Don’t be naughty this year…

 

Utah squeaked out a win against Navy in the Poinsettia Bowl last night.  That makes seven straight bowl wins from 1999 for the Utes.  Sure, most of those are these pre-Christmas “who cares” bowls, but seven is a row is still impressive.  I wish Purdue could claim that.  I would be happy if Purdue could win two or three bowls in a row.

 

I’m off for Christmas.  Take care, stay warm, and make sure to give before you get.

 

 

Utah is currently playing Navy in the Poinsettia Bowl, otherwise known as the “What’s the Point-settia Bowl?”  If the Utes don’t start throwing the ball more effectively, they are going to loose to two academy schools this year. 

 

I’ve been saying that I would post the Utah fight song, but have not gotten around to it.  Until now!  Read below and think of a good polka being playing in the background as drunk guys sing this.  That is basically what it sounds like.

 

Utah Man:

 

VERSE

I am a Utah man, sir, and I live across the green.

Our gang, it is the jolliest that you have ever seen.

Our coeds are the fairest and each one's a shining star.

Our yell, you hear it ringing through the mountains near and far.

 

CHORUS

Who am I, sir? A Utah man am I A Utah man, sir, and will be till I die; Ki!Yi!

We're up to snuff; we never bluff,

We're game for any fuss,

No other gang of college men

dare meet us in the muss.

So fill your lungs and sing it out and

shout it to the sky,

We'll fight for dear old Crimson,

for a Utah man am I.

 

VERSE

And when we prom the avenue, all lined up in a row,

And arm in arm and step in time as down the street we go.

No matter if a freshman green, or in a senior's gown,

The people all admit we are the warmest gang in town.

 

CHORUS

 

VERSE

We may not live forever on this jolly good old sphere,

But while we do we'll live a life of merriment and cheer,

And when our college days are o'er and night is drawing nigh,

With parting breath we'll sing that song:

"A Utah Man Am I".

 

CHORUS

 

That, dear people, is supposed to be a fight song.  No – that is a drinking song.  What the heck is Ki! Yi!???  Drunk talk, that’s what!  Bartender, another round for me and my jolly gang!

A while back I wrote about a developer who is trying to create an upscale town modeled after Aspen, Colorado here in Utah.  In fact, Arizona developer Dean Sellers even wants to name his new town after the highfalutin ski-town in the Rocky Mountain state.  Under a less than year-old law (Bill 466), municipal incorporations are possible with just one person incorporating an area as long as said person owns half the land and the boundaries include at least 100 residents.  This sounds great to me!  Where else can somebody create his or her own town?  Just buy a huge track of land someplace (with borrowed money, of course) and sell small chunks of it to 100 people who also want to be part of your town.  I love it.  I could finally create the town of Hicksville, UT, and people like me could be part of it.

 

Here is the problem with Aspen, UT: the 100 people required to be part of the to-be incorporated town do not want to be part of Sellers’ dream.  Not only do they not want to be part of it, they have asked a nearby town to annex them in order to not become part of Aspen.  So, the small town of Daniel, Utah – not a resort getaway – is now stuck in the middle of this fight.  Sellers has filed an extraordinary writ with the Utah Supreme Court against both Wasatch County and the town of Daniel for invalidating his incorporation petition because the people asking for annexation got their petition in before Sellers.  Sellers is even pulling out the Utah Division of Water Rights, making them look at the town of Daniel because it has supposedly exceeded its water rights.  Because of this, Daniel could not annex some of the people requesting annexation.  Oh, but the petitioners from the Storm Haven area, a road with about 25-35 homes, is not part of the Daniel Domestic Water Company.  Without these folks, Sellers doesn’t have his 100. 

 

So, this guy wants to create his dream town, but he is trying to use people that don’t want to be part of his town.  These folks have lived in that area for a decade or more, and then some guy from out of state wants to use them to create a town in which they won’t be able to afford the taxes and homeowners fees.  I think Sellers needs to rethink his approach.

Well, at least neither of them looks like Eddie Munster…

 

 

 

There was a double whammy for skiing in Utah this week.  First, the Utah Supreme Court stated that waivers ski resorts ask skiers to sign cannot prevent injured skiers from suing the resorts for negligence.  So, some idiot ignores the signs and goes off a cliff, expect a lawsuit to follow.  God Bless America!

 

Second, some guy skiing at the Canyons resort the other day slammed into a tree and died, effectively pulling a Sonny Bono.  Oops.  No one saw the guy hit the tree; they just found him there with liver and heart damage.  No news of a lawsuit yet.

Utah’s own Todd Herzog won the TV “reality” show Survivor the other day.  Herzog, who has been watching the show since he was 14 years old, knew exactly what he wanted to do when he got on the show.  The 22-year-old, openly gay, God-fearing Mormon won the show by being a complete backstabber.  This makes for the Third person from Utah to be on the show and the first to win.  In 2002 Neleh Dennis (I would say her parents made up that name, but around here I couldn’t say for sure – could be Old Book of Mormon stuff) made it to the final two contestants, but lost by one vote.  The other, Rafe Judkins, wasn’t shifty enough and got booted before the finals. 

 

"All I could hope for was that people would be able to say, 'Survivor is a game.' And I meant it when I said I made relations and bonds with people and that those were true," said Herzog.  "But everything inside of the game was the game, and I meant that, and I knew I would fight it to the end."  Oh, and winning a million dollars makes it easy to forget that the game is about backstabbing.  Amazing what money does to people.

Two books that are now available about Utah should be snatched up for the holiday season.  First up, Utah Curiosities (Globe Pequot Press) written by Brandon Griggs, is a compilation of the crazy things this state has to offer.  No one item takes up more than two pages.  I may have to get this book to supplement my own searches for odd things this state comes up with.  The second book is Bagley’s Utah Survival Guide (White Horse Books), written by Pat Bagley.  I suggest this one for anyone coming to the state to visit or do business.  This one is more like my blog in that it goes into random factoids about the state.  Both are worth looking into.

 

BYU causes drug bust:

 

A Utah man carrying close to a ton of marijuana was busted by a Nebraska police officer along I-80 the other day.  The pot, roughly $3 million worth, was being transported across state lines to an unknown destination.  The officer pulled over Stanley Suojanen because a BYU license plate cover was blocking the plate, preventing the officer from checking the number.  The officer than asked if his dog could walk around the car when Suojanen gave him some odd answers to the officer’s questions.  So, I’ve got one ton (approximately 2,000 pounds) of weed in the back of my truck, a cop asks if he can walk his dog around the car, and I say yes.  What the…  But then again, it was pretty much a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” situation.  Say no, and the cop calls it in.  Say yes, and the dog can’t not smell that much mary-jane in the back (yes – double negative done on purpose).  So, even pot-runners like BYU.  I wonder if this guy was going to give 10% of the money he made on the stuff to the church?

 

 

 Utah probably is one of the last places in this country where there are large pockets of people that get freaked out about fluoride in the water and kids getting vaccinated.  Currently, the community of Holladay (part of Salt Lake) does not fluoridate the water for about 15,000 despite a voter mandate in 2000 (yes, 7 years ago) to do so.  Even better, a state Representative from Sandy (another suburb) is trying to get legislation through that would allow small, private water companies to decide on their own if they want to fluoridate the water if they serve less than 5,000 connections.  The reason that Holladay isn’t pumping out the fluoride is that the shareholders of the water company have voted against it. 

 

When I first moved to Utah, I found a dentist that was local to me.  The first time I went in, both the dental hygienist and the dentist commented that I wasn’t from Utah.  I hadn’t told them, so how could they know?  My teeth were too nice for me to have grown up in Utah.  The dentist commented that most locals have a lot more cavities and weaker teeth.  I grew up in a house that had well water, but my parents gave me and my sibling fluoride tablets.  We also got the fluoride treatment at the dentist office.  Either it was that, or strong genetics, that have kept my teeth nice.  Judging by how much work my parents have had on their teeth, I’m betting on the fluoride. 

 

 

In 2006 Salt Lake County sued said water company and its users association, trying to force them to comply with the 2000 mandate.  The case is still pending.  Some are arguing that the water coming out of those taps already has fluoride in it – about half the mandated level.  Well, that’s lovely.  Why not put in the other half and call it good. 

 

This isn’t the only place in Utah fighting fluoridation requirements, but it is the only one in court currently. 

 

On the bright side of things, Utah has jumped from 41^st place in child immunization to 20^th in the country.  That is a huge step for a state that still has a large number of people that think most immunizations are a government plot to brainwash people.  It doesn’t hurt either that schools mostly mandate that children have them before they can attend classes.  Part of the problem for Utah is the cost of vaccinations when a large family is involved; and let me tell you, Utah has a lot of large families.  It also is difficult when the number of vaccines for kids keeps growing.  All kids still need the same six basic ones, but there are a lot of newer ones that are also important to get.  Oh, and there are those people out there that think the preservatives in vaccines can cause autism.  Five years ago it was questionable, but today there is a mountain of data that says that there is no connect between the two.  It’s time to let that one go.

My big project that I have been working on since summer is finally done.  Well, at least it is in to FDA.  We submitted an application for a new drug the other day.  It was electronic, meaning the whole thing was submitted as various pdf (Adobe Acrobat) documents on an XML backbone.  This backbone allows for an overall table of contents.  All the documents have hyperlinks to other documents referenced.  So, the thing is about 250,000 pages in length and 2.5 GB in size.  It is big. 

 

So, FDA has 60 days to decide if they will accept it.  Oh, and we paid them $1.2 million to review the thing.  Some might call it extortion, but the government calls it “helping covering budgetary shortfalls.”  After they accept the application, it will take another 8-10 months for them to review.  Hopefully it will get approved on the first cycle.

 

Needless to say, I’m happy it is in.  I still have a lot of work to do, but the biggest part is over. 

So, Real Salt Lake just “topped” its stadium today by placing the last piece of steel on the skeleton.  Oh, and we find out that $10 million promised by the city of Sandy (where the stadium is) isn’t exactly coming forward.  The team says it needs the money to finish on time (makes sense).  The city of Sandy says that $5 million should come from county property taxes from the area around the stadium (business and the like) that would be collected over the next 20 years.  The county, still miffed that the state legislature overruled its decision not to put money towards the stadium, is telling Sandy to come up with its own money.  The county has already coughed up $35 million that the state “took” from it.  The team says that it really needs the money.  Oops – should have thought about that before starting to build.  This is coming from a group that still hasn’t found an organization to sell the stadium naming rights to.  The team ran a half-page add in a local newspaper over the weekend looking for a business willing to pay $30 million for a 15-year contract.  I’m guessing they need that money to finish on time and on budget.  They need to find a business that makes smelling salts, because that is what will be needed to wake up the “fans” since this team is going to suck.  Checketts, owner of Real, as well as the St. Louis Blues hockey team, has a record of under-funding his teams.  It will be interesting to see if the soccer team lasts another 5 years in this market.

 

We got snow over the weekend – a lot of it.  The power went out on Saturday.  I was cold and bored.  I missed the Purdue basketball game.  Maybe that was a good thing – they lost.

 

It would appear that reasonable heads delivered the message that the Blue Boutique was doing nothing wrong under the current laws and to change them mid-stream would royally screw up and already messed up system that the city has.  In a City Council debate open to the public the other day, city attorney, Ed Rutan, let everyone know what the law was.  The local business of 20 years has a legal right to do business in the new location.  Banning the store at this point would be unconstitutional.  For the city to widen the way it interpreted the sexually oriented business (SOB – that still cracks me up) ordinance would have “very serious problems under the vagueness doctrine.”  Even if the city were to rewrite the SOB law, the Boutique is “vested”, which means it made it under the old laws and licenses so they couldn’t pull the plug on it.

 

One thing was pointed out during the session that should not be overlooked – kids walking through the mall will see the same things they would see in the Blue Boutique’s windows.  It is the back room, which the store has a good reputation for keeping adolescents out of, that contains all the “adult” materials, which isn’t that much considering the square footage of the store.  Let’s see – there is Victoria’s Secret at the mall, a Fredrick’s of Hollywood, and the lingerie department off all the major department stores.  Also, the Blue Boutique has been next to a Barnes and Nobles book store and across the street from a family restaurant for many years.  Nobody complained about that.  Oh, and lets not forget about the satellite store that was downtown 1 block away from Temple Square.  I do not recall hearing too many God-fearing members of the church complaining about having to see what was in the window as they walked to the Temple on Sundays. 

Purdue plays Central Michigan in the Motor City Bowl in Detroit.  Wheeeee!  Can't wait for that one.  Oh, right, Purdue already beat Central Michigan earlier this year by 23.  That said, the way Purdue closed the season out I think Central Michigan may beat them.  Wheeeee!

 

Oh, and the current system for figuring out who is numero uno in the land of college football sucks.  Ohio State and LSU?  OSU didn't do anything to get there (sometimes sitting on your hands pays off) and LSU has two losses.  Oh, and Missouri?  Not in a BCS game.  How can a team be rated #1 one week and then completely out the next?  Stupid.  And the system won't change for years at the absolute earliest, if ever.  This is why people like March and the little bit of madness that happens during that month.

Talked about the Blue Boutique the other day – the lingerie and adult novelty store that is relocating three blocks down the street from its current location.  The brouhaha about the store moving into a residential area, and just a block down the street from a high school (of which I’m sure well over ¾ of the students know what goes on in that store).  The store is not breaking any laws or zoning rules in this move.  Well, some irate locals suggested taking pictures of people going in and out of the store and posting them on a web site titled “Salt Lake City Pervs”. 

 

It is now being reported, though I cannot confirm it (I’ve been looking), that someone bought the domain name already and put up a simple page that states, "Seriously, people.  Calm down.  Instead of getting all worked up about a lingerie shop, why don't you do something good for the world instead?"  Well said.  I’m still looking for the site – it may be down already, or I am spelling something incorrectly.

 

At least there is one level-headed person in the crowd.  If they had started posting pictures, they may have been shocked by who they saw going in, like people they know.  How many teenagers going in looking for Halloween costume help would get their pictures posted?

 

We are finally getting our first true snow storm of the year.  It is a few weeks late as far as the skiers are concerned, but at least we are getting it.  The mountains will probably get close to two feet or more in areas.  I’d say we have six inches on the ground at my place right now.  Glad I went and did some Christmas shopping last night instead of waiting for today.  And I’ll do some tomorrow, as the stores will not be nearly as busy when all the good LDS folks are at their three hour services. 

 

So, when it is cold and snowing outside, one of the things people think of is ice skating.  The gym I go to has a couple of ice rinks that were installed before the 2002 Winter Olympics that were held in Salt Lake (you may have heard of the Olympics – people here never stop talking about it).  Well, along with the kids practicing figure skating and playing hockey, every so often they have the U.S Junior Figure Skating Championships at the place.  First of all, this thing has been going on all week and there are kids here from all over the Western half of the country.  They get to take a week off of school?  Second of all, the gym didn’t bother letting those of us who are members that are there on a regular basis know that this thing was going to screw things up for a week.  Thanks.  And third, I’ve gotten to see the ugly side of youth figure skating.  No, not steroids (though I’m sure those are floating around someplace), but parents.  Good Lord, some of these parents need to be taken out and beaten.  I’ve seen parents telling their kids that if they don’t do better they aren’t going to suck and not make it to the next round, they will amount to nothing, they will be a loser, etc…  So, some, but not all, are trying to force their kids into something that they obviously weren’t able to do, or that they did and expect the kid to do the exact same thing.  There are also a lot of Eastern European types walking around and pretty much being rude and yelling at everyone.  Sometimes it is amusing, but mostly they are annoying and I want to deport them.  To Mexico. 

 

Figure skating takes talent.  It takes a lot of practice and work to get good at it.  But making a competition out of it makes no sense to me.  Can’t the kids just go out and show off their skating skills and be done with it.  The way figure skating is judged (and let us not forget the brouhaha that happened during the 2002 Winter Olympics in figure skating) it just makes no sense to pressure some of these kids through it.  Making a competition out of it is sort of a joke.

 

Remember the Utah Highway Patrolman that Tasered a guy a few weeks ago and the video make a big scene on YouTube?  Yeah, that video I have there to the right.  Well, the UHP board has reviewed the cop’s case and has determined that he was not out of line.  The whole situation is weird and I am not sure I agree with that ruling.  I don’t know all the facts, so I can’t comment on it too much.  There is one thing that seems odd to me.  The cop asked Jared Massey, the motorist, to get out of his car.  Massey gets out and tries to point out to the cop that he couldn’t see the road sign because it is in a bad spot.  The cop then pulls out the Taser and tells the guy to put his hands behind his back.  If he was going to arrest Massey, why didn’t he just cuff him as soon as he got out of the car?  It seems pretty stupid the way the cop went about it, so to let him off the hook completely seems foolish as well. 

 

Doesn’t matter too much, the officer in the video has gotten enough threats that he is on paid leave because UHP is afraid his life is in danger.  That is one way to keep a cop off the road.  Sure, the officer in the video wasn’t smart, and neither was Massey (some guys always have to argue with the cops), but death threats?  There are too many idiots out there to count.