-6994 n Hogan and Moss 7:30pm, Silver Dollar Showroom, Free, 307-732-3939

n Nathan Dean Band 9:00pm, Million Dollar Cowboy Bar, $5.00, 307-733-2207 n The Buffalo Ruckus 9:00pm, Mangy Moose, $5.00 n Live Music w/ TILTED 10:00pm, Pink Garter Theatre, Free, 307-733-1500 n Funk Felonz 10:00pm, Town Square Tavern, Free, 307-733-3886

SHOOTOUT TOURNAMENT AT THE

SUNDAY, JULY 30

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MONDAY, AUGUST 28 - 6 P.M. STAGECOACH BAR

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AUCTION

Sunday, July 30 - 9:30am RLP Auction Barn 3.5 Miles North of Hamilton, MT on Hwy 93.

Antique Cars, Restored Vehicles, Tractors, Side by Sides, Campers, Trailers, Boats, Scissor Lift, Antiques, Collectibles, and Much More.

RLP AUCTIONS 406-369-2640 www.rlpauctions.net

EARLY RISER? PLANET JACKSON HOLE IS LOOKING FOR PART-TIME DELIVERY DRIVERS.

• Two days a week • Must have own vehicle • Clean driving record • Hourly wage + mileage Inquire at 307.732.0299 or jen@planetjh.com

n Elevated Yoga on the Deck 9:00am, Top of Bridger Gondola, $25.00 - $30.00, 307733-2292 n Historic Miller Ranch Tour 10:00am, National Elk Refuge, Free, 307-733-9212 n Summer Sunday Brunch 11:00am, Westbank Grill, 307732-5000 n Teton Food Tour 1:00pm, R Park to Teton Village, 307-690-6760 n JH Sports Chainless Bike Series 3:00pm, The Bike Park, JHMR, 307-733-2292 n Concerts on the Commons 5:00pm, Teton Village Commons, Free, 307-733-5898 n Whiskey Mornin’ Duo 5:00pm, Top of the Bridger Gondola - the Deck @ Piste, Free, 307-733-2292 n Bar J Chuckwagon 5:30pm, Bar J Ranch, $25.00 $35.00, 307-733-3370 n Stagecoach Band 6:00pm, Stagecoach, Free, 307-733-4407 n Tasha 7:00pm, Silver Dollar Showroom, Free, 307-732-3939 n Hospitality Night 8:00pm, The Rose, Free, 307733-1500

MONDAY, JULY 31

n Creative Construction 9:00am, Art Association of Jackson Hole, 307-733-6379 n Video Creative 9:00am, Art Association of Jackson Hole, 307-733-6379 n Art Education: Kindercreations 9:30am, Art Association Borshell Children’s Studio, $16.00, 307-733-6379 n Historic Miller Ranch Tour 10:00am, National Elk Refuge, Free, 307-733-9212 n Docent Led Tours 2:30pm, Murie Ranch of Teton Science Schools, Free, 307-7392246 n Maker 3:00pm, Valley of the Tetons Library, 208-787-2201 n Chanman - SOLO 4:00pm, Snake River Brew Pub, Free, n Covered Wagon Cookout 4:30pm, Bar T 5, $38.00 $46.00, 307-739-5386 n Bar J Chuckwagon 5:30pm, Bar J Ranch, $25.00 $35.00, 307-733-3370

n Covered Wagon Cookout 5:30pm, Bar T 5, $38.00 $46.00, 307-733-5386 n Hootenanny 6:00pm, Dornan’s, Free, 307733-2415 n Jackson Hole Shootout 6:00pm, Town Square, Free n Dialogue with the Doctors 6:00pm, Teton County Library, Free, 307-690-5096 n Toxic Puzzle: Hunt for the Hidden Killer 6:00pm, Center for the Arts, $15.00, 307-734-1680 n The Unsinkable Molly Brown 6:30pm, The Jackson Hole Playhouse, $37.10 - $68.90, 307-733-6994 n Movies on the Mountain: Back to the Future 7:00pm, Walk Festival Hall, Free n Isaac Hayden 7:30pm, Mangy Moose, Free, 307-733-4913 n Matt Boone Band 9:00pm, Million Dollar Cowboy Bar, $5.00

TUESDAY, AUGUST 1 n 89.1 KHOL Summer Membership Drive 8:00am, KHOL Airwaves and Studios in The Center, Free, 307-733-4030 n REFIT® 8:30am, Dancers’ Workshop, $10.00 - $20.00, 307-733-6398 n Creative Construction 9:00am, Art Association of Jackson Hole, 307-733-6379 n Video Creative 9:00am, Art Association of Jackson Hole, 307-733-6379 n Historic Miller Ranch Tour 10:00am, National Elk Refuge, Free, 307-733-9212 n Sewing School 10:00am, Art Association of Jackson Hole, 307-733-6379 n Docent Led Tours 2:30pm, Murie Ranch of Teton Science Schools, Free, 307-7392246 n Old Bill’s Launch Party 3:00pm, Community Foundation of Jackson Hole, Free n Tech Time 4:00pm, Valley of the Tetons Library, 208-787-2201 n Covered Wagon Cookout 4:30pm, Bar T 5, $38.00 $46.00, 307-739-5386 n Alive@ Five: Jackson Hole Historical Society 5:00pm, Teton Village Commons, Free, 307-733-5898

n REFIT® 5:15pm, First Baptist Church, Free, 307-690-6539 n Bar J Chuckwagon 5:30pm, Bar J Ranch, $25.00 $35.00, 307-733-3370 n Covered Wagon Cookout 5:30pm, Bar T 5, $38.00 $46.00, 307-733-5386 n CHANMAN - SOLO 5:30pm, Huntsman Springs, Free n Dine to Music at the Chuckwagon 5:30pm, Dornans Chuckwagon, Free, 307-733-2415 n Jackson Hole Shootout 6:00pm, Town Square, Fre, n Teton Trail Runners Run 6:00pm, Different Location Each Week, Free n Hoback Group MTN Bike Ride 6:00pm, Hoback Sports, 307733-5335 n The Unsinkable Molly Brown 6:30pm, The Jackson Hole Playhouse, $37.10 - $68.90, 307-733-6994 n Fundraising Gala with Yo-Yo Ma 7:00pm, Walk Festival Hall, $250.00 - $500.00, 307-7333050 n Film and Panel Discussion: The Age of Consequences 7:00pm, Center for the Arts, $12.00, 307-699-2680 n Stackhouse 7:30pm, Mangy Moose, Free, 307-733-4913 n Bluegrass Tuesdays with One Ton Pig 7:30pm, Silver Dollar Showroom, Free, 307-732-3939 n Matt Boone Band 9:00pm, Million Dollar Cowboy Bar, $5.00

FOR COMPLETE EVENT DETAILS VISIT PJHCALENDAR.COM

BEER, WINE & SPIRITS

Champagne Wishes Bubbly sensibilities and when to choose them.

BY TED SCHEFFLER

A

Premier, Veuve Clicquot Yellow Label Brut, Charles Heidsieck Brut Reserve and my favorite wine in the world: Salon.

So, dear reader, open your mouth and your mind to some of these effervescent varieties whether on the couch or at special soiree. PJH

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

Local is a modern American steakhouse and bar located on Jackson’s historic town square.

Serving locally raised beef and, regional game, fresh seafood and seasonally inspired food, Local offers the perfect setting for lunch, drinks or dinner.

gougeres and such. Some good examples of lighter-bodied Champagnes include Piper-Heidsieck Brut, Ruinart Brut, Laurent-Perrier L.P. Brut, Nicolas Feuillatte Blue Label Brut, Deutz Brut Classic and Pommery Brut Royale. I once heard wine expert and purveyor Josh Wesson call Brut Champagne “Blockbuster helper,” because it pairs so beautifully with popcorn on the couch while watching a movie.

Medium-body Champagnes are versatile and can be sipped throughout a meal, especially those featuring shellfish and seafood, or lighter chicken, pasta and pork dishes.

Good choices for medium-bodied Champagnes include Moet & Chandon Brut Imperial, Gosset Excellence Brut, Duval-Leroy Brut, Delamotte Brut, Billecart-Salmon Reserve Brut and Taittinger La Française Brut. The latter—Taittinger— is slightly sweet, a beautiful, elegant option.

For the big boys—the full-body Champagnes—that pair well with lots of different foods, including cheeses, look for Bollinger Special Cuvee, Krug Grande Cuvee, Louis Roederer Brut

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few years ago, I was fortunate to be able to spend a week in the Champagne region of France.

Staying in Reims at the Michelin 3-star Les Crayeres chateau hotel didn’t suck.

But much of my time was spent—when I wasn’t in underground Champagne caves—skulking around little bistros and mom & pop eateries, trying to get a fix on Champagne. Or, maybe I was just trying to get a Champagne fix. Either way, what I discovered is that in Champagne, folks actually drink Champagne, and lots of it. They drink it with lunch; they drink it with dinner.

It’s not just for special occasions, that’s for sure.

Before submerging myself in Champagne’s bubbles, my thinking about Champagne went something like this: There is really good Champagne (i.e., expensive) that you buy for special occasions: Veuve Clicquot’s Grande Dame, Dom Perignon, Crystal, and so on. For these celebrations, you unpack the crystal glasses, make witty toasts and are usually terribly disappointed that you spent more than a hundred bucks for something that tastes, well, like Champagne. Then there are all

those other occasions, when you typically open up a bottle of nonvintage (not so expensive) Champagne, and though you don’t feel ripped off, you’re still usually disappointed by the taste of the stuff. If you’ve had similar Champagne setbacks, I’d be willing to bet they can be attributed to one common error: You probably drink the wrong Champagne at the wrong time. We all do.

Think about it. When do we usually sip Champagne? We drink bubbly at weddings and with desserts. We tend to enjoy Champagne in a glass all by itself, but when we get it around food, look out! The reason is simple: We’ve been told that to enjoy Champagne—as with most wines—we want it to be as dry as Moab. So we reach for the driest bubbly we can find—usually brut Champagne—and we serve it with sweet wedding cake. Clash! But while we wouldn’t think of serving a bone-dry white Bordeaux with dessert or with cake at a wedding reception, we serve bone-dry champagne with desserts all the time and then wonder why it tastes so yucky. So, here’s Champagne lesson No. 1: Generally speaking, it’s wise to serve sweet champagnes with sweet foods. Pair wines and foods with affinities. Save the brut for popcorn or grilled-cheese sandwiches.

Champagne’s body also matters.

Body, in wines, has to do with the weight and thickness of the wine—what’s commonly called the mouth-feel. A glass of sparkling water is light-bodied; a glass of hot chocolate is heavy. Light-bodied Champagnes are ideal as aperitifs and with light foods, especially chips, nuts,

IMBIBE

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307.201.1717 | LOCALJH.COM ON THE TOWN SQUARE

JULY 26, 2017 | 25

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Good between 5:30-6pm • Open nightly at 5:30pm Must mention ad for discount.

1110 MAPLE WAY JACKSON, WY 307.264.2956 picnicjh.com Free Coffee with Pastry Purchase Every Day from 3 to 5pm

733-3912 160 N. Millward

Make your reservation online at bluelionrestaurant.com

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ASIAN & CHINESE TETON THAI

Serving the world’s most exciting cuisine.

Teton Thai offers a splendid array of flavors: sweet, hot, sour, salt and bitter. All balanced and blended perfectly, satisfying the most discriminating palate. Open daily. 7432 Granite Loop Road in Teton Village, (307) 733-0022 and in Driggs, (208) 787-8424, tetonthai.com.

THAI ME UP

F O H ‘ E TH

INNERGE D I UNCHETON VILLA L I T IN T FAS BREAKE ALPENHOF

Featuring dining destinations from buffets and rooms with a view to mom and pop joints, chic cuisine and some of our dining critic’s faves!

Home of Melvin Brewing Co. Freshly remodeled offering modern Thai cuisine in a relaxed setting. New tap system with 20 craft beers. New $8 wine list and extensive bottled beer menu. Open daily for dinner at 5pm.

Downtown at 75 East Pearl Street. View our tap list at thaijh.com/brews. 307-733-0005.

CONTINENTAL LOCAL & DOMESTIC STEAKS SUSTAINABLE SEAFOOD OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK @ 5:30 TILL 10 JHCOWBOYSTEAKHOUSE.COM 307-733-4790

ALPENHOF

Serving authentic Swiss cuisine, the Alpenhof features European style breakfast entrées and alpine lunch fare. Dine in the Bistro for a casual meal or join us in the Alpenrose dining room for a relaxed dinner experience. Breakfast 7:30am-10am. Coffee & pastry 10am-11:30am.

Lunch 11:30am-3pm. Aprés 3pm-5:30pm.

Dinner 6pm-9pm. For reservations at the Bistro or Alpenrose, call 307-733-3242.

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TV Sports Packages and 7 Screens

Under the Pink Garter Theatre (307) 734-PINK • www.pinkygs.com

A Jackson Hole favorite for 39 years. Join us in the charming atmosphere of a historic home.

Serving fresh fish, elk, poultry, steaks, and vegetarian entrées. Ask a local about our rack of lamb. Live acoustic guitar music most nights.

Open nightly at 5:30 p.m. Early Bird Special: 20% off entire bill between 5:30 & 6 p.m Must mention ad. Reservations recommended, walkins welcome. 160 N. Millward, (307) 733-3912, bluelionrestaurant.com

PICNIC

Our mission is simple: offer good food, made fresh, all day, every day. We know everyone’s busy, so we cater to on-the-go lifestyles with

quick, tasty options for breakfast and lunch, including pastries and treats from our sister restaurant Persephone. Also offering coffee and espresso drinks plus wine and cocktails.

Open Mon-Fri 7am-5pm, Wknds 7am-3pm 1110 Maple Way in West Jackson 307-2642956www.picnicjh.com

ELEANOR’S

Enjoy all the perks of fine dining, minus the dress code at Eleanor’s, serving rich, saucy dishes in a warm and friendly setting. Its bar alone is an attraction, thanks to reasonably priced drinks and a loyal crowd. Come get a belly-full of our two-time gold medal wings.

Open at 11 a.m. daily. 832 W. Broadway, (307) 733-7901.

LOCAL

Local, a modern American steakhouse and bar, is located on Jackson’s historic town square. Our menu features both classic and specialty cuts of locally-ranched meats and wild game alongside fresh seafood, shellfish, house-ground burgers, and seasonallyinspired food. We offer an extensive wine list and an abundance of locally-sourced products.

Offering a casual and vibrant bar atmosphere with 12 beers on tap as well as a relaxed dining room, Local is the perfect spot to grab a burger for lunch or to have drinks and dinner with friends. Lunch Mon-Sat 11:30am. Dinner Nightly 5:30pm. 55 North Cache, (307) 201-1717, localjh.com.

LOTUS ORGANIC RESTAURANT

Serving organic, freshly-made world cuisine while catering to all eating styles. Endless organic and natural meat, vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free choices. Offering super smoothies, fresh extracted juices, espresso and tea. Full bar and house-infused botanical spirits. Serving breakfast, lunch & dinner starting at 8am daily. 140 N. Cache, (307) 7340882, theorganiclotus.com.

MANGY MOOSE

Mangy Moose Restaurant, with locally sourced, seasonally fresh food at reasonable prices, is a always a fun place to go with family or friends for a unique dining experience. The personable staff will make you feel right at home and the funky western decor will keep you entertained throughout your entire visit. Teton Village, (307) 733-4913, mangymoose.com.

MOE’S BBQ

Opened in Jackson Hole by Tom Fay and David

Fogg, Moe’s Original Bar B Que features a Southern Soul Food Revival through its award-winning Alabama-style pulled pork, ribs, wings, turkey and chicken smoked over hardwood served with two unique sauces in addition to Catfish and a Shrimp Moe-Boy sandwich. A daily rotation of traditional Southern sides and tasty desserts are served fresh daily. Moe’s BBQ stays open late and features a menu for any budget. While the setting is familyfriendly, a full premium bar offers a lively scene with HDTVs for sports fans, music, shuffle board and other games upstairs. Large party takeout orders and full service catering with delivery is also available.

MILLION DOLLAR COWBOY STEAKHOUSE FAMILY FRIENDLY ENVIRONMENT PIZZAS, PASTAS & MORE HOUSEMADE BREAD & DESSERTS FRESH, LOCALLY SOURCED OFFERINGS TAKE OUT AVAILABLE Dining room and bar open nightly at 5:00pm (307) 733-2460 • 2560 Moose Wilson Road • Wilson, WY

A Jackson Hole favorite since 1965

Jackson’s first Speakeasy Steakhouse. The Million Dollar Cowboy Steakhouse is a hidden gem located below the world famous Million Dollar Cowboy Bar. Our menu offers guests the best in American steakhouse cuisine. Top quality chops and steaks sourced from local farms, imported Japanese Wagyu beef, and house-cured meats and sausages.

Accentuated with a variety of thoughtful side dishes, innovative appetizers, creative vegetarian items, and decadent desserts, a meal at this landmark location is sure to be a memorable one.

Reservations are highly recommended.

SNAKE RIVER BREWERY & RESTAURANT

Mangy Moose Restaurant, with locally sourced, seasonally FRESH FOOD at reasonable prices, is a always a FUN PLACE to go with family or friends for a unique dining experience. The personable staff will make you feel RIGHT AT HOME and the funky western decor will keep you entertained throughout your entire visit.

Reservations at (307) 733-4913 3295 Village Drive • Teton Village, WY

www.mangymoose.com

ITALIAN CALICO

A Jackson Hole favorite since 1965, the Calico continues to be one of the most popular restaurants in the Valley. The Calico offers the right combination of really good food, (much of which is grown in our own gardens in the summer), friendly staff; a reasonably priced menu and a large

MEXICAN EL ABUELITO

Serving authentic Mexican cuisine and appetizers in a unique Mexican atmosphere. Home of the original Jumbo Margarita. Featuring a full bar with a large selection of authentic Mexican beers. Lunch served weekdays 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Nightly dinner specials. Open seven days, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. 385 W. Broadway, (307) 733-1207.

PIZZA DOMINO’S PIZZA

Hot and delicious delivered to your door. Handtossed, deep dish, crunchy thin, Brooklyn style and artisan pizzas; bread bowl pastas, and oven baked sandwiches; chicken wings, cheesy breads and desserts. Delivery. 520 S. Hwy. 89 in Kmart Plaza, (307) 733-0330.

PINKY G’S

The locals favorite! Voted Best Pizza in Jackson Hole 2012-2016. Seek out this hidden gem under the Pink Garter Theatre for NY pizza by the slice, salads, strombolis, calzones and many appetizers to choose from. Try the $7 ‘Triple S’ lunch special.

Happy hours 10 p.m. - 12 a.m. Sun.- Thu. Text PINK to 71441 for discounts. Delivery and take-out.

Open daily 11a.m. to 2 a.m. 50 W. Broadway, (307) 734-PINK.

PIZZERIA CALDERA

Jackson Hole’s only dedicated stone-hearth oven pizzeria, serving Napolitana-style pies using the

freshest ingredients in traditional and creative combinations. Five local micro-brews on tap, a great selection of red and white wines by the glass and bottle, and one of the best views of the Town Square from our upstairs deck. Daily lunch special includes slice, salad or soup, any two for $8. Happy hour: half off drinks by the glass from 4 - 6 daily. Dine in or carry out. Or order online at PizzeriaCaldera.com, or download our app for iOS or Android. Open from 11am - 9:30pm daily at 20 West Broadway. 307-201-1472.

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America’s most award-winning microbrewery is serving lunch and dinner. Take in the atmosphere while enjoying wood-fired pizzas, pastas, burgers, sandwiches, soups, salads and desserts. $9 lunch menu. Happy hour 4 to 6 p.m., including tasty hot wings. The freshest beer in the valley, right from the source! Free WiFi. Open 11:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m.

265 S. Millward. (307) 739-2337, snakeriverbrewing. com.

selection of wine. Our bar scene is eclectic with a welcoming vibe. Open nightly at 5 p.m. 2560 Moose Wilson Rd., (307) 733-2460.

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

JULY 26, 2017 | 27

| OPINION | NEWS | A & E | DINING | WELLNESS |

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

28 | JULY 26, 2017

SUDOKU

Elizabeth Kingwill,

MA/LPC

Licensed Professional Counselor • Medical Hypnotherapist

Counseling:

Complete the grid so that each row, column, diagonal and 3x3 square contain all of the numbers 1 to 9.

• Individual • Premarital • Marriage/Family • Anxiety, Stress

No math is involved. The grid has numbers, but nothing has to add up to anything else. Solve the puzzle with reasoning and logic. Solving time is typically 10 to 30 minutes, depending on your skill and experience.

• Anger Management • Pain Relief • Depression • Stop Smoking

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Are you motivated, have a sense of humor and do what it takes to get it done? Planet Jackson Hole is currently looking for an Advertising Associate who can help us stay in touch with some of our awesome advertisers as well as be our on-the-streets super star for Planet Jackson Hole. The ideal person will be outgoing, hard-working and a team player. All inquiries, please send your resume and a brief explanation of why you think you’re the one to the addresses below.

EMAIL YOUR RESUME TODAY!

JEN TILLOTSON (JEN@PLANETJH.COM) & JOHN SALTAS (JOHN@CITYWEEKLY.NET)

L.A.TIMES “DOUBLE TROUBLE” By C.C. BURNIKEL

SUNDAY, JULY 30, 2017

ACROSS 1 6 11 15 19 20 21 22 23 25

Moving manga Celebratory smoke Cause of inflation?

Winter Palace ruler “Hallelujah” songwriter Leonard Mozart work Sport involving protective suits Sch. publishing the Daily Bruin Gathering of zombies?

Vacation including Caribbean dance lessons?

27 Currency exchange table letters 28 Dietary figs.

29 Goad 31 Faithfully following 32 Awards originally for radio only 34 Is strongly held, as a belief 36 Long while 37 Burro bellow 38 Chatty bird 39 Line in an Ellington classic 41 Company with a spokesduck 43 South American squeezer 45 Bundle up 47 Eyelid malady 50 Dumpster illumination 53 Case with a strict time limit?

55 Screen door stuff 56 Ranch rope 58 Leader who resigned in his sixth yr.

59 Wings it, in jazz 60 Matching pair 61 Subdue, in a way 62 City WSW of Bogotá 64 Attorney general before Dick Thornburgh 66 Water gate 67 Pricey mushroom 68 2015 Verizon purchase 69 “Kojak” actor 73 Tinseltown pooch 74 Blighted urban area 76 Commonly injured knee

ligament, briefly 79 “__ Like You”: Young Rascals hit 80 Baggage-opening org.

82 Exactly right 84 Harbor sound 85 Semi driver’s superstition?

88 Bugs’ wealthy heir?

90 Antoinette’s head 91 Remove forcefully 93 Apnea-treating doc 94 Come in 95 Like some interviews 97 Note at the office 99 “And step on it!”

100 Sailor 102 Flipped before serving, perhaps 104 Gmail lifesaver 108 Safari runner?

110 Pub fun 111 American assignment 112 John in Wimbledon 113 Photo including six-pack abs?

115 Vocal technique used at seders?

118 Theater section 119 Unlikely to bite 120 Irritated 121 Kindergarten refrain 122 Slaughter of the Cardinals 123 River of Flanders 124 Drops of sorrow 125 Risk taker

DOWN 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

9 10 11

Cause a ruckus Like Thor “It’s been fun” Kings and bishops Make gradual inroads Number at a doctor’s office “Count me out” Lang. where all nouns are capitalized Major route Futuristic arms Cancún cash

12 “Time to start the day!”

13 Brooks of comedy 14 Heckled 15 Sugar Plum Fairy’s dress 16 Hours often set by parents 17 O’Connor successor 18 Knock at 24 Whirlpool 26 Plucked instrument, in Padua 30 Chews (on) 33 Hardly humble 35 Hydrocarbon gas 38 When doubled, fish often grilled 40 Its anthem is “Hatikvah” 41 Devices with shielded keypads 42 On the house 43 Slant 44 Mythical monster 46 National Pecan Month 48 Barks 49 Besides 51 Guanaco cousin 52 Fiesta fare 54 Marge Simpson or June Cleaver 57 Knave of Hearts’ loot 61 Score 63 Moved like a kangaroo 65 Unnerve 66 Dim 67 Auto-painting franchise whose name reverses three letters of a transmission franchise 69 Margarita flavoring 70 Fever and shivering 71 Quasimodo’s creator 72 Mark on a bass 74 Leave thunderstruck 75 Going around in circles, say 76 Only state capital

without a McDonald’s Roadwork marker Nearly six trillion mi.

Saint’s home One may be crumbled on a sundae 84 Albacore and yellowfin 86 Sham 87 Harold’s movie pal 89 Lit 92 Radon detection aid 96 Honky-__ 98 Indian city known for its silk production 99 Purim month 100 Pope, for one 101 Splash guard 103 Food processor?

104 Lead to a seat 105 Has to have 106 “Seriously!”

107 Sorrow 109 Slot machine inserts 114 Exhibits, as doubts 116 Calypso offshoot 117 Coastal inlet 77 78 81 83

MAKE REAL NEWS

The Award-winning Planet Jackson Hole is looking for new writers to help cover the valley’s must-know news stories. email inquiries to editor@planetjh.com

Simultaneous Discoveries and Tipping Points

“L

ook at the world around you. It may seem like an immovable, implacable place. It is not, with the slightest push—in just the right place—it can be tipped.” – Malcolm Gladwell

Visit our website

The public meeting agendas and minutes for the Board of County Commissioners and Planning Commission can also be found in the Public Notices section of the JH News and Guide.

Carol Mann is a longtime Jackson resident, radio personality, former Grand Targhee Resort owner, author, and clairvoyant. Got a Cosmic Question? Email carol@yourcosmiccafe.com

JULY 26, 2017 | 29

TetonWyo.org

In the 1950s, a team of Japanese researchers was studying a colony of monkeys on a tiny Japanese island. The monkeys’ primary food source was wild sweet potatoes.

The researchers noticed one young monkey initiated a new

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

The hundredth monkey

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For all MEETING AGENDAS AND MINUTES WEEKLY CALENDAR JOB OPENINGS SOLICITATIONS FOR BIDS PUBLIC NOTICES AND OTHER VALUABLE INFORMATION

There has always been an uncanny phenomenon related to major scientific breakthroughs, important inventions, cultural trends, new technologies, and many notable inventions. It’s called “multiple discovery,” because these world-changing discoveries often occur simultaneously, in totally different places in the world, among people who have no contact with each other.

One example of this phenomenon occurred with the discovery of the light bulb. We’re taught that Thomas Edison invented the light bulb. Actually, 23 other people built prototype light bulbs before Edison. Two separate groups, one in the U.S. and one in England, also filed patents before Edison, and fought legal battles with him over the rights.

According to the historical record, sunspots were simultaneously discovered by four scientists living in four different countries. The airplane was invented by two unrelated people, the steamboat by five people, the telegraph by five people, and the telescope by nine people.

One theory explaining how this and many other interesting phenomena about consciousness happen is “morphic resonance.” This concept suggests all life forms contribute to a collective field of information, which then functions something like an invisible internet and collective memory bank. Everyone is connected to and contributing to this field all the time.

When something new is introduced from anyone/anywhere, the information instantaneously spreads to the whole matrix allowing others to simultaneously source the same innovation or trend.

behavior—washing the potatoes in water before eating them. The apparent “Aha” moment for the monkey was the potatoes must have tasted better (sweeter) after they cleaned off the acidic soil. The young monkey then demonstrated potato washing to other members of the colony. At a moment of critical mass in the number of monkeys taught to wash their potatoes (which was arbitrarily given as 100 monkeys), all the monkeys on the island began washing their potatoes.

Even more astounding was that at almost the same time, researchers observed that monkeys on islands miles away also began washing their potatoes.

The tipping point, a.k.a. the hundredth monkey effect, is the transformational moment when an idea, trend or social behavior reaches a critical mass and spontaneously spreads to the general public. Some scientists have estimated that it takes only 10 percent of a population to create a tipping point.

The same tipping point phenomenon occurs among people in relation to personal growth. We all carry conscious and unconscious beliefs and behavior patterns which limit the ability to manifest our full potential as individuals and as a collective.

Each person who courageously does the work and successfully breaks through self-limiting patterns is simultaneously clearing energetic pathways for others on the planet with similar issues. Others can then release their patterns with greater speed, grace and ease. Like blazing a trail in the forest or clearing a path in the jungle, the next people have it easier to travel the same route.

A documented example of the same phenomenon happens in sports. Once someone breaks an athletic record, suddenly many more people are able to do it. One interesting study showed that the first person who successfully completes the challenging Sunday New York Times crossword puzzle makes it easier for others to do the same.

The tipping point phenomenon also applies to the evolution of human consciousness. As more and more people break through to states of consciousness that are no longer polarized, there will be a tipping point when the entire planet and all its inhabitants will automatically adopt the same evolutionary upgrade.

Every person who chooses to live through the lens of an open heart is actively contributing to the eventual tipping point for a worldwide, total shift and upgrade for all life, including the Earth herself. This is how powerful our consciousness is. There’s nothing to buy, no courses to take, no laws to make, no permission required. It’s an inside job, and everyone is qualified. PJH

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FREE WILL ASTROLOGY

HALF OFF BLAST OFF!

BY ROB BREZSNY

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) Do you really have to be the flashy king or charismatic queen of all you survey? Must all your subjects put on kneepads and prostrate themselves as they bask in your glory? Isn’t it enough for you to simply be the master of your own emotions, and the boss of your own time, and the lord of your own destiny? I’m not trying to stifle your ambition or cramp your enthusiasm; I just want to make sure you don’t dilute your willpower by trying to wield command over too wide a swath. The most important task, after all, is to manage your own life with panache and ingenuity. But I will concede this: The coming weeks will be a time when you can also probably get away with being extra worshiped and adored.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) Dear Hard Worker: Our records indicate that you have been neglecting to allot yourself sufficient time to rest and recharge. In case you had forgotten, you are expected to take regular extended breaks, during which time it is mandatory to treat yourself with meticulous care and extreme tenderness. Please grant yourself an immediate dispensation. Expose yourself to intensely relaxing encounters with play, fun and pleasure—or else! No excuses will be accepted.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21) During the four years he worked on painting the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo never took a bath. Was he too preoccupied with his masterpiece? Modern artist Pae White has a different relationship with obsession. To create her fabric art pieces, she has spent years collecting more than 3,500 scarves designed by her favorite scarf-maker. Then there’s filmmaker James Cameron, who hired an expert in linguistics to create an entire new language from scratch for the aliens in his movie Avatar. In accordance with the astrological omens, Scorpio, I approve of you summoning this level of devotion—as long as it’s not in service to a transitory desire, but rather to a labor of love that has the potential to change your life for the better for a long time.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20) You still have a wound that never formed a proper scar. (We’re speaking metaphorically here.) It’s chronically irritated. Never quite right. Always stealing bits of your attention. Would you like to do something to reduce the distracting power of that annoying affliction? The next 25 days will be a favorable time to seek such a miracle. All the forces of nature and spirit will conspire in your behalf if you formulate a clear intention to get the healing you need and deserve.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20) In his poem “The Initiate,” Charles Simic speaks of “someone who solved life’s riddles in a voice of an ancient Sumerian queen.” I hope you’re not focused on seeking help and revelations from noble and grandiose sources like that, Gemini. If you are, you might miss the useful cues and clues that come your way via more modest informants. So please be alert for the blessings of the ordinary. As you work on solving your quandaries, give special attention to serendipitous interventions and accidental luck.

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CANCER (June 21-July 22) For many years, the Tobe Zoological Park in China housed a “praying panther” named Ato. The large black feline periodically rose up on her hind legs and put her paws together as if petitioning a higher power for blessings. I suggest we make her your spirit ally in the coming weeks.

I hope she’ll inspire you to get your restless mind out of the way as you seek to quench your primal needs. With the praying panther as your muse, you should be able to summon previously untapped reserves of your animal intelligence and cultivate an instinctual knack for knowing where to find raw, pristine satisfaction.

Go to RealAstrology.com for Rob Brezsny’s expanded weekly audio horoscopes and daily text-message horoscopes. Audio horoscopes also available by phone at 877-873-4888 or 900-950-7700.

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JULY 26, 2017 | 31

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) You’re in a phase of your cycle when the most useful prophecies are more lyrical than logical. So here you go: three enigmatic predictions to help stir up the creative ingenuity you’ll need to excel on your upcoming tests. 1.

A darling but stale old hope must shrivel and wane so that a spiky, electric new hope can be born. 2. An openness to the potential value of a metaphorical death will be one of your sweetest assets. 3. The best way to cross a border is not to sneak across bearing secrets but to stride across in full glory with nothing to hide.

ARIES (March 21-April 19) Are you feeling as daring about romance as I suspect? If so, I’ve composed a provocative note for you to give to anyone you have good reason to believe will be glad to receive it. Feel free to copy it word-for-word or edit it to suit your needs. Here it is: “I want to be your open-hearted explorer. Want to be mine? We can be in foolishly cool drooling devotion to each other’s mighty love power. We can be in elegant solid-gold allegiance to each other’s genius. Wouldn’t it be fun to see how much liberation we can whip up together? We can play off our mutual respect as we banish the fearful shticks in our bags of tricks. We can inspire each other to reach unexpected heights of brazen intelligence.”

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SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) “The purpose of art is to lay bare the questions that have been hidden by the answers,” wrote author James Baldwin. Even if you’re not an artist, I encourage you to make that your purpose in the coming weeks. Definitive answers will at best be irrelevant and at worst useless.

Vigorous doubt and inquiry, on the other hand, will be exciting and invigorating. They will mobilize you to rebel against any status quos that have been tempting you to settle for mediocrity.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20) Years after he had begun his work as a poet, Rainer Maria Rilke confessed that he was still finding out what it took to do his job. “I am learning to see,” he wrote. “I don’t know why it is, but everything enters me more deeply and doesn’t stop where it once used to.” Given the current astrological omens, you have a similar opportunity, Pisces: to learn more about how to see. It won’t happen like magic. You can’t just sit back passively and wait for the universe to accomplish it for you. But if you decide you really would like to be more perceptive—if you resolve to receive and register more of the raw life data that’s flowing towards you—you will expand and deepen your ability to see.

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LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22) If extraterrestrial beings land their space ship on my street and say they want to meet the creatures who best represent our planet, I will volunteer you Libras. Right now, at least, you’re nobler than the rest of us, and more sparkly, too. You’re dealing smartly with your personal share of the world’s suffering, and your day-to-day decisions are based more on love than fear. You’re not taking things too personally or too seriously, and you seem better equipped than everyone else to laugh at the craziness that surrounds us. And even if aliens don’t appear, I bet you will serve as an inspiring influence for more human beings than you realize. Does being a role model sound boring? I hope not. if you regard it as an interesting gift, it will empower you to wield more clout than you’re used to.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18) Aquarian novelist James Joyce had a pessimistic view about intimate connection. Here’s what he said: “Love (understood as the desire of good for another) is in fact so unnatural a phenomenon that it can scarcely repeat itself, the soul being unable to become virgin again and not having energy enough to cast itself out again into the ocean of another’s soul.” My challenge to you, Aquarius— in accordance with the astrological omens—is to prove Joyce wrong. Figure out how to make your soul virgin again so it can cast itself out into the ocean of another’s soul. The next eight weeks will be prime time to achieve that glorious feat.

32 | JULY 26, 2017

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