Planet Jackson Hole April 26, 2018

Page 1

JACKSON HOLE’S ALTERNATIVE VOICE | PLANETJH.COM | APRIL 25 - MAY 1 , 2018

THE

THE

UGLY

2 3 I D E A S T O R E D U C E G U N V I O L E N C E A N D S AV E L I V E S


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

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

2 | APRIL 25, 2018

MAKE REAL NEWS

The award-winning Planet Jackson Hole is looking for writers to help cover the valley’s must-know stories.

Travel With The Planet Jackson Hole Publisher. 10-Night Greece Trip Hosted By John Saltas September 16-26, 2018

REPLACEMENT SPECIALISTS

FREE MOBILE SERVICE INSURANCE APPROVED Specializing in European & Luxury Vehicles

$50

UP TO

$10

OFF

CASH BACK ROCK CHIP ON WINDSHIELD REPLACEMENT

GREECE?

email inquiries to editor@planetjh.com

WINDSHIELD

UP TO

DREAMING OF

REPAIR

307.733.3282 Ask about our lifetime warranty.

4 nights in Corfu. 1 night in Meteora. 1 night in Delphi. 4 nights in Athens. $1575 for double occupancy

Included:

Group Dinner At Aristo’s Prior To Trip Group Dinner In Greece (Place And Time Tbd) The Airline Flight From Athens To Corfu. Ferry To Mainland From Corfu To Port Of Igoumenitsa Bus Transport From Igoumenitsa To Athens All Room Taxes • Breakfast Daily 3 Professional Tours (Meteora, Delphi, Athens) Additional Athens Walking Tours Not Included: International Airfare • Local Transportation Fees To Historic Sites And Museums email: jsaltas@cityweekly.net to reserve a spot.


JACKSON HOLE'S ALTERNATIVE VOICE

VOLUME 16 | ISSUE 15 | APRIL 25 - MAY 1 2018

@THEPLANETJH |

@PLANETJH |

/PLANETJH

9 COVER STORY THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY 23 ideas to reduce gun violence and save lives

THE

THE

UGLY

2 3 I D E A S T O R E D U C E G U N V I O L E N C E A N D S AV E L I V E S .

Cover illustration by Derek Carlisle

13 DON’T MISS

5

15 CULTURE KLASH

THE NEW WEST

17 EAT IT!

6 THE BUZZ

THE PLANET JACKSON HOLE TEAM PUBLISHER

SALES DIRECTOR

DISTRIBUTION MANAGER

Copperfield Publishing, John Saltas

Pete Saltas / pete@planetjh.com

Bill Fogarty

EDITOR

DIRECTOR OF DIGITAL DEVELOPMENT

COPY EDITOR

Christian Priskos / christian@copperfielddigital.com

Sarah Ross

ADVERTISING ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES

CONTRIBUTORS

Dave Alper, Chase Corona

Rob Brezsny, Wilson Criscione, Kelsey Dayton,

Robyn Vincent / editor@planetjh.com ART DIRECTOR

Vaughn Robison / art@planetjh.com

Helen Goelet, Carol Mann, Nate Martin, Andrew Munz, Mitch Ryals, Shannon Sollitt, Tom Tomorrow, Daniel Walters, Quinn Welsch, Todd Wilkinson, Samantha Wohlfeil, Jim Woodmencey MEMBER: National Newspaper Association, Alternative Weekly Network, Association of Alternative Newsmedia

567 W. BROADWAY | P.O. BOX 3249 | JACKSON, WYOMING 83001 | 307-732-0299 | WWW.PLANETJH.COM

BY METEOROLOGIST JIM WOODMENCEY

We definitely had some April showers this year, with almost twice the normal April precipitation. Some of that, however, was in the form of snow, which doesn’t help to bring May flowers. More recent dry weather and warmer temps should begin the greening process around the valley. Although, as you creep up and out of town in any direction, off the pavement, you will notice why this time of year is referred to as the “mud season”.

Average low temperatures this week are in the upper 20’s. Usually that fluctuates depending on how cloudy or breezy it is, both can keep temps warmer overnight. The coldest temperature ever recorded during this last week of April is 4-degrees. That record was established only 10 years ago, on April 26th, 2008 during an unusually late April cold spell of a day or two. By the following afternoon, the high temperature was up to 54-degrees.

HIGHS

Average high temperatures this week are in the mid and upper 50’s. We hit our first 60-degree day of the year on Monday, April 16th, 2018. The likelihood of more days reaching 60 or higher will be increasing as we stroll into May, we hope. The record high temperature this week is 79-degrees, that happened twice in our history, once on April 29th, 1992 and again back on May 1st, 1985. We have never hit the 80-degree mark in Jackson during the month of April.

NORMAL HIGH 56 NORMAL LOW 27 RECORD HIGH IN 1992 79 RECORD LOW IN 2008 4

THIS MONTH AVERAGE PRECIPITATION: 1.14 inches RECORD PRECIPITATION: 2.66 inches (1963) AVERAGE SNOWFALL: 4 inches RECORD SNOWFALL: 24 inches (1967)

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

APRIL 25, 2018 | 3

Sponsorship opportunities are available for Planet Jackson Hole’s Almanac. To become a weely sponsor and see your message here, contact 307-732-0299 or sales@planetjh.com.

THIS WEEK

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

JH ALMANAC LOWS

APRIL 25 - MAY 1 2018

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

4 OPINION


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

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

4 | APRIL 25, 2018

GUEST OPINION

HALF OFF BLAST OFF! JOIN LOCAL MERCHANTS IN PLANET JACKSON HOLE’S ADVERTISING TRADE PROGRAM,

HALFOFFJH.COM

Bursting Jackson’s Bubble To spur political change in Wyoming, Jacksonites must look beyond the Tetons

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

Visit out our website website Visit

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

s Jackson residents know—albeit grudgingly—they are part of Wyoming. Sure, it is easy to think of Jackson as a place unto itself. For one, it is literally sheltered in a hole. Its connection with Grand Teton and Yellowstone national parks, its lifeblood, runs deeper than its alliance to the humbler rectangular state in which it sits. Standing on downtown Jackson’s charming wooden boardwalks, Jacksonites might feel a continent away from provincial places like coal-mining Gillette or downtrodden desert towns like Rawlins. It’s not hard to see why. Politically, Jackson is a “blue dot” in a sea of red. It is relatively forward-looking when it comes to issues like transit, public lands and the environment. And Teton County is the only county in Wyoming that went for Hillary in 2016, affirming Jackson’s identity as a “liberal bubble.” Well, I’m here to burst your bubble. When I think of Jackson’s perception of itself, I’m reminded of Buenos Aires. I briefly lived in the Argentine capital a decade ago. When I first arrived there, a longtime resident explained to me some of the city’s complexities. She said that Buenos Aires prides itself on a sense of sophistication derived from European influence—its architecture mimics Paris, its vernacular is shot through with Italian

BY NATE MARTIN

phrases, and indeed many of its uppercrust residents descend from Western Europe. People like to say that Buenos Aires is a European capital in Latin America. But, my friend told me, don’t be fooled: “For every one characteristic, someone can point out in Buenos Aires that’s European, I can point to 10 that are Latin American.” Jackson’s relationship with Wyoming is something like that. Sure, y’all have a fancy arts center, upscale restaurants, and Tesla plug-ins at the grocery store. But the culture remains inextricably linked to the cowboy and Western mythologies that shape the rest of Wyoming. While mass-tourism is less ecologically damaging than, say, fracking, Jackson’s economy nevertheless relies on monetizing the landscape, like the rest of the state. And, crucially, Jackson’s citizens are governed by laws written in Cheyenne. As a political entity, Jackson will only ever be able to progress as far as Wyoming allows it. It may have elected a progressive mayor, arrived at the precipice of a nondiscrimination ordinance, and taken a few enlightened steps toward addressing housing and transportation crises. But the Good Ole Boys in the Wyoming State Legislature ultimately hold sway over Jackson’s laws, and their ideologies tend to be antithetical to Jackson values. But Jackson residents are not the only

ones who are against criminal punishments for marijuana possession, cutting public education funding, weakening unions, blocking people from healthcare access, filling our prisons, exacerbating our gender wage gap, and threatening our public lands. While running Better Wyoming, a communications hub for progressive politics centered on tax reform, education funding, and criminal justice, to name a few, I’ve found there are more folks hungry for change in Wyoming than you might think. For this fact to matter, however, we need to break down the barriers between us. From my vantage in Laramie, I look out across Wyoming and see potential. I know there’s progress to be made, power to be seized, and ways to create meaningful political change. Jackson holds some of the greatest untapped potential. Its residents are deeply engaged in local politics, but rarely, it seems, does their advocacy extend beyond the Hole’s walls. In my new column for Planet Jackson Hole, I aim to convince the citizens of Jackson to join folks in the far-flung reaches of Wyoming and work together on statewide political change. PJH Nate Martin is the director of Better Wyoming.


W

THE NEW WEST PET SPACE

Pet Space is sponsored by Jackson Animal Hospital

A Greater Goal Let’s have a common place to celebrate our ecosystem @B igArtNature

to spend vast sums of money protecting the structures from burning. Some developers push growth and chastise land use planning and zoning, yet try to wash their hands of the negative impacts their projects bring. Meanwhile, our state tourism bureaus spend millions, using misleading pictures, touting summer vacations in Yellowstone without reflecting on the reality that no more promotion is needed. Roads already are filled with jarring congestion that is the opposite of the idyll they are selling. All of the above are just a few of the inspiring, remarkable and disturbing realities converging in our backyard. They are complicated but not intractable. What’s missing? A cohesive, thoughtful, cross-boundary adult dialogue. Not long ago, the online magazine MountainJournal.org created a page on Facebook called Greater Yellowstone Forum. It’s not earth-shattering. It’s merely an accessible “place” to celebrate the things we love about Greater Yellowstone and to share good ideas of how to solve problems to existing challenges. Your passion is invited, differences of opinion welcomed and civility required. If your modus operandi is launching personal attacks, pushing only personal interest ahead of public interest, or you don’t behold Greater Yellowstone with the reverence it deserves, no worries. There are certainly other better places for you to wield an opinion. PJH

My name is Badger and I am a 4 year old, male, Lab mix who has been around the block a few times and am ready to settle down. I was found as a stray in Star Valley Fall 2017. My collar was embedded into my neck, indicating I had been homeless and living on the streets for quite some time. No one came to claim me so I was transferred to the AAC in Jackson to begin my ultimate adventure. Waiting for my forever family I spend my days and nights with my favorite foster, winter fat-biking through the mountains. I become loyal to those who give me the time of day and how could you say no to this loving face. I’m great with other dogs but I am looking for a home with no cats. Some say that black animals in shelters get overlooked which is a bummer because I am seriously special. To meet Badger and learn how to adopt her, contact Animal Adoption Center at 739-1881 or stop by 270 E Broadway

274 E Broadway, Jackson WY (307) 201-5700 jacksonanimalhospital.com

APRIL 25, 2018 | 5

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.

BADGER

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

Like it or not, the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, this vast geographical island of clustered mountains, high plateaus, headwaters for major rivers, wildlife migrations, native trout, unmatched still-functioning geothermal phenomena and a rare caliber of solitude, is unique. Every Western state has pretty scenery and fine places to play, but none with our wildness. “Unique” is an abused, overused word in our society, though its actual definition means one of a kind, unequalled and unusual. One thing about we Greater Yellowstoneans and, by extension residents of the three states, is the fact that many of us suffer from myopia. Unless we get out and see the outside world, it’s difficult to mentally wrap one’s mind around the truth of how unique Greater Yellowstone really is. We’ve just spent two human generations resuscitating Greater Yellowstone’s grizzly bear population and now the state of Wyoming wants to sell opportunities to kill individual bears as if hawking trinkets. We fight over water to grow common, non-native alfalfa to feed common non-native beef and we spend a lot of money killing wolves to protect said beef on public land when the greatest commodity ranchers own is private land habitat that keeps our world-class region functioning. The question is how does society compensate and honor ranchers for the valuable services they safeguard and deliver, that gives them economic peace of mind, self-satisfaction and keeps them on the land? We (our county commissions) allow people to build second, third or fourth vacation homes on the edges of national forests yet we expect American taxpayers

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

e are Greater Yellowstoneans. We share an ecosystem and yet often it seems as if we dwell in different worlds. Consider the differing politics of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho, the three states that converge to form our 22.5-million-acre region. Consider how the social vibe of Jackson Hole is different from that of Cody or Lander, which, in turn, is different from Riverton and Dubois, which have dramatically different feels from Rexburg and Ennis, certainly distinct from that swelling burg to the north, Bozeman. Think of how different a trip to Yellowstone feels versus a traipse around Grand Teton or how distantly remote the Red Desert, located on the south end of Greater Yellowstone, feels from Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge in Montana’s Centennial Valley. Or how the Crazies are just as much of an obscurity for denizens of Star Valley as the Salt River Range is to those in Red Lodge. Or how the Absaroka-Beartooths, national park-caliber wildlands in Montana, command as much devotion as the Wind Rivers, once a candidate for being a national park. In my ramblings around Greater Yellowstone these past 30 years, I’ve noticed how it used to seem that we existed further apart. Today, thanks to more enlightened understanding of ecology, commerce and awareness of how things tie together, there is an emerging common identity. Even though federal land managers long resisted the term “Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem” in favor of “Greater Yellowstone Area” because those in charge thought using the word “ecosystem” sounded too green and therefore unacceptable to politicians, our common region possesses a centrifugal allure.

BY TODD WILKINSON |


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

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

6 | APRIL 25, 2018

THE BUZZ

More Jackson Democrats Enter Local, State Races Candidates stepped up at Teton County Democratic Convention, and in recent weeks BY ROBYN VINCENT |

I

s a blue wind blowing across Wyoming? According to Chairman of the Wyoming Democratic Party Joe Barbuto and U.S. Senate hopeful Gary Trauner, the answer is yes. They spoke Saturday at the Teton County Democratic Convention where Rep. Mike Gierau-D, Jackson, Michael Yin and Jessica SellChambers joined the growing number of local Democrats running for office. Gierau is running for Republican Sen. Leland Christensen’s seat. The state senator announced his bid for Secretary of State in March. Christensen’s Democratic opponent in that race was in Jackson Saturday. Rep. James Byrd–D, Cheyenne, traveled to the convention to deliver an address that hinted at his renegade roots. Byrd’s mother, Harriet Elizabeth Byrd, was the first African-American to serve in the Wyoming Legislature from 1980 to 1988. “I don’t want you to be a plain Democrat,” he told about 60 people at the Senior Center. “I want you to be a leader as a Democrat—for young people, for those who don’t vote.” His speech drew boisterous applause. The audience’s enthusiasm mirrored the Democratic energy building in once reliably red districts across the nation.

‘Extreme’ Antics For Gierau, it was the Senate’s “extreme agenda” in the recent legislative session that compelled him to run. He pointed to its refusal to expand Medicaid and several tax bills that could have funded education and social services. Those bills died on the Senate floor without discussion. “When we talk about things like local option taxes, what we’re talking about is saving money so we can fund schools, so we can have help for developmentally disabled kids, suicide prevention,” he said. Several Senate bills were also “antiTeton County,” he said. One such bill— that died in the Joint Appropriations Committee—would have exacerbated Teton County’s housing crisis by limiting its affordable housing program. Under the bill, municipalities would lose the ability to set affordable housing mitigation rates. Just three of the Senate’s 30 seats are occupied by Democrats and Gierau is the first to announce a bid for Christensen’s seat. His political counterpart Rep. Andy

@TheNomadicHeart

Schwartz will seek After the death re-election for his seat of her parents, Sellin House District 23, Chambers said she a representative for wouldn’t have won Schwartz said. custody of her brothMeanwhile, Yin, ers without the help of vice chair of the Teton the community. Now, County Democrats some of the same folks and a software engiwho offered her supneer, said he will run port have been forced for Gierau’s seat in to leave the valley or House District 16. The soon will. They are son of immigrants, victims of the housing Yin delivered a mescrisis, she said. sage of inclusivity. “We’re watching “I want Wyoming as our community is to become a more fading away. These welcoming commupeople are at risk of nity for all types of being pushed out. people, immigrants, Some people say, ‘Not Rep. Mike Gierau, top left, Seadar Rose- everyone can afford everyone.” Davis, top right, Michael Yin and Jessica to live here.’ But we An Atlanta, Sell-Chambers are among the latest to enter Georgia, native, Yin the political fray. cannot afford to have has planted roots in these people pushed the valley and wants to raise a family in out.” Jackson. “To make sure it’s a place that I Sell-Chambers ran an unsuccessful want to do that, I need to participate in bid for Town Council in 2016. She was the community and I think this is the way among four candidates who won the priI can best serve Jackson and Wyoming.” mary election but came in last in the general election behind Judd Grossman and Councilors Hailey Morton-Levinson and Talk of the Town Two seats on the four-seat non-parti- Jim Stanford. She, Frank and Zach Padilla, owner/ san race for Jackson Town Council are up for election this year, those of Councilors CEO of The Bomb Sommelier and The Don Frank and Bob Lenz, who is stepping Bomb Beverage, are among the first to down after 12 years. During Saturday’s announce their candidacy for Town convention, Frank reaffirmed his bid Council. On the county side, Teton County to seek re-election. The incumbent first Commissioner Mark Newcomb said he declared his intent to run in January. “Just a rookie” when he was appoint- will seek re-election on the five-seat Teton ed to Melissa Turley’s seat in 2013 and County Board of County Commissioners, re-elected in 2014, Frank said his most but still has not “officially stepped up.” fulfilling moments are when citizens When he does, he will join Democrats come to town chambers for the first time. Luther Propst, a longtime valley advocate “When we hear from the unheard, that’s and conservationist, and Seadar RoseDavis, a musician and START Bus board democracy in action.” Sell-Chambers, a national commit- member who announced her candidateewoman for the Wyoming Democratic cy April 18. During the convention, she National Committee, echoed the notion stressed resilience and creating “a comof representing the unheard when she munity for all.” She described carving out a welcoming announced her candidacy for Jackson place for people across the spectrum, from Town Council on Saturday. “I see a future her developmentally disabled co-worker Jackson that is whole, complete and comat Vertical Harvest to folks at the Senior passionate,” she said. That means takCenter. The first person in her family to ing care of working-class people and providing social services “for the most obtain a college degree, Rose-Davis said her experiences on the road touring as a vulnerable.” musician exposed her to diverse people

that will inform her ability to lead and adapt. Three seats are up for election on the BCC, which, unlike Town Council, is a partisan race. In addition to Newcomb’s seat, Commissioner Smokey Rhea’s seat is also open. The sole Republican on the board, Commissioner Paul Vogelheim, announced on April 18 he will not seek re-election. Candidates who have announced their intent to run did so ahead of the official filing period which begins May 17. Another big announcement on Saturday? The once sizable gap between registered Republican and Democratic voters in Teton County has shrunk to 1 percent. Since 2006, the number of registered Democrats spiked 13 points from 24 to 37 percent. Meanwhile, the number of registered Republicans dipped just as many points from 51 to 38 percent.

Blue Wind, Red Wind

Among the folks who might refute a blue wind blowing across the Cowgirl State is millionaire Jackson Republican Foster Friess. The Teton County Democratic convention comes on the heels of his announcement to run for governor, which turned heads across the country on April 20. In 2012, the conservative Christian character amassed national notoriety for his comments on birth control when he suggested women use “Bayer aspirin for contraception.” He told MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell: “The gals put it between their knees, and it wasn’t that costly.” Friess has also made a name for himself in the national GOP, funding former Sen. Rick Santorum’s presidential efforts. In 2012, Friess’s net worth was $530 million, according to the Wall Street Journal. Friess, 78, is running against six Republicans—Wyoming Treasurer Mark Gordon, business owners Sam Galeotos and Bill Dahlin, attorney Harriet Hageman, former surgeon and rancher Taylor Haynes and Rex Rammell, a veterinarian who told the Casper Star-Tribune he is “Wyoming’s Donald Trump.” The sole Democratic challenger is former Wyoming legislator Mary Throne, a Cheyenne attorney. PJH


May 2018

St. John’s Calendar of Events Most events are free unless otherwise noted.

Support Groups Teton Parkies (For those affected by Parkinson’s Disease)

Gather for mutual support, discussion of disease and therapies, and more. • Walk at Emily’s Pond; dinner to follow Tuesday, May 8, 4 pm

Memory Loss Support Group

The Eden Alternative

Joint Classes

For those suffering from persistent memory problems; family members and caregivers welcome Thursday, May 10, Noon – 1 pm

Learn about the Eden Alternative’s role in successful, dignified aging Monday, May 14, 5:30-6:30 pm St. John’s Medical Center lobby 625 E. Broadway

Information for people considering or scheduled for joint replacement surgery Thursday, May 3, 8-9:30 am Tuesday, May 8, 4-5:30 pm Thursday, May 17, 8-9:30 am Tuesday, May 22, 4-5:30 pm Physical Therapy Room St. John’s Medical Center

For information, call 307.739.7434

For information, call 307.739.7462

Weight Management Support Group

• “A new idea for treating Parkinson’s Disease,” with Irene Griswold-Prenner, PhD; founder of Nitrome Biosciences Tuesday, May 29, 5:30 pm Jackson Whole Grocer, Community Room Contact Elizabeth at 307.733.4966, 614.271.7012, or epgerhard@gmail.com

Open to everyone interested in weight loss and those considering (or who have had) bariatric surgery

Call for updated date and time 307.739.7634

Type 2 Diabetes Prevention Group in Spanish

To register, call 307.739.7463 by noon on the day of the group.

Teton Mammas For new babies and their families Wednesday, May 9, 1 – 2:30 pm Moose-Wapiti Classroom St. John’s Medical Center

For information, call 307.739.6175

Grief Support Group

St. John’s Medical Center Annual Community Health Fair A screening at every booth! Saturday, May 5, 9 am-noon Teton County/Jackson Parks and Recreation Center

For information, call 307.739.7399

Spring Run-Off 5k Walk/Run, Saturday, May 5 8:15 am runners/9:00 am walkers $10 pre-registration. tetonparksandrec.org

For information, call 307.739.9025

Call 307.739.7463

Auxiliary Monthly Luncheon

For information, call 307.739.7399

Behind the Scenes Building Teams, Building Community Join St. John’s CEO Paul Beaupré, MD to learn about the opportunities and challenges of recruiting and retaining providers in Jackson Hole. Tuesday, May 29 7:30–8:30 am and 5:30–6:30 pm Boardroom St. John’s Medical Center

For information, call 307.739.7380

Spine Classes Information for people considering or scheduled for spine surgery Tuesday, May 1, 3-4:30 pm Monday, May 7, 1-2:30 pm Tuesday, May 15, 3-4:30 pm Thursday, May 24, 1-2:30 pm Tuesday, May 29, 3 pm Physical Therapy Room St. John’s Medical Center

Please register by calling 307.739.6199

Well Being is a Skill: How to Have a Healthy Mind

Evening Social Thursday, June 7, 5:30 pm For information, call 307.739.7517

59th Annual Spring Fling Gala “A Homegrown Wyoming Evening” Saturday, May 26, 6 pm Jackson Lake Lodge $125/person For tickets, call 307.739.7517

Foundation Pizza for a Purpose To benefit St. John’s Child Care Center Tuesday, May 15, 5–9 pm Hand Fire Pizza, 120 N. Cache For information, call 307.739.7517

Mug Club Mile

One-mile fun run to support St. John’s cancer fund Saturday, May 19 11–4 pm Yard Party Fun run begins at 1 pm Snake River Brewery For information, call 307.739.7517

For information, call 307.739.7466

tetonhospital.org/calendar

625 E. Broadway, Jackson, WY

APRIL 25, 2018 | 7

with Richard Davidson, PhD | Wednesday, May 23, 7 pm $10 tickets; available at jhcenterforthearts.org Center for the Arts, Jackson

“Email Phishing and Internet Scams,” presented by Lance Spranger, St. John’s CIO Thursday, May 3, noon Boardroom St. John’s Medical Center

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

Led by St. John’s Hospice social worker Oliver Goss, LCSW Drop-ins welcome, but please call ahead Wednesdays, May 9 and May 23 Noon – 1 pm

Health & Wellness

Please register by calling 307.739.6199

with Jim Little Jr., MD Complete the paperwork for an advance directive and have it included as part of your St. John’s medical record. Assistance provided. Friday, May 18 Noon; following the Friday Feast Senior Center of Jackson Hole

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

In Spanish! ¡En Español! Zumba with Elvis. Family friendly. Mondays and Wednesdays Children’s Grief Support 5:30 – 6:30 pm Program Moose-Wapiti Classroom For children ages 5 and up. Led by St. John’s Medical Center St. John’s Hospice social worker For information, call 307.739.7678 Oliver Goss, LCSW. Tuesday, May 8, 5:45-7 pm Jackson Hole Children’s Museum 174 N King St, Jackson

Advance Directive Workshop


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

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

8 | APRIL 25, 2018

ANUSHKA OLVERA

A

bout 50 high school students gathered in Jackson’s town square on Friday, April 20—a date that holds increasing significance for young people. It was the 19th anniversary of the Columbine High School shooting which left 15 people dead and marked the beginning of an enduring period of school violence in America. They marched to town hall chanting “Protect kids, not guns” and “What do you want? Safe schools! When do you want them? Now!” The chants, said Aaron Trauner, a senior at Jackson Hole High School, weren’t necessarily anti-gun. But the rhetoric surrounding school safety incorrectly conflates the two. “When kids ask for safe schools, they’re not chanting to take away guns,” Trauner said. “They’re chanting for common sense.” Just a week earlier another demonstration made headlines: dozens of people gathered at the state capitol in Cheyenne for a pro-gun demonstration. Wesley Williams was there donned in a tactical vest with his AR-15. “I have the ability to do this, and I’m gonna exercise it,” he said. “That’s just part of freedom.” In the wake of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, that killed 17 people on February 14, “left-wing” rhetoric has worked especially hard to “attack the Second Amendment,” he said. “After that, there was this whole snowball effect that I think was blown out of proportion,” Williams said. In other words, more attention is on guns than ever and unfairly so. The Parkland shooting at StonemanDouglas High School has compelled young people to action in a way school shootings of the past did not. Friday’s demonstration was part of a national walkout, and the fourth such event since Valentine’s Day. Meanwhile, gun-related deaths have not slowed down. On Saturday, April 21, a 29-year-old gunman killed four people in a Tennessee Waffle House. He was a legal gun owner with a history of confrontations with law enforcement. He was arrested last summer for trespassing near the White House, and the FBI seized his weapons, including the AR-15 he used last weekend. He got them back. But that’s the price of freedom, Williams said. The right to bear arms is guaranteed in the Constitution, and if a fraction of people abuse it, so be it. “I’d rather live dangerously as a free man than safely as a slave.”

THE BUZZ 2

Student protesters on the 19th anniversary of the Columbine shooting.

A Loaded Debate Wyomingites disagree about how to keep students safe from gun violence BY SHANNON SOLLITT |

Williams isn’t too worried about his rights as a gun-owner in Wyoming, which he recognizes as “safer” than some states. Wyoming, with more registered guns per capita than any other state, has some of the laxest laws in the nation. A few school boards agreed that a solution to gun violence is more guns. Last week, Park County School District 6 voted to allow teachers and school staff to carry guns, provided they are licensed and trained. Last month, Uinta County District 1 voted the same way. Maggie Russell is a senior at Evanston High School in Uinta County. She’s also student body president and was invited to weigh in on school safety at the meetings. Her feelings about the school board’s vote came as a surprise even to her. “Especially towards the beginning, I did not want to have guns in school, especially my school,” Russell said. “It’s really disheartening to think that this is what our world is coming to.” She still doesn’t love guns, but she said the more she talked to people in her community, the more she understood their pro-gun stance. “I’ve come to the conclusion that in our community, it’s part of what we need to do.” It’s not the best or the only solution, she said, but it’s part of it. Williams said he feels “extraordinarily” safe around guns and gun-wielding people. Most gun owners, he said, are responsible, and know their guns inside and out. Williams has young kids, and

@ShannonSollitt

would feel comfortable sending them to school knowing their teachers were armed—but he’d also want to chat with those teachers, and make sure they really knew their stuff. “I can’t tell you how many videos I’ve watched of cops demonstrating gun safety in schools and shooting themselves in the leg,” he said. But again, Williams said that’s just the price of freedom. Seventeen-year-old Anushka Olvera, meanwhile, not only wouldn’t feel safe knowing her teachers were armed—she’d worry about them, too. “It’s not fair of us to put that weight on our teachers,” she said. She’s a sophomore at Journeys School, where she’s been a student since fourth grade. Many of her teachers have known her since she was a young girl. “I don’t think they would have the psychological capacity to shoot a student with whom they’ve built a relationship,” Olvera said. Besides, she added, they’re already underpaid (average teacher salary in Wyoming is between $27,000 and $60,000), and asking them to arm themselves is an unnecessary burden. To Williams, none of that really matters compared to individual liberty. The government, he said, exists “to work for us, not tell us what we can or can’t do with everything in our lives.” And the Constitution, in his opinion, is not a “living document” as he’s heard people try to argue. “It was forged in our ancestors’ blood,”

he said. “The founding fathers realized the importance of being able to own a firearm … the whole point of the Second Amendment is a ‘well-regulated militia’ being able to fight against a tyrannical government.” When pressed on his interpretation of “well-regulated,” he paused. “That’s kind of a tough one.” To him, it means citizen-based regulation—checks and balances among communities and each citizen. The government isn’t doing the regulating; the people are. Trauner, meanwhile, sees a “pretty obvious” middle ground between folks like him and Williams. The conversation he wants to have isn’t about taking guns away, he said. “I know some conservative kids who say there are ‘really hardcore liberals’ out there that want to take away your guns. I don’t know any of them,” Trauner said. He calls himself a liberal, but is also part of a gun-owning family. “I don’t know anybody that wants to take away your guns.” The conversation he wants to have is about safety. “The question is, should kids be safe in school?” That might look like stricter background checks to make it “harder for bad people” to get their hands on an assault weapon. But if the conversation centers on student safety instead of gun ownership, Trauner thinks it will go a lot further. “We were chanting, ‘Protect kids, not guns,’ and ‘What do you want? Safe schools…’” Trauner said. “To disagree with any of those statements is ridiculous.” So far, Teton County School Board has shown no interest in allowing firearms on campus. “Teachers have a tremendous professional responsibility to facilitate classrooms where each individual child can learn and reach their full potential,” school board member Betsy Carlin told PJH in March, a few weeks after the Parkland shooting. “We should not expect or ask them to take on the responsibility of firearms training and security. That is the role of other specific and important professions.” But until Trauner and Olvera see change, they will continue to make their voices heard. For Olvera, demonstrations are the easiest way for her to participate in democracy, especially since she’s not old enough to vote. “I think it’s important to show up with current issues and take stances when one has the opportunity.” And, she added, “I can still make more of a difference than some people who are already over 18.” PJH


THE

23 IDEAS TO REDUCE GUN VIOLENCE AND SAVE LIVES

THE

A

THE GOOD

Proposals likely to reduce gun violence and save lives

SUE

GUN

It’s the American way: If a product is killing an unbelievable number of people, the proper remedy is to sue the hell out of them. But since 2005, the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act made gun manufacturers and dealers essentially legally bulletproof. A victim can still sue if a gun, for example, malfunctions and explodes, but not if a teenager uses it to kill 14 of his classmates. Guns are meant to kill, the Republican argument went, so why should people be able to sue when the gun has done what it was built to do? Remove the shield, a recent op-ed in The New York Times pointed out, and that means gun manufacturers suddenly would have a financial incentive, like every other industry, to make their products safer, likely preventing more accidental shootings.

3. LIFT THE BAN ON GUN-CONTROL RESEARCH Gun violence is the least researched cause of death in relation to mortality rate. Deaths by falling are the only research funded less. The nonpartisan RAND Corporation looked at thousands of U.S. gun-control studies and found that, in many areas, there just wasn’t enough research to definitively show effects one way or another. The lack of research in certain areas muddles debates over policies, like some listed in this story.

Part of what has stymied gun research in the U.S. is the 1996 “Dickey Amendment,” which prevents the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from spending money on activities that “advocate or promote gun control.” Former Arkansas Republican Rep. Jay Dickey, the amendment’s namesake, told NPR he never intended for the amendment to cut off federal gun research altogether, only gun-control advocacy, and regrets that the effect was to essentially halt research in the area. This March, President Donald Trump signed a spending bill that left the Dickey Amendment in place but clarifies that the CDC can research the causes of gun violence. It’s not clear yet if federal research will increase, though, as no funding for gun-violence research was included.

4. COPY THE AUSSIES It’s considered perhaps one of the most successful gun-control programs in history: Australia’s model of how dramatic gun control can make a nation safer. It’s also about as close to “taking your guns” as the mainstream gun-control movement gets. Here are the simple facts: There were 13 mass shootings in 18 years before Australia’s sweeping National Firearms Agreement in 1997. In the 20 years after, there’s been just one. While skeptics quibble with whether the law can be entirely credited, the country’s alreadylow firearm homicide rate fell further— and suicides absolutely plunged. The flashiest piece of the program featured a mandatory buyback program that gathered around 650,000 firearms—a full fifth of the country’s arsenal. However, today Australia has about as many guns as before the buyback. Instead, the key, as the Science Vs. podcast explains, seemed to be the thicket of

APRIL 25, 2018 | 9

Gaps in the federal background check system (the National Instant Criminal Background Check System) allow domestic abusers, convicted felons and people with mental illness to purchase guns. Roughly 20 percent of Americans purchase guns without a background check. A 2013 survey of prisoners locked up for gun violence found that more than 96 percent of offenders, who were legally prohibited from owning guns, purchased them without a background check. Experts point to three major holes: 1. In most states, including Wyoming, gun buyers can purchase guns from unlicensed dealers who aren’t required to run a background check at all. After Missouri stopped requiring background checks for all firearm purchases, researchers

2. LET AMERICANS MANUFACTURERS AGAIN

CRISCIONE AND QUINN WELSCH

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

1. PLUG HOLES IN THE BACKGROUND CHECK SYSTEM

found a 25 percent increase in firearm homicides. 2. If the FBI doesn’t complete a background check in three business days, licensed dealers are free to sell the gun anyway. This is how the man who killed nine parishioners inside a black church in Charleston, South Carolina, bought a gun. FBI data indicates that authorities failed to meet the three-day deadline 1.1 million times between 2014 and 2017. However, it’s unclear how many firearms were actually sold because dealers have discretion to wait until the check is completed. 3. The federal definition of “domestic abuser” doesn’t include unmarried or childless couples. Many states, including Oregon this year, have closed the so-called “Boyfriend Loophole.” Strengthening the federal background check system is one of the most feasible and most effective measures to reduce gun violence, surveys and research show.

Statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that states that require universal background checks have lower gun-death rates.

SAMANTHA WOHLFEIL, WILSON

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

merica, overall, is a much less violent place than it used to be. The reported violent-crime rate is almost half what it was in 1991. But mass shootings have become deadlier. In 2010, the World Health Organization found that the United States’s gun-homicide rates were more than 25 times higher than in any other high-income country. And that was before Las Vegas or Parkland, Florida. We’ve witnessed 19 of the 30 deadliest mass shootings in modern U.S. history during the past decade. It isn’t just about murders. The suicide rate has been skyrocketing, reaching a 30-year high in 2016. More than half of those suicides were with firearms. After the Parkland shooting, middle and high school students are protesting and marching, demanding that something be done. But what? We looked at 23 ideas to reduce gun violence, weighing the results of academic research and the analysis of experts. Some ideas are good. They have a decent shot at saving lives. Some are messy, with the potential benefits weighed down by costs. Some are ineffective, doing little to nothing to combat gun violence. And some are just plain ugly, more likely to result in more death and injury, rather than less.

UGLY

BY MITCH RYALS, DANIEL WALTERS,


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

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

10 | APRIL 25, 2018

HÅKANDAHLSTRÖMPHOTO

THE LAS VEGAS SHOOTER OPEN FIRED FROM A ROOM IN MANDALAY BAY IN OCTOBER 2017. HE KILLED 58 PEOPLE AND INJURED 851. other laws that came with it, including a ban on semi-automatic and pump-action rifles and shotguns. You have to show a good reason to own a gun—and self-defense doesn’t count. You can only sell through a licensed dealer. You have to register your gun and report it if it’s stolen. Much of the Australia program would also almost certainly be struck down by the Supreme Court, and the cultural and physical geography of the United States would create serious regulatory challenges. But even some pieces of Australia’s gun-control program, when combined, could seriously reduce deaths.

5. INSTITUTE BACKGROUND CHECKS AND TRACKING FOR AMMUNITION Only a handful of states have laws regulating the purchase of ammunition. Federal law does not require ammo purchasers to submit to a background check. This year, congressional Democrats introduced a bill that would establish a federal background check system for ammo. U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz–D, Florida, one of the sponsors of the bill, has said it would plug an “absurd loophole” that allows people to “amass hundreds of rounds of ammunition without so much as sharing their first name with a gun store clerk.” While the NRA has opposed such proposals, a 2013 Fox News poll found 80 percent of respondents were in favor of ammunition background checks. And a study in the journal Injury Prevention analyzing school shootings between 2013 and 2015 found that states with ammunition background checks (along with other factors) have lower rates of school shooting incidents.

6. BAN HIGH-CAPACITY MAGAZINES To trained hands, reloading a weapon is second nature, like wiping your brow or cracking your knuckles. The rounds run out, the bolt slams forward, the magazine drops with a simple push of a finger and a new magazine is inserted. It only takes a few seconds. But in a mass shooting, those seconds can buy people time to get to safety— or disarm the shooter. At Seattle Pacific University in 2014, an unarmed student used pepper spray to subdue a shooter while he was reloading. And as advocates of high-capacity magazine bans point out, you wouldn’t need more than 10 rounds before reloading to kill a deer. High-capacity magazines and the weapons capable of bearing them, including handguns, were disproportionately recovered by police in connection with violent crimes in Baltimore, Minneapolis and Richmond. These same types of magazines were used in the 2017 Las Vegas shooting.

7. PUSH DOCTORS TO TALK TO PATIENTS ABOUT GUNS Before the Parkland shooting, Florida was such a pro-gun state that it actually passed a law restricting doctors’ abilities to ask their patients about gun ownership. (The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals struck it down last year.) That flies in the face of recommendations from the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, both of which recommend doctors discuss guns with their patients to prevent accidental shootings and suicides. So far, the research on the effectiveness of doctors talking with patients about guns is limited and mixed, but it

does seem to improve patients’ use of safe storage devices, especially when doctors actually give out the devices.

8. GIVE COPS THE POWER TO RESPOND TO RED FLAGS The horror of the Parkland shooting was compounded by the fact that so many people knew that the shooter was a danger. Why didn’t anyone take away his weapons? They legally couldn’t. All the red flags in the world can’t do much if the cops don’t have a legal right to act on them. It’s caused several states to enact “red flag” laws, giving cops the power to ask a court for a warrant to temporarily remove a person’s access to firearms if they’re an imminent danger to themselves or others. In the 14 years after Connecticut implemented such a law in 1999, police temporarily removed an average of seven firearms from each at-risk gun owner across 762 firearm-removal cases, one study found. Often, those gun owners were connected with mental health treatment they wouldn’t have received otherwise. Ultimately, more than 100 suicides may have been prevented, the study estimated.

9. REQUIRE FIREARM OWNERS TAKE GUN SAFETY CLASSES In some countries, the checklist of what people need in order to buy a gun includes a requirement to take a gun-safety course and pass a test, demonstrate gun knowledge or get a membership at a shooting club or range. In the United States, about 61 percent of gun owners have gotten some type of training, which typically included

information about safe handling, storage and preventing accidents, according to a 2015 University of Washington study. But the study identified gaps in training: Only 15 percent of owners said they were trained about suicide prevention, and only 14 percent of those who lived with gun owners had received any safety training. In countries that require some type of safety course (often coupled with other strict rules around gun ownership) such as Japan, the U.K. and India, the rate of gun deaths are significantly lower than those in the U.S.

10. CONNECT SHOOTERS WITH THE COMMUNITY

Perhaps the most popular example of this is Boston’s “Operation Ceasefire” in the 1990s, which is credited with a 63 percent reduction in youth homicide. The program that brings together community members, social service workers and police with victims and perpetrators of gun violence has shown success, particularly in cities with a small group of readily identifiable offenders. The idea is for community members (clergy, victims, reformed offenders) to invite those responsible for gun violence to a face-to-face meeting. There, they send a clear message that the violence must stop and offer services (education, housing support, substance abuse and mental health treatment, tattoo removal). Several cities plagued by gun violence have shown reductions in gun-related homicides and gang-related violence.

11. BAN ‘ASSAULT-STYLE’ WEAPONS

In 1994, the United States banned the manufacture and sale of certain semi-automatic weapons with military-style


DHS

FORT Y-NINE PEOPLE WERE KILLED AND 53 WOUNDED IN THE PULSE NIGHTCLUB SHOOTING IN ORLANDO, FLORIDA, IN JUNE 2016.

Mental health counselors in schools can play a critical role in identifying at-risk students and referring them to appropriate treatment. That can prevent students, including would-be school shooters, from harming themselves or others. Nearly 87 percent of shooters leave behind evidence that they were victims of severe bullying that resulted in thoughts of suicide or revenge, studies have shown. Though most bullied children do not decide to open fire on fellow students as revenge, providing resources to these students could prevent harm. While schools typically lack the number of school psychologists recommended by the National Association of School Psychologists, school leadership has in recent years been more open to adding mental health resources and threat assessment teams in schools.

14. NAME SCHOOL SHOOTERS LESS After each mass shooting, experts call for the media not to name the shooter, arguing that glorifying and obsessing over shooters only gives them infamy and creates copycats. And after each shooting, while some members of the media comply, most news organizations publish the shooter’s name and details. Many school shooters say they studied those before them to learn how to make their shooting more memorable. And research shows there is some contagion effect — a 2015 study by an Arizona State

15. HARNESS THE CORPORATIONS

POWER

OF

After the Parkland shooting, corporations started speaking out. Walmart, Dick’s Sporting Goods and Kroger raised restrictions on the minimum age required to buy firearms. CitiGroup banned their business partners from selling firearms to those under 21 and from selling high-capacity magazines or bump stocks at all. Major investment firm BlackRock announced they’d offer customers the ability to invest in funds that did not include gun manufacturers. Companies like Enterprise-Rent-A-Car, Symantec, Metlife, Delta and United all announced they’d be ending their discount programs for NRA members.

THE INEFFECTIVE

Proposals unlikely to reduce gun violence

16. ELIMINATE GUN-FREE ZONES The argument against gun-free zones is that they are attractive targets for active shooters and leave their potential

victims defenseless. Donald Trump even told voters he would end gun-free zones during the 2016 campaign. But the evidence, championed by gunrights activists, is thin. Active shooters don’t necessarily target gun-free zones. Rather, shooters target places they know, many of which happen to have that designation. Additionally, research shows that armed citizens rarely are able to stop a mass shootings or reduce the number of casualties.

17. HARDEN SCHOOLS Since the Columbine shooting in 1999, schools have worked to limit access points to buildings to prevent those who would do harm from entering. There are no good studies on the effect these measures have had on preventing mass shootings. Studies have suggested, however, it has little effect on preventing other violent or serious crimes in schools. And most school shooters are students or staff who would already have access to those schools, or else they find other ways in. A few schools have used metal detectors to prevent guns from entering schools. This is costly, but they have been proven to keep guns out of schools in neighborhoods with high crime. Experts, however, say metal detectors are unlikely to stop a gunman who wants to commit a mass shooting. And metal detectors are likely to increase students’ perception of fear and disorder within a school. Some of the low-cost measures like limiting access points, or locking classroom doors from the inside, may be worth it. And metal detectors may prove useful in some schools. But none are likely to be a major deterrent for a potential shooter.

APRIL 25, 2018 | 11

Waiting periods would give authorities more time to complete background checks, advocates say. Research strongly suggests waiting periods can create a “cooling off” period and reduce impulsive violence and suicides. At least nine states and the District of Columbia have some sort of waiting period (typically between two and seven days). There is no federally mandated waiting period to purchase firearms. A 2017 study in the National Academy of Sciences journal using data on waiting period laws from 1970 to 2014 found that the laws are associated with a 17 percent

13. ADD MORE MENTAL HEALTH COUNSELING TO SCHOOLS

University researcher found that mass shootings are often inspired by other shootings weeks earlier. The problem with never naming a shooter is the public will find out anyway. Plus, naming a shooter can prevent misinformation, like the wrong person being blamed for a shooting, says Kelly McBride, vice president of the Poynter Institute for Media Studies. Details of a shooter—their motivation, access to weapons, clues that were missed—can give information that may help prevent future tragedies.

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

12. MAKE GUN BUYERS WAIT

reduction in gun homicides and a 7 percent to 11 percent reduction in gun-related suicides.

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

features and large-capacity magazines. The idea was to limit the number of crimes committed using weapons that could fire a large number of bullets rapidly. In several of the highest-casualty mass shootings in modern U.S. history, the shooters used semi-automatic weapons. The ban was lifted in 2004. A 2018 Quinnipiac poll found that 67 percent of Americans support the ban returning. A federally funded study found the effect on overall violence to be minimal, in part because assault weapons are used in so few incidents (though high-capacity magazines were more common), and in part because the ban’s narrow definition of “assault weapon” hinges on military-style features such as a pistol grip or a folding stock. Although semi-automatic rifles are rarely used to commit crimes, when they are, the potential devastation is terrifying. The purpose of the ban in 1994 was to reduce the lethality of mass shootings: Mass shootings have become much more lethal since the ban expired.


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

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

12 | APRIL 25, 2018

ANUSHKA OLVERA

ON THE 19TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE COLUMBINE HIGH SCHOOL SHOOTING, STUDENTS FROM JACKSON HIGH SCHOOLS MARCHED TO TOWN HALL DEMANDING CHANGE. 18. TAX GUNS AND AMMO, SEATTLESTYLE Sin taxes have long been used as effective ways to discourage negative behavior. Want fewer people to smoke? Tax the hell out of cigarettes. Local governments such as those in Seattle and Cook County, Illinois, have levied fees on the purchase of guns and ammunition, with the intent of using the money raised to combat gun violence. But does it work as a method of gun control? So far, it’s doubtful. Gun violence actually went up in Seattle the next year after the tax was implemented. The tax did generate about $200,000 for gun research. But that was less than anticipated — and a pittance compared with Seattle’s $6 billion operating budget. And if the dealer that sells 80 percent of guns in Seattle leaves the city, as it has threatened to, Seattle’s tax will raise even less than that. The trouble is, guns aren’t like cigarettes, the Los Angeles Times editorial board points out: “A criminal who needs a gun as a primary tool of his trade would hardly be put off by a slightly higher price.”

THE MESSY

Proposals where the potential benefits come coupled with downsides and risks

19. TRY TO REPEAL THE SECOND AMENDMENT An Antonin Scalia-penned Supreme Court decision in 2008 left plenty of room for gun regulation, but invalidated sweeping gun-control measures like an outright ban on handguns. That’s led an increasing

number of commentators—including former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens—to note there’s a simple way to fix that: Repeal the Second Amendment. The road to an amendment is ridiculously steep, requiring either the vote of two-thirds of both houses of Congress or two-thirds of the state legislatures. But even if it can’t be done, it could at least shift the terms of the debate, supporters argue. “Why can’t the NRA’s extremism be countered with equal extremism?” writes Vox’s German Lopez. “That seems like a potential way to get to the middle that the great majority of Americans agree with.” Go for it, far-right conservatives say: Embed repealing one of the bedrock principles of the country into the Democratic Party platform. Watch what happens to your swing states and rural elected representatives. Watch as the donations to the NRA skyrocket and gun purchases soar as the fear that the government’s coming for your guns seems more real than ever.

20. PUT ARMED POLICE OFFICERS IN SCHOOLS In a vacuum, the idea of having more armed police officers in schools to prevent school shootings seems like a no-brainer. It avoids the complications of arming teachers — officers have more training for high-intensity situations — and there have been, in fact, several instances where armed guards stopped an active shooter from inflicting more damage. However, there have also been instances like the Parkland, Florida, shooting, when the armed deputy failed to act. But it’s more complicated than that. Other than a few high-profile cases, there is little research on whether the presence

of armed officers prevents mass shooting. Meanwhile, on a day-to-day basis, the increase in recent years of resource officers in schools, according to a 2013 Congressional Research Service study, can also increase student arrests for nonviolent offenses and it disproportionately sends students of color into the criminal justice system.

THE UGLY

Proposals likely to result in more injuries or deaths

21. ARM TEACHERS Wyoming’s Park County School District No. 6 voted last week to arm teachers and staff after a training period. While this is an idea supported by 45 percent of adults, according to the Pew Research Center, it’s widely unpopular among experts, teachers and school resource officers. There is little research on the effect arming teachers would have on preventing mass school shootings, but study after study is clear on one thing: More guns leads to more gun violence. And in the context of a school, that could put children in danger. Setting aside the question of what an armed teacher would do with a split-second decision in the face of a shooter carrying an AR-15, there are other questions to consider: Where would the teacher store a gun in a way that’s accessible in a tragic event but safe from students? Who would pay for the gun and the training? Would the presence of a gun escalate everyday interactions with students?

22. PASS “STAND YOUR GROUND” LAWS A “Stand Your Ground Law” recently passed in Wyoming and Idaho. Nearly

half of the United States has enacted some form of this law, which provides some immunity from prosecution “in the use of deadly force” when that person has a right to be there. The debate over stand-your-ground laws intensified after the 2012 death of Florida teen Trayvon Martin, whose killer was acquitted by a jury. Florida state Republican Sen. Dennis Baxley has attributed the overall decline in the state’s violent crime rate to its stand-your-ground law. However, research suggests the opposite: Violent crime fell across the nation — and states with stand-your-ground laws generally have higher firearm homicide rates than those that do not. While violent crime rates have steadily declined since the early ’90s, there is no research indicating the reduction is related to stand-your-ground laws.

23. ENCOURAGE MORE GUN OWNERSHIP

An armed population is a politer population. It’s the “good guy with a gun” argument, a favorite of Second Amendment supporters. Essentially, more guns, more safety. But that argument has been widely debunked. An October 2017 article in the Scientific American said that in about “30 careful studies,” more guns lead to more crimes, including murder and rape. Fewer studies show the opposite. For instance, a 2015 study based on information from the FBI and CDC found that “firearm assaults were 6.8 times more common in the states with the most guns versus those with the least.” PJH

A version of this article first appeared in the Inlander, a weekly based in Spokane, Washington.


DON’T MISS

THIS WEEK: APRIL 25

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 25

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 Read to Rover 3 p.m. Valley of the Tetons Library, n VITA 2018 Free Tax Prep 3 p.m. Teton County Library, n After School at the Library

3:30 p.m. Teton County Library, Free, n Open Gym - Adult Basketball 6:30 p.m. Teton Recreation Center,

THURSDAY, APRIL 26

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 After School at the Library 3:30 p.m. Teton County Library, Free, n Theater Thursday, Victor 3:30 p.m. Valley of the Tetons Library, n Open Build 5:30 p.m. Valley of the Tetons Library, n Sensation-Based Dance Improvisation with Francesca Romo 6 p.m. Dancers’ Workshop, $25.00, 307-733-6398 n Open Gym - Adult Soccer

SEE CALENDAR PAGE 14

Young dancers find their voices in DW’s new show.

Youthful, Inspired Moves DW’s Junior Repertory Company unveils studentchoreographed masterpieces

E

BY KELSEY DAYTON |

Thursday, May 3 at 6PM | Center for the Arts, Jackson Hole Every possible impression of love is explored in this extraordinary opera. Phelim McDermott’s new staging is a charming 1950s Coney Island spectacle. Christopher Maltman, as Don Alfonso, and Tony Award-winner Kelli O’Hara as Despina control the action, with Amanda Majeski, Serena Malfi, Ben Bliss, and Adam Plachetka as the pairs of young lovers who test each other’s faithfulness. David Robertson conducts.

Audience members are invited to a closing night reception at 5PM.

PRESENTED BY THE

GR A N D T E TO N M US IC FEST I VA L & C E N T E R O F WO ND ER

APRIL 25, 2018 | 13

“It’s a chance for the students to reflect on their own lives and develop their own voice,” Ellingson said. A few dances delve into the theme of breaking patterns and routines. “Square One,” choreographed by Taylor Gutierrez, investigates a person losing their individuality and “breaking out of their monotonous life,” the description read. “Autopilot,” by Sydney Clark, looks at the repetition of someone’s day, how we go through daily routines on autopilot or follow others around us. Dania Sinzu’s “Continuum” is about daily monotony and the body’s desire for release. Other pieces have gone in totally different directions, Ellingson said. One plays with 80s pop songs. Morana Lundquist’s “Activation-Synthesis Theory” looks at the randomness of dreams, how they appear in sudden flashes and the emotional reaction they might create, Ellingson said.

W. A . M O Z A R T

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

ach spring, high school dancers at Dancers’ Workshop explore issues and ideas most important to them. The annual New Dances/New Choreographers show isn’t just about the dancers on the stage, it’s also about the artists who choreographed the steps. The spring show is a long tradition at Dancers’ Workshop, which offers students a rare opportunity to learn to choreograph, a task many dancers elsewhere don’t attempt until college, said Michaela Ellingson, director of the Junior Repertory Company. “At DW, we are really focused on making not just technical dancers, but to also help the dancers find their artistic voices so they leave here as artists, not just dance robots,” Ellingson said. Students often use the chance to choreograph a piece to explore what they are feeling or what is important to them at this moment.

@Kelsey_Dayton

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

CAROLINE KUCERA

T H E M E T ROP OL I TAN OP E RA : L I V E I N H D


6:30 p.m. Teton Recreation Center, n App Time - Computer Lab 7 p.m. Teton County Library, n Jackson 6 7:30 p.m. Silver Dollar Showroom, Free, 307-732-3939 n Salsa Night 9:30 p.m. Pink Garter Theatre, Free,

FRIDAY, APRIL 27

$10.00 - $25.00, 307-733-6398 n Art Opening :: Gabe Davidson - “CC&R” 7 p.m. Pink Garter Theatre, Free, n FREE Public Stargazing 7:30 p.m. Center for the Arts, n The Bush Pilots 7:30 p.m. Silver Dollar Showroom, Free, 307-732-3939

Another piece is a continuation from a 2017 work that includes sound bites from radio and television news. Last year featured news clips from the election, this year it’s about the first year of the Trump administration. Most pieces are modern and contemporary dance, though there is some hip-hop and jazz. Students do all the work, from the choreography to the lighting to the music editing. Members of the Junior Repertory Company start with taking a choreography class, which helps them better understand the process. They choreograph a piece for the New Dances/New Choreographers starting their sophomore year. That first year is always challenging for students, even those who naturally take to creating dance. Learning to choreograph isn’t just about the dance, after all. It’s also an immersion in leadership among your peers, Ellingson said. “They have to develop a whole new set of skills.” By their junior year, students are more comfortable in that role and able to lay out their expectations, challenge their dancers and stay focused, Ellingson said. Learning to choreograph also makes them better dancers. They understand the challenges the choreographer faces and how they, as dancers, can contribute to the work. There are two pieces in the show choreographed by adults. Contemporary Dance Wyoming members Francesca Romo and Luke Zender created the piece “The Underdogs.” It is about crippling insecurity and self-discovery. “At an age where self-awareness is in its infancy, so is our ability to cope with the ever-changing variables of life,” the dance description read. The other professional piece was created by Ori Flomin, who was in residency at Dancers’ Workshop in March. The New York City-based choreographer created a piece called “Inside the Shifting Lanes,” which looks at the lanes we cross through a lifetime. “While our destination is not always set, unpredictable meetings and interactions with people along the way affect and shift our choices which allows our path to be adventurous and exciting,” the piece description reads. PJH

SATURDAY, APRIL 28

n Poetry Workshop with Susan Goslee 9 a.m. Center for the Arts (Conference Room), $25.00, 307-690-0808

14 | APRIL 25, 2018

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

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

n Red-Hot Social Media Trends for Summer! 9 a.m. Center for the Arts, $40.00, (307) 733-7425

n Free Food Friday 10:30 a.m. Jackson Cupboard, Free, 3076992163 n All Ages Story Time 11 a.m. Valley of the Tetons Library, 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 Game Night 4 p.m. Valley of the Tetons Library, n New Dances/New Choreographers 5:30 p.m. Dancers’ Workshop,

CONTACT SALES@PLANETJH.COM TO LEARN MORE!

Shows are 5:30 and 8 p.m. on Friday. On Saturday shows are 4 and 6:30 p.m. $25; $10 for students.


COURTESY PHOTO

CULTURE KLASH

The Jackson Hole Juggernauts are a rising athletic force in the valley.

The Track to Empowerment Jackson’s roller derby team opens the season with a high-stakes game and plenty of comraderie @ShannonSollitt

Doors open at 6 p.m., the bout starts at 7. JHMR season passholders and kids get in free. $10 for everyone else.

MONDAY, APRIL 30

n Maker 3 p.m. Valley of the Tetons Library, n Movie Monday - Youth Auditorium 3:30 p.m. Teton County Library, n Sound Bath with Rachel Holmes 6:45 p.m. Teton Yoga Shala, $10.00, 307-6903054

TUESDAY, MAY 1

n MANDATORY MEETING FOR NEW NONPROFITS: 9 a.m. Hansen Hall in St. John’s Episcopal Church, Free, 307-739-1026 n Tech Time 1 p.m. Valley of the Tetons Library, n Read to Rover, Driggs 3 p.m. Valley of the Tetons Library, n After school at the library 3:30 p.m. Teton County Library, Free, n Sass Class with Luke Zender 6:30 p.m. Dancers’ Workshop, $20.00 - $36.00, 307-733-6398 n Bluegrass Tuesdays with One Ton Pig 7:30 p.m. Silver Dollar Showroom, Free, 307732-3939

THURSDAY, MAY 3

n Latin Fusion Dance Week with Tika Morgan Dance 9 a.m. Dancers’ Workshop, $25.00 - $135.00, 307-733-6398 n Bike Maintenance Clinic 5 p.m. Peaked Sports, n Derrik and the Dynamos 7:30 p.m. Silver Dollar Showroom, Free, 307732-3939 n Rapture, Blister, Burn 7:30 p.m. Elks Lodge, $15.00 - $20.00,

FOR COMPLETE EVENT DETAILS VISIT PJHCALENDAR.COM.

APRIL 25, 2018 | 15

requires strength, grit and toughness. But it also plays on, and benefits from, the feminine, Silcox said. A successful bout requires good communication, and if we’re gendering certain attributes, communication is a traditionally female strength. Conflict-resolution is also key, and also traditionally feminine. “I think we’re one of the friendlier teams,” Silcox said. “We listen to each other, and resolve conflict really well.” Even the physical strength required of roller derby players caters to women’s bodies, Silcox said. “Our strength is in our core, our hips, our legs,” all areas that need to be strong for childbearing women. “As a gender, we’re responsible for birthing children.” The sport requires a solid, unshakable trunk, core and legs—basically, it asks the body to be a pillar of strength. And maybe that’s a metaphor, Silcox said, for the role women so often play in other people’s lives. “We’re a strengthening force for other people. We’re here for you, we’re going to protect you, and be there for you when you need it most.” The Juggernauts’s first bout of the season is at Snow King Arena. Fine Dining is catering food and pouring Roadhouse beer all night. There will be a DJ and a halftime show. The Girl Scouts will sing the National Anthem.

n Wrap -n- Snaps Kick-off Party! 11 a.m. Jackson Hole Children’s Museum, $10.00 - $15.00, 307-733-3996 n Open Gym - Adult Volleyball 4 p.m. Teton Recreation Center, n Film Screening/Discussion: Majorie Prime 4 p.m. Off Square Theatre’s Black Box, Free, 307-733-3021 n Jazz Foundation of Jackson Hole 7 p.m. Silver Dollar Showroom, Free, 307-7323939

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

the team is that it’s also a community of mentors and motivators. “We’re a group of teachers, basically, that can help people go from ‘How do I put on skates?’ to blocking and scoring points,” Silcox said. In a town known for its transience, it can be hard for committed residents to build lasting relationships. The Juggernauts offered Silcox a remedy to the feeling in anomie that comes with watching friends leave while you stay put. It gave her a sense of purpose and of belonging. “Joining the Juggernauts helped me develop a solid group of friends that weren’t going anywhere,” she said. “It’s a local community that is just super empowering to women, supportive to women. I found myself as a mentor and a mentee in Jackson and anywhere else we go.” It is also empowering to be able to measure progress. In roller derby, the measuring stick is pretty clear: you can skate, or you can’t. You win a bout, or you lose. During the team’s first year together in 2012, they didn’t place in the Wyoming Roller Derby Cup. They didn’t place the next year either. But two years ago, they came in third. Last year, they came in second. This year, they’re “hoping to finish the countdown.” Indeed, The Juggernauts are proud of their progress, and “it’s empowering to be proud of something,” Silcox said. Roller derby challenges notions of traditional femininity in many ways: it

SUNDAY, APRIL 29

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

T

he Jackson Hole Juggernauts have skated their way into Jackson’s heart. For the last two years, Planet Jackson Hole readers have voted them silver for Best Sports Team. Indeed, readers are paying attention to their athletic prowess—in 2017, they captured second place among the state’s roller derby teams. Now they are hoping to prove their worth to the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA) at their first bout of the season against the Portneuf Valley Bruisers on Saturday. This is only one of three WFTDAsanctioned bouts of the season, so it’s extra important. If they win, their national and global ranking will rise. Roller derby, for those unfamiliar, is an intricate sport in which competitors called “jammers” try to score points by skating a certain distance through “blockers” and a “pivot.” It’s one of the few games where players play both offense and defense at the same time. It can get physical. There are “legal contact zones,” explained Erin Silcox, president and team captain. “It’s awesome,” she said. It is also quite the spectator sport. But to the Juggernauts, roller derby is more than just a sport. It’s a tool for empowerment. It is, of course, physically empowering, said Silcox, whose roller derby name is TriceraStomps. It requires strength and agility. But plenty of team members start their careers as roller skating neophytes, and that’s OK. Because the other powerful thing about

BY SHANNON SOLLITT |

n Library Saturdays - Youth Auditorium 10:15 a.m. Teton County Library, n The Art and Science of Learning to Coexist with Urban Wildlife 11 a.m. National Museum of Wildlife Art, Free, 3077325437 n ROLLER DERBY SEASON OPENER!! 6 p.m. Snow King Sports & Event Center, $5.00 $10.00, 307-413-4790 n Black & White Gala - Celebrating 15 Years! 7 p.m. Elks Lodge, $20.00 - $25.00, n GRND CNYN 9 p.m. Pink Garter Theatre, Free,


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

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

16 | APRIL 25, 2018

LOCAL SYNDROME This Week at The Wort

RYAN STOLP

THURSDAY, APRIL 26 JACKSON 6 FRI & SAT, APRIL 27 & 28 THE BUSH PILOTS SUNDAY, APRIL 29 THE JAZZ FOUNDATION OF JH TUESDAY, MAY 1 BOOTLEG FLYER

Home, Far From Home

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

The shadow of the Tetons extends to the Caribbean Sea BY ANDREW MUNZ |

Black & White Gala

Celebrating 15 years of Riot Act, Inc. Saturday, April 28 7-11 p.m. at Elks Lodge

•Live Band - Swingin’ Bridge• •Costume Fashion show showcasing costumes from past Riot Act shows•

•Silent Auction• •Produce a Play Tree• •Photo Booth• •Appetizers included• Wear Black & White!

Tickets $20 in advance at www.riotactinc.org or $25 at the door

T

he dreadlocked first mate waved us down frantically from the dock, shouting at our fishing captain in a mixture of Spanish and Caribbeanflavored Creole English. The captain of the fishing boat, a Belizean named Arely, steered the boat closer to land. Two new unexpected passengers were about to board, whether we wanted them to or not. The man wore a pair of too-large jeans that were fastened not with a button or zipper, but with a blue plastic straw tied in an intricate knot. The woman he was with wore a beige dress and had a smile that could light up the world. There was nothing malicious about their presence, nothing that indicated that they meant us harm. They were just looking for a way to hop to the next island. Hurricane Hattie, which devastated the area in 1961, severed Caye Caulker into two islands, and our new passengers simply wanted to hitch a ride across the gap of ocean that is known as the Split. The first mate’s ragged T-shirt depicted a familiar Tetonian outline printed on the back. Underneath it were the words: “Jackson Hole, 1914.” “Where did you get that shirt?” I asked. “We’re from there!” The man looked down, the shirt nothing more than another printed tee in his collection. “One man give it to me many years ago,” he said. Whether that fellow was an actual Jacksonite or simply a worldly tourist who, at some point in his life, made an impulsive Lee’s Tees purchase, was unknown. But there was something strangely jarring about it—that even this far away from home, the whispers of

@AndrewMunz

Jackson Hole were all around us. Upon telling my friends in Jackson that I was headed to Belize for a short vacation, I was pummeled with recommendations and wide-eyed expressions of familiarity. If the first mate’s shirt is any indication, it seems Belize has been a popular destination for Jackson locals for quite some time (“We were just there!”). My parents have now come to Belize around seven or eight times, soaking in the many white sandy beaches and luxurious accommodations that the small Central American country has to offer. I write this column from my air-conditioned casita at the Matachica Resort (“That’s where we honeymooned!”), somewhat guiltily indulging in the royal treatment offered by the resort’s staff. There’s something about being called “Mr. Andrew” repeatedly throughout the day that plunges me somewhere between flattered and disgusted, but I graciously smile and tip in response. “Here, at Matachica, you are at home,” we were told upon checking in. The resort is designed to cater to your every wish, while encouraging you to disconnect from the wi-fi and the “real world” and simply relax. It’s a noble endeavor, but I observed the ModernDay Human’s addiction to smartphones and laptops is still alive and well, even at a beachfront paradise. I befriended an employee of the resort, a gentleman I’ll call Andres, out of respect for his privacy. I was told Matachica employees should not get too friendly with guests to exude a constant veil of professionalism and service, but as I was one of the youngest residents of the resort by far, I couldn’t help myself. Andres offered me herb and rum

out on the dock one night—recreational marijuana use in small doses was decriminalized in late 2017—and quickly took the liberty to gauge my wealth. I had showed him photos of Jackson Hole, our own mountain-front paradise in the same time zone as Belize, and his immediate assumption was that I must be the heir to some massive fortune. How else could a young man like myself afford the life of Mr. Andrew, enjoying coconut mojitos near the poolside? “I want to give my children a good life,” he said, and made thinly veiled pleas for my financial assistance in some way, shape or form. I did my best to explain my own situation, on how fortunate I was to be gifted this adventure, and how, back home, I live in a basement and work several jobs. I’m aware that Belize, even with its similarities in destination tourism, is a far cry from fully-developed First World Teton County, so it was clear my white-privileged sympathies with Andres’s problems clattered to the ground like poorly thrown darts. We may not always change lives when we travel, but at the very least we could showcase the same generosity that we demand of the visitors who come to Jackson Hole. Sometimes that means slipping someone a cash tip. Other times it means trading stories with new friends or empathizing, understanding the problems that plague people in other places. And sometimes that means offering a screen-printed shirt to a charismatic Rastafarian who lives on an island split in two. PJH


2 T Gochujang paste 2 T fresh grated ginger 1/4 cup chopped cilantro

HELEN GOELET

Combine all ingredients and marinate for one hour.

Stave off the shoulder season blues with summertime food.

Combine all ingredients and let sit until serving.

Bright Food for Dreary Days It might be grey outside, but you can lively up the inside with these flavors BY HELEN GOELET

start rolling in. This season, however, the number of dark eateries is more noticeable than years past. “I would have liked to keep the doors open all off-season as per usual,” Chef Tim Conan of The Rose said. “But honestly, we just don’t have the staff for it.” Other restaurant managers agreed, including general manager of Glorietta Trattoria Chuck Greenwald. “It’s the same story every off-season,” said Greenwald, shaking his head, “I just can’t think about it too much otherwise I won’t sleep a wink.” Of course, these closures aren’t permanent. Within weeks, many of Jackson’s eateries will be back up and running, offering two-for-ones for their loyal patrons. By June, the hope is that most positions will be filled, perhaps with transient summer workers.

For now, restaurant closures—and grey weather—inspires me to play with comforting flavors that remind me of summer days on the porch. One such dish is marinated and grilled swordfish with pineapple salsa. The flavors are fresh and clean, and even if it’s sleeting outside, I’ll take any excuse to fire up the grill.

Grilled Swordfish with Pineapple Salsa Serves 4 For the marinade 4 Swordfish steaks (6-8 ounces) 1/3 cup soy sauce 1/4 cup sesame oil 1/4 cup neutral oil such as canola or coconut zest and juice of one orange

®

Medium Pizza (1 topping) Stuffed Cheesy Bread

$ 13 99

for an extra $5.99/each

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

If you’re ready to take on a two-day baking project, try a traditional Middle Eastern sweet bread. This Smitten Kitchen recipe, adapted from Yotam Ottolenghi’s Jerusalem cookbook, is one of my favorites. Yield: 2 loaf-sized chocolate babkas Dough 4 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for dusting 1/2 cup granulated sugar 2 teaspoons instant yeast Grated zest of 1 small lemon or half an orange 3 large eggs 1/2 cup water 3/4 teaspoon fine sea or table salt 2/3 cup unsalted butter at room temperature Sunflower or other neutral oil for greasing

ELY U Q I N U PEAN EURO

F O H ‘ E TH

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

AT THE

307.733.3242

APRIL 25, 2018 | 17

Large Specialty Pizza ADD: Wings (8 pc)

Chocolate Babkas

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

he mud season has arrived, pushing winter warriors away and clearing the streets. For many, this is a time for exploration and travel. Others are resetting at home and enjoying the fleeting solitude around town. The shoulder season arrives twice a year but it seemed to hit harder than normal this spring. It’s not news that the valley’s housing crisis continues to soar. Friends have reported to me that landlords are raising their rents by at least $100 with no additional modifications or renovations. Now, more folks are leaving for Drictor, Alpine or much farther. While hotels spring up from the ground and the dining scene grows, the question remains: Who’s here to work? Sure, each off-season we see restaurants turn out the lights before the RVs

For the salsa 1 red bell pepper, small dice 1 red onion, fine dice 1 clove garlic, fine dice 1/2-1 pineapple (depending on size), small dice 1 fresno pepper (jalepeno works too) fine dice Juice of 1 lime (2 depending on size/ juice) 1 bunch of cilantro, finely chopped pinch of salt

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

T

EAT IT!


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

www.mangymoose.com

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

18 | APRIL 25, 2018

Twist and shout for babkas.

Filling 4 1/2 ounces dark chocolate 1/2 cup unsalted butter, cold is fine Scant 1/2 cup powdered sugar 1/3 cup cocoa powder 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon (optional) Syrup 1/3 cup water 6 tablespoons granulated sugar

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

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

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.

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

HAPPY HOUR Daily 4-6:00pm

307.201.1717 | LOCALJH.COM ON THE TOWN SQUARE

Make the dough: Combine the flour, sugar, yeast and zest in the bottom of the bowl of a stand mixer. Add eggs and 1/2 cup water, mixing with the dough until it comes together. If it doesn’t come together at all, add extra water, 1 tablespoon at a time, until the dough forms a mass. With the mixer on low, add the salt, then the butter, a spoonful at a time, mixing until it’s incorporated into the dough. Then, mix on medium speed for 10 minutes until dough is completely smooth; you’ll need to scrape the bowl down a few times. You can add 1 tablespoon extra flour to help this along. Coat a large bowl with oil (or scrape the dough out onto a counter and oil this one) and place dough inside, cover with plastic and refrigerate. Leave in fridge for at least half a day or overnight. Make filling: Melt butter and chocolate together until smooth. Stir in powdered sugar and cocoa; mixture should form a spreadable paste. Add cinnamon, if desired. [If you’re wondering what happened to the pecans and granulated sugar, see my third note below.] Assemble loaves: Coat two 9-by-4inch (2 1/4 or 1kg) loaf pans with oil or butter, and line the bottom of each with a rectangle of parchment paper. Take half of dough from fridge. Roll out on a well-floured counter to about a 10-inch

width (the side closest to you) and as long in length (away from you) as you can when rolling it thin, 10 to 12 inches. Spread half of chocolate mixture evenly over the dough, leaving a 1/2inch border all around. Brush the end farthest away from you with water. Roll the dough up with the filling into a long, tight cigar. Seal the dampened end onto the log. Repeat with second dough. Trim last 1/2-inch off each end of log. Gently cut the log in half lengthwise and lay them next to each other on the counter, cut sides up. Pinch the top ends gently together. Lift one side over the next, forming a twist and trying to keep the cut sides facing out (because they’re pretty). Cover with a damp tea towel and leave to rise another 1 to 1.5 hours at room temperature. Repeat process with second loaf.

Bake and finish cakes: Heat oven to 375°F. Remove towels, place each loaf on the middle rack of your oven. Bake for 30 minutes, checking for doneness at 25 minutes. A skewer inserted into an under-baked babka will feel stretchy/ rubbery inside and may come back with dough on it. When fully baked, you’ll feel almost no resistance. If your babka needs more time, put it back 5 minutes at a time. While babkas are baking, make the syrup: Bring sugar and water to a simmer until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat and set aside to cool somewhat. As soon as the babkas leave the oven, brush the syrup all over each. Let cool about halfway in pan, then transfer to a cooling rack.

Babkas keep for a few days at room temperature. They freeze and defrost well. PJH


THE LOCALS

FAVORITE PIZZA

SNAKE RIVER BREWERY & RESTAURANT

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

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. Located at 7432 Granite Loop Road in Teton Village, (307) 733-0022 and in Driggs, (208) 787-8424, tetonthai.com.

THAI ME UP 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. View our tap list at thaijh.com/brews. Open daily for dinner at 5 p.m. Located downtown at 75 East Pearl Street, (307) 733-0005, melvinbrewing.com.

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 7:30 a.m.-10 a.m. Coffee & pastry 10 a.m.-11:30 a.m. Lunch 11:30 a.m.-3 p.m. Aprés 3 p.m.-5:30 p.m. Dinner 6 p.m.-9 p.m. 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 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 7 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday through Friday, and from 7 a.m.-3 p.m. on weekends. Located at 1110 Maple Way in West Jackson, (307) 264-2956, picnicjh.com

ELEANOR’S

ITALIAN

LOTUS ORGANIC RESTAURANT

EL ABUELITO

CALICO

A Jackson Hole favorite since 1965, the Calico continues to be one of the most popular restaurants in the Valley. The Calico offers the right combination of really good food, (much of which is grown in our own gardens in the summer), friendly staff; a reasonably priced menu and a large selection of wine. Our bar scene is eclectic with a welcoming vibe. Open nightly at 5 p.m. Located at 2560 Moose Wilson Rd., (307) 733-2460.

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. Located at 385 W. Broadway, (307) 733-1207.

MANGY MOOSE

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. Teton Village, (307) 733-4913, mangymoose.com.

DOMINO’S PIZZA

Hot and delicious delivered to your door. Hand-tossed, 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.

MOE’S BBQ

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. - 2 a.m. Located at 50 W. Broadway, (307) 734-PINK.

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 4 p.m.-10p.m. daily. Located at 750 West Broadway, (307) 739-9891.

Slice, salad & soda

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••

TV Sports Packages and 7 Screens

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

MEXICAN

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. Located at 140 N. Cache, (307) 734-0882, theorganiclotus.com.

Opened in Jackson Hole by Tom Fay and David Fogg, Moe’s Original Bar B Que features a Southern Soul Food Revival through its award-winning Alabama-style pulled pork, ribs, wings, turkey and chicken smoked over hardwood served with two unique sauces in addition to Catfish and a Shrimp MoeBoy 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.

$5 Shot & Tall Boy

LUNCH

SPECIAL

PINKY G’S

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 p.m. daily. Dine in or carry out. Or order online at PizzeriaCaldera. com, or download our app for iOS or Android. Open from 11 a.m. - 9:30 p.m. daily at 20 West Broadway. (307) 201-1472.

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

A Jackson Hole favorite since 1965

APRIL 25, 2018 | 19

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, 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 MonSat 11:30am. Dinner Nightly 5:30pm. 55 North Cache, (307) 201-1717, localjh.com.

•••••••••

$7

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

PICNIC

LOCAL

2012-2016

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

CONTINENTAL

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 runs from 4 - 6 p.m., including tasty hot wings. The freshest beer in the valley, right from the source! Free WiFi. Open 11 a.m. - 11 p.m. Loacted at 265 S. Millward. (307) 7392337, snakeriverbrewing.com.


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

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

20 | APRIL 25, 2018

HALF OFF BLAST OFF!

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.

JARED POWER

MOE’S ORIGINAL BBQ

STAFF FAVORITE!

CORE CHANGES WITH CAREY

60-MINUTE INTRODUCTORY BIODYNAMIC CRANIOSACRAL THERAPY SESSION $120 VALUE FOR $60

REVOLUTION INDOOR CYCLING SINGLE CLASS PASS $20 VALUE FOR $10

JH COMPUNET

1 HOUR OF COMPUTER REPAIR/CLEAN UP $95 VALUE FOR $47.50

PULLED PORK PLATTER $15 VALUE FOR $7.50

ONE DROP IN CLASS FOR NEW CLIENTS FOR $9

REINCARNATION MEDICAL SPA

ONE MEDICAL MICRODERMABRASION $395 VALUE FOR $197.50

DOMINO’S PIZZA

$25 VOUCHER FOR $12.50

REDEEM THESE OFFERS AT HALFOFFJH.COM

L.A.TIMES “CAMERA SHY” BY JEFF EDDINGS

SUNDAY, APRIL 29, 2018

ACROSS

1 Angled 7 Three-word defense 12 Soother 16 Sign, as a contract 19 Pump measurement 20 Shooting competition 21 Two-dimensional size 22 ABO system abbr. 23 H&R Block calculation 26 Hot __ 27 K-pop city 28 Long. counterpart 29 Sock part 30 Times-changing workers? 32 They may be footed 35 Peru grazer 37 On 38 Sworn words 41 Gloomy __ 42 Individual with limited skills 45 Put in new film 47 [Oh no!] 49 First name in makeup 50 “You can’t be serious!” 54 “Full House,” but not “House” 58 Small-runway mil. craft 59 Cap joint 60 Former sea that’s now part desert 62 Zany 63 “Into the Wild” star Hirsch 65 Drs.’ publication 67 __-out: total 69 PTA member 70 Hamilton, for one 76 High-tech agent 77 Schuss or slalom 78 UMass’ conference 79 Explosive matter, briefly 80 Storm sounds 82 Air carrier 84 Judge’s assessment 85 Olive, for one 89 Throw away, in a way

91

Recreational area with pipes, bowls and ramps 95 Like the opening of “The Wizard of Oz” 97 Clarifying words 98 Microwave concern 99 Dropping-off places? 104 Beehive State native 105 SAT scores, e.g. 106 Emulate a hot dog 107 Gridiron gripper 108 Being judged 112 Cow chow 114 Hold up 116 Ref. for wordsmiths 117 Polynesian Disney heroine 121 Lao Tzu’s “way” 122 Red choice 126 Angled piece 127 Focus for clérigos 128 Raven’s sound 129 Part of a plot 130 Low 131 Shooters with straps, for short 132 Tony’s cousins 133 Skip

DOWN

1 Dandy guys 2 Drink with a domed cover 3 A.L. West pro, informally 4 Entertains at the penthouse 5 Historic WWII B-29 6 __ mother 7 Five Pillars faith 8 Breed from Honshu 9 All NBA players 10 Mennonites, e.g. 11 1962 Lawrence portrayer 12 Sweetie, in slang 13 Twin sister of Apollo 14 Headliners 15 Skirt type 16 As a whole

17 Impulse-conducting cell 18 Enemy in a Le Carré novel 24 “Sad to say ... ” 25 Diner sandwich 31 Stick on, in a way 33 Dojo action 34 Slugging Sammy 36 Oakland’s Oracle, e.g. 38 Light controller in a lens 39 Obligation 40 Spread on toast 43 “Morning Edition” airer 44 Lake Wobegon creator 46 Creepy starer 47 Inexperienced 48 Donkey Kong looks like one 51 Like rolled carpet 52 “The Martian” star 53 __ contract 55 Food __: listlessness after a large meal 56 __ about 57 “Oh dear!” 61 Gloria Estefan, for one 64 Error 65 Volkswagen sedan 66 N-S Manhattan road 68 Bookish set 70 Starting quartet 71 18-Down, at times 72 Famous last words? 73 Ribs unit 74 Blue side 75 Unacceptable to some, for short 81 Old Spanish bread 83 Meter measure 84 “The X-Files” org. 86 Pour, e.g. 87 Inventor Rubik 88 Heart lines?: Abbr. 90 Cringe-worthy YouTube subject 92 Road goo 93 Standard Oil brand

94 Unrealistic 96 About to deliver 99 Outpourings 100 Fingers-in-ears syllables 101 Embrace

102 Kiss drummer Eric 103 Immediately 104 Hindustani tongue 109 Zero input 110 Sources of deck wood 111 Sign in 113 Digital displays, briefly 115 Earthen wall 118 Cornerstone word 119 Film __ 120 Pot starter 123 Capital of Switzerland? 124 Hulce or Hanks 125 Sundial seven


COSMIC CAFE

Parents and Evolution A reader asks an important question about family BY CAROL MANN

Q

: If it is true that our soul chooses our parents, why do we choose the people we do?

A Big Picture Perspective

Hard-wired to Succeed The spiritual perspective is that no matter what life brings, no matter the circumstances of our childhood, we are born with whatever it will take to master the progress our soul intends. And if for whatever reasons we don’t, we’ll always be given more opportunities. Everyone has skills to contribute and challenges to overcome. The impetus from our soul, the fact that we are wired for compassion and kindness, and the gift of free will move us toward resolving difficulties we may have experienced and/ or caused in this or any other lifetime.

A Forever Gift Becoming self-aware and healing old patterns upgrade the possibilities for our lives and make a huge contribution to the betterment of humanity. One of the most positive by-products of doing our internal “homework” is that we then have the skills to not repeat less than noble patterns as we raise our children. What a forever gift we get to give future generations.

Accepting Our Realities

Parting Advice From a metaphysical perspective, this is the list of qualities you are intending to refine and/or develop in yourself this life. In the big picture, our parents are actually an aspect of the Universe supporting us to learn something important for our own upgrade and uplift. But if you are struggling with old hurts and self-defeating patterns, remember, too, it is always beneficial to seek professional help. 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

St. John’s Family Health & Urgent Care

Berit Amundson, MD*

Open 7 days a week Appointments and walk-ins welcome

Layne Lash, FNP-C

Christian Dean, DO* Jim Little Jr., MD* Jenny Fritch, PA-C Kim Mellick, FNP-C

APRIL 25, 2018 | 21

Cecelia Tramburg, FNP-C *Board certified in family medicine

Monday–Friday: 9 am–7 pm | Saturday & Sunday: 10 am–4 pm 307.739.8999 | 1415 South Hwy 89, Jackson, WY tetonhospital.org/urgentcare

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

If you are curious to learn a bit more about why you chose your parents, here is one of my favorite perspective-shifting exercises. This exercise can inspire you to let go of wanting your parents to be different from who they are or were. You’ll see their role in a new light, one which allows you to glimpse the big picture perfection in having “chosen” these parents. Make two columns on a blank piece of paper. At the top of one of them write “Mom” and at the top of the other one write “Dad.”

Under each of their names, make a list of attitudes, beliefs and behaviors which you wish they had either more of or less of as you grew up. For example, you might have wanted them to be more affectionate or less critical, or more open minded. This is not about bashing your parents. Trust the process of this exercise and brainstorm your lists. When you are done, pause and carefully review what you have written.

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

From a metaphysical perspective, the soul “chooses” our parents. I placed quotes around “chooses” because the arrangement is not about whom we’ll like, rather it has everything to do with setting the stage for our growth. The family of origin evokes and provokes what will be easy for us and what will be challenging; what we want to emulate and what we do not choose to repeat in our lives. It’s obvious for us to incorporate the admirable things about our parents into our lives. Additionally, the things we do not like or respect about our parents are very important; they are soulful reminders about how we intend to evolve ourselves by being different from them. The soul magnetizes the genetics it needs for this life from our biological parents. Where they live and their

cultural, religious, ethnic, socio-economic priorities form another part of the intentional scenario. Some of it will resonate for us and some will not. We get to discover and ultimately to choose what works for us. If you are adopted, your genetic “software” is from your biological parents, and the environmental “software” comes from your adopted parents.


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

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

22 | APRIL 25, 2018

WELLNESS COMMUNITY

Your one-stop resource for access to Jackson Hole’s premier health and wellness providers. DEEP TISSUE • SPORTS MASSAGE • THAI MASSAGE MYOFASCIAL RELEASE CUPPING Professional and Individualized Treatments • Sports/Ortho Rehab • Neck and Back Rehab • Dizziness • Jaw Pain • Incontinence Training • Pelvic Pain Rehab 2 Jackson Locations • 1090 S Hwy 89 and Legacy Lodge of JH • 3000 W Big Trail Rd 307-733-5577 Alpine Location • 46 Iron Horse Rd 307-654-5577 No physician referral required.

www.fourpinespt.com

Oliver Tripp, NCTM MASSAGE THERAPIST NATIONALLY CERTIFIED

253-381-2838

180 N Center St, Unit 8 abhyasamassage.com

To join Planet Jackson Hole’s Wellness Community as an advertiser, contact 307-732-0299 or sales@planetjh.com


FREE WILL ASTROLOGY TAURUS (April 20-May 20) The Simpsons is the longest-running American TV sitcom and animated series. But it had a rough start. In the fall of 1989, when producers staged a private pre-release screening of the first episode, they realized the animation was mediocre. They worked hard to redo it, replacing 70 percent of the original content. After that slow start, the process got easier and the results got better. When the program completes its thirtieth season in 2019, it will have aired 669 episodes. I don’t know if your own burgeoning project will ultimately have as enduring a presence, Taurus, but I’m pretty sure that, like The Simpsons, it will eventually become better than it is in the early going. Stick with it. GEMINI (May 21-June 20) The coming weeks might be an interesting time to resurrect a frustrated dream you abandoned in a wasteland; or rescue and restore a moldering treasure you stopped taking care of a while back; or revive a faltering commitment you’ve been ignoring for reasons that aren’t very high-minded. Is there a secret joy you’ve been denying yourself without good cause? Renew your relationship with it. Is there a rough prize you received before you were ready to make smart use of it? Maybe you’re finally ready. Are you brave enough to dismantle a bad habit that hampers your self-mastery? I suspect you are.

BY ROB BREZSNY

vanished possibility or departed influence. SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21) I hope the next seven weeks will be a time of renaissance for your most engaging alliances. The astrological omens suggest it can be. Would you like to take advantage of this cosmic invitation? If so, try the following strategies. 1. Arrange for you and each of your close companions to relive the time when you first met. Recall and revitalize the dispensation that originally brought you together. 2. Talk about the influences you’ve had on each other and the ways your relationship has evolved. 3. Fantasize about the inspirations and help you’d like to offer each other in the future. 4. Brainstorm about the benefits your connection has provided and will provide for the rest of the world.

EARLY RISER? Planet Jackson Hole is looking for a Wednesday morning delivery driver to start immediately! CONTACT PETE@PLANETJH.COM | (307) 732-0299

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) Now is one of the rare times when you should be alert for the potential downsides of blessings that usually sustain you. Even the best things in life could require adjustments. Even your most enlightened attitudes and mature beliefs may have pockets of ignorance. So don’t be a prisoner of your own success or a slave of good habits. Your ability to adjust and make corrections will be key to the most interesting kind of progress you can achieve in the coming weeks.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) Long ago, in the land we now call Italy, humans regarded Mars as the divine protector of fields. He was the fertility god who ripened the food crops. Farmers said prayers to him before planting seeds, asking for his blessings. But as the Roman Empire arose, and warriors began to outnumber farmers, the deity who once served as a kind benefactor evolved into a militant champion, even a fierce and belligerent conqueror. In accordance with current astrological omens, Leo, I encourage you to evolve in the opposite direction. Now is an excellent time to transmute aggressiveness and combativeness into fecundity and tenderness.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18) Can you afford to hire someone to do your busy work for a while? If so, do it. If not, see if you can avoid the busy work for a while. In my astrological opinion, you need to deepen and refine your skills at lounging around and doing nothing. The cosmic omens strongly and loudly and energetically suggest that you should be soft and quiet and placid. It’s time for you to recharge your psychospiritual batteries as you dream up new approaches to making love, making money, and making sweet nonsense. Please say a demure “no, thanks” to the strident demands of the status quo, my dear. Trust the stars in your own eyes.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) You sometimes get superstitious when life is going well. You worry about growing overconfident. You’re afraid that if you enjoy yourself too much, you will anger the gods and jinx your good fortune. Is any of that noise clouding your mood these days? I hope not; it shouldn’t be. The truth, as I see it, is that your intuition is extrastrong and your decision-making is especially adroit. More luck than usual is flowing in your vicinity, and you have an enhanced knack for capitalizing on it. In my estimation, therefore, the coming weeks will be a favorable time to build up your hunger for vivid adventures and bring your fantasies at least one step closer to becoming concrete realities. Whisper the following to yourself as you drop off to sleep each night: “I will allow myself to think bigger and bolder than usual.”

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20) I believe it’s a favorable time for you to add a new mentor to your entourage. If you don’t have a mentor, go exploring until you find one. In the next five weeks, you might even consider mustering a host of fresh teachers, guides, trainers, coaches, and initiators. My reading of the astrological omens suggests that you’re primed to learn twice as much and twice as fast about every subject that will be important for you during the next two years. Your future educational needs require your full attention.

e of our n o p u k rs Pic freshene new air orget again! f & never

MON-THURS: 9:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. FRI: 9:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. SAT: 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. SUN: 12:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.

Always open online at tclib.org/hours 733-2164

APRIL 25, 2018 | 23

ARIES (March 21-April 19) Imagine you’re one of four porcupines caught in frigid weather. To keep warm, you all have the urge to huddle together and pool your body heat. But whenever you try to get close, you prick each other with your quills. The only solution to that problem is to move away from each other, even though it means you can’t quell your chill as LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22) The bad news is that 60 percent of Nevada’s Lake Mead well. This scenario was used by psychoanalyst Sigmund has dried up. The good news—at least for historians, tour- Freud as a parable for the human dilemma. We want ists, and hikers—is that the Old West town of St. Thomas to be intimate with each other, Freud said, but we hurt has re-emerged. It had sunk beneath the water in 1936, each other when we try. The oft-chosen solution is to be when the government built the dam that created the lake. partially intimate: not as close as we would like to be, but But as the lake has shrunk in recent years, old buildings only as much as we can bear. Now everything I just said, and roads have reappeared. I foresee a comparable resur- Aries, is a preface for better news: In the coming weeks, facing in your life, Libra: the return of a lost resource or neither your own quills nor those of the people you care about will be as sharp or as long as usual. 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.

EXPAND YOUR HORIZONS WITH OUR NEW EXPANDED HOURS

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) Capricorn author Simone de Beauvoir was a French feminist and activist. In her book A Transatlantic Love Affair, she made a surprising confession: Thanks to the assistance of a new lover, Nelson Algren, she finally had her first orgasm at age 39. Better late than never, right? I suspect that you, too, are currently a good candidate to be transported to a higher octave of pleasure. Even if you’re an old pro at sexual climax, there may be a new level of bliss awaiting you in some other way. Ask for it! Seek it out! Solicit it!

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

CANCER (June 21-July 22) The Hollywood film industry relies heavily on recycled ideas. In 2014, for example, only one of the ten top-grossing movies—Interstellar—was not a sequel, remake, reboot, or episode in a franchise. In the coming weeks and months, Cancerian, you’ll generate maximum health and wisdom for yourself by being more like Interstellar than like The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Transformers: Age of Extinction, X-Men: Days of Future Past, and the six other top-ten rehashes of 2014. Be original!


24 | APRIL 25, 2018

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


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.