A thorn to the adult human who evidently defecated in their pants in the overcrowded bus line late Friday night at X Games following Lil Wayne’s concert. And thorns to the X Games transportation authorities who left this crowd waiting for Aspen-bound buses so long that many were stuck in the corral for more time than Wayne’s 64-minute set — so long that one incontinent X-Gamer loosened their bowels in the throng.
A thorn goes to the Aspen Chamber Resort Association, which is responsible for organizing Winterskol. It used to be fun and now it’s not.
Our annual mid-January winter celebration has lost its luster and we squarely put that on ACRA, which over the years has slowly taken the fun out of it all.
We want our parade back. We want ski splash back. We want the whole town to be jazzed again about something.
How about in addition to having a contest for the Winterskol slogan, try soliciting new ideas for more fun and games.
We know the staff tries to put on a good event, so they get a rose for doing a pretty good job considering they don’t have much to work with.
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A rose to Basalt Police Chief Greg Knott, who decided against charging a young and intoxicated X Games fan with a felony after she spit in his face last weekend at Buttermilk. Knott said he didn’t want the 18-year-old to have to deal with the consequences of a felony so early in her life.
Thorns to the Aspen post office for the glacial sheet of ice in the parking spots in front of the post office that is unavoidable to any postal patron and which is a traumatic brain injury waiting to happen.
A rose to Pitkin County commissioners for suspending certain personnel policies last week in an effort to temporarily and immediately hire furloughed federal employees in the area. The idea, which still could come in handy if no deal is reached in February, was an attempt to put some money in the pockets of neighbors who live and work in our community, and the county should be praised for the effort.
Roses to Kelly Clark for ending her incredible career with an X Games victory lap down the Buttermilk superpipe. Clark has been the standard in women’s snowboarding for nearly two decades, and to see her have a run at the venue that really launched her career will go down as one of the great X Games moments.
Roses for perhaps the best part of the X Games weekend: the new event Saturday night known as the “knuckle huck.” Snowboarders did some amazing tricks off the “knuckle” (top of the landing area) and flipped and floated to the finishing area. Hard to explain but really fun to watch; the best new event to the X Games weekend in a long time.
Roses to the hundreds of workers for Aspen Skiing Co., ESPN and contractors who toiled to make the 2019 Winter X Games a success. There are a lot of people doing thankless jobs to make sure the competitors and spectators enjoy a good show. Regardless of whether it’s your cup of tea, the X Games brings some welcome youthful vitality to town.
Thorns to the Rocky Mountain Region of the U.S. Forest Service for not being forthcoming with the public on how the partial government shutdown affected the White River National Forest. The Aspen Times has sent inquiries to Denver seeking answers to simple questions — were workers called back from furlough before the temporary funding was provided to get to mid-February? If so, how many, were they getting paid, where were the funds coming from? We’re talking straightforward stuff. Thus far, as of mid-afternoon Thursday, the regional office can’t cough up answers after the questions were presented 48 hours earlier.