Planet Jackson Hole May 10, 2018

JACKSON HOLE’S ALTERNATIVE VOICE | PLANETJH.COM | MAY 9-15, 2018

Cultivating a zero waste life in the Tetons

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2 | MAY 9, 2018

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JACKSON HOLE'S ALTERNATIVE VOICE

VOLUME 16 | ISSUE 17 | MAY 9-15, 2018

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7 COVER STORY WASTE AVENGERS Cultivating a zero waste life in the Tetons

12 CREATIVE PEAKS

5

GUEST OPINION

15 DON’T MISS

7

THE BUZZ

21 COSMIC CAFE

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BY METEOROLOGIST JIM WOODMENCEY

Once we are into the month of May, I don’t even like to mention the word “snow”, but mentally you have to prepare yourself that it could still happen, even in downtown Jackson. On May 13th, 2004, it snowed 4 inches in town. That is the most snow we have ever had in a single day this late in the month of May. May of 1942 was the snowiest May ever, with almost 15 inches of snow for the month, most of that fell in the first two weeks of the month.

Low temperatures early last week got down into the lower 20’s, which was much cooler than average. This week’s average low temperature is right at 30-degrees, so the threat of freezing plants is still with us. Don’t be fooled by above freezing mornings if you are a planter of things. The coldest temperature ever recorded in town during this week is 13-degrees, which occurred on May 9th, 2002. That tied the record that was established on May 13th in 1985.

HIGHS

The average high temperature this week is 61-degrees, and that average will start bumping up a few more degrees next week.

The warmest temperature we have ever seen in town during this second week of May is 82-degrees, which is the same as last week’s record high. Last week’s 82-degree reading happened way back in 1934. This week’s 82-degree reading happened on May 11th, 1960.

NORMAL HIGH NORMAL LOW RECORD HIGH IN 1960 RECORD LOW IN 2002

61 30 82 13

THIS MONTH AVERAGE PRECIPITATION: 1.8 inches RECORD PRECIPITATION: 6.02 inches (1980) AVERAGE SNOWFALL: 1 inches RECORD SNOWFALL: 14.5 inches (1942)

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

MAY 9, 2018 | 3

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THIS WEEK

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

JH ALMANAC LOWS

MAY 9-15, 2018

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4 HOLE HASH OUT

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| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

4 | MAY 9, 2018

CHRISTOPHER PETERSON VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

HOLE HASH OUT

Upcoming Page to the Podium guest speaker Juniot Diaz was recently accused of sexual misconduct.

I

ntroducing the Hole Hash Out—a space for community dialogue about contentious issues with local tendrils. This week, our gaze is on Pulitzer Prize-winning author Junot Diaz’s upcoming visit to the valley on the heels of accusations that he forcibly kissed author Zinzi Clemmons and verbally demeaned other women in public forums.

It has indeed been difficult for some to denounce

Questions that Must be Answered

BY ANNE MARIE WELLS

My initial reaction was to cancel Diaz’s visit to the library.

By allowing him to come to Jackson to speak, we are essentially welcoming him to our home, letting him know that we support him with our presence and with our money. Do predators need more people and organizations telling them that their behavior has little to no detriment on their lives?

Then after further reflection, I thought it might be interesting to allow individuals from the community to directly ask Diaz about the allegations and his actions.

I have read three of Diaz’s books and have found them to glorify toxically masculine behaviors such as objectification, possession and abuse of women.

In his short story collection, Drown, the narrator of How to Date a Brown Girl (Black Girl, White Girl, or Halfie)— yes, let us not ignore the title—refers to women as “females” and his attitudes towards women and dating perpetuate machismo stereotypes.

In The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Oscar starts out living his life without the privilege that machismo allows in the toxically masculine society in which he lives. But by the end,

Diaz. He has become a stalwart voice for people of color, a prominent literary figure who speaks out against racial injustice and advocates that readers look beyond the literary canon of white male authors when filling their bookshelves. He also happened to write a story about being raped as a child for The New Yorker, which some have used as ammo against him.

Others, meanwhile, point to the article as partial

Oscar displays those same characteristics when he stalks the woman in whom he is romantically interested.

Unfortunately, Oscar’s behavior is written to be romantic and not psychotic.

Diaz wrote of Oscar that Ybon told him to leave her alone and that he could tell that he was scaring her but Oscar “couldn’t help it.”

Finally, in This is How You Lose Her, the narrator, Yunior, who appears in Oscar Wao as well, constantly refers to women as “skanks.” I actually couldn’t finish the story and gave up after reading 90 percent of it because the main character, Yunior, has exactly zero redeemable qualities to make me care at all what happens to him.

So, I would love to be able to ask Diaz how these toxically masculine behaviors have been demonstrated to him in his own life and if he believes he perpetuates the cycle of oppression in his own behavior or through his writing.

I would love to ask him if the stalking, violence and the verbal abuse that his protagonists have demonstrated in his books are behaviors that he himself has demonstrated against women in his life.

In other words, how much of the abuse that his characters demonstrated actually transcends the page into reality?

I’d love to be able to ask.

explanation for his troubling behavior.

He is Teton County Library’s Page to the Podium guest speaker on August 6, but since allegations from Clemmons and others surfaced last week, some residents have taken to social media to question if the library should cancel his appearance.

According to two local women who initially held opposing views on the matter, the show must go on.

The Value of Listening

BY MEG DALY

As of this writing, Diaz has withdrawn from a literary conference in Australia, where he was called out for past combative, aggressive behavior toward young women writers.

Diaz said publicly: “I take responsibility for my past. That is the reason I made the decision to tell the truth of my rape and its damaging aftermath. This conversation is important and must continue. I am listening to and learning from women’s stories in this essential and overdue cultural movement. We must continue to teach all men about consent and boundaries.”

I’m down with that.

And yet, on social media, the castigation of Diaz has been swift and unequivocal. Three women said he was a dick to them, and therefore he may as well be Harvey Weinstein.

I want to ask some of my fellow feminists: Are we to stop listening to people who have suffered childhood sexual exploitation when they speak about manifold forms of dysfunction this can cause later in life?

Diaz’s searing New Yorker essay about childhood rape and the damage it caused him and people around him displayed extraordinary courage and openness on his part. Yet one of Diaz’s verbal assault accusers dismissed his essay as a publicity stunt. Yikes!

Would we ever level that accusation at a woman speaking about being raped or molested as a child?

Are we deaf to Diaz’s clear bid to talk about his bad behavior? Where Weinstein’s remorse felt hollow, Diaz’s contrition feels genuine.

At this #metoo moment in history, I’m one feminist who would like to note that women, including famous women artists and writers, are fully capable of shitty behavior, and our conversations about power must include this uncomfortable truth.

When I was 22 years old, I was sexually exploited by a famous feminist performance artist in one of her performance pieces. Other young women I knew in the 90s wrote about the uncomfortable power dynamics between second and third wave feminists, which included younger women being bossed around, treated dismissively, and discredited by feminist literary icons.

What I’m getting at is this: sometimes our heroes are unfortunately, messily human. This doesn’t excuse bad behavior.

But if we shrink our pool of people to whom we are willing to listen to a puddle in which messed-up literary fiction writers of color are on par with white-privileged Hollywood mogul rapists, our minds and hearts may shrink as well.

GUEST OPINION CREDIT LELAND CHRISTENSEN

I

Sen. Leland Christensen is leaving his seat in the Wyoming Senate.

A Seat of Opportunity Jacksonites should pay attention as Sen. Leland Christensen exits the building

BY NATE MARTIN |

one of the harshest in the nation.

Christensen, an ex-cop, effectively handed over the bill to law enforcement lobbyists and asked them to change it as they saw fit. The lobbyists removed every progressive element of the proposal. The bastardized bill failed to pass a concurrence vote when it was presented back to the House.

Christensen has also led the charge to criminalize “non-plant forms” of marijuana—edibles, oils, etc. Currently there is no law on Wyoming’s books that specifically governs edible weed. This doesn’t mean it’s legal, but it means police and prosecutors’ hands are tied when they bust folks for possession. Even large quantities only result in misdemeanors.

Thankfully, the effort this year to pass an edible cannabis bill failed. Perhaps that was because Christensen’s attention was focused elsewhere: on a proposal that

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you think it’s irrational to throw people in prison and ruin their lives for smoking or possessing it, correct? Good. Glad we’re on the same page.

Except, Christensen is not on the same page. Even as libertarian and left-leaning Wyoming state legislators have recently found common ground in the effort to reduce Wyoming’s draconian punishments, Christensen has led the resistance against commonsense cannabis reform.

In 2017, the Wyoming House approved a bill by a vote of 52–6 that would reduce minor marijuana possession penalties. But Christensen used his position as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee to gut the bill. The measure would have, among other positive things, made possession of three ounces of weed or less punishable by up to 20 days in jail and a $200 fine—instead of the current penalty: a year in jail and a $1,000 fine. It is

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would imprison and levy insane fines against pipeline protestors like those who protested the Dakota Access Pipeline near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota.

Senate File 74, which Christensen sponsored, was the brainchild of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). That’s the Koch brothers’ rightwing mega donor lobbying outfit. But Christensen pushed for SF-74 because, he said, it was a “top priority” for groups like the Wyoming Association of Sheriffs and Chiefs of Police.

Christensen’s allegiance to law enforcement has consistently shaped his decision-making—in a bad way. In 2017, the Senate Judiciary Committee, which Christensen oversees as chairman, elected to kill a bill to help innocent people get out of prison because a lone prosecutor opposed it. This year, he cast the deciding vote against a popular, bipartisan measure to make it easier to expunge juveniles’ criminal records. It was apparently too “soft on crime.”

It strains the imagination to think that the majority of people in Jackson agree with these and other things that Christensen has done. Nevertheless, y’all kept sending him back to the Legislature to do more harm.

I understand that Christensen is an agreeable fellow, and a friend to many in the community. I get that he’s devoted lots of his time and energy to public service.

But the stakes are too high in the Wyoming State Legislature to squander the opportunity to elect progressive candidates. Jackson is one of the few places in the state where it’s possible to send legislators to Cheyenne who can speak up against the madness.

In 2018 and beyond, Wyoming needs Jackson to elect better legislators than Christensen. PJH

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

t was a happy day when I learned that Teton County lawmaker Sen. Leland Christensen–R, Alta, would not be returning to the Wyoming State Legislature.

The two-term state senator announced earlier this year that he would leave his post because he’d decided to run for Wyoming Secretary of State. Then he scrapped that idea and decided to run for State Treasurer instead.

Secretary, Treasurer—who cares, right, as long as you get to wear a fancy suit and feel powerful in rooms that smell of rich mahogany.

Anyway, it’s not that Christensen was Wyoming’s absolute worst state legislator—far from it. In fact, in the context of Wyoming’s ultra-conservative State Senate, he was sometimes almost a moderate.

However, the reason I’m happy Christensen is leaving the Legislature is because I believe that Jackson can do so much better.

During the 2018 election, you will have your chance.

To be clear, I’m not endorsing anyone for Christensen’s seat. (I will note, though, one person thus far has announced his intent to run: Rep. Mike Gierau–D, Jackson.) As the director of Better Wyoming, a nonpartisan 501c3, I’m actually forbidden by law to support or attack candidates. And I honestly feel neutral about Christensen’s bid for Treasurer, considering the field.

What I can do, however, is point out some of the shitty things Christensen has done during his tenure in the Legislature, in hopes that it will prompt folks in Jackson to pay closer attention to who you’re electing to the State Legislature, and to encourage you to never send someone like Christensen there again.

To start with: Y’all like weed, right? I thought so. Or, even if you don’t like weed,

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| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

6 | MAY 9, 2018

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hirty years landscapes and ago, following individuals moving spring warinto forests. Would mup, a storm pathomeowners think different if the govtern rolled into the ernment didn’t bail Greater Yellowstone them out with fire Ecosystem, leading protection? many to believe the “A b s o l u t e l y,” rest of summer would he said. “The real be “normal.” tough solution Some 18 lightwould be to zone ning-caused fires forests where firestarted in Yellowstone fighters won’t go to National Park in June, fight fires because all allowed to burn. of the danger, Eleven went out natcost and lack of urally, the rest creepIn 1988, the Yellowstone fires threatened much of the country’s first national park. resources.” ing at a low-grade Notable about crawl, the expectaBarker’s book is how tion being they would it connects dots of stay tamped down people—including

by July monsoonal What did Yellowstone fires of 1988 really teach us? journalists—bondmoisture. ed by fire. “I revRains never came.

BY TODD WILKINSON | @BigArtNature eled in the stories Days of scorching temlong time it triggers things in your head.” of Sheridan and Jay peratures, little precipIn his 2007 book—still a great read— Cooke, Nathaniel Pitt Langford and Moses itation and strong winds yielded a fire season for the record books. A third of Barker recounts how fire suppression in Harris, John Muir and Gifford Pinchot Yellowstone started with an order from and Aldo Leopold whose ambitions and Yellowstone was blackened by flame.

For me, it was a defining time to be an Civil War Gen. Phil Sheridan, who com- ideologies converged at Yellowstone,” he environmental reporter in the region. No manded park management in the early said.

“I thought I knew these men until I got day was more memorable than September days (and was notorious for his despicable the chance to research this book. FDR’s 7, 1988, when the North Fork Fire, driv- policies toward indigenous people).

“What I learned and wanted to show last act before his polio came on was to en by hurricane-force winds burned over the top of us and nearly claimed the Old was that Sheridan, one of history’s least fight a forest fire. Aldo Leopold died in a likable heroes, played the critical role in forest fire. Don Despain [Yellowstone’s Faithful Inn. The 198 Yellowstone fires were called a placing land conservation in the hands renowned fire ecologist] played with modern turning point in our understand- of government and making government matches as a kid. Most of all I was struck control the centerpiece of conservation by the missed opportunities of undering of forest fire behavior.

I asked colleague Rocky Barker, then a and eventually environmentalism,” standing the arid West first posited by reporter with the Idaho Falls Post Register, Barker said. “Sheridan wasn’t sophisti- John Wesley Powell.”

The fires of 1988, Barker said, repreif he believes society is smarter. “Not real- cated enough to consider fire’s role but he ly,” he said from his office in Boise at the intuitively recognized that to protect the sented a progression of thinking. elk, bison and other big game he loved Muir spoke at Thoreau’s funeral and Idaho Statesman newspaper.

Barker wrote a book, Scorched Earth, in Yellowstone, he had to protect all of knew Ralph Waldo Emerson. “He taught about the 1988 blazes that was turned into the habitat. His ‘Greater Yellowstone’ idea both Theodore Roosevelt and Gifford wasn’t big science but it was a big idea that Pinchot. Pinchot taught Leopold. Leopold a movie.

“The Yellowstone fires of 1988 did teach was rediscovered by the Leopolds, the taught his son Starker. Starker taught Yellowstone Superintendent Bob Barbee firefighters humility and made many fire Craigheads and others.”

We reflected on how “climate change” who presided over the park when the bosses overall less apt to throw folks in front of big fires,” he said. “But in many was then only beginning to establish a 88 fires blew up. The connections are so ways, it set back the effort to restore fire pattern and how today some politicians powerful.”

Where do we go from here? Is society to western forests. The negative public still claim logging forests will save them.

“The high elevation forests like better equipped today to co-exist with reaction and the political fallout made managers less willing to take even small Yellowstone are going to burn big no mat- fire?

“We have no choice but to live with fire,” risks to allow fires to burn. They wanted ter what we do,” Barker said. “Beetles, fire only under the most careful condi- while making forests more volatile brief- he said. “With global warming likely tied tions, which of course, is not natural in the ly, actually thin these forests and reduce to our own behavior we have joined fire their ability to carry big fire but when and the other natural forces, floods, landhistoric sense.”

About his most vivid moment, he told conditions are right—and since the 1980s slides, volcanoes, hurricanes, even erome, “Well, you were there. You watched conditions have been right regularly, sion, in generating the power to reshape the world. What remains unresolved is me run from the fire at Old Faithful, Todd! we’re going to have big fire.”

He believes there’s a disconnect not whether we can control nature but I still get nightmares about that moment. I think when you run on adrenaline for a between the public’s desire to have healthy whether we can control ourselves.” PJH

Reigniting Heated Lessons

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THE BUZZ B

BY ERIKA DAHLBY |

Houser hosts a support group, Survivors of Suicide Loss, which meets the first Wednesday of each month. He sees firsthand the turmoil of suicide.

Suicide is complicated—and the reasons for it are never singular. “The most frequent question that surfaces is ‘why,’” Houser said.

It is a question that can sometimes never be answered, leading to a range of emotions for friends and family. People will feel guilty for not seeing the signs or wonder if they could have done something. But “the depth of the loss never goes away,” Houser said.

The hope is that over time people develop a better emotional musculature to carry the loss, he said.

Like Rafferty’s death, which shocked friends and family, warning signs are not always visible.

They include talking about wanting to die, about feeling hopeless or having no purpose, about feeling trapped or in unbearable pain, about being a burden to others. Other signs include increased alcohol or drug use, acting anxious, agitated or reckless.

“We have developed superior skills in hiding our emotions from even those close to us,” Houser said.

That’s why it’s important to have thoughtful, clear conversations about mental health and suicide. It brings the issue to the forefront. It’s even more important to talk to friends or family who are feeling suicidal.

Some believe talking about it could

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move someone closer to suicide, but Houser said conversation creates another protective factor.

“It shows that individual that you care about them and will help them pause and shift their thinking,” he said. “Honest conversations are really helpful, even if you don’t think they are.”

Community Counseling Center executive director Deidre Ashley said engaging in discussion helps you gauge where a person is in their thinking. “If someone is feeling suicidal you have to ask the questions to find out where they are on that continuum,” she said. “That’s all people really need: a little bit of hope that something can change, that things can get better.”

A Price on Mental Health Since state funding cuts in 2017, suicide prevention resources in Teton County are at a basic level. State lawmakers eliminated more than $2 million for suicide prevention during the 2017 legislative session. It was the same year Wyoming registered the highest rate of suicide in the country.

In 2017, 157 deaths were reported in Wyoming, on average one death by suicide every two days. Suicide is the second leading cause of death for people between the ages of 15 and 44 in the state.

Jackson Hole Community Counseling Center does not rely on state funding for its suicide prevention programs so they were not affected. Its services include a free 24-hour crisis hotline and free crisis

MAY 9, 2018 | 7

“We live in a state that still has a Western ethos of taking care of your own problems, pulling yourself up by your bootstraps,” Mark Houser, of the Jackson Hole Community Counseling Center, said. He has worked with suicide prevention and postvention for 20 years.

“Perhaps we have less of a culture in Wyoming of seeking out mental health resources.”

Woman’s suicide highlights staggering statistics in a state where lawmakers are hot and cold on suicide prevention

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

When Talking Saves Lives

Difficult Discussions

walk-ins during business hours.

St. John’s Medical Center has a resource phone line to connect people with the right programs. The hospital also has two holding and secure rooms for people feeling suicidal and crisis counselor visits.

Prior to budget cuts, the Preventative Management Organization, which holds the contract for preventative care for tobacco, alcohol and substance abuse in the state, managed suicide prevention.

In Teton County, PMO focused on community training and prevention.

That included QPR training, a free community level suicide prevention training. It created a safety net in the community for people with suicidal ideation or behaviors. People learned how to spot the warning signs of a suicide crisis and how to respond. In two years, more than 400 community members participated in the 90-minute trainings.

This year, lawmakers sang a different tune. An amendment added to House Bill 1, general government appropriations, restored state funding for suicide prevention during Wyoming’s 2018 legislative session.

The bill says that $8 million will be expended to the Wyoming Department of Health to provide grants to counties for tobacco, alcohol or controlled substances misuse prevention and suicide prevention. At least $2 million of the total is to be used for suicide prevention.

The Wyoming Department of Health, which will distribute the grants, changed its funding model in 2018. Instead of a singular entity, like PMO, receiving the funds and distributing them, the state agency will distribute the funds to each county.

Ashley hopes the funding will revive the Teton County Suicide Prevention Coalition, which helped coordinate efforts in the county. It could also help bring back in-depth training for community members.

As for Rafferty’s friends, like Howard, they too are set on finding ways to work within the community. Howard said he wants to get involved with suicide prevention in Teton County and keep the conversation going about Rafferty.

“If this helps one person, then my job is done,” he said. “I think Rachel might have been pointing me in this direction.” PJH Resources: U.S. National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, 800-273-TALK (8255); the Jackson Hole Community Counseling Center 24-hour crisis line, 307-733-2046

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

eing around Rachel Rafferty was life-giving. “She would always bring a huge sense of energy,” friend Chris Bates said.

In one summer, Rafferty hiked many of the highest Teton peaks. She would happily sob at the sight of bears emerging from hibernation.

“She was in awe of Jackson,” friend Carl Howard said. “She wanted to do it all—climb every mountain, climb every tree, hike every trail.”

Sunshine is one way you could describe her, Howard said. Her smile would light up a room, she easily made friends with people from different walks of life.

Rafferty, 24, died by suicide on April 28.

Howard described her passion for life, one depicted on her Instagram account, filled with images of alpine vistas. At her May 7 funeral in Colorado Springs, Colorado, her parents told the 100-person crowd to seek the same source of light they saw in Rafferty.

“She was the type of person that when you’re with her, [she] would make you feel like you’re the most important person in the world,” Howard said. “But she wouldn’t take time for herself, she would just keep giving and giving.”

Howard said the “little things” like finding housing in Jackson, looking for a new job and joining a new church took their toll on her. Howard and Rafferty, roommates, were set to find a new place to live in the coming months and the lack of housing in Jackson was stressful.

An employee of Teton Gravity Research’s retail store, she worked in Grand Teton National Park for two summers and lived in Jackson for the past year.

Financial crisis is compounded in Jackson by a housing shortage and skyrocketing rents. Meanwhile, Wyoming, the least populated state, can feel isolating. A lack of a support system deepens stressors. It’s a jolt for some, who imagine Jackson to be a paradise of sorts.

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

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

8 | MAY 9, 2018

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etsy Hawkins buys one roll of paper towels a year. She hides them away in a cabinet in her Victor, Idaho, home, only to be used for oily spills that would ruin her cloth napkins and rags.

But whenever people come over they’re curious.

“Where are your paper towels?” they ask. “Oh, you don’t need to bring out the nice napkins,” they say.

“These aren’t fancy,” she replies in a thick Tennessee accent. “This is what we use every day.”

It always sparks a conversation about her family’s lifestyle, one that prioritizes sustainability over convenience and works toward a zero waste lifestyle.

Hawkins was raised in a homesteading, self-sustaining fashion, on a rural farm in Appalachia with a garden, animals and an aversion to waste. “It’s never been foreign to me,” she said.

But when her family moved to Teton Valley a few years ago, Hawkins wanted to see how far she could go to minimize her waste. After all, she has access to bulk goods, curbside recycling pickup and the fruits of a plentiful farming community.

But for a family of four, with two middle school-aged kids, it can be hard.

Grocery shopping is a process—don’t forget the reusable shopping bags, the muslin sacks and glass jars for bulk food and buy only products packaged in glass or cardboard. If she forgets the bags, she does not buy anything.

The family’s food waste, meanwhile, goes to the composting worms in the closet and to the neighborhood chickens.

“We do what we can,” she said. “I feel like I’m constantly making choices.”

Hawkins said the family has a small garbage bin, smaller than a standard size, that fills up in about two weeks. Her curbside trash can can never fills, even in a month’s time, but the recycling bins overflow with glass.

When the family takes trips to get milkshakes at the Victor Emporium, they bring their own insulated coffee mugs and stainless steel straws. If they splurge and go out to eat, Hawkins makes sure to bring their own glass Tupperware for leftovers.

Hawkins admits it’s more expensive to live the way she does—a glass jar of peanut butter, for instance, costs more than its plastic counterpart. “It’s hard to vote with your dollars,” she said. “But it has to be done or nothing will change.”

The kids, raised with cloth diapers, get frustrated because frozen pizza, which comes in hard-to-recycle paperboard

Cultivating a zero waste life in the Tetons

By Erika Dahlby @erika_dahlby

and a single-use plastic wrapper, is off-limits.

“Will they get mad at me because they can’t eat an endless stream of Doritos and Oreos? Probably,” she said. “But hopefully they’ll have a strong understanding of why we made those choices.”

Over the hill, back in Teton County, Wyoming, the community throws away about $3.5 million every year, literally. Each ton of trash costs $115 to haul and dispose at the Bonneville landfill in Idaho. Teton County Integrated Solid Waste and Recycling outreach coordinator Mari Allan Hanna said the county exports 100 to 150 tons of trash each day, six days a week.

The county has a plan to divert waste, but people like Hawkins are taking the

matter into their own hands by curbing food waste, cutting back on single-use plastic and not purchasing new goods.

“We, collectively, are not living in a sustainable fashion,” Hawkins said. “We just aren’t.”

The waste stream is more complicated. It’s broken into different materials, each of which poses its own problem and method of diversion: organic material like food and yard clippings, recyclable materials like glass, aluminum, paper and plastic, construction wood and metal, appliances, electronics and textiles—and that’s only part of it. Then there are single-use materials that have nowhere else to go like paperboard, plastic food containers and plastic shopping bags.

It Starts with One

In the past decade, local nonprofits have popped up to help deal with Jackson’s trash—to save organic materials before they become trash and to recycle as much of it as possible.

After a foray into the world of dumpster diving and food rescue, Ali Dunford founded Hole Food Rescue. The nonprofit rescues food that would otherwise be tossed in the dumpster.

“So much of what I was eating came out of the trash,” she said. It was edible, tasty food that was destined for dumpsters because of a store expiration date, cosmetic flaw or overstocking. Dunford had moved to the valley from Boulder, Colorado, where that community was forward thinking about its waste.

MAY 9, 2018 | 9

BETSY HAWKINS

In 2011, Jackson Town Councilor Greg Miles proposed a ban or fee on plastic grocery bags, but the initiative did not have the support of then-Mayor Mark Barron and other town councilors.

Meanwhile, mountain communities in Colorado, like Aspen, Telluride and Vail, have banned the use of plastic bags and imposed a fee on paper bags.

A citizen group recently proposed a plastic bag ban to Town Council.

The group is proposing a ban on plastic bags and a 10 cent fee on paper bags.

“A lot of what we we’re trying to push has been modeled from the Colorado mountain towns,” group member Michael Yin said.

The group compelled Town Council to investigate what a plastic bag ban would look like in Jackson. Town staff will present a report during a May 21 workshop.

“It’s not going to get done unless someone helps push it along,” Yin said.

A 2009 report from the University of Washington says that microplastics are not only present in the ocean and building up, but they’re being ingested by marine life. Those microplastics and the toxins that they carry are cycled through the food chain and after a seafood dinner, can eventually end up in the human body.

Food isn’t the only vehicle by which microplastics enter the body. A 2017

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

material, but the single-use variety comes with grave environmental impacts.

Americans throw away 2.5 million plastic water bottles every hour, according to the nonprofit Recycle Across America. They’re used once then tossed.

“That’s the worst part about them,” said Katie Weiler, who runs the Instagram account @plasticfreebaes and works with Straw Free JH. Plastic takes 100 to 400 years to break down in a landfill. But the larger concern for environmentalists and plastic-free advocates is what happens to plastics when they end up in the ocean.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says that plastics are the most common type of debris found in both the oceans and Great Lakes.

Microplastics (about the size of sesame seeds) are small pieces of plastic that measure less than 5 millimeters long and can be formed from larger pieces of plastic degrading into smaller and smaller pieces.

Single-use plastic, especially plastic bags or light-weight materials, are not built for a life in a landfill. Most landfills are set up to receive large amounts of waste, but don’t necessarily have a way to keep it in. All it takes is a gust of wind.

“A plastic bag will blow away and fly into a river, go downstream and end up in an ocean,” Weiler said. “It never breaks down, it just gets smaller.”

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“Moving to Jackson was this harsh reality that the rest of the world isn’t as eco-friendly,” she said.

Food waste is indeed a serious problem when it gets into a landfill. Food, with its high moisture content, is two times heavier than regular mixed trash, which costs more to dispose. Once organic materials end up in a landfill, it breaks down anaerobically, which releases methane gas without the presence of oxygen.

But organic waste is valuable. If it’s like the kind that Dunford would find, it can be given to people in need. If it’s unfit for human consumption, it can be fed to hogs, chickens and other farm animals.

Foods like lemons and oranges, which animals tend to avoid, can be composted into fertilizer—what gardeners call black gold.

“It’s ludicrous that we’re throwing nutritious calories away,” she said. “With all the things that go into making food, it just blatantly doesn’t make sense to throw food away.”

In three years, from 2013 to 2016, Hole Food Rescue diverted more than 600,000 pounds of food from the landfill and gave it to people in need and hungry farm animals. On average, 300 pounds of food is wasted per person per year, which can lead to a loss of $1,500 a year for a family of four.

Plastic isn’t as heavy as organic

Betsy Hawkins has made small adjustments in her home to generate less waste. Plastic bags that find their way into the home are washed and hung to dry. She uses cloth napkins instead of paper towels and shops in bulk.

study by Orb Media concluded that plastics are pervasive in drinking water. A sample size of 150 water taps in five continents found that 80 percent contained microscopic plastic fibers. The U.S. had an even higher average. Out of 33 samples, 94 percent contained plastic fibers.

That means, as Scott Belcher, PhD, said in the study that “chemicals from plastics are a constant part of our daily diet.”

Weiler echoed the study’s findings: “People who are concerned with their health should be concerned about single-use plastic as well.”

She has cut plastic almost completely out of her life, from buying everything in bulk to ordering makeup in bamboo and metal containers. She said she has also eliminated some of life’s little pleasures.

“I used to be such a rotisserie chicken person,” she said, referencing the bulky plastic containers in which the chicken is sold. “I haven’t had one in years.”

Weiler has a big issue with single-use straws, which is why she joined Straw Free JH. It’s an easy thing for people to cut out. The mission of the local nonprofit is to remove single-use plastic straws from Jackson Hole, one restaurant at a time. Convincing restaurants to switch to paper straws or to only provide straws upon request is part of the effort, along with encouraging people to ask for no straw or to invest in a stainless steel straw.

Since the nonprofit started, 23 local restaurants and venues have changed their policies including Center for the Arts, Trio, Local, Orsetto, Café Genevieve, Snake River Grill, Grand Teton Lodge, Signal Mountain Lodge, Persephone, Hatch, Teton Tiger, Teton Thai, Bin 22 and Healthy Being Juicery.

Local Restaurant made the switch to plant-based straws, which are 100 percent compostable, and wooden cocktail stirrers in summer 2017. Josh Hirschmann, the restaurant’s general manager and sustainability coordinator, said Local once ordered 88,000 plastic cocktail stirring straws and 66,000 plastic pint straws annually.

The restaurant also switched to a “straw only upon request” policy, which has resulted in a 50 to 70 percent decrease in use.

“Regardless of someone’s stance on global warming, this is cheaper,” he said.

“You can’t argue with saving money.”

Hirschmann said the restaurant, which serves anywhere from 800 to 1,000 customers on a busy summer day, is hoping to be an example for other local restaurants. “We want to show that this works.”

Across the pond, the United Kingdom has an ambitious goal to help eliminate

Out of Sight…

Being conscious of your waste is important, but for Iris Saxton, the executive director of Idaho’s Teton Valley Community Recycling, your waste isn’t something you should decide to deal with at the recycling bin.

Saxton considers herself an anti-consumer. She never liked shopping and figured the best way she could reduce waste was to buy less and reuse more.

She buys clothes and items from the thrift store, bikes to her neighborhood farm, has her own garden and chickens and participates in community supported agriculture programs.

“I think there’s this human desire to acquire new things,” she said.

But Saxton acquires used things and experiences “that same rush that people get when they buy new things.”

By not buying brand new items that can’t be recycled or aren’t made from 100 percent recycled materials, it sends a message. If you keep buying berries or spinach in non-recyclable plastic containers the manufacturers will keep making it, Saxton explained.

From industrialized farming to mass production of plastics, there is a disconnect between the process of making goods and the public for which the goods are produced. It’s easy for people to keep buying when there’s a seemingly endless supply. But all those products have to go somewhere. The impact of capitalism on the waste stream is evident during economic booms and busts.

Even Teton County sees the impact the economy has on waste. In boom times, there’s more production, more demand for goods, more consumption and more waste. It fluctuates with the health of the economy.

“In 2008, there was a drop in the volume we saw come through here because people were tightening their belts and consuming less and producing less waste,” Hanna said.

The real answer to minimizing waste, she added, is changing the way goods are made by putting pressure on the economy and producers to create better quality products that last longer.

“When we offer a Band-Aid here at the end it doesn’t force mattress producers or appliance producers to change their ways at all,” she said. “We’re not solving anything, it just perpetuates it.”

That disconnect from the front-end of the manufacturing process permeates

TCISWR

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

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

10 | MAY 9, 2018

plastic waste in the oceans. In April, Prime Minister Theresa May announced a ban on plastic straws, stirrers and plastic stemmed Q-tips, which is set to take effect within one year.

Clockwise: Waste that was buried at the Horsethief Canyon landfill from 1949 to 1989 is now being excavated as part of the process to close and cap the site and create more operational space for solid waste transfer and recycling operations. Cardboard and plastics slated for recycling. the disposal side.

“The biggest problem is these gigantic perfect trashcans,” Saxton said. “I don’t know when they got that big.”

The trash goes in, gets hauled away and is no longer your problem. “It just disappears,” Saxton said.

But that’s not really the case. The problem is just hauled away to a new location.

Green Roots The push for sustainability within the community has always come from individuals. When Sandy Shuptrine moved to the valley in the 1970s, she started doing her own recycling. She and her husband, Dick, would sort out the plastics, cans and paper and store it in their garage until they could make a trip to Idaho Falls. It cut down their waste so much that it made for a few awkward encounters.

“The trash hauler became suspicious because we didn’t order any trash hauling,” she said. “They called and thought we were putting our trash in someone else’s garbage.”

But Shuptrine wasn’t the only one doing her own recycling. By the 80s, Shuptrine met Ellen Fales and they started working on a project to start a recycling program in town. There was a strong interest and in 1990, a primitive recycling facility opened on Gregory Lane.

“None of that would’ve happened if it would have only been our family,” Shuptrine said.

The nonprofit recycling center grew to accept more than just aluminum cans. It was eventually adopted into the county and became the Integrated Solid Waste and Recycling, ISWR, department in 2009. At that time, leaders of the department started looking at other

communities like Boulder, Colorado, to come up with a strategy to combat Teton County’s waste.

“They weren’t looking to be super green or be on the cutting edge of this movement,” Hanna said. “They were looking to make good decisions to carefully manage the resources here.”

As the population in Teton County grew, so did its trash problem. In 1990, the population totaled around 11,000 people who created 18,621 tons of waste.

By 2013, the population had doubled to 22,268 people. The amount of trash also doubled to 36,000 tons—25,000 of which went to the landfill. The rest was diverted through recycling, reusing and composting.

Teton County became the first community of its size to adopt a zero-waste initiative in 2014. The Road to Zero Waste aims to divert 60 percent of waste that is currently landfill-bound by 2030. The

Handy Tips

provided by Teton County ISWR

This week is the 50th annual spring cleanup. Free yard waste bags are available from the town and county, and the transfer station will accept it for free if you bring it in loose or compostable bags. If you don’t want to travel to the transfer station, place the bags curbside on Monday by 8 a.m. and the county will pick up for free. All the yard waste will be composted.

Check TetonCountyWY.gov/Recycle.

Nonprofits, government agencies and businesses working toward a more sustainable future will be at the EcoFair from noon to 5 p.m. Saturday at the Snow King ballfield.

MAY 9, 2018 | 11

Throwing away trash is not only expensive, it is also a gamble. “The future of landfilling is uncertain because of the possibility of contamination and potential environmental hazards,” Hanna said.

“Nobody wants it in their backyard or the liability of it.”

But recycling quality and clean materials is certain. It’s environmentally friendly and cheaper for the county. While it costs $115 to haul a ton of trash to Idaho, it costs an average $15 a ton for recycling. The county currently produces about 16 tons of recycling a day, a $240 cost per day.

By recycling, you’re not extracting resources to make new materials, you’re reusing resources and extending their lifetime. Hanna pointed to paper: office paper can be recycled three to four times and cardboard can be recycled six to eight times until the fibers become too short and weak to be reused.

“You’re not harvesting trees every time you need a piece of paper,” she said.

Recycled materials are commodities.

“They have value,” Hanna said. “If those were not recycled all that material that could be sold is just being buried. And we would be paying to have it buried.”

The recycling programs in Fremont and Lincoln counties, for example, have had to reduce the number of materials they can recycle in recent years.

“Programs around us are shrinking because it’s more costly,” Hanna said.

Andy Frye, superintendent for Fremont County Solid Waste Disposal, said the recycling centers in the county, which include Dubois, Lander and Riverton, no longer accept glass. It also no longer takes plastics 3 through 7, like Teton County.

The decision wasn’t made lightly, but the challenges of doing business in rural Wyoming outweighed the possible environmental impacts.

“We’re geographically challenged,” he said. “We’re surrounded by mountains and challenging passes and all the markets are southeast and southwest of us.

It drives up the price of doing business.”

But the cease and transfer has incentivized some communities to do as much waste diversion as they can, with Teton County as a model in the state.

“It forces your policies to change very quickly,” Hanna said. “It’s not a hippy idea or what all the cool kids are doing, it’s a necessity.”

While zero waste is a noble goal, it will never be attainable, at least not until new technologies and policies emerge.

Hawkins, who strives for zero waste, noted that unless you’re living off the grid, there will be some waste with which to reckon.

Nobody is perfect, “but if the goal is zero waste, you are bound to do better,” she said.

Although she gets discouraged when she sees trash bins overflowing every week or grocery carts filled to the brim with paperboard and plastic, she said her behavior is impactful.

“If no one ever thought they made a difference how would we ever collectively make a difference?” she said. “You have to start somewhere.” PJH

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

plan is multifaceted, but hinges on the concept of reducing waste, reusing materials, recycling as much as possible and composting organic materials. Strategies include everything from building a food waste composting facility and expanding recycling to increasing outreach efforts and updating the website. As of 2018, 22 out of 36 planned short-term strategies were completed, including zero waste event modeling, construction and demolition material diversion and an annual Road to Zero Waste report card.

The county currently diverts 34 percent, 13,171 tons, of waste, mostly through recycling efforts. Americans generate 4.38 pounds of trash per day, according to the EPA. Teton County residents already average less trash than the national average—3.96 pounds of trash per day.

Being the only county in the least-populated state to tackle something like zero

Leaky Landfills

Single stream services, where you can throw everything into one bin, are common around the country, but Teton County has a single commodity system.

Hanna said the goal was to keep it simple and clean.

“It’s always been expensive to transport these materials to market,” she said.

“We wanted to make sure that transportation was worth it and to make sure what we sent would actually be recovered.”

As China cracks down on importing low value recyclable materials, it’s hurting communities that use a single stream and no longer have a place for their materials.

“We were mostly very forward thinking, and a little bit lucky,” Hanna said.

Teton County was one of the earliest communities in Wyoming to close its landfill and start transferring trash out.

The landfill in Horsethief Canyon closed in 1989 after groundwater and soil contamination was detected.

The original plan to remediate the Horsethief Canyon problem was to close it and reopen another one in Teton County. Shuptrine said they looked at 32 different sites within the county, some within Grand Teton National Park and the Bridger-Teton National Forest, but none panned out. “Clearly there wasn’t a good place here,” she said.

In 2009 the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality found that groundwater contamination was becoming prevalent in the state’s landfills.

“The landfills are leaking in the rest of the state,” Hanna said. “They were all just piles of trash that were thrown into canyons, unlined and unmonitored.”

The state devised a plan called cease and transfer which meant any community that has a leaky landfill has to stop taking trash and transfer it to an existing facility, with grants available from the state.

According to a 2015 annual report, 74 percent of the 112 landfills tested had evidence of impacts above groundwater protection standards. More than 80 landfills could eventually have to close down, remediate the problems the landfills are causing and transfer their trash to other communities.

Teton County received state funding for remediation in 2015, 26 years after the landfill closed. A cap will be placed in 2019 over the 40-acre landfill that will prevent toxins from leaking into the groundwater and soil.

“Jackson was ahead of the curve and has been so successful because of the community support and initiative,” Hanna said of the diversion programs.

“Smaller and more rural Wyoming communities aren’t so lucky.”

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n Reduce what you put into the waste stream. Identify disposable items that you use on a regular basis that you may be able to do without. Straws are a popular one to cross off your list. More info on Facebook @ strawfreejh n Reusable shopping bags, water bottles, coffee mugs, and food containers help to minimize daily discards n Purchase used clothing, housewares and gear from thrift, vintage and gear swaps n Recycle clean, separated materials to recover their value and minimize the further extraction of resources from the environment. More info at TetonCountyWY.gov/ recycle n Minimize food waste by purchasing only what you need, using what you have and buying from local producers to minimize transportation emissions and cut down on packaging.

Information on understanding food industry expiration dates at HoleFoodRescue.org n Make a commitment to compost organics.

Yard waste is accepted for composting at the Teton County Trash Transfer Station for a lesser fee than landfill bound trash. Food waste can be composted in a backyard bin. A workshop is planned for early June with local experts n Share on social media what you discover to make the transition easier for friends and neighbors #howdoyourrr #roadtozerowastejh

waste can be challenging.

Allan said the resources available in places like Salt Lake City and Denver dwarf what’s possible in Jackson. The rural nature of the community makes it more expensive to transport not only trash, but recyclables, too.

But Jackson is an anomaly for a community its size. The roots of conservation grow deep and the list of nonprofits committed to protecting the wildlife, scenery and environment are numerous.

“We are in this community that values sustainability and environmental stewardship,” Hanna said. “We can make a case for having this be our policy and practice.”

There’s almost an engrained awareness and commitment to protecting the environment beyond the Teton views. “The people who’ve chosen to be here want to take care of it and want to be part of making it the place they moved here for,” Hanna said.

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

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

12 | MAY 9, 2018

CREATIVE PEAKS T

he tiny West African country of Benin could not seem more distant from one’s perch in Jackson, Wyoming. For Angélique Kidjo, though, there is a direct tie.

“We all come from Africa,” Kidjo told Planet Jackson Hole. “If you cannot envision that and see the African in you, you’re in trouble.”

Kidjo is the African popstar. Time magazine crowned her “Africa’s premier diva”—a weighty title, given the continent is comprised of 54 countries whose inhabitants speak more than 1,500 languages.

In 1983, Kidjo fled Benin’s political turmoil and censorship, replanting her roots in Paris.

Since then, the threetime Grammy winner has bridged countries and cultures. On her 13 albums, she sings in four languages: Fon, French, Yorùbá, and English, as well as in her African own made-up language, “Batonga.”

She also bridges seemingly distinct musical styles.

Her most recent project, for instance, is an interpretation of the Talking Heads’s 1980 album Remain in the Light.

When she first heard it, she sensed an African-ness at its core. Her remake puts more emphasis on rhythm and horns, but seeks to reveal its inherent soul.

Music, she said, is everybody’s birthright: “It is in the heartbeat first, before anything else. We all have a rhythm when we walk, we don’t all walk the same way.”

But for her, there is a uniquely African rhythm, one that touches everybody, whether they know it or not. Africa is the source of life and of music. They are inherently tied, impossible to cleave.

Within much of American culture and music, there is an African seed, the legacy of slavery. African rhythm was embodied and expressed by slaves, and continues to appear in much of present-day western art and music.

Without slaves, “American music cannot be,” she said. “The blues does

asks girls create business models for their communities and provides them the skills and resources to make their vision a reality.

“Education as we know it isn’t the answer to everything,” Kidjo said.

What is more important is listening to and believing in the power of those so often left out of the conversation: “We can’t make decisions for other people’s lives. We empower them to tell us what they need, and we provide it.”

Much of what she does with adolescent girls is “empower them to love themselves and have confidence in themselves.” Young girls’ selflove isn’t frivolous or inconsequential; it is the core of strong families and communities.

On Thursday, Kidjo will share some of the stories of these girls through song and spopopstar and activist highlights a world of intercultural connections ken word. The event is a timely exploration

BY SARAH ROSS of the lives of young girls. Again, while their not exist. Jazz does not exist.” people, but traditional schooling may lives may feel far away, Kidjo says it is In her music, Kidjo embodies and not be a reality for these girls. honors the irrepressible joy of African The Batonga Foundation listens to important for American audiences to music, and also the inconceivable pain girls, and gives them resources and tools hear about them.

The complexity of such lives—their and injustice experienced by the moth- to execute the dreams they have for passion and their pain—are rarely porers and fathers of American music. their lives, families and communities.

In her activism, too, she sees how joy Kidjo wants to find the girls who trayed in this part of the world.

“What you see about Africa is all misand pain are always in conversation. think they are damaged, who think She is a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador their lives don’t matter and “give them ery,” Kidjo said, “because people profand has traveled through much of financial literacy, help them be inde- it off the misery of Africa. The media Africa, advocating for the education pendent and break the cycle of poverty.” doesn’t like to portray anything besides poverty.” and empowerment of young women.

She knows how difficult it can be.

It is also important for westerners to In 2007, she founded the Batonga Her family believed in educating Foundation, whose initial goal was to boys and girls alike and her father understand that many of their privilegprovide secondary and higher educa- refused to take her out of school to be es are made possible by the poverty of tion to African girls. Their mission has married off. “Girls aren’t merchandise,” Africans.

It’s time for people to take accountshifted in the past decade. Now, their he told her. But she saw other girls who goal is to find and empower the most weren’t educated. Her best friend was ability, Kidjo said.

“We all have to hold ourselves marginalized girls—those who are a child-bride. The shame was so great accountable for what we do, how we orphans, teen mothers and child-brides. that when Kidjo saw her in public, her go about our lives, how we impact our They highlight the girls as agents of friend refused to acknowledge her. change, sources of power, and “wellAt the Batonga Foundation, nobody family, our community, and the world.

We are each others’ keepers.” PJH springs of community stability, family is excluded. health and economic growth.”

“Everyone can meet together, the Angélique Kidjo performs 7 p.m.

Indeed, some of the largest and most ones who’ve dropped out, the ones Thursday at Center for the Arts, $32-$42. well-funded programs in the continent who’ve had kids.” focus on the formal education of young One of the foundation’s programs She will meet with 30 area middle school girls during a reception after the show.

Universal Ties

THIS WEEK: May 9-15

WEDNESDAY, MAY 9

SEE CALENDAR PAGE 17

n Fluor Idaho’s STEM Day at the Zoo 9 a.m. Idaho Falls Zoo, n Discover Steampunk 10 a.m. Museum of Idaho, $10.00 - $12.00, (208) 522-1400 n Zoo Titles: The Goodnight Gecko 10 a.m. Idaho Falls Zoo, $0.00 $65.00, (208) 612-8453 n Exhibit opening: Discover Steampunk 10 a.m. Museum of Idaho, n Free Food Friday 10:30 a.m. Jackson Cupboard, Free, 3076992163 n Sugar City Arbor Day Celebration 11 a.m. n Island Park Children’s Story Hour 11 a.m. Island Park Library, n Two Gentlemen of Verona 2 p.m. Iona City Center, n Fun Friday - Youth Auditorium 3:30 p.m. Teton County Library, n Chris Thomas Band 7:30 p.m. Silver Dollar Show-

SATURDAY, MAY 12

n Lucy’s Open Disc Golf Tournament May 12th 8 a.m. Freeman Park, n Farmers Market 9 a.m. River Walk Eastside, n Free Swim Lesson Day 9 a.m. n Mother’s Day Brunch 9 a.m. Chick-fil-A, n Zoo Tots (2-PreK): The Goodnight Gecko 10 a.m. Idaho Falls Zoo, n Zoo Tots: The Goodnight Gecko 10 a.m. Idaho Falls Zoo, $0.00 $65.00, (208) 612-8453 n Library Saturdays - Youth Auditorium 10:15 a.m. Teton County Library, n Art in the Park Art Show at Harriman State Park 11 a.m. (208) 558-7368 n International Migratory Bird Day at the Idaho Falls Zoo 1 p.m. Idaho Falls Zoo, $0.00 $65.00, (208) 612-8453 n The Chamber Choir of Idaho, Anam Cara 4 p.m. First Presbyterian Church, n Granary Chew & Brew 6 p.m. the Granary, $48.00 $220.00, 307.732.8120 n Jackson Hole Juggernauts Roller Derby 7 p.m. Snow King Sports & Event Center, $5.00 - $10.00, 307413-4790 n Idaho Falls Farmers Market 9 p.m. (208) 339-3230

SUNDAY, MAY 13

n Wyoming Concealed Carry Class 8 a.m. Homewood Suites by Hilton, $99.00, (866) 371-6111 n Mother’s Day at the Zoo 9 a.m. Idaho Falls Zoo, $0.00 $65.00, (208) 612-8453 n Open Gym - Adult Volleyball 4 p.m. Teton Recreation Center,

MAY 9, 2018 | 13

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 START Bus Advisory Board Meeting 11:30 a.m.

FRIDAY, MAY 11

room, Free, 307-732-3939 n Center Stage: Diego Figueirdo 7:30 p.m. BYU Idaho, n Voice Area Honor Recital 7:30 p.m. BYU Idaho, n Hi Fri DJ Night 10 p.m. Pink Garter Theatre, Free, n Farmer’s Market (208) 360-2545

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

THURSDAY, MAY 10

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 Kids’ Crafts for ages 6 - 8 4 p.m. Madison Library, n Parks & Recreation Advisory Board Meeting 5 p.m. n Open Build 5:30 p.m. Valley of the Tetons Library, n Responsible Riders Motorbike Class 6 p.m. (208) 514-2411 n The Glass Castle 6 p.m. Teton County Library, $13.00 - $0.00, n Open Gym - Adult Soccer 6:30 p.m. Teton Recreation Center, n Books for Boys/ Mother Daughter Book Club Combined Closing Event 6:30 p.m. Madison Library, n App Time - Computer Lab 7 p.m. Teton County Library, n Lazy Eyes 7 p.m. Silver Dollar Showroom, Free, 307-732-3939 n Rapture, Blister, Burn 7:30 p.m. Elks Lodge, $15.00 $20.00,

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n 6 Steps to a Better Business 8:30 a.m. Idaho Innovation Center, n Ashton Line Dancing 9 a.m. St Anthony Library, n Toddler Time 9:45 a.m. Madison Library, 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 Story Time 10:30 a.m. Madison Library, n St. Anthony Children’s Story Hour 11:15 a.m. St Anthony 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 St. Anthony Special Needs Story Hour 3:30 p.m. St Anthony Library, n Design Review Committee Meeting 5 p.m. n Holocaust Survivor Dora Klayman 6 p.m. Teton County Library, Free, n Family Story Time 6 p.m. North Bingham County District Library, n Open Gym - Adult Basketball 6:30 p.m. Teton Recreation Center, n Intermediate Bachata 7:15 p.m. Dancers’ Workshop, $25.00 - $90.00, 307-733-6398 n Recycle Driggs!

Valley of the Tetons Library, n IF Water Festival Tautphaus Park,

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

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

14 | MAY 9, 2018

MONDAY, MAY 14

n Maker 3 p.m. Valley of the Tetons Library, n Movie Monday - Youth Auditorium 3:30 p.m. Teton County Library, n Movie Monday-Driggs 3:30 p.m. Valley of the Tetons Library, n Mayors Ride 6:30 p.m. McCowin Park, n Mondays with Marley!

7 p.m. BlackRock, n Intermediate Salsa with Juan Morales and Rachel Holmes 7:15 p.m. Dancers’ Workshop, $25.00 - $90.00, 307-733-6398

TUESDAY, MAY 15

n Baby Time: 9:45 - 10:10 9:45 a.m. Madison Library, n Ashton Children’s story hour 11 a.m. Ashton Library, n Rotary Club’s Annual Lunch for Literacy 12 p.m. Snow King Resort, $15.00, 307-733-9242 n Tech Time 1 p.m. Valley of the Tetons Library, n Devotional: Tim Rarick 2:10 p.m. BYU Idaho, 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 Family Friendly Films 4 p.m. Madison Library, n DREAM BIG Movie 5:45 p.m. Jackson Hole High School Auditorium, Free, n Free Food Pantry 5:50 p.m. n Bluegrass Tuesdays with One Ton Pig 7:30 p.m. Silver Dollar Showroom, Free, 307732-3939 n Auditions for Shorts 7:30 p.m. Dancers’ Workshop, Free,

For complete event details visit pjhcalendar.com.

This Week at The Wort THURSDAY, MAY 10 LAZY EYES FRI & SAT, MAY 11 & 12 CHRIS THOMAS BAND TUESDAY, MAY 15 BLUEGRASS TUESDAY WITH ONE TON PIG Full music schedule at worthotel.com 50 N. Glenwood St. • 307-732-3939

CULTURE KLASH H

istor y is recordings. so much StoryCorps also more than provides a list of important dates questions to get the conservation startand events that ed. diGrappa said change the world. It she hoped young is more than facts people interview and figures and their grandparoutcomes of wars, ents, or a mother said Emy diGrapor father talks with pa, of Wyoming their child. She’d Humanities, and love to hear two producer and host people who have of think WY radio. lived in Jackson “History is yesdecades talk about terday,” diGrappa when and why they said. “History is arrived in town, last week. History is what has made decades ago.” them stay and how History includes town has changed. the lives of every “I just want a day people, their diverse collection stories of living of voices and ages,” through depresdiGrappa said. sions, or even just The entire prosurviving with cess takes about black and white an hour, although TVs and before the the actual recordinternet, she said. ing is only about 40 “When you bring minutes. A facilipeople and faces tator will answer and real life happenings, then you StoryCorps tour asks Jacksonites to cozy up to the mic questions and sit in during the recordbring history to

BY KELSEY DAYTON | @Kelsey_Dayton ing and interview life,” diGrappa said. participants who “History doesn’t come without a have to be boring Museum on 225 N. Cache St. partner.

Facilitators will monitor the facts, figures and old pictures.”

StoryCorps will host an opening The StoryCorps Mobile Tour col- reception on May 24, the time had not audio and keep track of time. They lects stories from around the country been set as of press time, to show people might ask a question during the recordby offering recording sessions to people the booth and answer questions about ing, but are not there to interview.

Participants should bring questions in different communities. Now Jackson the process. with them—there are guides and sugwill have its turn. It will record stoThinkWy/Wyoming Humanities is gestions on the StoryCorps website like: ries May 24 to June 22. Registration partnering with StoryCorps. for recording times opens at 10 a.m.

“The humanities is a natural partner Who has been the most important perThursday. with them,” diGrappa said. “That’s kind son in your life? What was the happiest StoryCorps began in October 2003 of what we do, we tell the human story.” moment of our life? The saddest? Who with a story booth in Grand Central Wyoming Public Media is also a partner has been the biggest influence in your life? What lessons did they teach you?

Terminal in New York City. Its mission for the event. is “to preserve and share humanity’s People are encouraged to sign up for The questions are suggestions to get stories in order to build connections sessions in pairs, so they can engage the conversation started, but people are between people and create a more just in meaningful conversations that are encouraged to go where the conversaand compassionate world.” archived. The recordings are archived tion leads them.

Some of the recordings might be feaIn doing so, StoryCorps hopes to at the Library of Congress. Recording remind people of their “shared human- sessions usually take about 40 minutes. tured on NPR. All of the recordings ity, to strengthen and build the connec- Participants are invited to record in the will eventually publish online, diGraptions between people, to teach the value language of their choice and discuss pa said. Participants will also receive a digital copy of the interview they can of listening, and to weave into the fabric topics that matter most to them. of our culture the understanding that “This is a way for people to tell their download once it’s been archived. PJH everyone’s story matters.” favorite stories, share their lives and To sign up, people can visit storyThe result is also “an invaluable archive it in history,” diGrappa said. corps.org.

Participants are asked to suparchive for future generations.”

Coming in pairs usually allows peoThe booth will be set up near the ple to feel more comfortable during ply a $25 donation.

Jackson Hole Historical Society and

Everyone Has a Story

A Legacy of Conservation Teton County Republicans host Theodore Roosevelt IV

BY KELSEY DAYTON |

to be overrun with social issues or get lost in the rhetoric coming out of D.C.,” he said. “I hope that people realize that conservation values and environmental issues we are dealing with should not be partisan or party issues, but should be issues for all of us, part of the common ground that we are all working on.”

Vogelheim said he’s proud to be a part of the Teton County Republican Party. He hopes an independent voter might hear what the party stands for at the talk and think about it a little differently and see what Vogelheim values.

“I hope they think ‘Wow, these guys make some sense,’” Vogelheim said.

Vogelheim hopes that Roosevelt is also able to talk to students at the Jackson Hole Community School. And Roosevelt said he’s bringing a fly rod he’d like to try out before he leaves for his next engagement in England. PJH

“I hope that people realize that conservation values and environmental issues we are dealing with should not be partisan or party issues.”

Tickets are $20 and can be purchased at TetonGOP.com. Organizers expect the event will sell out.

MAY 9, 2018 | 15

He also serves as chairman emeritus of the National League of Conservation Voters and served as a trustee for Trout Unlimited and World Resource Institute.

He’s also board chair of the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, serves on the board of The Climate Reality Project, is a member of the governing council of the Wilderness Society and is a trustee for the American Museum of Natural History.

Roosevelt is a former Navy Seal and served in Vietnam.

He earned an MBA from Har vard Business School and frequently speaks on environmental issues around the world.

Vogelheim hopes people come to Roosevelt’s talk and think about conservation and what it means to be a Republican in Teton County.

“The more centrist Republicans have been very quiet and shame on us if we aren’t standing up and reiterating these core values that we’ve had that seem

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

Vogelheim isn’t sure what Roosevelt will speak about, though it will be conservation-related.

“He’s going to be a character, just like his great-grandfather,” Vogelheim said. “It is important especially today to rekindle these conservation values, so it’s an honor to host Mr. Roosevelt.”

The legacy that the former president started in the party didn’t end with him, Vogelheim said. President Richard Nixon created the EPA. President Ronald Reagan combatted acid rain. President George H.W. Bush put aside large swaths of public land and advocated for a zeronet loss for wetlands, Vogelheim said.

Locally, Vogelheim named John Turner, former head of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services, as a Republican passionate about conservation.

Vogelheim wants the party in Teton County to return to that legacy. It believes public lands should be owned by the federal government, a deviation from the national party’s stance.

“If you are a conservative, you should be a good conservationist,” he said.

Roosevelt certainly is an advocate for conservation, Vogelheim said. He lives in New York City and serves as chairman of the Clean Tech Initiative and co-chairman of the Military Services Network for Barclays Investment Bank.

@Kelsey_Dayton

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

W

hen Paul Vogelheim became chairman of the Teton County Republican Party last March, he sat down with the executive committee and members to identify three guiding principles: fiscal responsibility and private sector solutions; respect and compassion for individual freedoms; and conservation and responsible stewardship.

“It’s very different than what’s going on in D.C. and different than what’s going on in the rest of the country and state,” he said.

It was stewardship and conservation that first drew Vogelheim to the Republican Party and is a value important to almost everyone in Teton County, he said.

The Republican Party’s conservation legacy began with President Theodore Roosevelt, who designated Devil’s Tower as the first national monument, created the U.S. Forest Service, the Antiquities Act, five national parks and inspired Vogelheim to become a Republican.

Vogelheim hopes Roosevelt’s great-grandson, Theodore Roosevelt IV, inspires others in the same way. The younger Roosevelt will speak at 7 p.m.

Monday, May 14 at the National Museum of Wildlife Art.

DON’T MISS

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

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

16 | MAY 9, 2018

LOCAL SYNDROME

Ryan Stolp illustration

Parsing Our Sensitivities Expressing unpopular thoughts on well-intentioned ideas

BY ANDREW MUNZ |

D

espite my comedic résumé, I try not to make a habit of being too critical of my hometown or the people who live in it. I’m not in the business of pissing people off or burning bridges for the sake of comedy; I usually wait for a speedy spring snowmelt to wash those bridges away for me.

My I Can Ski Forever theatrical trilogy was always intended to be pure satire, plugging a gaggle of recognizable stereotypes into scenes that feel familiar and honest. A year after its premiere at the Pink Garter, I still receive questions as to which community members inspired which characters.

The truth is that the stereotypes I parodied were so general and silly that it was only natural that a few people would watch the shows and think, for better or worse, “Is that supposed to be about me?”

Last week this column poked some harmless fun at the Chamber Mixer, and prior to writing it, I took to Facebook to post a status update simply asking for people’s thoughts on the event.

Within minutes of me posting the status, a Chamber employee messaged me: “What’s your angle on your status??”

Fair question. I am, after all, the person who has now made a name for himself lampooning Jackson culture, businesses

and everything in between. But am I truly that intimidating?

Small town journalists, especially those in Jackson, are required to be very selective with their criticisms. Giving a poor review to a local theater production or a nonprofit event is absolutely out of the question. News publications need advertisers to fund the paper’s existence, and a shitty restaurant review would likely cause said restaurant to pull hundreds of dollars in ads, permanently.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is a total crock, but it is the reality of living in such an incestuous community of thinskinned business owners and executive directors.

“Gasp! Is that supposed to be about me?” you might wonder. Yes. Probably.

I look at comedian Michelle Wolf’s unapologetic and brilliant performance at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Every year, people tend to forget that the event is meant to be a total roast of the current administration and current events.

Wolf’s cutting humor was a little too much for some folks, especially when she discussed Sarah Huckabee Sanders: “I think she’s very resourceful. Like, she burns facts, and then she uses the ash to create a perfect smoky eye. Like, maybe she’s born with it; maybe it’s lies.”

@AndrewMunz

Interestingly, folks who back a president that has made scathing critiques about women’s appearances also criticized Wolf—a comedian—for tearing down another woman’s appearance. She should have been more sensitive and supportive, they said. Even liberal media commentators joined in, demanding Wolf apologize.

The very fact that the joke caused such a negative reaction showcases Wolf’s shrewd comedic skill. As a comedian, you must push buttons and cause a stir; the day we start dictating what can and cannot be poked fun at is the day all comedy, and free speech, dies. Have you ever seen a devout group of sexless Mormon men do improv comedy? I have, and, you know, it wasn’t great.

Everyone in America should be able to say and think whatever the fuck they like, as long as no one is injured.

No—“offended” is not the same as “injured.” The same thing goes for a small town like Jackson. We should be allowed to say what we want without having to worry about people getting emotional, pulling advertising or unfollowing us on Instagram.

We need more Jacksonites to honestly express their opinions about what doesn’t work, because those opinions have the chance to challenge

others—artists, businesses, nonprofit organizations, etc.—to do better. And we need to do it publicly and openly, and not hide behind some anonymous screen name or email.

I wonder what would happen to this little town if we were finally honest.

What would happen if you expressed if you hated last month’s Laff Staff show?

What if you wrote a letter about why you don’t eat at Pinky G’s anymore, or about your theories into why Sara Flitner lost her mayoral reelection? What would happen if you said that you think the #HereForYouJH campaign is more focused on the marketing than the message, or that the Trust for Public Land board doesn’t know what they’re doing, or that you think Andrew Munz is a fat, arrogant idiot who writes terrible comedy and even worse PJH articles?

Rather than hit back in offended anger or pull ads, we should listen to criticisms and reevaluate. We should communicate with those that disagree instead of shrugging them off as unqualified or uninformed. Honesty has the power to challenge and to elevate the conversation.

The more Jackson Hole keeps circle-jerking and congratulating itself, the less progress we will see. PJH

FAVORITE PIZZA 2012-2016 •••••••••

$7

$5 Shot & Tall Boy

LUNCH

SPECIAL Slice, salad & soda

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••

TV Sports Packages and 7 Screens

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

HELEN GOELET

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

Morning chia bowls with coconut, edible flowers and basil prepared by chef (and yogi) Ariel Mann.

Island Vibrations An excursion for the stomach and soul my friends once or twice a week,” Ariel explained. “I cooked healthy meals, printed out menus, it was a whole to-do, but it quickly became unsustainable.”

When Ariel told her friends she couldn’t afford to keep feeding them, they offered to pay her. And so began her career in catering.

After college, however, Ariel veered from her passion and tried her hand in real estate. It was a short stint, ending with a few months of reflective healing on her mother’s couch.

“That corporate world just didn’t suit me,” Ariel said, “and it took something drastic for me to realize I needed a change-up.”

In 2007, Ariel began catering and offering her services as a private chef. Four years later, she enrolled in her first yoga teacher training at the

Maui Yoga Shala, just minutes down the road from the Banyan Tree Bed and Breakfast that would become the hub for their bi-annual retreat.

Although she cooks a sundry variety of food for her clients, Ariel and her husband Richard decided to become vegans last summer, and Carol joined them.

“I basically ate plant-based already, but Richard and I both decided it was time to make an effort to eat more consciously with regard to our earth,” Ariel said.

“The statistics are staggering,” Carol added. “Eating plant-based for just one day saves more gallons of water than you’d know. And of course, it’s good for you.”

During the retreat, behaving consciously and positively towards yourself,

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Large Specialty Pizza ADD: Wings (8 pc)

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for an extra $5.99/each

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

MAY 9, 2018 | 17

hen Carol and daughter Ariel Mann held their first “Sole to Soul” Maui retreat in 2013, they married their talents and interests to offer an experience Carol dubs “self-fullness.”

“We spend so much time being either selfish or selfless,” said Carol, PJH Cosmic Cafe columnist and clairvoyant. “Learning how to be self-full is essential to a balanced life.”

What does that even mean? Food, I discovered, was part of the equation.

For five days, the 12-person group practiced yoga with award-winning yoga instructor Ariel, had workshops with Carol where we discussed our souls the cosmos, and our unilateral connection, and ate an organic, plantbased diet prepared by Chef Ariel.

“In college, I hosted dinner parties for

BY HELEN GOELET

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

W

EAT IT!

THE LOCALS

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

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

18 | MAY 9, 2018

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

Avocado and edible flowers at the Kula farmers’ market.

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

as well as the earth, was a theme. It was only natural, then, that we eat an organic, plant-based diet.

Eating organically and sustainably is certainly easier in places like Maui than, say, landlocked Jackson.

Fruits and vegetables grow in abundance on the island. We visited the Kula farmers’ market one early morning to sample local produce.

Between the soft-ball sized avocados, beautiful greens and bright, dirt-speckled carrots lugged straight from the earth, I was in heaven. Ariel cooked up an assortment of dishes with the fresh produce: cabbage wraps, avocado salads and breakfast blueberry chia cups finished with fresh basil and edible flowers.

The cabbage wraps, filled with curried tofu, sprouts and carrots, were flavorful, filling and light. Her balance of texture and flavor, letting the fresh produce stand on its own, was the work of a seasoned chef.

Admittedly, at times I strayed from the plant-based diet. Each day we had four hours to tromp through the jungle, bake on the beach and eat lunch Hawaiian style.

My mother (she joined me for the retreat) and I used this time to hunt for poke bowls. We sampled an array and

decided the best food-truck poke and tacos were from the South Maui Fish Co. in Kihei, served with furikake rice and a pineapple slaw. But we knew our poke habit wasn’t harmless. After consuming raw ahi daily, we agreed that any extended time on the island would result in some major mercury poisoning. We simply couldn’t get enough of the fresh, available fish.

T he even i ngs broug ht reprieve. While stressing the importance of being true to ourselves, Carol opened the doors to Ho’oponopono: the Hawaiian practice of forgiveness. When you practice Ho’oponopono, you say, “Thank you, I’m sorry, please forgive me, I love you.”

“We are harder on ourselves than we are on any other person,” Carol said.

“It’s a practice we must embody for ourselves, for others, and for the Earth in order to bring balance to the universe.”

In the Hawaiian Pidgin language, the word for meal, aina, translates to “that which feeds,” i.e. the land. Indeed, Hawaiian culture and language is rooted in the appreciation and value of the earth. As the “heart of the Hawaiian Islands,” Maui was the perfect place to reconnect with one’s heart… and stomach. PJH

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

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

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

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.

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.

ITALIAN CALICO

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

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

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

www.mangymoose.com

MEXICAN

EL ABUELITO

Serving authentic Mexican cuisine and appetizers in a unique Mexican atmosphere.

Home of the original Jumbo Margarita.

Featuring a full bar with a large selection of authentic Mexican beers. Lunch served weekdays 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Nightly dinner specials. Open seven days, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.

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

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

PIZZA

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.

PINKY G’S

The locals favorite! Voted Best Pizza in Jackson Hole 2012-2016. Seek out this hidden gem under the Pink Garter Theatre for NY pizza by the slice, salads, strombolis, calzones and many appetizers to choose from. Try the $7 ‘Triple S’ lunch special. Happy hours 10 p.m. - 12 a.m.

Sun.- Thu. Text PINK to 71441 for discounts.

Delivery and take-out. Open daily 11a.m. - 2 a.m. Located at 50 W. Broadway, (307) 734-PINK.

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

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

MAY 9, 2018 | 19

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.

MANGY MOOSE

SNAKE RIVER BREWERY & RESTAURANT

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

LOCAL

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.

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

CONTINENTAL

LOTUS ORGANIC RESTAURANT

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

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

20 | MAY 9, 2018

SUDOKU

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

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

tclib.org

733-2164

L.A.TIMES “MOTHER’S DAY” By AMY JOHNSON

SUNDAY, MAY 13, 2018

ACROSS

1 Stops up 5 Some shells 9 Blokes 14 Bee’s landing place 19 Abbr. covering unlisted items 20 Part of the rural scenery 21 Yoga term meaning “force” 22 Elevate 23 Foppish fed?

26 National capital on Cape Verde 27 Dr. __ Hahn on “Grey’s Anatomy” 28 Best possible 29 They hang at parties 31 Word from the French for “little wing” 33 Tech tutorials site 35 Dadaism pioneer 36 Federal hush-hush org.

37 Hotel housekeeper’s concern?

41 Easter entrée 44 Rockies roamer 45 Some HDTVs 46 Like San Francisco’s Coit Tower 47 It’s everything, they say 50 1910s conflict 53 Spike with films 54 “Two mints in one” sloganeer 55 Brazen 56 Muppets watchers 58 Muppets’ address, briefly 61 Upscale retailer 62 Gave a leg up 65 Rattler’s weapon 66 Air pump letters 67 Woman’s surprise party for her kids’ kids?

70 Edwards, e.g.: Abbr.

73 Net, but not Jet or Met 75 Like some massages 76 Bitter __ 77 Certain dietary abstinence

80 Civil War topper 81 Part of a squirrel’s stash 83 __ for the ride 84 BOLO equivalent 87 Old atlas letters 88 Burdens 89 Plentiful 90 Potato often used for fries 93 Pub stickers 95 Slangy assent 96 “One man’s trash ... ”?

99 Toss in 102 IRS convenience 104 Like four-leaf clovers 105 The one that got away 107 “Do tell!”

111 Shot in the dark 113 Openings for Tolkien and Rowling?: Abbr.

114 Nursery rhyme dieter 115 Sniffle over some Austen?

118 Hanukkah fare 119 Sporty old Ford 120 So 121 Beginning to bat?

122 Lessened 123 Jack of “The Wizard of Oz” 124 Celine of pop 125 Staff notation

15 16 17 18 24

High school hurdles Ask for a doggie bag?

Banned orchard spray P.O. box fillers Copies made on onionskin, probably 25 Word with fast or passing 30 Baseball stats 32 Informal science 34 Big name in nonstick cookware 38 Unit of force 39 Scrabble vowel value 40 Bartender’s array 42 Fifth book of the New Testament 43 More than half 44 Unsuccessful swing 46 Test-drive car, e.g.

47 Recipe meas.

48 Some S&L plans 49 Frequent February craft project?

51 “The __ are lovely, dark and deep”: Frost 52 “Who’s there?” reply 54 House prop 57 Really bombed 59 First name in ramp-to-ramp jumping DOWN 60 Univ. term 1 Hardly dignify 62 You may hum a few 2 Pioneering game consoles 63 Trio of asses?

3 Heavy envelope makeup 64 Bikini specs 4 Pizza purchase 67 Funk band Kool & 5 Monkey in “Aladdin” the __ 6 Places to tie up 68 Outdoorsy sort’s 7 “A horse, of course, of course” retailer 8 In a circle near a diamond 69 Dresser’s concern?

9 Skiers’ retreats 71 Harmful gas outlet 10 Hesitate while speaking 72 Crunchy lunches 11 24-hr. banking spots 74 Nemesis 12 Old-style “Wicked!”

76 Favorable aspect 13 Riviera resort 77 What prices may do 14 Know-it-all 78 Wiesel with a Nobel

79 81 82 85 86 90 91 92 94 96

Halloween staple Bait, often Hot wings chaser, perhaps Aspiring therapist’s maj.

Black or brown critter “No cellphone at dinner,” say Dig up Shakespearean genre Back in the day Unexpectedly and unhappily single 97 Starr-struck one?

98 Held 99 For each one 100 Tries to prevent 101 Pharaoh, for one 103 Space cadet 106 Egypt’s Sadat 107 Cartographer’s speck 108 Hollywood rating gp.

109 Sitcom that starred a singer 110 Windsurfing need 112 Wrapped wear 116 “Compton” album maker 117 Rouen rejection

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Icy Revelations Lessons and insights from Earth’s southernmost continent

BY CAROL MANN

The healing effects of pets have been extensively studied and written about both in rigorous academic research and in anecdotal reports. It’s exciting when research compliments, validates and even expands what we sense from our personal experiences.

Most studies verifying how powerfully pets contribute to the health of people of all ages are done with cats, dogs, birds and even with plants. One unique study involved giving each resident in a nursing home a single goldfish to care for and to have as their own. One tiny goldfish significantly decreased the levels of depression and loneliness for each resident. And the need for medication among the goldfish owners dropped 50 percent.

The opportunity to give and to receive love from all living things large

Our Partnership with the Greater Cosmos The following three universal principles reveal some of the key “rules of the game” related to how our consciousness interacts with the Universe. We can improve our lives by knowing how it works and applying them. Reflect, experiment, enjoy!

1.The Universe rearranges itself to accommodate our conscious and unconscious beliefs. We are in a 24/7 feedback loop with the Unified field. It brings events, people and opportunities into our lives based on the energy frequency of our thoughts, attitudes, actions and beliefs.

2. Events are neutral. How we interpret events, what meaning we project on to them makes the story, which the universe then responds to as described above in No. 1.

3. Life is not personal. The ego aspect of our psyche is what takes everything personally. The ego then makes up stories which take us on a diversionary ride. Your higher self, your heart and your soul bypass the ego as they know what’s in your highest good. 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

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.

MAY 9, 2018 | 21

One of the best ways to practice letting go of proclivities to judge comes from a teaching by Ram Dass, former Harvard professor, spiritual teacher and world renowned author of Be Here Now. Here is his teaching.

“When you go into the woods and you look at trees, you see all these different trees. Some are bent, some are straight, and there are all kinds of trees.

And you look at the trees and you allow it. You may see why a given tree is like it is, you sort of understand that if it didn’t

Even a Goldfish Could Heal

and small adds immeasurably to our well-being, as our love contributes to nature’s ability to thrive, as well.

| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

Suppressing Judgment

get enough light it grew in a particular way. And you don’t get all emotional about it; you just allow it. You simply appreciate the trees.

“The minute you get near people, you lose all that, and you are constantly saying about them they are too this or that, or they are not enough this or that.

You say the same things about yourself. The judging ego mind comes in.

So I practice turning people into trees, which means appreciating them just the way they are.”

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A

s the Antarctic ice sheet melts, the Earth is revealing some extraordinary chapters of our history.

Hundreds of scientists from around the world have been excavating the shrinking ice cap. They have reportedly found tablets that describe lost chapters of the history of Earth, the moon and mars. It is said that the remains of an extra-terrestrial mothership have also been discovered with well-preserved bodies of giant humans who stood 33 feet tall.

On the other side of the height spectrum, 600-million-year-old fossils of tiny humans have also been discovered there. These finds and more will likely continue to emerge rewriting human history and pushing back the settlement of our planet by intelligent beings millions of years. Stay tuned and stay resilient.

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| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

22 | MAY 9, 2018

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FREE WILL ASTROLOGY

BY ROB BREZSNY

TAURUS (April 20-May 20) Born under the sign of Taurus, Edmund Wilson was a renowned twentieth-century author and critic who wrote more than 30 books. He also served as editor for Vanity Fair and The New Republic, and influenced the work of at least seven major American novelists. When he was growing up, he spent most of his free time reading books: 16 hours a day during summer vacations. His parents, worried about his obsessive passion, bought him a baseball uniform, hoping to encourage him to diversify his interests. His response was to wear the uniform while reading books 16 hours a day. I trust you will be equally dedicated to your own holy cause or noble pursuit in the coming weeks, Taurus. You have cosmic clearance to be single-minded about doing what you love.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20) It’s possible you could pass for normal in the next three weeks; you might be able to fool a lot of people into thinking you’re an average, ordinary contributor to the dull routine. But it will be far healthier for your relationship with yourself if you don’t do such a thing. It will also be a gift to your less daring associates, who in my opinion would benefit from having to engage with your creative agitation and fertile chaos. So my advice is to reveal yourself as an imperfect work-in-progress who’s experimenting with novel approaches to the game of life. Recognize your rough and raw features as potential building blocks for future achievements.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) One of the advantages you get from reading my horoscopes is that I offer confidential information about the gods’ caprices and leanings. For example, I can tell you that Saturn—also known as Father Time—is now willing to allot you a more luxurious relationship with time than usual, on one condition: that you don’t squander the gift on trivial pursuits. So I encourage you to be discerning and disciplined about nourishing your soul’s craving for interesting freedom. If you demonstrate to Saturn how constructively you can use his blessing, he’ll be inclined to provide more dispensations in the future.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21) Love everyone twice as much and twice as purely as you ever have before. Your mental health requires it! Your future dreams demand it! And please especially intensify your love for people you allegedly already love but sometimes don’t treat as well as you could because you take them for granted. Keep this Bible verse in mind, as well: “Don’t neglect to show kindness to strangers; for, in this way, some, without knowing it, have had angels as their guests.”

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) After meditating on your astrological aspects for an hour, I dozed off. As I napped, I had a dream in which an androgynous angel came to me and said, “Please inform your Sagittarius readers that they should be callipygian in the next two weeks.” Taken back, my dreaming self said to the angel, “You mean ‘callipygian’ as in ‘having beautiful buttocks’?” “Yes, sir,” the angel replied.

“Bootylicious. Bumtastic. Rumpalicious.” I was puzzled.

“You mean like in a metaphorical way?” I asked. “You mean Sagittarians should somehow cultivate the symbolic equivalent of having beautiful buttocks?” “Yes,” the angel said. “Sagittarians should be elegantly well-grounded. Flaunt their exquisite foundation. Get to the bottom of things with flair. Be sexy badasses as they focus on the basics.” “OK!” I said.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) Now is a favorable time to discuss in elegant detail the semi-secret things that are rarely or never talked about.

It’s also a perfect moment to bring deep feelings and brave tenderness into situations that have been suffering from half-truths and pretense. Be aggressively sensitive, my dear Capricorn. Take a bold stand in behalf of compassionate candor. And as you go about these holy tasks, be entertaining as well as profound. The cosmos has authorized you to be a winsome agent of change.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18) In his 1931 painting The Persistence of Memory, Salvador Dali shows three clocks that seem to be partially liquefied, as if in the process of melting. His biographer Meredith Etherington-Smith speculated that he was inspired to create this surrealistic scene when he saw a slab of warm Camembert cheese melting on a dinner table. I foresee the possibility of a comparable development in your life, Aquarius. Be alert for creative inspiration that strikes you in the midst of seemingly mundane circumstances.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20) “My whole life is messed up with people falling in love with me,” said Piscean poet Edna St. Vincent Millay. She spoke the truth. She inspired a lot of adoration, and it stirred up more chaos than she was capable of managing.

Luckily, you will have fewer problems with the attention coming your way, Pisces. I bet you’ll be skilled at gathering the benefits and you’ll be unflummoxed by the pitfalls. But you’ll still have to work hard at these tasks. Here’s some help. Tip #1: Stay in close touch with how you really feel about the people who express their interest in you. Tip #2: Don’t accept gifts with strings attached. Tip #3: Just because you’re honored or flattered that someone finds you attractive doesn’t mean you should unquestioningly blend your energies with them.

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LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) These days, your friends and allies and loved ones want even more from you than they usually do. They crave more of your attention, more of your approval, more of your feedback. And that’s not all. Your friends and allies and loved ones also hope you will give more love to yourself. They will be excited and they will feel blessed if you express an even bigger, brighter version of your big, bright soul. They will draw inspiration from your efforts to push harder and stronger to fulfill your purpose here on Planet Earth.

resourceful in drawing on an old resource. The past will have offerings that could benefit your future.

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CANCER (June 21-July 22) “Paradise is scattered over the whole earth,” wrote the scientific poet Novalis, “and that is why it has become so unrecognizable.” Luckily for you, Cancerian, quite a few fragments of paradise are gathering in your vicinity. It’ll be like a big happy reunion of tiny miracles all coalescing to create a substantial dose of sublimity. Will you be ready to deal with this much radiance? Will you be receptive to so much relaxing freedom? I hope and pray you won’t make a cowardly retreat into the trendy cynicism that so many people mistake for intelligence. (Because in that case, paradise might remain invisible.) Here’s my judicious advice: Be insistent on pleasure! Be voracious for joy! Be focused on the quest for beautiful truths!

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ARIES (March 21-April 19)

MAY 9, 2018 | 23

The Torah is a primary sacred text of the Jewish religion. It LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22) Vincent van Gogh’s painting The Starry Night hangs on a consists of exactly 304,805 letters. When specially trained wall in New York’s Museum of Modern Art. He created it scribes make handwritten copies for ritual purposes, they in 1889 while living in a French asylum. Around that same must not make a single error in their transcription. The time, 129 years ago, a sheepherder in Wyoming created a work may take as long as 18 months. Your attention to sourdough starter that is still fresh today. A cook named detail in the coming weeks doesn’t have to be quite so Lucille Clarke Dumbrill regularly pulls this frothy mass of painstaking, Aries, but I hope you’ll make a strenuous yeast out of her refrigerator and uses it to make pancakes. effort to be as diligent as you can possibly be.

In the coming weeks, Libra, I’d love to see you be equally Go to RealAstrology.com for Rob Brezsny’s expanded weekly audio horoscopes and daily text-message horoscopes. Audio horoscopes also available by phone at 877-873-4888 or 900-950-7700.

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| PLANET JACKSON HOLE |

24 | MAY 9, 2018

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