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Show Ten D'Clock Whistle I by David Fleisher Drug-A-Dub-Dub An article in this month's issue of Utah Holiday magazine concerning drugs in Park City has provoked quite a bit of controversy around town. A number of prominent and not-so-prominent residents here are upset because they feel the article not only paints Park City as the cocaine capital of the western hemisphere but also because it is a fabrication of the facts. The drug-a- dub-dub article is replete with sensational details such as mysterious deaths, people leaving town and missing, and "doing business" in local bars and private . clubs. And if all that wasn't enough, drug-a-dub-dub even has sex in it. Can you believe it?! Drugs, death, sex. slander? All in a magazine published in the Land of Zion? You betcha! One of the problems inherent in an article of this kind is determining how much of it is fact and how much of it is fiction. A reporter for the Washington Post won a pulitzer prize not long ago for a story she wrote about an 11 -year-old boy addicted to heroin; the story was shocking, disturbing and well written, however there was one small matter of concern: the 11 year-old boy didn't exist in real life, but only in the imaginative mind of the reporter. She resigned from the paper and returned the coveted prize. I'm not trying to suggest that the author of drug-a-dub-dub imagined everything and that he wrote the article with a wreckless disregard for the truth. But whenever you write about such topics as drugs, death and sex, a little fiction now and then is helpful: it tends to enhance the reader's interest. Here is a small example of what I mean by a blending of fact with fiction. The writer says in the article, "If you hang out long enough, you'll see a Rolls Royce puttering to and from the new Alpha Beta Market, which replaced the old Mt. Air Market, which in turn drove out the grocery store on Main Street, a location now occupied by a private club." The implication here is that Alpha Beta is a meeting place for people who have more on their minds than buying toothpaste. And Alph Beta replaced Mt. Air Market because Mr. Air Market couldn't attract enough people who drove Rolls Royces; and the old grocery store on Main Street was driven out of business by Mt. Air Market because there were no Rolls Royces on Main Street at the time. And now, the old grocery store on Main Street is replaced by a private club, which attracts a lot of Rolls Royces, deals in cocaine and competes with Alpha Beta. When was the last time you saw a Rolls Royce "puttering to and from the new Alpha Beta Market?" 1 saw a Mercedes Benz there the other day, but I'm sure the driver, who I would guess was in her mid-eighties, didn't know the difference between cocaine and grits .. Can you see walking through the sliding glass doors at Alpha Beta and hearing a soft, sexy voice over the PA system, "Good moring, shoppers. We have on sale today cocaine at the rediculously low 'price of $10 per pound." In another less provocative part of drug-adub-dub, the writer tells of a young blue-eyed dancer who used to hang out at natural food restaurants and snort cocaine. This isn't surprising at all; I mean, that what would you do if you hung out at natural food restaurants and saw tasteless alfalfa sprouts all over your plate? You wouldn't have much choice, would you? Drug-a-dub-dub sort of gives the impression that people in Park City go to sleep at night dreaming about drugs, death sex and money. As a good friend of mine once told me, "Park City is not just a place; it's a town." There are many different kinds of people who live in Park City; some very bright, some very stupid, some quite imaginative, some quite dull, some rich, some poor. The one thing this town doesn't have is a lack of diversity. As I walk up Main Sireet, I hear the Ten O'Clock Whistle. |