Planet Jackson Hole January 18, 2018

JACKSON HOLE’S ALTERNATIVE VOICE | PLANETJH.COM | JANUARY 17-23, 2018

The Bomb That Went Off Twice part 1

The explosive compound RDX helped make America a superpower.

Now, it’s poisoning the nation’s water and soil.

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| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

2 | JANUARY 17, 2018

We Clean Everything!

307-690-3605

DUD e , WHere’s my car?

The Town of Jackson’s overnight parking ban is in effect.

SO, if you want to avoid all kinds of hassles, listen up!

PARKING RESTRICTIONS November 1 through April 15, between 3:00am & 7:00am,

it is illegal to park overnight on Jackson streets, including public parking lots, regardless of weather (rain, snow or shine). Crews begin plowing at 3am. Parked cars on town streets make the job of keeping roads clear of snow more difficult.

Consequently, cars left on town streets between 3am & 7am will be ticketed and may be towed by Jackson police. To retrieve your car, contact Ron’s Towing at 733-8697, 1190 S. Hwy 89. Overnight parking for 48 hours or less is allowed in the public parking structure at W. Simpson Ave. and S. Millward St. but not on other town parking lots.

Residential Housekeeping • Daily • Weekly • Monthly • Small & Large Office • Commercial Facilities • Carpets & Upholstery • Windows • Power Washing • One Time Deep Cleanings • Move Outs • Real Estate Closings Closing Cleanings

SHOVELING REQUIREMENTS Additionally, we would like to remind people: Town residents are responsible for keeping sidewalks shoveled.

• The TOJ assists with snow removal in the downtown core and along Broadway.

• Residents should not put their garbage cans out the night before, but rather after 7:00am on garbage days.

• Please keep trash cans, cars, and other obstacles out of the streets and off of the curbs.

This saves your property and makes the streets more clear of drifts and snow.

• Residents are also encouraged to help keep fire hydrants clear of snow.

BROUGHT TO YOU

BY THE FRIENDLY FOLKS AT THE TOWN OF JACKSON

JACKSON HOLE'S ALTERNATIVE VOICE

VOLUME 16 | ISSUE 1 | JANUARY 17-23, 2018

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11 COVER STORY THE BOMB THAT WENT OFF TWICE part 1

The explosive compound RDX helped make America a superpower.

Now, it’s poisoning the nation’s water and soil.

20 MUSIC BOX

5

22 DON’T MISS

DEMO IN CRISIS

8 THE BUZZ

24 STREAMING

15 CULTURE KLASH

25 EAT IT

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Goelet, Carol Mann, Scott Renshaw, Cary Smith, Lisa Van Scriver, Tom Tomorrow, Todd Wilkinson, Jim Woodmencey, Baynard Woods MEMBER: National Newspaper Association, Alternative Weekly Network, Association of Alternative Newsmedia

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BY METEOROLOGIST JIM WOODMENCEY

HIGHS

LOWS

Storms from a week ago produced over 1.25 inches of water and 8 inches of snow at the Jackson Climate Station. For a brief period, the settled snow depth in town reached 10 inches, which was very close to the average snow depth for mid-January of 11 inches.

That one storm period is about all we have had for the month of January, so far. January is the snowiest month of the year, averaging 19 inches of snowfall.

Average low temperatures this week remain in the single digits. As a matter of fact, this week is about a degree cooler than last week’s average low. That is probably due to this being a popular week for temperature inversions, with cold air pooling in the valley for many days in a row. The record low temperature this week is minus 49-degrees, same as last week’s, but from one year earlier. That bone-chilling cold happened on January 22nd, 1962.

Average high temperatures this week are in the upper 20’s, about the same as last week’s.

You may recall, the record high temperature last week was 55-degrees. That was reached twice: on January 16th, 1974 and on January 11th, 1953. This week’s record high is actually a bit cooler, at 50-degrees, which was set on January 19th, 2005. That same day also set a record warm minimum temperature for that date, with an overnight low of only 34 degrees.

NORMAL HIGH 27 NORMAL LOW 4 RECORD HIGH IN 2005 50 RECORD LOW IN 1962 -49

THIS MONTH AVERAGE PRECIPITATION: 1.5 inches RECORD PRECIPITATION: 4.9 inches (1969) AVERAGE SNOWFALL: 19 inches RECORD SNOWFALL: 56 inches (1969)

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

JANUARY 17, 2018 | 3

Carpet - Tile - Hardwood - Laminate Blinds - Shades - Drapery Mon - Fri 10am - 6pm Open Tuesdays until 8pm 1705 High School Rd Suite 120 Jackson, WY 307-200-4195 www.tetonfloors.com | www.tetonblinds.com

THIS WEEK

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JH ALMANAC

JANUARY 17-23, 2018

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4 | JANUARY 17, 2018

FROM OUR READERS Polar Bear Polarity Polar Bears International’s board of directors and hardworking staff thank you for running the outstanding article

by Paul Rosenberg about polar bears, climate change, and the denialist’s war on climate change science. It offered an exceptional analysis of the danger that not merely polar bears—but our entire planet—faces by ignoring this accelerating problem. We are especially proud of the spotlight cast on the vast body of work and statements made by PBI’s chief scientist, Dr. Steven Amstrup, as well as our friend, Dr. Ian Stirling. In 2012, Dr. Amstrup was awarded the biennial Indianapolis Prize for extraordinary contributions to conservation efforts. It’s sort of the Nobel Prize for conservationists. Dr. Amstrup knows of what he speaks. And, as your article implores, we all need to listen. We urge readers to learn more about efforts to conserve polar bears and the sea ice they depend on at www.polarbearsinternational.org.

Respectfully.

Jackson Hole Polar Bears International board members, Richard Beck, Valerie Beck, and Amy Romaine

Be Wise: Legalize The solution to Trump’s wall is right under our noses. If we legalize marijuana, it would put the drug cartels out of business making Mexico safer; their citizens would want to stay in their homeland. It would save us money and make us money.

Thank you.

Anonymous, Jackson Hole

Submit your comments to editor@planetjh.com with “Letter to the Editor” in the subject line. All letters are subject to editing for length, content and clarity.

brainchild of a notorious white suprema-

to reduce the total number of immi-

Trump’s Comments Recall a Racist Past in cist named Madison Grant. In 1916, Grant grants that can enter each year and those wrote a book, The Passing of the Great allowed would be selected by a merit Immigration Policy The condemnation of Trump’s remarks on immigration has been swift and widespread. Most of the denunciations cast his ideas as seriously out of line with American ideals on immigration. The problem is that they aren’t really. From the very beginning of our nation, there has been a white nationalist core driving our immigration priorities. Even as we struggled to be a “nation of immigrants,” most of the people we allowed in were chosen on the basis of national origin from the “whitest” parts of Europe.

The first US naturalization law of 1790 required that anyone who wanted to become a citizen had to be a “free white person.” At its start, the Framers envisioned the US as a political society for members of a specific racial caste. This requirement stayed in place until the mid20th century.

In 1924, the US passed the Johnson Reed Act, one of the most significant comprehensive immigration reform bills in our history. It limited the number of immigrants each year and those allowed were selected on the basis of their country of origin. Immigrants from North and Western Europe (such as Norway) had almost no restrictions on entering, while Southern and Eastern European immigrants were severely controlled.

Immigration from Asia had been almost completely prohibited for several decades by this point.

The shocking issue with the act is its little known origin story. The law was the

Race, which argued that the truly white people in the US, the Nordics, were at risk of going extinct because of the massive influx of Poles, Italians, Greeks, and Jews who Grant did not consider white. Grant’s book became a bestseller and reading groups were formed among members of Congress. Grant chaired the committee to advise Congress on immigration. The result was Johnson Reed. Grant went on to inspire the Racial Integrity Act for the state of Virginia that prohibited interracial marriage. It was widely copied throughout the US. So for almost 40 years of the 20th century, US immigration policy and marriage law was specifically designed to create a white majority population.

Congress didn’t remove this system until 1965, replacing it with one that shifted the demographic makeup of most immigrants. Since 1965, the large bulk of immigrants have been from Asia and Latin America. The new policies today favor creating a diverse pool of immigrants rather than one based on national origins, and they encourage immigrants, once here, to bring their family members from their former home countries in a process called “chain migration.”

Trump’s remarks, and the policy proposals on immigration that he has released in the past year, indicate that he wishes to return US immigration policy to the way it was under Grant. Clearly, his preference for individuals from Scandinavia versus Africa or Latin America would have pleased Grant immensely.

Trump’s advisors have also proposed

SNOWPACK REPORT

SPONSORED BY HEADWALL RECYCLE SPORTS

BY LISA VAN SCIVER

Snowfall began on Tuesday, January 9 and about thirty inches with close to three inches of water had fallen by Saturday. As the new snow loaded the existing snowpack and poor structures, the slopes began to collapse, crack and avalanche.

In many areas weak, faceted snow grains — buried a meter or more in depth — reached their tipping point and released the slab they had been supporting. In areas where it did not avalanche and the facets exist, these facets may be gaining strength — or are more likely awaiting their breaking point.

On January 12, Ullrs — the east facing track on 25 Short in GTNP — released naturally and reached the valley floor. Hundreds of other large destructive avalanches up to size D4 occurred during the storm.

Days after the last snowflake, sensitive slabs continue to be triggered.

The majority of the avalanches happened between 9,500 to 7,500 feet on all aspects. Skiers and riders were slid on slopes with previous tracks and natural avalanche activity was witnessed. These persistent grains are not to be trusted, as they can cause a slope to appear stable until the sweet spot is crossed.

The first big snowfall for the winter finally arrived and along with it came the first real avalanche cycle.

Each season a different dragon visits. This season’s dragon has appeared in unique and unsuspected areas. Only time will let us know how the snowpack will react next.

system. Those immigrants demonstrating English proficiency and the right job skills would have a preference. This obviously will favor immigrants from those countries with the educational systems that can give people experience with the American way of life. Such a system will drastically limit immigration from Latin America, Asia, and Africa by eliminating chain migration.

About a century ago, Americans struggled to find a language to describe what a multicultural, racially diverse, and democratic society would look like. One group of progressive thinkers, led by figures such as John Dewey, Alain Locke, and Jane Addams, urged us to imagine a nation where immigrants were not forced to assimilate to a single mold, but encouraged to keep their traditions and enlarge the possibilities of what it means to be an American. This theme is missing from public discussions on immigration today.

But if we are looking to the past for hints today about what to do with our immigration policy that do not involve reinventing a white nationalist vision, then perhaps this is a conversation we need to remember.

José-Antonio Orosco, Ph.D, writes for PeaceVoice and is Associate Professor of Philosophy: School of History, Philosophy, and Religion; Director, Oregon State University Peace Studies Program. He is the author of Toppling the Melting Pot: Immigration and Multiculturalism in American Pragmatism (2016) and other scholarly works.

Fire and Fire and Fury Steve Bannon and what a bad week really looks like

BY BAYNARD WOODS

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out to be much better than Steve Bannon is the almost Ahab-esque antihero of Fire and Fury, which in many ways charts his rise and fall. that enjoyed by many of the people in the figurative conflagration of the book — manager, Paul Manafort. But it wasn’t especially Steve Bannon. enough. Bannon was fired first from Bannon is the almost Ahab-esque Breitbart and then from his Sirius XM antihero of Fire and Fury, which in many show (with Fox preemptively refusing to ways charts his rise and fall—at least up hire him). Worst of all, billionaires Robert until the point that the book’s publica- and Rebekah Mercer, who have supporttion precipitated a further fall. For being ed most of his endeavors and funded his such a horrendous pseudo-intellectu- nationalist endeavors, cut ties with their al schlub, Bannon is also fascinating, a schlubby honey badger. far-right svengali. According to Harvard I watched out all of this play out on studies, during the last election, Breitbart cable as I tried to deal with the disaster was three-times as influential as its next bureaucracy. And it was delightful to see closest competitor (measured in terms of the pundits all talking about Bannon’s retweets and shares) than the titanic Fox terrible week, even if it came for all the News. Bannon was at least partly respon- wrong reasons. sible for that — and for getting Trump Bannon, by the way, did not have the elected. worst week in Washington. That would That perception, that Bannon orches- go to the more than 12,000 Salvadorans trated Trump’s victory — as shown in who live in the district (the numbers are another book, Joshua Green’s Devil’s far larger if you count the D.C. suburbs, Bargain was probably the number one which have large Salvadoran enclaves). factor in his August White House ouster Ultimately, a Department of Homeland — even more important than the alt-right Security directive to end the Temporary terror that ripped apart Charlottesville Protective Status for people who came to that month. the U.S. from El Salvador following a 2001 In Fire and Fury, though, Bannon is earthquake will affect more than 200,000 right about how horrible the Trump kids people who have been in the U.S. for more and Jared Kushner are. It was actual- than 15 years now. It’s almost impossible ly beautiful to listen to him (or Holter to imagine how deeply that will affect Graham, who read the audiobook) rail- their communities in and around the ing against the idiocy of Jarvanaka—Jared district.

Kushner and Ivanka Trump.

Bannon may be gone but this is the And Jarvanka were also right about essence the dark alignment of Bannon’s him, his whack-job far-right Leninism, alt-right with Jeff Sessions’ revanchist racreveling in the destruction of the world. ism and Trump’s big boner for a wall. So That circular firing squad is what makes on Thursday, when Trump was meeting the book so compelling. All of these people with a group of senators about TPS and are so disastrously wrong about America, asked why we have so many people combut they are pretty right when they assess ing here from “shithole countries,” like El each other’s weaknesses. Bannon’s weak- Salvador, Haiti (which already had its TPS nesses are nearly infinite — and the most rescinded) and various nations in Africa, important ones are intellectual. Sure he’s it was clear that it didn’t matter whether or a slob and all that, but he is a sexist, racist, not Bannon was in the White House or “in “nationalist,” who created a section of the the wilderness” or not.

Breitbart site called “Black Crime.”

Trump, Bannon and their crew may After Wolff quoted Bannon saying that have overestimated the electorate in their Don Jr.’s Russia meeting was treasonous, expectation of losing. We should not make the president went on the attack with a the same mistake and overestimate them. new epithet, “Sloppy Steve.” Bannon tried Whatever happens to Steve Bannon, racto apologize, saying he was really attack- ists now rule the executive branch. PJH ing his predecessor as Trump’s campaign

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went to bed on Saturday night reading Fire and the Fury, which, if I need to explain it at this point, is Michael Wolff’s ribald and riveting account of the early days of the Trump regime. It quickly became clear in the book that no one involved in Trump’s campaign expected, or wanted, him to win.

That was a horrible thought: Trump and his motley crew of enablers, the doltish adult children, sleazeballs like Paul Manafort and Corey Lewandowski, fascists like Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller, they all overestimated the American people.

They thought we were better than we were.

They thought they were safe because we would never elect Donald Trump.

I went to sleep with this somber thought. At some point in the night, I woke up smelling smoke. I got up and looked around and sniffed and couldn’t find anything. It was like 10 degrees in Baltimore that night so I assumed if was a neighbor’s fireplace.

At about 9:00 a.m., my wife woke me.

“The dog is acting weird,” she said.

The dog was shaking, pawing at us.

“Smoke!” my wife yelled.

I looked over and smoke was coming up through the floorboards. Then it burst into flame. By the foot of the bed.

Fire and fury ensued. This is the essence of this year.

Ultimately, the fire in my bedroom wasn’t nearly as bad as it could have been.

The fire department — Big Government!

— was there before the fire destroyed much. They cut through the floor and broke the windows. Most of the damage was caused by the smoke. We were safe and we didn’t lose anything of real value.

We have renters insurance and I’m writing this from a hotel, where I spent a lot of time waiting on the bureaucracy of insurance and disaster mitigation to move. I bought the audio book of Fire and Fury and listened to the rest of it as I threw out former possessions that were now nothing but junk.

However difficult my week, it turned

DONKEY HOTEY

DEMOCRACY IN CRISIS

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6 | JANUARY 17, 2018

THE NEW WEST Development Downfalls AUGUST O’KEEFE/MOUNTAIN JOURNAL

Growth is bringing both huge ecological, economic costs to Greater Yellowstone

BY TODD WILKINSON @bigartnature

T

he slow and steady landscape-level effects of climate change in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem are being documented by scientists measuring snowpack, average temperatures, drying of forests and wetlands.

Equally significant impacts are bearing down on some corners of Greater Yellowstone caused by growing human development.

Last autumn, I wrote a long investigative piece for the online magazine Mountain Journal (mountainjournal.org) about some of the sobering demographic trends (inward population) that, if played out over the coming decades, will leave our region transformed into a dramatically less wild place.

For example, within a single human generation, the population of Bozeman/ Gallatin Valley, Montana will at current growth rates hold as many people as Salt Lake proper — 210,000 (note the city of Salt Lake itself, not the entire metro sprawl along the western Wasatch).

If those rates continue — and there is no evidence they will slow down — Bozeman/Gallatin Valley would be Minneapolis proper-sized (420,000) by around 2060.

While jaw dropping to some, that’s actually conservative in some ways, for it assumes that certain things won’t happen, such as a wave of climate change refugees additionally pouring in. Think people in the water-challenged Southwest fleeing water shortages and extreme heat; think coastal dwellers hit by rising sea water and hurricanes not only losing their homes but being told by insurance companies they won’t pay for them to rebuild.

Here’s one of the stunning stats, provided by Randy Carpenter of

Mountain Journal (mountainjournal.org) created this graphic, done half in jest, to illustrate the spillover effects of Jackson Hole on Teton Valley, Idaho There may not be Salt Lake-like skyscrapers there by mid century but there will be Salt Lake-like sprawl.

FutureWest, a thinktank that in Bozeman tracking growth issues.

Conservatively, if the growth rate of the last 30 years continues — collectively Greater Yellowstone already is one of the fast growing rural areas in the U.S. — the overall population of the region is expected to surge in just 13 years, from the current 450,000 denizens. That translates on the ground to another 100,000 homes.

“And I wouldn’t be surprised if it doesn’t grow faster than that,” Carpenter said.

Another big projected growth in-fill area is the corridor stretching from Idaho Falls to Rexburg to Teton Valley, Idaho to Jackson Hole and then down the Snake River Canyon toward Star Valley, Bondurant and even Pinedale.

The average number of people per dwelling in Greater Yellowstone homes is about 2.3, half the number of two generations ago. Yet even with fewer inhabitants, homes are being built in exurban locations with more square footage. Many are going up in the forested wildand-urban interface where they are more likely to burn in a wildifire and residents will expect to receive expensive taxpayer-subsidized firefighting services from federal, state and local governments.

Some of these people building their dream homes will only reside in them a few months out of the year, yet the footprint of development they exact is permanent. Craving views and with no context provided by realtors and developers, their investment domiciles will be sited, replete with roads, fences, barking dogs, yard lights, power, water and sewage infrastructure in important wildlife winter range or near riparian areas (river corridors) — the most important parts of the landscape for biodiversity.

Fascinating is the depth of bubble thinking — the belief by people who fled urban and suburban settings, now aspiring to cash-in on development and who claim massive growth will never happen here. They deny both the real spillover effects of Jackson Hole on adjacent valleys being caused by the pricing-out of people. And they deny that, under build-out scenarios in Teton County, the population could still easily double by mid-century, exacerbating an affordable housing crisis and congestion that already degrading local quality of life.

A similar attitude exists in Big Sky, Montana, which is a mini Jackson Hole in the making.

In Paradise Valley, Montana, between Yellowstone’s northern gate

and Livingston, Montana, the number of new homes being built by recreational home owners is outpacing the number of permanent residents.

It means that more homes are being built and leaving ecological footprints that don’t even serve year-round human inhabitation. In future columns and longer stories at mountainjournal.org, I’ll be taking a deep dive into growth issues that have huge implications for wildlife and wildness in the most iconic wildland complex in the Lower 48.

What to do about it? This isn’t antigrowth; it means we need wise growth.

Besides being ecologically impactful, counties cannot with current revenue models afford to deal with the skyrocketing costs associated with the wave of new development.

Humans can be very good at solving problems, especially when they apply themselves and look and think beyond boundaries, but they cannot confront them if they live in denial. PJH

Todd Wilkinson, founder of Mountain Journal (mountainjournal.org), is author of “Grizzlies of Pilgrim Creek” about famous Greater Yellowstone grizzly bear 399 featuring 150 photographs

by Tom Mangelsen, available only at mangelsen.com/grizzly.

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A half-drunk bottle of Taaka, a red Solo cup, some Pepto Bismol and a loaf of bread.

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Those slightly stale tortilla chips in the back of the cabinet, a block of cheese, the reject beers leftover from river season and some fuzzy socks.

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That sketchy jar of Carnation Instant Breakfast, an old bottle of Baileys Irish Cream, bath bombs and some freez-

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That really old bottle of wine, a half-finished Sodoku, your stack of really old Planet papers and a jar of hope.

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8 | JANUARY 17, 2018

START WEBSITE

THE BUZZ

START It Up Four proposed schemes could raise up to $5 million for START service

BY FW BROSCHART @broschartfred

A

fter Teton County voters chose not to enact several proposals in May 2017 to expand funding for the county’s START bus system, officials from the town of Jackson and Teton County have begun looking elsewhere to shore up founds for the mass transit system.

A committee of 12 appointed to study ways to increase funding for the START system in an equitable manner so the system can meet its long-term goal of increasing ridership by 25 percent by the year 2020.

If successful in that goal, START’s ridership would increase to 1.25 million rides per year. Such a goal would require about $6.4 million.

To raise that funding, the committee looked at various ways to raise funding.

Four potential avenues for increasing the operating budget identified by the committee were rental fees assessed for short-term renters, fees for parking, a fee on rental cars and an employer transit pass system.

A short-term rental fee assessment could account for an estimated $1

million. The scheme, similar to one employed by Teton Village, would assess a fee to short term rentals in the town of Jackson and across Teton County.

According to the committee, the fee would be assessed to rental properties legally rented on a short-term basis of 31 days or fewer within the town of Jackson, as well as in Teton County.

Under the proposed scheme, the tax could be scaled based on property value and size.

Another possible option floated by the committee would seek to target a group seen as contributing significantly to traffic issues in the town of Jackson and across the county; tourists who rent cars. According to the committee’s report, car rentals not only contribute to traffic issues, but also increase wear and tear on county and town roads and infrastructure.

The fee on car rentals could be assessed on a per-day, or per-rental basis, with such a fee being assessed directly to the consumer. Another possible option could be a franchise fee or business license fee assessed to car rental firms in the county.

A fee assessed on car rentals could raise up to $500,000 per year, by the committee’s estimates.

Two other options floated by the committee would not impact visitors and tourists alone. One option suggested in the committee’s report is a parking fee.

“When parking demand is not

The START bus system is nothing if not controversial, and now officials are looking for news ways to help fund the mass transit system.

managed, demand will always grow to outstrip supply,” the report said. “The concept behind demand-managed parking is to charge for parking such that one or two parking spots per block generally remain open.

“When parking becomes readily available, congestion decreases.”

A reduction in congestion brought about by managing parking could mean up to $1 million added to START coffers, according to the report.

A proposed fourth scheme would most directly affect local residents and businesses in Jackson and Teton County.

Under this scheme, employers would purchase seasonal transit passes for employees. Under the scheme, employers would purchase passes based on a percentage of total employees.

Under the committee’s proposal, the passes would be a tax-free benefit for employees. However, to make the passes attractive, the committee conceded that certain changes to START’s service level would have to be made, including longer hours for routes, and the addition of new bus routes.

According to the group, such a plan could raise $1-1.5 million for START per year.

Though the committee focused on those four schemes for increasing funding, there were other suggestions as possible sources to increase funding for START. Potential short-term schemes

include a property tax across the town and county, as well as a possible lodging tax.

Other possible schemes for increasing revenues in the mid-term include a Special Purpose Excise Tax, or SPET, or a local sales tax. The committee also said special assessment districts could also be a potential solution, but one that would require legislative action. The committee’s report also mentioned a potential car registration fee and potential development of a regional transit model involving other nearby municipalities and counties as potential solutions for increasing START funding.

The committee also suggested maintaining and possibly increasing funding from several existing sources, including getting more grants from the state and federal governments, the lodging tax and possible fare increases for START users.

Regardless of which, if any, of the proposed schemes are accepted and implemented by the county and town, the committee was very stark in its analysis of the issue, saying that increasing START usage was necessary to mitigate traffic issues, as well as to protect the environment in and around Teton County.

“What will traffic look like in our community in 10-20 years if we don’t start to address traffic congestion?” the committee asked in its report. PJH

Jackson Women’s March organizers hope to keep the protest momentum going one year later

BY FW BROSCHART @broschartfred

Protesters from Jackson march in support of the inaugural Women’s March in January 2017.

orders and a part of the tax overhaul bill passed by congress at the end of 2017.

“Many people are going to lose their healthcare they had through the Affordable Care Act,” Anzelmo said.

“Premiums are going up because some elected leaders have done things to make the local marketplaces unstable.”

Other issues, such as immigration, have also spurred a continuation of the protests begun a year earlier at marches across the nation. Anzelmo cited immigrant rights and civil rights as other key concerns for organizers, saying the march is essentially about fundamental human rights.

In Wyoming though, the march may take on a dimension that may not be as prominent at marches in other states.

One issue of particular concern for many Wyomingites is the future of publically-owned lands.

Wyoming’s at-large representative to the U.S. House of Representatives, Liz Cheney, recently voted in favor of a set of rules changes in the House that could make it easier for public lands to be transferred to states. Once states have the land, they may be compelled to sell it to private interests rather than budget already scarce state funds for the land’s upkeep and management.

Cheney also drew ire from many after submitting legislation that would expand helicopter skiing in protected

JANUARY 17, 2018 | 9

immigration issues, workers’ rights and racial issues.

In Washington D.C. and cities and towns across the U.S. and the globe, millions marched in solidarity, with many wearing the now-iconic “pussyhat,” a knitted or crocheted pink hat.

The hat was named to reclaim the word pussy, after Trump infamously said in a recording made public before the election that women would let him “grab them by the pussy” because of his fame.

It was estimated by Washington Post that between 3.2 and 5.6 million people took part in the 2017 marches nationwide.

The marches kicked off a tumultuous year.

Almost immediately after taking office, Trump attempted to uphold his campaign promise of destroying the Affordable Care Act, or ObamaCare.

The ACA provides for insurance marketplaces that allow people who may not have insurance from their employer to purchase insurance from private insurers. Despite the lack of a viable plan to replace it, the Trump administration, aided by allies in the Republican controlled congress, attempted to repeal the law wholesale.

While not successful in repealing the law, the administration has been successful at changing several key aspects of the act through the use of executive

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O

n January 20 of last year, a grassroots protest dubbed the Women’s March was scheduled to coincide with the inauguration of President-Elect Donald Trump. The march went down in history as the largest single-day organized protest in the history of the United States.

In Wyoming, solidarity marches were held in towns across the state, including Jackson. Organizers now hope an anniversary march to be held Saturday will keep the momentum of political change going after a rough first year under the Trump administration.

Many of the same people involved in organizing the march in Jackson last year are involved in planning this year’s anniversary march, including Joan

Anzelmo of Jackson. “This year many are planning to march to remind everyone that we are all still paying attention and that it’s important that citizens stay engaged with their government at all levels, local state and national,” Anzelmo said. “And we’re going to use part of this women’s march to encourage people to check their voter registration status to make sure they keep their voices heard.”

Another organizer of the Jackson event, Christie Koriakin, 32, said that last year, Trump’s election as president galvanized her into taking a stand politically, and she hopes this year’s march will keep voters — especially younger ones — increasing their levels of political involvement.

Despite the name, the march is open to anyone, Anzelmo and Koriakin said.

There is also no unifying political message associated with the march. The key thing is to get as many people involved in the process.

“I think it’s a little unfortunate that it’s called ‘the Women’s March,’” Koriakin said. “This is a much more inclusive march.

“It’s really for anyone that feels like they’re not being accurately represented by the government that we have now.”

The 2017 marches became a landmark for women’s issues such as equal rights, equal pay and reproductive rights, but it also focused attention on other issues such as healthcare access,

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Women March in Solidarity

JESSICA SELL CHAMBERS

THE BUZZ 2

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10 | JANUARY 17, 2018

NEWS But He Started It!

OF THE

WEIRD

Tennis instructor Osmailer Torres, 30, of Miami, was arrested in July 2016 after hitting a 5-year-old with the child’s pint-sized tennis racket and causing a bruise on the boy’s arm and a lump on his eyebrow, reports the Miami Herald. But now Torres believes he has a grand-slam defense: Florida’s Stand Your Ground self-defense law. Defense lawyer Eduardo Pereira told the Herald the child was the “initial aggressor” who had participated in “various violent altercations” against other children, and Torres had acted “reasonably in trying to prevent harm” to others. Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Oscar Rodriguez-Fonts will consider the claim in an upcoming hearing.

Family Values

COLE BUCKHART XXXXX

Mazen Dayem, 36, of Staten Island, New York, obtained a restraining order against his father-in-law, Yunes Doleh, 62, in September after Doleh repeatedly tormented him by waving his hairpiece at Dayem, provoking Dayem’s greatest phobia—the Tasmanian Devil of Looney Tunes fame. Not easily deterred, Doleh was arrested on Nov. 5 for violating the order after he “removed his wig (and) made hand gestures” at a funeral the two attended, Dayem explained to the New York Post. “It’s just a very A scene from the inaugural Women’s March that took place in January 2017. large fear of mine, his damn wig. ... I have nightmares.”

Court papers say Doleh “proceeded to grimace, snarl, gurn and gesticulate.” He was charged with criminal areas in and near Teton County. Cheney of people with storied careers span- mischief in Staten Island County court, and then sued his son-in-law for defamation after photos from the arrest reportedly crafted the bill without con- ning decades in film and news. Even appeared on social media.

sulting local governments or county conservation district boards.

Last week, serial candidate Rex Rammell also announced his intention to run for Governor to replace term-limited Matt Mead. Rammell made waves by suggesting the state should take possession of federal lands by force if necessary, even suggesting the arrest of federal government employees who did not abandon their offices upon demand.

“Right here in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, our American public lands that are such a unique legacy are at risk now,” Anzelmo explained. Many environmental protections have been rolled back by the Trump administration, and areas declared as public monuments by previous administrations have been de-listed.

“For local citizens here in Jackson and Teton County, the very things that make this area so special to live and work and recreate in… are at great risk right now.” Anzelmo said.

While it may be true that the Women’s March is for everyone, not just women, there are still many women’s issues that organizers hope to address. The issue of sexual discrimination and harassment took on a whole other dimension in 2017 with the #MeToo movement, which blew the lid off systemic problems in the media industry and politics.

Left in the wake of the #MeToo movement are the now tarnished reputations

Minnesota Senator Al Franken, a darling of the left, promised to resign his senate seat in the near future after allegations of improper behavior.

And here in the Equality State, things are, well, not quite equal for everyone.

The first state to extend to women the right to vote 20 years before the state was even admitted to the union, Wyoming also passed a law guaranteeing equal pay for men and women school teachers.

Today, however, the state ranks 39th in equal pay for women, with women on average taking home only 77 cents per dollar earned by men.

To activists like Koriakin and Anzelmo, the pay gap is just one of the myriad issues facing Wyoming citizens as they go to the polls this November and vote in the mid-terms. And that’s why organizers of the march are hopeful the event will encourage everyone to make sure they are registered to vote, and that they do it.

“We’re just really worried about the future,” Anzelmo said. PJH The anniversary Women’s March will be held Saturday, Jan. 20. It will begin at 2 p.m. at Home Ranch Visitor Center on Gill Street in Jackson. Another event, a postcard party — an event where attendees fill out and mail postcards to elected officials — will be held Thursday, Feb 1 at Eleanor’s Bar and Grill, 832 W. Broadway in Jackson.

Least Competent Criminals

Teller County (Colorado) Sheriff Jason Mikesell listed his SUV for sale on Craigslist in November, and he was a little perplexed when he received a response from Shawn Langley, 39, of Vail, offering to trade the SUV for four pounds of marijuana. Langley even provided photos of his black market booty and boasted about its quality, reported The Colorado Springs Gazette. “I saw that text, and I started giggling,” Mikesell said. Detectives set up a meeting and arrested both Langley and Jane Cravens, 41, after finding the promised four pounds of marijuana in their car. Sheriff Mikesell has removed his SUV from Craigslist.

Hiding in Plain Sight

On Nov. 27, 27-year-old Corey Hughes, who was due to be released from prison in February after serving most of a weapons charge, walked away from a San Joaquin County sheriff’s work crew in Stockton, California, according to the Fresno Bee. It took police almost a month to track him to a home in Stockton, where they surrounded the dwelling and apprehended him without incident—which might not be so remarkable were it not for the distinctive, whole-face tattoo Hughes sports, which makes his face look like a human skull. He was booked into the San Joaquin County Jail.

Good Deed, Punished

By THE EDITORS AT ANDREWS MCMEEL

Malcolm Whitfield of Rochester, New York, was only trying to help when he ordered a Lyft car to deliver a drunk woman home from a bar in November. But when the woman vomited in the car, Whitfield was hit with a $150 fine to cover the damage. “For a second, I was like, ‘Never do anything nice again!’” Whitfield told 13WHAM. Lyft’s terms and conditions include damage fees, which most people don’t see in the fine print. Update: Lyft later refunded Whitfield’s fine and added $100 to his Lyft account for future rides. “Mr. Whitfield absolutely did the right thing by helping someone get home safely,” said Scott Coriell, a Lyft spokesperson.

Oh, Deer

It was just another early December day at the Horsetooth Store, Gas and RV Park outside Fort Collins, Colorado, as employee Lori Jones conducted inventory and restocked shelves. Suddenly, she looked up to see “Mama,” a doe deer, inside the store, “looking at the sunglasses. Then she looked at the ice cream and over at the chips,” Jones told CBS Denver. “I kind of did a double take.” When shooing the deer away didn’t work, she broke out a peanut bar and lured the doe into a nearby field.

Jones then returned to work, but soon looked up to find Mama was back, this time with her three fawns in tow. It took another peanut bar to draw the family away from the store, and Jones said she has learned her lesson. “You should never feed the deer because they’re going to keep coming back.”

Sweet Revenge

A mom in Hillsboro, Oregon, came up with the perfect retaliation for a porch pirate who nabbed her baby son’s Christmas pajamas package off the front porch. Angie Boliek told KATU she wanted to get her own “passive-aggressive revenge,” so she taped up a box full of 10 to 15 dirty diapers with a note reading “Enjoy this you thief!”

Boliek left the box on her porch on Dec. 3, and by the evening of Dec. 4 it was gone. Boliek alerted Hillsboro police, but they don’t have any leads in the investigation. “It was fun to come home and see that it was gone,” Boliek said.

New World Order

Taisei Corp., a construction company based in Tokyo, announced in December that it will use autonomous drones, taking flight in April, to combat karoshi, or overwork death, reported The Independent. The drones will hover over desks of employees who have stayed at work too long and blast “Auld Lang Syne,” a tune commonly used in Japanese shops getting ready to close. A company statement said: “It will encourage employees who are present at the drone patrol time to leave, not only to promote employee health but also to conduct internal security management.” Experts are skeptical: Scott North, professor of sociology at Osaka University, told the BBC that “to cut overtime hours, it is necessary to reduce workloads.”

Ironies

Paul Jacobs, 42, of South Hampshire, England, ordered a roll of bubble wrap from Amazon in November to protect his plants during a coming cold snap. Soon the box of bubble wrap arrived, protected by 100 feet of brown packing paper—enough to cover his whole backyard, he told the Daily Mail. “At first I thought they’d sent me the wrong order because the box was so heavy,” Jacobs said.

He expects it will take two recycling collections to get rid of all the paper packaging.

Great Art!

At the courthouse in the Belgian port city of Ostend, performance artist Mikes Poppe, 34, was hoping to make a statement on the weight of history when he chained his leg to a 3-ton block of Carrara marble on Nov. 10 and began slowly chipping himself free. The Straits Times reports that for 19 days, Poppe ate, slept and worked on the marble until curator Joanna De Vos ordered the chain cut “for practical reasons.” “I don’t see the fact that I was freed as a failure,” Poppe told the Flemish-language Het Laatste Nieuws. “The act of getting free in itself was not the main goal,” he added, although he admitted that doing so had been more difficult than he thought. “I really underestimated that block of marble.”

Send tips to weirdnewstips@amuniversal.com

part 1

The explosive compound RDX helped make America a superpower.

Now, it’s poisoning the nation’s water and soil.

by Abrahm Lustgarten

“super-explosives.” Best, enormous quantities could be churned out quickly — 500 tons a day, an assembly line for destructive might.

The Americans called the new formula RDX, and it transformed weapons overnight. RDX enabled the bazooka — the world’s first hand-held anti-tank rocket launcher — to pierce armor. RDX was packed into 10,000-pound underwater bombs dropped by British airplanes to blow up German river dams and disrupt the country’s hydropower in the critical Dambuster campaign. It was even surreptitiously soaked into firewood that would later explode in the furnaces of German locomotives.

By many estimates, RDX was critical to victory in World War II. It also spawned the greatest period of

military manufacturing — and perhaps the largest arsenal — in the history of the planet. For most of the last 74 years, a single industrial plant in rural Tennessee served as America’s RDX factory and it produced as much as 40 million pounds of white crystalline powder each month that fueled the vast carpet bombing of the Korean peninsula, and then later, America’s involvement in Vietnam.

RDX is “a mighty instrument,” Sheehan wrote, “that may well have transformed the nature of modern warfare.”

But RDX, a powerful triumph of military ingenuity, has had an unwanted second life — as an unusually persistent pollutant poisoning the American homeland.

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ritish chemists toiled with a tripod-shaped bond of nitrogen and oxygen molecules linked by carbon and hydrogen they referred to as “research department explosive” — a substance one and a half times as powerful as TNT, but so delicate it had to be mixed with beeswax to be stable and pliable enough to fit into warheads. Even then, it wasn’t good enough.

Only 70 tons could be made in a week. Defeating the Nazis would require more.

In 1941, American chemists accomplished what their British counterparts could not. John Sheehan and Werner Bachman, University of Michigan researchers, worked with a team of government scientists to invent a new chemical process that made it possible to manufacture what Sheehan described as

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

It was a secret wartime project, with a code name and an urgent mission: develop a more powerful bomb, one that could be mass produced in time to fend off the German forces ravaging Europe. It was 1940.

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B

The Bomb That Went Off Twice

risk, but actually leading the EPA to downgrade its estimate of RDX’s cancer potency.

Ronald Melnick, a former senior toxicologist at the National Institutes of Health, has been observing the EPA’s scientific review of RDX and submitted comments to the agency. Melnick said he believes the pressure exerted by the Pentagon through comments and presentations, and the RDX research it has recently funded, have prompted the EPA to reverse a long-held position justified by the scientific findings over decades.

“I was surprised and shocked,” Melnick said about the EPA’s latest assessment.

In an emailed response to questions, the EPA rejected Melnick’s suggestion. “No individual, agency, or stakeholder group has had undue influence in the development of the peer review draft,” a spokesperson wrote, referring to the agency’s chemical assessment process.

In interviews and in emailed questions, four Pentagon officials also said that they believed the Defense Department has acted in good faith. The Army’s director of toxicology, Mark Johnson, rejected assertions that the Army’s research has been motivated by anything other than advancing the science. And Lucian Niemeyer, the assistant secretary of defense for energy, installations, and environment, said in a statement that “the Department of Defense is committed to meeting environmental cleanup requirements while protecting human health, safety and the environment.”

ProPublica’s examination of the battle over RDX lays bare an enduring predicament: The military’s role in protecting America comes at the price of being one of the nation’s most prolific polluters.

“As long as we fight wars and we send men and women into combat, we have an obligation to them and to the country to train them realistically. And one of the costs of that training is to create some environmental damage,” said Alberto Mora, a former general counsel for the Navy, and now a senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. “I always felt this was a tradeoff that the country needed to make and would want to make.”

Few Americans, though, have any idea such a bargain was ever struck.

The U.S. Army began to grasp that its use of RDX could cause enormous problems when it found explosives in the groundwater seeping underneath the fence line of the Cornhusker Army Ammunition Plant, eight miles outside the town of Grand Island, Nebraska.

Cornhusker was run by the Quaker Oats Ordnance Corp., a subsidiary of the cereal company, since it began operating in 1942. With so many American men fighting in Europe, women ordnance workers, or WOWs, built the bombs they dropped. They received crystalline RDX by the trainload, then stirred it in vats mixed with TNT and tamped it into the tops of 5-foottall bomb shells destined, as the local newspaper put it, “for Hitler.”

PUBLIC DOMAIN

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At bomb-making plants and ordnance testing classification of RDX’s cancer threat — and the enviranges across the United States, RDX has spread into ronmental cleanup standards that are recommended the soil and contaminated water supplies. The first along with it, Pentagon and EPA records show. signs of trouble emerged at Army bomb-packing “Where they believe their core interests are threatplants in Tennessee, and then near Grand Island, ened, they become quite adversarial,” said Robert Nebraska, where drinking water aquifers were found Sussman, who was senior policy counsel to the EPA in to be contaminated with the explosive. By 1990, the Obama administration. “The chain of command the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had des- is behind them and they are able to bring to bear a lot ignated RDX a possible human carcinogen. Near of pressure within the government.”

Salt Lake City, people who grew their food with ProPublica’s broader investigation of the RDX-contaminated water alleged it caused their can- Pentagon’s handling of its environmental liabilities cers. Then RDX damage was identified in Virginia, makes clear that denial and avoidance are key eleCalifornia, and even on one of the East Coast’s iconic ments of a playbook its officials have employed for vacation destinations, Cape Cod. decades. The Pentagon, for instance, has continued The Pentagon nonetheless never stopped manu- to dispose of munitions with open burning, insisting facturing with RDX or test-firing the weapons made it is necessary and safe long after other countries with it on U.S. soil. As a result, the number of bases abandoned the practice in favor of cleaner methods.

— and their surrounding communities — that face And the Pentagon routinely hires private contractors environmental threats from RDX has only continued to handle its toxic cleanups, looking the other way or to grow. In 2013, for example, residents near Fort Jackson in Columbia, South Supercharger plant Carolina, who live near a U.S. Army grenade range where more than half the workers in the Army’s soldiers train, were told the Midwest during WWII. Army had found RDX in their drinking water wells. In 2015, the Department of Defense settled a lawsuit after contamination was found in public drinking water 143 miles downstream from the Army’s RDX manufacturing facility in Kingsport, Tennessee. According to the court complaint, the plant was dumping more than 68 pounds of pure RDX directly into the nearby Holston River each day. And just this summer, high levels of RDX were identified in the groundwater on the site of an old missile factory near Los Angeles that was supposed to have already been cleaned up.

In all, previously unreleased federal EPA and Defense Department data obtained by ProPublica shows there is RDX contamination at more than 65 military installations across the country. claiming not to be liable when those companies have Harry Craig, one of the EPA’s foremost authorities proven to be incompetent or corrupt. on explosives and Defense site cleanups, said RDX With RDX, the Pentagon’s long and bitter behindwas the “number one” challenge facing the EPA’s the-scenes combat with the EPA endures to this day. office of federal facility enforcement. Worse, he said, In 2013, the EPA appeared ready to declare RDX not was the fact that all these years later the scope of the just a possible, but a “likely” carcinogen, an outcome dangers posed by RDX was still “not fully recognized.” that would have costly and complex implications for From the first reports of RDX contamination on the Pentagon. The Pentagon’s existing obligations American soil, the Pentagon has either ignored or to address thousands of contaminated installations actively sought to discount RDX’s threat to pub- are already daunting, with costs that could top $70 lic health and the environment, according to billion. If EPA officials were to decide that RDX “likeProPublica’s review of thousands of pages of EPA ly” causes cancer, it could lead to new regulations and Pentagon documents and the accounts of more and demands for more thorough cleanups, adding than 23 current and former officials and lawmakers. significant costs. Some military officials have said When confronted with evidence of the risk posed by those additional costs — several cleanups have cost RDX, the Pentagon tried to get its bases exempted $1 billion — could cut into spending on weapons and from almost any kind of environmental oversight, soldiers.

Congressional records, transcripts and Pentagon And so over the last four years, the Pentagon has documents show. When that failed, the Department campaigned heavily against any upgrading of RDX’s of Defense financed an array of studies that minimize cancer risk. evidence of RDX’s potential to cause cancer and other The effort appears on the verge of a striking victohealth problems, and then pressed the EPA to relax its ry — not only avoiding any upgrade of RDX’s cancer

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JANUARY 17, 2018 | 13

PUBLIC DOMAIN

solvents and fire retardants. The damage at the sites was so serious that in 1984 the EPA amended the rules of its Superfund cleanup program — the powerful 1980 law that allows federal authorities to take jurisdiction over the highest-priority contamination sites in the country and mandate their cleanup — to include military sites. Then it listed 36 of them.

The emboldened EPA added Cornhusker’s RDX groundwater plume to its list of federal Superfund sites in 1987.

RDX’s threat as a powerful neurotoxin affecting brain and nervous system development was at the same time becoming better understood. American troops in Vietnam had experienced epileptic fits when they ate C-4 explosives containing RDX as a sort of gruesome initiation rite. A Chinese medical journal reported that a person who accidentally ate RDX had died. Then five RDX factory workers in Tennessee also succumbed to seizures after being exposed to high levels of RDX in dust. And in 1986, researchers in Arkansas reported on a 3-year-old child who had violent seizures after he was exposed to RDX on his mother’s work boots.

But it was the experiments the Army had begun to conduct on mammals in 1979 in a medical research lab at Fort Detrick, Maryland, that raised the strongest warnings about what long-term exposure to the explosives could mean. That year, the Pentagon had toxicologists feed high doses of RDX to rats and mice. Then they watched the animals’ response over a period of two years.

This type of research had rarely been done and it posed a question that had no simple answer: How much RDX exposure was too much? Given the potential enforcement powers of the EPA, and the severity of the pollution, “they needed to establish permissible levels in drinking water,” one of the studies’ authors, Barry Levine, said later in a court deposition.

The Army experimented on 850 animals. Of the mice receiving larger doses, roughly half died — so many that researchers lowered the maximum dosage midway through the test. Before they died, as the dosage increased, the RDX made the rats and mice agitated and aggressive, so much so that it became difficult for researchers to differentiate between the lesions — on genitals, eyes and organs — caused by RDX poisoning and those resulting from fighting in the cages.

The hearts of the animals became enlarged, and their eyes grew discolored, then opaque.

But it was the response among the female mice that drew the most concern. Of the animals receiving moderate to heavy doses of RDX, one in six had grown tumors on their livers, roughly half of which were malignant — a “statistically significant” and worrisome sign that RDX could mutate genes and cause cancer in people. There was also evidence that both male and female mice developed carcinomas — cancerous tumors — in their lungs.

The studies were never peer reviewed or published. But after the Army shared its final reports with

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Explosives residue collected on the tables, floors in water, quickly degrade underground, or cling to and equipment, and on the workers’ clothing. The soil particles that can keep it in place and limit its dust was hosed down and the clothing laundered spread. Instead of becoming diluted over distance — before so much accumulated that the waste itself like many other pollutants — it remains concentratcould explode. But wastewater, running in a frothy ed, and then travels quickly. pink mixture that is a telling sign of the explosives, “It’s widely used, persistent, and mobile,” said the streamed uncontrolled from the plant’s processing EPA’s Craig. “It doesn’t go away.” units and was allowed to seep into soil or pool in By 1983, the Army’s monitoring of wells at large, unlined pits dug at some 58 sites across the Cornhusker showed that a plume of pollution con19-square-mile property. For more than 30 years, taining RDX was already stretching over some four the plant operated this way, its production surging to square miles from the nitrate building, and like a blot produce mines and artillery shells for the fighting in of ink spreading on wet paper, it was bearing down Korea and Vietnam. on the 35,000 people who lived in Grand Island at the Then, in 1980, the Army tested the grounds at pace of 827 feet each year.

Cornhusker and found that RDX and other exploThe Army’s medical researchers had come up sives had settled more deeply into the soils than with their own estimate for how much RDX might be had been understood, reaching the aquifer used for safe for people, and by 1985 their testing showed that drinking water. The Army knew this was water in more than 236 homes near Grand Island conlikely not isolated contamination. “Pink water” had been seen running from other Holston Army Ammunition Plant, Army plants that manufactured ordnance, in states from Tennessee to California. At RDX and Composition B the Iowa Army Ammunition Depot, resiManufacturing Line 9, dents reported seeing raccoons with dyed fur after the animals had waded in nearby Kingsport, TN reddened streams.

But if the Army was only starting to come to terms with the physical spread of RDX contamination, it had long known of the compound’s potential toxicity. Army documents show that as early as the 1970s, Pentagon medical experts suspected that RDX might cause cancer, and by 1979 the Army had begun experiments to test the long-term effects of RDX on mice and rats.

Still, even after detecting what the U.S. Centers for Disease Control staff later described in a 1992 report as “high concentrations” of explosives in central Nebraska’s groundwater, the Army kept its problem there quiet. After it idled weapons assembly at the plant in 1981, it continued to let laborers tained as much as three times that limit. The Army working for a private company that leased part of the quickly agreed to build out Grand Island’s municipal property drink from a 4-inch pipe drawing well water drinking water system, taking hundreds of private at the site. wells tapped into the aquifer off line. Residents who “All of us drank that water and washed in it, for lived out of reach of city water were advised to drink years and years,” said Dennis Mudloff. He was in bottled water. his late 20s when he first went to work at the plant in For the EPA, warning people away from poisoned 1981, and he said he felt invincible. He worked around water sources wasn’t enough. a warehouse called the “nitrate building” — for the The agency, formed in 1970, had struggled in explosives that were once processed there. its early years to enforce brand new statutes and “We slurped it all day long,” he said of the water. regulations meant to protect public health and the When the Grand Island newspaper wrote about environment. But by 1985, the EPA had grown muscontamination problems at the base in 1982, the cles, and was newly empowered with a broad array Army minimized the threat and said it could take of enforcement powers — hazardous waste laws, the more than a century for the pollution to reach the city Safe Drinking Water Act, the Clean Water Act and of Grand Island. more. It didn’t take long for the EPA to realize the milA combine harvests corn grown on the former itary’s role as environmental offender.

Cornhusker Army Ammunition Plant near Grand The Pentagon, the agency learned, was responIsland, Nebraska. Chemicals from decades of oper- sible for legions of disastrously contaminated sites ations at the plant contaminated the groundwater across the country, sites that by sheer number would beneath it, spreading all the way to the taps of resi- soon dwarf the liabilities of any other single entity. dents of Grand Island.

There were the artillery testing grounds, packed with But what the Army was learning about RDX was unexploded ordnance; the chemical weapons ranges; more ominous. RDX, it turned out, does not dissolve and the rocket fuel and airplane sites, saturated with

Soon after, three of her neighbors received the same diagnosis. There was Charles Bates, who lived a block south, and Howard Ruff, a nationally known investor who had advised Presidents Carter and Reagan, who lived six blocks to the east, and Glenn Allman, a Brigham Young University professor, who lived two miles north. A similar cancer that affects white blood cells was diagnosed in Cherie Hunt, who lived two blocks southeast, and 17-year-old Stacy Broadbent, two blocks to the southwest, was found to have lymphoblastic leukemia. Besides being members of the same privileged community, they all grew their own food and they all lived less than 1,500 feet from the irrigation ditch.

For 13 years, Petersen fought her cancer, charging through rounds of chemotherapy and enjoying brief respites of remission only to see her illness rage back.

The suspicion that the Trojan explosives plant might be to blame emerged over time. Anecdotally, cancer in the area seemed to be on the rise. The Trojan plant itself had had a reputation for problems The entrance to the — explosions, a deadly old Cornhusker Army accident and a large spill in 1986 that made the Ammunition Plant local newspaper.

Then, in August 1997, in Grand Island, Petersen received a letNebraska. ter from Kendall Robins, Ensign-Bickford’s manager at the Trojan plant, explaining that the company had found significant levels of RDX in the local aquifer. “Please don’t be alarmed,” Robins wrote, assuring her that the levels detected were safe. But if “you use the water from your well for culinary purposes, we ask you to contact us immediately.”

Petersen and the five — was the recipient of more than 1,600 contracts with the Department of Defense, worth hundreds of mil- other families ultimately sued Ensign-Bickford — filing two separate cases — in federal court, blaming lions of dollars.

For at least 20 years — and probably for decades the company for their cancers. In the years before longer — the Trojan plant discharged its waste, the cases were settled, extensive and acrimonious including pure RDX, pink water and nitric acid, into court proceedings hashed out the most thorough ponds and an unlined ditch running downhill from investigation into the chemistry and dangers of RDX the plant. Near the facility’s outfall, an irrigation ever completed. The records from Petersen’s case — canal cuts north along the foothills, using gravity to including her account, internal Ensign-Bickford docroute Spanish Fork river water north past Mapleton uments, and extensive expert testimony — provide so the river can be tapped by farmers throughout the a rare window not just into what happened in Utah, valley. The water carried RDX, and other chemical but the possible liabilities the Pentagon faced at RDXcompounds associated with or derived from it, toward contaminated sites elsewhere.

It turns out that Ensign-Bickford, and the companies Mapleton and into the groundwater aquifer beneath Petersen’s property, according to plaintiff’s experts that operated the Trojan plant before it, were well aware that they had caused extensive groundwater pollution in a lawsuit neighbors filed against Ensign-Bickford.

Petersen began eating vegetables grown on farm- years before they told Marilyn Petersen, and before lands that had been flood irrigated with water from she ever drew a sip or sprinkled a drop from her well. the ditch in 1980, and drilled a new well into the polStory continues with part 2 on luted aquifer in 1983. In 1984, at the age of 41, she was found to have stage IV non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a January 23, 2018. cancer of the immune system. and would later become its mayor. At home, she was an avid gardener, tending a large plot outside her stately brick, nine-bedroom ranch home on a quaint country lane lined with aspens and pearly white fences. The neighborhood was wealthy — full of estates with swimming pools and stables and dazzling mountain views. But many of the residents shared a more humble practice: They grew their own food.

Neither Petersen nor her neighbors knew what RDX was at the time. Nor did she know that for the 15 years since she had purchased her home, the water she drank and used to irrigate her plants contained enormous amounts of it — far more of it than was considered safe.

Where the Spanish Fork Canyon spills into the Utah Valley, a short ways south of Petersen’s property, the Trojan explosives plant had been either manufacturing or recycling bomb material since the 1940s. Its latest owner — Connecticut-based Ensign-Bickford

ANGELICA LEICHT

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

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

14 | JANUARY 17, 2018

the EPA in 1984, work described as “the gold standard of research” by one EPA scientist, the agency intensified its oversight of explosives pollution.

In 1990, the EPA classified RDX as a “possible human carcinogen,” a formal warning that a contaminant is potentially dangerous and deserves more study. It also revised its suggested limits for how much RDX was safe in water, determining that the level the Army had applied at Cornhusker was 17 times too lenient. Instead, the EPA suggested that only two parts per billion of RDX was safe, giving it a danger score stricter than other deadly pollutants, including benzene and the herbicide atrazine.

Residents of Grand Island believe the growing awareness about RDX came too late. Mudloff began experiencing health symptoms his doctors could not explain. First, he became chronically fatigued.

Hanging Christmas lights would lead him to wheeze.

Then even minor math — addition and subtraction — proved difficult.

“My mind was getting worse.

I could not think,” Mudloff said.

Even the Mayo Clinic, which he visited in 2008, was stumped. Then a neurologist diagnosed myoclonus, a spasmodic, jerky contraction of muscles that has forced him to walk with a cane. Still, the diagnosis could not account for what was happening to his brain, or the sluggishness of the muscles in his tongue, which makes him speak as if he’s had a stroke. Mudloff’s doctor blamed his illness on his exposure to military explosives including RDX. Mudloff’s former co-workers and neighbors, he said, have fared worse. One by one, he said, the men he worked with in the 1980s took disability, suffering from exhaustion and odd mental degradation.

One died of kidney cancer, another of lymphoma. These illnesses were never tied to RDX or any other pollution — no one investigated them. But they put the town on edge.

The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, a division of the CDC, came to Grand Island to examine widespread reports of illness across the city. It couldn’t pin health effects directly to RDX. The agency’s report was inconclusive about the ways people were exposed, and ambiguous about when and for how long.

But the agency did declare that the pollution posed a serious health threat and made public a new element of the threat: The explosives were likely making their way to people not only via local water supplies, but through meat, fish and produce.

About an hour south of Salt Lake City, the Wasatch Mountains transition from rugged peaks to a sloping field of sediment, forming a fertile plain outside the small city of Mapleton, Utah.

There, in the mid-1990s, Marilyn Petersen was planting a garden of squash and beans and tomatoes.

Petersen was a member of Mapleton’s city council,

CULTURE KLASH

Glowing Peaks

BY KELSEY DAYTON @kelsey_dayton

T

Full music schedule at worthotel.com 50 N. Glenwood St. • 307-732-3939

JANUARY 17, 2018 | 15

worked for the Teton Science The Tetons and one well-hidden moose take center stage School until about four years in photographer Josh Metten’s photograph. ago, when he began guiding for Jackson Hole Eco Tour Wildlife feeding the animals today puts them at Adventures. risk for disease.

“We’re telling stories and trying to “I really want to try to tell the stories communicate about conservation issues behind those images,” Metten said. and trying to communicate the beauty of For Metten, wildlife photography is the landscape,” he said of the job. more about telling those stories than simPhotography became a natural con- ply creating a beautiful image. He’s lucky duit to help tell those stories. His job as that his photography isn’t his primary a guide also provided plenty of opportu- source of income. nities to practice the craft and learn the “I have a job, and my job is to commulandscape and where animals spent time. nicate stories about this place to people “Wildlife photograph is often a num- and photography is a part of it,” he said. bers game,” he said. “You just have to go “You have to create compelling photoout over and over again. You have to be graphs to tell compelling stories.” out there.”

He hopes his work reminds people of Metten’s job allowed him to take thou- just how special the Greater Yellowstone sands of photographs through the years. area is. It’s easy to forget and take it for His favorites are the ones that go deeper granted when you live in the area, but and tell a story beyond the beauty of the it’s one of the last nearly intact temperate mountains and valleys. ecosystems on Earth, and the only place One image of a coyote fishing seems in the Lower 48 you can see the same at first a simple, pretty animal portrait, major mammals Lewis and Clark docuMetten said. But the spot it chose to sit is mented on their famous expedition, he shallow and full of fish, pushed to the spot said. by ice forming around it. Coyotes often sit Its why he chose to donate a portion and wait for an otter to pop up with a fish of proceeds from his work to the Greater the coyote can steal, he said.

Yellowstone Coalition, whose work helps “That’s a neat story of tenacity of an preserve the wildness of the ecosystem, animal,” Metten said.

Metten said.

Another image shows a line of elk on “Without the Greater Yellowstone the National Elk Refuge. The image tells Ecosystem, I wouldn’t have these photoa story of migration and movement, but graphs,” he said. it also shows how the females lead the Metten created aluminum prints of his herd to the best food, Metten said. Just by images. Its durable, easy to clean and looking at it you might learn something hangs without requiring a frame, he said. new about elk.

He also loves the way it looks. He also The image also speaks to a larger con- will sell greeting cards created with his servation issue — feeding elk, Metten images. PJH said. That single image opens the door to a conversation about the history of Josh Metten, photograph exhibit at the animals in the area, how habitat loss Cowboy Coffee, hangs through January threatened their survival, but also how

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

he thing everyone notices first in the photograph is the Tetons.

Morning sunlight makes the peaks glow. But on closer examination, toward the bottom of the frame, hidden in the shade, is a moose. Once noticed, it often becomes people’s favorite thing about the image, said photographer Josh Metten.

That photograph is the perfect example of Metten’s relationship with the landscape of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.

“The mountains sometimes overshadow the wildlife within in them, but the wildlife are an integral part of it, and to me the most amazing part of this area,” he said.

Metten, a guide with Jackson Hole Eco Tour Wildlife Adventures, is sharing his favorite part of living in the area — the wildlife — in a photography show at Cowboy Coffee. The show hangs through January and features Metten’s images documenting winter in the Greater Yellowstone. He is donating 20 percent of proceeds from any sales of his work to the nonprofit conservation group the Greater Yellowstone Coalition.

Metten moved to Jackson from Fort Collins, Colorado, about eight years ago to teach experimental education. He

THURSDAY, JANUARY 18 MILLERSMITH BAND FRI & SAT, JAN. 19 & 20 SNEAKY PETE & THE SECRET WEAPONS SUNDAY, JANUARY 21 KNOCK ON TUESDAY, JANUARY 23 BLUEGRASS TUESDAY WITH ONE TON PIG

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Hidden treasures abound in photographer Josh Metten’s work

This Week at The Wort

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| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

16 | JANUARY 17, 2018

THIS WEEK: January 17-24 2017

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 17

n Dance & Fitness Classes 8 a.m. Dancers’ Workshop, $10.00 - $16.00, 307-733-6398 n 7th Annual Driggs Snowscapes-The Art of Sculpting Snow 8 a.m. Driggs City Plaza, Free, 307 690 2234 n Toddler Gym 10 a.m. Teton Recreation Center, n Story Time 10 a.m. Valley of the Tetons Library, n Baby Time - Youth Auditorium 10:05 a.m. Teton County Library, n Open Hockey - Weekday Morning 10:15 a.m. Snow King Sports & Event Center, $10.00, (307) 201-1633 n Art Association of JH Youth Auditorium 3:30 p.m. Teton County Library,

n Winter Wonderland Ice Skating on Town Square 4 p.m. n Warm Après Flow and Chill Yoga Series 4:15 p.m. Teton Yoga Shala, $14.00 - $19.00, 307-690-3054 n Beginning Ballet Workshop 6:15 p.m. Dancers’ Workshop, $20.00 - $55.00, 3077336398 n Open Gym - Adult Basketball 6:30 p.m. Teton Recreation Center, n CHAS COLLINS BAND 9 p.m. Million Dollar Cowboy Bar, Free, 307-733-2207

THURSDAY, JANUARY 18

n Dance & Fitness Classes 8 a.m. Dancers’ Workshop, $10.00 - $16.00, 307-733-6398 n 7th Annual Driggs Snowscapes-The Art of Sculpting Snow

8 a.m. Driggs City Plaza, Free, 307 690 2234 n Books & Babies Story Time 10 a.m. Valley of the Tetons Library, n Storytime - Youth Auditorium 10:30 a.m. Teton County Library, n Story Time, Victor 10:30 a.m. Valley of the Tetons Library, n Teton Toastmasters 12 p.m. Teton County Commissioners Chambers, Free, n Public Skating - Weekday 12 p.m. Snow King Sports & Event Center, $5.00 - $8.00, (307) 201-1633 n Open Gym - Adult Basketball 12 p.m. Teton Recreation Center, n App Time - Study Room 4 2 p.m. Teton County Library, n Prenatal Yoga Series 3 p.m. Teton Yoga Shala, $14.00 - $19.00,

Compiled by Cory Garcia

n Eli Williams, The Cougar Fund - Youth Auditorium 3:30 p.m. Teton County Library, n Winter Wonderland Ice Skating on Town Square 4 p.m. n REFIT® 5:15 p.m. First Baptist Church, Free, 307-690-6539 n Friends and Family Mental Health Support Group 6 p.m. Eagle Classroom of St. John’s Medical Center, Free, 307-733-2046 n Intro to Radio Broadcasting 6 p.m. CWC-Jackson, $50.00, 3077337425 n Mix’d Media 6 p.m. National Museum of Wildlife Art, Free, n Papa Chan and Johnny C Note 6 p.m. Teton Pines Country Club, Free, 307 733 1005 n Beginning Pilates Reformer Workshop 6 p.m. Dancers’ Workshop,

$100.00, 307-733-6398 n Open Gym - Adult Soccer 6:30 p.m. Teton Recreation Center, n Armchair Adventures: Wild Western Wyoming 6:30 p.m. Teton Recreation Center, 307-739-9025 n Millersmith Band 7:30 p.m. Silver Dollar Showroom, Free, 307-732-3939 n CHAS COLLINS BAND 9 p.m. Million Dollar Cowboy Bar, Free, 307-733-2207

FRIDAY, JANUARY 19

n Dance & Fitness Classes 8 a.m. Dancers’ Workshop, $10.00 - $16.00, 307-733-6398 n 7th Annual Driggs Snowscapes-The Art of Sculpting Snow 8 a.m. Driggs City Plaza, Free, 307 690 2234

n Toddler Gym 10 a.m. Teton Recreation Center, n Open Hockey - Weekday Morning 10:15 a.m. Snow King Sports & Event Center, $10.00, (307) 201-1633 n All Ages Story Time 11 a.m. Valley of the Tetons Library, n Public Skating - Weekday 12 p.m. Snow King Sports & Event Center, $5.00 - $8.00, (307) 201-1633 n The Maw Band 3 p.m. Grand Targhee Resort, n Fun Friday - Youth Auditorium 3:30 p.m. Teton County Library, n Film Friday Victor 3:30 p.m. Valley of the Tetons Library, n Winter Wonderland Ice Skating on Town Square 4 p.m. n Open Gym - Adult Soccer 6:30 p.m. Teton Recreation

SEE CALENDAR PAGE 20

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Best Cover Band Best Annual Event Best Band Playing Original Songs Best Musician Best Classical Musician Best Teton Valley Musician Best Church Choir Best Club DJ Best Live Entertainment Venue Best Outdoor Concert Series Best Local Sports Team Best Shake-a-Day Best Art Gallery Best Local Artist Best Photographer Best Illustrator Best Actor/Actress Best Place to Get Your Groove On Best Late Night Hangout Best Theater Production Company Best Filmmaker Best Ski Run Best Liftee Best Golf Course Best Question We Left Out

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20 | JANUARY 17, 2018

SEE CALENDAR PAGE 22 Center, n Brett Dennen 7 p.m. Knotty Pine, n Moose Hockey Game 7 p.m. Snow King Sports & Event Center, $5.00 $10.00, (307) 201-1633 n FREE Public Stargazing 7:30 p.m. Center for the Arts, n Sneaky Pete and the Secret Weapons 7:30 p.m. Silver Dollar Showroom, Free, 307-7323939 n Country Western Swing Workshop 7:30 p.m. Dancers’ Workshop, $25.00 - $90.00, 307-733-6398 n CHAS COLLINS BAND 9 p.m. Million Dollar Cowboy Bar, Free, 307-7332207 n Michael Charles at Mangy Moose 9:30 p.m. Mangy Moose,

SATURDAY, JANUARY 20

MUSIC BOX

n 7th Annual Driggs Snowscapes-The Art of Sculpting Snow 8 a.m. Driggs City Plaza, Free, 307 690 2234 n Yoga Retreat in Mexico with Neesha Zollinger and Adi Amar 9 a.m. Teton Yoga Shala, n Library Saturdays - Youth Auditorium 10:15 a.m. Teton County Library, n Winter Wonderland Ice Skating on the Town Square 12 p.m. n App Time - Study Room 4 2 p.m. Teton County Library, n Chanman - SOLO 4 p.m. Teton Mountain Lodge, Free, 307 201 6066 n Open Gym - Adult Soccer 6:30 p.m. Teton Recreation Center,

You have to admit, there are some damn good Creedence Clearwater Revival song titles that could double as movie titles

Creedence Cinema Why haven’t we started naming films after CCR songs yet? Fogerty won’t mind.

BY CORY GARCIA @cfaust

I

am a firm believer in the “_____ is my new band name” joke, and I’m distrustful of people who don’t make it.

Sure, it’s dumb and not really funny, but it’s one of those little things that causes you to be a more active listener. If you hear the word “spaghettification” and don’t think that sounds like an incredible band name what are you even doing with your life?

What the joke reveals is that inspiration is around us all the time, whether it be for a fake band name or a real movie title. Phrases that sound cool often sound cool in more than one medium. Haven’t you ever wondered why there isn’t a movie called “All Along The Watchtower”?

Or why there aren’t an entire series of

dumb direct to video action flicks called “Kickstart My Heart”? Doesn’t a romantic comedy called “Everlong” seem like the most natural thing in the world?

That it took so long for someone to use “Proud Mary” as the name for a movie about a kickass woman proves that Hollywood hasn’t exactly run out of ideas, it’s just not always good at looking for no places to mine. But perhaps no one made that leap because they were worried that John Fogerty would not be down for that sort of thing, which as it turns out is the case. I’m not going to bang on one of the greatest rock songwriters of all time because I respect him too much for that, and because I get it: you write a song and it has a special meaning to you, and I can see how having it used as the title for a movie so bad the studio basically hid it away from critics would be a bummer.

However…

You have to admit, there are some damn good Creedence Clearwater Revival song titles that could double as movie titles. I’m not saying this should become sort of weird cinematic universe, I’m just saying that the potential is there. For the purposes of this idea we’re going to limit our movie pitches to CCR originals, if for no other reason than the inevitable PR bump we’ll get when we find out Fogerty is disappointed in us.

PLANET PICKS WEDNESDAY Collins Band (Million Dollar) THURSDAY Papa Chan and Johnny C Note (Teton Pines Country Club) FRIDAY The Maw Band (Grand Targhee) SATURDAY Chanman (Teton Mountain Lodge)

get out of the game, but with so much blood on his hands can he ever really escape?

Of the ideas I’m just coming up with off the top of my head, this is the one that excites me the most largely because there are enough CCR titles that sound like they could be westerns that this could easily spin out into a full fledged series. A prequel called The Working Man. Sequels named Tombstone Shadow and Sinister Purpose. A spin-off titled Run Through the Jungle. We could pump these out on the cheap for years.

DOWN ON THE CORNER BAD MOON RISING Genre: Indie Elevator Pitch: A day in the life of a small Genre: Action Elevator Pitch: An asteroid collides with town street corner.

the Moon, sending it on a crash course for planet Earth.

I’m not a scientist, but it seems like if the Moon was in a death spiral and slowly falling toward us that the weather would get worse. Just think of all the extra gravity it would be forcing on us. Think of all the complaints Neil deGrasse Tyson would have with this concept on a fundamental level. Isn’t that reason enough to make a movie? Isn’t that the level of silly that we aspire to be? If Geostorm can be a thing that ends up in theaters, this idea can too.

You know I’m right. PJH

JANUARY 17, 2018 | 21

Every generation needs its meandering, “here are 15 of so characters living their life separately only to have their individual stories come together in the third act” tale. But rather than have something expansive with tons of coverage, the story would be centered on the comings and goings of a particular street corner in a small town; maybe there’s a bus stop and a corner store and that’s why everyone is there. I’m just the idea guy, not the scriptwriter.

TUESDAY One Ton Pig (Silver Dollar)

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

than they can handle when gators aren’t the worst thing in the swamp.

You may have noticed over the last year that the mainstream media is obsessed with figuring out why Trump voters voted the way they did. I both pity and envy the reporters sent to small towns they don’t want to be in to talk to people they don’t actually care about to get answers they already know. So why not compare this loathed corner or journalism with the most loathed horror genre there is?

MONDAY Movie Monday (Teton County Library)

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

BORN ON THE BAYOU SOMEDAY NEVER COMES Genre: Found Footage Horror Genre: Western Thriller Elevator Pitch: Big city journalists get more Elevator Pitch: A bounty hunter wants to

SUNDAY Knock On (Silver Dollar)

DON’T MISS n Moose Hockey Game 7 p.m. Snow King Sports & Event Center, $5.00 $10.00, (307) 201-1633 n Sneaky Pete and the Secret Weapons 7:30 p.m. Silver Dollar Showroom, Free, 307-7323939 n CHAS COLLINS BAND 9 p.m. Million Dollar Cowboy Bar, Free, 307-7332207 n Michael Charles at Mangy Moose 9:30 p.m. Mangy Moose,

SUNDAY, JANUARY 21

n Yoga Retreat in Mexico with Neesha Zollinger and Adi Amar 9 a.m. Teton Yoga Shala, n Winter Wonderland Ice Skating on the Town Square 12 p.m. n The Hof band plays POLKA! with polka dancers Ralph and Casey 3 p.m. Alpenhof Bistro, Free, 307 733 3242 n Sled Hockey Sundays 3:45 p.m. Teton Adaptive Sports

22 | JANUARY 17, 2018

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

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SEE CALENDAR PAGE 24

Armchair Anecdotes Storytelling takes on a new twist with Wild Wyoming

BY KELSEY DAYTON @kelsey_dayton

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arl Oksanen arrived in Jackson in 1967 to lead pack trips at the Triangle X Ranch and to escape the heat of Phoenix.

“When my cowboy days were over, I loved the mountains so much I started to backpack,” he said. “Once you get a taste of the mountains you keep going back.”

Oksanen has since logged hundreds of miles on area trails. He’s finished dozens of backcountry trips, but three stand out as particularly special.

He’ll share images and stories from those trips at his Armchair Adventure presentation “Wild Wyoming,” at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the Teton County/ Jackson Recreation Center meeting room.

“All of these trips are high and wild,” Oksanen said.

One is the classic Teton Crest Trail, starting at the top of the aerial tram at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort and traveling to Marion Lake, across the Death Canyon Shelf and into Alaska Basin before emerging at Grand Teton National Park’s String Lake.

“The Crest Trail is right there in the backyard and most people haven’t done it,” he said.

Oksanen has done it about eight times. The Crest Trail offers a way to quickly experience the backcountry in Grand Teton National Park. Plus, it’s an easy trip in terms of terrain.

“It’s not an Ironman trip,” he said.

“It’s laidback with incredible scenery.”

He’ll also present images of a variation on the traditional route that takes backpackers into Avalanche Canyon and to Snowdrift Lake. It’s a route few people travel and provides stunning views of the South Teton and Mount Wister.

His winter trip across the Pitchstone Plateau in Yellowstone is one of his favorite trips from his more “powerful days.” The backcountry ski trip of more than 40 miles begins near Old Faithful. It took him to Lone Star Geyser basin and then Shoshone Geyser basin.

“It’s a wonderland of steam and hot water coming up everywhere,” Oksanen said. “Yellowstone is just a majestic place in the winter.”

The trip involves an off-trail climb up a mountainside to reach the Pitchstone Plateau. He’s completed the trip four times and only once was the wind calm enough to get decent images.

The third trip Oksanen will speak about is on the Glacier Trail in the Wind River Mountains. He started near Dubois at Trail Creek and ended eight days later near Pinedale at Elkhart Park. The trip took him to Titcomb Basin, “probably the best part of the Winds,” and included a day to climb Gannett Peak, Wyoming’s highest mountain.

When Oksanen worked at the Triangle X, he always took an instamatic camera with him on outings. He’d take a few pictures and some turned out alright.

Hurricane Pass on the Teton Crest Trail

Oksanen left his job at Triangle X to work as a carpenter, but he continued to take a camera along when he explored the mountains on his time off. He’d sell a few images, but photography was still a side passion, not his job.

In 1991, a tourism board used one of his images of Schwabacher’s Landing in Grand Teton National Park. It led to more sales and requests for his work.

“Pretty soon photography overtook the day job,” he said.

Oksanen worked as a professional photographer, shooting commercial images, as well as scenic and landscapes, for about 15 years.

His Armchair Adventure presentation showcases his two passions, photography and the mountains.

Upcoming Armchair Adventure Presentations: “Both Sides of Gibraltar: Exploring Southern Spain and Morocco,” Rebecca Woods Bloom, Feb.1 “Walking the Camino de Santiago,” Janet Woodland, Tim O’Donoghue, Karen Skaggs and Ned Thomas, Feb. 22 “From Pachyderms to Penguins: A trip through South Africa, Namibia and the Okavango Delta of Botswana,” Tim Griffith, March 1 “The Galapagos Islands,” Cathy Shill, March 8 PJH

“Wild Western Wyoming,” an Armchair Adventure presentation by Carl Oksanen, 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Teton County/Jackson Recreation Center meeting room, $5

FOCUS FEATURES

CINEMA

Phantom Thread makes a great actor’s farewell a tale of relationship control.

BY SCOTT RENSHAW @scottrenshaw

I

Another Year (2010) Jim Broadbent, Lesley Manville PG-13

Lincoln (2012) Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field PG-13

Yves Saint Laurent (2014) Pierre Niney, Guillaume Gallienne R

JANUARY 17, 2018 | 23

TRY THESE

There Will Be Blood (2007) Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Dano R

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

t was probably inevitable that the news of Daniel Day-Lewis’ retirement from acting — making Phantom Thread possibly his last screen performance — would dominate the pre-release conversation about the movie. The three-time Oscar-winner’s reunion with writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson, who oversaw Day-Lewis’ towering work in They Will Be Blood, might add even more baggage to the assumptions a viewer could have coming in. The commanding presence of Day-Lewis would surely be part of another tale of a powerful man who manipulates everyone around him to get what he wants.

At the outset of Phantom Thread, that preconception seems to be justified. DayLewis plays Reynolds Woodcock, a successful fashion designer in 1950s London

greatest actors, he does more with Vicky Krieps and Daniel Day-Lewis in Phantom Thread. a gesture — or with a frustrated exhale — than other actors can do she might be able to give Reynolds that with a monologue, building the sense of nobody else has. It’s a tale of people not Reynolds as a petty tyrant who happens simply battling for the upper hand, but also to be talented. If this is indeed Daycoming to understand when and why Lewis’ farewell performance, it’s another they might not want the upper hand. masterwork.

Anderson certainly gives everything And it seems perhaps even more mashe has as a filmmaker to Phantom Thread, terful once the true nature of his relationincluding gathering collaborators like ship with Alma fully unfolds. Anderson composer Jonny Greenwood and costume drops plenty of hints regarding what designer Mark Bridges to fill out this world Reynolds is really looking for in a wife and with lush sonic and visual textures. But a partner, to the point that, in hindsight, the greatest gift he offers here is underPhantom Thread might seem to reduce standing that he has written a story where the character to one big “issue” in need the focus needs to be on these two central of resolution. But the interaction between performances — always equal partners Reynolds and Alma keeps getting more in the story, even when dynamic between and more complicated, until it becomes the characters is far from equal. Phantom clear that the Reynolds Woodcock we see Thread doesn’t send Daniel Day-Lewis at the beginning of the movie isn’t really out by giving him A Daniel Day-Lewis the Reynolds Woodcock he wants to be.

Movie. It offers us a chance to see how What Anderson constructs, then, isn’t much talent it requires to play a moment simply a showpiece for the greatest actor when someone’s voluntary bite of food of his generation to stand astride a mounturns into a surrender. PJH tain and let us gaze upon his majesty.

Phantom Thread is about power within PHANTOM THREAD a relationship, and as such it absolutely BBBB demands a performance that can stand Daniel Day-Lewis up to Day-Lewis. Krieps does phenom- Vicky Krieps enal work with her eyes and body lan- Lesley Manville guage, as Alma gradually begins to assert R herself and finally understand what it is

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

Abdication of Power

who does the creative work while leaving the business side to his sister, Cyril (Lesley Manville). A fastidious serial monogamist, Reynolds has just moved on from this last live-in muse when he meets Alma (Vicky Krieps), a diner waitress. The two soon become lovers, whereupon Alma discovers just how particular Reynolds is about the way he wants his world organized.

Thus begins what superficially appears to be the latest in film history’s long tradition of Portraits of the Artist as a Complete Asshole. Krieps plays Alma with an initial passivity and uncertainty about how to please the seemingly impossible-to-please Reynolds, and Anderson employees a wonderful sound design to emphasize every scrape of a breakfast plate that irritates Reynolds’ desire for a silent start to his day. He exercises his power over her by having her strip to her slip at the very beginning of their relationship, adding to the sense that she’s simply a paper doll there to help inspire Reynolds in his work.

Day-Lewis, for his part, does exactly what is demanded of the role in these early scenes, capturing Reynolds’ obvious sophistication and charm along with the dismissive way he treats every woman in his life except Cyril (played by Manville with a steely sense of her own importance to her brother). Like all of the

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

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

24 | JANUARY 17, 2018

KICKING & STREAMING MONDAY, JANUARY 22

n Yoga Retreat in Mexico with Neesha Zollinger and Adi Amar 9 a.m. Teton Yoga Shala, n Toddler Gym 10 a.m. Teton Recreation Center, n Open Hockey - Weekday Morning 10:15 a.m. Snow King Sports & Event Center, $10.00, (307) 201-1633 n Public Skating - Weekday 12 p.m. Snow King Sports & Event Center, $5.00 $8.00, (307) 201-1633 n Movie Monday - Youth Auditorium 3:30 p.m. Teton County Library, n Movie Monday 3:30 p.m. Valley of the Tetons Library, n Open Gym - Adult Basketball 6:30 p.m. Teton Recreation Center, n Todd Freeman 9 p.m. Million Dollar Cowboy Bar, Free, 307-7332207

TUESDAY, JANUARY 23

n Yoga Retreat in Mexico with Neesha Zollinger and Adi Amar 9 a.m. Teton Yoga Shala, n Public Skating - Weekday 12 p.m. Snow King Sports & Event Center, $5.00 $8.00, (307) 201-1633 n Open Gym - Adult Basketball 12 p.m. Teton Recreation Center, n Tech Time 1 p.m. Valley of the Tetons Library, n App Time - Study Room 4 2 p.m. Teton County Library, n Mommy & Me Yoga Series 3 p.m. Teton Yoga Shala, $14.00 - $19.00, 307690-3054 n Theatre with Nicole Madison - Youth Auditorium 3:30 p.m. Teton County Library, n Winter Wonderland Ice Skating on Town Square 4 p.m. n Aaron Davis 4 p.m. Ascent Lounge at Four Seasons, Free, n REFIT® 5:15 p.m. First Baptist Church, Free, 307-690-6539 n Risotto Workshop 6 p.m. CWC-Jackson, $65.00, 3077337425 n Open Gym - Adult Volleyball 6:30 p.m. Teton Recreation Center, n Bluegrass Tuesdays with One Ton Pig 7:30 p.m. Silver Dollar, Free, 307-732-3939 n Todd Freeman 9 p.m. Million Dollar Cowboy Bar, Free, 307-7332207

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 24 n Yoga Retreat in Mexico with Neesha Zollinger and Adi Amar 9 a.m. Teton Yoga Shala, n Toddler Gym 10 a.m. Teton Recreation Center,

FOR COMPLETE EVENT DETAILS VISIT PJHCALENDAR.COM

Generation YouTube

Subscribe to my channel is the new cowabunga, dudes

AISLETWENTYTWO VIA FLICKR CREATIVE COMMONS

n Open Gym - Adult Volleyball 4 p.m. Teton Recreation Center, n Knock On 7 p.m. Silver Dollar, Free, 307-732-3939

BY CORY GARCIA @cfaust

A

few months back, I was meeting up with a family friend for lunch.

It had been a while since I had seen this family friend, long enough for her to have a child who was a little walking and talking human, which also meant that he was old enough to operate a smartphone. Like many kids his age, little dude loves unboxing videos and can’t get enough of them.

Something amazing happened as we were saying our goodbyes, something I laugh about every time I think about it. I bent down and stuck out my hand for the little guy to give me a fistbump, which he did before telling my, “Bye! Don’t forget to like and subscribe to my video!”

I lost my damn mind. I laughed so hard it was probably insulting, but I couldn’t help it. While I’m aware of how much of my own speech is influenced by the media I’ve been consuming recently, it never occurred to me that if you spent a good chunk of time watching YouTube personalities you’d of course think that the proper way to end an interaction with someone is to solicit their approval for proper monetization purposes.

I see and hear about the YouTube effect on young kids pretty regularly.

I have some young family members who frequently beg for access to the smartphone of any nearby adult who isn’t buried in social media so that they can make videos for their own videos for their nonexistent YouTube channel.

People get their phones back hours later, their memory eaten up by dozens of short clips of nothing, the faces of the children front and center.

These kids still love toys, of course.

They build Lego sets. They ask for figures for the different franchises they obsess over. They have scooters and other things with wheels to potentially injure themselves on. Their childhood isn’t really that different from mine broadly speaking, and is saying “cowabunga!” really any sillier than “like and subscribe to my video!” when it comes to cultural seepage?

I see and hear about the Youtube effect on young kids pretty regularly. I have some young family members who frequently beg for access to the smartphone of any nearby adult who isn’t buried in social media so that they can make videos for their own videos for their nonexistent YouTube channel.

Perhaps I would feel different if I was a parent and I viewed these behaviors as a reflection of my competence at raising a human. I assume there are people out there that would be confused as hell if tiny human told them to like their videos out of the blue, and would be doubly confused if you tried to explain the concept of unboxing videos and YouTube monetization. They’d probably raise an eyebrow if you said that it’s something a ton of little kids do, then gossip about it with their friends later.

But I’m not a parent, and I understand the Internet, so this behavior just makes me laugh, and makes the part of me that remembers what it was like to be young in a middle class family a little jealous.

See, I was one of those kids who’d obsess over toy store adverts as the holidays got closer. Sit me down with one of those Toys “R” Us holiday gift guides and I’d look all those pages up and down for things I wish I owned.

What I’m saying is that unboxing videos would have extremely been my shit if they existed when I was a kid. I would have loved to have seen what the toys I wished were mine were really like. So I get why kids are into them and why people are making serious bank playing with toys online.

That said, I have a lot of questions about what the long term effect of

YouTube exposure will end up being.

Cynically I wonder if it’s creating a generation of people that will be more cynical.

Consider that advertising is largely selling you an illusion, whether the product is a toy, a coffee creamer, adult diapers or medication. Advertising is the ultimate “you’ve got to spend money to make money” hustle, and consumers used to buy stuff on leaps of faith without even realizing that was what they were doing.

Now, of course, the game has changed, and if you don’t know what you’re actually buying when you buy it that’s on you. And for kids, that means seeing videos that show them what the toys they’ve seen advertised or in store are really like. Sure, sometimes those toys are going to live up to the hype, but not always. Discovering that what you’re being sold isn’t always what you get is a valuable lesson to learn, one worth some awkward goodbyes here and there.

And if they don’t learn that, at least maybe they’ll learn how to market themselves in an increasingly shrinking job market. These kids have got to start learning now if they’re going to have any chance of having a future. There are only so many likes to go around. PJH

EAT IT! A Local KidFriendly Institution

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.

Lunch 11:30am Monday-Saturday Dinner 5:30pm Nightly

Kim’s Cafe has become the go-to for the lunch crowd and young kids alike — and for good reason

HELEN GOELET

HAPPY HOUR Daily 4-6:00pm

BY HELEN GOELET

L

Kim’s Corner at the base of Snow King has become a local institution...for good reason.

After five years of trying to balance her time between the two locations, she closed down her first location, opting to focus her time and effort into the Snow King Cafe instead.

While the sales between Korean and American options are split down the middle, the most popular item on her extensive menu is the Triangle Kim-Pap. A portable, hot, triangular pocket of delicious flavor, it’s not exactly surprising that the Triangle flies off the counter on a daily basis. Filled with your choice of spicy pork, soy ginger beef, spicy tuna or veggies, the basis of the Triangle is a mixture of purple and sticky rice and is wrapped in a sheet of nori (dried seaweed).

“I’m sort of surprised since not everyone loves Nori, but the kids really love these,” said Kim. “They like to eat them on the way up the mountain.”

With two to three employees behind the counter on a daily basis, and five

®

733-3912 160 N. Millward • Reservations recommended Reserve online at bluelionrestaurant.com

Medium Pizza (1 topping) Stuffed Cheesy Bread

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for an extra $5.99/each

(307) 733-0330 520 S. Hwy. 89 • Jackson, WY

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JANUARY 17, 2018 | 25

Open nightly 5:30pm

Large Specialty Pizza ADD: Wings (8 pc)

HALF OFF BLAST OFF!

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

culture would be through food.”

To achieve this goal, Kim attended culinary school in Korea, honing in her knife skills and learning how to cook the traditional dishes she’d grown up with.

After splitting time between Korea and Wyoming, Kim and Matthew married in 2008 and she returned to Jackson, ready to make her dream a reality.

Like many local establishments, Kim’s Corner started at the Saturday Farmer’s Market and Wednesday People’s Market where she sold spicy pork, tofu and Bulgogi (thinly sliced marinated beef) over sticky rice.

In 2010, Kim opened her first spot off of West Broadway by Lucky’s Market.

She quickly had a following of lunch regulars.

By 2012, she was ready to expand and settled into her cafe at Snow King.

“I wanted to appeal to all customers,” she said. “So I made sure my menu had options for all eaters.”

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

ocated in the lobby of the Snow King, Kim’s Corner has become a local institution. Opening at 10 a.m. sharp, Kim’s serves out a variety of food, including breakfast sandwiches, smoothies and parfaits, an assortment of Korean food and American mountain classics such as burgers, hot dogs and Philly cheesesteaks.

Born and raised in South Korea, Hyunnam Kim Degman came to Jackson for the first time in 2003 on a travel-work visa.

“I applied to work at Yellowstone, but they sent me to Dornan’s instead,” Kim said.

Working in the deli making sandwiches and at the cash register, Kim fell in love with both the mountain town as well as her future husband Matthew.

When her visa ended, Kim went home, determined to return and open up a Korean restaurant in Jackson.

“No one I met here knew anything about Korea,” she said. “All they asked about was North Korea. I thought the best way to educate people about my

307.201.1717 | LOCALJH.COM ON THE TOWN SQUARE

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

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

26 | JANUARY 17, 2018

Featuring dining destinations from breweries to bakeries, and continental fare to foreign flavor, this is a sampling of our dining critic’s local favorites.

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.

HELEN GOELET

THAI ME UP

to six on race days and busy weekends, every cashier is taught how to assemble the pockets as they sell like, well, hot rice cakes.

“I wouldn’t be able to sustain this if it wasn’t for my loyal customers,” she said.

Employees of the mountain and people working in offices in the vicinity come by almost every day, bringing the Number 1 (spicy pork over purple rice with a cucumber salad), fried udon noodle with green onion, carrots, onion, spinach bean sprouts and choice of meat or burger back to work with them.

And you can’t blame them. Her food is excellent and affordable. The vegetables are fresh and crunchy, the flavors are warming and deliciously balanced and her kindness is quite simply infectious.

It’s no surprise the kids coming to ski and skate make the heart and soul of Kim’s communal following.

“When the kids come in after school, it’s the best part of my day,” Kim said, smiling.

The food at Kim’s Cafe sells like hotcakes...er, hot rice cakes.

Many of them have gift cards, the equivalent of a college dining card, which Kim keeps behind the register.

They’re paid for by parents.

“They’re all so respectful, so full of energy and joy, it lights this place up and makes my day. I’m so grateful for them,” she said.

While the cafe has served as a wonderful way to introduce her food to the local community, Kim’s ultimate goal is to open a Korean restaurant where she can serve nothing but traditional dishes.

“It’s just limited, the things I can actually serve here, versus what I could do in a real restaurant,” she said.

Considering her past success, I’m keeping my fingers crossed that we’ll see a Kim’s Korean Restaurant blossom and flourish in our town. PJH

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 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.

THE BLUE LION

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. Reservations recommended, walk-ins 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 awardwinning 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 family-friendly, 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.

VIRGINIAN SALOON

Come down to the historic Virginian Saloon and check out our grill menu! Everything from 1/2 pound burgers to wings at a great price!

The grill is open in the Saloon from 4pm - 10pm daily. (307) 739-9891. 750 West Broadway.

SNAKE RIVER BREWERY & RESTAURANT

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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.

Y, E V E R Y

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

THE LOCALS

FAVORITE PIZZA

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.

2012-2016 •••••••••

$5 Shot & Tall Boy

LUNCH

SPECIAL

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

Slice, salad & soda

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••

TV Sports Packages and 7 Screens

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

www.mangymoose.com

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

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 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.

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

FAMILY FRIENDLY ENVIRONMENT PIZZAS, PASTAS & MORE HOUSEMADE BREAD & DESSERTS FRESH, LOCALLY SOURCED OFFERINGS TAKE OUT AVAILABLE

A Jackson Hole favorite since 1965

ELY U Q I N U PEAN EURO

R DINNEAGE I H LUNCTETON VILL I T S IN FA BREAKE ALPENHOF AT TH

AT THE

307.733.3242

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.

JANUARY 17, 2018 | 27

F O H ‘ E TH

PINKY G’S

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

Dining room and bar open nightly at 5:00pm (307) 733-2460 • 2560 Moose Wilson Road • Wilson, WY

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.

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

$7

CALICO

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

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

28 | JANUARY 17, 2018

SUDOKU

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

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.

L.A.TIMES “BIT PARTS” By PAUL COULTER

SUNDAY, JANUARY 21, 2018

ACROSS

1 Many a reggae musician 6 Flavor 11 Involved stories 16 Montezuma’s people 18 Books smaller than quartos 20 Arenas, say 22 Film about a convict’s lame claims of innocence?

24 Play the market 25 European skyline sight 26 __ Marbles: historic sculptures 27 Longtime film critic for The New Yorker 29 “¿Cómo __ usted?”

30 Pays attention to 32 Chow line?

35 P&L report column 36 High hat 37 “__ was saying ... ” 38 Go public with 39 Film about St. Peter’s favorite striped stone?

42 Wildebeests 44 Barrel-bottom stuff 45 Cookie baking session output 46 Put to the test 48 K-12 49 River to the North Sea 50 Stage hog 53 Lady of León 55 Duck 57 Inherent character 59 Back muscle, familiarly 60 Film about the last of the oldtime schoolteachers?

64 First husband of Bathsheba 67 Bar stock 68 Aurora’s Greek counterpart 69 Leftover 70 Film about dealing with a class of five-year-olds?

76 Arles article 77 Form of aphasia involving the inability to name objects

78 79 82

Loi maker Hot spots “Do the Right Thing” pizzeria owner 83 Disco family name 86 Cherbourg cherub 87 It usually involves a getaway car 88 Plump Capp critter 89 “Beowulf” beverage 90 “Well done!”

91 Film about yet another complaint?

95 __ Colinas: upscale neighborhood in Irving, Texas 96 Diminish 99 Rival of Paris 100 Marshal at Waterloo 101 Cause harm 103 Studied, with “over” 105 “Sounds like fun to me!”

106 Utah lily 107 Metaphor for opportunities 109 Pie in the sky?

110 Jaguar, e.g.

112 Film about a devastating blizzard?

117 À la King 118 Calmed down 119 Stylish filmmaker 120 Chill 121 Runoff collector 122 Commuter’s read

DOWN

1 Indian prince 2 Georgia’s state wildflower 3 Mushroom stems 4 Bus. card info 5 Yearns 6 Extended operatic solo 7 PDX tower group 8 Most golfers never break it 9 Ab __: from the start 10 1990 Stallone flick with the

tagline “Go For It” Bad to the bone Stock holder Protest bitterly (against) Hill with one steep side Sonnet section One before la Basket material Achieve with minimal effort Impolite look Hybrid fruits Author Ferber et al.

Make a stand Put on hold Variety show set in Kornfield Kounty 36 Fabric beltmaker’s technique 38 Lindley of “Three’s Company” 40 Line to the audience 41 Gregg user 43 “The Matrix” hero 44 Some wolves 46 Catherine the Great, e.g.

47 Vitamin A form 50 Moves speedily 51 One often shared in flight 52 Flat-topped lands 54 “I don’t give __” 56 In 58 Duty 59 “Witness” actor Haas 61 Obamacare, briefly 62 John, to Ringo 63 Recipe amts.

65 Gen.’s counterpart 66 Fictional miners’ work song 71 “Spider-Man” director 72 Latin lover’s line 73 The Supreme Court, for one 74 Where Tara Lipinski won her Olympics gold medal at age 11 12 13 14 15 17 18 19 21 23 28 31 33 34

15 75 Community character 80 War on Poverty agcy.

81 Hulu offering 84 Carried 85 Spanish convenience stores 88 Lettering guide 90 Lively country dance 91 Extended family 92 More cozy 93 Political fugitive 94 Mr. Magoo et al.

95 Bridges in movies 97 Sultanate on the South China Sea 98 Make dirty 102 One in an airport taxi line, for the most part 103 False: Pref.

104 Bridal estate 106 “Come Sail Away” band 108 ANC country 111 Mobile home: Abbr.

113 “__ to Billie Joe” 114 Cry near the ears 115 Broke bread 116 B&O stop

COSMIC CAFE WITH CAROL MANN

Extraordinary Children “Through their energy, actions and simply being here, these children are empowering the growth and evolution of us all.” ~ unknown

E

FULLY DEVELOPED AREAS OF GENIUS

UPDATING BELIEFS

OUR SOULS AMONG THEM The world is full of people of all ages whose souls are here to anchor a higher consciousness in support of an upgraded paradigm for the Earth. There have always been souls, our souls among them right now, who are here to embody and to catalyze the fullest potentials waiting to be activated in our DNA.

IF YOU WONDER If the list of characteristics made you curious for insight into what your soul is here to express, take some quiet time to recall your favorite childhood interests.

Those early passions and curiosities contain insight into what’s essential to your soul. Remember also that the open, curious, creative, imaginative, non-judgmental and loving child you once were is still within you. Invite those child-like attributes to come forward again to join your adult self. The blend will add more light to the world. PJH

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

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JANUARY 17, 2018 | 29

These children require us to let go of outdated conventional ideas of how old someone must be before they can offer their talents and contributions to the world. We always say children are our teachers. Now we are living in accelerated times. Theirs is a welcome invitation to evolve. In a time when humanity is facing the unprecedented opportunity to evolve our consciousness and co-create a new global paradigm, or to self-destruct, we

As parents, family members, friends and teachers we are called to be the generation adults who recognize and validate these children are messengers. Our open minds and hearts can smooth the way for them to make a difference without having to wait till they are “grown up.” We also will learn to balance the fact that along with their higher purpose and evolved conscoiusness, they are still kids who need to enjoy being children and to benefit from our guidance.

Here is a short list of 10 common characteristics of children who are here to lead us to a new paradigm.

Regardless of your age, you may recognize yourself in some of these and connect some dots about why you may be here.

• They always see better ways to do things at home and at school.

• They are easily bored with assigned tasks.

• They are in a hurry to get going.

• They are highly sensitive and intuitive, intelligent and creative.

• They have an obvious sense of self.

• They are very perceptive about people’s character and agendas.

• They express wisdom beyond their years.

• They can see auras and other energies.

• They may have clear memory of other lifetimes on earth and even elsewhere in the cosmos.

• They are frustrated by rigid or outdated ideas and rules, which discourage exploring new possibilities.

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

Many of these young children express scientific genius, including knowledge of advanced physics and metaphysics. Some have extraordinary artistic talents way beyond their years; others are gifted healers who can accurately diagnose and cure illnesses. Some can predict the future and/or are telepathic. Many are literally angel-like in the pure love they emanate along with their compassion for the human experience and depth of understanding of the human psyche. In case you are wondering, all of this is very evident by the ripe old age of 4, 5 or 6, if not earlier.

A NEW ROLE FOR ADULTS

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very generation ushers in remarkable souls who will introduce new perspectives, wisdom, love and talents to our world. In recent years, the consensus among teachers, parents, psychologists and other professionals who work with and study children is that we are continuing to experience the arrival of waves of children who are very evolved. In ever-increasing numbers, kids are arriving with exceptionally deep wisdom and fully developed talents. They are given names like Indigo Children, Starseeds and Crystal Children. More important than the labels is that they are here at this time in our history to help us evolve.

All children are extraordinary, beautiful beings.

What is different about these souls is they are born fully awake, meaning they are consciously able to access the library of wisdom, experiences and skills in their souls right from birth. They are eager … actually impatient and in a hurry … to contribute as soon as possible what they already know…for our awakening. They embody a more evolved human, and are here to inspire us by modeling what’s possible for everyone.

can be certain these children are here among those here to help us upgrade.

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| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

30 | JANUARY 17, 2018

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FREE WILL ASTROLOGY

BY ROB BREZSNY

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) Bubble gum is more elastic and less sticky than regular chewing gum. That’s why you can blow bubbles with it. A Capricorn accountant named Walter Diemer invented it in 1928 while working for the Fleer Chewing Gum Company.

At the time he finally perfected the recipe, the only food dye he had on hand was pink. His early batches were all that color, and a tradition was born. That’s why even today, most bubble gum is pink. I suspect a similar theme may unfold soon in your life. The conditions present at the beginning of a new project may deeply imprint the future evolution of the project. So try to make sure those are conditions you like!

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18) “When one door closes, another opens,” said inventor Alexander Graham Bell. “But we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened.” Heed his advice, Aquarius.

Take the time you need to mourn the lost opportunity.

But don’t take MORE than the time you need. The replacement or alternative to what’s gone will show up sooner than you think.

ARIES (March 21-April 19) Many American women did not have the right to vote until August 18, 1920. On that day, the Tennessee General Assembly became the 36th state legislature to approve the Nineteenth Amendment, thus sealing the legal requirements to change the U.S. Constitution and ensure women’s suffrage. The ballot in Tennessee was close.

At the last minute, 24-year-old legislator Harry T. Burns changed his mind from no to yes, thanks to a letter from his mother, who asked him to “be a good boy” and vote in favor. I suspect that in the coming weeks, Aries, you will be in a pivotal position not unlike Burns’. Your decision could affect more people than you know. Be a good boy or good girl.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) Norwegian artist Edvard Munch (1863-1944) created four versions of his iconic artwork The Scream. Each depicts a person who seems terribly upset, holding his head in his hands and opening his mouth wide as if unleashing a loud shriek. In 2012, one of these images of despair was sold for almost $120 million. The money went to the son of a man who had been Munch’s friend and patron. Can you think of a way that you and yours might also be able to extract value or get benefits from a negative emotion or a difficult experience? The coming weeks will be a favorable time to do just that.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22) “I think I like my brain best in a bar fight with my heart,” says poet Clementine von Radics. While I appreciate that perspective, I advise you to do the opposite in the coming weeks. This will be a phase of your astrological cycle when you should definitely support your heart over your brain in bar fights, wrestling matches, shadow boxing contests, tugs of war, battles of wits, and messy arguments. Here’s one of the most important reasons why I say this: Your brain would be inclined to keep the conflict going until one party or the other suffers ignominious defeat, whereas your heart is much more likely to work toward a win-win conclusion.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21) When he was 24 years old, Scorpio-born Zhu Yuanzhang (1328-1398) was a novice monk with little money who had just learned to read and write. He had spent years as a wandering beggar. By the time he was 40 years old, he was the emperor of China and founder of the Ming Dynasty, which ruled for 276 years. What happened in between? That’s a long story. Zhu’s adventurousness was a key asset, and so was his ability as an audacious and crafty tactician. His masterful devotion to detailed practical matters was also indispensable. If you are ever in your life going to begin an ascent even remotely comparable to Zhu’s, Scorpio, it will be in the coming ten months. Being brave and enterprising won’t be enough. You must be disciplined and dogged, as well.

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SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) In 1892, the influential Atlantic Monthly magazine criticized Sagittarian poet Emily Dickinson, saying she GEMINI (May 21-June 20) Looks like the Season of a Thousand and One Emotions “possessed an extremely unconventional and grohasn’t drained and frazzled you. Yes, there may be a tesque fancy.” It dismissed her poetry as incoherent, pool of tears next to your bed. Your altar might be filled and declared that an “eccentric, dreamy, half-educated with heaps of ashes, marking your burnt offerings. But recluse” like her “cannot with impunity set at defiance the you have somehow managed to extract a host of useful laws of gravitation and grammar.” This dire diss turned lessons from your tests and trials. You have surprised out to be laughably wrong. Dickinson is now regarded yourself with the resilience and resourcefulness you’ve as one of the most original American poets. I offer this been able to summon. And so the energy you’ve gained story up as a pep talk for you, Sagittarius. In the coming through these gritty triumphs is well worth the price months, I suspect you’ll be reinventing yourself. You’ll be researching new approaches to living your life. In the you’ve had to pay. course of these experiments, others may see you as being CANCER (June 21-July 22) in the grip of unconventional or grotesque fantasy. They Every relationship is unique. The way you connect may consider you dreamy and eccentric. I hope you with another person—whether it’s through friendship, won’t allow their misunderstandings to interfere with your romance, family, or collaborative projects—should be playful yet serious work.

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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| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

TAURUS (April 20-May 20) In the coming weeks, Destiny will be calling you and calling you and calling you, inviting you to answer its summons. If you do indeed answer, it will provide you with clear instructions about what you will need to do expedite your ass in the direction of the future. If on the other hand you refuse to listen to Destiny’s call, or hear it and refuse to respond, then Destiny will take a different tack. It won’t provide any instructions, but will simply yank your ass in the direction of the future.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) During recent weeks, your main tasks have centered around themes often associated with strain and struggle: repair, workaround, reassessment, jury-rigging, adjustment, compromise. Amazingly, Leo, you have kept your suffering to a minimum as you have smartly done your hard work. In some cases you have even thrived.

Congratulations on being so industrious and steadfast!

Beginning soon, you will glide into a smoother stage of your cycle. Be alert for the inviting signs. Don’t assume you’ve got to keep grunting and grinding.

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PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20) Gilbert Stuart painted the most famous portrait of America’s first president, George Washington. It’s the image on the U.S. one-dollar bill. And yet Stuart never finished the masterpiece. Begun in 1796, it was still a work-in-progress when Stuart died in 1828. Leonardo da Vinci had a similar type of success. His incomplete painting The Virgin and Child with St. Anne hangs in the Louvre in Paris, and his unfinished The Adoration of the Magi has been in Florence’s Uffizi Gallery since 1671. I propose that Stuart and da Vinci serve as your role models in the coming weeks. Maybe it’s not merely OK if a certain project of yours remains unfinished; maybe that’s actually the preferred outcome.

free to find the distinctive identity that best suits its special chemistry. Therefore, it’s a mistake to compare any of your alliances to some supposedly perfect ideal. Luckily, you’re in an astrological period when you have extra savvy about cultivating unique models of togetherness.

So I recommend that you devote the coming weeks to deepening and refining your most important bonds.

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| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

32 | JANUARY 17, 2018

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