Them On Us: China law; irate bison; diner hibernates in the West

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

By Jake Nichols

News that Chinese authorities detained four Americans at the Kunming International Airport and confiscated their Bibles threatened to give the Olympics a black eye. We thought we recognized the name of the Christian group that was held, questioned and fined for attempting to bring 315 Bibles into the country.
Vision Beyond Borders was founded by Pat Klein in Sheridan, Wyo. The 46-year-old said he was surprised when he and three others were fined $400, detained and questioned at the airport.

“The Chinese leaders keep telling the world the Chinese people have religious freedom. To even prevent them from receiving Bibles certainly contradicts that claim,”  Klein told China Aid in a phone interview. China Aid is an organization devoted to the rights of the persecuted in China.

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Delwin “Buster” Kirby is the mayor of Farmer City, Ill. Buster knows a thing or two about angry bovine – he was once thrown by a dairy cow as a youngster, according to an October 1, 1959 back issue of the Farmer City Journal. (Yes, we read too much.)

Buster got more than he bargained for, however, on a recent visit to Jackson. He was in town for his niece’s wedding and decided to take in Yellowstone the next day. Buster’s daughter, Jamie, was photographing a bison when she fell, triggering the buffalo into a full charge. Buster came to her aid only to be tossed and rolled by the beast.

“If it had been wrestling, the bison would have won 2-1,” Kirby, 55, told Bloomington’s Pantagraph. “It would have gotten two points for a takedown, but I would have gotten a point for an escape.”

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Shed elk antlers are big business in Jackson Hole, but we had no idea how big. The annual Boy Scouts’ Elk Antler Auction hauls in a huge take year after year, so the stakes are high. How high?

Let’s suppose you and your criminally-minded friends creep onto the Elk Refuge a week before it officially open for shed snatching in the spring. You find a magnificent rack – a six by six still on the skull cap – and you bring the beauty home and hide it in the basement, hoping to sell it for thousands of dollars at the auction.

Then you get a knock on the door.

It’s the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service with a couple of sheriff’s deputies. How in the heck…? It’s quite simple, really. Watching a News 5 piece out of KPHO-TV in Phoenix, we learned how Saguaro National Park officials there are planning to microchip their famed Saguaro cactuses to help prevent theft. Why anyone would see one of these prickly cacti and think, “Yeah, I gotta have one of those in my living room,” is anybody’s guess, but applying microchip tracking technology to elk sheds is already being done. You’ve been warned.

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“A year after SoHo’s Moondance diner moseyed out west, the cherished eatery of artists, writers and entertainers is still shuttered and gathering dust in Wyoming.” So began the follow-up story in the New York Daily News.

Think back to a year ago. Vince and Cheryl Pierce purchased the famed Manhattan eatery where episodes of “Friends” and “Sex and the City” were shot, and where Kirsten Dunst, Spider-Man’s gal, waited tables in real life before hitting the big time. The Pierce’s trucked the historic diner across the country to LaBarge, Wyo. They hoped to have it opened by now but financing, red tape and winter have intervened.

The day the diner arrived in Wyoming, 22 inches of snow fell and the roof collapsed. Repairs are completed and the Pierce’s say new tile and tables are all that’s holding up the grand opening now. The LaBarge couple said they have had numerous New Yorkers visit this summer and even received a congratulatory letter from NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg that stated the diner represented a “sort of bridge between New York City and the great state of Wyoming.”

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Jon and Mary Shirley’s prized possession is their 1938 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B Touring Berlinetta. They drive it everywhere. The rare auto just won Best of Show at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. That was after an appearance in the Mille Miglia in Italy. Jackson Hole residents had their chance to see the car and meet the couple. They were just here a few weeks ago during the car show in Teton Village, according to Auto Week Magazine.

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The Feds are coming, the Feds are coming! The New York Times reminded us of the annual meeting of Federal Reserve officials will again commence in Jackson Hole tomorrow through Saturday. Fed chairman Ben Bernanke will speak Friday morning on financial stability.
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Them On Us: China law; irate bison; diner hibernates in the West | Planet JH News Article: General News

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