Ear to the ground

“I could get a lot more done if I had an extra arm.”

– A Durangoan commenting on a potential upside to the arrival of Japanese radiation in North America

Destination Lafayette

An extraterrestrial formation appears to have overshot last weekend’s UFO conference in Aztec, N.M. Though dozens of UFO experts and enthusiasts turned out for the local happening, the aliens opted for another location. There was a well-documented sighting several hundred miles to the north in the Colorado city of Lafayette.

A video captured last week by residents of the Front Range town hit Youtube and promptly went viral. The footage shows three seemingly unconnected red lights floating in formation through the night sky. The “camera crew” offers a running commentary of the event complete with Colorado twang.

“What the heck is that?” the videographer asks aloud as he pans across the sky.

The dots slowly move across the sky, prompting the shooter to ask, “Wonder if there’ll be anything in the news tomorrow?”

His compadre then chimes in, “Dude, totally … That’s the creepiest thing ever.”

The three dots were captured on camera by several other Lafayette residents. Doug Wilson, of the Mutual UFO Network, told the Boulder Daily Camera that the sighting was unique since there are rarely multiple accounts of the same encounter.

When asked for its opinion, the Federal Aviation Administration responded with a simple, “No comment.”

Local ink

Maria’s Bookshop has invited Durango’s bookworms on a search for a different type of ink and has kicked off an unusual contest.

Penguin Books recently re-released six novels with new covers designed by some of the world’s most talented artists working in tattoos and illustration. The series is called Penguin Ink and celebrates the company’s 75 years of uniting the best in literature with the best in graphic design. The series includes:The Broom of the System, Money: A Suicide Note; Waiting for the Barbarians, The Bone People, From Russia With LoveandBridget Jones’ Diary.

One lucky Durangoan will take home the entire series free-of-charge. The winner will be drawn from the pool of locals who can answer “an admittedly unusual question” – Which two booksellers at Maria’s have tattoos?

The answer can be emailed to libby@mariasbookshop.com, dropped off in person at 960 Main Ave. or posted on Maria’s Facebook page. The winner will be drawn at random on April 8.