by The Blue Agave Margarita at Agave in Summerlin.
By Allison Duck, Las Vegas Sun
Monday, Feb. 21, 2011 | 5:08 p.m.
It seems like every day is National Something or Other Day. Fortunately for tequila lovers, several Las Vegas venues are celebrating National Margarita Day on Feb. 22. Enjoy delicious specialty margaritas and tequila shots, keeping in mind the saying: “One tequila, two tequila, three tequila, floor.”
Agave’s Margarita Day celebration: Agave in Summerlin celebrates with a 100 percent Blue Agave Margarita featuring 1519 Blanco Tequila, Patron Citronge and homemade sweet & sour mix for $4.95.
Margarita Day at N9NE Steakhouse: N9NE Steakhouse at the Palms reveals the newest addition to its cocktail menu, the Luxury Margarita, available to guests beginning Feb. 22. The cost is $39 and includes Don Julio Real, Blue Agave Nectar, a fresh lime snowball and a drizzle of Grand Marnier.
Margaritaville’s specials: Margaritaville encourages its Facebook fans to participate in their second annual margarita contest by submitting their recipes. The restaurant’s executive staff will select their favorite concoctions, which will be served on National Margarita Day. Enjoy margarita specials, and 2/22 birthdays received a $22.20 gift certificate to use during their visit. Individuals celebrating a 2/22/22 birthday receive complimentary food and beverage the entire day.
Drink specials at T&T: The tequila will flow at T&T with 2 for 1 house margaritas from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. The 20th patron to redeem the offer receives a complimentary dinner for two. T&T’s signature house margarita the Casarita includes Jose Cuervo Tradicional, organic agave nectar, Grand Marnier and homemade margarita mix made from scratch daily with fresh squeezed limes. Also featured is the Chongalicious Margarita, a 56-oz. monster of a drink that includes two 7-oz. Sol beers on top.
“American Indians gave names to each of the full moons to keep track of the passing year. The names are associated with the entire month until the next full moon occurs. Since a lunar month averages 29 days, the dates of the moons change from year to year. Here are titles most closely associated with calendar months” – more from Western Washington University…
Back East
Mohawk woman
Mohawk
In the Mohawk (Eastern Woodlands) language, the word for February’s moon is “enniska” or “lateness“.
Out West Hopi woman and child - c. 1900
Hopi
In the Hopi (Northeastern Arizona) language, the word for February’s moon is “powamuya” or “moon of purification and renewal“.
From The Old Farmer’s Almanac
Historically, the Native Americans who lived in the area that is now the northern and eastern United States kept track of the seasons by giving distinctive names to the recurring full Moons.
Each full Moon name was applied to the entire month in which it occurred. These names, and some variations, were used by the Algonquin tribes from New England to Lake Superior.
February is the Full Snow Moon – Usually the heaviest snows fall in February. Hunting becomes very difficult, and hence to some Native American tribes this was the Hunger Moon.
When Will the Moon Rise Today?
A common lunar puzzle involves the timing of moonrise. Folks who enjoy the outdoors and the wonders of nature may wish to commit to memory the words on the chart below.
Moonrise (and, incidentally, the time of high tide) occurs about 50 minutes later each day than the day before.
To determine the time of moonrise for each day of the month, just add 50 minutes for each day after a phase or subtract 50 minutes for each day prior to a new phase.
The new Moon is invisible because the Sun blots it out read more from The Old Farmer’s Almanac…
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. The following information was added Thursday February 17th.
Navajo Street Art District
If you happen to be in the Denver, Colorado area stop by the Navajo Street Arts District on 36th and – guess what – Navajo Street in North Denver. There are about a half-dozen art galleries in this block and they do open galleries on Fridays with wine and cheese/veggies.
The galleries are big-city-hip with made-artists, struggling artists and chasing the dream kids.
Stop in at Patsy’s Italian Restaurant (on the block) first, have a drink at the 80-90 year old bar or have a superlative, classic Italian dinner in my fav Italian Restaurant in Denver. Some genius with a monster brain programs the music – which includes old stuff from the 30s, 40s +.
“Background: In its 105th year, the National Western Stock Show is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization that provides college and graduate level scholarships in agriculture and medicine for practice in rural areas. It is also our mission to serve producers and consumers throughout the world by being the premier Stock Show, Rodeo, Horse Show and center for year‐round events. The 16‐day show also serves as an entertainment arena, hosting one of the world’s richest regular season professional rodeos, largest horse show and Colorado’s largest tradeshow.”
“Attendance: Overall attendance in 2009 was 643,100. The attendance record was set during the Stock Show’s 100th anniversary in 2006 at 726,972.”
“Exhibits: More than 15,000 head of horses, cattle, sheep, swine, goats, llamas, alpacas, bison, yak, poultry and rabbits step foot on the grounds of the National Western Stock Show each year. The National Western Stock Show is noted for hosting the world’s only carload and pen cattle show, held in the historic Denver Union Stockyards.”
“Trade Show: More than 350 vendors fill the nearly 100‐acre show grounds with a variety of food and shopping opportunities. The National Western Trade Show offer a variety of products including fine art and jewelry, clothing, household items and agricultural products and equipment.” read more from the Official NWSS Website…
The National Western Stock Show, a brief history By Keith and Cheryl Chamberlain:
“The year was 1906. Theodore Roosevelt was in the White House, there were 45 states in the Union, Colorado was getting ready to celebrate its thirtieth birthday and sirloin was ten cents a pound. On the outskirts of Denver, a growing town with a population of 200,000, stockmen from around the West gathered to show their animals, buy and sell breeding stock and encourage a meatpacking center to rival those in Kansas City and Chicago. From this beginning, the National Western Stock Show, Rodeo and Horse Show was born. The grand champion steer that first year was a Shorthorn that tipped the scales at 1,150 pounds and befitting its status, fetched an eye-popping 33 cents a pound.”
The West Needs A Stock Show
“In the early years of the 20th century, western stock growers faced a problem. They lacked a large market center in the West to receive their animals and the cost of shipping to eastern markets cut into already lean profits. Though there was a small meat packing industry in Denver, it was a poor cousin to its larger rivals in Chicago and Kansas City. There was also the feeling among western stockmen that they weren’t getting fair prices for their cattle, sheep and hogs. Livestock raising in the West was a tougher proposition than in the more humid East where concentrated corn and grain feeds were used to fatten livestock. The solution would be improved breeds that could thrive in this more arid region and a meat packing center in the West to compete with the big eastern packers” read more
Great American Bison
Photo is from Gear-Gear.Com
RODEO – HORSE SHOW – LIVESTOCK – WESTERN ART – SPECIAL EVENTS – TRADE SHOW – MORE
“The Strip fills with revelers. Fireworks light up the sky. The casinos are body-to-body, the showrooms filled with A-list entertainers and Vegas is more gloriously alive than you’ve ever seen it. New Year’s Eve in Vegas is a world-class celebration. Below you can book your room, buy nightclub party tickets, show tickets and get information about the fireworks.”
Denver’s New Year’s Eve 2011 Party Guide
“clubZone[sic] ranks the top New Years Eve parties in Denver based on how they’re selling. Review the events below, find the best party for you, buy your tickets in advance… and have a great New Years Eve!”
By LINDA DEUTSCH, AP
Fri Jan 21, 6:22 AM EST
Former Manson family member and convicted murderer Patricia Krenwinkel leaves after being denied parole at a hearing at the California Institution for Women in Corona, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 20, 2011. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)
CORONA, Calif. — Parole board officials turned aside Patricia Krenwinkel’s claims of being a changed woman and ordered the Charles Manson follower to remain in prison, saying the deaths of seven people in the 1969 Tate-LaBianca murders still “remain relevant.”
The two member panel said Thursday that the viciousness and notoriety of her crimes outweighs her efforts at rehabilitation behind bars.
“This is a crime children grow up hearing about,” said parole commissioner Susan Melanson. She said they had received 80 letters from around the world advocating Krenwinkel’s continued incarceration. “These crimes remain relevant.”
Melanson and deputy parole commissioner Steven Hernandez not only refused Krenwinkel’s parole bid but made her ineligible for reconsideration for another seven years., the longest denial handed down so far to any Manson family convict. Her four decades behind bars has made her the longest incarcerated woman in the California prison system.
Melanson and Deputy Commissioner Steven Hernandez issued their decision after the intense hearing and more than an hour of deliberations
Krenwinkel, now gray haired and grandmotherly looking at 63, wept and apologized.
“I’m just haunted each and every day by the unending suffering of the victims, the enormity and degree of suffering I’ve caused,” Krenwinkel said.
She was soft spoken and contrite in response to board members’ questions, describing the downward spiral of her life after she met Manson and came under his spell.
“He sang to me and made love to me,” she said. “…I left everything and went with him. He seemed like the answer to my salvation.”.
Because of him, she said, “Everything that was good and decent in me I threw away.”
It was her late father, she said, who helped her realize during his visits to her in prison, “what had happened, and the monster I became.”
The panel had the option to deny parole for up to 15 years. Melanson said they felt that was unnecessary and commended Krenwinkel for her self-improvement and community service in her four decades at the California Institution for Women.
But they dismissed Krenwinkel’s explanation that she was seeking approval from Manson by following his orders to kill.
“The panel finds it hard to believe a person can participate in this level of crimes and can’t identify anything but ‘I wanted him to love me,'” Melanson said.
Krenwinkel’s claim that she is rehabilitated was met by anger and opposition from a prosecutor and families of the victims.
“If Patricia Krenwinkel has remorse, I don’t see how she could walk into this room,” said a tearful Anthony Di Maria, the nephew of Jay Sebring, who was killed along with Tate. “No punishment could atone for the cold-blooded murders in this case.”
Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney Patrick Sequeira also suggested that if Krenwinkel was remorseful she would waive her parole hearings and accept her punishment.
Krenwinkel was convicted along with Manson and two other female followers in the seven murders. One of her co-defendants, Susan Atkins, died of cancer last year. The board’s commitment to keep the Manson killers in prison was evident when they refused her compassionate release as she was dying.
Krenwinkel admitted during her trial that she chased down and stabbed heiress Abigail Folger 28 times at the Tate home on Aug. 9, 1969, and participated in the stabbing deaths of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca the following night. Both homes were defaced with bloody scrawlings. She was convicted along with Manson, Leslie Van Houten and Atkins. Another defendant, Charles “Tex” Watson was convicted in a separate trial.
All were sentenced to death after a tumultuous nine-month trial. But their sentences were commuted to life when the U.S. Supreme Court briefly outlawed the death penalty in 1972.
None of those convicted in the Tate-LaBianca killings has ever been paroled. Parole boards have repeatedly cited the callousness, viciousness and calculation of the murders.
Van Houten, 61, the youngest of the women convicted, was long thought to be the most likely to win eventual release. But she was denied a parole date last summer.
Manson, now 75, refused to appear at his most recent parole hearings where he was denied a release date, and it is likely that he will never be released.
Manson followers convicted of other murders remain behind bars.
Debra Tate, sister of Sharon Tate, who also tearfully testified during the hearing, said outside the prison afterward that she will continue attending parole hearings for Manson family members to assure that they are not released.
“People want to forget. I want to forget and forgive and I have forgiven,” Tate said. “I want them to have full lives in a controlled setting. I would never trust them in a free society.”
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This post was moved July 10, 2010 Leslie Van Houten Denied Parole for Role in Manson Murders By SARAH NETTER – ABC News
“Van Houten’s Father Says, ‘There’s Nothing Wrong With Leslie,’ Victim’s Sister Had Advocated Against Parole”
Leslie Van Houten 2010
Damian Dovarganes/AP Photo
ABC News Story, July 6, 2010 By SARAH NETTER
One-time Charles Manson disciple and convicted murderer Leslie Van Houten has been denied freedom yet again.
Van Houten went before a California parole board for the 17th time today, backed by supporters who said she no longer deserves to be behind bars.
The parole board denied the request.
Van Houten was one of five people, including Manson, sentenced to death for her participation in a drug-fueled murder spree ordered by Charles Manson in 1969 at the height of California’s “Summer of Love.” The sentences were later commuted to life in prison.
“Leslie, my God, is unbelievable,” her father, Paul Van Houten, said. “I’ll guarantee you there are people on the outside who haven’t done as well.”
Van Houten, 60, has been described by her supporters and prison staff as a model inmate. She is working as a college tutor while studying for her master’s degree in humanities and has not had one prison infraction on her record in more than 40 years.
But Debra Tate , whose pregnant sister, Sharon Tate, was one of seven people slain by the so-called Manson family during two nights in August 1969, said she had collected 60 letters asking the parole board to keep Van Houten behind bars.
Tate, who has made a full-time job of advocating to keep Manson and his followers in prison, said she has no doubt that Van Houten has been a model prisoner, but pointed out that she thrived only in a tightly controlled environment.
“Is a tiger dangerous if it gets out of its cage? We proved that at the L.A. zoo,” Tate said. “In the cage they are fine. You cannot let them out.” read more from ABCNews.Com
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