-- The first face I saw when I stepped off the plane in Denver was John Elway's. The legendary Broncos quarterback was on a billboard, hawking some product or another. But as my Colorado stay progressed, it became clear to me that the entire state has fallen in love with another QB - Tim Tebow (pictured right). The former Florida Gators superstar - a first-round pick by the Broncos a couple months back - was everywhere. At a closet-sized sports store in the airport, Tebow's No. 15 was the only Broncos jersey available. I ran into a man wearing a Tebow jersey while hiking up a 12,000-foot peak at the Continental Divide. And let's not even start on the blanket Tebow coverage in the media, both locally and nationally.
The thing is, it's likely going to be a while until we see what Tebow can do in the NFL. With incumbent QB Kyle Orton inking a one-year contract extension last week that will keep him in Broncos silks through 2011, Tebow's first legitimate shot at the starting job won't likely come until 2012. But that's good news for Tebow - he's regarded as a work in progress, and will need time to develop. Whether Broncos fans are willing to be so patient is another matter.
-- The major reason for my trip to Colorado was to attend my cousin's wedding. She was married at the Stanley Hotel, a historic building in Estes Park, about an hour and a half north of Denver. The coolest thing about the place, to me, is that it is linked closely to The Shining, the Steven King book that became a classic film directed by Stanley Kubrick. According to Wikipedia, King once stayed at the Stanley, which inspired him to write The Shining. Scenes for the mini-series version of the book were filmed at the hotel, though it was not used for Kubrick's cinematic version. Channel 42 on all guest room televisions at the Stanley shows the Kubrick movie on a continuous loop. How cool is that? All the place was missing was a hedge maze.
-- On our way to hiking at the Continental Divide, we drove through Black Hawk and Central City - former Colorado gold rush towns which are the only municipalities in the state where gambling is currently legal. Thus, casinos dominate the square footage in these towns. It feels like they're practically stacked on top of each other.
The thing that got me chuckling was a banner on one of the casinos that advertised "THE LOOSEST SLOTS IN TOWN!" The ad went on to state that the casino paid out 99.485 per cent (or thereabouts, my memory isn't perfect) of the money that people fed into its slot machines. It completely slayed me that a casino would lay out its larcenous business plan in such brazen detail - "We intend to bleed the cash out of your wallet, slowly but surely!" And the genius of it was that they made it look like they were doing people a favour - "We could be taking even more of your money!" Seems to me, the only smart people involved with slot machines are the people running them.
-- I had a couple of interesting political conversations with Americans. First of all, everyone I talked to seems to believe Barack Obama is intent on driving the U.S. economy into the ground. The main worry is that Obama's business taxation plans will crush an already fragile economy. Take that for what it's worth - I was mainly speaking with Republicans. But at the very least, it does offer an interesting counterpoint to the optimistic portrayal of Obama in the Canadian media. Which is, in a nutshell, "At least he's not George W. Bush. And he seems cool."
Beyond that, I had a fascinating exchange with a man who casually ripped the Canadian medical system during an anti-Obama vent session. The president's medicare plan, he argued, is inherently flawed because it's modeled after the Canadian system. "Everyone who wants to get a surgery done goes down to the States and pays for it," he said smugly. The fact I'm Canadian was not lost on him.
Point taken. We have issues with surgery wait times in Canada. But no more than 15 minutes later, the same guy told a story about a car accident he was involved in. Basically, another vehicle pulled in front of him, and the driver slammed on the brakes to intentionally cause an accident. Turned out, the brake-slammer had a pre-existing medical condition that required a hip replacement. Not having $90,000 to pay for the surgery, he caused the car accident and sued the other driver - and settled out of court with the insurance provider for $140,000.
Aside from the fact that this lawsuit scheme is utterly insidious, it occurred to me that if the hip-replacement dude had Canadian-style medical coverage, he would not have needed to cause a car accident to raise funds. He may have had to sit on a waitlist for a few months, but he would have gotten his surgery. So you tell me - which system is better?
-- On the plane back home, I was somewhat surprised when the 20-something gentleman seated next to me ordered a jack and coke. Before noon. Kind of odd. Then I looked over and noticed he was reading "I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell" by Tucker Max - a New York Times bestseller that is more or less a how-to guide for womanizing drunks. Suddenly, it all made sense to me. I was grateful to be seated between this guy and my wife.
-- One of the underrated joys of returning from vacation is seeing what wonders have accumulated on the PVR over the course of a week. I've already watched the latest episode of Mad Men (one of the best episodes ever, utterly incendiary), and I'm looking forward to devouring a couple of new WSOP episodes. It's good to be home.
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"incendiary" better site almost famous...
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