City Weekly February 16, 2023

The Home Team

In New Orleans, faded memories are all that's left of the Jazz basketball franchise.

BY THOMAS CRONE

Cover

@SLCWEEKLY @SLCWEEKLY @CITYWEEKLY

“Mike

Another classic Private Eye. I hope to hear John Saltas’s thoughts on the declining decorum within the U.S. Congress regarding the State of the Union address, which I think should be suspended until Americans regain some sort of civility. We really now resemble a Third World country.

ED PARTRIDGE

West Haven

Y’all be careful, ’cause Mike will propose a bill to ban City Weekly just like TikTok. And we will no longer have the smart and eloquent dose of great humor as a side dish to our daily routines.

JANA_HERZOG_

Via Instagram

I want to thank John Saltas for the article. I read it on RawStory.com, and it was brilliant. Thank you so much for taking Mike Lee (hard to call him a senator) to task for his asinine remarks and his quisling attitude. Keep it up!

LIZ SHARER

Nashville, Tennesee

Thanks for your prescient remarks regarding Utah’s stalwart defender, Mr. Lee. It’s quite obvious why your fellow residents/voters chose to re-elect their favorite conswervative.

MICHAEL SCARPELLI

Phoenix, Arizona

I loved you calling out Mike Lee. He’s a liar, a racist and a hypocrite just like Trump. Keep up the good work

TRACY HARVARD

Lake Forest, California

I love Mike Lee’s faux outrage about social security and Medicare, too. What a gem.

GASHOBIN Via Instagram

This piece brought me great joy.

SNAPHAPPYSPENCE Via Instagram

You guys are propagandist hacks.

GETONMYWAVE

Via Instagram

Why all the hate for Mike Lee? He is a great senator!

ERINMCKENNON

Via Instagram

I pick pieces of Mike Lee off my lawn after I let my dog out in the mornings.

ROLLRSK8ERJOE

Via Instagram

Lee is a closet liberal, but the balloon should have never been over the United States. He, Biden and Salt Lake City Weekly have the weak United States they wanted.

MARIAFERLAND

Via Instagram

“Top 10 Reasons to Live in Utah,”

Feb. 9 Smart Bomb

Nailed it! The Theocratic Republic of Deseret’s Legislature is such an embarrassment! I would add: Being able to order a gun by mail, but not a bottle of wine.

ADOLFO BV

Via Facebook

No. 1: The unrelenting stream of self-righteous complaints from Subaru-driving, secular liberals.

TOM GROVER

Via Facebook

Equal rights for women to be accused, abused, underpaid and guilty in a court of law.

MICHAEL JAMES STONE

Via Facebook

Churches about every other block.

CINDY MARSH

Via Facebook

Men have more rights than women. Cis, straight, white men are gods and control the bodies of literally everyone else.

LIZABETHVERSE

Via Instagram

The state that most encourages breeding, yet pays the least per-student on education!

NIKOLALALA_SLC

Via Instagram

Care to sound off on a feature in our pages or about a local concern? Write to comments@cityweekly.net or post your thoughts on our social media. We want to hear from you!

THE WATER COOLER

What is the first thing you’d do if/when Utah legalizes recreational marijuana?

Scott Renshaw

I guess read everyone else’s answer to this question and know what everyone wants for Christmas.

Kelly Boyce

Dip some mozzarella sticks in it. Oh wait..... I guess order some mozzarella sticks then?!

Benjamin Wood

As a proud medical-card holder, I imagine the only change for me would be a reduction in my prescription costs.

Chelsea Neider

Be so excited for my Utah family. Come on, Florida (where I now live), be next!

Doug Kruithof Quit?

Katharine Biele

Look at how much it will cost vs. going to one of our favorite surrounding states.

Bryan Bale

I’d be very surprised, and I’d cynically wonder how long it would take Utah lawmakers to repeal or gut it, as they did with Proposition 2 in 2018.

Sofia Cifuentes

Light it up to celebrate!

Carolyn Campbell

I would immediately open a candy store and/or bakery.

Lee’s America,” Feb. 9 Private Eye

PRIVATE EYE

BY JOHN SALTAS @johnsaltas

Workspace Utah

One of the grandest changes brought about by COVID is that we no longer need to work from an office. In the three years now since COVID first aligned against persons living their full lives, I’ve spent perhaps a month or two of cumulative time inside our Salt Lake City office. Frankly, I do miss it—but not so much that I’m willing to leave home and forgo an exciting Food Network Challenge on my TV.

To be sure, co-workers not mingling has a negative effect on a company. In the old days, the alpha personalities on our sales staff were always looking to beat the beta personalities to the punch with more calls, appointments and closed sales. It wasn’t beyond those hungry reps to swipe and claim accounts right from under the noses of less aggressive reps. That no longer happens.

Also, in those olden days, the editorial staff might have tossed story ideas off each other, tipped each other off about potential stories, helped each other with insights or suggested an alternate adjective here and there. The keener of our editors kept their eyes out to make sure no one else was crawling into one of their story spaces. That no longer happens, either, at least not in real time.

I’d be lying if I said I didn’t miss that. It was a grand duty to check in with employees, hammer a keyboard on occasion and then saunter off to Port O’Call for drinking and smoking sessions with fellow media types that lasted well into the night. It can be said that some of us did our best work behind the bottom of a gin and tonic.

I’ve tried doing that in recent years, but I never did like drinking with strangers. Without a gang, it’s simply not the same.

We’re all scattered. There are City Weekly employees I

have seen only once or twice in three years. I suppose if we sold sandwiches or pieces of cloth, many of us would have to arrive at our daily workspace to prepare, present and sell our wares. But we don’t. We can sit at home—or in a coffee shop, tavern or public park—and hack away at our keyboards until our work is done, then send our work off to other unseen employees who handle it next and who pass it on again until that work appears in print and online.

The best part is we don’t even have to be in our own homes to do that. In this past year, City Weekly was put together by employees working remotely from points all over the globe, from inside national parks and from the outside of sports stadiums. In that regard, working “from home” is a major advantage for many American workers. Unless that worker is bound by duties like racking parts inside a factory, or dispensing vaccines in a medical care facility, or being obligated to perform outdoor labors such as pulling onions or painting walls, a growing number of Americans can work from anywhere they choose.

This is creating a problem, though, of a different sort. Some of our states are experiencing negative net-migration as former residents high-tail it out to work from home without needing to live next to the glass office tower. California has famously lost hundreds of thousands of residents in these past years, notably more than 340,000 in the most recent year of record-keeping.

A week ago, our Gov. Spencer Cox made the news by saying Californians should not look to find better lives in Utah and that California should do its part by cutting taxes and regulations. That, of course, made a great national soundbite from a conservative Republican governor.

Trouble is, that’s hardly the reason so many people are leaving the Golden State, especially when weighed against the fact that Utah isn’t even in the Top 10 states where outgoing Californians choose to live—Arizona and Texas got

over 50,0000 new residents via California in that same year, for example, while Utah netted under 20,000.

That’s still a lot. For example, Bluffdale, Utah, has been around for more than 150 years and has fewer residents— just over 17,000—than moved here from California in just one year. To boot, Bluffdale had the head start of boarding polygamists.

I don’t think, when all things are considered, that Californians are seeking looser regulations (wait till they learn about how we regulate and treat the transgender community) when they decide upon where to move. Nor are they deciding to bear lower taxes, especially when one finds that certain pockets of Utahns—like our notable sinners—pay taxes disproportionate to the general populace.

No, Californians are moving here for the same reason everyone else came here: to catch the last fish, to run the first virgin snow, to catch a Bryce Canyon sunrise. They can work for their California employers while watching the sun set over or through the smoggy glaze that has become our ugliest feature.

Utah doesn’t know it yet, but there are already too many people living in Utah—our air is worse than Los Angeles, and we don’t even have enough water for our cows, let alone to whet the thirst of parched liberals. Californians survived COVID by being among the best at protecting themselves and their neighbors. They trusted the science that Utahns by and large don’t believe in. They’ve earned the right to move.

So, let’s agree with Spencer Cox—but for different reasons. Stay home, 49ers! Unless you’re bringing some marijuana seeds, that is, because Utah taxed and regulated much of that industry into the ground already. Next up: Tech. CW

Send comments to john@cityweekly.net

HITS &

MISS: Crowded Wombs

Women are half the population, they vote at a higher rate than men and yet, they are watching their rights shrivel as politicians work tirelessly to save women from themselves. Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes—the guy who focuses more on Texas than home— has joined anti-abortion conservatives in a lawsuit to ban a drug that can terminate pregnancy. In other words, banned throughout the nation, The Salt Lake Tribune reports. His move adds to the legislative exhilaration over banning abortion in Utah as bills target injunctions as well as procedures and timelines. The biggest joke is called Utah Maternal Mental Health Awareness Month, in which Gov. Spencer Cox claims to be helping half the Utah mothers who experience depression or anxiety during or after pregnancy. Trust them, women are aware, and they know why. It’s about lawmakers micromanaging women’s bodies.

MISS: Hotel California

Speaking of the governor, you may remember when he wanted people to come to Utah. Well, he’s not so inclined anymore. “Our biggest problems are more growth-related. We would love for people to stay in California instead of coming as refugees to Utah,” he told reporters outside the White House, KSL reports. Cox was there for the State of the Union with his buddy Sen. Mike Lee. “Refugees” was probably an unwise choice of words from the governor who has long touted Utah as a sanctuary for them. And he’s been working to entice in-migration for years, as the Kem C. Gardner Institute notes. Apparently, it was an achievement that the population increased by 66,000 in 2022, two-thirds coming from in-migration. Cox did pivot from his “stay in California” message to suggesting that the state cut taxes and regulations. In fact, Californians aren’t moving here in droves. Their first-choice state is Texas and Utah is among seven other states. Still, Gardner noted that some 16% of migrants were from California.

HIT: Boxing Ring

Utah’s newest state senator, Salt Lake City Democrat Nate Blouin, is angling to help voters in San Juan County, but not without the expected opposition from right-wing conservatives. Blouin wants to set guardrails around when and how ballot drop boxes can be removed. San Juan, which suffers from a lack of physical addresses, depends on drop boxes, many of which were unceremoniously removed in the last election. Blouin also wants to allow mailed-in ballots to be counted if postmarked on Election Day. That didn’t sit well with the Eagle Forum, which doesn’t want ballot counting extended. This year’s Legislature is passing several voting laws, supposedly to increase “confidence” in elections. Blouin’s bill is being held while lawmakers work it over. They also didn’t want to fund prepaid postage, according to The Salt Lake Tribune. Meanwhile, Rep. Phil Lyman, R-Blanding, is shepherding a bill to audit elections. It would be the second such bill making its way through the Legislature. CW

Sugar World

Neighborhood boundaries are one of those niche topics that, in the grand scheme of things, don’t really matter that much. I, however, find them utterly fascinating. Unlike city limits—which are well-defined and legally rigid—neighborhood boundaries seem a bit more amorphous.

Community councils and their set geographies tend to be the go-to when trying to determine boundaries—but even then, disputed regions arise. Take the section directly west of Liberty Park, from State Street to 500 East and from 900 South to 1300 South, sometimes claimed by both Liberty Wells and Central City. No doubt, having Liberty Park—one of the city’s crown jewels—lie within your neighborhood makes it more attractive, which explains why it’s so contested.

But when it comes to expanded neighborhood boundaries, Sugar House takes the cake. Depending on who’s talking, “Sugar Hood” can (but doesn’t) include everything from the Tower Theatre at 9th and 9th to hip spots on the wrong side of the Millcreek and South Salt Lake borders.

To be fair, the swelling neighborhood size is mostly due to informal expansion versus any sort of official changes, as the formal boundaries have remained consistent over the past few decades. But by extrapolating out from the pace of colloquial expansion, Sugar House may very well incorporate the entire state by 2030—expect the Utah flag to change yet again to prominently feature a sugar beet (above photo).

I blame real estate agents, mostly, for the annexation of “Sugar House,” as I’ve seen home listings as far west as State Street and as far north as 900 South reference “cute little Sugar House bungalows.” Add to it the relocation of a few businesses—either due to the need for more space or the meteoric rise in rents—and the statewide takeover is well on its way to being complete.

For example, Sugar House Industries (photo below), located on State Street and 7200 South in Midvale, is likely the neighborhood’s southernmost colony (for now).

Get ready folks, we’ll all be Sugar Housers when all is said and done! CW

Sugar House—where sugar beets were once processed—is a locale coveted by those living outside the neighborhood.

SugarHouse Industries located on State Street in Midvale, could be Sugar Hood’s southern-most foothold.

The Home Team

In New Orleans, only faded memories remain of the Jazz basketball franchise.

BY THOMAS CRONE comments@cityweekly.net

NEW ORLEANS—Jory Dexter Woodis is someone with a pair of resume items that don’t come around very often.

A former resident of Orem, Woodis currently plies his trade as a clarinet player in a half-dozen bands that gig in and around the French Quarter of New Orleans. These might not be names known terribly well by those outside of the Crescent City, but the bands and venues he’s associated with ring true in NOLA.

They’re the reason he left Utah, in search of a place to fully embrace his role as a trad-jazz horn player (who, in addition to the clarinet, counts the saxophone as a gig-ready instrument). His timing was unfortunate, though, moving to New Orleans at a pivotal moment in recent history.

Traveling in his car with his wife, Brittney, Woodis received a call on the second day of his cross-country move, informing him that the country was largely shutting down due to a sudden uptick in COVID-19. Arriving in New Orleans, he was now in a new city with no gigs—as compared to the near-dozen performances he might give in a typical week these days.

“I play with a lot of different people,” he said with a bit of understatement. “I have six regular gigs that I play every week, and pick up another four or five at random.”

Speaking of random, this writer crossed paths with

Woodis due to the significant quirk on his resume: He’s maybe the only working musician in New Orleans who’s actually played jazz music at a Utah Jazz basketball game.

He’s quick to point out that he’s not a sports nut, let alone a basketball fan. Yet he enjoys the quirky distinction of having played second lines—or the celebratory, brass band-led parades that are also staples of NOLA funerals—at Salt Lake City’s Vivint Arena.

“There was a series of restaurants down below the court, clubs for people with season tickets,” Woodis recalls. “They would hire us to walk around and do a second line parade through the restaurants before the games. I did about seven or eight of them. We’d dress up and play during the pre-games.”

As Woodis remembers it, the Jazz franchise was more committed to the continuation of the team’s name and spirit at that point in time, eventually letting Woodis and his Utahn second line go due to costs.

“Nowadays, I don’t think they’re concerned about it,” Woodis says of the Jazz-and-jazz combo. “When we started doing it, they really wanted it. But we heard there were some budgeting issues, and they didn’t want to pay us what we wanted and … they just weren’t that interested.”

The name Utah Jazz has long been a light and lazy punchline, of sorts, with the state not necessarily known for a deep history of producing players (and fans) of the great American art form. And yet… City Weekly tried to break down that misunderstood connection in a cover story last March, titled All That Utah Jazz. In it, we noted the many musicians who do perform jazz in and around SLC and its environs, while also giving some ink to the oft-forgotten franchise that moved from New Orleans to Salt Lake, taking the “Jazz” name with it.

Here, we restart that story and travel back in time to the National Basketball Association of the mid-1970s…

History

The New Orleans Jazz were a debuting National Basketball Association (NBA) team in the 1974-75 season, a few years ahead of the arrival of Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, who would help relaunch the league into national popularity. The Jazz of that time were a team in search of an identity, and they found the personification of that in a guard named “Pistol” Pete Maravich, a former star player at nearby Louisiana State University.

Though their LSU linchpin gave the team a leading scorer and (theoretically) a ticket-selling centerpiece, a run of knee issues kept the highlight-creating Maravich from ever achieving his highest ceiling as a player.

The team, meanwhile, listed through five uneven and curious seasons in New Orleans. After splitting time in two smaller arenas during their debut season (which ended with a moribund 23-59 record), the squad moved to the Superdome.

Ever-linked with the term “cavernous,” the outsize Superdome stadium didn’t result in a meaningful change in the fortunes of the NOLA version of the Jazz. The team, if anything, turned in a consistently unimpressive record for the balance of its term: 38-44 in the bicentennial season of 1975-76; 35-47 in 1976-77; and 39-43 in 1977-78.

In their final New Orleans-based season of 1978-79, the Jazz regressed to a woeful record of 26-56, only a shade better than their initial campaign.

Wikipedia, in one, single, gruesome paragraph, summarizes the dysfunction and pure bad luck that seemed to haunt the franchise: “The Jazz ultimately compiled a win–loss record of 161–249 (.393) in five seasons in New Orleans. After what turned out to be their final season in Louisiana, the Jazz were dealt a further humiliation when the Los Angeles Lakers selected Magic Johnson with the first overall pick in the 1979 NBA draft. The pick would have been the Jazz’s had they not traded it to acquire Gail Goodrich two years earlier. Also, the Jazz had given up the rights to Moses Malone in order to regain one of the three first-round picks used for the Goodrich trade; the combination of Johnson and Malone blossoming into Hall of Famers and Goodrich’s ineffective, injury-ruined few years in New Orleans made this transaction one of the most lopsided in NBA history.”

The 1979-80 season saw the franchise in a new city, state and time zone, with the Utah Jazz returning pro basketball to the Beehive State after the Utah Stars’ short-ish run in the now-defunct American Basketball Association (1970-76).

The Stars, too, had a weird historical lineage, with the franchise morphing out of the Anaheim Amigos (1967-68) and then Los Angeles Stars (1968-1970) of the ABA, a league that gave the NBA a decent run for its money during the late ’60s and early ’70s. Several of the ABA’s teams were eventually folded into the NBA, thus effectively eliminating the ABA from the nation’s sporting map, though the Utah Stars (who played at the Salt Palace) weren’t among that crop, having been ingloriously dropped from the league during the 1975-76 season due to financial woes.

If they’d have held on a little longer, they’d have likely joined the squads that blended into the NBA the very next season.

SLC basketball fans, then, had a relatively brief dry spell, with the New Orleans Jazz moving lock, stock and barrel to Salt Lake City in time for the 1979-80 season, which dovetailed nicely with the Bird/Johnson-lead renaissance in the NBA. The franchise’s former city, meanwhile, had to go to the woodshed for a good long while, having lost not only the Jazz, but also its predecessor, the New Orleans Buccaneers, which toiled in the ABA from 1967-1970.

Legacy

In 2000, a basketball-size arena was built in the shadow of the Superdome. Several teams (including the Minnesota Timberwolves and the then-Vancouver Grizzlies) flirted with moves to NOLA. By 2002, though, the new stadium coincided with the Charlotte Hornets’ desire to switch locales, thus giving birth to the New Orleans Hornets.

Following 2005’s devastating Hurricane Katrina, the Hornets would spend time in Oklahoma City for two full seasons, before fully re-establishing residence in NOLA for the 2007-08 season. Finally, in 2013, the ties to Charlotte would be severed with the franchise renaming itself the Pelicans.

These days, it’s hard to find much of a reference point to the New Orleans Jazz in NOLA, let alone any notices of shorter-run franchises like the Buccaneers. In the French Quarter, you can walk down almost any block and see historical signs and markers that tell the story of the 300-plus-year-old city’s past, with no shortage of them dedicated to music, food and other forms of culture. Sports, though, are something of a secondary concern in New Orleans, with the Saints dominating the local sports coverage, LSU running a solid second. Then, and only then, you’ve got that Pelican Fever.

Anecdotally, this can be seen in the city’s street fashion choices, too. On a given day, you’ll see two-dozen pieces of Saints paraphernalia worn by the good citizens of New Orleans before seeing a single bit of Pelicans gear, though the team has NBA relevance with a 29-28 mark as of press time, which includes a grim, record-warping 10-game losing streak.

Meanwhile, the only time this writer saw a New Orleans Jazz throwback tee in the wild was at an indie rock show. Figures!

We tried to get some additional historical background from the main franchises discussed here—the Utah Jazz and the New Orleans Pelicans—but phone calls, emails, and messages through Facebook and Instagram all went unreturned by the teams’ PR and marketing staffs. When it comes to the New Orleans Jazz, it seems, all bets are off on people wanting to discuss them.

Jory Dexter Woodis, for example, is just one more person without an opinion about the Jazz’ half-decade run in NOLA, though his quietude on the topic is understandable. Asked if he’d ever played a gig in NOLA and then had a fan ask him about the New Orleans Jazz, he’s quick with a simple answer.

“No,” he says. “No, I never have.” CW

Thomas Crone served as City Weekly’s music editor in 2022. Still contributing to the CW, he now lives and writes in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Jazz musician Jory Dexter Woodis moved from Utah to New Orleans in 2020.

COURTESY PHOTO

COLLISION COURSE

Utah lawmakers have their sights on Union Pacific after years of construction delays.

BY BENJAMIN WOOD bwood@cityweekly.net

CAPITOL HILL—In his five years as a state lawmaker, Paradise Republican Rep. Casey Snider told his colleagues last week, the most frustrating work he’s engaged in is attempting to broker agreements between Cache County cities and the freight rail operator that runs through them.

Snider described asking railroad leadership for information or meetings, only for months to go by with little or even no response. And he bristled while relating how Logan City had built a new, signalized intersection near an old rail crossing—where Snider said he’d never once seen a train in operation—and how it sits covered and unused today because the railroad has yet to give its requisite signoff.

“It’s important that we have the ability to move forward rather than being bottlenecked and treated as, maybe, second-class citizens in some of these areas,” Snider said. “Railroads are holding government entities hostage by simply saying, ‘No,’ or never responding.”

Snider’s comments came during a charged meeting of the House Transportation Committee, in which four separate bills related to conflicts, concerns and criticisms of freight rail were heard and approved with unanimous support.

Municipal leaders shared stories of infrastructure projects being delayed for a decade or more, including those meant to improve the safety of both vehicle and pedestrian rail crossings or to provide children with a safe route to school. Rail workers described a pattern of dangerous conditions and little ability to report concerns —or to see efficacy from reporting—to internal superiors and watchdog agencies at the federal level.

And lawmakers described their own frustrations attempting to lobby for action on behalf of their constituents or even when dealing with railroads when they held prior positions. “I think if you’ve been on a city council, you probably have a railroad story,” Rep. Karen Peterson, R-Clinton, said.

And while Snider and most others refrained from naming the specific rail company at the heart of their anecdotes, one entity loomed large in both the text and subtext: Union Pacific.

“These bills that are before the committee today come from a place and a desire to work together,” Union Pacific spokesman Nathan Anderson said during one of several trips to the committee microphone. “We share that, and we have a shared desire for safety.”

Local Motives

Snider’s bill, HB51, would empower municipalities to advance infrastructure upgrades around rail lines, even without support of the rail operator, if the project is deemed to be in both the public interest and the interest of rail operations. He said his bill draws on federal case law to provide cities with leverage and, hopefully, to break through impasses that too often stifle development and growth planning.

“This bill is about moving beyond that frustration. I don’t want any other community to have to go through what my community goes through every day,” Snider said. “We’ve had plenty of politics in the background. This bill is a substantive policy shift so people don’t have to play politics anymore.”

HB51 was just one of the four shots fired by the House Transportation Committee. The panel also supported HJR16, a resolution from Ogden Republican Rep. Ryan Wilcox calling on the federal government to reconsider the sweeping land rights awarded to rail operators— many of which date back to the Manifest Destiny era of western expansion; HB232, from Centerville Republican Rep. Paul Cutler, which clarifies and bolsters the authority of the Utah Department of Transportation to adjudicate maintenance concerns and other responsibilities at rail crossings; and perhaps most notably, HB63 from Hooper Republican Rep. Mike Schultz, which creates a new state-level office of rail safety.

By Monday, all four bills had passed the full Utah House with near-unanimous support.

Schultz said that roughly 30 states have already created their own rail oversight bodies, and that the costs of Utah’s program would be borne by the rail operators themselves. Statewide, he said, hundreds of projects are stalled pending railroad approval. “The problem is nothing happens, nothing gets done,” Schultz said. “It’s frustrating overall, but when it comes to safety, I don’t think that’s an area where we should lack at all.”

While the short description of those bills may not seem particularly forceful, their combined weight got the attention of Union Pacific. Anderson spoke against each of the four bills on behalf of the rail operator, suggesting the enactment of those laws could impede freight operations and infringe on the railroad’s private property rights. He also detailed company safety protocols that allow any train worker to hit the brakes if they see a problem and described an exemplary safety record within Utah under the existing dynamic of primarilyfederal supervision.

“We operate a 33,000-mile, outdoor factory,” Anderson said. “Without this state rail office of safety, we have achieved among the highest levels of safety across the entire railroad.”

But those comments were undermined by testimony from rail union representatives, who described their firsthand experiences working in unsafe conditions and how their colleagues either stay silent out of fear of retribution or report concerns only to see them go unheard and unaddressed. “There’s lots of company taglines out there,” said Jeremy Hansen with SMART Transportation Division. “They don’t go very far in reality.”

Daniel Brewer, another SMART representative, said safety concerns have only grown as rail operators trim staffing levels while lengthening trains—a cost-cutting approach that sees fewer employees responsible for more train cars. Brewer described Schultz’s proposal to create a state office of rail safety as the most substantive piece of local rail safety legislation in more than 50 years.

“My co-workers are the people who did this work,” Brewer said. “They are overworked and understaffed, and we need someone to come in and acknowledge that and put the feet to the fire of this railroad company that we work for.”

Grande Scheme

In Salt Lake, investment into west-side neighborhoods and ongoing efforts to reconnect the two halves of the city are frequently tied up in conflicts with Union Pacific. While some projects have moved forward—like a new pedestrian bridge under construction on 300 North near West High School—others sit stalled and incomplete or have been rendered unusably cumbersome by freight safety requirements.

The western portion of Salt Lake City’s 9-Line trail has been built for years, but it’s cut off from the newer portions east of the tracks due to a gap beneath Interstate 15, where city planners have worked to create a gate design that passes railroad muster while still allowing cyclists to travel conveniently. And the newly constructed Folsom Trail that links Poplar Grove to the North Temple FrontRunner station falls short of its ultimate target—the Jordan River Parkway trail—because of rail rights-of-way, while also boasting an absurd cluster of rail crossings at 600 West that compels trails users to backtrack and presumes to offer a safe pathway of winding, fenced-off areas. In reality, the design compels pedestrians and cyclists to cut their own informal route through the interchange, or to avoid the area entirely.

Beyond the city’s work on trails, west-side residents are routinely blocked by freight trains at crossings on 300 North, 200 South, 800 South and 900 South—in some cases for up to an hour or more—jeopardizing their ability to reach jobs, schools, medical appointments and other time-sensitive destinations. The delays are so imposing that individuals can regularly be seen climbing between train cars to get through.

“This problem has been so impactful in my community for so many years,” said Salt Lake City Councilman Alejandro Puy, who represents the west side. “[These bills] will help and improve the lives of residents here in Salt Lake City and across the state.”

Union Pacific also holds what amounts to a pocket veto over the so-called Rio Grande Plan, a citizen-led effort to bury freight and passenger rail in a train box on 500 South, which would improve transit connections and open up large swaths of derelict land for redevelopment. Anderson said that Union Pacific is familiar with the Rio Grande proposal but has no formal position on it and that it raises questions around the train box’s capacity for ventilation, maintenance, customer service and potential expansion.

He added that the railroad is working with the city to explore not just one idea but “many solutions” for mitigating the safety and connectivity issues around its lines.

“We have seen the [Rio Grande Plan] renderings but we have not had any serious engineering discussions to address the concerns that would bring up,” Anderson said.

While burying rail is an obviously complex task, even more traditional efforts to move people up and over the tracks have faced intransigence, in some cases necessitating court action to move forward. In the House Transportation Committee, Vineyard Mayor Julie Fullmer described how her city—which is functionally landlocked between rail on one side and Utah Lake on the other— had to push a dispute with Union Pacific to the Utah Supreme Court in order to complete a road route into and out of town.

“Historical rights given to railroads to act as a good public partner and a public good have been abused, monopolizing the land, preventing growth and connection to jobs and higher education,” she said.

The Utah Legislature has engaged in this type of signaling before, including bills sponsored during the 2022 legislative session that were ultimately shelved. But Ezra Nair, Vineyard’s city manager, encouraged lawmakers to follow through and enact changes in law, noting that even the threat of the legislation has appeared to prompt a shift in Union Pacific’s responsiveness.

“We’ve had some of the best discussions that we’ve ever had throughout the past year, simply because this legislation is being proposed,” Nair said. “I fear what would happen if this legislation didn’t move forward.” CW

Drivers wait for a stopped train on 800 South.

BENJAMIN WOOD

OUR BIGGEST AND BEST BODY & MIND ISSUE YET!

HOW TO VOTE:

∞ GO TO CITYWEEKLY.NET/BESTOFUTAH AND CREATE AN ACCOUNT WITH YOUR EMAIL.

∞ YOU MUST VOTE FOR A MINIMUM OF 5 DIFFERENT CATEGORIES FOR YOUR VOTE TO COUNT.

∞ IF YOU DON’T SEE THE BUSINESS YOU’D LIKE TO VOTE FOR, SIMPLY NOMINATE THEM! THEY WILL THEN STAY POPULATED FOR FUTURE VOTERS.

∞ VOTES ARE LOCKED AFTER 15 MINUTES.

∞ YOU MAY GO IN AT ANYTIME DURING THE VOTING PERIOD TO CONTINUE VOTING FOR THE REMAINING CATEGORIES!

HOW TO PROMOTE:

∞ SHARE THE PROMOTIONAL GRAPHICS AND LINKS TO YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA.

∞ SEND OUT EMAILS TO YOUR DATABASES.

∞ WORD OF MOUTH!

∞ IF YOU’D LIKE MARKETING MATERIAL, PLEASE EMAIL MARKETING@CITYWEEKLY.NET

The Weight of History

Debora Threedy’s Mountain Meadows explores people wrestling with the events of the past

BY SCOTT RENSHAW scottr@cityweekly.net @scottrenshaw

Writing about a historical event—even an innocuous historical event—offers plenty of challenges. For playwright Debora Threedy, taking on the tragic, controversial “Mountain Meadows Massacre” offered a chance to think not just about a historical event itself, but how people process it years after the fact.

Threedy’s world-premiere play Mountain Meadows takes its title and its launch point from the September 1857 attack on an emigrant wagon train in Utah by Mormon settlers, and the subsequent attempts to blame the murder on Native Americans and generally cover it up. Its focus, however, is not on portraying those events themselves, but instead on two women dealing with the aftermath: Nita, inspired by historian Juanita Brooks, who’s researching the event; and Miranda, a survivor of the attack looking into her family’s involvement.

Though Threedy spent 30 years as a professor of law at the University of Utah, she’s not a Utah native, and says she doesn’t recall specifically when she first became aware of the Mountain Meadows Massacre. But upon retiring in 2017 and moving to Southern Utah near St. George,

she discovered that the site was just 10 miles from her house. That was also a time when another writing project she had on her table just wasn’t coming to fruition.

“That summer, I had a lot of personal loss,” she says. “I lost my mother and younger brother in the space of three weeks. I was working on a children’s play at the time, a happy, bouncing thing, and I just couldn’t write it. My head wasn’t in that space. So I jumped headfirst into [Mountain Meadows].”

In terms of crafting her narrative, however, Threedy was ultimately more interested in writing about the impact of the attack, rather than attempting to recreate the event itself. “In some ways, the event itself was so horrific that it kind of defies understanding,” she says. “Certainly for the theater, you’d have to go all Greek, with the death happening off-stage. As I got more into the story, the interesting parts to me all required reflection—the way that everybody who was involved tried to cover it up, and it wouldn’t be covered up. On a personal level, it came to haunt the individuals involved; on a societal level, it came back to haunt the church. It was that haunting aspect that really interested me.”

Creating a work of theater inspired by history ultimately means being responsible both to the facts of history, and to the job of making a compelling drama for an audience. For Threedy, navigating the space between those two responsibilities is part of what makes this kind of story an appealing artistic challenge.

“I’ve sort of evolved, over time, my personal code of ethics about that,” she says. “I won’t portray as real something I know is inaccurate; I won’t lie or fabricate about things that are known. But about any historical person or event, there’s a ton we don’t know. I feel fine about filling in

the holes for the things we don’t know. I feel fine about fabricating conversations when we know two people talked, but we don’t know what they talked about. In a way, it’s kind of like the challenge I think faces people who write sonnets, or other literature that has rules—the challenge of creating powerful drama within the constraints of what we know to be a fact.”

While the timeline for Mountain Meadows’ creation pre-dates some of the more volatile present-day controversies surrounding teaching uncomfortable historical subjects like racism in America, Threedy realizes that the topic now has perhaps even more significance. “I don’t think that was in my conscious mind when I started writing the story,” she says, “but as events have transpired, and I immersed myself in the story, that attempt to whitewash history, in one way or another, is absolutely the same. It happens all the time.”

That idea is also connected with how hard it is for people psychologically to acknowledge that they might be part of a lineage that caused harm, even if they personally did not cause the harm. She notes that among the three quotes that

she included on the title page for the play, one that originally applied to descendants of Nazis feels relevant to the Mountain Meadows story, and perhaps more generally to others who struggle with what their ancestors might have done: “The deeds of our forebears haunt us always; we learn nothing by turning away from their misdeeds. They are and are not us, and that is the puzzle.”

“That really resonated with the story I’m trying to tell,” Threedy says, “about all of these people trying to grapple 100 years later with figuring it out. My answer to that question is, we’re not responsible for what happened in the past, but we are responsible for how we talk about what happened in the past. That’s bringing the responsibility into the present.” CW

PYGMALION PRODUCTIONS: MOUNTAIN MEADOWS

Rose Wagner Center Studio Theatre

210 E. 300 South Feb. 17 – March 4 $17.50 - $22.50 arttix.org

ROBERT HOLMAN

Stephanie Howell as Nita in Mountain Meadows

Complete listings online at cityweekly.net

New World Shakespeare Company: Macbeth

“Oh if I were a man,” laments Lady Macbeth in William Shakespeare’s famous tragedy Macbeth—and according to Megan Chase, codirector of New World Shakespeare Company’s production, that sensibility of “how strict gender roles shape and drive the actions of the characters” is part of what makes it an ideal choice for helping support the Utah transgender community.

For more than a decade, New World Shakespeare Company has made it a point of emphasis to encourage nontraditional casting by age, race, gender and body type in its productions—“to give everyone the chance to inhabit the roles and tell the stories that have survived the test of time,” as their press release puts it. Additionally, the company chooses to focus on a particular charity appropriate to the theme of the play; for Macbeth, that charity is the National Center for Transgender Equality.

“Gender roles and trans issues are currently at the forefront of culture wars,” Chase says. “The health and safety of trans gender individuals are under threat across the country. Here in Utah, we see this with recent, disgraceful banning of gender affirming healthcare for trans youth. With this in mind, we felt it was important to bring attention to trans rights at this critical moment.”

New World Shakespeare Company’s Macbeth runs through Feb. 19 at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church (261 S. 900 East), with performances Feb. 16-18 at 7:30 p.m. and Feb. 19 at 3 p.m. Tickets are $20; masks are required throughout performances, and attendees are requested to be fully vaccinated. Visit newworldshakespeare. com for tickets and additional event information. (Scott

Renshaw)

The Future of Refugees in Utah Symposium

The issue of immigration remains a political football, often tangled up in thinly-veiled racism, Islamophobia and other anxieties. Yet there remains a (sometimes deliberately) confusing conflation between legal immigration from refugee populations and illegal immigration, often making it difficult to focus on the real challenges of people coming to America with language and cultural barriers, and how they can best be fully integrated into local communities.

The Utah Council for Citizen Diplomacy presents “The Future of Refugees in Utah Symposium,” an event welcoming global experts to address real questions involving refugee resettlement. With a focus on the vetting process of refugees, the benefits refugees contribute to host communities, and how host communities and refugees can work together to strengthen integration and opportunity, this symposium is a unique opportunity to bring people together to hear about the latest research and policy initiatives, examine the intersectionality of these topics, and explore possible solutions.

Scheduled speakers include: Sarah Cross, U.S. State Department Deputy Assistant Secretary for Population, Refugee and Migration; Eskinder Nagash, President and CEO of U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI); Jennie Murray, President and CEO of National Immigration Forum; and Aden Batar, Director of Migration and Refugee Services at Catholic Community Services.

The Future of Refugees in Utah Symposium takes place at the Utah Cultural Celebration Center (1355 W. 3100 South, West Valley City) on Thursday, Feb. 16 from 1 p.m. – 5: 30 p.m. The event is free and open to the public, but registration is required. Visit utahdiplomacy.org for a link to registration, and additional event information. (SR)

COURTESY PHOTO

All-Star Weekend Activities

In case you’re not particularly attuned to the sports, the Feb. 17-19 weekend marks a pretty big national showcase for Salt Lake City, as the (still for the time being) Vivint Arena and the Utah Jazz play host to the 2023 NBA All-Star Game and its attendant festivities. Even if you don’t have tickets to any of the big showcases—the main game or any of its secondary events like the Rising Stars Game or Skills Challenge— there are still ways to get into the spirit of the thing.

Among the officially NBAsponsored side events is the GRIT Rail Jam, scheduled for Feb. 17-18 at the Gateway’s Olympic Legacy Plaza. Focused on snowboarding in an urban environment, a Rail Jam showcases athletes jumping up and sliding down handrails, walls or ledges that plunge down concrete steps or other city architecture. Competitors will be judged based on overall impression through crowd engagement and level of difficulty for the tricks. Visit nba.com/jazz for more information.

Meanwhile, Downtown SLC presents Central at the Gallivan Plaza (200 South and Main St.) Feb. 17-19 from 1 p.m. – 10 p.m. daily. The all-ages event provides a showcase of local music, food and art, including immersive sculptural installations, food trucks, S’more pits for making your own treats, and live music performances. Also at The Gateway, Gallery X (33 N. Rio Grande St.) features art-exhibits, kid-friendly interactive experiences, celebrity guests and science & technology workshops; for the evenings of Feb. 17-18, it will become a lavish nighttime experience. Visit thegalleryexperience.com for tickets and additional information. (SR)

Growing Pains

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania loses the series sense of small-scale fun.

BY SCOTT RENSHAW scottr@cityweekly.net @scottrenshaw

As the stakes in the ever-unfolding Marvel Cinematic Universe have continued to grow—from the fate of the world, to the fate of the universe, to the fate of the multiverse—it has been at least something of a change of pace that director Peyton Reed’s Ant-Man films have been so uniquely … small.

They’ve offered threats on a much more individual level, built around capers and heists, with a goofy sense of fun exemplified by Michael Peña’s rambling asides as the buddy/accomplice of Paul Rudd’s Scott Lang/Ant-Man. Even the climax of the first film seemed to be a winking acknowledgement of how bombastic these movies tended to be, shrinking the arena for the final battle down to a model train track in a single room. Not every superhero movie, Ant-Man movies assured us, had to be about The End of All That Is.

So now here we are, as Marvel begins Phase Whatthehellever, launching its latest long-form saga on the backs of AntMan, Hope Van Dyne/The Wasp (Evangeline Lilly) and their family. And the sameness of the MCU product has infected this particular corner of the franchise, making it virtually indistinguishable not just from other Marvel movies, but from a bunch of other franchise spectacles.

In theory, it could still have been smaller, thanks to returning us to the supersub-atomic Quantum Realm from which Wasp’s mother, Janet (Michelle Pfeiffer) was rescued in 2018’s Ant-Man and the

Wasp. After Scott’s precocious teen daughter Cassie (Kathryn Newton, taking over from Abby Ryder Fortson) invents a device intended to help study the Quantum Realm, the doohickey instead pulls the whole gang—Scott, Hope, Cassie, Janet and Hank Pym (Michael Douglas)—into the QR instead. There, they’re faced with the legacy of Janet’s years in that place, including her familiarity with a mysterious figure called Kang (Jonathan Majors).

The screenplay by Jeff Loveness—a veteran comedy writer for the likes of Jimmy Kimmel, making his feature debut—initially seems to be aiming for some more personal dynamics, finding Scott adrift and purposeless, with no goals more substantial than promoting his memoir, while Hope and Cassie embrace social activism, each in their own way. It would have made a lot of sense to connect this installment’s emotional core to Scott’s inner uncertainties, particularly his ongoing sense of disconnection from his daughter, between his jail time and his multi-year absence during “The Blip.”

Instead, we’re thrown immediately into an entire new ecosystem—a kind of micro-Pandora—with a lot of time devoted

to showing off the distinctive flora, fauna and (yes, really) floating mountains. Later on, Janet re-connects with an old Quantum Realm acquaintance (played by Bill Murray, taking on a similar “smile at the veteran quirky actor doing what he does best” role as Jeff Goldblum in Thor: Ragnarok) in a setting that feels like an attempt to recreate Star Wars’ iconic cantina scene. Everywhere, we’re surrounded by signals to make sure it’s clear to the audience that, “hey guys, we’re in a fantasy blockbuster.”

Not surprisingly, that also includes a sense of apocalyptic consequence, as it becomes clear that the native creatures of the Quantum Realm have been fighting a long battle for freedom from the domination of Kang. Majors projects all of the requisite gravitas required of the MCU’s next “Big Bad”—if perhaps a bit too reminiscent of Thanos in his weary sense of needing to fulfill a great purpose—and he holds the screen whenever he’s the focus. Whatever might have been distinctive about Kang and his motivations, however, gets lost in yet another quest for an all-powerful MacGuffin, and a final battle where thousands of faceless protagonists confront thousands of faceless antago-

nists while energy blasts shoot back and forth between them.

Quantumania manages a few decent gags amidst all the would-be spectacle, and sporadically allows Rudd’s particular charms to shine through, most memorably in a sequence where hundreds of him are there at once. But the moments involving actual relationship connections feel like they’re attached as afterthoughts rather than fundamental to the story; it’s telling that during a late scene where Scott and Hope dramatically embrace, it’s practically the first time we would have any sense that there’s a romantic involvement between them. That’s the kind of thing you should be more committed to when you’re telling a story on an intimate scale, and not just setting up the latest threat to the omni-mega-ultraverse. CW

ANT-MAN AND THE WASP: QUANTUMANIA

MARVEL STUDIOS

Paul Rudd and Jonathan Majors in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania

Thai Hard

BY ALEX SPRINGER comments@cityweekly.net @captainspringer

Writing about Thai food in Utah is a little tricky, since we have such a solid batting average among Thai restaurants; it’s tough to find a Thai place that doesn’t take things up a few notches. So, when I’m on the lookout for new Thai spots, I tend to get a bit more excited about places that include creative spins on the existing canon of Thai entrees that are available.

This is what led me to Coco Wok (1435 S. State Street, 801-474-3322, cocowokslc.com). Their main menu has a solid selection of traditional Thai dishes like pad thai, stir fry and all the curry, but it’s their appetizer menu that speaks to the restaurant’s creativity.

I started following Coco Wok on Instagram because, like most of my local foodie follows, they know how to stage a dish. Sizzling bowls of veggie and tofu stir fry, vibrant curry that I could almost smell through my phone screen and tightlywrapped egg rolls with every entrée piqued my curiosity, so I started to check out their menu online. I was excited to try their curry variations to begin with, but that’s when I spotted the Thairancini Rice Balls ($8). I must have missed the post that showcased a Thai take on the lovely Italian deep fried rice balls known as arancini, but the knowledge of their existence got me there in a hurry.

Longtime fans of the dearly-departed

Thai Siam restaurant on 14th South and State Street will recognize the space that Coco Wok currently operates, and it’s as cozy as ever. I’m a fan of the restaurant logo painted directly on the exposed brick, which gives the place an updated look that fits in with today’s urban restaurants. Lunch and dinner see their fair share of regulars coming and going, so it looks like Coco Wok has managed to capture the attention of Thai food fans in the neighborhood.

Of course the Thairancini were a given when I placed my order, but I also wanted to dance around on the appetizer side of the menu before selecting an entrée.

I also checked out the Coco Crispy Pork Buns ($8), and decided to go with the cashew nuts and chili jam with pork ($8). I went during lunch time, so the prices and portions are a little easier on the wallet, but if you’re headed out with friends, it’s pretty easy to split the entrees and the appetizers.

The Thairancini were a good deal bigger than I was expecting—these are softball-sized orbs that arrive piping hot and aching to be sliced open. The traditional Italian arancini usually has rice and cheese mixed together before getting battered and fried, which is present here. While most arancini I’ve tried lean into a soft, fluffy rice texture, these celebrate the alchemy when rice gets cooked to somewhere between crispy and chewy. The outer layer of these appetizers is akin to the crispy rice at the bottom of a nice Korean bibimbap, and the core of the rice ball is a mix of mozzarella cheese and some massaman beef curry. If what I just described doesn’t have you hopping in your car and beelining it to Coco Wok, you need to reevaluate your priorities.

When you kick things off with a heavyhitting appetizer like this, it’s a bit hard for the rest of the meal to keep up, but

Coco Wok is far from a one-trick pony. The Coco Crispy Pork Buns are comprised of a steamed dough exterior that folds over onto a mix of thinly-sliced cucumber and carrot, and a slice of crispy pork belly. I’ve become rather fond of these appetizers at ramen joints around town, and love seeing slightly bigger versions of them here at Coco Wok, but I could have used a bit more pork belly to round out the flavor ratios a bit. All the same, swinging by to cherry pick the appetizer menu at Coco Wok seems like a totally viable option— I’d also recommend the curry dumplings ($8) and the duck tacos ($8), and their list of egg rolls is truly inspiring. Soft shell crab, anyone?

The entrees at Coco Wok are solid, with plenty of favorites that fans of traditional Thai cuisine will be happy to dig into. I think your best bet is sticking with the options on their wok or stir fry menu— the place is called Coco Wok, after all. The cashew and chili jam packs a powerful punch of flavors, especially if you order it hot; they have a spiciness spectrum for those who like a little or a lot of heat with their dishes. The chili jam is a great component in a stir fry, helping to spread the smoky, spicy flavors all over the place for an equitable amount of heat.

I like a restaurant that sticks to its bases while having a bit of fun with certain elements of their menu, and Coco Wok is just that. Whether you’re a fan of traditional Thai food or are looking for something a bit more creative, it’s definitely worth your time. CW

With creative appetizers and solid entrées, Coco Wok has it all for Thai fans.

2 Row Brewing 6856 S. 300 West, Midvale 2RowBrewing.com

Avenues Proper 376 8th Ave, SLC avenuesproper.com

On Tap: Brunch BeerGrapefruit Wheat Ale

Bewilder Brewing

445 S. 400 West, SLC

BewilderBrewing.com

On Tap: Gluten Reduced Kolsch

Bohemian Brewery 94 E. Fort Union Blvd, Midvale BohemianBrewery.com

Bonneville Brewery 1641 N. Main, Tooele BonnevilleBrewery.com

On Tap: Peaches and Cream Ale

Craft by Proper 1053 E. 2100 So., SLC craftbyproper.com

On Tap: Whispers of the Primordial Sea - Smoked Pineapple Lager

Desert Edge Brewery

273 Trolley Square, SLC

DesertEdgeBrewery.com

On Tap: Out of Office Pale Ale

Epic Brewing Co.

825 S. State, SLC EpicBrewing.com

On Tap: Pfeifferhorn Lager

Fisher Brewing Co. 320 W. 800 South, SLC FisherBeer.com

On Tap: A rotation of up to 17 Fresh Beers!

Grid City Beer Works 333 W. 2100 South, SLC GridCityBeerWorks.com

On Tap: Extra Pale Ale

Hopkins Brewing Co.

1048 E. 2100 South, SLC HopkinsBrewingCompany.com

On Tap: Sugar House Pilsner

Kiitos Brewing 608 W. 700 South, SLC KiitosBrewing.com

Level Crossing Brewing Co. 2496 S. West Temple, South Salt Lake LevelCrossingBrewing.com

On Tap: Kolsch (it’s back!)

Bingo: Wednesdays at 7pm

Moab Brewing 686 S. Main, Moab TheMoabBrewery.com

On Tap: Bourbon & Blonde (Bulleit Bourbon Barrel-aged Blonde Stout)

Mountain West Cider 425 N. 400 West, SLC MountainWestCider.com

On Tap: Wet Hopped Cider

Offset Bier Co 1755 Bonanza Dr Unit C, Park City offsetbier.com/

On Tap: DOPO IPA

Ogden River Brewing 358 Park Blvd, Ogden OgdenRiverBrewing.com

On Tap: Injector Hazy IPA

Policy Kings Brewery 223 N. 100 West, Cedar City PolicyKingsBrewery.com

Prodigy Brewing 25 W Center St. Logan Prodigy-brewing.com

On Tap: Hopped & Confused Session IPA

Proper Brewing 857 S. Main, SLC ProperBrewingCo.com

On Tap: Thunder Cougar Falcon Bird - Australian Sparkling Ale

Proper Brewing Moab 1393 US-191 Moab, Utah 84532 NOW OPEN!

Red Rock Brewing 254 So. 200 West RedRockBrewing.com

On Tap: Gypsy Scratch

Red Rock Fashion Place 6227 So. State Redrockbrewing.com

On Tap: Munich Dunkel

Red Rock Kimball Junction Redrockbrewing.com

1640 Redstone Center

On Tap: Bamberg Rauch Bier

RoHa Brewing Project 30 Kensington Ave, SLC RoHaBrewing.com

On Tap: Pillow Talk Hazy IPA

Roosters Brewing Multiple Locations RoostersBrewingCo.com

On Tap: Identity Crisis Session West Coast Hazy Cold IPA –the name says it all!

SaltFire Brewing

2199 S. West Temple, S. Salt Lake SaltFireBrewing.com

On Tap: Heavy Metal Parking Lot American Black Lager

Salt Flats Brewing 2020 Industrial Circle, SLC SaltFlatsBeer.com

On Tap: “RYE-T” Hand Turn - RYE IPA

Scion Cider Bar

916 Jefferson St W, SLC Scionciderbar.com

On Tap: Highpoint Sweater

Weather 6% ABV

Shades Brewing

154 W. Utopia Ave, S. Salt Lake ShadesBrewing.beer

On Tap: Tap & Tarot

Live Music: Thursdays

Shades On State 366 S. State Street SLC Shadesonstate.com

Karaoke: Wednesdays

Silver Reef

4391 S. Enterprise Drive, St. George | StGeorgeBev.com

Squatters

147 W. Broadway, SLC Squatters.com

Strap Tank Brewery Multiple Locations

StrapTankBrewery.com

Springville On Tap: PB Rider, Peanut Butter Stout

Lehi On Tap: 2-Stroke, Vanilla Mocha Porter

Stratford Proper 1588 Stratford Ave., SLC stratfordproper.com

On Tap: Yacht Rock Juice Box - Juicy IPA

TF Brewing 936 S. 300 West, SLC

TFBrewing.com

On Tap: Edel Pils

Talisman Brewing Co. 1258 Gibson Ave, Ogden TalismanBrewingCo.com

On Tap: Tropical StormPassionfruit Mango Sour

Uinta Brewing 1722 S. Fremont Drive, SLC UintaBrewing.com

On Tap: Was Angeles Craft Beer

UTOG 2331 Grant Ave, Ogden UTOGBrewing.com

On Tap: Lovely Lady Nitro Stout

Vernal Brewing 55 S. 500 East, Vernal VernalBrewing.com

Wasatch 2110 S. Highland Drive, SLC WasatchBeers.com

Zion Brewery 95 Zion Park Blvd, Springdale ZionBrewery.com

Zolupez 205 W. 29th Street #2, Ogden Zolupez.com

OPENING SOON! Helper Beer 159 N Main Street Helper, UT 84526

Apex Brewing 2285 S Main Street Salt Lake City, UT 84115

A list of what local craft breweries and cider houses have on tap this week

What’s in a Name?

Subtle wording can change everything where taste is concerned.

BY MIKE RIEDEL comments@cityweekly.net @utahbeer

Before us we have two great beers with the simple word “hazy” on the label. It describes the beer’s appearance, but are these descriptors helpful in regards to taste? If the makers of these beers omitted “hazy,” would it affect the way you’d enjoy them? Here are my impressions, and I’m curious as to yours.

Grid City - Hazy India Pale Ale: This 9.2 percent ale pours an unfiltered bright, orange, slightly amber color, with a moderate head that fades quickly. Strong aromas of ripe tangerine, strawberry, melon, berry and black tea emerge, along with some tropical fruit and strawberry support. The result is a nice balance of citrus and tropical, like if you mixed orange and pink Starburst, but with some herbal notes. Some sweet malts linger in the background.

It nails the west-coast-style flavor, as I get a lot of tangerine, strawberry, melon, black tea, but less of the tropical than the nose. It’s much more of a pine flavor with a medium bite. A semistrong syrupy sweetness emerges to battle the bitterness, but overall it finishes dry. And it’s not quite a Hazy IPA with its strong candied-malt body.

Verdict: I would describe this as one of the best-balanced double IPAs that leans west-coast, with some great grapefruit and tangerine flavors. Nothing stands out, but it definitely leans bitter while capturing citrus and tropical flavors well. I can understand where the brewers were going with this beer, as it really strikes a pleasant balance between bitterness and fruit flavors. If you’re not

into the west-coast style, this will likely disappoint.

T.F. Brewing - Protect Ya Neckta: It pours a beautiful and softly glowing yellow, with a slight bit of haze to temper its radiance. Bubbles make their way to the top and a cream-colored head of foam that lasts and leaves a sticky, creamy lace until finally succumbing to the 8.8 percent abv and falling, leaving spots and alcohol legs. Nose is big with stone fruit, mostly peaches with hints of mango—ripe, earthy and sweet. Some pineapple and melon pop up to give it a little sugary backing and some tanginess, while some ovely Nectaron hops impersonate all the fruit. The malt is soft as it could possibly be on the nose, a soft sweetness. I observed only a faint fume of the alcohol, and could not even be sure if it wasn’t my imagination.

The taste is outstanding, including a perfect level of malt for this big beer. It has substance, but it also has form; it gracefully does not become too heavy, and is made lighter by a good carbonation. The mouthfeel is fuller than the typical IPA, but very big. The fruit is ripe and prominent, as the apricot and melon combine to create a sweet fruit sensation. The beer has some alcohol in the mouthfeel, as well a bit of sweetness and a bit of weight, but this beer is not syrupy or too heavy to be enjoyed. What alcohol presence there is offers just a mild warmth as it finishes with a citrus hop bitter that seems much weaker than it really is next to all that sweet fruit. Itinishes sticky and sweet but drying on the tongue.

Verdict: The Nectaron hops in this hazy IPA take the style in a direction that is less tropical and more heartland, with the big field fruit flavors and the peach/apricot nectars. It drinks like a hazy and It’s definitely a glug-glug beer, with high drinkability. It’s one is the best hazy IPAs I’ve had, an excellent example of how well this style can be done.

These are both in limited production, and the inventory that is allocated to-go tends to disappear first. So, if you find they’re gone, check with their respective bars to try these 16-ounce cans inhouse. As always, cheers! CW

MIKE RIEDEL

MIKE RIEDEL

BY ALEX SPRINGER | @captainspringer

Adelaide Opens

Downtown Salt Lake recently welcomed a dual-pad hotel space from Marriott—the chic and sophisticated Le Méridien (131 S. 300 West), and the sustainability-focused Element (145 S. 300 West). Of course, new hotels in town mean new restaurants and bars to check out, and the space’s flagship restaurant Adelaide recently opened its doors for business. Helmed by Chef Jacqueline Siao, Adelaide features a concept inspired by the New Orleans combo of French and Cajun cuisine, complete with Dungeness crab cake croquettes, andouille hash and piles of sugary beignets. On top of its regular menu, Adelaide will offer a full oyster bar, raw bar and plenty of outdoor patio seating for when things warm up around here. Lots to look forward to here, that’s for sure.

Romina Rasmussen’s New Groove

Back in December, we learned the sad news of Les Madeleines closing its doors, thus cutting us off from one of the best baking talents in town. I recently heard tell that Chef Romina Rasmussen has partnered with Derrick and Dwight Yee to create Xiao Bao Bao, a concept centered on the filled-and-steamed dumplings graced upon us through the innovations of Chinese cuisine. The new concept will be operating pop-up locations that serve up a few different varieties of this comfort food as construction on their permanent location is taking place. I’ll keep you posted on any tasty updates that come my way—it’ll be exciting to see where this goes.

Jollofology Opens

As landlocked as we are in Utah, sometimes the best way to experience another culture is to check out their food. At Jollofology (jollofology.com, 877-556-5563), a new concept out of ComCom Kitchen (67 W. 1700 South, comcomkitchen.com), the art of Nigerian jollof rice is available in traditional and burrito forms. The full jollof experience is all about seasoned rice that gets mixed up with tomatoes, peppers, mushrooms and onions, along with a fragrant mix of West African spices. Their traditional jollof meal comes with fried plantains on the side, but I’ve got my eyes on the burrito that puts those sweet and starchy lovelies inside a tortilla with all that flavorful rice and veggies. Gonna need to fast-track this one for sure.

Quote of the Week: “The belly rules the mind.” –Spanish Proverb

A New Wave of New Wave

Pale Dream puts their spin on the influential genre.

BY EMILEE ATKINSON eatkinson@cityweekly.net @emileelovesvinyl

The bands we love have a way of influencing us, even if we’re not totally conscious of it—especially for those who create music themselves. They might not realize a chord progression they think of comes from a favorite song of theirs, or a melody that’s been used in the past. For Pale Dream, they didn’t seek out specifically to make new wave-inspired music, but because the deep influence of the genre was so prevalent, that’s what ended up coming out. And that’s not a bad thing.

The SLC group didn’t always call the city home; they migrated from St. George after high school, where founding members Trey Hoskins and Mari Eriksen started jamming together and knew they had something special. With members Michael Hockman, Bray Buell and Nate Harris, Pale Dream was complete.

Coming to Salt Lake just made sense for the group. With little-to-no music scene down south, they knew they’d be able to make a bigger impact and have more opportunities. “It used to be a little bit better, but since we’ve graduated high school and stuff, venues have closed down, not as many bands down here. So we decided to move to Salt Lake, because there’s just a really great music scene up here,” Ericksen said.

Pale Dream began releasing singles in 2020, leading up to their EP Velvet in 2021. The band really came together for their first full album, Curse. The intriguing and addicting collection of songs was a group effort. While Hoskins was at the helm for a

MUSIC

lot of writing on the album, his bandmates helped bring it over the finish line.

“We began writing songs with the intent of putting out an album,” he said. “As I started writing more and more, it turned into this self-portrait, and then it turned into this collaborative self-portrait. It was kind of cool, and unique from our previous releases in that way, and it was still very much a collaborative effort, but just a little bit more personal, I felt like.”

Upon pressing play on Cursed, listeners are greeted with an ethereal and surreal-sounding introduction, featuring soft keys in the background while voices fade in and out. It sounds like falling into a dream, and as it fades, then as the first official track begins, you’re awakened by delicate reverb strings and a kicking drumbeat. Hoskins’ soft vocals come in with an echoey effect, almost lulling you back into this dreamlike state. Pale Dream is heavily inspired by the new wave sounds of the ’80s, as well as indie rock from the same and following decade. Their music transports to these sounds of yesteryear, but still sounds fresh enough that you feel like you’re embarking on a new experience.

Hoskins mentioned he started to get into this new wave and indie rock mode

after high school. Bands like The Smiths, New Order and Joy Division became a source of inspiration for the young musician. “I liked it because it kind of crossed the border between punk rock and indie, and it was the first kind of indie rock that there was,” he said.

“I feel like nowadays, there’s a lot of bands that have that kind of classic indie rock sound, but then I was like, ‘If you could use that and make it a little bit more new wave and punk-like but without screaming in the mic, and just kind of having fun with dreamy vocals, but harder guitar and guitar solos and old blues stuff,’ I just felt like it was a cool mix,” he said. These sounds naturally came out of the band, according to Hoskins. They never purposely set out to write a song that sounded similar to something from The Cure; their music just progressed in that direction.

Before Cursed was released in November 2022, Pale Dream delivered the single of the same name to give listeners a taste of what to expect from the collection. “I feel like ‘Curse’ is kind of the quintessential track of the album, and brings about the same emotions that the rest of the album does as well,” Hoskins said. “If the al-

bum means anything, it’s probably within ‘Curse’ that you’ll find it.”

The group set out to release this song as a single and dub the album with the same name, though. “I feel like I always figure out more about my songs or our songs after they’re done,” Hoskins shared. “I feel like when I’m writing and recording, there’s not a lot of forethought that goes into it. It’s almost like after they’re complete, I’m like, ‘Oh. This is what it means.’” Once “Curse” was written, they knew it was special, and wanted the rest of the album to have a similar feel.

Pale Dream took a bit of a break over the holidays, but they’re ready to hit the ground running for the rest of the year. They want to continue writing new material while pushing out their current catalog to new listeners. Speaking of which, Pale Dream gave us a perfect Valentine’s Day gift with their first new single of the year, “Heartbreak on Film,” which is streaming everywhere now.

The band hopes to play some kick-ass shows this year, so be sure to follow them on Instagram @pale.dream.ut for updates, as well as their website paledreammusic. com for scheduled events. CW

Pale Dream

RILEY OWNBY

THURSDAYS

FRIDAYS DJ FRESH(NESS)

SATURDAYS

POKER @ 2PM DJ DELMAGGIO

SHARK SUNDAYS POOL TOURNEY HOSTED BY JARED AND TANNER

MONDAYS REGGAE MONDAY WITH DJ NAPO

TUESDAYS

WEDNESDAYS KARAOKE

MUSIC PICK S

By Emilee Atkinson

Ran, Mark Dago, DJ intimiN8 @ DLC 2/16

Innovative and beloved rapper Mega Ran has been changing the game for years. Since getting started in the early aughts, he has spent years honing his skills and cutting his teeth as an emcee and producer performing in Philadelphia. Subsequently, Mega Ran has become a staple in the nerdcore genre, blending his love of music with pop-culture materials like video games and comic books. Adding to his extensive resume, the rapper is a former middle-school teacher, so adding education in his music is another niche the rapper fills. According to Mega Ran’s website bio, LA Weekly said that his “fanbase and niche audiences are growing at a rate not seen since Tech N9ne.” He offers something for everyone; fans of rap will enjoy his precise and intricate rapping style and music, while fans of pop culture and different fandoms can enjoy references to their favorite media. More recently, Mega Ran has been streaming on Twitch as a way to better connect with fans across the world. “I learn something literally every day, which is the best part of this time at home,” he said. “I’d already been meaning to get more involved with my Twitch and with streaming, and it gave me that time to do that,” he told CNN in July 2021. Catch Mega Ran with local openers City Weekly contributor Mark Dago and DJ intimiN8 on Thursday, Feb. 16 at 8 p.m. Tickets for the 21+ show are $12 and can be found at quartersslc.com. (Emilee Atkinson)

Mega

MUSIC PICK S

By Emilee Atkinson

Krooked Kings @ Kilby Court 2/16

Rightfully crowned local royalty, the Krooked Kings will play at Salt Lake City’s quintessential home base Kilby Court on Thursday, Feb 9. This gig follows a fresh batch of five single releases, starting with the last year’s “Landfall,” and ending ceremoniously with the Jan 2023 release of “Sick of Being Young,” with the ambitious inclusion of “Love Song,” (an auspicious cover of The Cure’s time-honored gothic tour de force) thrown profitably in the middle. The SLC five-piece specializes in stratified and quickwitted indie anthems. With the vast majority of their songs sitting below the four-minute mark, Krooked Kings’ reign may signify the return of alert, brisk, and endlessly catchy songs that both suit radio runtime and provide the crowd with energized, on-theirtoes live performances. While this description runs the risk of making their majestic music sound frivolous, the Krooked Kings ensure that their production of hits stays sophisticated and stone-cold. On top of pleasing and plucky refrains are rich lyrics, contrastingly coated in the melancholia of feelings swiftly fleeting and all-at-once forgotten, resulting in music that is blissfully breathless. The band will be joined by the LA-based Cryogeyser and fellow locals Kipper Snack, ensuring an evening full of all things ideally indie. Doors for the all-ages show open at 7 p.m., tickets are $12 and can be found at 24tix.com. Don’t snooze on getting yours; unsurprisingly, this show is projected to sell out. (Sophie Caligiuri)

WEDNESDAY, FEB. 8 WILL BAXTER FRIDAY, FEB. 10 MEANDER CAT

THURSDAY, FEB. 9 SLICE

Krooked Kings

CASSILYN ANDERSON

No Love Lost @ Metro Music Hall 2/19

Mic Masters Alliance and SEM present a mash-up of an event, No Love Lost. Part rap gladiatorial bout and part all-the-way-live hip hop festival, it features eight performing artists (with emphasis on Termanology earning top billing) along with four battlers facing off in two battles. Rap battles can contain sloppy jokes to intricately crafted verses, but when the battle scene is predictable, it becomes boring. You know exactly where the punchlines will land during each bar, where the flows will speed up, the couple lines where they’ll slow down for maximum effect. “After the first few shows, they caught on” Gabino Grhymes a.k.a. Nate Chacon (creator of the Mic Masters alliance) said. “It’s a very difficult setting to be in. When you see someone who has been there before, you can feel it.” Gabino is no stranger to battles or dropping new music; his latest single, “Back in my Bag,” came out in January. Even after several listens, there is still a long way to go with it. “Back in My Bag” precedes his new EP, scheduled for release on Feb 17. No Love Lost’s roster of rhyme-spitters should please all the heads. From the Wake Up Show tastemakers to the post- 8 Mile audience. We would recommend this event to anyone with a passing interest in rap or anyone just looking for something a bit different. Check these acts, hosted by Rhyme Time, at Metro Music Hall on Sunday, Feb 19. Doors open at 7 p.m. and the show starts at 8 p.m. Tickets for the 21+ show are $25. Booth Reservations are $50 and can be found at 24tix.com (Mark Dago)

Unsane, Swarmer @ Urban Lounge 2/20

The earliest incarnation of Unsane dates back to the late ‘80s in NYC; today, the trio are pioneers in the noise genre, and they’ve spent decades honing their sound and cultivating a massive cult following. Fans of hardcore punk and metal will enjoy Unsane’s sound, and 2023 is a great time to see them. They’ve spent time remastering their debut self-titled album from 1991 and the tour has been affectionately dubbed “The Early Cuts Tour.” “Unsane upped the ante on the paradigm for abrasive noise rock. With its implacable, corrosive feedback, noisy riffs, distorted vocals, thumping bass, and barely contained drum fury, this is a damaging—and quite damaged—record,” their Bandcamp page says about the album. “The Lower East Side trio’s inaugural release assaults the senses like the Swans or Foetus before them, but tempers that artscum priggishness with clear roots in punk and classic rock.” Joining the noise pioneers are SLC heavy band Swarmer. “Swarmer’s sound is low, heavy, and relentless with strong influence from members’ previous works,” they clarify on their Bandcamp page. Their 2021 release Brutalist features an image of the iconic Great Saltair in its heyday. The album itself has gained praise from many, citing this release as some of their best yet. “Difficult to choose a favorite song as there are so many standouts in musical and lyrical composition—‘Mediocre’ for the sheer kicking to the head; the lyrics of ‘Graveyard’ capture the essence of Salt Lake’s harsh and desolate beauty; ‘Stardust’ for the musical nuance and existential / metaphysical lyrics; ‘God/Damn’ for the amazing second half and poignant ending—the resonating bass strings!” said reviewer Master of Alchemy on Bandcamp. Come see these heavy acts on Monday, Feb 20 at 7 p.m. Tickets for the 21+ show are $15 and can be found at urbanloungeslc.com. (EA)

Fit For a King, Northlane, Alphawolf, Kingdom of Giants @ The Depot 2/22

“I want to raise self-awareness,” Fit For a King vocalist Ryan Kirby told HM Magazine last August. “It’s not just important to fight for ourselves, but we’re fighting for others. You can reach out for help even if you’re scared. I know I was. I hope we can all reflect on not only what we put ourselves through, but what we put others through.” The hardcore band’s latest work The Hell We Create is a deeply personal and emotional album, especially on the song “End (The Other Side).” “This song is about my wife’s neardeath experience after having a stroke, and how the experience not only showed me how unprepared I was to lose her, but also how unprepared I am to face death. I am fortunate to have not dealt with much death in my life, but I learned, in the end, that death comes for us all,” Kirby said. “It is a reflection of the events that happened throughout the pandemic. In short, my wife and I adopted children and had to homeschool them. She almost died from a stroke. The Hell We Create is by far the deepest and most personal record we’ve ever written.” Joining Fit For a King are fellow metalheads Northlane, Alphawolf and Kingdom of Giants. Head out to this heavy show on Wednesday, Feb 22 at 6 p.m. Tickets for the allages show are $44, and can be found at livenation. com. (EA)

CODY COWAN DANA

Unsane

Process Automation Developer (PAD-VM) in Midvale, UT.

Design, automate & maintain business processes & appls. Model automation using IBM Blueworks & dvlp banking appls. Telecommuting permitted. MS+2orBS followed by 5 yrs prog rltd exp. Send resumes to Zions Bancorporation at ZionsCareers@ zionsbancorp.com. Must reference job title & code in subject line.

Sr Applications Engineer (SAEYS) in Lindon, UT: Support design-in of our Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter App Specific Standard Products w/ customers. MS+1. Mail resumes to Semiconductor Components Industries, LLC: Mail Stop #C-100 A-3, 5005 E. McDowell Road, Phoenix, AZ 85008. Must ref job title & code.

BY ROB BREZSNY

ARIES (March 21-April 19)

Aries director Francis Ford Coppola was asked to name the year’s worst movie. The question didn’t interest him, he said. He listed his favorite films, then declared, “Movies are hard to make, so I’d say, all the other ones were fine!” Coppola’s comments remind me of author Dave Eggers’: “Do not dismiss a book until you have written one, and do not dismiss a movie until you have made one, and do not dismiss a person until you have met them.” In accordance with astrological omens, Aries, your assignment is to embody these perspectives. Refrain from judging efforts about which you have no personal knowledge. Be open-minded and generous.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20)

Artist Andy Warhol said, “Being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art. Making money is art, and working is art and good business is the best art.” More than any other sign, Tauruses embody this attitude with flair. When you are at your best, you’re not a greedy materialist who places a higher value on money than everything else. Instead, you approach the gathering of necessary resources, including money, as a fun art project that you perform with love and creativity. I invite you to ascend to an even higher octave of this talent.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20)

You are gliding into the Season of Maximum Volition, Autonomy and Liberty. Now is a favorable time to explore and expand the pleasures of personal sovereignty. You will be at the peak of your power to declare your independence from influences that hinder and limit you. To prepare, try two experiments: 1. Act as if free will is an illusion—it doesn’t exist, there’s no such thing—then visualize what your destiny would be like; 2. Act as if free will is real. Imagine that in the coming months, you can have more of it at your disposal than ever before. What will your destiny be like?

CANCER (June 21-July 22)

The ethereal, dreamy side of your nature must continually find ways to express itself beautifully and playfully. If you’re not always allowing your imagination to roam and romp around in Wonderland, your imagination may lapse into spinning out crabby delusions. Luckily, I don’t think you will have any problems attending to this necessary luxury in the coming weeks. From what I can tell, you will be highly motivated to generate fluidic fun by rambling through fantasy realms. Bonus! I suspect this will generate practical benefits.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22)

Don’t treat your allies or yourself with neglect and insensitivity. For the sake of your mental and physical health, do the exact opposite. To enhance your wellbeing, be almost ridiculously positive. Be vigorously nice and rigorously kind. Bestow blessings and dole out compliments, both to others and yourself. See the best and expect the best in both others and yourself.

VIRGO

(Aug.

23-Sept. 22)

Is there a bug in the sanctuary of love? A parasite or saboteur? If so, banish it. Is there a cranky monster grumbling in the basement or attic or closet? Feed that creature chunks of raw cookie dough imbued with a crushed-up valium pill. Do you have a stuffed animal or holy statue to whom you can spill your deep, dark, delicious secrets? If not, get one. Have you been spending quality time rumbling around in your fantasy world in quest of spectacular healings? If not, get busy. Those healings are ready for you to pluck them.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22)

There’s a magic operating in your vicinity these days. So while my counsel here might sound counterintuitive, I think it’s true. Here are affirmations to chant: 1. “I will attract and acquire what I want by acting as if I don’t

care if I get what I want,” 2. “I will become grounded and relaxed with the help of beautiful messes and rowdy fun,” 3. “My worries and fears will subside as I make fun of them and joke about them,” 4. “I will activate my deeper ambition by giving myself permission to be lazy.”

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21)

How many people would fight for their country? Below, I list the countries where my horoscopes are published and the percentage of their populations ready and willing to take up arms: 11% in Japan; Netherlands, 15%; Italy, 20%; France, 29%; Canada, 30%; U.S., 44%. I surmise that Japanese readers are most likely to welcome my advice here, which is threefold: 1. The coming months will be a good time to cultivate your love for your country’s land, people and culture, but not for your country’s government and armed forces; 2. Minimize your aggressiveness unless you invoke it to improve your life—in which case, pump it up and harness them; 3. Don’t get riled up about vague abstractions and fear-based fantasies. But do wield your constructive militancy in behalf of intimate, practical improvements.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21)

By the time she was 33, Sagittarian actor Jane Fonda was famous and popular. She had won many awards, including an Oscar. Then she became an outspoken opponent of America’s war in Vietnam. Some of her fans were outraged. Her success in films waned. Offers didn’t come easily. She later explained that while the industry had not “blacklisted” her, she had been “greylisted.” Despite the setback, she kept working—and never diluted her political activism. By the time she was in her 40s, her career and reputation had fully recovered. Today, at age 84, she is busy with creative projects. In accordance with astrological rhythms, I propose we make her your role model in the coming months. May she inspire you to be true to your principles even if some people disapprove. Be loyal to what you know is right.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19)

Charles V (1500–1558) had more than 20 titles, including Holy Roman Emperor, King of Spain, Archduke of Austria and Lord of the Netherlands. He was also a patron of the arts and architecture. Once, while visiting the renowned Italian painter Titian to have his portrait done, he did something no monarch had ever done. When Titian dropped his paintbrush on the floor, Charles humbly picked it up and gave it to him. I foresee a different but equally interesting switcheroo in your vicinity during the coming weeks. Maybe you will be aided by a big shot or get a blessing from someone you consider out of your league. Perhaps you will earn a status boost or will benefit from a shift in a hierarchy.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18)

Some people I respect regard the Bible as a great work of literature. I don’t share that view. Like psychologist Valerie Tarico, I believe the so-called good book is filled with “repetition, awkward constructions, inconsistent voice, weak character development, boring tangents, and passages where nobody can tell what the writer meant to convey.” I bring this to your attention, Aquarius, because I believe now is a good time to rebel against conventional wisdom, escape from experts’ opinions, and formulate your own unique perspectives about pretty much everything. Be like Valerie Tarico and me.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20)

I suspect that arrivederci, au revoir and sayōnara will overlap with birth cries and welcomes and initiations in the coming days. Are you beginning or ending? Leaving or arriving? Letting go or hanging on? Here’s what I think: You will be beginning and ending; leaving and arriving; letting go and hanging on. That could be confusing, but it could also be fun. The mix of emotions will be rich and soulful.

Software Engineer - sought by Snap Inc. in Lehi, UT. *Hybrid work permitted - Snap practices a “default together” approach & expects team members to work in the Lehi, UT office at least 80% of the time (average of 4 days/wk). Dsgn, dvlp & modify s/ware apps & sys. B.S. or for. eq. + 2 yrs exp; OR M.S. or for. eq. req. Email Resume: apply2snap@snap.com. Ref. Job Code #SWE-UT-0123-RM. EOE.

Data Scientist - sought by Snap Inc. in Lehi, UT. *Hybrid work permitted - Snap practices a “default together” approach & expects team members to work in the Lehi, UT office at least 80% of the time (average of 4 days/wk). Quantitative analysis, data mining & statistical modeling. Master’s or for. eq. + 2 yrs exp; OR Bach’s or for. eq. + 5 yrs exp req. Email Resume: apply2snap@snap.com. Ref. Job Code #DS-UT-0123-SS. EOE.

ACROSS

1. Latch (onto)

5. 1997 movie with the tagline “He Sits. He Stays. He Shoots. He Scores”

Help Is Here

Are you or a family member struggling with rent? There’s good news and bad news.

First, the good news: Help is available to SLC households through the Utah Rent Relief program. It can help cover past-due rents or prospective housing costs. To qualify, renters must be unemployed and show a risk of housing instability, such as an eviction notice or overdue payment. Household income can’t exceed 80% of the median income ($81,900) for a family of four. Call 211 or visit rentrelief.utah.gov.

57. “Let me see ...”

58. Delevingne of “Carnival Row” 59. Tools for filling in holes in the wall 63. “The Kite Runner” protagonist 64. Rubbernecker 65. Maintained

66. What might collect a lot of checks

67. Fictional writer of “The World According to Bensenhaver”

68. Jacob’s twin, in the Bible

DOWN

1. Thing to mind between the train and platform

2. JFK alternative

3. Where most hits wind up

4. Something never seen at night

5. Yearn (for)

6. Red state?

7. Aptly named novelist Charles

8. Floppy top

9. Some March Madness madness

10. Period

11. Athena turned her into a spider

12. Scratched, say

13. Checks for mistakes

14. Phrase on a mailing label

19. Santa ____ Valley (winegrowing region)

23. “Don’t ____ with me!”

24. Forensic analysts, briefly

25. Name on Woody’s shoe in “Toy Story”

26. Nitwit, to a Brit 27. Kind of joke 29. “The ____ Show” (best-selling album of 2002)

47. Classic

I’ve written before on the H.E.A.T. program, Utah’s version of the federal LIHEAP program. This program provides year-round energy and water bill assistance for eligible low-income households. You can apply online at jobs.utah.gov/housing/scso/seal/heat. html or phone 866-205-4357.

Operations Manager (Riverton, UT) Manage inventory, assets, customer pools, and assignment of drivers. Establish and implement departmental policies in conjunction with the board and staff members. Bachelor Degree or equivalent in Business Administration required. Must be proficient in the planning, development and achievement of administrative objectives. Mail resume to EB MULTI SERVICES, Attn: HR, 13619 South Annaberg Way, Riverton, UT, 84065

61. Clean

Last week’s answers

The state offers a weatherization assistance program that enables lowincome folk to improve energy efficiencies—like insulation, weather stripping and the like. When I owned my first home, it had very little attic insulation. I spent just a few hundred bucks to blow in the stuff and it cut my heat/AC bills in half instantly!

You can always call 211, the Human Services Directory, and they will direct you to the right agency for your needs. You can also call Dominion Energy Assistance or bill pay assistance through the Home Electric Lifeline Program (HELP), the Salvation Army Corps of SLC, Catholic Community Services of Utah or Jewish Family Service. The religious nonprofits do not require that you attend their church to receive assistance.

Complete the grid so that each row, column, diagonal and 3x3 square contain all of the numbers 1 to 9. No math is involved. The grid has numbers, but nothing has to add up to anything else. Solve the puzzle with reasoning and logic. Solving time is typically 10 to 30 minutes, depending on your skill and experience.

The bad news is the Utah Department of Workforce Services is halting a program that boosted food stamps and offered emergency help with rent and utility costs. Congress had doled out funds, but now that COVID-19 has slowed, the program is ending.

The Salt Lake Tribune reports that in March of this year “roughly 74,000 Utah households that had been getting an extra $175 to $200 a month ... will stop receiving that stipend.”

Sadly, there have been several cases locally (and nationally) where people’s SNAP cards were stolen or skimmed and their accounts drained to nothing. The government doesn’t reimburse SNAP clients for any losses, unlike when your bank account gets drained by an a—hole scammer. Your bank will reimburse you.

People in Massachusetts sued the state because it wouldn’t reimburse fraud victims. Utah hasn’t joined the suit, to my knowledge. n

Whether Single or Coupled. We’ve got an Apt. for that!

Awesome!

Jean Merritt of Philadelphia has a special knack for spreading goodwill. She writes letters. According to Philadelphia magazine, Merritt solicits mailing addresses and then responds with a handwritten (“in meticulous cursive”) letter on captivating stationery. Her missive to reporter Victor Fiorillo mentioned that she has an overabundance of writing papers and postcards. “I’ve been writing letters since I was a little girl, and never stopped,” Merritt said. Along with requested letters, she writes to people in nursing homes through Letters Against Isolation and to people in prisons. “My mother collected stationery, and I’m still using the stationery I found in her house when she died in 2011. ... I see stationery on clearance, and I can’t resist it.” Sadly, she said most people don’t write her back. But, she noted, “Doing this is also just really good for my brain.”

Inexplicable

During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when students in Harvey (Illinois) School District 152 were learning remotely, the district provided meals that families could pick up. According to WGN-TV, food service worker Vera Liddell, 66, allegedly helped herself to some of that food—to be specific, 11,000 cases of chicken wings. Liddell worked for the district for more than a decade. A business manager uncovered the plot during a routine audit, finding “individual invoices signed by Liddell for massive quantities of chicken wings, an item that was never served to students because they contain bones,” prosecutors said. Liddell would place the orders, then pick up the food in a district van. They didn’t reveal what Liddell did with the $1.5 million worth of wings. She was charged with theft.

■ An unnamed 27-year-old man was arrested on Jan. 27 in Seattle after a homeowner returned to her house to find him in her bathroom, filling the tub with water. KOMO-

TV reported that when police arrived, they discovered a smashed window and the burglar inside, “clothed but very wet, and the bathtub was full of water,” reports said. The intruder would not provide a motive for his strange break-in and was charged with residential burglary.

Awwwwww

The Rhode Island Department of Health played along with the Cumberland, Rhode Island, police department after it received a request from a little girl for DNA testing on a partially eaten cookie and some gnawed-on carrot sticks, the Associated Press reported. She was hoping for a conclusive match for Santa Claus, but alas, the department said it was unable to “definitively confirm or refute the presence of Santa” in her home. However, it did find DNA closely matching Rangifer tarandus, or reindeer, on the carrots.

Americans Abroad

American animal rights activist Alicia Day, 34, was arrested in Moscow, Russia, on Feb. 1, according to Reuters, after she paraded a calf through Red Square, shouting “Animals are not food!” In a Russian court, she was fined 20,000 rubles ($285) and sentenced to 13 days of “administrative arrest.” Although Day is in Russia on a tourist visa, she explained in court that she had a driver bring the calf to Red Square so she could “show it a beautiful place in our beautiful country.”

■ A 34-year-old California man was arrested in Florence, Italy, on Jan. 26 after he drove his rented Fiat onto the Ponte Vecchio, a stone bridge dating from 1345 that spans the Arno River and is now a pedestrian walkway and shopping destination. SF Gate reported that the unnamed driver told police he couldn’t find parking and didn’t realize he was on the historic bridge. He was fined about 500 euros.

Send your weird news items to WeirdNewsTips@amuniversal.