Ear to the ground:

“If your brain farts get any bigger, they’re going to be brain sharts.”

– Some friendly employer- employee advice

 

Million dollar ideas

Have you always dreamt of a Red Mountain Roller Coaster? Or maybe a Lizard Head luge course? Well, now’s the chance to make your ideas on improving “one of the most scenic drives in America” heard.

This year marks the 25th anniversary for the San Juan Skyway, along with all of Colorado’s 25 scenic and historic byways. And to celebrate the Million Dollar Highway’s silver anniversary, stakeholders and citizens alike are being asked to weigh in on the current and future management of this regional crown jewel. Over the next few months, a series of meetings are planned along the 236-mile Skyway in an effort to educate residents on the significance of the Skyway and brainstorm ways to improve and update the Skyway experience.

Meetings have already taken place in Mancos and Ridgway, and Durango is the next pit stop on the road trip. A public meeting will take place Tues., Sept. 9 from 4 - 6 p.m. at the San Juan Public Lands Center, 15 Burnett Court, in the Durango Tech Center. 

Attendees are asked to RSVP by Sept. 8 to Kathy Sherer at jksherer@q.com.

To provide your Million Dollar ideas online, go to: www.surveymonkey.com/s/ SPSGNLQ. 

Hog wild

Looks like you’re going to have to start working overtime to bring home the bacon. According to a  joint report from the Albuquerque Journal and Los Angeles Times, America’s hunger for the strips of smoky bliss are causing prices to heat up.

With bacon a common component these days in everything from martinis to ice cream and cookies, it’s safe to say it’s no longer just for breakfast.

And the growing appetite has caused the price of the popular cured meat to rise at more than three times the rate of inflation since 2008, the most of any meat, according to government price trackers.

Further conspiring to put a dent in the great American pig out is drought, which has driven up the cost of hog feed, as well as a virus that has killed about 12 percent of the nation’s pork supply since 2013.

In June, shoppers paid $6.11 on average for a pound of bacon in grocery stores, a record high, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Four years earlier, the average price was $4.05 a pound. Despite the soaring prices, bacon sales climbed 9.5 percent in 2013, according to Information Resources Inc., a market research firm.

National chains are also finding new and unusual ways to weave bacon into menus, such as the maple bacon milkshake at Denny’s. Of course, always ahead of the curve, Durango’s Bread has been offering up its bacon-cheddar scones to local bacon fanatics for years.