Our View

This Summer

September 7, 2012

It is hard to say how Mammoth did this summer, but practically all the indicators suggest it was exactly what we needed.

Fishbowl politics

August 31, 2012

We’d like to think we live in a fishbowl here—that everyone in California (and beyond) is paying attention to us.

They’re not.

We are a small town in one of the most remote, inaccessible areas this side of the Pakistan/Afghan border.

We all signed up for that, for a variety of reasons. But for those who may wish for thoughtful attention from Sacramento or L.A., not to mention Washington, D.C., it is best to get used to how small our fishbowl really is.

The Settlement

August 24, 2012

Mammoth finally settled its lawsuit with Mammoth Lakes Land Acquisition this week. Our immediate response was a sense of relief, and we weren’t alone.

All over town, our citizens talked it up, not knowing, really, what the terms of the settlement actually are. We don’t know either, but we know enough to sense that it is not a victory.

Rather, the settlement is wrapped in the clothing of defeat. Our battle flags in this matter now are furled, never again to be unfurled. The settlement and its complicated aftermath represent a sorry chapter in our little town’s short, little history.

The gorilla in the room

August 17, 2012

When the Mammoth do-gooders last spring adopted the phrase “Best Summer Ever” for this year’s promotion, it had the scent of wishful thinking to it.

Let the bears die

August 13, 2012

This is going to hurt.

It hurts to write it; it hurts even worse to witness the impending bear die-off this summer, and do nothing.

Yet the best way to deal with Mammoth’s starving bears is to let nature take its amoral, cruel course. As painful as it might be, the very best thing for the bears is to let them die in their own way.

Starvation is nasty business, but it’s better than putting bullets in their brains. Certainly it is better than to keep them on the razor’s edge of life by handing them freebies, only to watch them become problem bears later.

Our View — The Olympics

August 3, 2012

Let’s just cut to the chase and say it:

Our pals at NBC always fail at Olympics coverage. Every single time.

NBC announcers are terrible. Their point of view is mawkish and cloying. Their time delays are annoying.

The whole thing seems to be set up for people who know nothing about sport and don’t want to know.

The sponsorships are beyond the pale. Here in the U.S., McDonald’s is the official restaurant of the Olympic Team.

We wonder how many Olympians eat at McDonald’s when they’re training for the gold.
In the Twitterverse, the yammering is almost overwhelming (#nbcfail).

Our View — For Whom the Bell Tolls

July 27, 2012

Mammoth has one more week of wiggle room before heading back into bankruptcy proceedings. Pardon us if we’re not on the sidelines waving our maroon and gold pom-poms. We are on a losing streak. You are not going to hear “Win one for the Gipper” from us.

Losing streaks dampen emotions and harden doubts. Mammoth is nearing the end in its bankruptcy battle with Mammoth Lakes Land Acquisition’s team of crack lawyers, who are riding an impressive winning streak.

The fourth quarter will look like this:

Our View: Skip Harvey

July 20, 2012

For the 52 years before he entered public life, people probably knew Skip Harvey as “that guy with the smile on his face.”

“Here comes that guy with the smile on his face again,” people would say, and we’d notice they walked with a little more bounce to their steps just for having him pass by.

Matthew Lehman got to know Skip on the night that guy with a smile on his face rode his motorcycle cross-country to a party. “What a cool guy,” Lehman says he remembered thinking.

Chew on this

July 13, 2012

Was there ever a better week than this one? What a stew of stuff! If you could clip-and-save a week, this might be the one.

We’re not really sure how to digest this multi-course meal. Set upon a mise en place of Mammoth’s municipal bankruptcy, airport subsidies and the closure of June Mountain Ski Area, we might have thought this could have been a poisonous week.

But it wasn’t. We had a fine time at our French, Eastside, multi-course feast.

Our View: The Temple of Folly

July 6, 2012

We were outdoors Tuesday morning and found ourselves at the Hayden Cabin off Sherwin Creek Road.

It’s a lovely spot early in the morning, with the brook babbling, the songbirds singing and trees sighing in a light breeze.

It was the day after the Town of Mammoth Lakes declared its intent to enter into bankruptcy to take care of the $43 million in legal debt it incurred during the expansion of the airport.

We wandered up to the flat where E Clampus Vitus had built a memorial to the first thriving business in old Mammoth City—a bar-grocery-hardware store called “The Temple of Folly.”