The French girl that climbed high in America

At first sight, the French girl that did well in America was Claudine Longet, who came all the way from France when she was just 19, and is today selling her ski home in Aspen, Colorado for $59.5 Million. 

The 5.4 acre property includes a rustic, 3,500 square feet, main house with three bedrooms and baths. There’s also a 1,400 square foot guest house which has one bedroom and bath plus a detached two-car garage hidden away from the main house. 

Claudine Georgette Longet was born on January 29, 1942 in Paris and was clever enough to marry Andy Williams, the famous American singer and television entertainer. They stayed together from 1961 until they divorced in the 1970s. Longet then moved to Aspen and met Vladimir “Spider” Sabich, a well-known ski racer, at a celebrity ski event, and the pair quickly became a celebrity couple in Aspen in those days. 

They were both known for living the high-life, partying, doing drugs, and other related activities. In 1973, Spider Sabich invited Longet and her three kids to move in with him at his Aspen estate, a big change for the bachelor who partied a lot and was a ladies man, which would soon cause problems between him and Claudine. 

On March 12, 1976, things turned deadly when Spider returned home from skiing and went to take a shower. Longet walked into the bathroom, pistol in hand, and shot him once in the stomach. She said it was an accident as she was showing the gun to Spider when it accidentally went off. Spider died of his gunshot wound on his way to the hospital. 

At the time this was big news and the prosecutor was seeking felony-reckless manslaughter, but it was reduced to a misdemeanor of criminally negligent homicide. Longet was given a fine of $250 and thirty days in county jail to be served “at a time of her choosing.” It took years for her to serve the thirty day sentence and she mostly did it on weekends. 

No one could believe how the French girl had gotten away with murdering the great ski champion. To top it all, she subsequently vacationed with her defense attorney, Ron Austin, who was married at the time. Finally Claudine and Ron married in 1985 and have lived in Aspen even since. Today they spend most of their time in Hawaii which is the reason why they’re selling the Aspen home.

Chat-GPT and Bing’s limitations

After everything we’ve heard so far about Artificial Intelligence (AI), we could think that it’s almost solving any problems already and that resolving hard dilemmas will be just a matter of dialing up AI programs like Bing or ChatGPT to get an all-encompassing answer.

While I use AI in an attempt to address my research needs, I used it four day ago to get a response for a rather tricky question. I formulated my demand very carefully and stated it as precisely and with as many details as I could muster. I ran it on both popular tools and received an answer that I thought was quite comprehensive, satisfactory (on the spur of the moment) and filled with what I thought was good common sense. 

I must say that ChatGPT’s answer was a bit better than Bing’s, and I left it at that. In the ensuing days, I reconsidered the answer, turned it around and around in my mind and a couple of days later, realized the existence of a much better and satisfactory solution to my question that both AI platforms weren’t able to seize. 

In retrospect they could barely consolidate the obvious answer to the sum of the parameters that were fed to them, and saw them from a static viewpoint. Changing that viewpoint, a proven creative technique, significantly improved and turned the answer on its head, something both AI engines were woefully incapable to perform. 

Will AI current abilities evolve in the future? Hopefully, with time, technologies have always improved by leaps and bounds, but for the moment, good old creativity, mental hints, inspiration, intuition and other mysterious forces are still beating AI!

Elon Trump?

Even though, at times, Elon Musk has expressed opposition to many actions imposed by former President Donald Trump, like saying prior to the 2016 presidential election, he didn’t believe Trump was the “right guy” to lead the US and after Trump won the presidency, Musk publicly opposed a few of the former president’s decisions. 

Yet, I suspect that deep inside, he’s been influenced by him and seems to strive for the same kind of limelight Trump is after. This helps understand why Musk has been in the news for his controversial statements and actions. 

He’s been accused of violating the “social contract with employees, investors, suppliers, regulators, and other parts of his ecosystem”. In February 2023, he was testifying at his trial for tweeting in 2018 that he had secured funding to take the electric car company Tesla private. 

He suggested that people shouldn’t believe everything that he writes on the social network he now owns. Even though the jury ultimately did punish Musk for the tweet, questions about his business style and practices remain.

This being said, his success with SpaceX and Tesla are hard to ignore. I think that Tesla is a wonderful automobile, but that its owner, just like Trump, has turned into a terrible human being.

Got a new car!

We’re on our morning walk and suddenly come this brand new Ford Bronco driven by a fairly young man (from my vantage point) who exclaims: “Got a brand new car!” I answer “Looks cool! 

After running a quick memory scan I conclude that it’s one of our neighbors taking a joyride in his new SUV and proclaiming his delight to whoever wants to hear it. We find this sweet, refreshing and so spontaneous. 

I didn’t know you could do this as an adult. I used to hear that from other kids, mostly buddies of mine, when they got a brand new bike or spanking new pair of skis and having that urge to share in their delight. I’m glad to see that his guy in his late 40s or early 50s still has such a young frame of mind. 

Next time I get a new set of wheels, I’ll make a point to publicize it in the same, loud and noticeable manner!

Deer Valley’s explosive growth is coming...

I wasn’t completely surprised when I heard that Deer Valley Resort would eventually take over the management of the new ski terrain associated with the Mayflower Resort adjacent to it and currently under construction. 

The reality of imagining 3,700 acres of skiing terrain added to Deer Valley’s 2,026 acres making the whole one of the four largest ski resorts in the US with 5,726 acres, when completed in 2025/26 is massive and evokes a monstrous skier’s gathering place. 

This compares to Whistler’s 8,171 acres, Park City 7,300, Big Sky 5,800 and Vail 5,317 acres. Based on this, as a ski town, Park City could then claim a total of 13,000 acres of skiable terrain, not counting its Olympic Park and Woodward. 

The scary reality associated with this big number will add enormous crowds to the once quiet Deer Valley slopes when a new village with over 800 hotel rooms and nearly 1,700 residential units, and more nearby visitors will start pumping traffic into slopes that are not situated the most ideally when it comes to its south-east sun exposure and a relatively low 6,530 feet base altitude that all will rely heavily on man-made snow coverage. 

Still no snowboarding allowed on the huge mountain. One good news though, is that with a 2,800 vertical drop in one scoop, Deer Valley might be able to host a FIS downhill race... 

Time will tell, but I don’t think

 

One more Park City Anniversary

Dates that mark one’s life should be remembered faithfully, if not celebrated, and that’s how I never cease to see our arrival in Park City 38 years ago today as such a milestone.

It also means that, as of today, I have spent more than half of my life in one place, with the same landline phone number for all these years. 

Even though it was my intention back then, I wouldn’t have been so sure about it when I set foot in what was a small Utah town. Since that moment, I went from a thirty-something young man to a seasoned septuagenarian today. 

Our small town has grown tremendously in the meantime, both in size and notoriety, and what’s most important, is that my wife and I are happy to still call it home and have no plan to move out of our little paradise.

Wasting my time watching the GOP debate

On Wednesday night we watched 8 candidates debating a coward that choose not to participate. We also watched 7 out 8 participants showing off their own cowardice, Trump’s style.

A big waste of time, 2 hours spent in a sea of mediocrity, lack of substance, for most of what was said, and sheer delusion number by Vivek Ramaswamy. 

While Nikki Haley, Chris Christie, Mike Pence (in that order, in my opinion) were perhaps not quite as bad as the rest, they painted a dismal picture of the Republican Party. 

Frankly, none of them deserves to become president of the US and all should pack up and go home just now, instead of wasting our country’s time.

Aging seen in terms of ramps and steps…

Aging can vary greatly from person to person in terms of how well and how comfortably they age, with some experiencing less pain and greater ease. I am not referring to physical appearance, but rather overall well-being. 

As a close friend of mine often says, "The key to a good life is to maintain perfect health for as long as possible until the end." 

However, achieving this is easier said than done. Regardless of our desires for optimal mental and physical health, we inevitably face a transition in the form of gradual declines, represented by steady, inclined downhill ramps (A) and a series of steps (B) with varying heights, and often a combination of both (C). 

While I may enjoy skiing down a ramp, I have no intention of following a downward slope for the rest of my life as it would be extremely discomforting. Steps, on the other hand, are preferable as they allow us to maintain whatever comfort we currently have for an extended period of time. However, this concept does not excite me greatly either. 

Ultimately, taking one big step (D) at the end may be an ideal scenario for the individual, but not necessarily for those around them. Therefore, it seems to me that the first priority should be to prepare ourselves for a future path that aligns with our current preferences. 

Personally, I find the idea of a big step to still be the most appealing option...

Overcoming the drudgery of routine chores

Whether it’s doing the dishes, cleaning around the house or tidying up a workplace, most of us hate the drudgery of repetitive and, let’s call them what they are, unattractive tasks. 

The way I deal with them it is by mixing a concept of continuous improvement, task optimization and competitiveness. I turn natural resistance into an appealing challenge that without a fail perks-up my interest. 

If we look at improving the way we execute any kind of work, it’s extremely rare that we can’t find a way, or ways, to do things faster, better (this bring the aspect of quality and its immense array of different measurements), more efficiently (less physical efforts required, less energy expended), longer lasting, more pleasant (not as noisy, dirty, etc.) and less dangerous. 

Optimizing tasks has to do with basic work organization and methods, like getting the general area where the work is performed ready along with all the tools that will be required, avoiding repetitions or avoidable round-trips to get things whenever possible, overlapping tasks when this is can be a good option, blend time-, cost-, energy- or effort- saving measures, as much as possible, keeping in mind both end-quality and durability as high as possible. 

Finally, bringing competitiveness will help the two areas by constantly trying to beat previous records, emulating other high performers and brain-storming on how to reach higher, going faster and being more powerful in the overall execution of that once dreaded task! 

In this discussion, I covered how I address the unpleasant work and the chores that befall me, but I could expand the proposed remedies by looking at the entire array of work that is part of our two people household aimed at making the team more cross-trained as well as stronger, uncovering a rich area for more great ideas and attractive outcomes. From there, it’s only a step away from small groups and large teams. 

A great subject for an upcoming blog!

Putin and Russia’s lunar mishap

Knowing Vladimir Putin, I don’t think he felt particularly happy when his Luna-25 spacecraft collided with the surface of the moon after communication was interrupted according to state media TASS, citing Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos. 

The spacecraft was meant to be Russia’s first lunar landing mission in 47 years. According to preliminary calculations, Luna-25 “switched to an off-design orbit”before the collision. 

A Russian scientist who worked on Putin's disastrous moon mission has been rushed to hospital after he demanded"no cover ups". What’s interesting (and not surprising)is that the top guy at the space agency, Mikhail Marov suffered a"sharp deterioration" in his health after the probe smashed into the lunar surface. That must have been quite a shock for him because he had declared that this particular mission was his “lifework”. 

As Russia is fast becoming incompetent at all levels, I told Putin he got distracted by Ukraine so much that Russia can’t do anything right anymore, but he didn’t answer me (I’ll probably get poisoned for that!) and only muttered that it was Zelensky’s fault. 

Personally,I think that like he did with his Ukraine war efforts by hiring the Wagner Group, Putin should now subcontract his space program to Elon Musk who, after having cleaned up Twitter and turned it into X, has some time open to screw up something new. 

At least that’s my idea,especially after Dmitry Rogozin, the leader of Russia’s space program, has invited Musk to come to Kazakhstan for the launch of the Soyuz MS-19 spacecraft carrying three Russians to the International Space Station. 

They could share ideas and perhaps write a fat check to Trump’s legal defense fund. Just a thought…

Moving, thirty-eight years ago!

On August 21, 1985 a large moving truck left our home in Chappaqua with all of our belongings, headed for Park City, Utah. This would be our sole, official move in our lifetime with all the trappings familiar to so many American households.

At the same time my wife and our two kids were boarding our small passenger car, kind of ready for a long trip. Just before leaving, we had an early pasta dinner at our neighbors, the Chan-Noris family, and I remember that our son Thomas vomited his meal on the entry ramp to I-80 in the Bronx, starting the long journey on a rather alarming note! 

We had entrusted my wife’s small station wagon to perfect strangers willing to drive it for over 2,000 miles as it was quite customary to do in those days. The drivers paid one of the so-called drive-away companies a $100 deposit, got a full tank of gas and received directions to the distant destination. Hopefully, a week or so later, upon reaching destination, they would hand over the car keys to us and collect their deposit back. 

My wife was really sad to leave our beloved home nestled in the trees of Westchester County, not sure if Park City would be as cool as I made it appear. Fortunately, in the end, she ended up loving her new place so much that she says today that she’ll never, ever leave it!

Making a living predicting the future?

I’ve always been highly skeptical of people pretending to read into someone else’s future and yet, must admit that at some point in my life, I fell victim to one of these ultra-sharp tongues and that it cost me something that will always be hard to quantify in terms of happiness. 

This has led me to believe that these gifted individuals know how to weave their way into telling people things they want to hear or,conversely, things they abhor. For that they must use an array of techniques that are transparent to people seeking a reading into their future. 

Obviously, I see these tricks as pseudoscience devoid of scientific basis. 

One approach consists of making vague statements and generalizations that can apply to a wide range of people. The fortune-teller relies on the person's reactions and feedback to dig deeper on the way to making more specific predictions. 

Then there is this side in which the receivers are given high accuracy ratings to descriptions of their personality that supposedly are tailored specifically to them, yet which are in fact vague and general enough to apply to a wide range of people, it’s also know under the name of “Forer effect”.

Invariably, people tend to remember well and focus on predictions that come true while ignoring or forgetting those that do not. As fortune-tellers make along list of predictions, the individual's selective memory reinforces the perception of accuracy. 

Psychological manipulation is also used to influence a person's beliefs and emotions. This can include building trust, using persuasive language, and exploiting vulnerabilities to give more credibility to the predictions. 

Finally,it’s not uncommon for fortune tellers to gather information about individuals before a reading through various means, like social media, public records, or indirect conversations. This allows them to more accurately tailor their predictions based on all the information they have garnered in that manner. 

What’s your opinion ? Do you believe like me that this is a scam, or on the contrary that all of this is the result of mystical or quasi-religious qualities?

Discovering as I meditate…

Like a few good habits of mine, daily meditation is one that I wouldn’t miss for anything anymore! 

While for a long time, the benefits of that practice seemed murky to me, or at the very best, felt too general, intangible and not really measurable, after a couple of years, just like peeling an onion, I have stumbled on one of the multiple layers the practice seemed to yield, and gotten into what I would define as the zone of “Cosmic Energy”.

Am I certain that what I define as such is the real thing? I don’t, but it darn feels like it to me! I can now reach that level quite easily and enjoy being there a lot, to the point that I always look forward to my daily’s session. 

I am now getting true pleasure from it and I see it as an opportunity to get my fill of energy into my entire mind and body in the process. Anyway, that’s what I perceive it does for me. That feeling that used to be much harder to access, is now a lot easier to slide into. 

In fact, like for anything else, the more relaxed I wiggle my way into it, the better it works! Just continued attention keeps me at that level until satiety, then I’m generally done. The 45 minutes I set aside for my daily meditation are generally gone by then. 

Good progress, good feeling, I only have to keep up with the good work!

The fence is still holding!

I’m writing this about a month after I erected the most formidable anti-deer fence the free world has ever seen and as I am opening an envelope received today from the Mexican government with a $90.62 check inside to pay for material. 

The Mexican administration wasn’t impressed with my workmanship and refused to pay my labor, which really sucks! 

However and in spite of that negative view, I have the immense pleasure to report that my construction held up just fine. That was in spite of my fears and a misplaced distrust in my engineering abilities I had expressed at the time.

Through a combination of fearing the terrifying pair of red eyes blinking in the darkness, and the suspicious softness felt by the animal’s snout as it approached the barrier, not a single deer dared to push into the super lightweight fence and trample my veggies! 

Once more, this goes to prove that acting very softly and extremely stealthy are always the very best defenses!

Is America irremediably rotten to the core?

A recent poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, conducted before Monday’s charges against Trump were made in the Georgia case, shows that about half of Americans — 53% — approve of the Justice Department indicting Trump over his efforts to remain in office after losing the 2020 election.

Not surprisingly, the poll finds 85% of Democrats approving of the criminal charges brought August 2 by Special Counsel Jack Smith, compared with 47% of independents and just 16% of Republicans. Only 3 in 10 Americans disapproved of the legal action against the former president, including about two-thirds of Republicans. 

In spite of Trump lies, illicit actions and probably repeated crimes, only just over half think that his alleged attempt to interfere in the Georgia’s 2020 vote count was illegal. This clearly suggests that the rest have no problem with that and must experience a serious breakdown of their moral compass, if they ever had one. 

What’s also remarkable is that the religious authorities, usually guardians of the Nation’s morality, have remained silent on the matter. God doesn’t seem to care about Donald Trump, even if he’s sponsored by Satan! 

In fact, Trump has legalized lies, horrible behavior and crime and it seems to me that it has been welcome with a sight of relief by an impressive number of people (around 40 to 45% of American), hypocrite enough to harbor these thoughts, but who couldn’t act on them overtly until Trump, by his continued actions, made them appear totally legitimate and acceptable. 

Should we deport these imbeciles to Antarctica?

This week’s only good news

Between Trump’s criminal activities and his multiple indictments, the Maui fires and the rest of the world's problems, our deluge (of bad) daily news was somewhat enlightened by a Montana Judge siding with young activists in a first-of-its-kind climate change trial. 

The District Court Judge Kathy Seeley, found that the policy Montana uses in evaluating requests for fossil fuel permits is unconstitutional because it does not allow the state agencies to evaluate the effects of greenhouse gas emissions. It marks the first time a US court has ruled against a government for violating a constitutional right based on climate change, said Harvard Law School Professor Richard Lazarus.

In pure Greta Thunberg’s juvenile spirit, the plaintiffs were between the ages of 5 to 22. Claire Vlases was 17 years old when she became a plaintiff in the case. Now 20 and working as a ski instructor, she said climate change hangs over every aspect of her life. 

The spokesperson for Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen, decried the ruling as “absurd” and said the office planned to appeal. She criticized Seeley for allowing the plaintiffs to put on what Flower called a “taxpayer-funded publicity stunt.” To place the issue into context, we’re talking about a state, not a federal court, and the ruling is based on a state, and not the US Constitution, but it sounds like a major win for the climate plaintiffs. 

Only a few states, like Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and New York, have constitutions with similar environmental protections, so stay tuned for more similar actions. Should the ruling stay after the State Supreme Court’s appeal, it will be up to the Montana Legislature to determine how to bring the state’s policies into compliance. This promises to take time as Montana is a fossil fuel-friendly state where Republicans dominate the legislature and will surely drag their feet...

How’s my command of Savoy’s dialect?

Le Patois Savoyard (Savoy dialect) is the name given to the dialects of the Franco-Provençal language spoken in the French province Savoy where I come from. It was the most widely spoken Franco-Provençal variant in France, with a number of speakers still estimated at 35,000 people in 1988. 

In 2001 that number dwindled to only 2% of Savoyards and God knows if there are a handful of folks alive still speaking that dialect. The reason I’m talking dialect is that I suddenly remembered a local joke (not very nice about some of the inhabitants of a nearby village) and it put me back into the patois groove.

When I was growing up, my parents were speaking patois savoyard between them, but they were addressing their three kids in French, except when they were angry and loosing their cool. However, when my parents were small, they were spoken to in Patois and only the family dog was addressed in French! When they started school, we’re talking about the early 1900s, French was a foreign language they had to learn from scratch; yeah, full immersion… 

Since I’ve been immersed into it since I was a baby, I can perfectly and totally understand that dialect, but am just able to say a few words and sentences quite awkwardly and with a strong French accent (huge difference between understanding and speaking!) I don’t master its grammar well, my vocabulary is lacking and I know only a few idiomatic expressions. 

Nowadays, as this mode of communication is about to go extinct, a few enthusiast are trying to keep it alive, because it kinds of sound cool, but it must be extremely hard and I can imagine how “butchered” it can get during the lives get together, but – again - I might be totally wrong.

Citroën and Tesla…

It’s hard for me not to put together these two car brands and for similar reasons. First, I see revolutionary designs in both the Tesla model S introduced in 2012 and the Citroën DS-19 launched in 1955. While Citroën’s model might have been the most innovative car for the 20th century, Tesla ushered in the 21st century by also upsetting the automotive rules through innovation. 

In 1955, the DS-19 offered ground breaking aerodynamic design in an effort to reduce drag and improve fuel efficiency. Its hydraulic suspension, called “hydro or oleo pneumatic”, provided a smooth and comfortable ride, as well as automatic self-leveling capabilities. 

The car also featured power steering and power brakes to make driving more effortless and safer. There was also more advanced technology inside that car, like a semi-automatic (“Citromatic”) transmission, disc brakes, and later on, swiveling headlights that improved visibility into corners. 

Finally, there were more innovations like a fiberglass roof, one-spoke steering wheel and safety features such as a collapsible steering column, a padded dashboard, and engineered crumple zones to prioritize passenger protection.

As for the 2012 Tesla model S, the internal combustion engine was gone and replaced by an electric motor that offered practical long-range capabilities as well as an impressive performance only found in true sport cars. 

The package was rounded up with the firm’s supercharger network that provided free access to high-speed charging infrastructure, addressing range anxiety that, from the get go, was a major perceived downside with electric vehicles. 

Then, features like autopilot and the perspective of self-driving capabilities. The model S Autopilot could control the vehicle's steering, acceleration, and braking under certain conditions. Another total innovation were Tesla’s over-the-air updates, pushing software modifications directly to the car's systems in order to enable continuous improvements, add new features and enhance performance over time. 

Finally, the car’s interior and infotainment were as minimalist as they were futuristic, with a large touchscreen infotainment system consolidating controls, including vocal commands, and displaying vehicle information.

Playing medical detective

Finding what ails someone is sometimes very difficult and requires time, patience, imagination, creativity and, best of all, extra help. 

This is the story of a couple we know, Paul and Ginette that precisely found themselves in that kind of situation. Both are in their 70s. Back in 2013, Ginette passed out once while hosting some friends for dinner and shortly thereafter at the movies. Both Paul and her put these two incidents on the count of low blood pressure and that was the end of it. 

Fast-forward to the summer of 2022. Early morning, as she woke up and went to the bathroom, Ginette passed out and fell on her bedroom floor. Luckily, she didn’t hurt herself, but experienced severe and lasting discomfort in her stomach along with terrible nausea. She stayed in bed, drained of energy, till day’s end. The following morning she felt and acted in perfect shape, could exercise as hard and as much as she regularly did. 

This incident would repeat itself eight more times in a one year period, with each time the same symptoms, discomfort and recovery. The couple seek medical advice from their family doctor who, during that period, ordered a sleep study, both a colonoscopy and an endoscopy, a brain MRI and an EKG with stress-test. All this testing would lead to nothing concrete and reassuring. 

In the meantime, Alice, the couple’s daughter searched relentlessly for solutions and first was able to match her mom’s symptoms with an extremely rare condition called “sleep syncope”. Local health professionals had never heard of such a thing. Keeping on digging deeper, Alice found that help would most likely come from a Cardiac Electrophysiologist, working on heart rhythms. 

Ginette sent a message to a bunch of them working nearby and asked “Is sleep syncope a condition you have treated in the past, or are somehow experienced with? If so, are you interested in helping me?” Out of half a dozen doctors contacted, only one responded positively saying that while he had never encountered that condition, he was motivated to help her.

After consulting with Ginette, he told her that absent a heart problem, she would have to be seen by a neurologist. However, he would monitor her heart for one month to follow its behavior. She was outfitted with a mobile cardiac telemetry unit, a monitoring method that uses a small portable device to monitor a patient's cardiac activity, recording in real time her heartbeat as she lives her normal life, working, running errands, exercising, and sleeping. 

On August 8, Ginette experienced her 9th and last “incident”. As Paul recalled, “It was scary, I thought she was having a stroke!” He registered the event on Ginette’s monitor and shortly they were summoned to rush to the hospital, where they learned that Ginette’s heart had stopped beating for a full 18 seconds (keep in mind that cardiac arrest can be fatal if it lasts more than 8 minutes without CPR, while brain damage can happen after just 5 minutes). 

The cardiologist ordered her to receive a pacemaker that was implanted in the afternoon and she was home the same night. She is now doing great and that terrible anguish of not knowing what ailed her is now lifted. 

So, the moral of the story is while it’s sometimes very difficult to reach a clear diagnosis, one has to remain extremely patient and keep searching, if possible recruit a motivated family member or friend to help along, and leave no stone unturned until a solution is found. 

Something to always keep in mind.

Is Trump today’s Al Capone?

Indeed, Donald Trump is a strange, if not repulsive character. He’s probably unlike any other political figure in the nation’s history. He shocked all of us and the political establishment when he became the first person without government or military experience and an ocean of negativity, ever to be elected president of the United States in 2016. 

His four-year tenure in the White House brought anger, dissatisfaction, division, incivility and uprising over the entire nation without adding one single positive element. So the question is, who made that man the way we see him now? 

His own dad and his business attorney Roy Cohn were both mean and unscrupulous people who taught Trump the worst “ropes” in the way he ought to do business. 

The dad, Fred Trump, was an early fan of Norman Vincent Peale, the famed New York City pastor and author of the mega-bestselling book, “The Power of Positive Thinking” and his simplistic views seduced both father and son making them believe that if you stick to any kind of belief it will and should absolutely come true.

Finally, in doing business in industries with strong mafia ties, like development, casinos, and real estate, a universe particularly infested with and influenced by organized crime he became a full member of this segment of society. 

What made Trump even more notable is that he sometimes appeared to do more business with the mafia than was strictly necessary and it trickled down to Donald Trump general management style, modus operandi and overall culture.

Promise to Biden

On Wednesday, President Biden came to Utah and made a swing to Park City, to raise some money for his upcoming re-election. Even though our State is Red-Mormon-Republican, Park City is the Hong-Kong of Utah with a majority of Progressive and Democrat voters. 

More than 100 people attended the event that was hosted by Nancy and Mark Gilbert former US Ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa, and John Cumming from Powdr Corp., that runs ski resorts in North America, and used to be the previous owner of Park City Mountain, one of our local ski resorts. Tickets for the event started at $3,300 and ran to up to $100,000 depending on the kind of access one wanted with the President. I believe several millions of dollars were collected!

Since I wasn’t among these generous donors and Biden and his motorcade didn’t stop at my house, as I had hoped, he simply called me on his way back to Washington: 

Biden: “Hello, my friend, I missed you at the donors’ meeting today!” 

Me: “Well, I had a bad headache, Joe and besides, I’m getting to be too old for these events!” 

Biden: “Come on, you’re so much younger than me, you can do it!” 

Me: “That’s also part of the problem, Joe, I think you’re much too old for the job…” 

Biden: “That’s what some mean-spirited folks say, but age is just a number and wait til I get my second-wind” 

Me: “How can you still hope for that second-wind Joe?” 

Biden: “Just wait and see, when I’m reelected, we’ll be rocking, and you won’t even believe it!” 

Me: “Okay, I’ll vote for you if you say so, but I promise, this is the last time!”

French healers’ secrets

There are in France, six thousands men and women who are endowed with some kinds of healing gift that can relieves burns or all kind of other pains. They are known as magnetizers, healers, bone-setters or fire-cutters. The technique for stopping the effects of burns is generally based on a Catholic or Protestant secret prayers or formulas or prayers that have to be repeated with a definite intention. 

Multiple pathologies are supposed to be cured that way, such as warts, muscle strain, sciatic nerve, migraine, eczema, psoriasis, zooster, earache, angina, stress, hemorrhoids, hemorrhages and burns: there is even a free app with direct access to the list of “Secret Healers” in France and nearby Switzerland. I’ve been told that some cancer treatment center use them for alleviating burns on patient undergoing radiation treatments. 

These folks, sometimes known as fire helmsmen, say they have a gift that was inherited or developed. This applies to healing burns and removing the resulting pain. The sessions can be conducting with visiting with the healer or just placing a phone call. These people are quite happy with plying their trade that often gives them a symbolic capital in therapy they enjoy a lot. Add to that, the fact that these are people are sincerely convinced of their ability or of their gift as the enjoy the act of healing for the good of others. 

We’re generally talking about first degree and mild second degree burns that are particularly painful, yet often benign. Those more seriously burned are generally picked up by an ambulance and taken tot the emergency room. Thus, it more people who have mild first-second degree burns who call the healer. It’s also true that for such burns, pain subsides after three-quarters of an hour, with or without healer’s intervention. As far as long-term traces or scars are concerned, people will generally acknowledge: “Yes, I have no more traces of the burned area, so it proves that it works”, but this is not quite correct as first degree and mild second degree burns leave no traces. 

Now, I have my doubts that healers are just able to alleviate burn suffering through only a special prayer. Some studies may suggest that prayer might increase anyone’s ability to resist temptation and increase self-control, but that’s about it. The effectiveness of prayer has been studied since at least 1872, generally through experiments, to determine whether prayer or intercessory prayer has a measurable effect on the health of the person for whom prayer is offered, but this has not led to any discovery of evidence crediting such special powers from praying. 

Studies have made with Burn Centers that have admitted patients suffering traumatic events and are in a deep state of stress, anguish and pain. In these extreme conditions, it is not uncommon for patients and their family to seek assistance outside the boundaries of Western medical care. Compared to the stressful and highly technical ICU context, a form of care given over the phone to a population who has lived immersed in these beliefs is not an obstacle, but contributes to stress reduction. 

This preliminary observation opens the door to future medical investigations regarding the potential and overall use of similar phenomena and experience worldwide. This said, the enthusiasm and popular support enjoyed by these healers is a phenomenon unknown in the United States. Why is it this way ? This could probably be the subject of a future blog… 

To conclude, I might be tempted to lean towards the ability of some healers to channel cosmic or natural forces, not just prayer or formulas, in the quest for helping people, but again, who can convincingly demonstrate this?

Will there ever be something new at Sundance?

Last Monday, we drove to Sundance ski resort, which for us is at least a yearly event.

We don’t ski there, but we enjoy its stunning landscape as well as its rustic and minimalist atmosphere, even though its path and philosophy seem to us to be very limiting and running out of options. 

The old country store could remain rustic and be even more charming if its merchandising, displays and the product offered could evolve with time. 

After a long while, the place feels stuffy and old and one wonders why the new owners don’t feel it and don’t try to do something about it without damaging the brand’s direction. 

Hard to remain the same in a fast changing world, I guess!

Don’t eat pink snow either!

Saturday, on the spur of the moment, we decided to go hiking the ridge-lines that overlook Park City. 

Shortly after we started we caught up with a couple from Minnesota that was visiting the area and exchanged a few words. Soon, they asked if they could tag along with us and we now were four hikers. 

When we passed the top of Corvair Couloir in the Deer Valley area, I noticed that there was still a surviving small patch of snow on the rim of what looks like a funnel leading into the narrow passage. 

Then, as we approached Anchor Trees, there was still a large area of snow, but this one had pinkish hues to it. That’s when I remembered that snow algae blooms penetrate the snow-pack and color it that way; it’s also called “watermelon snow”. Despite the color, though, it’s actually a green algae species. The most common genus is chlamydomonas nivalis.

Apparently, when there’s enough water content in the snow, a life cycle change is induced for this algae that blooms and turns pink. The blooms can be bright magenta, but often just have a pinkish tint. The brighter the color, the denser the algae blooms. 

 

Even more than dirt stuck in snowfields, this pink-hued algae causes the snow to melt sooner, which is not what we want in our desert climate, as this causes a higher percentage of water to be lost to upstream areas, reducing runoff efficiency. 

 

However, if this unusual color might look good to some, I don’t recommend that you eat it when you’re thirsty. Stick to the water inside your bottle… 

 

Another case in point, that we can’t have everything we want: Ephemeral beauty and long-lasting reserves of water!

Strolling the Park City Art Festival

Except for the first two summers of the pandemic, we missed very few Art Festivals, if any. It’s almost a rite of summer and this year wasn’t exception. 

So last Friday evening we strolled into Old Town and can now declare that “The more things change, the more they stay the same…” 

Lots of paintings, etching, photographs and the usual sculptures that require more wall space and sometimes huge ones that we sure don’t have. We didn’t see anything so cool and affordably priced that we couldn’t resist buying.

Sure, I loved these steel animals that bob their heavy heads into a breeze, but the $14,000 price tag for a small moose that I’d love to see in our backyard made me quickly dismiss the thought of ever owning it. 

So we went up and down our beloved Main Street, Park City, stopped for a beer to take a short break and with our heads overfilled with images, and and sounds we returned home for dinner. See you next year!

France’s changing religious landscape

If you happen to watch the Tour de France, it’s hard not to notice the huge number of Catholic churches along the way, which might suggest that France, after all, is God’s country. The reality couldn’t be more different! 

We recently watched a round table organized by French’s daily, “Le Figaro”, that was quite surprising by the numbers that were cited by the participants. As of 2029, the majority of the French population (51%) claimed to have no religion. 

This flight from religion has been increasing in France during the last decade and it involves 58% of the native population, 19% of immigrants that arrived when they were over age 16 and 26% of immigrant offspring. 

Soon, Muslims may overtake Catholicism in France, with only 29% of the population claiming to be of Catholic faith (a steep downtrend) while 10% say they’re Muslims, a growing number that makes them a strong number two. Finally, 9% of the rest of believers are other Christians or miscellaneous religions. 

As far as religious practice goes, only 8% of declared Catholics regularly go to Church (except to get baptized and buried, which hovers around 95%). This compares to just over 20% of other Christians, Muslims and Buddhists, and 34% of Jews. 

Long term, Islam seems the most robust of all religions as 91% of people brought up as Muslims follow their parent’s religion. Same thing for the Jews were 84% stayed in their belief system, while it’s only 69% for non-Catholic Christians and a low 67% for Catholics. 

All things being equal, growing up in a religious family is key to maintaining the attachment to its faith. What wasn’t covered and seemingly less understood in that debate was the crucial role that education plays in keeping people attached to their religion. 

A low education, thus a lower socioeconomic level, promotes a stronger attachment to religion and greater gullibility, a key ingredient in any spiritual faith…

Life after death and inventory control

My mom, who was a devout catholic was telling me that her greatest doubt with her faith had to do with the promise of eternal life and the reason behind keeping all of these many saved and damned soul into a form of “Eternal Storage”. 

She could not comprehend the practical reason for “moving inventory” of living people into some eternal warehouse, where no one would be productive at all, and didn’t see got point for that. Further, she was concerned that after a while there would be such a huge number of souls warehoused in hell or in paradise that it would overwhelm the space of available and the necessary accounting system. 

Sure, she was born long before computers even existed and while she passed at the same time the iPhone was launched, she had not seen the wonders and pitfalls of modern technology, so she was just applying her common sense to a prospect dangled in front of the faithful. 

She didn’t quite understand or appreciate the transactional promise of the Catholic Church and many other religions for that matter that said “I you behave well, if you build this cathedral, if you pay indulgences and are current with your tithing, you’ll get that reward in return guaranteed for eternity.” 

To her, there was a disconnect between the word of Christ and the mercantile as well as “too good to be true” promises and guarantees that were dangled in front of the faithfuls, to make them do as was expected of them. She didn’t get the manipulative side of most religions but was damned right in her analysis!

A short conversation with Trump

We don't typically frequent fancy restaurants in town, but on this occasion, we had a $50 coupon to use at the Glitretind restaurant in Deer Valley Resort. While we were still enjoying our meal, I had to briefly step out to grab something from the car. 

As I headed outside, I noticed a big guy, clad in a long, thick wool coat, sitting on the deck, deep in thought. I asked if he was alright, and he launched into a lengthy rant about some event he had attended earlier, exclaiming, "These darn Mormons don't know what they want, and they can't seem to support me!" 

Upon closer inspection, I couldn't help but notice his familiar appearance. I inquired, "Excuse me, sir, by any chance are you a Donald Trump impersonator?" He interrupted, "No, I'm the real Donald J. Trump!" I chuckled and replied, "Come on, you've got to be kidding me." "No, I'm dead serious. I'm currently campaigning for a third term to kick Biden out of the office he stole from me," he confidently declared. 

I shook my head and said, "Well, good luck with that. But just so you know, you might find yourself behind bars before you step foot in the Oval Office again." He scoffed, "Ah, another pathetic, woke, liberal, communist brainwashed by the leftist media!" 

I retorted, "Not at all, Donny. I gather my news from reputable, non-partisan sources. And don't think you can insult me like you do with those who fear your wrath. Watch your language, or I might give you a swift kick in the rear, straight down to the valley!" Detecting a hint of a French accent, he questioned, "I sense a French accent in you. Why don't you go back to your sorry country and be one less frog for me to stomp on?" 

I rolled my eyes and shot back, "Dude, if you had even an ounce of education, you'd remember Lafayette. But your arrogant and bellicose attitude reminds me of Adolf Hitler. He must be your hero, right? Although, I must say, the Führer was a tad more cunning than you and actually put in some hard work!" He dismissively replied, "I don't understand a word of the nonsense spewing from your sorry face, man!" 

I smirked and said, “Well, this is precisely your biggest problem, Instead of teaching you how to lie, your father should have told you that you'd catch more flies with honey than with vinegar? If you had applied this simple rule, you would have grown your base big time, and possibly defeated Biden in 2020. Today, you might have already toppled our democracy and its institutions, but you are too stubborn to listen to smart people, you prefer to hear what Steve Bannon and Rudy Giuliani keep telling you! 

Waving me off his sight, he grumbled, “You’re a total disgrace, get out of here!” As I walked to my car, I put and end to the conversation by saying, “No worries, Dude, just enjoy the witch hunt on your way to jail!”

Ethics and car registration

These days, with new cars and trucks becoming more and more expensive, a lot of my neighbors and acquaintances are registering their vehicles in Montana in order to save big on taxes and registration fees. Montana cars and trucks are exempt from sales tax, and for motor vehicle owners it’s possible to get permanent registration through a Montana LLC.

For instance, a Tesla Model Y, with a delivery price of $59,440 would be taxed to the tune of $4,429 (where I live), not to mention a yearly registration fee of $350. This easily compares this respectively $549 registration expense and a yearly fee of $179 if the Montana option is chosen. 

Obviously, I’m been told that for non-Montanans this practice is illegal and Utah could be cracking down on it. Utahns caught breaking the law and subject them to paying all back sales tax plus a 100% penalty amounting to the sales tax amount that wasn’t paid, but I am waiting for a verification of that penalty. 

What’s seems clear though is that there isn’t much appetite for enforcement at the Utah State level, and fraudsters are getting off scot-free. This situation is clearly unjust to those of us who are not choosing the easy, Montana way. Absent active and forceful enforcement of the law, perhaps our legislature should remove the tax on motor vehicles and offset it with a slightly higher income tax. 

The “do-nothing” alternative that we now have is unethical, hypocritical and unjust, that advantages those gutsy enough to break the law, knowing they’ll be okay anyway…

No-stop learning

Curious by nature, I always get excited when I see the preliminary contours of something new and get impatient to learn much more about it. This is something that’s always come naturally to me and I never had to make an effort, especially if the subject matter was something I was passionate about, like skiing for example. 

Obviously and fortunately, there’s more than just skiing in my life. I’m interested in global sustainability, nature, relationships, psychology, religion, economy, politics, automobiles, technology to cite my other main areas of interest.

That's a whole world to learn and I do realize that I’m always one day late and plenty of resources short to keep up with all of that, plus I realize that I’m now running out of precious time, but still, I endeavor to do my very best and have absolutely no intention of giving up the race! 

So, my thirst for knowledge remains solid and I do everything I can to become more efficient in my efforts to get the job done, and apply myself to it, no matter what. This said, being far from perfect, I’m also very impatient with the slow pace of my progress and that of the world around me. This I sometimes makes me misfire and gets in the way of my quest for progress. 

To make matters worse, I get easily distracted by all the moving parts around me, and even though I’ve axed the nefarious influence of social media, any remaining hurdle is always discouraging, but it’s perhaps a good thing, because without challenges it might be too easy...

A blurry line between prayer and meditation

For a long time I’ve often thought that prayer and meditation were about the same. with the former for religious believers and the latter for the rest of us. 

My view wasn't actually far from reality. While both forms of spirituality have been around for thousands of years, the main difference between prayer and meditation is that prayer involves a belief in some deity and active interaction with that supreme power, while meditation needs no particular belief and is an independent practice of nonjudgmental observation. 

True, prayer as it is practiced by religious folks takes a wide variety of forms, like contemplation, demands for divine intervention or direction, expression of gratitude, and can also take the form of religious meditation which probably explains my initial interpretation. 

Sure, the reverse is true as meditation is immensely varied and may also take place in the context of a religion, but mindfulness meditation is a secular practice focused on independent introspection and observation. Prayer is often seen as a form of meditation for those immersed into contemplative prayer that shares much in common with meditation. 

Obviously, with each practice fallacies abound, like the fact that some people believe that prayer can cure diseases or solve problems without any other intervention. Similarly, some also believe that meditation can cure problems too or is a sure way to enlightenment. 

However, all of these beliefs are not supported by scientific evidence and often, the effect expected remains largely confined to the imagination of the practitioner. In both instances, it won’t work on elements we don’t control.

Obviously, if these points fail to answer the question, there’s the alternative illustrated here above that offers a cute, easy (and lazy) explanation by saying that “Prayer is when you talk to God, Meditation is when you listen to God”...