Want to give Academy Award winner Jack Nicholson a jingle? Or would you like to chat with former Walt Disney Co. chief Michael Eisner or musician John Oates? Just look up their phone numbers or addresses in the Aspen addition of the Yellow Book phone directory.
Unfortunately for many Aspen residents and celebrities, information such as phone numbers and addresses that they had paid extra to keep unlisted, were recently published in the 2007 addition of the Yellow Book. InfoUSA, a database marketing service that claims to have the industry’s most comprehensive data, provided Yellow Book with the data. Plus, the Yellow Book is strife with mistakes. In some cases, ex-wives, ex-husbands and their new spouses are listed as living at the same address. (But you never know about Aspenites-this could be true so they can save postage on the alimony checks.) And the dead have gotten no rest. Even former Enron chief Ken Lay, who passed away in Aspen over the summer, remains in the phone book–page 144.
The worst has just begun for Yellow Book publishers, no doubt. There are over 15 pages of attorneys listed in the Aspen area….
European Alpine Resorts Suffer from Warmest Winter in 1,300 Years
Luckily for Aspen, its weather history goes back only about 50 years. In any case, what’s bad for Germany and France ski resorts is good for business in Aspen. For the international skiing elite, Aspen must be the #1 destination this year. With lots of snow on the ski hills, the town reports that it will be over 90 percent full over the Christmas holiday.
With lift tickets at $82, one will need to be “elite” to ski Aspen this winter.
Rifle Airport Pit Stop for the Rich and Famous
Rifle is a well used rest break for travelers on I-70, but how does it rate with the jet set?
If you can’t land your bjillion dollar Lear jet at the Aspen or Eagle/Vail airports because of weather, you are usually re-routed to the utilitarian Rifle airport, about a 90 minute drive west from Aspen and Vail. A Rifle airport worker said that they can land almost any sized private aircraft and they do have a limousine service ready to take those wayward VIP’s and movie stars to their ski villas.
Pilots actually prefer to fly into the unpretentious Rifle airport, according to the Rifle airport employee, because of its safer accessibility and less mountainous terrain. However, the pilots hate to deal with their cranky customers who have to make the unscheduled drive from Rifle to their original ski resort destinations.
Horrors upon horrors, this alternate route sends the privileged past Wal-Mart, McDonald’s, gravel pits and drilling rigs on their way to Snowmass Village. And their limo driver has to contend with traffic from oil and gas trucks, Grampa Smith’s 1965 International and Jose’s 1987 Datsun on the way to Vail Village. Oh! The inhumanity!
Do the paparazzi have an easier access to photograph celebrities at the Rifle airport? Only if they can find it on the map.
