Postcards from the edge

Huge stone alcoves. T-shaped doorways. Villages accessible only by ladder.

Most people probably don't get their first glimpses of Mesa Verde National Park through a book, TV program or even a car window, but via a postcard.

No one knows how many cards have been produced since the first photographs of the Cliff Palace and other ruins were taken more than 100 years ago. But the number is well into the millions -- easily enough to have cemented Mesa Verde's place in the pantheon of national icons, right up there with the Golden Gate Bridge, Mount Rushmore and the Statue of Liberty.

—by Jack Cox, The Denver Post

Welcome to Kanab! Or, maybe not

Most businesses in this southern Utah town have a tourism booster sticker in their front windows saying, "Everyone Welcome Here," which sounds pretty tame until you get to the little rainbow-colored people beneath the text. Are those little people gay?—by Kirk Johnson, The New York Times

Must Waco be another Houston?

Bill Franklin asks a good question in a guest column in the Waco Tribune-Herald. A better question would be, what qualities should we be measured by? We may agree that two Home Depot stores are enough. But how many college graduates? How vibrant a downtown? What percentage of families living above poverty level? How many citizens with health insurance? It seems that the answer to the question, "Must Waco be another Houston?" is definitely NO! But his question raises many other questions and it will take some thinking to answer them.