I S O U T H E R N C O LO R A D O J A N 2020
OK, BOOMER The viral phrase that’s dividing generations
THE LAW WON Ridiculous cannabis laws that are still on the books
How to beat Seasonal Affective Disorder
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SOUTHERN COLORADO SENSI MAGAZINE JANUARY 2020
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F E AT U R E S
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So SAD
For people with Seasonal Affective Disorder, winter brings a lot more than the blues.
The B-Word
Is “OK, boomer” a slur, a sign of generational conflict, or just a meme-able mic drop?
SPECIAL REPORT
Arrested Development
These six ridiculous cannabis restrictions are still in effect around the country.
D E PA R T M E N T S
9 EDITOR’S NOTE 10 THE BUZZ News, tips, and tidbits
to keep you in the loop THE FIT LIST Healthiest cities in America ALL YOU EVER WANTED
Take part in the holiday wherein you plan your next holiday. DOWNWARD DOG Yoga gear for your pets? Sure, why not? LOCAL COMPANY Buy boutique at Apricot Lane in Lakewood. ACCESSORIES TO SWEAR BY The latest in expletive
fashion
KOM-BREW-CHA Mother mushroom beer blends
34 THE LIFE Contributing to your
health and happiness LOOPHOLES Local schools reject cannabis medicine. CANDIDATES Presidential hopefuls talk cannabis. HOROSCOPE What the numbers mean for 2020
40 THE SCENE Hot happenings and hip
ON THE COVER SAD Face: A lack of light can bring you down.
hangouts around town WEIGHT LOSSES How (not) to lose weight, according to vintage diet guides CALENDAR Kick off the year with concerts and culture.
50 THE END
The elections are a long, long way off. Try to stay sane until November.
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Magazine published monthly by Sensi Media Group LLC. © 2020 Sensi Media Group. All rights reserved.
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Mike Mansbridge Co-Chief Operations Officer mike@sensimag.com EDITORIAL Stephanie Wilson Editor in Chief stephanie@sensimag.com Doug Schnitzspahn Executive Editor doug.schnitzspahn@sensimag.com Leland Rucker Senior Editor leland.rucker@sensimag.com
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Lindsey Bartlett, Dawn Garcia, John Lehndorff, Dorian Smith, Mona Van Joseph Contributing Writers DESIGN Jamie Ezra Mark Creative Director jamie@emagency.com Rheya Tanner Art Director Wendy Mak Designer Kiara Lopez Designer Josh Clark Designer Jason Jones Designer em@sensimag.com PUBLISHING Liana Cameris Publisher liana.cameris@sensimag.com B U S I N E S S /A D M I N Kristan Toth Head of People kristan.toth@sensimag.com Amber Orvik Administrative Director amber.orvik@sensimag.com Andre Velez Marketing Director andre.velez@sensimag.com Neil Willis Production Manager neil.willis@sensimag.com
EDITOR’S NOTE
Seasonal Affective Disorder, also known as SAD,
is so much more than just a case of the winter blues. It’s a sign that our brains and our bodies aren’t in harmony with the world around us. Last winter, I was struck by SAD, unable to shake free from its cold grip until the snow finally stopped falling in June, months after my Florida-raised brain had expected spring to arrive. I know for many, summer was brutal this year, with temps in the 90s lasting until almost October. Personally, I loved it, lay in it, soaked up as much as I could, damaging my skin to deliver dopamine to my brain. And then a winter weather advisory alert cannonballed into my inbox the first week of October, warning eight inches of snow would soon follow. I wasn’t ready for that yet. So, I did what any sane Coloradan would do: shut my blinds, ordered the SAD lamp recommended by Wirecutter and some removable palm tree decals to liven up those blinds, and pretended it wasn’t happening. It was quite an effective strategy. I work from home, and the snow was gone 24 hours later. By the time it returned, my light therapy would be well underway. I am happy to report it’s working. My blinds are open, and I am loving the brisk fresh air that comes with the season. I’ve even geared up so I can bum a buddy pass or two and try to ski some powder again this year. (I grew up in New Hampshire, so skiing ice is my speciality. When I hit powder, my ass hits the ground. I’ll get the hang of it soon.) Along with tips on how to combat SAD, we’ve packed this issue with topics that cover the full spectrum of what’s new and what’s next. It’s our way of celebrating the arrival of a new year, a new decade. A ray of light in the middle of a long winter, a reminder to be brilliant and send good vibes out to the world. Don’t be sad. Spring is on its way.
This issue is our way of celebrating the arrival of a new year, a new decade. It’s a ray of light in the middle of a long winter, a reminder to be brilliant and send good vibes out to the world.
Hector Irizarry Distribution distribution@sensimag.com M E D I A PA R T N E R S Marijuana Business Daily Minority Cannabis Business Association National Cannabis Industry Association Students for Sensible Drug Policy
Stephanie Wilson @stephwilll JANUARY 2020
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CONTRIBUTORS
Dawn Garcia, Doug Schnitzspahn, Dorian Smith, Stephanie Wilson
The Fit List Fresh research confirms Denver and Colorado Springs are among the healthiest cities in US. The MindBody Wellness Index surveyed the most populous 50 cities in the US and ranked them by health. In 2020, Miami topped the list as the healthiest city in America. A number of factors contribute to a city’s score, including how much locals prioritize wellness and ultimately invest in it (including fitness, beauty and grooming, and integrative health services), their healthy habits (across multiple 10 SOU T H ER N COLORA DO
dimensions of wellness), and the success of wellness businesses within the city. Denver, which came in at number four behind Atlanta and San Francisco, is home to some of the most dedicated fitness fans in the country. Over 80 percent of residents work out at least once a week. And those sweat sessions are paying off; 40 percent say they’re satisfied or very satisfied with their fitness
JANUARY 2020
level (compared to the national average of only 31 percent). Denver residents especially love yoga and weight/strength training, and the top reason Denver works out is to feel good. The same research put Colorado Springs as the 24th Denver B-Cycle is being healthiest city in America, based phased out. The bike on physical activity, BMI, alcohol sharing program will consumption, connection to the cease operation on community, healthy eating, and January 30. spiritual wellness.
END OF CYCLE
BY THE NUMBERS
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96 HOURS
Time artists spend hand-carving 20-ton blocks of snow into works of art during the International Snow Sculpture Championships in Breck, on view Jan. 24–29
$12.85 The new minimum wage (per hour) in Denver as of Jan. 1, up from $11.10 per hour
26 CARS
Number of vehicles that will fit in the drive-thru lane of the Lone Tree In-NOut Burger, set to open this year near Park Meadows Mall
I’m not making New Year’s resolutions this year. No one likes a sober skinny bitch anyway.” —meme
PLAN TO GET GOING January 28 is National Plan for Vacation Day 2020, a campaign organized by the US Travel Association. The goal is that you plan your vacation days for the full year at the start of it. If your anxiety spikes at the thought of committing to anything a month in advance (feel you on that!), there are a bunch of reasons to consider daydreaming about your dream trip this month. First, the mere act of planning a getaway is shown to improve happiness, boost morale, prevent burnout, and reduce stress. Second, Americans who plan their vacation time are more likely to use it to venture away from home (76 percent) compared to non-planners (50 percent), according to the US Travel Association. And people who actually do get away report they are happier with their job, company, relationship, and health. Carve out some time on the third Tuesday of the month and commit to taking some time off. It’ll be good for you.
49.6% The percentage inhaled cannabis reduces self-reported migraine severity, according to a recent study SOURCE: Journal of Pain
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THE BUZZ
SENSIBILITIES
Downward Dog
Yoga-inspired dog wear is finally here. How did our pooches live without this apparel? If WHAT MATTERS THIS MONTH BY STEPHANIE WILSON only they could tell us. Alas, weʼll just have to trust they are able to move freely and comfortably during zoomies thanks to a new line 1 GOALS ARE THE NEW RESOLUTIONS. And since we’re in a new decade, let’s from Pet Life. The collection features stateset loftier targets, hit them, surpass them. Where do you want to be in 2025? of-the-art materials that are antimicrobial, 2030? Start manifesting the life you want. In the shorter term, however… quick-drying, and breathable. The collection ______ includes stretchy dog T-shirts, polos, full2 MANIFEST THE OUTFITS YOU WANT by signing up for Nuuly clothing rental body gear, tank tops, and hoodies. from Free People’s parent co. For just $88/mo., you get six temporary additions to “It took years to develop this collection your wardrobe—perfect excuse to try out new trends. after studying what the leading activewear ______ manufacturers are doing in the human space,” 3 BE EXTRA EXTRA. I resolved to be just that at the start of last year. Met that says Joseph Braha of Pet Life. “We undergoal and have a photo of the statement jacket I borrowed from Nuuly as proof. stand the yoga fashion market very well and See @stephwilll if you’re curious just how extra “extra extra” is. how dog yoga is becoming a larger trend.” ______ With breathable four-way stretch fabric, 4 SEE ALSO: posts about my apartment/urban jungle. the Eboneflow dog yoga T-shirt worn here ______ starts at $43. 5 PUTTING IT OUT THERE NOW. I’m setting my first intention for 2020: I will shop.petlife.com get my place featured on Apartment Therapy as a home tour this year. Boom.
______ 6 WANNA BE MY GOAL BUDDY? DM or post a comment—we’ll start a club.
One with books and discussions involved. Community and knowledge will result. We’ll call it…The Book Club. Let’s do this.
“Experience is the name so many people give to their mistakes.” —F. Scott Fitzgerald, This Side of Paradise (1920)
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THE BUZZ
VOX POPULI
MEL HAYES
Empowering Tax Resolution Uptown
___________________
Marriage, on leap day! Coral hair! Setting goals of more exercise and reaching the next level of my career…and learning SQL!
Question: It’s 2020. What’s new, what’s next?
EVAN LENTZ Systems Engineer Uptown
___________________ The next trip is going to Gorge Amphitheater to see Tame Impala and visiting family back home in Washington.
TINA SMITH Preschool Teacher City Park
___________________ This year is bringing me to grad school. Heading back to University of Denver for a master’s in early childhood education with a focus on policy.
EXPLETIVE INFIXATION If looks could kill, you’d slay all day… No, actually, you wouldn’t because you’re not totally cliché like that. You’ve got all sorts of style, and you’re used to standing out in crowds of Coloradans. You’re a badass statement maker who commands attention when you walk in a room. Maison BangBang’s latest release lets you make an effin’ statement without so much as parting your lips. The US-designed, French-made products are produced in super limited numbers and sold exclusively through the company’s website. This limited-edition unisex Nessuno Black & Gold Rosé bag, crafted from non-animal leather and adorned with a gold rosé motif, is going for $449. maisonbangbang.com
CATHERINE KARTMAN
KELSEY HEFFERNA
Montessori School Director Capitol Hill
___________________
I have plans to move in with my main squeeze, and we’re keeping our fingers crossed that his cats and my dog are as excited to be under the same roof as we are.
Hospice Social Worker Kings Ridge, Boulder
___________________ I envision 2020 to be a grounding year for me, as well as a year full of spiritual growth, personally and with my hubby! We will go on our honeymoon to Hawaii in the spring, and I hope to go to Burning Man in September.
“I HOPE THAT IN THIS YEAR TO COME, YOU MAKE MISTAKES. BECAUSE IF YOU ARE MAKING MISTAKES, THEN YOU ARE MAKING NEW THINGS, TRYING NEW THINGS, LEARNING, LIVING, PUSHING YOURSELF, CHANGING YOURSELF, CHANGING YOUR WORLD.” —Neil Gaiman, author
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THE BUZZ
LOCAL COMPANY
Boutique Buys
Apricot Lane Boutique is the newest fashion boutique at the Belmar Center in Lakewood. A locally owned women’s and teen shop offering a handpicked assortment of on-trend clothing, accessories, and gifts, Apricot Lane Boutique has a curated collection of casual and going-out styles of well-known and up-and-coming brands along with a great selection of the latest denim brands. “Think of us as your fashion fairy godmother: we transform your look by providing the outfits of your dreams,” said Owner Lisa Hild in a recent press release. Cheesy? Yes. Still a cool store worth checking out? For sure. apricotlaneboutique.com
GOING BACK IN TIME
PHOTOS COURTESY OF UNITY VIBRATION, VORTIC, AND APRICOT LANE
Vortic is taking vintage timepieces to a new level.
Vortic Watch Company is a small-batch, vintage timepiece restoration company headquartered in Southern Colorado. Vortic offers several wrist watch lines: American Artisan, Railroad Edition, Military Edition, and Red Rocks Edition. You can also have your own timepiece custom-made from your own family’s heirlooms with the “convert your watch” program. Each line is unique, from the American Artisan pieces made from upcycled parts to the Railroad Edition’s removable bezel and other features. The newest line, Military Edition, features meticulously restored AN5740-1 pocket watches, which were commissioned by the United States government at the beginning of World War II. The originals were designed to withstand altitude as they were utilized by navigators on bomber aircrafts including B-17s and B-29s, equipped as stop watches, used as location devices, and made to meet very clear specifications to ensure the navigators would always have accurate time. Timepieces steeped in American culture combined with the Vortic promise to preserve history through truly refined and unique watches is what sets them apart.
Strange Brew
Combine a mother mushroom and hops and you get a drink that blends the best of kombucha and beer. Kombucha is that increasingly popular drink that owes its probiotic properties and tangy taste to a mother fungus. Beer is, well, you know. Kombucha can contain small amounts of alcohol due to fermentation, and it also mixes well into a cocktail, but Unity Vibration has taken the pairing one step further with its kombucha beers. They combine the healthy tonic with organic hops and fruit flavors ranging from ginger to peaches to elderberries to create a concoction thatʼs easy to sip. Just be prepared: it packs a whopping 8 to 9.1 percent ABV. The Bourbon Peach is the beer snobʼs favorite, and the Raspberry is a crowd pleaser. unityvibrationkombucha.com
$1,295–$6,995 | vorticwatches.com
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So For people with Seasonal Affective Disorder, winter brings on a lot more than the blues. TEXT ROBYN GRIGGS LAWRENCE
Y
ou know you need to exercise and socialize, but it’s all you can do to drag yourself to work in the dark, try to focus while you’re there, then drag yourself back home in the dark. Maybe you rely a little too much on your favorite substance to numb your aggro. Maybe you binge on pretzel crisps, then beat yourself up because you should be eating kale chips—or no chips at all. You wonder why you’re even on this cold, bleak planet. Every morning you want to pull the covers over your head and pretend your life isn’t happening. Some days you do. JANUARY 2020
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For about five percent of Americans, this nightmare is a recurring reality. Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) settles in just as winter does and doesn’t lift until spring. It’s been plaguing humans for centuries—French physician Philippe Pinel noted the onset of mental deterioration in psychiatric patients in his 1806 Treatise on Insanity—but it wasn’t included in the American Psychiatric Association’s official manual until 1987. While studying the impact of light on mental health in the early 1980s, National Institute of Mental Health researcher Norman Rosenthal discovered Seasonal Affective Disorder, a recurrent annual depression characterized by hypersomnia, social withdrawal, overeating and carbohydrate cravings, and a lack of sexual energy that seems to respond to changes in climate and latitude. About 1.5 percent of Floridians have SAD,
Rosenthal found, compared with nearly 10 percent of New Hampshirites. No one knows why some people get SAD and others don’t. There seems to be a link to alcoholism as well as a genetic history of depression and bipolar disorder. Numerous studies have shown a correlation between SAD and the reduced ability to transport the mood-regulating neurotransmitter serotonin. According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), people with SAD produce too much serotonin transporter protein in winter, leaving less of the “feel good” hormone available. Rosenthal suggests lack of sunlight throws off circadian rhythm and interferes with the hypothalamus, the part of the brain responsible for hormones. This causes abnormalities in the genes responsible for both serotonin transmission and retinal light sensitivity. Just recently, Johns Hopkins
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researchers discovered a third photo receptor in the eye that syncs our internal clocks with daylight and provides a direct pathway to the areas of the brain that affect mood—backing up the ocular part of Rosenthal’s theory. When your brain stops producing serotonin, it starts pumping out melatonin, the sleep hormone that responds to darkness, instead. This naturally makes you lethargic and groggy, and your brain’s instinct to correct serotonin deficiency could be the cause of your monster carb cravings, according to NIMH. Studies have also found a link between vitamin D, which the skin produces after sunlight exposure, and serotonin production.
In northern climates, rays aren’t strong enough to trigger vitamin D production during winter months. This suggests that vitamin D supplements might help with SAD, but studies have been inconclusive. TORCH IT There is no cure, per se, for SAD. The most prominent treatment is light therapy to replace sunlight with bright artificial light. You need to sit for about 30 minutes in the morning in front of a light box (readily available online) that exposes you to at least 10,000 lux of UV-free cool-white fluorescent or full-spectrum light—20 times more than regular indoor lighting. (You get 50,000 lux on a sunny day.)
Infuse your home with a warm, woodsy scent like cedarwood or cypress when you’re feeling cold and down. SOURCE: Winter Blues: Everything You Need to Know to Beat Seasonal Affective Disorder by Norman E. Rosenthal
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The treatment is not unlike indoor tanning beds (but without the tan), and researchers speculate that frequent tanners might be self-medicating for SAD as much as getting their tans on. (Excessive indoor tanning is now recognized as a psychological disorder.) Red River College in Manitoba, Canada, offers light therapy stations for students who are suffering and also loans out portable SAD lamps. Response to light therapy generally begins within a week or two, and its effectiveness seems to depend on how severe your SAD is. Studies have found that light treatment in the morning causes remission in two-thirds of patients with mild episodes but less than half with moder-
ate to severe cases. Light therapy is also being studied as a treatment for other types of depression, sleep disorders, and dementia, among other conditions. It’s not safe for people with diabetes and retinopathies and may contraindicate with certain medications.
little extra attention. Tell them not to take no for an answer when you try to weasel out of the Mardi Gras party. Find a workout buddy. No matter what, succumbing to the urge to sink back under the covers will only make things worse. Sunlight is most effective against SAD in GREENS AND GOALS the morning, so that’s the Experts will try to tell you time to get out there. An that your best bet for deal- intense morning workout ing with SAD is to get your- can do a lot—but again, be self up and out there, living nice to yourself if you can’t your best life. This is clearly make that happen. Taking easier said than done when a brisk walk whenever you your serotonin-deprived, can—even on cloudy days, melatonin-drenched brain sunlight filters through—is is begging for a long winter powerful medicine. nap. You need outside help. Moving your body, Lean on a good therawhether running or pracpist or coach, in person or ticing yoga, and eating a online, and let your inner diet rich in protein and circle know you need a greens are helpful when
SAD is hovering. It also can’t hurt to give yourself something to live for as the dreary months drag along. Set short-term goals and see yourself reaping the benefits in the spring. This could be as simple as knitting an afghan, reading a classic, or trimming your fall harvest—anything you find worth getting out of bed for. Those instincts to pull the duvet over your head and sleep the winter away aren’t wrong, by the way. Humans evolved to be less active in winter because they needed to save energy when food was scarce, but modern Type A culture never cuts us any slack— even when we’re going to and coming home from work in the dark.
SAD Symptoms In people who suffer from SAD, these symptoms recur at the onset of winter every year. Daily depression No interest in activities once enjoyed Low energy, sluggish Easily agitated, irritable Reduced libido Unstable emotions Sleeping issues Changes in appetite or weight (carbohydrate cravings) Trouble focusing Feelings of hopelessness, worthlessness Oversleeping Heaviness in limbs Suicidal ideation
14 percent of US adults suffer from a lesser form of SAD known as the winter blues, which leaves them feeling less cheerful, energetic, creative, and productive. SOURCE: Winter Blues: Everything You Need to Know to Beat Seasonal Affective Disorder by Norman E. Rosenthal
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Is “OK, BOOMER” a slur, a sign of increasing generational conflict, or just a meme-able mic drop? TEXT ROBYN GRIGGS LAWRENCE
C
aitlin Fisher, an Ohio writer who describes herself as “queer as hell, autistic, prone to sudden outbursts of encouragement” and a lover of avocados, cats, plants, and soy chai lattes, released a new book this year, The Gaslighting of the Millennial Generation, based on a blog post by the same name that caught Twitter’s fancy and went viral in 2016. “The millennial generation has been tasked with fixing the broken system we inherited and chastised for not doing it right or daring to suggest improvements,” she wrote in the original post. “If you think we’re doing a bad job, ask yourself how it got this way in the first place.” For Fisher, “OK, boomer”—the catch phrase that has surfaced as a way to dismiss stubborn, intolerant older folks—is nothing new. “We live in a meme culture, and this is a viral punchline,” she says. “It’s the new ‘whatever,’ a mic drop of, ‘I’m not dealing with this anymore.’” Most boomers were blissfully unaware of the phrase “OK, boomer” until this fall, when a 25-year-old member of the New Zealand Parliament let it fly during a speech about climate change and the New York Times ran a “Style” section piece on it. Nearly every mainstream media outlet followed suit. Establishment boomers, publicly butt-hurt, declared intergenerational war, culminating in 60-year-old radio host Bob Lonsberry calling the phrase “the n-word of ageism” in a tweet he later deleted. Reaction was swift, fierce, JANUARY 2020
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TALKING ’BOUT MY GENERATION Pundits break US generations into generally accepted categories, though thereʼs hardly universal agreement about when one ends and the next begins. Age can be a powerful predictor of attitudes and behaviors because it denotes where someone was in their lifecycle during specific time periods and historical events. “Boomers” born after 1960 were toddlers during Woodstock and Vietnam and are more likely to identify with The Breakfast Club, not The Big Chill. And the lines between millennials and Gen Z are as fluid as its members. They share a lot of characteristics and have quite a bit in common with their great-grandparentsʼ generation as well.
GREATEST GENERATION: 1901–1925 Conservative, security-oriented, grew up in Depression and came of age during WWII SILENT GENERATION: 1925–1945 Thrifty, moral, conformist, patriotic, came of age as America became a superpower BABY BOOMERS: 1946–1964 Indulged, self-centered, iconoclastic, goal-centric, competitive, came of age during post-WWII boom
GENERATION X: 1965–1980 Freedom-loving, family-oriented, multicultural, jaded, grew up as latch key kids after Watergate and Vietnam MILLENNIALS (A.K.A. GEN Y): 1981–1996 Technological, independent, image-driven, open-minded, ethnically diverse, grew up during peaceful times but lost innocence to 9/11, Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts, and the Great Recession GENERATION Z: 1997–2012 Traditional, family- and security-oriented, image-driven, open-minded, collaborative, most diverse (52% non-Hispanic whites), grew up with global terrorism, school shootings, smartphones, and social media
and often hilarious. “You can’t say that, #boomer is our word,” @JazzHendrix tweeted. “But you can say booma.” Though new to the mainstream media, #OKBoomer has been around awhile. Its first recorded use is in 2015 on 4chan, and it made its way to Reddit by 2017, according to Know Your Meme. In 2018, it erupted in a flurry of tweets responding to politicians criticizing millennials and their successors, Gen Zs, and it’s now a Twitter and Reddit standby. On the subReddit r/BoomerTears, 17,400 members post “any sour or garbage logic from boomers explaining why they’re special or complaining.” #BoomerAdvice, blasting out-oftouch words of wisdom from you know who, trends pretty regularly on Twitter. And of course, there’s a viral TikTok of a white-haired boomer ranting while a teenager scribbles “OK, Boomer” (flanked with hearts) on his notebook as well as an “OK, booomer” song that has spawned 4,000 TikToks. Hoodies, t-shirts, phone cases, and stickers emblazoned with the phrase are available on Redbubble and Spreadshirt. This is not your father’s generation gap; memes
like “OK, boomer” spread exponentially faster in 4G. “We can talk to people across the world, and we have the power to create whole new movements and share information really fast,” Fisher says. “Teenagers are no longer rolling their eyes at the dinner table. Now, teenagers are joining the revolution.”
WHAT IS THIS REVOLUTION? Millennials—along with their predecessors, Gen X, and successors, BEFORE IT WAS OK Gen Z—are angry. And The term baby boomer was first used in a 1963 whether they deserve it Salt Lake City Tribune or not, boomers are takarticle about the spike ing the blame for social of births that occurred and historical factors that during the decade following World War II. haven’t been kind to the generations that followed them. Boomers got college degrees “for the price of a McChicken,” according to one Redditor, while millennials are strapped with record student loan debt. The climate crisis and the rising tide of nationalism, inequality, and economic uncertainty all happened under the boomers’ watch. They elected Donald Trump. Even to boomers, it’s pretty clear this hippie-cum-capitalist generation kicked a lot of cans down the road while they were chasing profits and partying like it was 1999 (well into the 21st century). “How many world leaders for how many JANUARY 2020
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decades have seen and known what is coming but have decided that it is more politically expedient to keep it behind closed doors? My generation and the generations after me do not have that luxury,” Chlöe Swarbrick told the New Zealand Parliament in her climate speech just before she dropped the OK bomb. Even more maddening, boomers won’t acknowledge that younger generations are being forced to operate in a completely different economy, without the equity and safeguards boomers had and with huge fear about the future. “The world is just different,” says 30-yearold Lindsey Turnbull, who owns an empowerment company for teen and tween girls, MissHeard Media. “We need the adults to acknowledge that and not brush kids’ very real worries off as hormones.” These millennials are quick to point out that not every boomer is a “boomer” (thank God!). And furthermore, anyone who is intolerant to new ideas and unwilling to unlearn their biases can be “OK, boomered.” It’s more about attitude than ageism. “I know how exhausting it can be to debate with people, especially online, who are really adamant
about not seeing another point of view,” says Turnbull. “‘OK, boomer’ just says you’re not wasting all that time and emotional energy trying to come up with a well-thought-out response when the person on the other side doesn’t listen.”
hoarded all the wealth and polluted the planet in the process; they haven’t had to witness—or deal with the ramifications of—old age and precarity for millions of working people in that generational cohort,” he writes in the Guardian. “Instead they get to revel without self-reflection in oedipal TRENDING ON angst about their elders— WHITE TWITTER many of whom were kind One of the biggest issues many people see with this enough to pass them their ill-gotten privileges.” meme-inspired revoluFisher doesn’t distion is that its guerrillas agree. “It’s important to tend to be of a type—upacknowledge that ‘OK, per-middle-class white youth—and they’re com- boomer’ is about priviplaining about issues like leged older people, baby boomers in Congress who lack of economic opporkeep voting to give themtunity and silencing that people of color have been selves pay raises but don’t dealing with for centuries. want poor older people to have affordable health Black Twitter sees #Okcare,” she says. “While Boomer as nothing more than disrespect for elders. we’re fighting against the “White Brogressives never ‘royal boomer’ we can’t cared about income ineq- ignore the needs of older uity when it was just black people in our communities. Ageism is really serior brown folks on the ous. There’s elder abuse, wrong end of it,” @Wonderbitch82 posted. and medical debt is bankBhaskar Sunkara, found- rupting older Americans. er of Jacobin magazine and We can’t point to all older author of The Socialist Mani- people and say they are the problem the way they festo: The Case for Radical Politics in an Era of Extreme point to our generation and say we are the probInequality, believes white lem. We have to open up upper middle-class youth the conversation.” who find themselves shut The conversation opens out of the housing market up for Turnbull, who lives and exploited by the gig economy should aim their angst at investment bankers, not boomers. “These young people are surrounded by baby boomers who’ve
in Washington, DC, when she mingles with people of all ages during political marches and protests. But in many places in the US, opportunities for cross-generational conversation are becoming rare as children are shunted into age-based sports and activities while the elderly are sent to care facilities, says Timiko Tanka, an associate professor of sociology at James Madison University. “As is said in an African proverb, ‘It takes a village to raise a child,’” she says. “But today, many children are growing up without such a community.” Tanka says intergenerational care centers, which are starting to crop up across the country, have been proven to be useful in reducing age-based prejudice and stereotyping. In her Social Gerontology course, students spend at least 20 hours interacting and becoming comfortable with elderly people—so comfortable that by the end of the semester, they’re playing cards together. Schools, care facilities, and municipal governments need to create more opportunities for people to share different perspectives, she says. “‘OK, boomer’ is a warning that we need to find a bridge, not a wall, and have meaningful conversation,” says Tanka.
Generationalism: the systematic appeal to the concept of generation in narrating the social and political as a way of explaining political and social shifts. SOURCE: Baby Boomers and Generational Conflict by Jenny Bristow (2015)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Robyn Griggs Lawrence is the author of the bestselling Cannabis Kitchen Cookbook and the recently released Pot in Pans: A History of Eating Cannabis.
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SPECIAL REPORT
ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT While legalization is on a roll, these six ridiculous cannabis laws and regulations made it onto the books across the country. TEXT LINDSEY BARTLETT
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C
annabis prohibition is falling like an old empire across the United States. Yet not all new laws and regulations surrounding cannabis are winners. There are many laws in legal marijuana markets, both medical and adult-use, that are not based on data but are in fact quite arbitrary. At best, these regulations are off-base. At worst, they are curtailing access for medical patients who desperately need to access their medication. Laws have forced patients, adult consumers, and cannabis companies alike to jump through unnecessary hoops in order to get weed. But why? Lawmakers have predisposed notions of what would happen if weed became legal. Unfortunately, many of the laws you see today were written by people coming from the perspective of a deeply ingrained “Reefer Madness” culture. Those in charge fear repercussions that are simply not backed by the data. When laws are developed through that lens, they are not likely to make a lot of sense. It will take time to iron out these regulations, but someday they will be history. Fingers crossed. Here are six ridiculous, arbitrary, and damaging cannabis laws across the country.
NO RESTROOMS ALLOWED In West Hollywood, a lot of attention has been given to the country’s first open cannabis consumption lounge licensee. The Original Cannabis Cafe (previously known as Lowell Farms) has one bizarre quirk in its regulations forced by zoning. The restroom, formerly a part of the building located within the walls of the restaurant, had to be built out with a separate entrance. The café owners told Sensi they were asked to disconnect the bathroom from the main building space. This forces customers to exit the front door and walk around the exterior of the building to use the restroom. Before opening its doors in October 2019, the restaurant scrambled to comply with this seemingly arbitrary building requirement. As far as zoning is concerned, cannabis consumption needs to happen in a closed space. It is all very confusing. But the first cannabis consumption licenses to get off the ground will undoubtedly have some kinks.
LIMITED LINEUP Yes, there is a medical marijuana program in New York. No, it is not making a dent in the demand in the unlicensed market. This can be attributed to the state’s strict regulations, which make it so the only available products are items that aren’t as popular with medical patients. Products in New York are limited to edible cannabis concentrate oil, capsules, or topicals. You can’t smoke it. Keep in mind, the allowable cannabis concentrate oil is not the same as the popular oils you’d dab with or put in a vape pen. You also can’t buy edibles that are already made with cannabis. Just capsules. New York consumers and patients do not have the option of regular ol’ flower. This tight restriction on the products available for sale has deterred many cannabis patients, store owners, and cultivators from participating. While its medical program was enacted in 2014 by the Compassionate Care Act, the state has fewer than 30 medical dispensaries five years later. JANUARY 2020
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ENVIRONMENTALLY UNFRIENDLY All the largest markets have one unfortunate regulation in common: You cannot recycle or reuse any cannabis packaging. In Oregon, plastic childproof containers are required, but once the container is used to store cannabis, it is not allowed to be recycled, meaning all this plastic packaging ends up in landfills. The Bureau of Cannabis Control in California and Washington State laws make recycling products difficult. Colorado does not have any language in place for the recycling of cannabis containers. It will become a Goliath issue if these laws are not amended to make practical recycling a part of the cannabis industry. Companies want to recycle, and they want a safe and effective way to reuse the old vape cartridges that are brought back into the store. Bad news is, because of these strict state regulations, they can’t. One solution companies are finding is to begin with recycled and reclaimed plastic, like products made by Sana. An innovative company called TerraCycle offers another solution in melting down and cleaning cannabis packaging waste. But like all other industries grappling with the plastic problem, the most impactful changes will be made top-down, not at the consumer level.
NOT FIT TO PRINT Marketing regulations for the cannabis industry are a patchwork of chaos. There remain a limited number of ways that companies can advertise, and those laws vary state-by-state. Facebook and Instagram have gone out of their way to shadow ban cannabis companies, sometimes deleting the accounts of licensed, legal businesses. Google AdWords doesn’t play nicely with cannabis companies either, offering payment ad options to very few exceptions. In Colorado, you can’t advertise on billboards, on mobile, in banners, or in handout leaflets. California allows cannabis companies to advertise on billboards, but there is currently a lawsuit attempting to ban that method. As a result of this mess, the industry has gotten creative with advertising. This very magazine is one avenue that exists without restriction, paving the way for marketing in the cannabis world.
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CASH OR… CASH States that legalize cannabis want cannabis tax money. But they don’t allow companies to have a safe way to pay their bills, pay their employees, and to store revenue. Until the SAFE Banking Act makes its way through the Senate and eventually to the desk of President Trump, there is a massive regulatory issue. Dispensaries across the country are forced to operate as cash-only businesses—in a cash-only billion-dollar industry. Stripe, Square, and other payment apps are cracking down not only on cannabis businesses, including CBD businesses, but on ancillary companies as well. Hopefully a solution will be found in the SAFE Banking Act. Cannabis businesses need to be able to lean on legitimate financial institutions. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Lindsey Bartlett has been writing about cannabis since 2012. An advocate and 10-year medical cannabis patient, her work has been featured in Yahoo Finance, Benzinga, and The Cannabist.
MANDATORY MONOPOLY Some cannabis regulations go so far as to defy capitalism at its core. In Vermont’s medical cannabis program, for example, a registered patient must choose one—and only one—dispensary to buy from. Patients can change their designated dispensary, but only once every 30 days, and only for a $50 fee. The cost is an access issue for many medical patients. Another peculiar move for Vermont: while any 21plus adult can legally grow two mature and four immature plants for personal use outside in the sunshine (fenced yard, screened from public view), medical cannabis patients must grow indoors if they want to take advantage of the higher plant count available to them (seven immature).
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Stuck in a Loop A loophole in Colorado law still allows school districts to deny cannabis medicine on their campuses. TEXT LELAND RUCKER
It’s one of those things that seems so easy but proves to be oh so difficult. Benjamin Wann, 18, is a senior at Mountain Vista High School in Douglas County. Diagnosed with epilepsy, he is a registered medical-marijuana patient who uses a product made from hemp oil, morning and night, to help keep seizures at bay. He also likes to keep a nasal spray (CannatolRx Rescue) handy, to stop unexpected seizures. Call it insurance. 34 SOU T HE R N COLORA DO
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It’s that nasal spray that has made things difficult. CannatolRx Rescue contains a miniscule amount of THC (tetrahydrocannabinol, the chemical associated with cannabis “elevation”), and it is the policy of the Douglas County School Board not to allow anything containing THC on school campuses. It’s not that it’s illegal in the state. Colorado passed House Bill 1373 in early 2016, which allows a parent or
designated caregiver to administer cannabis products to authorized patients on school premises. The bill was passed after a student named Jack Splitt, who used medical cannabis to curb his dystonia, and his mother, Stacey Linn, lobbied for the chance to allow Splitt, who died on Aug. 24, 2016, and other students like him to have access to their medicine at school. Splitt’s honesty and buoyant personality
SUPPORT
Learn more or support the Green Crayon Campaign online thegreencrayoncampaign.com
won the attention of lawmakers and everyone else at the Capitol, and the bill is commonly known as “Jack’s Law.” “We got some attention from folks in the cannabis industry and also (then) Rep. Jonathan Singer,” Linn says. “We were able to get an amendment to the caregivers act, which was being introduced at the time, to allow medical cannabis to be administered to kids at schools. That was the first time in the country that happened.” In June of 2018, legislators added an amendment, House Bill 1286, that allows school personnel and nurses to administer medical marijuana. But, like much state cannabis legislation, the bill allowed schools and districts to opt in or out. So far, only one of the 179 districts has incorporated the new law. For its part, the Douglas County School District uses the federal definition of cannabis to disallow the THC nasal spray to be placed on its
shelves—even for a just-in-case situation. And since the parents are the designated caregivers, and neither could get to the school to administer the drug in time to do any good should he have a sudden seizure, it leaves Benjamin and others like him without alternatives. In October, school board president David Ray commended Benjamin and the family for their persistence on the issue—they have been attending meetings for more than a year—and said that the board would review the policy and put it on the November agenda. Before that meeting, the item was pulled at the behest of city attorneys, the board said, because it is dealing with another complaint filed against it concerning its cannabis policy. No date has been set for its return to the board’s agenda. Benjamin will graduate in 2020, but the Wanns, along with the family of Marley Porter, a 14-year-old at
Castle Rock Middle School who uses homemade cannabis capsules to help control her Crohn’s Disease, are not going to stop advocating for these rights in Douglas County. The Wanns started the Green Crayon Campaign to bring awareness to the cause and pressure lawmakers to force districts to allow THC medicines to be on shelves and administered by school personnel and nurses. They are also working with legislators to amend “Jack’s Law” during the 2020 session to force districts to obey state law as well as asking Governor Polis to sign an emergency executive order to allow medicine to be kept overnight and administered by school personnel. “The Green Crayon campaign stemmed out of needing a visual to catch the attention of our leaders and whoever we’re sending this campaign to,” says Benjamin’s mother, Amber Wann. “It started with sending notes and crayons to
Like much state cannabis legislation, the bill allowed schools and districts to opt in or out. So far, only one of the 179 districts has incorporated the new law.
the superintendent of the school.” It appears the issue will be decided by the legislature. “The governor understands the importance of access to medical cannabis for Coloradans who use these products to alleviate the symptoms of their health challenges,” a spokesperson from Polis emailed. “However, he cannot legislate or reverse legislation contemplated by the general assembly and will not act to overturn legislation through executive order. It is up to the legislature to take another look at Jack’s Law to determine how to encourage access for student patients who use medical cannabis.” All this over keeping a state-legal bottle of medicine in a locked cabinet at a school with other medicines. School districts have too much power, Amber says. “We want to keep reminding people nationwide that we have to go to legislators and boldly demand mandatory laws.” JANUARY 2020
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THE LIFE W H E R E C A N D I D AT E S S TA N D
The Race for POTUS It’s going to be a strange and curious ride. TEXT DAWN GARCIA
If you have a pulse, you know we’re in the throes of a rather colorful—and heated—presidential race for 2020. It’s hard to ignore the many things happening in our nation’s political arena, so rather than focus on the chaos, let’s take a look at some of the Democratic candidates and how they stand on one particular issue: marijuana and cannabis legalization. With 11 states that have fully legal markets and Illinois just joining the ranks, the topic of legalization is one of great debate. Looking at a breakdown done by politico.com, six Democratic candidates have a spectrum of thought on the topic. Despite believing that marijuana is a “gateway drug,” former Vice President Joe Biden supports it being downgraded to a Schedule II of the Substance Abuse Act and decriminalizing it at the federal level, though states could still prosecute its use as a
punishable offense. Indiana’s mayor of South Bend, Pete Buttigieg, is a strong supporter of legalizing, as are Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, New Jersey senator Cory Booker, Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren, and entrepreneur Andrew Yang. “We will take executive action to de-schedule and legalize marijuana nationwide and expunge as many prior marijuana-related convictions as possible,” wrote the Sanders campaign in response to a questionnaire supplied to all presidential candidates on what executive actions they would commit to. Warren wrote on prospect.org, “I support delisting marijuana as a Schedule I drug to limit federal intervention when states have already legalized marijuana…I also support the full legalization of marijuana and restorative justice for those unjustly jailed for marijuana crimes.”
Her office confirmed that this was an endorsement of administrative de-scheduling. Cannabis has become too big to ignore in terms of its economic impact, its health benefits as an
alternative to opioids, and its use as an agriculture necessity. From food to medicine to pet wellness to stress relief, cannabis is here to stay, and we’re well on our way to changing the stigma. JANUARY 2020
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THE LIFE
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mona Van Joseph has been predicting the potential of her clients since 2002. She is an author and columnist who hosts Psychic View Radio weekly. mona.vegas
HOROSCOPE
ANNUAL FOURCAST
The number 2020 vibes to the number four. How will that affect the coming year? TEXT MONA VAN JOSEPH
The sum of the numbers of the last year of the decade is four. Four is the number of foundation and structure. This is the year of establishing your legacy. Wills, trusts, inheritances, and the settling of old affairs will be a priority. The faster any pending legal issues are concluded, the better it will be for you moving forward. This is where you leave your home each day with the vibration that things are squared away. Do not worry about those people who haven’t taken care of their issues; just gently remind them that you are
taking care of yours. This is not a time of preaching what you know to be right for you. Wait until you are asked for your advice. Each of us knows what’s right for us (if we are still enough to relax into our spirit). Think of the things and people around you as treasures. They are your foundation for the upcoming years. This decade is ending on the vibration of setting things in order, so that means that you are establishing the energy for the next decade (beginning in 2021) with the structure of what you set in place in 2020.
Also, 2020 can be considered a “Master Year,” because of the number 22. It resonates with the master builder, so think of large projects where the attention to detail is respected, honored, and celebrated. The number 22 is also the only master number where its digits can be multiplied or added together to reach the sum of four. Because the energy revolves around setting things in order, you will find that your awareness of what’s most important will be what attracts your attention. Some cultures resist the number four
in the same way we avoid the number 13. In languages such as Mandarin and Japanese, the word “four” sounds identical to the word for “death.” In this case, however, that death is not an actual ending of life; it is the end of irresponsibility. It is the freedom that comes from being disciplined enough to plan, from here, your future. The year 2020 will be one for checking the details of everything before making any decision and not a year of shortcutting anything. Purge away any old, unused items and sage your home on New Year’s Day
(or as close to the beginning of the month as possible). It’s a lovely ritual to cleanse away any negativity from the previous year. Have flat surfaces in your home become a cluttered menagerie where dust bunnies lurk? Then it’s time to get rid of that clutter. Even those clothes that still have the tags on them could be returned or donated to an organization that helps people restart their lives.
THINK OF THE THINGS AND PEOPLE AROUND YOU AS TREASURES. THEY ARE YOUR FOUNDATION FOR THE UPCOMING DECADE.
See your individual astrology forecast for January 2020 at vegasastrology.com, and download the Dice Wisdom app to keep you focused on what’s most important to your spirit in 2020.
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My Life as a Loser Your parents’ bad diets weigh heavily on how you nibble today. TEXT JOHN LEHNDORFF
Someone in my house was always on a diet when I was growing up. Sometimes it was my older and younger sisters who followed various diets, and sometimes it was my older and younger brothers. My dad—an anesthesiologist who struggled with his weight—believed in burning more calories than you eat. My mom, the former nurse, was a chronic dieter throughout her life, from the Scarsdale, South Beach, and Atkins diets to 40 SOU T H ER N COLORA DO
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the Cabbage Soup and Grapefruit ones. She was one of the very early adopters of the original Weight Watchers. More often than not, she was on the Pall-Mall-cigarette-and-black-coffee diet. “I didn’t want to be like my mother, Nanna, with her hanging stomach,” my mom would later say. She started smoking as a teenager to control her weight and inhaled for more than 70 years. We all got the not especially subtle message.
I was the middle child and on a diet for half of my youth. I know all the euphemisms. Chubby. Heavy boned. Overweight (or is it under-height?). The most feared was the dreaded obese, uttered by our terrifying family pediatrician who expressed apocalyptic opinions about my weight. Fueled by shame, Catholic guilt over failed willpower, and sublimated anger, I was well on my way to the vibrant dysfunctional relationship with food that
stack of diet-related pamphlets and cookbooks, some now dating back 70 years. I started flipping through them recently and was stunned by the absolutely idiotic—if not dangerous advice and language that now would be labeled offensive, patronizing, and misogynistic.
has inspired my best writing over the years. I was a great student, but I got a lot more positive feedback when I lost 10 pounds than when I got straight As—even if it was the same 10 pounds I’d lost (and gained) repeatedly. They called me “Fatso.” Under the moniker “Fitchburg Fats,” I penned a high school editorial against overweight prejudice. In college, I became “Big John.” Eventually that became simply “Big.” I learned to wear all black clothes because, as Mom said, “It’s slenderizing.” One summer, I lived on tomatoes, cottage cheese, grapefruit, hardboiled eggs, and burger patties. I tried low calorie, high protein, heavy on the broth, apple cider vinegar, and artificial sweeteners from saccharin to stevia. I wanted to be a loser. My fatness was blamed on my Sicilian heritage or my Austrian parentage. Now, with genetic testing, I blame it on my Jewish heritage too. Mostly, I blame it on bad messaging. When my mother moved out of our family home, I grabbed a
Simply Because They Eat Too Much The oldest of the pamphlets includes some of the most truthful tips. “Overweight and Underweight” (1950) by MetLife takes a matter-of-fact approach: “Overweight people are apt to develop diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure … die younger … are poor surgical risks, and have less resistance to infection.” The volume offered some decent advice including: “Never eat when emotionally upset or overtired. Relax or rest first.” Reducing Without Tears The pamphlet promises we can learn “how to eat as much as you
want and lose weight” without falling into the usual diet despair: “If you follow the rules, you will not be hungry, or depressed, or irritable, or weak for one minute during your reducing program.” “The rules” largely center around the word no. One page is a laundry list of excluded foods including no jam, raisins, soft drinks, candy, macaroni, cakes, pies, white bread, grits, corn, potatoes, drippings, lard, bacon, cheese, chocolate, fatty ham, ice cream, beer, wine, or whiskey. According to the pamphlet, you must confess your sins. “Keep a record of the times you forgot and took sugar in coffee, just one bite of French pastry, just one cocktail.… Write all the forbidden foods you take in the Out of Bounds column.” Allowed snacks ranged from bouillon, carrot sticks, and lemonade sweetened with saccharin to tomato juice, cantaloupe, and black coffee. Two appetite-supressing recipes are boiled beef heart and broiled smoked tongue.
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THE SCENE
The Reducing Cook Book and Diet Guide, published in 1951, offers some good news: “No longer is overweight just a subject for condescending humor. Today, practically everybody knows that [being] overweight threatens health and longevity.” Three-Day Slimming with Pleasure Plan “If you’ve been hitting the calories a little too hard, you’ll be surprised how peppy and energetic a three-day rest from heavy meals will make you,” offers 1952’s “Best Diets from Good Housekeeping.”
The paperback book warns that exercise is not the answer to being overweight: “There is only one way to proper poundage: The quick way, the simple way, in fact, the only practical way to attain a pretty weight, and stay there, is to control your diet. So, don’t think you can play a few more sets of tennis, or do 50 bends a day, and take off fat.... To take off just one pound, you must walk about 36 miles or wash clothes on a washboard for 28 hours.” If You Can Cut Out Just 50 Calories “Tempting Low-Calorie Recipes” (1956) turns to “science” to provide answers. The Cream of Celery Soup recipe includes “½ teaspoon monosodium glutamate.” In fact, flavor-enhancing MSG appears in multiple recipes, including a lamb kabob and the always-popular jellied veal loaf.
Many recipes such as Harvard beets call for saccharin, a substance that would be declared carcinogenic a decade later. Why Be Fat When It’s So Easy to Slenderize? “The Slenderizer Unit System Calorie Counter” (1958) proudly proclaims that it “recommends no starvation diets, no steam baths, or tiresome exercises—nor any other unpleasant experiences.” However, it does recognize one reality: “Realize that it’s impossible to reduce your weight and at the same time freely indulge in alcoholic beverages.” The Slenderizer includes calorie counts for a lot of foods most folks no longer consume such as Liederkranz cheese (100), gum drops (25), creamed chicken (150), chopped chipped beef (300), ladyfingers (25), fried ham (250), and banana custard (100). JANUARY 2020
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THE SCENE
VIRAL IN VOGUE
In the 1962 bestseller Sex and the Single Girl, a crash diet consisting of black coffee, hardboiled eggs, steak, and wine—“one bottle allowed per day”—promised weight loss of 5 lbs. in 3 days. The “Wine and Eggs” meal plan appeared in Vogue in 1977.
Men Never Get Chatty with Gals who Are Fatty The dieting artifact that made me cringe the most was “The Fat Boy’s Calorie Guide,” published in 1958. It is a treasure trove of antique insults. It offers wisdom like “Men never get chatty with gals who are fatty” and bad advice, as in: “To lose one pound, you have to take 370 steam baths.” Under the heading “The Fat Boy’s Bartender,” the pamphlet reminds readers that “one jigger of Scotch has less calories than a glass of prune juice.” Look at a Pound of Lard “For many and many a year, people have been inventing doodads to shake the fat off us, or to roll it off, or knead it away, or cook it out of our systems, or sweat it away,” notes the 1962 Edition Diet Handbook. The book discourages excess eating by contemplating pig fat: “In a pound of excess human weight, there are about 3,500 calories. Look at a pound of lard. It contains about 4,100 calories.” One of the book’s 320-calorie lunches gives you 3 ounces liverwurst, 6 leaves lettuce, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, and 1 cup skim milk. However, it includes a warning: “Notice whether a too-light lunch leaves you faint in mid-afternoon.” You Can’t Eat Cigarettes Under the heading of “Cigarettes and Your Appetite,” the Weight Losers Cookbook & Diet Guide (1967) offers dieters a low-cal option: “You can’t eat cigarettes, but in a pinch, they can serve as food until something better
avoid certain suggestive motions: “[Avoid] the hip-rolling act.… This posture is vulgar as the lady throws herself about like a GradeB-Movie-Trollop-on-the-Prowl, until people fear she will become disjointed.”
Seeing these diet pamphlets and books after all these years, I’m amazed my relationship with food is not even more messed up than it is.
comes along. By smoking you can dull the pangs of hunger until you hardly knew you had an appetite … If you hold a cigarette in your fingers you can’t hold a chocolate.” To be fair, the pamphlet notes that there is no evidence that smoking is a desirable health habit, and considerable evidence that it isn’t. The paperback’s attitude toward women—the main target of all these volumes—is typical of the times. It recommends exercise but warns ladies to
Avoiding the Sleeping Beauty Diet However, despite how little they knew about nutrition and metabolism at the time, much of the advice remains true today. Seeing these diet pamphlets and books after all these years was like getting my 23&Me report and finding out my family is screwier than I ever imagined. Frankly, I’m amazed my relationship with food is not even more messed up than it is. I live near Boulder, an area swarming with profoundly trim and fit adults (from age 20 to 90) who fast-walk past me on the trails and outswim me at the rec center. I think I thought living here—instead of say, Green Bay, would inspire me, and maybe it has. At least I’ve avoided the worst diet idea I’ve ever heard. The “Sleeping Beauty Diet,” an approach reportedly favored by Elvis Presley, pairs sedation with starvation. Dieters knock themselves out with sleeping pills and, since they’re asleep, they can’t eat. I still need to lose 25 (or 50 or 75) pounds, and I may well let them go for all the best reasons. I looked into the keto, Paleo, and Whole30 diets, and decided that a modified Mediterranean diet works best. I make small incremental changes I can maintain while supplanting Camembert, pie, and French fries with nonedible forms of joy. I’m a work in progress. JANUARY 2020
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
John Lehndorff writes “Nibbles” for the Boulder Weekly and hosts Radio Nibbles on KGNU.
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THE SCENE CA L E N DA R
Learn hip-hop dancing or basket weaving, celebrate the Year of the Rat, envision 2020, and toss some fruitcake. TEXT ROBYN GRIGGS LAWRENCE
No doubt, we’re in the thick of it—in every way. Don’t even think about hibernating. Winter in Southern Colorado offers the best of all worlds—there are plenty of opportunities to play, learn, and create that could keep you busy morning through midnight. Here are a few of our favorites. 46 SOU T H ER N COLORA DO
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Jan. 5 Downtown Colorado Springs rockymountainfoodtours. com
Celebrate local chefs during a roving food tour (advance ticket purchase required).
Adult Hip-Hop Trial Class Jan. 13 Dance Wonderland, Colorado Springs Tickets on Eventbrite
Learn some new moves and get a workout too.
Luluʼs Downstairs, Manitou Springs Tickets on Eventbrite
Join the local grassroots following to catch this popular Denver quartet and fav Fort Collins band in SoCo. Also on stage: pop band We Are Not a Glum Lot.
Chinese New Year Festival Jan. 18 City Auditorium, Colorado Springs cscci.org
Celebrate the Year
PHOTO BY SCOTT MCCORMICK
On the Calendar
The Original Wildermiss with Colorado Springs Slow Caves Jan. 17 Food Tour
THE SCENE CA L E N DA R
LEFT: WILDERMISS WITH SLOW CAVES RIGHT: PIKES PEAK WRITERS: WRITERSʼ NIGHT
of the Rat with dancing, music, demonstrations, food, and tea.
Frosted City Winter Market Jan. 18–19 Colorado State Fairgrounds, Pueblo Event info on Facebook
At this winter market, you’ll find more than 100 booths selling handmade goodies in the Palace of Agriculture.
Southern Colorado Largest Bridal Festival Wedding Expo Jan. 19 Hotel Eleganté Conference & Event Center, Colorado Springs hotelelegante.com
The 25th Annual Learn everything Ouray Ice you ever wanted to Festival know about bas-
Fruitcake Toss Jan. 25 Memorial Park, Manitou Springs manitousprings.org
Jan. 23 Ouray Ice Park, Ouray ourayicepark.com
kets, including how to make one.
Celebrate the growing sport of ice climbing.
2020 Vision tossed, but orBoard Workshop ganic, non-GMO
Utilitarian Basket Weaving Jan. 24 & 26 Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, Colorado Springs cmzoo.org
Fruitcakes will get
Jan. 25 Yoga Olas, Salida Event info on Facebook
Create a vision for 2020, learn about intention and attraction, make new friends, and eat burritos.
fruitcakes will also get tasted during a bake-off at this annual event.
Pikes Peak Writers: Writers’ Night Jan. 27 Johnnyʼs Navajo Hogan, Colorado Springs pikespeakwriters.com
This is a place for aspiring writers and old pros to network and share accomplishments.
Find everything for your wedding, from cosmetics to cake.
JANUARY 2020
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P R O M O T I O N A L F E AT U R E G R E E N G E N E R AT I O N
All in the Family This mother and daughter’s line of CBD products, complete with a human-and-pet bundle, is attracting a more cautious, prudent consumer.
G
reen Generation was launched in Colorado Springs in February, 2018, by co-founders Abreanna Nandin and her mother, Lisa, making CBD products for pets and people. “Our pet line is our more dominant line,” Abreanna says. “We have tinctures and capsules, and both don’t have any artificial flavoring inside of them or any extra preservatives. We use a grape seed oil, which is heart healthy, because some people are allergic to coconut oil.” The company currently has a line of full spectrum capsules, salves, and tinctures for both people and pets. Its
pet line products include a couple of products flavored with chicken and beef. It also offers an 800 mg canine and companion CBD product bundle. It uses a local extractor company to get the oils it needs to put in its products, then get them tested again using a local botanical lab. Abreanna says that the company is planning to have a stronger CBD tincture for its pet line and will probably go up to a 10 mg capsule from its current 5 mg. Its next pet product coming out will be a 500 mg pet tincture. People still misunderstand the value of taking CBD products, she says. “There needs to be a lot more
education out there when people are buying or making products,” she says. “We don’t really have any regulations and so some bad products are able to fall through the cracks.” Green Generation will stay CBD only for now, with no plans to offer CBD/ THC combination products. “A lot of people are still afraid of THC, even as it becomes more socially acceptable,” Abreanna says. “The first question I usually get from customers is ‘Will this get me high?’ or ‘Will this get my pet high?’ I tell them you can’t overdose on CBD. You might have a good night’s sleep, and that’s probably the biggest side effect.” She is seeing more seniors coming in for her product, especially the topicals, for knee and hip issues. “Even at event stuff, they come up and ask me to put it on their back or something,” she says. “Our pet “Every time we are out in public, there line is are a range of people who say they use our more it all of the time, and there are others dominant who whisper to us about it, saying they line.” don’t want their husband to know, and that they are just going to use it and —Abreanna Nandin, see how it helps.” Co-Founder
Green Generation greengenerationcbd.com JANUARY 2020
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THE END
Election Year is Here Preserve your sanity; there’s still a long way to go. TEXT PAMELA HALL
November 3, 2020, is still a long way away—as of the first of the year, it’s 307 days and counting. One day at a time. This year is gonna be a wild one, friends, guaranteed to be contentious as can be. It’s far too easy to get overwhelmed by all the noise and burn out before the primaries even begin. We’ve got a long 50 SOU T HE R N COLORA DO
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road ahead of us, and the cacophony promises to grow louder and louder as the first Tuesday in November nears. Our nerves are frayed already, so if we’re not hypervigilant about protecting our mental health, they’ll be shredded long before November. So, what do we do about it? Listen to Obama and chill. That’s the
instructions the former president gave a room full of donors last November, urging everybody to “gin up about the prospect of rallying behind whoever emerges from [the primary] process and making sure we’re hitting the ground running.” This is a marathon, not a sprint. Let’s pace ourselves. We need to be in it till the end.