Brief by Betsy Marston
Western Oddities – June 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine
CALIFORNIA
If Arnold Schwarzenegger has his way, gas-powered cars will be terminated in 10-15 years. The media-savvy governor recently drove a hydrogen-powered Toyota to a press conference in Davis, where he championed hydrogen as a replacement for gasoline, reports the San Francisco Chronicle. Schwarzenegger, who has played an unstoppable robot from the future, predicted the building of as many as 200 hydrogen-fueling stations — costing a half-million dollars each — along California freeways.
Hydrogen is used to power a fuel cell that makes electricity. But there’s a catch: It takes energy to produce hydrogen. Schwarzenegger is putting some money where his mouth is: Sierra magazine says he’ll spend $35,000 to convert one of his five, gas-guzzling Hummers to run on hydrogen.
That’s unlikely, reports The Associated Press. David Caldwell, a spokesman for the Hummer division of General Motors Corp., says, “We would never do a Hummer on any energy source that would not perform like a Hummer is supposed to perform.”
THE WEST
Political correctness can sometimes get out of hand. The Tucson Weekly reports that a perfect example occurred at the Los Angeles Times, when a reviewer described a 19th century opera by Richard Strauss as “pro-life.” The reviewer meant that it celebrated and affirmed life.
An over-zealous editor followed the newspaper stylebook’s recommendation, and changed “pro-life” to “anti-abortion,” giving the opera a whole new theme.
COLORADO
Dog walkers in Telluride, a high-altitude resort town, have been advised to get a leash and hang on tight. In April, coyotes attacked an 80-pound dog that wandered away from its owner and into a wetlands. The dog emerged with “a three-to-four-inch gash on its side and several puncture wounds,” reports the Telluride Watch.
OREGON
“Honk if you’re sterile. That is, if you’re a goose,” jokes the Bend Bulletin, writing about a federal effort to dispense birth control to the proliferating birds. The pest-control agency Wildlife Services is distributing nicarbazin, an antibiotic used for chicken that makes Canada geese sterile. A field study throughout Oregon targets favorite hangout spots for the honkers, such as golf courses and parks.
COLORADO
Does height matter? Sen. Doug Lamborn, a Republican from Colorado Springs, wants to change 14,148-foot-tall Mount Democrat — named over a century ago — to Republican Mountain, renaming the current Republican Mountain — a mere 12,386-footer — Mount Democrat. “I think it’s appropriate that the higher mountain be named for the Republicans,” he says. Senate Democratic leader Joan Fitz-Gerald says she won’t ask the U.S. Board on Geographic Names to make a switch: “We’re not going to give any ground,” she told the Rocky Mountain News.
NEW MEXICO
Republican Sen. Pete Domenici was shocked that salespeople didn’t realize that a thief had been using his credit card to buy hundreds of dollars worth of clothes and groceries. “Geez,” he complained to a business group, “you thought everyone knew me.” New Mexico’s senior senator lost his identity after he lost his wallet, reports the Albuquerque Journal.
ARIZONA
Bank robbers have a reputation for being dumb, and maybe it’s deserved. When the Tucson Weekly asked Pima County prosecutor Rick Unklesbay about some of the dopiest criminals he’d encountered, he remembered a bank robber who nearly bested him in court, because the surveillance film of the robbery was so murky.
This called into question the testimony of a bank teller, who claimed to recall not only the face and height of the robber, but also his clothes. The defense attorney said, “He doesn’t look exactly like that in these pictures. How can you be so sure?” Because, the teller answered, “He’s wearing the same clothes he wore when he robbed us.”
Unklesbay also told of a man who robbed a Tucson business, but then stopped off at a coffee shop, where he bumped into police officers enjoying a donut break. They were also listening to a police radio description of the robber, who was promptly arrested.
Betsy Marston is editor of Writers on the Range, a service of High Country News (betsym@hcn.org). Tips of Western oddities are always appreciated and often shared in Heard around the West.
