Salt City Sinner

  (Titled with  apologies to Max Cannon ) Stand just about anywhere in the Salt Lake Valley and cast your gaze up at the Wasatch Mountains. You will be greeted by a series of sedimentary shelves that mark the feet of the mountains like rings in a bathtub, or the shadow left on the concrete by a puddle when it dries. When the light hits the Wasatch at just the right angle it’s a beautiful sight, a rich layer cake of color and texture. The Wasatch Mountains are only one of the innumerable natural wonders of my home state.

posted on 8/12/2015 by the Salt City Sinner I moved from Utah to the American South as a teenager, and pretty quickly learned that if you hail from the Beehive State, there are a series of extremely dumb questions you will be asked when people first meet you that would not be asked of someone from, say, South Dakota or Maine.  “Are you Mormon?” is obviously the first one – and a pretty reasonable question, all things considered. That is usually followed up with some sort of question about polygamy, however, which is lazy and ignorant and gets old remarkably quickly. Sometimes I would be asked if one can buy alcohol in Utah. This is, again, a not entirely unreasonable thing to ask, especially since many of these interactions took place back in the days of private clubs and membership cards – but it did strike me as a little silly given that I was often asked about Utah and booze while going to college in Conway, Arkansas, which is a town located in a dry county where sales ...

posted on 5/6/2015 by the Salt City Sinner Utah! A land of virtue, where steeples tower, firmly erect, in every churchyard, and fertile folds dot the foothills. A land of fecundity, leading the nation in average number of offspring per family with children (and, according to my wildly unscientific estimate, in lowest number of adult virgins per comic book convention). Utah is also one of several states that exclusively offers abstinence-only sex education, a form of sex ed that teaches kids that they should abstain from sex until marriage -- and often offers no more information than that. Abstinence-only sex ed is subsidized by the federal government under section 510 of the Social Security Act , despite the fact that studies have shown that this approach does not decrease rates of unwanted teen pregnancy or sexually transmitted infections (STIs). It should come as no surprise then that Utah, a staunchly religious state where any form of public or charter school sex ed curric...

A Photo Blog- Posted  by: ViewFinder 5.27.13 March 25,2013 at 12:00 several hundred Salt Lake citizens gathered together in solidarity against Monsanto and the law just passed and signed by President Obama-  H.R. 933: Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2013 Apparently Monsanto has a very LONG ... DARK past, one that includes the chemical manufacturing of PCBs (Polychlorinated bipheryls)- which led to a $600,000,000 payout to residents of Anniston, Alabama.  During the early 1960's Monsanto was one of the producers of the toxic herbicide Agent Orange widely known for the death and disability brought to the people of Vietnam and the U.S. Soldiers who were also affected. After a little research I believe that Monsanto does not own Academi (Formerly Blackwater, also formerly XE).  However from 2008 to 2010 Monsanto has reportedly  admitted in email  that their relationship existed.  Reportedly it w...

posted 3/8/2013 by ViewFinder "I am a Birth-mother to two children whom I placed for adoption just over 15 years ago.  Wednesday, 3/6/13 I spent several hours on the lower level in room 25 in the "House" at the Utah State Capitol.  I was participating in the presentation of House Bill 148 to the House Health and Human Services Committee.  The schedule posted gave a start time of 4:10 PM.  However multiple committee members arrived after 4:10, one not even until after the first bill was about to be voted on.   Local Residents standing through 1 1/2 hours of   SB0166S02 I had taken my seat at 3:30 not moving through 2 1/2 hours of discussion- mostly a VERY long presentation on the taxation of nicotine cartridges.  I sat through two other bills and watched in amazement as those making the decisions came in late, excused themselves, laughed with each other during public speaking and sometimes presentation by bill sponsors.  It was ra...

During the month of October Gardner Village, located in West Jordan Utah, shares the Halloween Holiday Spirit in a fun and exciting way with WITCHFEST!   Calendar of Events for Witchfest Several nights during October the village "Gathering Place" hosts an evening dinner show "Witchapalooza" where guests can enjoy a lovely meal and a wickedly entertaining theatrical perfomace. As you enter the front doors of the Gathering Place you are greeted with amazing photo opportunities, pirates and pumpkins, an old world feel.  I almost felt like I had been transported to the old Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disney Land!  (Truly magical!) Inside the theater the tables are numbered for the reservation you made when the tickets were purchased.  Ticket sales for Witchapalooza open on August 1st annually and sell out very quickly.  There are two options, a dinner theatre and a late night showing of the theatrical performance with no meal. ...

posted 9/19/2012 by the Salt City Sinner There's an old golf joke that my dad busts out occasionally that still cracks me up: "I hit two good balls today...I stepped on a rake!" Mitt Romney has made it something of a personal philosophical commitment, his recent rake-stepping. There was the RNC's baffling piece of performance art in which the Romney Campaign sagely decided to let an 82-year-old man ramble through over twice his allotted time in an unscripted, unvetted "speech" (read: cranked-out bitching at an imaginary man in an empty chair). There was Romney's attempt to smirk his way ... ... through a cheap, political "gotcha" moment regarding the tragic deaths of U.S. diplomats - again, wham!, right in the runts. And now, in a surgical political strike by Mother Jones magazine (a previously relatively little known and scrappy publication that has now earned a MAJOR chunk of attention), Romney's words from months ago h...

Posted by: ViewFinder 8/26/12 While walking through Liberty Park on Sunday afternoon I came across Cindy Putnam.  I watched from a distance as she passed out colored fliers with information about her son who has been missing now for six weeks.  Robin Putnam was living in California, maintaining a normal life, had a job at a small coffee shop- then one day experienced a significant panic/anxiety episode. Video Interview with Cindy Putnam Robin was spotted on the train from California to Utah, and then again spotted in Murray and Sandy Utah about a week ago.  Robin was also spotted at Liberty Park, in Salt Lake City, UT on Sunday 8/19/12.  It is believed that Robin exited the train in Salt Lake during a lay over and never made it back on the train before it left.  Robin left all his belongings behind, including his identification.   Those that have seen him say that he is not asking for help from anyone but people are offering him help...

A Photo-Blog Posted by: ViewFinder 8.26.12  The closing of "Shark Week" at the Living Planet Aquarium brought some great fun for the family.   Below are two pods, one that just hatched a baby Tiger Shark the day before and the other one still waiting to release the new shark.  Was amazing to see the sack up close and learn more about how these amazing and beautiful creatures make their way into our world. The Lion Fish was one of my son's favorite creatures to view during his first trip to the Aquarium.   The spark in his eye, the glimmer of his smile, the musical laughter that came from my son was the most magical thing that I was able to see today!  And in the end... the creatures I loved the most... went home with ME!