Archive
August 6th, 2011
By
George Shirk - Times Senior Writer
âIâd like to have a Happy Hour.â
Fidoâs funny like that. He comes up with things that are so out of the blue that I hardly know what to think.
âIt sure sounds like fun,â he said. âI just donât know what it is. Letâs have one.â
âWe can have as many as we want,â says I. âWhatâs your idea?â
âIdea? Iâm a dog. I donât have ideas. I have instincts.â
âTell you what. After work, weâll have a Happy Hour.â
âHey hey hey hey!â
By
George Shirk - Times Senior Writer
The contractors won the pennant! The contractors won the pennant!
All right, so it wasnât exactly that dramatic at Wednesdayâs Town Council meeting, but to Mammoth builders it must have seemed like Bobby Thomson had just stepped to the plate and swatted a drive into the lower deck of the left field stands.
When they walked out of the Council Chambers, they had a victory, although not a total, hands-down victory.
First of all, there was no actual action.
By
Wendilyn Grasseschi - Times Staff Writer
âNo.â
That was the Mono County Supervisorsâ almost united response to Tuesdayâs request by a Bridgeport community group to take the Bodie Hills Wilderness Study Area out of its semi-protected status.
In fact, the board was so irritated by the resolution and the way it ended up on the agenda, they refused to vote on it, leaving it to die an undignified death.
âFireball,â the iconoclastic checker at Vons, showed up the other day with a hairnet over his shaved pate. Didnât slow him down a whitâŠ
Our own Shaylyn Riley and boyfriend Scott Smith came in second in the first heat of the co-ed canoe race last Saturday at the Firemenâs BBQ Yeah!âŠ
August 2nd
Two controversial issues, redistricting and the Bodie Hills, go before the Mono County Supervisors today and both can be viewed and participated in in Mammoth via videoconference as well as in Bridgeport, at the county courthouse, second floor, Supervisor's Chambers.
The Mammoth meeting room is in the Shogun mall, on the third floor, at the far south end of the building, on the left. It will be obvious when you get there, if you just follow the hallway almost all the way south to the end, and turn left.
July 30th
July 29th
By
George Shirk - Times Senior Writer
If there is a more perfect motorcycle route in California than the Sonora Pass Road, Arlie Ray Blacksheer and Sarah Kazmark canât think of many, if any at all.
âWe come up here for the views all the time,â said Blacksheer, a sales consultant at California BMW in Mountain View (Bay Area).
As he spoke, he held a pair of high-powered binoculars to his eyes, inspecting a rock face near the summit on the western side of the pass.
âThe water is seeping right through the rocks!â
By
Wendilyn Grasseschi - Times Staff Writer
Say it isnât so.
After more than a decade of divisive debate over the fate of Mono Countyâs federal Wilderness Study Areaswith no clean solution, the argument comes back again next week.
A Bridgeport community group has put a resolution on the county supervisorâs agenda Tuesday that will ask the supervisors to support releasing some of the county â and the nationâs â wilderness study areas from the federal protection they now have.
By
George Shirk - Times Senior Writer
The Mammoth Lakes government tribes gathered Wednesday evening in a Woodstock moment.
If they had held hands and sung âKumbaya,â no one would have been much surprised.
The sit-down was to approve a âResort Investment Elementâ â basically an amendment to the townâs 2007 General Plan.
Its importance could not be overstated:
âLetâs build a Big Top,â said community development director Mark Wardlaw to the assembled commissioners.
By
George Shirk - Times Senior Writer
Fido says he wants to join a dating service.
Me, I was listening to a baseball game, concentrating on a two-on, two-out, one-run game, and this took me by surprise.
âWhat the heck-fire?â said I.
âItâs not that Iâm lonely, but Iâd like to have someone of my ilk to share experiences, romp around, get into sniffing contests, have conversations, discuss brands of kibble, that kind of thing.
âGood God, man,â I said. âMammoth has more dogs than humans. Are you sure youâre not already sitting on a canine gold mine?â
From the True Love files: Kathy Johnson, the superb (and athletic) cosmetologist at the Profiles Salon, was busy snipping on Tuesday when Bruce Bartlett walked in with a dozen red roses and plopped them on the front desk. Just for the heck of it. âŠ
More True Love: Have there ever been newlyweds as radiant as Teresa Aragon and new hubby Jimmy? The former Miss Brooks and Jimmy hitched on the shores of Convict Lake last weekend. Yay!âŠ
July 22nd
By
George Shirk - Times Senior Writer
When Matthew Lehman gets a hot idea, he sure doesnât waste much time between âfloatingâ it and kicking it into action.
Mammothâs councilman and Mayor Pro Tem suggested two weeks ago that Mammoth should perhaps devise some sort of âeconomic stimulus plan."
By Wednesday nightâs regular Town Council meeting, he had legislation on the table in the form of a plan prepared by the town staff. He also had a list of immediate action items, delivered by letter. Lehman had to be out of town for Wednesdayâs meeting and so was not present.
By
Wendilyn Grasseschi - Times Staff Writer
Three visitors are presumed dead after plunging over Vernal Fall in Yosemite National Park Tuesday afternoon at approximately 1:30 p.m, bringing the total of water-related deaths to six this year.
Hormiz David, a 22-year-old-male from Manteca, Ninos Yacoub, a 27-year-old-male from Turlock and Ramina Badal, a 21-year-old-female from Modesto, came to the park for a day trip with a group of family and friends.
By
George Shirk - Times Senior Writer
Fido rolled over on his side and let out a long breath.
âTo live alone one must be a beast or a god, says Aristotle. Leaving out the third case: one must be both - a philosopher.â
âWhaa?â I says.
Fido repeated it.
âIâve heard this before,â says I to Fido. Me, I was listening to the baseball game.
âItâs Friedrich Nietzsche,â says Fido.
âI can hardly believe my ears,â I says to him. âYou buy that?â
âDunno,â says Fido. âIâll believe anything if thereâs a biscuit in it.â
The bears are romping in the Lakes Basin, reports the Bear Whisperer, but enjoy the cubs while you can. Mortality rate is an astonishing 51 percent, says he. âŠ
Six new wildlife warning signs are up around town, but not on S.R. 203. Caltrans has rules, you know. âŠ
The Fire Department and Chief Brent Harper are marking trees up near The Bluffs in their continuing effort at fire reduction. Homeowners there will get a 75 percent rebate for forest cleanup, he says, and no complaints so far. âŠ
Save the Bodie Hills
July 30, 2011
Next Tuesday, the Mono County Board of Supervisors will be asked to support a pending House bill that strips some 60 million acres of federal lands from possible wilderness designation, including more than four million acres in California.
The Supervisors should not.