Ear to the ground

“They feel so nice and sensitive when my pants rub up against them.”

-A local man describing the sensation after shaving his legs for last Saturday’s Transvestite Ball

Roving for Rockies

Yes, it was over before it started for the Colorado Rockies. But the baseball team and the mountain range are now making a name for themselves in space. Though the Rockies couldn’t survive last week’s four-game World Series shut-out by the Red Sox, scientists from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) have found a permanent place for them on the surface of Mars.

Earlier this month, scientists supporting the research by the Mars’ Exploration Rover called the “Spirit” made the connection. Spirit is currently exploring the Gusev Crater and the scientific team has informally named a platform within the crater “Home Plate” because it resembles a home plate from a baseball field.

Also on the “Home Plate” platform are several angular boulders, and in keeping with the “Colorado Rockies” theme, NASA scientists have informally named them after the state’s fourteeners. One of the boulder has already been named Humboldt Peak after the peak in the Sangre de Cristo Range.

Don’t expect to be floored, but a photo of Humboldt Peak on Mars can be seen at: http: //photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/ PIA10078.

The mighty “fourteener” looks to be well under 14 feet in height.

The televised Strater

The entire state of Colorado is spending a night at Durango’s Strater Hotel this weekend. “Colorado Spaces,” a new program from Rocky Mountain PBS, has profiled the Strater and several other historic Colorado hotels for a show airing this Sat., Nov. 3, at 7:30 p.m.

“A real hotel is about human drama,” said Rod Barker, owner of the Strater. The producers of “Colorado Spaces” concurred, and the program explores the personalities, local significance and architecture of four historic Colorado hotels.

Some of the highlights of the reel include the fact that the Strater is one of the oldest hotels still standing. Henry Strater built the local landmark in 1887 for only $70,000, and three generations of the Barker family have owned and managed the Strater for the last 80 years.