Ear to the ground

“Do you work for the government?!”

– A panicked tourist couple after being asked to appear in the Durango Telegraph’s “Word on the Street” last week

Big changes in Trinidad

The “sex change capital of the world” could be in for a name change. Trinidad, the nearby southern Colorado town, is losing the doctor who performs hundreds of gender reassignment surgeries every year.  

This week, Dr. Marci Bowers told the Associated Press that she is “98 percent sure” she will be relocating her clinic to San Francisco in October. In spite of Trinidad’s longstanding reputation, the town’s location approximately three hours south of Denver International Airport has hurt her practice and sent some patients looking elsewhere.  “There are advantages to being in a bigger city with access to airports,” Bowers told the AP.

Trinidad earned its “sex change capital” status thanks to the work of Stanley Biber. Starting in 1969, the surgeon performed thousands of sex changes in the town. He retired in 2003 and handed over the office to Bowers.

Interestingly, Bowers not only runs the clinic, she’s also a client. In 1998, Dr. Mark Bowers underwent sexual reassignment surgery and became Dr. Marci Bowers. In the years since, she has performed more than 4,000 sex changes and gained a reputation as the “rock star of transgender surgery.”

Beached in Dubai

Still think Durango is hot? Temperatures are currently hovering near 110 degrees Fahrenheit in Dubai, the capital of the United Arab Emirates. However, the oil-soaked country has a solution. Crews at the Palazzo Versace are completing work on the world’s first refrigerated beach.

The Palazzo Versace is a new hotel exclusively for the “filthy rich.” In order to cater to this clientele and their tender feet, the hotel founder is building a network of cooling pipes beneath the sand to absorb heat from the surface. To cap off the experience, the Palazzo Versace is installing giant wind blowers to simulate a gentle ocean breeze.

“We will suck the heat out of the sand to keep it cool enough to lie on,” Soheil Abedian said. “This is the kind of luxury that top people want.”

The 1.4 million square-foot hotel is now nearing completion. The chilled sands of Palazzo Versace should be open for business by the end of this year.