Big Sky Blog

Received the following e-mail:

Because you write about Montana, I thought you may be interested to know we were holding this event in Washington, D.C. this weekend. It is organized by a group of us who were born and raised in MT (Winifred, Missoulia, Lolo, West Glaicer, Broadus, Geyser), and now live in D.C. If you’re in the area, we’d love to have you. If not, feel free to forward to anyone you know who is. Please see the attached invitation to Montana’s Fourth Annual Testicle Festival in D.C.

“The Original Sack Lunch”
Event to be held at the Arlington American Legion at 8pm on April 28th; $15 cover charge includes beer, bourbon, pop and Rocky Mountain Oysters; free t-shirts and koozies to first 100 attendees; country music provided by the Will Gravatt Band

Sponsored by the Montana State Society, organized by Montana transplants living in the Nation’s Capitol. Email getnutsdc AT yahoo.com for more information.

Never heard of the Montana State Society, but it recently got it’s own TypePad blog (but they might want to check the spelling of Max’s last name!). Meanwhile, back here in Montana, the best-known Testicle Festival is scheduled for August of this year in Clinton…but don’t forget Ryegate!
Good to know that Montana is well-represented in our nation’s capital – balls and all!

A strong economy (= strong demand for gasoline) and refinery shortfalls (= less than strong supply of gasoline) have combined to produce a situation where higher prices for gasoline have not been able to attract more supply, and may have to trade even higher in order to turn-off some demand.

Two screenshots of Governor Schweitzer when he appeared on “Real Time with Bill Maher” on Friday. It was a relatively tame, uneventful show – and unlike all previous shows that I can recall, there were TWO conservatives and only ONE Democrat, instead of the other way around. Hmmm…maybe that’s why it was such a tame show!

There was some “heat” on the show, however: panelist and GOP hottie Amy Holmes (seen above with Schweitzer)!

Received an e-mail from Reif Larsen, who is once again offering his unique writing workshop:

I just wanted to let you know about a unique writing workshop I will be teaching again in June, which may of be some interest to you and your blog readers. For the second summer in a row, the workshop will take place at Granite Creek Ranch in Eastern Idaho. It went marvelously last summer—a truly amazing week spent on horseback, writing in the field, close reading Western American Fiction, and creating an intimate workshop space in the barn with the swallows flying above us. I am attaching the workshop announcement. Please email if you have any other questions. Thank you.

About the Instructor: Reif Larsen is a writer, filmmaker, and teacher. He has taught writing workshops in South Africa, the UK, and New York City, where he currently teaches writing at Columbia University. He is working on a novel based in Montana about cartographers, cowboys, and scientists. For more information and an application, please email: reiflarsen AT yahoo.com.
See the flyer here, and check out the great location!

I watch “Real Time with Bill Maher” whenever I can, operating under the principle that it’s good to keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Heh…well, that’s not entirely true. I disagree with Maher on many, many things, but I am in complete agreement with him on all matters religious. What I enjoy about his show is that he usually invites a token conservative (or Republican) into the lion’s den, and despite the catcalls and jeers from the audience, the conservative always gives as good as he gets, and lets the liberal/progressives know that their mindset is not the only one. Anyway – on to the Montana connection: apparently our very own Governor, Brian Schweitzer, will be a guest on the show this Friday (April 20). Here’s the lineup: “This Friday, Bill welcomes Gov. Brian Schweitzer (D-MT), John O’Sullivan, Amy Holmes and via satellite, Bill Moyers.” I’m sure Schweitzer will put in some plugs for our wonderful state, but I wonder how he will respond to national issues and politics? Will he address them as a “national” figure who might have an eye on a larger political office, or simply as the Governor of Montana? Or both?

MISSING KIDS:

Reported missing from Kalispell:Donovan and Indigo Revander.

“Circumstances: Donovan and Indigo were last seen on March 24, 2007. They may be in the company of their non-custodial mother. They may still be in the local area or they may travel to Reno, Nevada or Seattle, Washington. When Indigo was last seen, her hair was dyed auburn.”

If you have ANY information about these children, please call either the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children at 1-800-THE-LOST, or the Kalispell Police Department at 1-406-758-7780!

UPDATE, 6:41 pm: just spoke with someone at the Kalispell Police Department – this is NOT officially an Amber Alert; she said that it appears to be a custodial issue. So the children are indeed missing, but the details of the case apparently don’t “qualify” it as an Amber Alert (although that may change).

Much obliged to the folks over at Home Turf Media for including the Easter Egg entry in their Carnival Of The Cities roundup this week! Yeah, the Big Sky Blog isn’t specific to just one city (or town, given the size of our communities!), but as Craig has pointed out, Monana is just one town with (very) long streets. Go visit the Carnival Of The Cities to see what’s going on in places such as Charleston, South Carolina; San Diego, California; and Honolulu, Hawaii. Bonus feature: Kuala Lumpur, London, Brisbane, and a few other far-flung locales!

With airline ticket online, you can book cheap hotels well before time and rooms at your favourite hotels as well as car rental without having to travel to different travel agencies or cheap flights offices.

I didn’t know that each state gets to select an artist to design a special egg for the annual Easter Egg Hunt at the White House; this has been going on for several years, apparently. Of course, the Montana submission – from Jill Hodges – is just beautiful.

Sadly, it seems that our neighbors to the south in Wyoming weren’t able to find any residents to design an egg, so the task fell to the child of an “egg council” board member in Illinois. Wyoming wasn’t too pleased, but you know what? The egg that the kid designed is actually pretty cute:

And there’s a pretty funny discussion over at MeFi about this, too.
And here’s a look at the Montana eggs from 2002 through 2006:

Got an email earlier today from Racine containing the following:

Dear David,

I hope you will consider writing about Big Hole National Battlefield, it’s just a day trip from Great Falls. This August, Big Hole will commemorate the 130th anniversary of the historic battle between the U.S. military and the Nez Perce people. Regrettably, in the effort to preserve their land and way of life, between 60 and 90 Nez Perce were killed in the battle of Big Hole; many of the casualties were women and children. Today, a very different battle is being fought at Big Hole. This time, the enemy is insufficient funding but the cause remains remarkably similar: preserving the Nez Perce story and culture. Big Hole National Battlefield is one of eight National Park System units in Montana. The 655-acre battlefield, located ten miles west of Wisdom, Montana, tells the story of the lives that were lost there during the battle in 1877.

The National Parks Conservation Association’s recently-completed assessment of Big Hole’s known cultural and natural resources rates the park in “fair” condition, reporting that, like all of Montana’s national parks, Big Hole would benefit from additional federal funding. At this park, such investment would enable Big Hole’s dedicated staff to conduct important historical research, provide protections for artifacts, update exhibits, combat invasive species, and address other park needs.

NPCA is advocating that Congress and the Administration provide adequate funding for Big Hole and all national parks, which now suffer from a system-wide shortage of $800 million annually, and work together to put our parks on the road to recovery in time for the park system centennial in 2016.

For a complete copy of the report please go to http://www.npca.org/stateoftheparks/big_hole/.

Here’s a Google map; looks like a pretty cool place.

The hawaiian airlines are not exactly cheap flights but unlike the ata airlines, they offer the best airline ticket prices, making everyone go airlines with hawaiian.

* a sweet Passover

The 8-day Jewish Biblical Festival of Pesach (PEH-sahkh, PAY-sahkh) begins on the 15th day of the month of Nissan (that’s the Babylonian ‘Nissan’, not the Japanese ‘Nissan’), which this year will be at sunset today on the civil calendar.