Durango Telegraph e-edition, May 21, 2020

Socially and emotionally distant

­elegraph­ the­­­­durango

FREE May 21, 2020

Vol. XIX, No. 18 durangotelegraph.com

inside

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

Love sick

Winning the race

Kohl-what-i?

Dating, being single & breaking up during a pandemic p8

One local’s efforts to help save the desert tortoise p13

A delicious use for that CSA oddity lurking in the fridge p15

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Durango Trash

2 n May 21, 2020

telegraph

lineup

8

4 La Vida Local

Love sick Dating, being single and breaking up in a pandemic

4 Thumbin’ It

by Claire Cleveland, CPR News

5 Word on the Street

10-11

6-7 Soapbox

Riding the wave

The glorious, and oft too short, window that’s river season in the SW

by Stephen Eginoire

8 State News 10-11 Day in the Life

13

15 Flash in the Pan

The little things One local’s effort to help save the desert tortoise

17 Top Shelf

15

18 Free Will Astrology

Kohl-what-i?

A delicious option for that CSA kohlrabi lurking in the fridge

19 Classifieds

by Ari LeVaux

19 Haiku Movie Review

17

On the cover: Jon Krueger wheelies it through Eye of the Needle rapid on the Piedra River last weekend./ Photo by Stephen Eginoire

Long live rock Adjusting to the new normal in live music

by Chris Aaland

boilerplate

ADVERTISING AFICIONADO: Lainie Maxson (lainie@durangotelegraph.com) THE GUY WITH THE CAMERA: Stephen Eginoire steve@gulchmag.com

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

Rolling on

Trails 2000 has ridden off into the sunset – well, at least in name. The 30-year-old local trails advocacy nonprofit recently changed its name to Durango Trails to better reflect its mission into the future.

“It’s a brand refresh, but it’s still the same mission,” spokesperson Mary Monroe-Brown said.

“While our look and name have changed, our work has not. We are still committed to planning, building and maintaining the trails surrounding Durango, as well as educating trail users and creating connections.”

As the story goes, back in the mid-’80s, four local mountain bikers, seeing rampant development in, on and around their beloved public lands, sought to grow and protect the area’s trails. The now seemingly short-sighted goal was to have 200 miles of trails by the year 2000. Little did they know how far that vision would go.

16 Ask Rachel

by Missy Votel

EDITORIALISTA: Missy Votel (missy@durangotelegraph.com)

Ear to the ground: “You’ll just have to spend your Trumpopoly money on a new one.”

– One local’s advice to a friend whose computer suffered a premature death

thepole

RegularOccurrences

STAR-STUDDED CAST: Lainie Maxson, Clint Reid, Jesse Anderson, Zach Hively, Chris Aaland, and Shan Wells

LITERAL ADDRESS: 679 E. 2nd Ave., Ste. E2 Durango, CO 81301 PHONE: 970-259-0133

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

E-MAIL: telegraph@durangotelegraph.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.

telegraph

By 2020, Trails 2000 had far exceeded the dream of 200 miles of trails and counted more than 3,500 members. As for the name, it needed an upgrade to reflect the times and its work that weren’t so, well, 2000.

“We are the infrastructure group, and we wanted our name to better reflect forward-thinking of outdoor recreation as a cornerstone of our community,” said Monroe-Brown. “The trails and outdoor recreation are only going to grow.”

According to Monroe-Brown, the name change officially took place on Earth Day, April 20. The unveiling was meant to coincide with the organization’s 30-year anniversary party at Ska on the same day, but nothing like a little global pandemic to put those plans on hold.

And while dirt-lovers await updated details on the soiree, they can check out the new Durango Trails website (www.durangotrails.org, although going to trails2000.org will redirect you there.)

The new site is chock full of useful trail info, including trail conditions, tips on the always-important etiquette, and a nifty “trail finder,” where folks can dial in the type of trail experience they’re looking for.

“You can search for anything from a safe trail during COVID to a PB&J hike with the kids,” Monroe-Brown said.

And while we’re on the subject of trails, Monroe-Brown said she has no idea who or what was behind the mysterious mountain lion print-outs plastered all over Horse Gulch. “I don’t know who put them up or what is going on with that,” she said. “But people have been calling and asking.”

Meanwhile, Durango Trails will be working hard during the upcoming trails season on training crew leaders to send out with small armies of volunteers. If you happen to see them buffing out your favorite stretch of singletrack, don’t forget to slow down and say “thanks.” Or better yet, pull off and give them a hand.

May 21, 2020 n

3

opinion

LaVidaLocal Rabbit support I have been gardening now for two days, and already I wonder how humankind ever survived rabbits.

Oh, I have dabbled in gardening before. At various rentals, I planted pumpkins in pots and radishes in the landlord’s raised box, and I grew nothing much besides an eternal frustration for chipmunks (and solid aim with small rocks).

This time, gardening is different. I’m starting sprouts in egg cartons indoors, and I bought an actual hose, and I catch myself daydreaming about different varieties and maturities of melons. I have no idea where this bug came from; it’s like a tomato worm. And also like tomato worms, I can’t bring myself to cut it in half with scissors no matter how much grief and heartbreak it brings me.

Take my planting medium. My garden does not have what gardeners, in their industry lingo, call “soil.” I would grow watercress in a sandbox at the park better than anything at all in my garden. This hindrance ought to have quashed the bug. But instead, it motivated me to try straw bale gardening.

The principle behind straw bale gardening is that it gets people like me, born and bred among concrete and asphalt but also in possession of a ball cap from a farm supply chain, to visit a local feed store and have any idea how to purchase straw.

Go big or go home, as gardeners probably say. So I went bold. “Yeah,” I said. “I need to buy some straw.”

The clerk parried: “How many?”

I adjusted my farm supply ball cap, like I imagine seasoned farmers do when assessing their plots in their minds. I eventually reeled in my casual far-away stare to say, “However many will fit.”

I backed my car up to the barn and learned that the answer to that puzzle was “Not enough.” But the next two trips, I could confidently order the correct low-single-digit quantity of bales without faking confidence. One of those trips, I bought a metal pail too, just because it felt like a real reason for a gardener to make a trip into town besides needing yet again to buy a small quantity of straw.

If I had actually known what real gardener reasons were, I would have asked for rabbit repellant.

The rabbits are no secret. They frequent my yard, by which I mean my dog’s yard. Being a Good Boy, when he sees a rabbit, he runs for his orange rubber toy and

shakes it violently, no doubt informing the rabbit how violently it would be shaken if my dog wanted to catch it, which fortunately for the rabbit, he clearly does not.

His pacifist ways were OK by me, because the added benefit of straw bale gardening is that their nearly 2 feet in height is insurmountable to most rabbits, hares, bunnies, jackrabbits, jackalopes and other assorted creatures known by and large for jumping.

Plus, before actually planting anything, the straw bale gardener must “condition the bales by composting them in place with gratuitous amounts of water and blood meal. I thought blood meal was a euphemism, like most British food. I was wrong. These 50-pound sacks contained genuine, organic pig blood, leading me to wonder – between blood meal and manure – if vegetables are actually veganfriendly.

But! The internet touts blood meal as a pest deterrent. So when I graduated from “garden-prepper” to “gardener” two days ago, I planted four entire marigolds in my straw bales, safe in my self-assurance that no rabbits would dare trespass upon my works.

Yesterday, when I watered my marigolds, one had disappeared.

Today, the rest disappeared. I have zero marigolds. My pride, my investment, and my flowers – all gnawed beneath the stump.

How did humans ever develop agriculture in the first place? When the first gardeners planted the first starts from the first garden center, and they awoke the next morning to find prehistoric saber-toothed rabbits had chomped their efforts down to the richly amended soil, how did they find the will and the strength to buy more starts and begin all over again?

The answer, I’m almost certain, is that they invented the shotgun and rabbit stew all in one go. I myself am highly tempted to purchase my first double-barrel and open a side business in fur caps. I would no doubt evolve an entire new persona – one that fits underneath that farm-supply ball cap and knows instinctively how many straw bales will fit in the farm truck, and drives an actual farm truck in the first place.

But developing a New Me feels like a lot more effort even than taking up gardening. So perhaps I will persevere by planting my sprouts and hoping, if I have led a good clean life, that owls will murder all the rabbits to little pieces. If nothing else, I will learn from the heartache. I don’t know what I will learn, exactly. But I will learn it better than any store-bought lesson.

Sign of the Downfall:

Thumbin’It Durango city councilors moving forward on an ordinance to make face coverings mandatory in public spaces within city limits where people cannot maintain 6 feet of social distancing A $10,000 grant to Community Compassion Outreach to provide 14-day motel quarantine stays and other assistance to the most vulnerable members of the local homeless population during the pandemic FLC President Tom Stritikus announcing he will take a voluntary pay cut for the next six months, saving the school $31,000 as it faces a $2.1 million funding shortfall

4 n May 21, 2020

– Zach Hively

Colorado’s computerized unemployment system inadvertently exposing private data of people who had recently filed

A perfect storm of an understaffed hospital and a sudden surge in coronavirus cases overwhelming the small hospital in Gallup, N.M., the only one within 110 miles of the Navajo Reservation border town

The increasing likelihood of “dust bowl” like conditions, with an international group of scientists saying devastating drought is projected to strike the heartland about once every 40 years, according to a report in Nature Climate Change

telegraph

Holy Acrimony David Ostrom, of Kansas, went “Game of Thrones” in court recently when he opted for “trial by combat” to solve his custody battle, wherein he’d battle his ex-wife (and her attorney) with a katana to see who gets the kids. As it turns out, nothing in Kansas’ constitution specifically prohibits trial by combat with katana swords, but the court still ordered a full psychological evaluation of Ostrom, which seems mean given that he already has to live in Kansas. And Ostrom passed his eval, because as it turns out, there’s nothing crazy about wanting to hit your ex with a sword.

WordontheScreen

Q

“Being able to express sarcasm with my face.”

With the annual holiday weekend upon us, the Telegraph asked: “What are you memorializing this Memorial Day.” Jeff

Tori

“All the people who have given their lives in the line of duty. I also want to acknowledge and appreciate all, globally, who are on the frontlines combating this pandemic.”

“Those in our military and intelligence communities who have dedicated their lives to protecting our country. ”

“The days when zombie movies seemed farfetched and escapist.”

Sesh

“When I could blame our messy house on a lack of free time.”

Sonny

James

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May 21, 2020 n 5

SoapBox

ReTooned/by Shan Wells

Decline the abortion-ban petition To the editor, The COVID-19 crisis is stressful enough. People in Colorado are worried about their jobs, their families and their futures. During this uncertain time, living our Colorado values and being able to make the best decisions for ourselves and our families, free from interference – including when or if to have children – becomes even more important.

Instead, in remarkably distasteful fashion, anti-abortion activists and politicians in several states are using COVID-19 as an excuse to try and ban abortion, including here in Colorado.

Proponents of a ballot measure that would ban abortion after 22 weeks have used COVID-19 as a stalling technique to argue the rules don’t apply to them. They think they should have exceptions other ballot measure proponents don’t and be given more time to collect signatures. They’ve even filed a lawsuit on this, taking up precious time and public funding we can’t spare right now.

A majority of Colorado voters consistently believe the government does not have the right to meddle in our personal medical decisions and our reproductive health.

Coloradans have repeatedly rejected abortion bans at the ballot box: in 2008, 2010 and 2014.

There are a variety of reasons why someone may need an abortion after 22 weeks. Some people face complications later in pregnancy that can put their health at risk.

If someone is planning for a child but discovers medical complications, the last thing they need is political interference as they make the best decision for themselves and their family. There are also instances when people are forced to delay getting an abortion because of costs, lack of insurance, travel or other barriers. Every pregnancy4

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telegraph

is different and health and safety should guide these important decisions, not politics. More so, this ban has no exceptions for rape or incest.

Right now, the ballot measure proponents are almost 10,000 signatures short. They will soon have a cure period to go out and collect the amount of signatures they need now that the stay-at-home order has been lifted.

Using COVID-19 as political cover to try and force women and families who are likely already facing job loss and economic hardship to continue an unintended or nonviable pregnancy is tone deaf at best, insidious at worst. Having the means to travel and get abortion care in rural areas is hard enough as it is. These people are trying to make it even harder.

If you are offered an abortion-ban petition, decline to sign. Coloradans are more than capable of making our own choices about our reproductive health care. We don’t need the government to interfere with these private, personal decisions.

– Katie Young, Durango

Leadership, the economy & COVID To the editor, Absolutely. We must do what we can to wisely revive our economy in these difficult times. At bare minimum, we need some plan to do this. At a recent Presidential COVID Taskforce press conference, a set of guidelines on how states should go about this was presented. Leave aside for the moment whether these were adequate guidelines. This is, or was, the closest thing we’ve had to any official national plan.

Shortly after this, several states actualized their own plans for their economies to become more open. None of them met the guidelines laid out in the previously mentioned plans. In spite of this, our president applauded the efforts of those states and encouraged more states to follow their lead.

The President nixed his panel’s plan, not by any pronouncement of their shortcomings or by the replacement of the guidelines by ones thought to be improved. He simply ignored his own guidelines and encouraged others to do the same. Chaos. And very much the same lack of leadership that we’ve seen since first it was reported that COVID-19 could be a big, big problem.

We must not ignore the economy or the virus. A national plan for returning business as close to normal as possible is essential. As most plans that deal with crises must, our plans should be revised as we learn better how to deal with things. Region by region we have been left to ourselves. Any private, pubic or semi-private effort that has in any way been successful is claimed as a success by the President and his COVID Task Force, just as if they were behind it all. What we have, in fact, is no coherent national plan at all. And that, my fellow Americans, our president is behind. Regardless of his disclaimers and his frequent attempts to shift blame, the President is responsible. Failing to lead he must get out of the way.

– Kevin R. Cook, Mancos

County needs steady leadership To the editor, My name is Marsha Porter-Norton. I am running for La Plata County Commissioner from District 2. My great grandfather Porter was a mine worker in Silverton in the early 1900s. He earned enough to start a ranch in Lewis, north of Cortez, where I grew up. This upbringing gave me common sense, a strong work ethic and strong roots in SW Colorado.

Integrity and my proven leadership experience as a business owner and professional meeting facilitator are what I bring to this race. For 26 years, I have worked with over 100 groups, including many regional government bodies, mediating tough issues to find shared community solutions. So, working together isn’t just some campaign

telegraph

promise – it’s who I am.

I will work to grow good jobs and for more affordable housing. I stand for a continuous transition to cleaner energy and will support our community’s ongoing goal for wildfire, drought and flood preparedness. The county’s budget will be the priority because county services touch everyone – from the roads you drive, to land you use, to senior meals, to needed veterans’ services, to the emergency preparedness and response we all depend on.

Our county is strong and resilient. We will recover in spite of the likely rough rapids ahead as we stabilize. Even-handed, steady leadership of a commissioner who can collaborate and roll up her sleeves to get things done is what we need. The election is Nov. 3 Please be in touch with your ideas, and you can learn more here: www.marshaporternorton.com.

– Marsha Porter-Norton, candidate, La Plata County Board of Commissions, District 2

Mask up or shut up To the editor, Would somebody please tell POTUS Trump and Veep Pence to wear face masks. If they both get COVIDed (yup, a verb) we’ll all have to get used to the words “President Pelosi.” Think about it... .

– Bill Boardman, Durango

Give a crap when floating river To the editor, The Colorado Supreme Court has ruled that it’s OK to float through private property as the waters belong to the state. However, it is still trespassing if you get out on the bank or let your dog take a crap on the shore.

Please show some respect and courtesy when you float through private property.

– Dennis Pierce, Durango

May 21, 2020 n 7

StateNews

Love in the time of coronavirus Dating, breaking up and being single in a pandemic

by Claire Cleveland Colorado Public Radio

I

t’s been 55 days since Colorado went under the stay-athome order. It’s since been relaxed to safer-at-home, but that hasn’t made looking for love any easier. For people across the state, navigating love in the age of Tinder and Bumble was already difficult. Add in a pandemic that means there’s no opportunity to meet a potential partner at a bar or restaurant, and things get really hard.

And if two people do find a spark, they have to decide if it’s worth meeting in-person or if they keep it to video chats – and for how long.

A matchmaking company with offices in Denver called It’s Just Lunch centers on the philosophy that in-person connections are necessary to form good relationships.

During COVID-19, matchmaker Hope Rike has been setting her clients up on virtual dates instead, and she’s found that it’s working well.

“Clients are getting to know that other person so much better because they don’t yet have that physical aspect complicating things or maybe rushing things,” Rike said.

“When things slow down, it can allow more time for selfreflection. And not only self-reflection but relationship reflection – like, what is really important to me in a partner.”

After the video dates, Rike’s couples can choose to meet Jacques Gonsoulin, 27, of Denver, roller skates through an empty Denver street. Since coronavirus hit, Gonsoulin, in person. She recommends they wear masks, stay 6 feet a gender-fluid queer person with a compromised immune system, said dating has changed significantly, apart and go on dates in the outdoors. But how long is a ./ Photo by Hart Van Denburg/CPR News couple supposed to maintain that distance?

They chose to ditch the mentality. Before they did, they State and federal public health agencies haven’t created weighed their options and considered who they would be a manual on what’s OK and not OK when it comes to risk around and whether it was safe or not. They’ve been tomanagement during the pandemic or even guidelines on gether nearly every day since, and it’s pretty obvious that when and how to meet up with others. their relationship was meant to be.

Julia Marcus, professor of population medicine at Har“She’s like, ‘If this makes you happy, I’m gonna do it,’ vard who wrote about quarantine fatigue for The Atlantic, kind of attitude,” Yoesting said. “That makes me happier. argued that people need a guide on how to have a life in a It makes me want to be more lighthearted and not let the pandemic. Without allowing individuals to assess their risk normal things that would upset me get in the way. And with the appropriate information, they’re left to make dethen the adventurous spirit that she has – that just really cisions on their own. has drawn me to her.”

While the message is that it’s safer to stay away from Jacques Gonsoulin, 27, Denver others, especially those who you don’t usually interact “In general, dating has obviously changed significantly,” with, it doesn’t mean that the need for human connection Jacques Gonsoulin, a gender-fluid, queer person who lives Meryn Holt, left, and Suzannah Yoesting in Denver on in Denver said. “For me, it’s a total negotiative state where has gone away.

“Love is not canceled,” Rike said. “I write that in my May 15./ Photo by Hart Van Denburg/CPR News I’m like, should I take that risk? Should I risk my life as an planner every day. I put that up on my wall. We have to re“Then I walked her back to her car and I was like, ‘I don’t immunocompromised person so that I can feel intimacy or member that more than ever we need love and more than know how she would take it if I tried to like give her a hug love?” they said. ever, people want love and want to have that connection.” or tried to kiss her,’” Holt said. “And so it’s like, ‘OK, bye!’

Gonsoulin has some gastrointestinal disorders that affect Here are six Coloradoans who are navigating love, break- It was weird. I literally sat in my car and didn’t even pull their immune system, and they’re awaiting the results of ups, self-improvement and dating during the pandemic. away, and I was texting her. I was like, ‘OK, let’s do this tests for autoimmune disorders they suspect they were exSuzannah Yoesting, 33, posed to through past partners. The pandemic has only again. Except not distanced.’”

The next day was Holt’s birthday. They knew from the complicated medical access and treatment options. and Meryn Holt, 35, Denver It’s not that they don’t want to date – before the panThree weeks ago, Suzannah Yoesting found herself with week of texting beforehand there was some physical attracsome time on her hands. Bored and lonely, she started tion. The date only solidified it. They had a tough decision demic they were talking to a few prospective partners and swiping through Tinder when she matched with Meryn about how to see each other again. They wanted to be re- had been regularly going out.

Since the stay-at-home orders, they’ve relied exclusively Holt. Almost immediately, Holt messaged her. They hit it sponsible, but they also really liked each other.

“I was like, well, you know, I think we need to have the on video calls to date and connect with others. It’s still a off, and five days later, they were sitting on separate blankets across from one another in a Denver park in their discussion of do we have the COVID distancing mental- level of connection that’s nice, but they’ve wondered what the pay-off will be.4 ity?” Holt said. masks. They talked for hours.

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“What am I planning for? What relationship am I setting myself up for when there is a crumbling society afoot?” they said. “I would rather choose to be lonely and ostracize myself. I think I need to keep myself safe because I would rather be alive and have the prospect of dating someone afterwards, than even risk it.”

Kathrine Warren./ Courtesy photo

Kathrine Warren, 33, Telluride In Telluride, the offerings on dating apps can seem a bit slim to those who live there.

Kathrine Warren (in full disclosure, a Durango native and former Telegraph intern) said she gets on the apps, scrolls through, and sees the same people every time and then gets off. Telluride draws a lot of tourists, but this year, none of that is happening because of COVID-19. She and her friends joke about importing a boyfriend.

“During the festivals, people come here just like I did when I was a kid and they’re like ‘this place is amazing,’” she said. “So our joke was like, just find a good guy who can telecommute, and show him how

amazing Telluride is.”

On a more serious note, she’s interested in finding someone to settle down with.

She thinks about her mom, who had two kids at the age Warren is now. She said staying at home during the pandemic has made her think hard about what she wants in a relationship.

“It’s a topic that’s been weighing heavy on me,” she said. “(COVID) is a roadblock, and who knows how big of a roadblock or how long. And it’s like, cool, well maybe when I’m 35 we’ll have a vaccine, and I can meet someone who’s into live music and bluegrass like I had originally thought.”

After she was interviewed for this story, Warren met someone on Bumble. They talked on the phone and hit it off. He lives in Durango, but he’s planning to visit Warren for a socially distanced walk this week.

Angelique Chappelle, 45, Westminster Just before the stay-at-home order, Angelique Chappelle serendipitously met a man in a parking lot. She commented on his Bears hoodie and they started talking about football. He asked her for her number, and they talked a few times.

And then, COVID-19 hit.

“I’m probably less inclined right now to meet anyone face-to-face. I’m definitely open to cyber dates, but I’m 45, you know, in full-blown Gen X. We’re just a little bit different,” Chappelle said. “Like, we’re just not as into all the types of stuff – the virtual dating and all that.”

She prefers face-to-face interaction and connection. The man she met in the parking lot is a paramedic, so it doesn’t make

interface with the public. After a few weeks of not-so-great communication, things broke down. Thompson was dumped over text.

“I feel like we have a responsibility to stay separated as people and adhere to the rules,” he said. “But like, I would love to hang out with her with a mask on or something like that.”

However, she was ready to be done.

Thompson downloaded some dating apps and promptly deleted them – like Chappelle, he prefers in-person connection. He Angelique Chappelle./ Courtesy photo sense for her to meet him in person and risk their health.

Instead, she’s decided to focus on herself during the pandemic. In the beginning, she was anxious about getting sick but also went through a cycle of thinking about how and why she wasn’t in a relationship. It was hard, but she came out knowing she’s still a catch, despite her single status, and that the pandemic is a good time to work on herself.

“I’m reading and I’m writing, and I’m doing little things and then I’m starting to practice yoga,” she said. “It’s made me feel like I’m in a good place now. But it was a cycle, like I went through different phases during that time.”

Will Thompson, 27, Denver Dating, sadly, sometimes involves breaking up. Will Thompson started seeing someone before the pandemic, and when it hit, they made the decision to not see each other in person anymore.

They’re both essential workers, and his work requires he go into grocery stores and

telegraph

Will Thompson./ Courtesy photo decided to take the post-break-up advice he often gives his friends: focus on you.

“Instead of being alone and lonely … be comfortable with being alone, which I think is really important,” Thompson said.

“I’ve been doing a lot of reading, exercising and getting out of the house for bike rides and mask-on activities.”

To read more from Colorado Public Radio, go to www.cpr.org. n

May 21, 2020 n

9

dayinthelife

Soakin

by St

As the San Juan Mountains shed their final blanke snow into the streams and rivers, life downstream re in the much-anticipated deliverance of fresh water. all the inhabitants that dwell below the San Juans’ l summits, the seasonal gift of replenishment can n

Come visit our shiny new Airstream style trailer in Bird’s restaurant parking lot 2957 Main Ave. Open daily, noon ’til dusk 970 903 1300 See our Instagram and Facebook pages for updates

10 n May 21, 2020

tel

ng it up

tephen Eginoire

ets of evels . For lofty never

legraph

last long enough. However fleeting this spring's annual runoff may seem, water symbolizes both life and freedom, and most of us Durangoans sure could use a little bit of both. Here's a look at a much-needed respite in the form of some good, old-fashioned river recreation.

“Live the life you love, love the life you live.�

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May 21, 2020 n

FE FEED ED THE FRONTLINES DURA DURANGO NGO Help us feed Help healthcare workers AND ND support local businesses! hcare w orkers A feed healt LLearn earn mor moree b byy vvisiting isiting www www.foundation.local-first.org/feed-frontlines/ irst.org/f w.ffoundation.local-f ounda g/ffeed-frontlines/ FIND YOURSELF FA AT T ANIMAS! Whether through distance or in-class learning, Animas High School prepares all students for college and postsecondary success by creating critical thinkers and engaged citizens thrrough ou ough an innovative, student-centered, projectbased curriculum. AHS is a free, public charter school open to all.

Learn more about our rigorous academics, culture of excellence, strong faculty-student relationships, and engaging learning at our website.

ENROLLING NOW!

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Cheers to the sunny days and being outside. Don't forget 11th Street Station take-out OR delivery for food AND beverages. Call (970) 422-8482 or visit 11thstreetstation.com to order online. We appreciate the Durango Community and all of its support!

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Sending the Southwest

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thesecondsection

Winning the race Local on front lines of slow-and-steady effort to save desert tortoise

by Missy Votel

W

e’ve all heard the story about the tortoise and the hare: slow and steady wins the race. But we may not have heard about the race between the desert tortoise and the solar project. With the May 11 approval of the largest solar installation in U.S. history, the Gemini Solar Project in the Mojave Desert outside Las Vegas, the reclusive reptile has suddenly found itself at the center of an unusual debate among environmentalists.

On one side, you have those rooting for renewable energy – or at least those who concede it is the lesser of two evils.

The 690-watt plant on BLM land will supply clean energy to 260,000 Las Vegas homes and offset the carbon emission of 83,000 cars. In addition, the project, which will also include battery storage capacity, will create some 2,000 jobs.

“We support these ambitious climate and energy goals that are set in Nevada,” Nature Conservancy Nevada Chapter spokeswoman Jaina Moan said in a press release. “We also recognize that all this energy development is going to have environmental impacts.”

On the other side are those pulling for the Mojave Desert tortoise, which was listed as threatened in 1990 and has – slowly – clawed its way back to a population of 200,000. About 300 tortoises call the 7,100-acre Gemini Project area home. Plans call to remove resident tortoises from the area and then reintroduce them when the solar farm is completed, sometime in 2022. Foes of the project argue that the area is home to a highdensity not just of tortoises, who also use it as a main migration route, but numerous other sensitive plants and animals.

They also argue that it is unproven whether the repatriated tortoises will survive under the shade of solar panels.

“We don’t think (the Gemini Solar Project) will cause the extinction of the desert tortoise, but it is going to be a fairly big nail in the coffin of the species,” Kevin Emmerich, director of Nevada-based conservation group Basin and Range Watch, told the AP. “We believe solar energy can be an incredibly good thing but if you put it in the wrong location it can be the worst thing in the world for the environment.”

And then, somewhere in the middle, are those on both sides. Like Durangoan Nancy Wiley, who has been on the front

Top photo: A Mojave Desert Tortoise peeks out from under a shady respite in the Mojave Desert near Las Vegas. Declared a threatened species in 1990, the tortoise has made a comeback but is finding itself increasing at odds with energy and military development in its home habitat./Courtesy Nancy Wiley Left photo: A view of the vast California Wash looking toward the Sheep Range in western Nevada.

Most of the area will be developed for the Gemini Solar Project, requiring the relocation of hundreds of threatened tortoises./Courtesy Basin and Range Watch lines of the desert tortoise’s “race” to a sustainable population since 2002.

For those who may not be familiar, the Wiley name in Durango is synonymous with whitewater. After a successful whitewater career under the tutelage of father, Milt, Nancy went on to start Four Corners

telegraph

River Sports in the 1980s. However, she sold it in 2002 to brother-in-law Andy Corra, and found herself, well, adrift.

“After selling Four Corners, I didn’t know what I wanted to do,” she said.

That’s when she and late husband, Lars Holbek, learned about the tortoise gig

from a river guide friend in Moab. For a few weeks every spring, you got to camp out of your truck in the desert and count tortoises for the Fish and Wildlife Service.

And best of all, you got paid. It sounded like a desert/river rat’s dream.

4 “This was the perfect segue,” she said.

May 21, 2020 n 13

Far left: A tortoise narrowly escapes its demise. Biologists often will walk ahead of construction equipment to make sure there are no tortoises in harm’s way.

DesertTortoises from p. 13

“We would go out for a few months at a time and make enough money to live off. It fit into our lifestyle perfectly.”

For the next several years, she and Lars were partners, camping and walking the daily 12k transect in search of tortoises.

“Some days, you’d see zero. Sometimes you’d go five days and see zero. And some days, you’d see four or five,” she said.

When Lars passed away from pancreatic cancer in 2009, Nancy enlisted sister, Amy, to be her partner. Since then, several friends from Durango have gone on tortoise patrol as well. Amy even moved to Las Vegas to be closer to the work, which she does year round except in the winter. (Interesting tortoise fact No. 1: tortoises hibernate underground, where they spend 90 percent of their waking time as well.)

Since the early days of counting tortoises, Nancy says the work has changed. Now, not only is she doing density studies, but she’s acting as tortoise patrol for developers, including solar projects and the U.S. military, making sure no tortoises end up in the path of construction trucks or equipment. She also works to mitigate loss of tortoise habitat, moving and relocating the animals.

Just last fall, she worked on the expansion of a military base outside Joshua Tree National Park where some 800 juvenile tortoises were removed and taken to pens to plump up and have a fighting chance at living to a ripe old age. (Interesting tortoise fact No. 2: tortoises can live to 80 years old).

Left: Biologists affix a radio transmitter to a tortoise’s shell./ Courtesy Nancy Wiley “People are getting so good at finding these babies, and statistically, many of them would not make it out in the wild,” she said.

In addition to big truck tires, baby tortoises face threats from predators such as coyotes, kit foxes and ravens, not to mention the threat of a worsening drought. (Interesting tortoise fact No. 3: adult tortoises can go up to a year without food or water, living off their own regurgitation.)

Keeping them in captivity until they’re big enough gives the juveniles a fighting chance – and like Paul Mason used to say, they will release no tortoise before its time.

(Interesting tortoise fact No. 4: adult tortoises can grow up to 15 pounds.)

“Even if they’re 1mm too small, they’ll stay in the pens another year,” she said.

“They’re getting a really hardened start.”

It is this attention to detail Nancy says gives her hope the tortoise will survive the solar panel onslaught, and whatever else the world throws at it. Technically a biologist working as an independent contractor for firms that are hired to do the tortoise mitigation, she said for the most part, her employers have the utmost integrity. “I feel really good about the people I work for. They are doing the best they can for the tortoise, and I think they’re doing a good job,” she said.

“Is relocation perfect? No. Do they all survive? No. Do a lot of them survive? Yes.” Sure, there are probably better locations for a solar farm, like fallow farm fields or urban rooftops, but Nancy, who owns her own off-the-grid solar abode – sees the importance of cutting ties to fossil fuels. “I am such a strong advocate of solar and moving

in that direction,” she said.

In one positive development, the Obama Administration designated solar energy zones throughout the Southwest in an effort to direct development into areas where they would have relatively low environmental impact. Unfortunately, the Gemini site was originally proposed in 2008 and thus, predates the zoning.

So for now, developers will try to work within the parameters of the Endangered Species Act, while folks like Nancy hold them to it. “With all the things wrong right now, there’s the Endangered Species Act, and it’s holding up, and it’s holding corporations accountable for doing the right thing,” she said. “Am I making a difference?

I like to think yes, I am making a positive difference.” n

’ ’ check our website for hours: www.jimmysmusic.supply 1480 E. 2nd Ave. & 15th St. • 970-764-4577 14 n May 21, 2020

telegraph

FlashinthePan

Craving kohlrabi – no, really

by Ari LeVaux

E

veryone looks forward to tomatoes. We can’t wait for the peaches and corn. Some of us even get excited about zucchini. But who gets pumped for kohlrabi? Anyone?

It doesn’t help that a kohlrabi plant looks like a snake that recently swallowed a beach ball. The edible part is the swollen section of stem, an incongruously large growth in the neck of an otherwise small plant that tastes like the part of broccoli most people throw away.

Kohlrabi is perhaps most popular with farmers who are looking for some early season variety in their market displays, CSA boxes or farm stands.

Thus, kohlrabi finds its way into the fridge and lurks there, for weeks or longer, never spoiling, never letting you off the hook.

If you take the time to peel one, you will be rewarded with a crisp, watery bite and a faint hint of spice, like a cross between jicama and a mild radish.

Sliced thickly on a veggie platter next to some dip, kohlrabi may never get a second chance. Sliced thinly or shredded, kohlrabi clings to sauce the way angel hair pasta does, which opens up many possibilities. My favorite way to use shredded kohlrabi is in som tum, a green papaya salad that is one of the world’s favorite Thai dishes. Green papaya are scarce in my parts, and kohlrabi so available I use it instead, along with shredded carrots.

Salty, sweet, spicy, acidic, with a bitter garlic pungency and full of umami, this salad has something for every taste bud.

When I was in Bangkok, I spent some time seeking out the best som tum I could find, a mission that took me to a certain outdoor market on the edge of the city. I found my way to the section where stall after stall serves nothing but som tum. I bowed to a man with a bandana on his head.

The “som” in som tum refers to its sour taste, while the “tum” mimics the sound of the pounding of a pestle into a mortar. I’m not sure what I told this gentleman, or what he heard me say, but he nodded and smiled. Then he put a handful of small, living crabs into a tall wooden bowl, and started pounding. His heavy wooden pestle went “tum tum tum” on those crabs until they were a crunchy, gooey paste, to which he added spices and pounded some more. Then he ladled in some fish sauce, generously – the way you would want someone to add hot fudge to your ice cream.

The som tum maker swapped his pestle for a pair of wooden forks and added shredded green papaya, herbs and, for good measure, more fish sauce. He stirred it all together, scooped the salad into a paper bowl and handed it to me.

It was a bit fishy, and hot enough to burn a hole in the sun, but the rich array of flavors was dazzling. The beauty of this dish is how it balances flavors that are so intense

that each one would be too overpowering on its own. But together they neutralize each other, like a mutually assured destruction in which the missiles are actually launched.

I respected that som tum, but between the fish sauce, high heat and mashed up crabs, I was in over my head. I didn’t take too many bites, but in looking into that abyss I learned something and returned to my quarters thrilled with my discovery.

Kohlrabi som tum can be an adventure too, if less cathartic. I call it kohl som, which translates to something like “Thai-style sour kohlrabi.”

When summer is in full swing, fresh cherry tomatoes will take this to the next level. You can also add chopped string beans and other forms of greenery too, as available.

Kohl Som 1 baseball-sized kohlrabi, peeled and grated or shredded (about 3 cups) 1 large handful cherry tomatoes, sliced into halves or quarters 1 medium carrot, grated (about a cup) 1 medium-sized clove garlic, pressed or grated ½ teaspoon salt 1 or more tablespoons fish sauce Juice of 1 lime (or 3 tablespoons lime juice) Chile flakes, to taste Up to 1 tablespoon brown sugar 2 green onions, chopped ½ cup chopped cilantro (or parsley) Optional garnish: 2 tablespoons peanuts, dry roasted in a pan Another option: sliced jalapeños instead of red peppers Combine the kohlrabi, carrot, tomatoes, garlic and salt in a mixing bowl. Give the tomatoes a squeeze to crush them a little. Set aside. Combine the fish sauce, lime juice, sugar and chile flakes, and stir until the brown sugar is fully dissolved. Add this sauce and the green onions, cilantro and jalapenos, if using, to the mixing bowl. Toss the salad in the dressing, a little roughly to crush the tomatoes a bit more, and garnish with the peanuts. n

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May 21 2020 n 15

AskRachel Moth infestations, the name game & barking up the family tree Interesting fact: Moths flying in our ears is really quite rare. It’s much more commonplace for cockroaches to crawl in there.

Dear Rachel, Right now, as I write to you, there’s a moth on the wall above my bedside light. It’s nighttime, and the moment I turn out that light, the moth will fly right into my face. I won’t even have my cell phone lighting up my mug. It’s just a given that moths find their way into my business. Tell me, is this like campfire smoke following beauty? Do moths only haunt the most beautiful among us? Or do they just haunt the haunted?

– Moth-er Lode Dear Moth-er Ship, Oh, do they haunt the haunted. A reputable source, who has only twice pranked me, talks about her friend who went to the ER and was told by one of the nurses that sometimes patients come in going quite insane because moths have flow in their ears. Sometimes they get the moths out and the patients are fine. Sometimes they get the moths out and the patients end up spending the rest of their lives in the attics in a Brontë sister’s novel. Seems legit, right?

– Sweet dreams, Rachel Dear Rachel, I’m always surprised by companies with names that can be so easily misread. For instance, my humidifier is made by Boneco, but I always read the label as Bone Co. (which sounds much more metal and much less Italian or whatever). I also just ordered some serious bulk cashews from

a website called Nutstop, which you’d think is Nut Stop but could also be Nuts Top. It’s not clear. Is trademark ambiguity some desirable trait? Or are people just not thinking?

- Bulls Hitman Dear Kids Exchange, You offer some remarkably innocent examples. No mention of the websites Speed of Art, or Who Represents, or Les Bocages, or Mole Station Nursery. That doesn’t even get into folks burdened with names like Buttram who can never fulfill lifelong dreams of opening a power tools company. The answer to an unfortunate professional name is just to run with it. Own it. And maybe help me come up with a new name for this column to boost our web traffic.

– Powergen Italia, Rachel Dear Rachel, My mom insists on including all the dogs in the family in our family tree. Now my dog IS my family, so I’m not judging. But it gets super confusing. My mom’s dog is my sister, which makes her my dog’s aunt. My mom is also my dog’s grandma, and my sister’s dog who came with her husband when they married is my nephew-inlaw. How can I break my mom of this complicated habit without rubbing her nose in it?

– Barking Treed

Email Rachel at telegraph@durangotelegraph.com

Dear Litter-bug, Have you already written the bluegrass song? Please tell me you’ve already written the bluegrass song. It’s not a pure country song, unless the dogs are running off with each other and leaving you destitute and lonesome. It re-

quires three-part howling and probably some ad-libbed banter with the audience. Oh, and make it funny. I need a real pick-me-up to take my mind off of moths in my ears – which would also make a great bluegrass tune.

– Scratch my ear, Rachel

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TopShelf

Long live rock!

by Chris Aaland

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t’s been nearly two months since “Top Shelf” last graced these pages. In my first 12-plus years of writing this column, I think I only missed two weeks. Once was because of that pesky artificial heart valve surgery. The other was because I simply forgot … a hazard, no doubt, of growing older or killing too many brain cells.

For the past seven weeks, though, I couldn’t write because there was no reason to. “Top Shelf” is primarily about music, entertainment and night life. Secondarily, it dabbles in testosterone-fueled ravings about sports, shotguns, fly rods and BBQ grills. On occasion, it sinks to political rants.

Now, as the world inches toward reopening, there just might be something to write about.

Part of my real job as development director at KSUT is to organize our special events, which in a typical year might include eight or 10 indoor concerts, our Party in the Park and Members’ Party & Silent Auction, and a host of other events. We took over the Pagosa Springs festivals on Reservoir Hill last October and were poised to host the 15th annual Pagosa Folk N’ Bluegrass and 25th annual Four Corners Folk Festival this summer. PFB was cancelled a month ago; things don’t look too hopeful for Folk Fest, either, with Gov. Jared Polis banning large gatherings through Labor Day. Does this mean no live music on the horizon? Certainly not.

The StillHouse Junkies have already barnstormed the neighborhoods, playing private concerts on front lawns for paying customers. A few other local bands have eyed this model. The Robin Davis Duo recently played outdoors at a Pagosa Springs coffee shop, entertaining the paying customers who were patiently waiting for their orders while observing social distancing and masking guidelines.

Local artists will be the first to arrive on our stages. These initial shows will likely be at outdoor patios, with tables and chairs spaced much farther apart than in pre-COVID days.

Don’t expect indoor shows at the Animas City Theatre, Durango Arts Center, Wild Horse Saloon or Community Concert Hall to magically reappear at first – especially with the governor’s guidelines. Complicating matters is the fact that many bands don’t want to travel large distances on tours that could spread the virus from town to town. Don’t be surprised if national tours don’t come around again until 2021 at the earliest … and international tours even longer. Governors, county commissioners and city council members may ultimately make those calls. California Gov. Gavin Newsom recently outlawed all large gatherings, including concerts, festivals and sporting events, through 2020.

Even if concerts are legal, promoters can’t force an audience to attend. Perhaps there is an outbreak on a community’s doorstep (like COVID-19’s explosion on the Navajo Nation). Maybe the target audience doesn’t have disposable income because they’ve lost their jobs. Perchance people just don’t want to take the chance of exposure.

So we adapt and stage live events differently. Many bands and musicians are earning income while keeping their skills sharp

through Facebook Live and YouTube concerts. These are usually free with a virtual tip jar to drop a few bucks into. If you’re like me, you’ve watched quite a few of these the past two months.

While they’re certainly not the same as seeing the artist on a real stage surrounded by your drunken friends singing along and dancing, they’re intimate in their own way. Ever wonder what Tim O’Brien’s office looks like? Bookcases filled with novels and LPs and a picture of Bill Monroe, kind of what you’d expect from a retired college English professor who occasionally busts out his guitar to strum along. Jerry Douglas’ man cave? Souvenirs from 40 years of touring. Eddie Spaghetti’s guest room? Decorated sparingly with punk rock posters.

Is it profitable? Local bands might make a modest amount of tips – maybe even comparable to a Friday afternoon gig at the neighborhood watering hole. The big names who headline festivals often pull $5-10k per performance, occasionally split with a nonprofit like a local food bank, public radio station or struggling venue. I’ve even seen bands like the Infamous Stringdusters hold live concerts to raise money for their unemployed road crew.

There’s talk of some regional festivals holding virtual events.

At KSUT, we’re planning a twohour live event on Fri., June 5 – what should have been the first night of Pagosa Folk N’ Bluegrass – with mini-concerts

by Tommy Emmanuel and the aforementioned Tim O’Brien. These will be broadcast over the airwaves, as well as streamed on Facebook Live or another online medium. Donations will be split between the station and performers. The rumor mill has Craig Ferguson of Planet Bluegrass furiously working on a virtual stage festival during the week of Telluride Bluegrass (June 18-21). Planet Bluegrass has also created the Festivarian Fallow Fund, in which people can donate to a fund that will be split between artists and their support staff, Telluride nonprofits like KOTO, and Planet Bluegrass itself to keep the lights on during this lean year.

You can also embrace and augment your own music collection. For my birthday, my wife, Shelly, had my broken Technics turntable refurbished, freeing my record collection in the process. The Four Corners tapers – Billy Dee and Richard Skaggs, the guys who run mics and soundboard patches at many festivals and concerts across the region – have furiously mastered dozens of shows to make available on Archive.org. These are mementos from over a decade of my favorite shows that I can either download or stream to relive past glory.

If you’re a Luddite like me, you have your computer connected to your home stereo and can play these shows in multiple rooms. I like to mix a pitcher of cocktails or ice down a six-pack on Friday afternoons and sit on my back porch while being entertained by the Six Dollar String Band or Town Mountain at past Durango Bluegrass Meltdowns. Of course, tech savvy millennials can ask Alexa to play these shows on their smart speaker, bringing the party to wherever there’s cell service.

Concerts and festivals won’t be gone forever. It might take months or even years, but they’ll be back … with a vengeance!

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May 21, 2020 n 17

FreeWillAstrology

by Rob Brezsny

A river runs through it Gorgeously rustic 5-bed, 2-bath 10 miles east of Durango in the Florida River Valley Listen to the sound of the river from the large back yard Large covered patio, attached garage

$350,000 MLS #768658

ARIES (March 21-April 19): “Excellence does not require perfection,” Aries author Henry James wrote. Now I’m conveying this brilliant counsel to you – just in time for the season when it will make good sense to strive for shining excellence without getting bogged down in a debilitating quest for perfection. Have fun re-committing yourself to doing the best you can, Aries, even as you refuse to be tempted by the unprofitable lure of absolute purity and juvenile forms of idealism.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): To generate an ounce of pure cocaine, you must collect 52 pounds of raw coca leaf and work hard to transform it. But please don’t do that. Fate won’t be on your side if you do. However, I will suggest that you consider undertaking a metaphorically comparable process – by gathering a sizable amount of raw material or basic stuff necessary to produce the small treasure or precious resource that you require.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): “The very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for,” author Barbara Kingsolver writes. “And the most you can do is live inside that hope.

Not admire it from a distance but live right in it, under its roof.” According to my analysis of the astrological omens, that is exactly the work you should be doing right now, Gemini. Everything good that can and should happen for you in the coming months depends on you defining what you hope for, and then doing whatever’s necessary to live inside that hope.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): The periodic arrivals of “natural disruption” in our everyday routines has a divine purpose, Yoruba priest Awó Falokun Fatunmbi writes. It is “to shake consciousness loose from complacency and rigid thinking.” To be vital, he says, our perception of truth must be constantly evolving, and never stagnant. “Truth is a way of looking at self and World,” Fatunmbi declares. “It is a state of being rather than an act of knowing.” Many Westerners find this hard to understand because they regard truth as a “fixed set of rules or dogma,” or as a body of “objective facts.”

But here’s the good news: Right now, you Cancerians are especially receptive to Fatunmbi’s alternative understanding of truth – and likely to thrive by adopting it.

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18 n May 21, 2020

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Novelist and war correspondent Martha Gellhorn departed this life in 1998, but she articulated a message that’s important for you to hear right now.

She wrote, “People often say, with pride,

‘I’m not interested in politics.’ They might as well say, ‘I’m not interested in my standard of living, my health, my job, my rights, my freedoms, my future or any future.’” Gellhorn added, “If we mean to keep control over our world and lives, we must be interested in politics.” In my opinion, her advice is always applicable to all of us, but it’s especially crucial for you to meditate on right now. You’ll be wise to upgrade your interest and involvement in the big cultural and political developments that are impacting your personal destiny.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): According to author and teacher Marianne Williamson, “Ego says, ‘Once everything falls into place, I’ll feel peace.’

Spirit says, ‘Find your peace, and then everything will fall into place.’” I think the coming weeks will be a favorable time for you to take Williamson’s advice seriously, Virgo. How? By giving control of your life to Spirit as you find your peace. In saying this, I’m not implying that Ego is bad or wrong. In fact, I think Ego is a crucial asset for you, and I’m hoping that in recent months you have been lifting your Ego to a higher, finer state of confidence and competence than ever before. But right now I think you should authorize Spirit to run the show for a while. If you do, it will bless you with good surprises.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): “Snatching the eternal out of the desperately fleeting is the great magic trick of human existence.” Playwright Tennessee Williams said that, and now I’m conveying his insight to you – just in time for you to dramatically embody it. According to my astrological analysis, you now have more power than usual to accomplish this magic trick: to create something permanent in the midst of the transitory; to make an indelible mark on a process that has previously been characterized by restless permutations; to initiate a bold move that you will forever remember and be remembered for.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): In the course of his 73 years on the planet, Scorpio author Paul Valéry (1871–1945) wrote more than 20 books. But between the ages of 25 - 45, he passed through a phase he called the “great silence.” During that time, he quit writing and published nothing. Afterwards, he returned to his life’s work and was nominated 12 times for a Nobel Prize. Although your own version of a great silence is less extreme than his, I’m happy to announce that you will emerge from it sooner than you imagine.

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SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22Dec. 21): I’m sad that my two favorite 19th-century poets were unfamiliar with each other’s poetry. Walt Whitman

was 11 years older than Emily Dickinson but didn’t know her work. Dickinson had heard of Whitman but didn’t read his stuff. Their styles were indeed very different: hers intimate, elliptical, psychologically acute; his expansive, gregarious, earthy. But they were alike in being the most innovative American poets of their time and equally transgressive in their disregard for standard poetic forms. If there were such a thing as time travel, I’d send one of you Sagittarians back to set up a meeting between them. Acts of innovative blending and creative unifying will be your specialties in the coming weeks.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): The fictional character Sherlock Holmes (born Jan. 6 and thus a Capricorn) is a brilliant logician and acute observer who has astonishing crime-solving skills. On the other hand, according to his friend Dr. Watson, he “knows next to nothing” about “contemporary literature, philosophy and politics.” So he’s not a wellrounded person. He’s smart in some ways, dumb in others. Most of us fit that description. We are both brilliant and ignorant; talented and inept; interesting and boring.

According to my analysis of the astrological omens, the coming weeks will be an excellent time for you to hone and cultivate the less mature aspects of your own nature. I bet you’ll reap rich rewards by doing so.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): “People become like what they love,” theologian St. Catherine of Siena observed. That’ll be an interesting truth for you to meditate on in the coming weeks. I suspect you will attract experiences that are clear reflections of the kind of love you have cultivated and expressed for quite some time. You’ll be blessed in ways similar to the ways you have blessed. You’ll be challenged to face questions about love that you have not been dealing with. And here’s a promise for the future: You’ll have the opportunity to refine and deepen your approach to love so as to transform yourself into more of the person you’d like to become.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): “Humanity is a mystery,” author Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote.

“The mystery needs to be unraveled, and if you spend your whole life unraveling it, you haven’t wasted your time. I am studying that mystery because I want to be a complete human being.” I love this tender perspective on the preciousness of the Great Riddle we’re all immersed in. It’s especially useful and apropos for you to adopt right now, Pisces, because you are undergoing an unusually deep and intense communion with the mystery. As you marinate, you shouldn’t measure your success and good fortune by how much new understanding you have attained, but rather by how much reverence and gratitude you feel and how stirring your questions are.

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May 21, 2020 n 19

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