Jackson Hole Underground

Edward Rothstein of The New York Times writes a thoughtful essay about his visit to the National Museum of Wildlife Art.

Rothstein probes the meaning behind pastoral depictions of wilderness:

There is some fantasy in this, a simplification that can lead the way
into kitsch. But if taxidermy, hunting and painting are modes of capture, they are also modes of tribute. The moose heads mounted on walls or sold for thousands of dollars in souvenir shops in Jackson are affirmations of the hunter’s power and prowess. But like many paintings at this museum they are also monuments to a particular kind of encounter with the wild, in the wild. Environmentalism and hunting and painting become strange bedfellows.

Rothstein more vividly experiences the wild from the trails of Grand Teton park.

As the World Series begins tonight, let’s hope the Rockies do a better job on the field than they did selling tickets for the games in Denver.

Yesterday’s Internet free-for-all was a junk show, coming on the heels of Monday’s computer crash, and it seems nobody wound up happy but the ticket brokers with software for penetrating the system.

Is there a lower caste in the sports world than scalper? A pair of field-level seats behind the Sox dugout at Coors Field is going for $6,000 on eBay today.

If a casual fan in Wyoming, 500 miles from Denver, could grow aggravated as his two browsers repeatedly got stuck, I can only imagine the frustration of the hard-core fans in Colorado (assuming any of those exist).

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Where do the roots connect the aspens?

Former New York Times reporter Judith Miller is testifying today in the perjury trial of I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, Vice President Cheney’s former chief of staff. The blog firedoglake is posting a play-by-play.

Will Miller shed light on Libby’s mysterious allusion to her vacation in Jackson Hole, in a letter he penned while she was in prison for refusing to testify before a grand jury in 2005? Or will she discuss their meeting at the JH Rodeo in 2003, back when the controversy first raged over who leaked an undercover CIA officer’s name to the press?

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