Opinion | Calhoun: Wake-up Call

Wake-Up Call: When pigs fly, the good go to Boulder

With two cases of swine flu (the "other white flu") confirmed in Colorado and bumbling Vice President Joe Biden calling for quasi-quarantine, it could be time to go to your bookshelves and dust off that copy of The Stand, Stephen King's 1978 novel. In this epic (it was re-released, uncut,...
By Patricia CalhounMay 1, 2009
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With two cases of swine flu (the “other white flu”) confirmed in Colorado and bumbling Vice President Joe Biden calling for quasi-quarantine, it could be time to go to your bookshelves and dust off that copy of The Stand, Stephen King’s 1978 novel. In this epic (it was re-released, uncut, in 1990) battle between good and evil, a man-made virus — known as Captain Trips — kills off 99.4 percent of the world’s population. The bad people who survive go to Vegas. And where do the good folks go?

To Boulder, of course. Ah-choo!

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Patricia Calhoun is editor emeritus of Westword, the alt-weekly she co-founded in September 1977. She was editor-in-chief from 1977-2026. She’s been inducted into the Colorado Press Association Hall of Fame, the Association of Alternative Newsmedia Hall of Fame and the Colorado Restaurant Association Hall of Fame (probably for her bar tab). She’s received dozens of local, state and national awards for writing, including first place for feature writing and first place for column writing with the Society of Professional Journalists, and is a weekly commentator on Colorado Inside Out, PBS12’s public affairs roundtable.

patricia.calhoun@westword.com

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