Through a combination of nostalgia and legend, some pieces of Boulder never fully disappear. Maybe the best example was an ordinary building in the middle of the Hill known as Tulagi. On walking inside, you were hit with the smell of decades of beer being poured, consumed, and spilled. Past the Tiki-ish foyer, you were deposited into the venue, with an open dance floor as simple as the stage at its head. On either side were raised sitting areas with built-in benches and stacked-stone walls, under-lit to give the feel of a cavern-come-club. Surrounding was a mural with various scenes—all sun-drenched... Read More

Mid-1990s Boulder was busy with activity. Fitness was king. Local businesses were prized. Hacky Sack circles and jam band opuses were ubiquitous anywhere students congregated. Simultaneous to that, though, was something wholly different. Buried in the corridors of the JILA tower on CU’s campus, a breakthrough was purring along quietly. Professors Carl Wieman and Eric Cornell were making real what many physicists thought was only theory. In the 1920s, Satyendra Nath Bose and Albert Einstein conceived of a new form of matter, which came to be known as the Bose-Einstein Condensate. A full explanation... Read More

Often, the significance of an event isn’t clear until after it’s passed. Everyone can recall an example in his or her own life. Sports, of course, are no exception. And since September is in full swing, that means football, which brings to mind a particularly odd example. It’s October 6, 1990. The CU Buffs had a record of three wins, one loss, and one tie; their opponent, the University of Missouri Tigers, had a record of two wins and two losses. Nearly 47,000 fans packed Faurot Field in Columbia, Missouri to watch the rivals battle it out. Both teams played hard, and Missouri lead 31-27... Read More

Symbols are an interesting phenomenon when you stop to think about them. And they’re everywhere. A road sign with the silhouette of children on a seesaw is a symbol, not warning of recreational equipment but of kids at play. Bills and coins are symbols of value, the tangible representation of economics. They take the form of icons, as well: a bluish bird for Twitter, a Polaroid-like camera for Instagram, and so on. Symbols evoke companies, stand-in for purchasing power, even encapsulate “slow down, drivers, kids are unpredictable and around the corner” in an instant. Simple or complex, they... Read More

It’s been argued the history of the world can be seen on your plate. Moorish improvements to Roman irrigation boosted rice production in 15th century Spain, eventually melding with Middle Eastern spices into what we know today as paella. Bánh mì sandwiches combine native Vietnamese ingredients (such as cilantro, cucumbers, and pickled daikon) with baguettes and mayonnaise left behind by French colonists. There are many interesting through-lines when it comes to food. Closer to home, consider a different kind of example: the humble sub sandwich. Whether you prefer to call them hoagies, grinders,... Read More

Let’s look at 1978 for a moment. The Camp David Accords were signed, Japanese car imports soared in reaction to petroleum shortages, and the comic strip Garfield debuted to a world bereft of lasagna-scarfing cats. Another debut, of a TV sitcom called Mork & Mindy, came a few months later. And for Boulder, this hit much closer to home. Mork & Mindy was a spin-off of the 1950s-themed Happy Days. In one episode Mork (played by Robin Williams), an alien from the planet Ork, visited Milwaukee to obtain a human specimen for study. Richie Cunningham (Ron Howard) would’ve been that specimen,... Read More

It’s hard to say what makes a business catch on. There’s strange calculus, even alchemy involved. Often it’s about selection, catering to a niche, or comes down to price. On rare occasions, though, a business survives because it becomes part of the community in which it was created. These days, brick-and-mortar stores not only struggle against each other, but against virtual retail. Anything can be found online, and purchased with a mouse click. Where once towns centered on the local drug store, for example, now that idea seems quant. As a result, even mega-chains have problems. Many local... Read More

Once upon a time European transplants came to the New World. The results were complicated to say the least. Native populations and cultures didn’t fare well; slave trade was established early. New lives were built on shifting ground. Fast-forward to the British expanding what the French and Dutch began. King George III reaped the benefits of his American colonists, and in kingly fashion found ways to further enrich his coffers. Chief among those tactics was the leveraging of taxes. That led to a certain tantrum: the Boston Tea Party. In time, this dust-up morphed into what we refer to as the... Read More

Boulder is an interesting mix of currents. Consider, for example, the constellation of tech start-ups that find a home here. Think about the many craft breweries and distilleries that have cropped up over the years. Taken together, you get a place equally devoted to innovation and cutting loose, often at the same time. Given CU-Boulder is a dominant fixture, it’s no surprise similar labels apply. The university boasts an array of research associates, experts in various scientific disciplines, as well as artists in every medium, all teaching under its tent. Academically speaking, attending or... Read More