Around & About

Your humble correspondent, Loveland Pass, Labor Day

As a New York newspaper reporter, Colorado native Damon Runyon (patron muse of the Denver Press Club) used to fill out expense receipts with the wonderfully vague phrase "around and about." I'm appropriating it to share random views of and musings on (mostly) my newly adopted home state.

Seen in South Park: the Dinky Dairy & Grill
Yes, South Park really does exist. However, it is nowhere near as picturesque as in the cartoon. In fact, from the road it is totally devoid of any picturesqueness at all, and appears to have been built on a gravel midden, with the center of town--or what passes for it--occupied by a giant gravel works.

Best strip mall
On Colorado Blvd. in Glendale, just south of Denver, there's a cluster of businesses: Damascus Syrian Restaurant (the best falafel, dolmas, hummos & baba ghanouj I've had anywhere), a Moroccan cafe, a Persian-Lebanese restaurant (grilled halloumi, yum!), a Middle Eastern market, a kebab joint, maybe another similar restaurant, and in the middle...Curl Up and Dye hair salon.

Darling Husband, the Boy Wonder and I nearly curled up and died laughing when we spied that. I told a group of DH's colleagues about it at a party last week, and one said that "Curl Up and Dye" was the name of a salon in the movie "Earth Girls Are Easy." And that he'd come up with that name and suggested it to the screenwriter (but no screen credit, alas). What a small world.

Hard knocks
Today's Denver Post has a feature about concussions, "NFL's Big-Bang Reality," which DH--who knows I don't read the sports section--considerately left at my place at the dining table before he went off to work. As I emailed him, this is good news! According to the article, many football players suffer concussions in the double digits. I've only had three--or is it four?-- so I have plenty more left in me. Of course, there's the little matter of remembering words (a necessary skill for writing, not to mention living), names, recent events and where I put stuff--like the camera that went missing for 3 months. Oh yeah, and there's the dizziness and horrible headache too. And I forgot about the sleepiness and depression till the article reminded me. OK, so maybe a poke in the eye with a sharp stick would be a better option now.