Big Sky Blog

Courtesy of CrazyLaws.com, here is a list of laws in Montana that defy common sense.

• It is illegal to have a sheep in the cab of your truck without a chaperone.
• In Billings, Montana it is illegal for employees of the city’s communications center to program their phones with speed dial.
• Balls may not be thrown within the city limits.
• It is a misdemeanor to show movies that depict acts of felonious crime in Montana.
• Bozeman has a law that bans all sexual activity between members of the opposite sex in the front yard of a home after sundown — if they’re nude.
• Seven or more Indians are considered a raiding or war party and it is legal to shoot them.
• It is illegal for a man and a woman to have sex in any other position other than missionary style.
In Montana, it is illegal for married women to go fishing alone on Sundays, and illegal for unmarried women to fish alone at all.
• It is a misdemeanor to show movies that depict acts of felonious crime.
• It is a felony for a wife to open her husband’s mail.
• It is illegal to have a sheep in the cab of your truck without a chaperone.
• Excelsior Springs: Balls may not be thrown within the city limits.
• Helena: No item may be thrown across a street.
• Helena, Montana, mandates that a woman can’t dance on a table in a saloon or bar unless she has on at least three pounds, two ounces of clothing.
• Salisbury: Pop bottles are not to be thrown on the ground.
• Whitehall: It is illegal to operate a vehicle with ice picks attached to the wheels.
• Montana just legalized the production of caviar.

I can’t vouch for whether or not any of these are true; if anyone can confirm or deny – or add one of their own – that would be cool.

Yep – after more than seven years at Better Living Thru Blogging, I’ve finally made the move and set up housekeeping over at GreaterFalls.com, using a sub-blog titles “Better Living Thru Blogging!” Catchy title, eh?

Visit “Better Living Thru Blogging!”

Come on over and say hi!

Usually, when the community of Choteau makes national news it is because of its most famous part-time resident, David Letterman. But this week Choteau has made headlines for a different reason: a professor was dis-invited to speak to students at the high school, and passions are strong on both sides as to the reason for the canceled speech.

In brief: University of Montana scientist Steve Running was scheduled to give two speeches in Choteau last week. The first one was supposed to be to a group of high school students; in Runnings’ own words, “I was just going to try to give an inspirational speech for young people about the jobs of science.” The second speech was titled “The Five Stages of Climate Grief.”

Some people in Choteau didn’t like the subject of the second speech (nor do I), and felt strongly enough about it to call the school superintendent and voice their concerns about Runnings’ scheduled first speech to the students. They were understandably concerned that his “global warming is real” philosophy would seep into the presentation about becoming a scientist without any opposing viewpoints to balance Running.

So the first speech was canceled, and the second one was presented as planned. End of story, right? Nope…now there are people who are howling at the thought of “…a Nobel laureate being temporarily silenced in his own state.” What rubbish: the implication that Running is being censored, and that his ideas and words are being suppressed, is nonsensical, since his words and ideas are available to anyone with an internet connection. Or access to anything of, by, or about Al Gore.

One of our very own Big Sky bloggers, Traveling Mel, has published a book that might come in handy at this time of year: Ski Trails of Southwest Montana. Congrats, Mel!

Yep – it’s official – the entire “We Make Contact” and “invasion” marketing campaign in Great Falls was designed to generate buzz about the name change of our minor-league baseball team. The former White Sox are now the Great Falls Voyagers. So what do you think? Does the UFO/Voyager theme make sense, in light of the 1950s “close encounter?”

OK, here it goes: my official, formal, final answer to the WeMakeContact mystery is…that Great Falls will be getting a new minor-league hockey team! Ron’s friend DeAnne also suspects that tomorrow’s announcement will be about a new hockey team. That would be a pretty cool name for a team: The Great Falls Invaders! The “UFOs” seen in the videos will be revealed as the arrival of hockey players, and the soon-to-be-complete ice rink will be the home court.

Of course, tomorrow’s unveiling will likely prove me wrong when “they” announce that the “invasion” is, in fact, the arrival of mutant space ants that will enslave humanity and force all of us to toil in their salt mines.

UPDATE: I think that Jason may be on to something with the baseball theory: the domain GreatFallsVoyagers was purchased by someone named Tim Paul here in Great Falls back in November 2007, and he is a big baseball fan – and a design/website creator. Also: there is a posting on a minor-league baseball fan site that talks about the White Sox becoming the Voyagers. Hmmm…

MORE: also just noticed that one of the patterns in the “clues” has nine successive bars; the first bar has one dot, the second has two, and so on to the ninth bar, which has nine dots. Nine bars, nine dots = nine innings. And, as Ron figured out, the grid coordinates do indeed “point” to the ball park along River Drive.

I’ll go out on a limb here – not much of a limb, actually, with only about 12 hours left until the mystery is solved – but here I go: Mystery Solved! Looks like we will soon be home to the Great Falls Voyagers, which IMO is a much better name than White Sox (or Explorers, for that matter). We’ll get the details tomorrow (the infamous “1-15-08″) — heard rumors that there will be a press conference of some sort at the airport around lunchtime.

Hi my name is Cuba and I am a Havanese dog who lives in NYC. It is important we have a say in our next President. Please see our debate questions on youtube.

Then go to my web site and VOTE. I need votes from your state, Montana.

thanks
Cuba

The roster of all of the Big Sky Bloggers! If you ever run out of blogs to read, come on over here and just start clicking!

Please let me know of anyone that I have missed, and keep me posted of new bloggers.

Well, it’s not really a UFO mystery — it’s a marketing mystery. Last week several billboards sprang up around town with the word INVASION in large letters, the date 1-15-08, and the address WeMakeContact.com listed underneath. A visit to the website reveals some fake footage of UFOs over Great Falls, with a few more bogus clues dropped every couple of days, such as an image of a “coded transmission” and an audio recording.

OK, so we all know that there were no UFOs. But what is this marketing campaign trying to promote? And have any other communities in Montana experienced the same “invasion” marketing campaign? I’m convinced that this is NOT something national – strictly local, and perhaps regional. If you’ve seen anything similar in your town – or have any theories about it – drop a comment!

Hello everyone,

In a week’s time I will be flying to Missoula to tour the Univ. of Montana, because I have been accepted there and to look for a place to live. I have been looking at Missoula’s newspapers online but so far I haven’t found much. Right now I live in Seattle with my two dogs. And I would love a place with a yard. My friend at Watermark suggested I post at the Big Sky Blog, so see about a rental. I can be e-mailed at michelle.fierro @ gmail.com.

thank you, thank you