Hi beautiful Colorado Sunday friends!
There are plenty of things to be grateful for in our awesome state and this week — at least for me — it is Kevin Simpson’s joy-filled story about the culture that sprang from the “American Ninja Warrior” TV show.
As a business-minded editor, I am pleased that some of the gyms he writes about have filled abandoned grocery stores and vacant warehouse space around Colorado. But my real happiness comes from thinking about that time I assigned an intern to participate in ANW tryouts in Civic Center and soon after, the kid changed aspirations to media relations.
I felt bad that his trial of a weird new sport ended with a fall into one of the water hazards, though that story turned out to have a happy ending — eventually. After a few years peddling craft beer and fat-tire bikes, he went to law school and became a attorney with a 1st Amendment focus, proving that sometimes even what seems like a troubling storyline can work itself out in the end.
Editor
The Cover Story
Coloradans’ nifty ninja moves send them soaring on the famous show — and beyond
The connection between television and American culture can reflect the zeitgeist of the times, or even spawn fashion trends. And occasionally, TV introduces an outside-the-box variation of sport — SlamBall, anyone? — seemingly made for TV and especially social media.
But the impact of NBC’s long-running series “American Ninja Warrior,” both nationally and particularly in Colorado, seems unique. It has moved beyond the screen and sparked a fitness subculture that, after 17 televised seasons, continues to grow even among kids who never much watched the show but can’t resist the attraction — and unbridled fun — of a massive, constantly changing jungle gym.
In the universe of TV ninja stars, Colorado remains well represented. In our look at a growing sport that’s in the early stages of Olympics chatter, we found those athletes helping to fuel interest in ninja activities that have trickled down to the grassroots level — and even provided entrepreneurial opportunities to cultivate future generations.
READ THIS WEEK’S COLORADO SUNDAY FEATURE
Kevin Simpson | Writer
The Colorado Lens
It was a big week, the days bookended by big weather, and our photojournalists were in the thick of it. Here are a few of our favorite images.
Eric Lubbers | CTO & Newsletter Wrangler
Flavor of the Week
Exploring “The Wild Things” at Denver Art Museum
You may go to the Denver Art Museum’s Maurice Sendak exhibit to rekindle memories of his book “Where the Wild Things Are.” And the room containing the original artwork for the classic 1963 children’s book is truly spectacular.
But the rest of the exhibit of Sendak’s work and the backstory of the author/artist is just as illuminating. Learn about the first book he illustrated while still in high school, how he varied his artistic styles in his early work with other children’s writers and his 50-year personal partnership with Eugene Glenn.
There are examples of sets he designed for theater, film and television, as well as portions of the 1975 TV show “Really Rosie,” based on his books with a score by Carole King.
Tickets are $5 for members and $24 to $32 for nonmembers.
While you’re at it, stop on the first floor for Composing Color, an exhibit of wonderful paintings by artist Alma Thomas from the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Thomas, born in 1891, was the first student to earn a bachelor’s degree in fine art at Howard University and taught in the Washington, D.C., school district for more than 30 years. She continued painting until her death in 1978.
Sandra Fish | Data Journalist
SunLit: Sneak Peek
A search dog’s skills guide deputy Mattie Wray to a familiar victim in “Standing Dead”
EXCERPT: Like many authors, Margaret Mizushima pays particular attention to setting. In “Standing Dead,” another installment in her Timber Creek K-9 Mystery series, she chooses the pine beetle-ravaged Colorado forest, where the deputy Mattie Wray and her K-9 tracker, Robo, make a horrific discovery.
THE SUNLIT INTERVIEW: Mizushima is meticulous when it comes to ensuring accuracy in police procedure, and that’s particularly evident in scenes like this excerpt, where she reveals fascinating details about the working relationship between herself and Robo. But she also took a deep dive into handwriting analysis and small weapons. Here’s a portion of her Q&A:
SunLit: Are there lessons you take away from each experience of writing a book? And if so, what did the process of writing this book add to your knowledge and understanding the subject matter?
Mizushima: In “Standing Dead” there were two things in particular that I needed to dig into while creating the story. First, Mattie receives creepy notes that taunt her from an unknown writer, and the investigative team sends them to a forensic handwriting expert for interpretation — so I needed one, too. I consulted with author Sheila Lowe, handwriting examiner and author of the Forensic Handwriting suspense series as well as nonfiction books about handwriting and behavior.
And later in the book, I needed to learn about small weapons and GPS trackers that an undercover officer might take into a dangerous situation. I’m very grateful for the information given to me by Lt. Glenn Wilson (now deceased) for the many times he helped me with my books.
READ THE INTERVIEW WITH MARGARET MIZUSHIMA
LISTEN TO THE PODCAST WITH THE AUTHOR
Kevin Simpson | Writer
Sunday Reading List
A curated list of what you may have missed from The Colorado Sun this week.
🌞 I can’t even begin to count the number of election results stories and updates our team did this week, but would urge you to scroll through our Election Day 2024 tab (not that we stopped reporting on Wednesday). Some that might strike your fancy include the tale of how a man who described himself as being “as exciting as a bread sandwich” won in the 3rd Congressional District and one on how shockingly close the race between U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert and Democratic challenger Trisha Calvarese was in the 4th. (As of this writing on Friday, we still didn’t know who the 8th sent to Washington.) Finally, you only need to look at the electoral college map to see that Colorado bucked the nation’s shift to the right and pollsters have some ideas why.
🌞 As if there wasn’t enough happening on Wednesday, two women — one of them a letter carrier — were arrested in Mesa County, accused of stealing as many as 20 ballots out of the mail and illegally casting them. One of the suspects allegedly told investigators they were “testing” the state’s voter signature verification process, Jesse Paul reports.
🌞 As much as we sympathize with those who just don’t want to talk about politics any more, like Warm Cookies of the Revolution, we think civic engagement remains important. Parker Yamasaki has the story of how the civic health club is helping people to keep on participating in important community decisions.
🌞 There are plenty of reasons for Colorado communities to be worked up about the proposed Uinta Basin Railway. But Jason Blevins explains why the U.S. Supreme Court challenge to 88 miles of track in Utah is really a case about the National Environmental Policy Act, and it has national implications.
🌞 There have been a few alarms sounded about just how much junk is floating around in low Earth orbit. Tamara Chuang looked at one of the alerts and then tracked down some Colorado companies working to deploy the leave-no-trace ethos in space.
🌞 Denver’s public health safety-net hospital has done something big in the name of, well, public health, by changing the way it uses nitrous oxide for anesthesia. John Ingold reports on how the change will dramatically reduce the amount of the powerful greenhouse gas that Denver Health emits.
🌞 The story we needed to cut through all the political noise? That would be a story by Michael Booth about the first naturally conceived kits born to a cloned black-footed ferret. It starts in northern Colorado.
🌞 In other wildlife news, those two llamas on the lam in the San Juans since the summer are finally back home. And at least one of the gray wolves translocated to Colorado in December is roaming for the first time in drainages south of Interstate 70.
Dana Coffield | Editor
Thanks for hanging out with us today. As a Colorado Sun member, you are directly responsible for making our journalism possible — and we are especially thankful for that support. But if you’re feeling like now is an especially good time to weigh in with a little extra financial support for independent, nonpartisan journalism, we hope you’ll consider donating to The Sun during our NewsMatch campaign. Contributing now through Dec. 31 will help us unlock significant matching funds, including a promise to match up to $1,000 per donation. Find the details at coloradosun.com/donate.
In the meantime, and assuming snow has stopped falling where you are, please remember to lift with your legs, take plenty of breaks and leave a little time to make a snow angel. See you back here next week!
— Dana & the whole staff of The Sun
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