Ear to the ground

“Oh, is it all health food or something?”

– A visiting woman after hearing about Sunday’s Taste of Durango

Miss Pueblo

Southern Colorado has finally had a taste of pageant pie. On Sunday, Miss Colorado Jessica Hartman was named third runner up in the Miss USA competition. The 19-year-old from Pueblo is one of the beauty pageant’s youngest contestants ever and the first Colorado woman to crack the top three since 1973.

Hartman attends Colorado State University-Pueblo and is working toward a degree in mass communications with the hopes of a career in broadcast media. She’s also a competitive figure skater and has represented both the Broadmoor Skating Club and the Pueblo Figure Skating Club.

The Puebloan shone throughout Donald Trump’s Miss U.S.A. pageant, which was held in Las Vegas, and even survived the grueling swimsuit competition. However, she may have stumbled out of the crown during the pageant’s daunting Q&A session.

A jittery Miss Colorado was asked about social networking and if websites like Facebook should be regulated by the government. She responded that regulation would “be hard to do,” and then softened her answer even more. In true aspiring Miss USA fashion, she added that everyone should be “accepting of each other.”

Nonetheless, third runner up may have been better than the crown itself. Miss Michigan, the 24-year-old Rima Fakih, took top honors and stepped right into the snake pit. The Lebanese-American is facing allegations that a little recreational pole dancing is grounds for being stripped of the title. In addition, her racial status has prompted some calls that the honor was politically motivated. One can only imagine what the muckrakers would have done with a girl from Pueblo.

Scalping Phish

Telluride is relaxing the rules on its upcoming phishing season. Last week, the Telluride Town Council rejected a new anti-scalping law that was adopted in anticipation of the two Phish concerts later this summer. The Aug. 9 & 10 shows sold out in minutes when they were announced several months ago.

The Telluride Watch explained that the proposed law was designed to dissuade fans without tickets from traveling to Telluride. But one council member called the effort naïve, and another wondered why concert tickets should be treated any differently than bolts at the hardware store.

Town Marshal Jim Kolar eventually conceded the rejection of his idea. “If they want to pay $1,500 a ticket – it’s a free market,” he said.