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Summit Up

SUMMIT UP
Summit Daily/Brad Odekirk Photographers shooting for magazines and newspapers had plenty of action to train their cameras on Sunday afternoon during the finals of the halfpipe competition.
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Good morning and welcome to Summit Up, the world’s only daily column that got ripped off on Christmas. And you did, too.We’re not talking about Santa’s presents, of course. We actually did very well in that department. We’ve always calculated the success of holidays such as this (including Halloween, Easter and Ramadan – we’re equal opportunity celebrators, you see) with our Holiday Benefit Quotient. Without getting into the calculus of it and forcing you to break out a slide-rule, suffice to say the equation factors in what you put into the holiday to what you get out of it, the idea being, of course, in truly American fashion, to make out like a bandit.Once we found everything that is. Unlike you, we had to dig for some of our presents in the snow out in the yard. Wise gift-giver we were celebrating with, however, made this easier by giving us a gift tool to use: a shovel. And before you start wondering what sort of cruel crowd we’re running with, the present buried in the snow was a new avalanche beacon. So, be sure to stay tuned for our future obituary as we venture again into the backcountry, this time with renewed over-confidence.No, the rip-off we’re talking about is a white Christmas. As you might have noticed, the celebrations here in Summit Up Land can hardly be called “white.” Sure there’s some of the stuff around, but not enough to shout about. (And now that we think about it, maybe we should be glad it didn’t dump; if it had, in addition to being here at work in the Corporate Suites, we would have been using our new shovel in the driveway.)

This should tick our readers off, though: You know who did get a white Christmas? Try Victoria, Texas, which, by the way, hasn’t seen snow in 86 years. That’s not dog-years, folks. That’s real years. And they got almost a foot.In Ohio, according to a few field agents that reported in Saturday, it snowed for two days, dropping more than a foot and – get this – the government issued a “level 3” alert. “What the heck is that?” we asked.”If the cops catch you outside, they give you a ticket,” was the reply.That sent us off on a diatribe, which will surely become another column some day. Can you imagine? Having to live someplace where they might arrest you for going out in a foot of snow? What kind of Stalinist hell is that?

Well, it’s all a bunch of hoo-ha if you ask us. Unacceptable. We’re boycotting something for this, you can be sure of that. We don’t know what, but something, someone – we don’t know – will feel our wrath over this. And it might involve our new shovel.***An Our Lady of Peace parishioner sent us this Thank You! She wanted to send cheers, kudos and well wishes to the Keystone Conference Center. On Christmas Eve, the conference center donated time, labor, space, seats and quality sound equipment to help unite the Catholic communities of Summit County, not to mention visitors from all over.”On behalf of the children who were present and participated, thank you so much for modeling the true spirit of this season of giving,” she writes.



Rock on, Keystone Conference Center.***It’s Sunday, folks, so we know you’re not doing much. Here’s what you should do: Put on your creative hat (or your artist’s underwear, your free-thinking wool socks or your visionary, Elvis-style, Blue-Blocker shades) and create some art that fits in a fax machine. It could be a collage, it could be a drawing, it could be lines and folding directions for a bit of origami – anything you think could win the First-Ever Summit Up Art-By-Fax Contest! And you know you want to enter this, because the grand prize is lunch with us (and we will pick up the tab, honest). Fax your creations to (970) 668-0755.Otherwise, you can reach us at summitup@summitdaily.com, or on our whipping boy’s voicemail at (970) 668-3998, ext. 237.We’re out negotiating a trade: all the snow in Texas, and they get to have their governor back …


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