While I had earlier predicted Liz Cheney, Wilson, will win
the Wyoming GOP nomination for U. S. House, now she is enduring being on the
butt end of a funny commercial by her competitor State Sen. Leland Christensen,
Alta.
Christensen
has a long social media post about what he considers to be the three biggest
mysteries he is aware of. He equates Liz with the Lochness Monster and Bigfoot
as “rarely seen” imaginary legendary creatures. He contends she is not
“indigenous” to Wyoming and can only be seen here every two years. Then he
explains how she has raised $1.2 million in places like New York City and
Chicago, one, which required a $5,000 entry fee. He compares that to a bake
sale his mother staged for him for free.
You can
probably find it on his web site, YouTube or Facebook.
This ad
reminds me of a legendary ad produced by Malcolm Wallop when he ran defeated incumbent
U. S. Senator Gale McGee. That ad showed a cowboy riding the high prairie with
a packhorse bearing a portable toilet, as an example of federal government
over-reach.
Christensen’s
ad has spawned some severe criticism from Cheney backers, who felt he should
not have used humor but, in fact, should have spent his money talking about
ideas and policies.
But then
again, the ad is pretty funny . . .
But enough
about politics. Over in Pinedale, this
could have ended up being a B-A-A-A-D situation.
UPS driver
Landon Wigginton returned to his big brown truck following a delivery and found
it filled with curious sheep. Only in Wyoming.
Did you see
that movie The Hateful Eight by
Quentin Tarantino? It was planned to be
photographed in Wyoming and is purported to have occurred here.
It took place
in a very cold place on a very cold day. Those warm and fuzzy buffalo coats
being worn in the movie came from Merlin’s Hide Out in Thermopolis.
Kurt Russell plays a mean bounty
hunter in the movie and his big buffalo coat was designed to make him look as
big and menacing as possible.
I stopped in and visited with
Merlin and Barb Heinze awhile back. She said she looked at more than 300 hides
before picking out the 16 hides needed for the movie.
Barb showed me a coat that was special ordered
by the actor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Later he was pictured in Thermop trying it on.
Anyway, quite
a little business Merlin’s has going there. They ship 400 buffalo hides a year
in various designs. Wonderful coats. At $3,000 each, wish I could afford one!
Some years
ago, hang gliding was a big sport around the country and especially in Wyoming
with our high mountains and consistent winds.
In 1989,
Casper native Kevin Christopherson set the world record for longest hang
gliding trip. The record still stands.
He launched
from 9,225-foot high Whiskey Peak some 40 miles north of Rawlins and landed 287
miles later in North Dakota. This is the world record for longest foot launched
hang gliding ride.
He later was
chairman of the Natrona County School board.
I think old J.
C. Penney would be spinning in his grave if he knew about what has happened to
his famous chain of stores in recent years.
As most folks
know, James Cash Penney started his first Golden Rule store in Kemmerer,
Wyoming. It really took off from there
and became one of the great retail chains of all time known as the J. C. Penney
Co.
In recent
years, the company hired an idiot to turn it around and he almost destroyed it.
He was fired and now it is weakly trying to regain some traction. The JCP store in Rock Springs was recently
closed but I noticed the one in downtown Sheridan is still going.
I went through
a prolonged struggle with them over service charges they piled on about a bill
for a “free” magazine subscription. What a clueless company. We finally got it resolved but I kept
thinking about old J. C. and how he might have handled the situation,
especially following his famous “golden rule.”
Re-runs are
appearing on the popular cable show Naked
and Afraid, which include a well-known Dubois man Joe Brandl.
He performed
very well in that crazy show which features a man and woman naked for 21 days
in the wilderness someplace armed with just one tool apiece.
Brandl made
Wyoming proud.
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