The Durango Telegraph, Feb. 18, 2021

Getting plowed since 2002

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Feb. 18, 2021 Vol. XX, No. 7 durangotelegraph.com

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T H E

O R I G I N A L

I N D I E

W E E K L Y

L I N E

O N

D U R A N G O

&

B E Y O N D

Loaded words

Clearing the air

Reap what you sew

When freedom of speech crosses into tyranny p4

Durango effort sends stoves to Nepalese villages p9

Why oat milk is outstanding in the field p11

Back in the flow

Issue 15 of The Gulch is here!

Wherever you find the Telegraph or at www.gulchmag.com.

To find out about advertising opportunities or to get a subscription, email: steve@gulchmag.com

2 n Feb. 18, 2021

telegraph

lineup

4

4 La Vida Local

When shooting off one’s mouth leads to deadly consequences

4 Thumbin’ It

Loaded words

by David Feela

5 Word on the Street 6-7 Soapbox

8

Round 2

8 State News

Here’s what to expect – or not – from your second vaccine dose

9 Local News

by Andrea Dukakis/Colorado Public Radio

11 Flash in the Pan

9

Ear to the ground: “I’m going to start a winter driving school for all of the Texas tourists. I’ll make millions!”

– Local man looking to profit from teaching southern state drivers how to cope with snowy driving conditions

thepole

RegularOccurrences

Good QRma The days of scrawling your name and phone number with a Sharpie on your gear are over. A Boise-based company has come up with a techage solution to the age-old problem of lost or yard-saled gear.

For $3.99, Karmik Outdoors will send you a QR code decal for all your most precious toys.

The unique code will trace you gear back to you, all with a simple smart phone scan (provided, of course, that whomever finds your flotsam, jetsam and improperly secured roof items is a believer in gear karma in the first place.)

“We understand how it feels to lose expensive and sentimental outdoor gear,” the company writes on its website. “The inherent goodness of

12-13 Stuff to Do

Breath of fresh air

13 Ask Rachel

Durango sends stoves to Nepalese villages to help with air quality

by Missy Votel

14 Free Will Astrology 15 Classifieds 15 Haiku Movie Review

11

Reap what you sew

On the cover: Andrew Temple proves that lowangle skiing in the backcountry is still totally awesome./Photo by Stephen Eginoire

Why oat milk is outstanding in its field

boilerplate

by Ari LeVaux

EDITORIALISTA: Missy Votel (missy@durangotelegraph.com)

STAR-STUDDED CAST: Lainie Maxson, David Feela, Ari LeVaux, Shan Wells & Clint Reid

REAL WORLD ADDRESS: 679 E. 2nd Ave., Ste E2 Durango, CO 81301

ADVERTISING AFICIONADO: Lainie Maxson (lainie@durangotelegraph.com)

MAILING ADDRESS: P.O. Box 332 Durango, CO 81302

PHONE: 970-259-0133 E-MAIL: telegraph@durangotelegraph.com

STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER: Stephen Eginoire (steve@gulchmag.com)

VIRTUAL ADDRESS: www.durangotelegraph.com

MAIL DELIVERY AND SUBSCRIPTIONS: $3.50/issue, $150/year

distributed in the finest and most discerning locations throughout the greater Durango area.

We’re only human. If, by chance, we defame someone’s good name or that of their family, neighbor, best

friend or dog, we will accept full responsibility in a public flogging in the following week’s issue.

Although “free but not easy,” we can be plied with schwag, booze and flattery.

T

he Durango Telegraph publishes every Thursday, come hell, high water, beckoning singletrack or monster powder days. We are wholly owned and operated independently by the Durango Telegraph LLC and

telegraph

One of Karmik Outdoors’ waterproof and traceable QR code decals on a precious – and oft lost – Sawyer oar. those in our outdoor recreation communities is noble. We believe that getting your lost outdoor recreation gear back and building a trusting community of outdoorsmen and women ought to be as easy as scanning a QR code.”

The folks at Karmik said they even went so far as to field test the company product on their own beloved gear. “To test our decals we ‘lost’ our own gear around our home waters and public lands. What’s cool is that we got it back!”

According to the company, the testing phase showed a 78 percent return rate.

In addition to the warm fuzzy karmic rewards, folks who find and return gear using the codes also get a reward from Karmik, anything from an entry for free gear to Karmik-branded swag. Alternately, “losers” can opt to give “finders” rewards as well.

The “extremely durable” decals come with an extra strong adhesive, are 100 percent waterproof/ weatherproof, and resistant to UV, heat, salt, corrosion and fading. They’re available in two styles: high-viz and nonreflective, for more stealth applications. To learn more, go to: karmikoutdoors.com.

Feb. 18, 2021 n

3

opinion

LaVidaLocal Loaded language Usually I can see how harsh reality is gilded with a precious layer of the absurd, but what happened Jan. 6 in our nation’s capitol has left me uneasy: five dead and a mob of terrorists still loose, still threatening more violence.

Back in 2016, before the shadow of a Trump presidency dimmed the critical thinking of nearly half our voting population, Trump couldn’t resist boasting: “They say I have the most loyal people – did you ever see that? Where I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters. It’s like incredible.”

Maybe he was just saying the idea out loud to explore its impact, repeating perhaps a few bytes of social media hype to test how it charged his audience. His followers surely believed he was praising them, but if you reread what he said more carefully, his boast already disclosed his obsession, not with loyalty to his followers but with his own power to manipulate their votes. He wouldn’t actually shoot somebody, would he? Except for his rhetoric, he’s not a killer?

Except for his rhetoric.

Words have a trajectory. Whatever is said has a target, intended or not, and repetition magnifies velocity. The late John Lennon once playfully remarked during a 1966 interview that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus. The British public chuckled at the comparison, because rock music had topped the charts with unprecedented popularity. Rock was on a roll.

But when Lennon’s words appeared in the American media, a bevy of Christians – especially in the South – took issue. Radio stations refused to play the Beatles’ music. Bonfires incinerated the Beatles in effigy, their albums and their photos. These people felt the Blasphemous Four needed to be taught a lesson in humility.

Lennon offered an apology and tried to clarify what he’d meant, but it’s nearly impossible to take your words back once you’ve uttered them: “If I had said television is more popular than Jesus, I might have got away with it, but I just happened to be talking to a friend and I used the word ‘Beatles’... I said it in that way which is the wrong way.”

Trump is hardly equivalent to the Beatles. He rejects the notion of accepting responsibility for anything gone wrong, making public apologies or even acknowledging the collateral damage his rhetoric inflicts. In his mind, it’s all a sign of weakness. His career has been based on incendiary speech. While cam-

paigning for president in 2016 all the way to leaving office in 2021, he has spawned a hatch of over 74 million misdirected irritations. Many of them are still itching for a fight. Some still think a second, or third, or even fourth assault on America might be the charm, and his non-nuanced mob-triggered chants, posters and T-shirts hit like bullets with point blank accuracy.

According to the online Free dictionary, to “shoot (one’s) mouth off” is to speak without discretion; to speak too loudly or freely, especially about sensitive topics or information.

It would be perverse to suggest that Trump is the only person in America with this problem. But as president, elevated to the nation’s highest office, his language possesses the range of artillery. He has the power to choose his words and to soothe the beast he created. Instead, he settles for inciting sedition against our Constitution and our democratic principles of law. His obsession with authority only works if he can stoke our nation’s fear, intensify its anger and further divide the country. What better strategy than pointing his scattergun at our nation’s Capitol and pulling the trigger.

Trump and his supporters defend themselves by kissing the flag and leaning on the Constitution’s first amendment, claiming free speech is their armor, their protection. While the Constitution protects citizens, prohibiting our government’s assault on what we say, it does not abide spreading conspiracies, threats and lies intended to mislead, intimidate or do harm.

That’s not what free speech is about, that’s a strategy for tyranny.

Trial by fire is how we tragically learned that a man without a whit of political experience becomes an ineffective leader.

Trump’s obvious lack of knowledge about how government works cannot be overstated. His primitive knowledge of the Constitution and disdain for what he has sworn an oath to uphold as president is a dismal reminder that we can no longer believe in a solemn promise to guarantee a peaceful transition of power.

Trump will have had a four-year education at public expense on what the Constitution actually says and how law actually works. If we do not constitutionally bar him from taking public office once more, we will perhaps render our democracy a deadly disservice. If Trump the private citizen ever sets his sights on the White House again, opening his mouth to decry how unfairly he’s been treated, let us pray his rhetoric goes unheeded and he only manages to shoot himself in the foot.

Sign of the Downfall:

Thumbin’It American Airlines announcing the return of daily flights from Durango to Los Angeles starting this June Mikaela Shiffrin earning the distinction of American’s most decorated alpine skier – male or female – after winning her sixth world championship Monday in Italy, her ninth world medal overall Longtime resident Walt Dear donating $10,000 to the Cristian Korte Memorial Swim Fund to provide swim lessons to kids in honor of his friend Bill Palmer, a Durango swim coach who died last year at age 82

4 n Feb. 18, 2021

– David Feela

Republican state senators attempting to undermine Colorado’s “gold standard” mail-in voting system with the so-called “Improve Public Confidence in Election Validity” bill, which would actually reduce access to mail ballots Adverse weather across much of the country delaying the shipment of COVID vaccines from Tennessee to Colorado and causing widespread blackouts and deaths Scammers trying to cash in on the pandemic, with a sharp rise in unemployment insurance fraud last year, with 1 million fraudulent claims filed in Colorado

telegraph

ICE ICE Bologna Border Patrol agents in Texas kept up their crusade to keep America safe by confiscating and destroying 200 pounds of highly illegal Mexican bologna last week, which is a good thing because Mexicans use only a fraction of the cancerous chemicals in their processed meat than we use in the states. The evil-doer (who somehow got lunchmeat past Trump’s wall) was a 49-year-old man from Albuquerque who attempted to smuggle the snacks in the hatchback of a Nissan Rogue. He ended up with a $500 fine instead, which is the wurst thing that happened.

WordontheScreen

Q

With Mardi Gras (not) taking place this week, the Telegraph asked, “What would you do for some Mardi Gras beads?”

Jeremy

“Flash my chest hair?”

Tara

“I guess if I really wanted them, I’d go buy them. #adult.”

Louisa

“A dance, covered in glitter, to ‘Green Light’ by Lorde in downtown Durango.

Actually I would do that for free.”

Andrew

“I would be willing to do just about anything, up to and including some very meaningful hand-holding.”

Zach

“I’d quit drinking and turn my life around.” telegraph

Feb. 18, 2021 n 5

SoapBox Highlights of another Super Bore To the editor, Super Bowl LV was a game of firsts and not just because it was played during a pandemic or the first to have a team – Tampa Bay – playing in its home stadium. And, it came with a lot of other first, as well: 1. Sarah Thomas, the first woman official in the NFL, became the first woman to officiate in the Super Bowl.

2. Two women, Lori Locust and Maral Javadifar, hold full-time coaching positions for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. They were not the first women coaches in the Super Bowl; that was last year when Katie Sowers coached for the San Francisco 49ers. However, they were the first two women to coach and win the Big Game.

3. Laurent Duvernay-Tardif, guard for the Kansas City Chiefs, was the first NFL player to opt out of the 2020 season deferring his salary of $2.75 million. Instead, he used his medical doctor degree to work at a long-term healthcare facility in his native Quebec, saying fighting the pandemic was more important than playing football.

4. Amanda Gorman, who is suddenly everywhere, became the first poet to perform at the Super Bowl. A poet at the Super Bowl? That’s mind-boggling.

5. Bruce Springsteen appeared in his first commercial ever, a heartfelt but sappy, two-minute call for unity, presented by ... Jeep!

And, finally, another lopsided Super Bore and yet another Tom Brady victory. Sadly, or not, depending on your level of Tom-love, these two are not firsts.

– john van becay, via email

The frosting on the poop pie To the editor, Now that the Trump chaos has moved on, his legend will surely include some of his more endearing qualities:4

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• He told a total of 30,375 lies in public; 10 on his first day in office; five on his second day; 107 on the day he incited the overthrow of democracy on Jan. 6, 2021.

• He played golf on 334 days of “work.”

• Trump charged taxpayers $3 for every glass of tap water served at Mar-a-Lago when the president of China met there with him.

• He told the people in his TV tent, while watching his mob storm our Capitol, that he was “upset at the low class of his supporters.”

• The frosting to his poop pie is the loss of more than 4000,000 citizens to a pandemic costing survivors more than $17 trillion in just 10 months – all due to Trump’s lies and lack of conscience.

• The morally and mentally deficient con man has already made history as America’s worst president, but his deeds will be with us for a long time.

– Susan Troen, Durango

Institute national paper ballots

McCorry stands for justice, equity

To the editor, The American people have found themselves in a precarious position – Democrats, who have won a trifecta, seem powerless to enact much of their agenda. We ended up in this situation because our democracy was designed to give tremendous power to a small minority, and Republicans have spent decades exploiting that power to entrench their rule over the majority. Voter suppression. Gerrymandering. Buying elections. Even now, following historic voter turnout by Black and brown voters in states like Georgia, Texas and Arizona, Republican-led legislatures are working to add additional barriers to accessing the ballot box.

That’s why our first priority should be fixing our democracy and ensuring that structural reform rebalances power for the people before it’s too late. We need Congress to pass H.R. 1, the “For the People Act,” to get money out of politics, expand voting rights, combat corruption, secure our elections, and much more. These reforms to our democracy are pivotal to preventing fu-

To the editor, Durango is fortunate to have nine civic-minded individuals interested in running for City Council. It is particularly fortunate that one of those is Lisa McCorry. Lisa is a highly principled individual who makes decisions thoughtfully and carefully, staying grounded in her values for fairness, justice and equity. Her background includes work in a small family business and in education, and she has both practical knowledge and forward-thinking perspective. When Lisa commits to something, she dedicates herself to giving it her best, consistently being open to learning and seeking opportunities to make a positive impact.

Durango is a wonderful place with many assets, but also a city with challenges. We need someone like Lisa McCorry to lead us in taking actions that preserve that which is best in our town, while proactively dealing with those things that are problematic.

– Bonnie Miller, Durango

To the editor, I’m proud that Colorado makes use of hand-marked paper ballots, and I support a national requirement for 100 percent hand-marked, hand-counted, verifiable elections. We don’t have that now, and some ballot-marking devices are not verifiable.

We all agree that we need to fix this. However, every lawsuit brought about the 2020 election was thrown out, even by Trump-appointed judges. He was allowed all appeals. Once those failed, he attempted to manipulate his followers to attack our legislative branch. Police officers died. Convicting him for this will allow other Republican leaders to emerge.

– Laurie Roberts, Durango

Fixing a badly broken democracy

ture tyrants. The Democratic House passed H.R.1 last year, with every Democrat voting yes. It’s time for the new Democratic majority in the Senate to do the same.

Americans took the first step to heal our democracy by overwhelmingly voting Trump out of office. Now Congress must do its part to fix our badly broken democracy and pass H.R. 1, the For the People Act. – Margaret Cozine, Durango

Meatlessness is next to Godliness To the editor, I miss Mardi Gras. I miss being in crowds on Fat Tuesday. I’m hoping for a speedy recovery from the pandemic so we can all congregate again.

After Fat Tuesday, Lent begins. Lent is the 40-day period before Easter when Christians stop eating meat and dairy in remembrance of Jesus’ 40 days of reflection. As a Christian, Lent has meaning to me.

For me, I already don’t eat meat and dairy. My plantbased diet helps reduce chronic diseases, environmental degradation, and animal abuse. Countless reports have linked consumption of animal products with risk of heart failure, stroke, cancer and other diseases. A U.N. report named meat production as a source of greenhouse gases and water pollution. Investigations have revealed animals raised for food under horrible conditions of caging, crowding, drugging, and mutilation. These actions go against what I believe.

Lent offers an opportunity to honor Jesus’ powerful message of compassion and love for all living beings, stop subsidizing the meat industry, and choose a nonviolent plant-based diet. It’s a diet that goes back to The Bible (Genesis I:29) and was observed in the Garden of Eden.

Enter “plant-based Lent” in Google and explore hundreds of meat-free recipes.

– Dante Gomez, Durango

Looking for attention (but in a good way?)

The Telegraph can help you get your message out there – all via perfectly legal means.

For more information, email: lainie@durangotelegraph.com or call 970-259-0133

telegraph

Feb. 18, 2021 n 7

StateNews

Shot in the dark What to expect when you’re expecting (your second dose of COVID vaccine)

by Andrea Dukakis Colorado Public Radio

D

an Jones, 44, nursed a sore arm after his first COVID-19 vaccine, but other than that, he felt fine. The second dose hit the Denver doctor like a Mack truck.

“About eight hours after ... I started to have symptoms like chills, headache, muscle aches and joint pains,” he said. “That night I did not sleep very well and when I woke up the next morning, I still felt pretty poor.”

Jones, of Denver, went to work anyway and felt better the following evening. But some of his fellow doctors and nurses felt even worse. “(They) were unable to work after their second dose, so I think it is good to plan your following day so that you can be home if that's possible for you,” Jones said.

Like most physicians, Jones believes the benefits of the COVID-19 vaccine far outweigh those temporary side-effects and the potentially lethal dangers of contracting the virus.

The question is, how to explain this to those of his patients already hesitant to get the vaccine. Jones’ answer is to be upfront with his patients, even sharing the details of his own unpleasant experience “so that if they have reservations, we can talk through that.”

Jones said it’s not surprising that some people, especially minorities who have a history of distrust of the health-care system, would be fearful of a vaccine developed so rapidly when most vaccines require years to bring to the market.

“They have concerns about receiving the vaccine, mostly because of the newness,” Jones said. “They don't have a lot of information that didn't come from social media and other internet sources.”

To balance his own unpleasant vaccine experience, Jones sometimes shares the experience of his wife, Crystal Joy, 41, who’s a psychologist. Joy has received both of her doses of the COVID-19 vaccine; she had only a minor headache after the first shot which she said may or may not have been triggered by the vaccine. She felt fine after the second and went out for a 5-mile run that same day.

On the other hand, Joy said, her husband’s side-effects were striking, despite the

Dr. Dan Jones, of Denver, gets his first dose of COVID-19 vaccine Dec. 24, 2020.

The second shot created side effects including headache, muscle aches and joint pain. However, his wife, also a doctor, did not suffer any side effects from her second dose./Courtesy photo fact that, in her view, he has a history of not being very tough when he’s sick.

“He said he had aches in his joints, which

is something I've never heard him say and we've been together now for over 16 years,” Joy said. “He said his hips hurt and I've never

heard him talk about his hips before.”

Studies show about a half to two-thirds of patients have symptoms like aches, chills and headaches after the second COVID-19 vaccine but those symptoms are mild to moderate.

Dr. Fernando Holguin, a pulmonary and critical care physician at Anschutz Medical Campus, said the studies reflect what he’s seen.

“There were no hospitalizations related to these events and people recover in one to two days,” Holguin said.

He said the symptoms pale in comparison to those who get hit hard with COVID-19.

“You're not going to land in the hospital, you're not going to have shortness of breath,” Holguin said.

Holguin said a very small percentage of people allergic to one of the compounds in the vaccine will have more severe side-effects but anyone who gets vaccinated is required to wait for 15 minutes after the shot to ensure they receive medical treatment if needed.

For those who do experience aches and pains, Dr. Holguin recommends over-thecounter medication like Tylenol or Advil, but not before the shots. Some researchers have questioned over the years whether pain relievers taken in advance might reduce the effectiveness of vaccines, but research has found no correlation. Still, just to be safe, doctors suggest waiting to see if you have side effects before treating them.

The post-vaccine side-effects may be a sign that the body’s immune system is kicking in, but Dr. Holguin said people should simply consider themselves lucky if they don’t have side-effects.

“There's absolutely no correlation between how severe your symptoms are from the vaccine and how effective it is,” he said.

Dr. Holguin also said those getting the vaccine should consider the power of the placebo effect. Holguin was part of the Moderna trial and said he had aches and chills following both injections. He found out later he was part of the placebo group and had only been injected with saline.

“The brain is incredibly powerful but that doesn’t mean you’re crazy,” Dr. Holguin said. “It means for people already worried about what they're going to experience, it may influence how they feel.”

For more news from Colorado Public Radio, go to www.cpr.org. n

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thesecondsection Head Sherpa Pasang Nuppa with but a few of the 150 stoves that were recently delivered to the Bhotkola region of northeastern Nepal. The stoves, which totalled $500 each, were paid for through donations from the locally based Bhotia Foundation, run

by Himalayan Restaurant owners Karma and Jyamu Bhotia./ Courtesy photo

When the smoke clears Durango donations help bring stoves to remote Nepalese villages

by Missy Votel

W

e’ve all heard the old adage, “where there’s smoke there’s fire.” But the reverse is also true: where there’s fire, there’s smoke. And soot, irritated eyes and constricted airways.

This is something Durangoan Julie Korb learned firsthand during a 2019 trip to Nepal. Korb, along with her husband and three children, friend Stephanie McGee and her husband, local herbalist Deb Swanson, and Karma and Jyamu Bhotia traveled to the small country as part of a service trip with the nonprofit Bhotia Foundation. The group visited Jyamu’s home village of Chyamtang to discuss women’s health issues, something that is often taboo there, as well as offer up herbal remedies using Swanson’s expertise and Korb’s background as a biology professor at Fort Lewis College.

However, upon arrival, they discovered a whole other set of challenges. The Nepalese tradition is to have open fires inside their homes, for warmth, cooking and religious reasons. But these same fires that had helped sustain them spiritually and physically for millennia were also doing harm.

Korb, who suffers from asthma, described the inside of the homes as similar to what Durangoans’ experienced during the Missionary Ridge and 416 fires. “It was like when the smoke would drop at night and it would be so, so thick even inside our houses,” said Korb. “They live with it 24/7. It’s so damaging, everyone is breathing this intense smoke.”

Often, Korb would have to leave homes she was in-

A villager carries his new stove, which weighs around 300 pounds, back to his home using the traditional porter’s headstrap./Courtesy photo vited into because she couldn’t breathe. And she wasn’t alone – many of the villagers suffered ill effects from the smoke as well, from vision problems to respiratory ailments like asthma.

For Jyamu, making the village smoke-free had been a long-term goal. And now, thanks to the generosity of

telegraph

local donors, the smoke that has long been a necessary but detrimental part of life in these remote villages is finally clearing. Last month, some 150 custom-made castiron stoves were delivered to Chyamtang and other nearby villages in the country’s northeastern Bhotkola region, about 15 miles south of Mount Everest.

“It’s been so life-changing,” said Korb. “We thought, ‘What’s the one thing we can do that will have the biggest impact on their lives?’ It was providing those stoves in those homes.”

The stoves, which cost $350 each plus another $150 per stove for the rugged 400-mile journey from Kathmandu, were paid for in part with $25,000 in donations to the Bhotia Foundation. The funds stemmed from a fund-raiser in November 2019, which featured a short but moving documentary by McGee detailing the smoky living conditions.

“Without (Stephanie) being able to convey visually the impact smoke was having on people in the villages, I truly don't think Jyamu's dream of having, ‘Chyamtang smoke free’ would have happened so soon,” said Korb.

However, perhaps the biggest contributor to having the stove idea catch fire was buy-in from the villagers themselves. For the Nepalese, fire is a sacred part of their culture. Many, especially the elders, do not trust a fire they cannot see, let alone one in a strange metal box foisted upon them by a foreigner. As Korb explains, similar projects to provide stoves elsewhere around the world have failed, with the modern contraptions often sitting unused outside the homes of leery villagers.4 Feb. 18, 2021 n

9

Nepal from p. 9

But in Chyamtang, things were different.

The villagers were the ones who approached Korb and the group about getting stoves. Upon leaving, two porter families requested money to buy stoves across the border in China. Two men hiked some 60 miles round-trip, lugging the 300-pound stoves home on their backs, using nothing more than traditional headstraps.

Korb tells the story of a grandmother in one of the families, who, despite having her eyesight damaged so badly by smoke over the years, was still skeptical of the stove.

“She didn’t like the stove because she couldn’t see the flames,” said Korb. But eventually, as the smoke abated, her eyesight returned.

“Her eyes no longer hurt,” Korb said. “It was kind of this transformation.”

Eventually, the grandmother came to see the light, so to speak, and word about the life-changing technology got out.

“As others in the community saw how it had changed their lives, they began saying, ‘I want one of those,’” Korb said. “Everyone wants stoves now. I think because it came from within, they embraced it.”

In addition to the health benefits of the stoves, Korb said they have been beneficial in other ways. In the Nepalese culture, females are tasked with tending to the fire all day in addition to gathering the wood.

Young girls must travel several miles a day and haul back huge baskets of wood to feed the fires – a time and calorie-consuming

10 n Feb. 18, 2021

Jyamu Bhotia in the home of her aunt and uncle in her village of Chyamtang in 2019. Jyamu’s wish has been a “smoke-free” village. Nepalese use traditional open fires, seen here, in their homes for heat, food and religious reasons./ Courtesy photo job. But the more efficient stoves only require tending every few hours and burn about a quarter of the wood that an open fire would, thus helping to alleviate deforestation as well.

“By having these stoves, it gives women so much power. They’re not working such long days. It’s not a full-time job tending the fires for these grandmas,” said Korb.

The stoves were custom designed with input from Karma, who had them specially fitted with a pipe to deliver hot water to the homes as well. “Now they have hot water

without boiling,” Korb said.

The next step, of course, is learning to cook on the stoves, something Karma, who owns Durango’s Himalayan Restaurant, envisions doing once the pandemic is over.

Remarkably enough, Chyamtang is so isolated that the coronavirus has not reached it. However, plans by both China and India to continue to build roads in the region – the same roads that helped facilitate the delivery of the stoves – could change all that.

It’s part of the double-edged sword of Western influence in the name of

telegraph

“progress” on remote, indigenous cultures.

With the good can come the bad, something Korb admits to grappling with.

“It’s hard because you want them to preserve their culture, but you don’t want them to suffer from diseases like asthma that are so preventable,” said Korb.

But in the end, she said it was a latenight Facebook messages from one of the villagers that reinforced her efforts (and the modern paradox that a remote village without stoves can get wi-fi). It was from Pasang Nuppa, the head Sherpa from their trip who has multiple Everest trips under his belt. He had just returned from delivering 150 of the “improve smoke” stoves to Chyamtang and the neighboring villages of Lingama and Gumba. “Thank you very much for your kindly helping hands,” his message said.

For Korb, whose year, in addition to COVID, also saw daughter, Amara, 13, battle leukemia (now in remission), it was especially good news. “Life is so heavy,” she said.

“It feels good to see something uplifting and positive; that something this amazing and beautiful happened in this time of despair.”n

How to help All proceeds donated to the Bhotia Foundation go directly to villagers in Nepal. To donate to the stove project, or any of the foundation’s other projects such as the hot lunch program for school children, go to www.bhotiafoundation.org. If you would like your funds go to a particular program, please specify which one in your donation.

FlashinthePan

Taking aim at sacred cows

by Ari LeVaux

I

n what was perhaps the most unusual and divisive Superbowl ad of the year, the CEO of Oatly, which makes oatbased foods and heavily promotes the oatbased lifestyle, sang two verses in a field of oats. Over, and over again. “It’s like milk, but made for humans. Wow, wow, no cow,” sang Toni Petersson. His voice – well, he shouldn’t quit his day job – but like the commercial it wasn’t quite off-key.

The next day, as people sparred over whether the jingle was any good, or what it was even about, the catchy lyric wormed deeper into everyone’s head, even the milk-fed haters. It probably encouraged people to give Oatly a shot, for any number of reasons, while keeping expectations low. By any standard, the commercial was a success.

There is a lot of inside baseball for the food and agriculture nerds to geek out on in that catchy lyric. It references, of course, the dairy industry’s decades-long campaign to push the FDA to enforce its very delicious-sounding definition of milk: “The lacteal secretion, practically free from colostrum, obtained by the complete milking of one or more healthy cows.”

FDA also recognizes goat’s milk and sheep’s milk, and the dairy industry is fine with that, but not with the use of milk for beverages made with nuts and grains.

There are signs the dairy industry might be winning, as FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb recently telegraphed in a 2018 interview, “An almond doesn’t lactate, I will confess.” Meanwhile, the Supreme Court’s recent rulings suggest a First Amendment approach could benefit the grain and nut milkers. The situation is fluid. And milky.

Petersson’s little croon uses this legal and semantic scuffle to promote his milky stuff as superior to bovine lacteal secretions because it’s been engineered specifically for humans, while “milk” is created by mother cows for baby cows. Since the Superbowl, Oatly’s Oat-Milk has been renamed Oat Drink. Why not “oat juice,” I wonder?

Whatever we call it, the milky beverage made from oats has a leg up on most other nut- and grain-based milky drinks because it has this amazing viscosity, thanks partly to beta-glucans, a type of soluble fiber. And vegan coffee drinkers are coming around to it as the latte milk of choice.

The raising of cows and consumption

of milk and meat, of course, are problematic for a host of environmental and ethical reasons, and the impact of cattle includes all of the acres of corn and soy that’s grown to fatten it. This, of course, is part of the excitement conveyed by Petersson’s song’s climax: “wow, wow, no cow.” By making oat juice directly from grains, we can cut the cows, and their greenhouse gases, out of the loop.

Washington Post food and agriculture columnist Tamar Haspel has gone deeply into the weeds on the advantages of mixing other crops like oats into the rotation, in terms of crop yields, soil health and pest management. She particularly likes oats because a bowl of oatmeal will set you back about a dime, which makes it an Earth-friendly way to feed a lot of people.

That bowl of oats contains an impressive amount of protein, minerals and, most famously, fiber. The daily bowl of oats, so known to keep the bowels regular, owes its effectiveness to beta-glucan which has been shown to improve cholesterol levels of both “bad” and “good” types, reduce blood sugar levels, improve gut microbial health and make you feel full.

All of that, and more, packed into a lit-

tle bitty song. And by creating a debate about its weird commercial, Oatly got those in the know to explain it to those late to the oaty party.

Meanwhile, the company has been at it for 30 years, giving it a significant head start on its competitors, whom, of course, put a target on its back.

Oatly’s rivals even forced the company to list added sugars in its oatmilk, even though no sugar is added. As part of its oat-milking process, Oatly uses enzymes to snip the long starch molecules found in oats into sweet little sugar molecules. By adding those enzymes, Oatly is essentially adding sugar, its accusers claim – sugar that was locked up in those oats. Wow, indeed.

Since I learned about Oatly’s enzymes, I’ve been obsessed with making my own oat drink. Oatly’s website offers a cheerful view of the planet if farms grew oats for people rather than corn and soy for cows, and lots of information on fiber. I figured they would want to help me in my quest to tell people how to make oat drink at home and reached out to the company. I promptly heard back from a bubbly “Sara,” who was grateful for my inquiry.

She cheerfully and apologetically declined to discuss the enzymes.

I began ordering enzymes, like amylase, the main enzyme in saliva, and several more digestive enzymes, and mixing them with water and oats that I’d pulverized in the Vitamix. My counter is littered with jars of milky fluids like the chemistry lab of a mad scientist. I was trying to imitate Oatly’s sweetness and creaminess, and my amylase did improve the sweetness.

But it was watery, not creamy, with a thick sediment at the bottom that I believed held the key to my missing creaminess.

That sludge makes oat drink nearly impossible to filter. Even a colander will clog. I once brought a jar of homemade oat drink on a car camping trip, and discovered that if you let it settle, you can just pour off the non-gunky part. I also found that you can use the gunk at the bottom to patch a punctured water jug, if necessary. The fibers are that strong. Especially, I presumed, those beta-glucans.

The quest for oatmilk will continue, and I am making progress, trust me. My wife thinks I’m crazy, but that just means I’m onto something. Just wait until my new enzymes arrive. n

Proudly serving Fahrenheit Coff ffe ee and Espresso!

Stock up on a fresh bag of coff ffe ee for home!

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Feb. 18, 2021 n 11

StufftoDo

Thursday18

possibilities for adapting management of wakeless use at Lake Nighthorse. Advance registration required.

Email rec@DurangoGov.org with name and primary area of interest at Lake Nighthorse (paddling, swimming, fishing, wakeboarding/water skiing or walking). Deadline to register is Fri., Feb. 19.

Gary B. Walker plays piano, 11a.m.-1 p.m., Jean-Pierre Bakery & Restaurant, 601 Main Ave. “The Emergence of Navajo Polychrome Ceramics,” zoom talk, 4 p.m.

Part of Crow Canyon’s Discover Archaeology Series. Register at www.crowcanyon.org

Animas High School Online Information Session, 5:30 p.m. via Google Meet at meet.google.com/iod-tzkm-scx.

7th annual Unchain my heART a multimedia virtual youth art show, opens 4-7 p.m. All art sales proceeds go directly to the artists. Exhibit runs thru March 4 at www.lpys.org

Ongoing PBS Afghanistan war correspondent Jane Ferguson talks with Telluride’s Original Thinkers Founder David Holbrooke on America’s longest running war. www.originalthinkers.com/ot-presents-janeferguson

Danielle Geller, author of Dog Flowers, 6:30 p.m., zoom talk on Geller’s memoir in which she returns to her mother’s home on the Navajo Reservation to better understand her family and its troubled history. Presented by Maria’s Bookshop. For link, go to mariasbookshop.com and click on “events.”

Deadline for “Stuff to Do” submissions is Monday at noon. To submit an item, email: calendar@durangotelegraph.com

“Garden Resiliency in a Time of Climate Change,” a zoominar by Darrin Parmenter, 6:30 p.m. Hosted by Animas Valley Grange. tinyurl.com/vgsnnhev

Manhattan Short Virtual Film Fest, thru Feb. 24. Come together with a worldwide audience to view and vote on seven short films. $10. www.manhattanshort.com.

Join the Durango Playfest’s Actor’s Journal as it honors Black HisThe Actor’s Journal celebrates Black History tory Month by streaming the works of eight extraordinary black Month, featuring the works of eight extraordinary actors. For info or tickets, go to: www.durangoplayfest.org black actors. Presented by Durango Playfest. Tickets at: www.durangoplayfest.org

Southwest Colorado Online Community Forum, 7-8 p.m. Presented by Colorado Working Families Party, the Colorado AFL-CIO, and United Today, Stronger Tomorrow to discuss everything and anything that’s on your mind. Register at: www.mobilize.us/co-wfp /event/374164/ “COVID-19 Vaccines: Essential Tools to End the Pandemic,” 7-8:30 p.m., zoominar by FLC Biology Professor Caroline Kulesza presented by the Lifelong Learning Lecture Series: tinyurl.com/2o6ltmsq

Friday19 Free La Plata County Virtual Legal Clinic, 4-5 p.m. To sign up, call: 970-563-9287.

Jack Ellis & Larry Carver play 5:30-8:30 p.m., Diamond Belle Saloon, 699 Main Ave.

Saturday20 Dave Spencer Ski Classic, annual fundraiser for the Adaptive Sports Association, Feb. 20-21, Purgatory. To register go to: asadurango.com

Monday22 Winter Bike to Work Week starts, and runs thru Feb. 26. Clean commuters can stop by the Transit Center to pick up a free Bike to Work Week swag bag while supplies last.

Meditation and Dharma Talk with Kate Siber, 5:30-7 p.m. Online at www.durangodharmacenter.org/ Rocky Mountain UkeFest online ukulele jam, 6 p.m. happy hour; music at 6:30 p.m. For info: rockymountainukefest.com

Tuesday23 7 Rivers Farmers Market, winter farmers market, 12-3 p.m. featuring local farmers, food vendors and artisans, La Plata County Fairgrounds. Masks and social distancing required.

“Roles of International Organizations in a Global Pandemic,” a virtual talk, 11:45 a.m. with moderator Benjamin Waddell. Presented by the 2021 Great Decisions International Affairs Discussion Program.

For link, visit www.lwvpaplata.org.

Pine Needle Langlauf, 9 a.m., skate ski marathon, Durango Nordic Center. www.durangonordic.org

Kelsie Borland, of The Hive DGO, virtual talk, 6 p.m. Since opening in 2019, The Hive’s mission has been to provide an inclusive, safe space for youth for creative expression and mentorship. Presented by the Rotary Club of Durango. For log-in, email: Mtnman16@gmail.com.

Sunday21

Wednesday24

Henry Stoy plays piano, 9 a.m.-12 p.m., Jean-Pierre Bakery & Restaurant, 601 Main Ave.

Lake Nighthorse Wakeless Public Engagement Meeting 2, 4:30-7 p.m. Virtual meeting to explore

Henry Stoy plays piano, 9 a.m.-12 p.m., Jean-Pierre Bakery & Restaurant, 601 Main Ave.

12 n Feb. 18, 2021

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Paws for Celebration online auction benefiting Parker’s Animal Rescue (formerly Lisa Parker’s Puppies) thru Sun., Feb. 21. For info., go to: parkersanimalrescue.com High Camp Hut Raffle, a fundraiser for the La Plata Open Space Conservancy, thru Feb. 26, 10 a.m. $10/ticket or $40/five. Learn more or buy tickets at www.lposc.org.

Durango Arts Center’s 11th annual 10–Minute Play Contest submission deadline Feb. 28. For guidelines, rules, schedule and link, visit: durangoarts.org/10-minute-play/.

Mountainfilm 2021 Early Bird passes on sale now for $100 thru March 15. Online festival runs May 31–June 6. www.mountainfilm.org. “daGeneral’s Wake Up Call” podcast series of local musicians hosted by Kirk James, tinyurl.com/y7yvb7al “Dinosaur Discoveries: Ancient Fossils, New Ideas,” a traveling exhibit from the American Museum of Natural History, Powerhouse Science Center. For gallery hours, go to: www.powsci.org.

Sunnyside and Fort Lewis Mesa libraries are open, providing books, movies, music, audio books and internet, Mon.-Fri., 2:30-7 p.m. or call 970-375-3816.

Curbside service also available.

Durango Public Library Weekly Activity Kits available for curbside pickup every Tuesday. Kits include supplies for one project for preschool, elementary and teen-age students. A new kit is released every Tuesday while supplies last. To request, email reference@Durango Gov.org or call 970-375-3380. 4

AskRachel

Pantry prejudice, genetic mutations & masked messages Interesting fact: Quaker Oats invented the recipeon-the-box and the prize-inside concepts. Maybe we should put them in charge of the masking initiative.

Dear Rachel, Yeah yeah, I know the old stereotype of white people saying “I’m not racist, but…” and usually they’re right. But… I have to ask, why are Aunt Jemimah and Uncle Ben racist? These seem like positive authority positions for anyone to be in, and no one has a problem with that Ben Franklin lookalike on the Quaker Oats canisters.

Taking them and their names off some delicious food products just feels excessive now. Can you explain to me how this is not a step too far?

– P.C. Overreach Dear Hungry Hungry Hypocrite, Ignorance leads to all kinds of suppositions and mistakes. Like for starters, that’s not a Ben Franklin lookalike on the oat canister. It’s a made-up figure that company insiders call Larry. Also, there’s not really a power dynamic at play for white people to use a white person to sell some food. I also just learned this: “aunt” and “uncle” were ways for crappy white people to avoid calling Black people “mister” and “missus.” Finally: use some real freaking maple syrup on your pancakes.

– Knowledge is power, Rachel Dear Rachel, How are we still debating nature vs. nurture when it’s clear neither one is true? Case in point: PIVOT: Skateboard Deck Art exhibit, over 100 skateboard decks painted by 30 different Native American artists, on view by appointment through spring 2021, Center of Southwest Studies, Fort Lewis College. swcenter.fortlewis.edu/

Upcoming Return to House of Rain” with Craig Childs, two-part mini-series zoom talk, Feb. 25, 4 p.m. Part of Crow Canyon’s Discover Archaeology Series. Also takes place Thurs., March 4. Register at www.crowcanyon.org Bike to Work Day, Feb. 26, pick up a list of participating businesses at the Transit Center and stop in for discounts, free bicycle safety checks and other goodies.

my family. Same genes, same household. Yet one of my sisters would have stormed the Capitol if she could have afforded the plane ticket, and the other one doesn’t wash her hands after changing her son’s diapers. These cannot be my siblings. What’s a new and better explanation?

– Face, Meet Palm Dear Family Matters, Demonic possession is back on the table. I got no better answer than that. Unless, of course, you want to buy into the crackpot idea that humans are each distinct and complex creatures, capable of interpreting identical stimuli in radically different ways and incorporating different survival mechanisms into an existence already distinguished by individual personality and free thought. So demons it is.

– Jump in my handbasket, Rachel Dear Rachel, I just heard the latest guidelines from the CDC is to wear two masks at the same time. What the actual f? Three masks are apparently too many, because air can’t get through so it will just go around. But one mask is not enough anymore? I am as hard-line pro-science as normal people can be, and even I am like, whoah, that’s too much to ask of me. People like my parents will stop wearing just one, if one isn’t even good enough anymore. What are they thinking, recommending something like this that will never happen?

– Face Off

Email Rachel at telegraph@durangotelegraph.com Dear Masked Menace, This reminds me of an old joke about why the Irish wear three condoms, but since I just espoused reasons not to be racist, I have learned my lesson and will not finish that here. There’s no accounting for people like your parents – or like you, frankly. But all I can suppose is that by asking people to wear two masks, the CDC simply hopes to bring the national average of masks-perperson up to an even number one.

– Read my lips, Rachel

Victoria Vox & Jack Maher online concert, Feb. 27, 7-10 p.m., part of the Community Concert Hall’s “Artists You Should Know Series.” For tickets, go to: www.durangoconcerts.com.

“Decarbonizing Transportation,” zoominar presented by FLC Lifelong Learning Lecture Series, Feb. 28, 7-8:30 p.m., featuring Mark Swanson, retired engineer at Intel, and Deborah Lycan, retired professor of Molecular Biology at Lewis & Clark College. tinyurl.com/2o6ltmsq Alpine Bank Full Moon Ho wler, Feb. 26, 6-9 p.m., Durango Nordic Center. Pass required, rentals available.

Telefestivus Telemark Festival, Feb. 27, Purgatory Resort. Featuring free demos.

Montezuma County Forest Fridays, Feb. 26; March 12 & 26, snowshoeing, cross country skiing, ice skating snow science, free to Montezuma County youth, grades 7-12.

Presented by San Juan Mountain Association, to register: sjma.org/learn/forest-fridays

Commemorative Ski Race, marking the 50th anniversary of the DHS Ski Team’s 1971 state championship, Feb. 27-28, Purgatory and the Durango Nordic Center.

Durango Devo spring registration opens Feb. 27, 7 a.m. at Durangodevo.com

Weston Snowboards Demo Day, Feb. 27-28, Purgatory Resort.

Deadline for “Stuff to Do” submissions is Monday at noon.

To submit an item, email: calendar@durangotelegraph.com

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Telegraph classified ads can be placed online at www.durangotelegraph.com and cost a mere 10 cents a character.

(We don’t know how to say this, but it’s kind of a big deal.)

To place them the 1990s way: classifieds@durangotelegraph.com To place them the 1970s way: call 970-259-0133 Feb. 18, 2021 n 13

What Kate & Nate wear on their day off

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(Even if your name isn’t McKinnon. Or MacKinnon.)

In a variety of sizes for all your exploits on and off the red carpet.

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T-shirts: $15 Tanks: $12 Hats: $20 (plus shipping and handling)

Order yours today at: durangotelegraph.com or email telegraph@durangotelegraph.com

14 n Feb. 18, 2021

FreeWillAstrology

by Rob Brezsny ARIES (March 21-April 19): Atheists like to confront religious people with accusations like: “If God is so good, why does he allow suffering in the world?” Their simplistic, childish idea of God as some sort of moral policeman is ignorant of the lush range of ruminations about the Divine as offered down through the ages by poets, novelists, philosophers and theologians. For example, poet Stéphane Mallarmé wrote, “Spirit cares for nothing except universal musicality.” He suggested that the Supreme Intelligence is an artist making music and telling stories.

And as you know, music and stories include all human adventures, not just the happy stuff. I bring these thoughts to your attention, Aries, because the coming weeks will be a favorable time to honor and celebrate the marvelously rich stories of your own life – and to feel gratitude for the full range of experience with which they have blessed you. PS: Now is also a favorable phase to rethink and reconfigure your answers to the Big Questions.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Blogger Rachel C. Lewis confides, “I love being horribly straightforward. I love sending reckless text messages and telling people I love them and telling people they are absolutely magical humans and I cannot believe they really exist. I love saying, ‘Kiss me harder,’ and ‘You’re a good person,’ and, ‘You brighten my day.’” What would your unique version of Lewis’ forthrightness be like, Taurus? What brazen praise would you offer? What declarations of affection and care would you unleash?

What naked confessions might you reveal?

The coming days will be a favorable time to explore these possibilities.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): It’s a good time to become more of who you are by engaging with more of what you are not. Get in the mood for this heroic exercise by studying the following rant by Gemini poet Adam Zagajewski (who writes in Polish), translated by Gemini poet Clare Cavanaugh: “Read for yourselves, read for the sake of your inspiration, for the sweet turmoil in your lovely head. But also read against yourselves, read for questioning and impotence, for despair and erudition, read the dry, sardonic remarks of cynical philosophers. Read those whose darkness or malice or madness or greatness you can’t yet understand, because only in this way will you grow, outlive yourself and become what you are.”

CANCER (June 21-July 22): You’re on the verge of breakthroughs. You’re ready to explore frontiers, at least in your imagination. You’re brave enough to go further and try harder than you’ve been able to before. With that in mind, here’s a highly apropos idea from

Cancerian novelist Tom Robbins. He writes, “If you take any activity, any art, any discipline, any skill, take it and push it as far as it will go, push it beyond where it has ever been before, push it to the wildest edge of edges, then you force it into the realm of magic.” (I might use the word “coax” or “nudge” instead of “force” in Robbins’ statement.)

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): In her story Homelanding, Margaret Atwood writes, “Take me to your trees. Take me to your breakfasts, your sunsets, your bad dreams, your shoes. Take me to your fingers.” I’d love you to express requests like that. It’s a favorable time for you to delve deeper into the mysteries of people you care about. You will generate healing and blessings by cultivating reverent curiosity and smart empathy and crafty intimacy. Find out more about your best allies!

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): You’re about to reach the end of your phase of correction and adjustment. To mark this momentous transition, and to honor your ever-increasing ability to negotiate with your demons, I offer you the following inspirational proclamation by poet Jeannette Napolitano: “I don’t want to look back in five years’ time and think, ‘We could have been magnificent, but I was afraid.’ In five years, I want to tell of how fear tried to cheat me out of the best thing in life, and I didn’t let it.”

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): It’s not a good time for you to be obsessed with vague abstractions, fear-based fantasies and imaginary possibilities.

But it is a favorable phase to rise up in behalf of intimate, practical changes. At least for now, I also want to advise you not to be angry and militant about big, complicated issues that you have little power to affect. On the other hand, I encourage you to get inspired and aggressive about injustices you can truly help fix and erroneous approaches you can correct and close-athand dilemmas for which you can summon constructive solutions.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): “The most beautiful things are those that madness prompts and reason writes,” author André Gide declared. As a writer myself, I will testify to the truth of that formulation. But what about those of you who aren’t poets and novelists and essayists? Here’s how I would alter Gide’s statement to fit you: “The most beautiful things are those that rapture prompts and reason refines.” Or maybe this: “The most beautiful things are those that experimentation finds and reason uses.” Or how about this one: “The most beautiful things are those that wildness generates and reason enhances.” Any and all of those dynamics will be treasures for you in the coming weeks.

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SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22Dec. 21): The poet Nayyirah Waheed has some advice I want you to hear. She writes, “Be easy. Take your time. You are coming home to yourself.” I will add that from my astrological perspective, the coming weeks will indeed be a time for you to relax more deeply into yourself – to welcome yourself fully into your unique destiny; to forgive yourself for what you imagine are your flaws; to not wish you were someone else pursuing a different path; to be at peace and in harmony with the exact life you have.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): “The chief object of education is not to learn things but to unlearn things,” author G. K. Chesterton wrote. He was exaggerating for dramatic effect when he said that, as he often did. The more nuanced truth is that one of the central aims of education is to learn things, and another very worthy aim is to unlearn things. I believe you are currently in a phase when you should put an emphasis on unlearning things that are irrelevant and meaningless and obstructive. This will be excellent preparation for your next phase, which will be learning a lot of useful and vitalizing new things.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943) ultimately became one of the 20th Century’s most renowned composers. But his career had a rough start. “Symphony No. 1,” his first major work, was panned by critics, sending him into a four-year depression. Eventually he recovered. His next major composition, “Piano Concerto No. 2,’ was wellreceived. I don’t anticipate that your rookie offerings or new work will get the kind of terrible reviews that Rachmaninoff’s did. But at least initially, there may be no great reviews, and possibly even indifference. Keep the faith, my dear.

Don’t falter in carrying out your vision of the future. The rewards will come in due time.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Ancient Greek playwright Euripides was popular and influential – and remains so to this day, 2,400 years later. But there’s a curiously boring aspect in five of his plays, “Andromache,” “Alcestis,” “Helen,” “Medea” and “The Bacchae.”

They all have the same exact ending: six lines, spoken by a chorus, that basically say the gods are unpredictable. Was Euripides lazy? Trying too hard to drive home the point? Or were the endings added later by an editor? Scholars disagree. The main reason I’m bringing this to your attention is to encourage you to avoid similar behavior. I think it’s very important that the stories you’re living right now have different endings than all the stories of your past.

classifieds

Deadline for Telegraph classified ads is Tuesday at noon.

Ads are a bargain at 10 cents a character with a $5 minimum. Even better, ads can now be placed online: durangotelegraph.com. Prepayment is required via cash, credit card or check.

(Sorry, no refunds or substitutions.)

Ads can be submitted via: n classifieds@durango telegraph.com n 970-259-0133 n 679 E. 2nd Ave., #E2 Approximate office hours: Mon: 9ish - 5ish Tues: 9ish - 5ish Wed: 9ish - 3ish Thurs: On delivery Fri: Gone fishing; call first

Announcements The Perfect Gift for your favorite dirtbag. Literature from Durango’s own Benighted Publications. The Desert, The Climbing Zine, The Great American Dirtbags, American Climber, Climbing Out of Bed and Graduating From College Me are available at: Maria’s Bookshop, Pine Needle Mountaineering, the Sky Store, or on the interweb at www.climbingzine.com.

Lost/Found Lost Grey Calico Cat- Hermosa $$Reward$$ Small grey & white female, green eyes white “socks,” white belly w/grey spots, small white spot on left cheek, black rings on tail like raccoon. Last seen wearing pink collar w/bells around 7500 CR 203.

Please check your sheds & outbuildings ~very loved & missed. 716-338-2858.

and resume to info@rainbowyouthcen ter.org

startup businesses. gmail.com

The Green House Durango is looking for happy, enthusiastic people to join our budding business. We are willing to train the right candidate if you’re committed to being a part of this continually growing industry. Please send a copy of your resume to employment@ jandjinc.net along with a copy of your Colorado M.E.D. Badge.

BodyWork

We’re Looking for High-Altitude Lead Carpenters and carpenters helpers to join our crew in Silverton from May-September. Nico Foster Construction specializes in highquality, new residential, creative, locally driven projects. We work in Silverton, Colorado exclusively, which is centered in the world-renowned San Juan Mountain range. We like to work hard and play hard. Join us and have an awesome summer while making good money. Wage DOE. 4/10’s. Please send a cover letter, resume and 3 references to: nicofoster882 @gmail.com

Wanted

Email

jnderge@

massageintervention.life Voted best massage in Durango 2020.

Couples, cupping, local CBD. Reviews on FB + Yelp. 970-903-2984

ForSale Womens DPS Skis Time to cull the quiver: two pairs for sale. 1st pair: DPS Zelda Alchemist, 169cm, 106 underfoot. Bought in 2018, skied for 1.5 seasons, great shape, some cosmetic scuffing. Avail. with or w/o brand new Atomic Shift bindings - $400 skis alone (retail $1299) or $900 w/bindings. 2nd pair: DPS Uschi Foundation, 171 cm, 87 underfoot, great all-around frontside rippers, only skied two days, mounted with Look Pivot 14 bindings $399 skis alone: $675 skis + bindings.

Text 970-749-2595 for pictures or dets.

Reruns Home Furnishings Lots of new, fun furniture and furnishings to brighten up your space. Tables, night stands, bar stools, rugs, lamps and linens. Metal folding bistros for upcoming patio season. Great art glass, ceramics, framed art. 572 E. 6th Ave. Open Mon.Sat. 385-7336.

CommunityService Call for Farmers Market vendors!

Looking for local agricultural vendors to be part of our vibrant local food scene. Other categories also available. Applications for the summer market season available now on our website: www.durangofarmersmarket.com. Deadline March 1.

HaikuMovieReview ‘American Pickle’ Truth be told - I did not make it to the sour, bitter, warty end – Lainie Maxson

NewspaperOrigami

Cash for Vehicles, Copper, Alum, Etc. at RJ Metal Recycle. Also free appliance and other metal drop off. 970-259-3494.

HelpWanted Amaya Natural Therapeutics hiring massage therapists. Email resume triciagourley13@gmail.com Part Time Executive Director Southwest Colorado Multiple Sclerosis Society, a local nonprofit supporting people living with MS, is hiring for a part time Executive Director. Duties include member engagement, program development, fundraising, work with volunteer board of directors. Preferred qualifications include prior program director or nonprofit experience, personal experience with MS. For full job description, compensation, and how to apply, visit sw cmss.org/employment Assistant Director Rainbow Youth Center. Seeking a diverse and activated person that is committed to working with the LGB2TQIA+ youth & community. P/T. Cover letter

Services RSE Handyman Service Home repair-yard work-odd jobs 970903-0449.

Tutoring All subjects, grades 5th – 9th. Classroom and homework support, masks will be worn at all times. 3:30-5:30 p.m., Mon. – Thurs., Crossroads Building, 11th & Main. For info, call Jessie Hamilton, 970903-9051.

Lowest Prices on Storage!

Inside/outside storage near Durango and Bayfield. 10-x-20, $130. Outside spots: $65, with discounts available. RJ Mini Storage. 970-259-3494 Marketing Small and Local Businesses Media, social media, website content, SEO, etc. for small, local, independent or

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