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Best Travelin' Man

Senator Wayne Allard

It's not easy staying in touch with your state when it includes 63 (64, once Broomfield's up and running) counties that stretch over thousands of square miles. But Wayne Allard, the Republican veterinarian who's soon to complete his first term in the Senate, knows that it's important to make house calls. Every year since his 1996 election, he's made it a point to visit every county in Colorado to meet with his constituents. You could say he's driven.

Best Appearance by Coloradans in an Inaugural Parade

Precision Lawn Chair Demonstration Team

When President Bill Clinton was inaugurated in 1993, Vail's Precision Lawn Chair Demonstration Team only got to perform at a warm-up event -- and Clinton was a party boy. But at George W. Bush's inauguration, the sixteen-year-old Vail troupe was front and center in the actual parade, sporting shorts in the frigid D.C. weather, twirling lawn chairs like batons and rating raves from the crowd. These boys don't take a back seat to anyone.

Best Appearance by Coloradans in an Inaugural Parade

Precision Lawn Chair Demonstration Team

When President Bill Clinton was inaugurated in 1993, Vail's Precision Lawn Chair Demonstration Team only got to perform at a warm-up event -- and Clinton was a party boy. But at George W. Bush's inauguration, the sixteen-year-old Vail troupe was front and center in the actual parade, sporting shorts in the frigid D.C. weather, twirling lawn chairs like batons and rating raves from the crowd. These boys don't take a back seat to anyone.

Best Joint Operating Agreement

Lee Casey's final resting place

Lee Casey wrote for the Rocky Mountain News in the early 1900s, back in the days when columnists were often far more interesting than the events they chronicled. Casey, for example, was so renowned for his peculiar behavior that he was rumored to be the model for the lead character in Harvey, Mary Chase's play about a fellow whose best friend is an imaginary, six-foot-tall rabbit. But it was in death that Casey's true eccentric nature emerged: He wanted his ashes interred within the walls of the Rocky Mountain News building. They were, and when the tabloid moved to fancy new digs on Colfax Avenue over a decade ago, Casey moved with the paper. Today his remains are still contained within the lobby walls, and there they will stay -- despite the fact that the building now bears a placard announcing that it's the home of the Denver Newspaper Agency, the managing entity of the joint operating agreement between the News and the Denver Post. Casey must be turning over in his you-know-what.

Best Joint Operating Agreement

Lee Casey's final resting place

Lee Casey wrote for the Rocky Mountain News in the early 1900s, back in the days when columnists were often far more interesting than the events they chronicled. Casey, for example, was so renowned for his peculiar behavior that he was rumored to be the model for the lead character in Harvey, Mary Chase's play about a fellow whose best friend is an imaginary, six-foot-tall rabbit. But it was in death that Casey's true eccentric nature emerged: He wanted his ashes interred within the walls of the Rocky Mountain News building. They were, and when the tabloid moved to fancy new digs on Colfax Avenue over a decade ago, Casey moved with the paper. Today his remains are still contained within the lobby walls, and there they will stay -- despite the fact that the building now bears a placard announcing that it's the home of the Denver Newspaper Agency, the managing entity of the joint operating agreement between the News and the Denver Post. Casey must be turning over in his you-know-what.

Best Appearance by Colorado in a National Magazine

Rico, Colorado

This spring, the tiny town of Rico -- 28 miles south of Telluride and population 140 -- rated a five-page layout in National Geographic. Under the headline "Make No Mistake About It, This Is NOT Telluride," the magazine emphasized Rico's colorful past as a silver-mining town and current pleasures as a small town -- for now. We don't know whether to thank the National Geographic photographer who stumbled on the sleepy town of Rico and exposed it to the rest of the world -- or tar and feather him.

Best Appearance by Colorado in a National Magazine

Rico, Colorado

This spring, the tiny town of Rico -- 28 miles south of Telluride and population 140 -- rated a five-page layout in National Geographic. Under the headline "Make No Mistake About It, This Is NOT Telluride," the magazine emphasized Rico's colorful past as a silver-mining town and current pleasures as a small town -- for now. We don't know whether to thank the National Geographic photographer who stumbled on the sleepy town of Rico and exposed it to the rest of the world -- or tar and feather him.

Best Political Crime-Stoppers Textbook

Bighorn Center for Public Policy

If power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely -- what about absolute power with big bucks behind it? Gee, that's a question for Lt. Fineprint, Disclosure Detective, who stars in the "Knowledge Is Power" comic book released last

election season by the Bighorn Center for Public Policy. "When you're proud of something," the think tank points out, "you put your name on it." Rutt Bridges certainly does: He makes no secret of the fact that he funds the new, Denver-based think tank. But the political operatives behind much of the dirty-tricks campaigning last fall weren't nearly as forthcoming; they took advantage of Colorado's "educational" committee loophole to launch anonymous attacks on certain candidates. "These are all created by people or organizations who want to influence the outcome of the election without telling you exactly who they are," Lt. Fineprint notes.

Best Political Crime-Stoppers Textbook

Bighorn Center for Public Policy

If power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely -- what about absolute power with big bucks behind it? Gee, that's a question for Lt. Fineprint, Disclosure Detective, who stars in the "Knowledge Is Power" comic book released last

election season by the Bighorn Center for Public Policy. "When you're proud of something," the think tank points out, "you put your name on it." Rutt Bridges certainly does: He makes no secret of the fact that he funds the new, Denver-based think tank. But the political operatives behind much of the dirty-tricks campaigning last fall weren't nearly as forthcoming; they took advantage of Colorado's "educational" committee loophole to launch anonymous attacks on certain candidates. "These are all created by people or organizations who want to influence the outcome of the election without telling you exactly who they are," Lt. Fineprint notes.

Best Next Job for Wellington Webb

Ambassador to China

You might well wonder why Denver is the first American city to have a trade office in China; we certainly have. Nonetheless, Mayor Wellington Webb recently took a fifty-member entourage on a trade mission to Shanghai -- despite the fact that local companies doing business with China already have offices there and thus don't need Denver taxpayers to subsidize them; despite the fact that the Chinese have the most abysmal human-rights record on slavery; and despite the fact that Webb really has plenty to occupy him back here in Denver. There can only be one explanation: With his third term almost up and a Washington, D.C., post in the George W. Bush White House looking less likely, it's time for our mayor to go global. As Ambassador to China, Wellington would truly be the World Wide Webb.

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