Walking Around Chautauqua Park

I drove up to Boulder yesterday afternoon and walked along the always busy Pearl Street Mall before heading to Chautauqua Park. This is a beautiful spot right beneath the Flatirons, and is the location of the Chautauqua Auditorium, a large wooden structure built in 1898 to host concerts, lectures, and other events, and happily, it still does. I remember years ago my sister Susan, mother Mary, and I attended a Peter Kater concert there, after having an early dinner at the Chautauqua Dining Hall, also built in 1898 and seen in the photograph on the left. Along with Susan's late husband George, we also had Sunday brunch a number of times on the outdoor patio there. A beautiful spot to just sit and enjoy the scenery.

The photo on the right shows the view you get from that patio. As I recall, the breakfasts were good, but sitting at your table along the railing and looking at the park and the mountains beyond was the real attraction. And I am happy to report that it looked like there were a fair number of people dining up there on a rather overcast, fall-like Friday afternoon.

In addition to the auditorium and the dining hall, there are a fair number of cottages located next to the park, which I believe can still be rented during the summer. When classes are in session at the nearby University of Colorado, they can be rented out by the faculty for the school year. Some of these cottages can be seen in the photograph on the left, with the Flatirons looming in the background. There are many popular hiking trails throughout the area, which makes it virtually impossible to find a parking spot on the weekend, especially during the summer. Between Memorial Day and Labor Day they have started charging $2.50 an hour to park there. I am glad it was still free back in the day, when we used to have brunch there. Knowing me, I would have insisted on finding a free parking spot, and it would have been a long walk to the Dining Hall for my poor old mother. What can I say? I am an incorrigible cheapskate.

Political Correctness Gone Wild At DU

The University of Denver is once again focusing on political correctness issues, which by no means is anything new. Back when I worked at the University of Denver Bookstore as the Finance Manager, this was always a hot-button issue. When Robert Coombe became chancellor in 2005, the officers of the Staff Advisory Council - a group of volunteers from various departments who work to enhance conditions for the staff - presented Coombe with an Indian headdress and peace pipe, with a message of "hail to the chief." They were immediately reprimanded and sent to diversity training, where I assume they were given a well deserved beating. And soon after this, the university eliminated Boone, the school mascot, a cartoon character of a pioneer wearing a coonskin cap. Not only was Boone not gender neutral, but it was also a pioneer. 

The Pioneers, by the way, is the name of the school's sports teams, and so it should come as no surprise that the university now wants to eliminate that name, too. Evidently pioneers are no longer politically correct, and even the very mention of them needs to be eliminated. I know that this country treated the Indians disgracefully, but I personally don't think the solution at this date is to villify the pioneers, who settled the west. If it were up to me, I would let the sports teams remain The Pioneers, bring back Boone, and set up a branch of the school's famed social work department at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, in nearby South Dakota, which is one the poorest places in the country, and needs all the help it can get. I doubt the university will do this, since it seems to prefer appearance over substance. On the bright side, the new Community Commons Building, seen in the photo on the right, is about finished, and I hope to meet the new chancellor at the grand opening and tell him all my ideas. I'm sure he can't wait.

Discussing The Presidential Election With Stuart At Oregano's

I had pizza and beers with my friend Stuart (seen in the photograph above) at the Oregano's Pizza Joint in Littleton, Colorado yesterday evening, where we discussed the recent presidential election. Of course, neither of us knew at the time what the outcome would be, although Stuart thought it would be Biden. I myself take nothing for granted these days. What we both did agree upon was that the thin crust Chicago style pizza there is really good, even if, like Stuart, the family who owns the chain originally came from the north side of that city. I will always stay loyal to Vito and Nick's and Aurelio's, the south side pizza parlors that I grew up with, but when you are 1,000 miles away from Chicago, you take what you can get.

Blocks Away, Worlds Apart

I took the bus up to Colfax Avenue the other day, close to Denver's Tattered Cover Bookstore, and walked from there to downtown Denver. I usually walk down 17th Street, but this time decided to take Colfax Avenue to see what was new on what Hugh Hefner once called "America's longest, wickedest street." And I must say, I was surprised to see so many empty storefronts and so many homeless people. A very depressing sight, and something that definitely needs to be addressed, not only here but nationwide. There is a ballot measure this year here in Denver that proposes increasing the sales tax to help the homeless, and that I hope will pass, and perhaps make a difference. 

Amazingly enough, 17th Street - running parallel to Colfax, just two blocks to the north - is a playground for hipsters, with restaurants, bars, boutiques, and upscale apartments. I took the photograph on the right at a place called Stoney's Uptown, which to me looks like ground zero for Denver's hipsters. I walked 17th Street all the way to downtown, and did not see a single homeless person. I am amazed that these two worlds exist so close together, but never interact. What strange times we live in.

Election Day!

Today is Election Day, the day we have been anxiously awaiting for months, if not years. People who have not voted early will be casting their ballots today throughout the 49 states. Will President Trump win a second term, or will Joe Biden win this bitterly fought contest? I say 49 states, since I live in Colorado, and President Trump announced in a speech this year that he was building "a big, beautiful wall" on the southern border of our state to keep the rapists, murderers, and Muslim terrorists from getting into our country. Here in Colorado we now use the map on the left, which someone evidently adjusted using a sharpie, no doubt inspired by the incident where Trump altered a National Weather Service map to justify a remark he incorrectly made about a hurricane threatening Alabama. Hopefully, if New Mexico goes for Trump this election, he will let it back into the union and stop building that wall.

This is definitely the most exciting election we have seen in our lifetimes, since the president has indicated that if he does not win, it will be because of massive fraud, and he might not accept a peaceful transition of power. Because of this, and his telling the Proud Boys -  a right wing militia group - to "stand down and stand by," buildings all over downtown Denver (as well as other cities) are being boarded up in case of possible Election Day riots and violence. Still another first for our country.  Sadly, if Trump does lose, politics will probably never be as exciting as they were the last 4 years. How boring is that?

Lunching With Mark

I had lunch yesterday afternoon with my friend Mark (seen in the photograph above) and his brother Mike in the backyard of their Denver home.  They treated me to Chinese food, which was excellent and just hit the spot. Mike works at the Denver Botanical Gardens and is in charge of the Alpine Garden there. Mark, as regular blog readers know, works at the University of Denver's Anderson Academic Commons (the library). Or, to be more precise, he works from home these days due to the pandemic. Mark tells me that DU, which is conducting in person classes this quarter, seems to be weathering the coronavirus quite well, although I have noticed on my infrequent walks through the campus that the Driscoll Center, where the now Follett run University of Denver Bookstore is located, remains closed, and the bookstore is only doing mail order or curbside pickup. That must not be good for their bottom line, although since they have fired all personnel except for the managers, their costs must be way down. As always, a company with a heart of gold. I expect nothing less from that outfit. And I am not just bitter because they laid me off. No way.

The Admiral's Table Is Coming Back! Kind Of...

I recently found out that The Admiral's Table, a long time fixture in Jensen Beach, Florida that closed almost 20 years ago, will be coming back, although in a different form, thanks to the family that owns Conchy Joe's, a  restaurant located just across the street on the Indian River. They plan to add a second story to the building and reopen as Conchy's on the Bayou: Brewery and Kitchen. The Admiral's Table was always a family favorite, and is where I took the photograph on the left of my sister Susan many years ago.

Someone took the photograph on the right of my mother Mary and myself at Conchy Joe's back (I think) in November of 2005. My mother moved up to Denver in January of that year after a series of falls, but we would always head down to Stuart every 6 months or so for her to visit the eye doctor and to check on her condo there. As I recall, our favorite oceanside restaurant (Shucker's) was damaged at the time due to recent hurricanes, and so we had lunch at Conchy Joe's instead. This family also bought the building that housed The Outrigger, a Polynesian style restaurant on the Indian River that was owned by 1940s singer and actress Frances Langford. Soon after, they opened the Dolphin Bar, which pays tribute to The Outrigger and Langford's memory. I assume a similar tribute to the Admiral's Table will be part of the soon to be opened Conchy's on the Bayou. Good news indeed.