DAVID MIRHADI Star-Tribune staff writer | Posted: Friday, October 20, 2006 12:00 am
Esquire magazine, that bastion of men's culture, trends and the occasional piece of highbrow journalism, has made its picks for the winners of November's elections.
The magazine's November issue appears to be bleeding blue for Wyoming's electorate.
Esquire examined every race for U.S. Senate, House and governorship and has picked Dave Freudenthal to serve another four years in the governor's mansion as well as endorsing Democrats Dale Groutage for U.S. Senate and Gary Trauner to replace Barbara Cubin in the lower house.
Reaction, according to the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle's October 17 edition, was mixed and a bit perplexed.
Candidate Ray Hunkins' campaign found humor in the mag's results.
"I would venture to say less than 2 percent of the state reads the magazine," Hunkins operations manager Bonnie Foster told the paper.
Groutage, who reads the magazine occasionally, was pleased.
"We're excited about this," he told the paper. "When people find out who I am and what I stand for, we'll get endorsements elsewhere."
Camps for Cubin and U.S. Sen. Craig Thomas took the news in stride, sort of.
"We're crossing our fingers that we'll get a thumbs-up from Vanity Fair," a Thomas spokeswoman said.
"We would expect nothing less from a liberal magazine," Cubin said.
And you're wondering why they call it the silly season.
Dogged determination saves girl
Blood is thicker than water. But there are times water is just as thick.
That's what Alyx Wesley probably believes after being saved from a dog attack recently.
Alyx's two brothers and their two friends recently overcame an overzealous dog owned by her father. Seems the overly playful pup went for the 10-year-old's face last week, bruising her face, leaving jab marks on her jaw and damaging her psyche, the Gillette News-Record reported Oct. 12.
At one point, the attack got so bad part of Alyx's head was inside the 160-pound dog's mouth.
Alyx was saved only after her brother, Tanner, and a friend, Dustin Erisman both rushed to pull the dog off by kicking him and slamming a cast into the dog to try to get the dog, named Money, off.
Tanner Wesley doesn't want to make a big deal of his heroics, he told the paper.
"Always keep an eye on your sisters," he says he advises his friends now. "Someday if you're not there, they can get killed and you'll regret it."
Meghan Wesley threw a "hero party" for the boys recently. Alyx wrote a note expressing her gratitude to her relatives and friends, too.
"I love them, and I'm very thankful that they helped me out," Alyx told the newspaper. "I would have died without them there."
Not exactly art
Glenrock police are searching for vandals who tagged storage units and the Mormon church in the city with threatening slogans.
The vandals spray-painted "187," the California penal code for homicide on the storage units, the Glenrock Independent reported October 19, and wrote "Die, True, Free" on the doors. Pentagrams and the number "666" was also spray-painted.
"I think it's locals, no doubt," Glenrock Police Chief Mike Colling told the newspaper. "Wanton destruction like this is ridiculous."
Need help? No, just lost my beer
Lander Police responded to a man on Oct. 14 lying in the street on Buena Vista Drive, unconscious and in a pool of blood, the Lander Journal reported Oct. 15.
Apparently, the individual was not the victim of some random act of violence, Lander police said.
He was just looking to grab a beer.
"It turns out he crawled out of the front passenger side window of a pickup truck as it's rolling down the street and stood on the running board trying to get a bottle of alcohol in the back of the truck," Lander Police Chief Dave Hockett said,
The man apparently was under the influence of alcohol, methamphetamine and cocaine, police told the Lander paper.
He suffered severe head trauma and was airlifted to Wyoming Medical Center. No word on the condition of the beer, however.
Night editor David Mirhadi can be reached at (307) 266-0616 or david.mirhadi@casperstartribune.net