Casper Star-Tribune from Casper, Wyoming • 6

Oninion Joan Barron DzrrellEhrlick 1 1 r-r The Zing ers No protection in leadership debacle mi Decision time has come for civic auditorium concept The topic of today's column -Zingers and Ding-Dongs. Yeah, I know: Fancy that the fat kid is writing about snack cakes. Butinjoumalismyouwriteabout what you know. In this case, I am writing about what I love. So chalk this up to another nostalgic column about the sudden disappearance of one of America's favorite snack cakes.

The confections that could supposedly weather a nuclear blast became themselves avictim of something far less spectacular and more commonplace, bankruptcy. It's easy to blame the unions for the demise of fruit pies and chemical cakes that never went bad. That's also not entirely true. I am to blame for their demise. Ill own up to my share of responsibility.

My Zinger habit started long ago when my grandfather kept his pantry stocked with a box of them for whenever I arrived. They were a special treat that I only got at his house. Even my mother, not one known to deprive her little angels of sugar, saw the Hostess line of products as excessive. This from a person known for making a treat my sister dubbed "Satan cookies" for their copious amounts of sugar and butter. Though I seemed to outgrow the Zinger habit about the time I got a -driver's license and stopped picking up baseball cards at the neighborhood convenience store, I always smiled a bit when I walked by the shelf in the supermarket lined with snack cakes.

In grocery stores rilled with health food that includes quinoa, speltberries and flavored soy milk, I took some comfort in the fact that there was a section for the foods I want to eat versus the ones I know I should. I have no idea what made that frost -ing so addictive on a vanilla Zinger. The Zingers' vanilla is not so unlike the grape of mo. Any resemblance to the real thing that is, vanilla or grape is purely accidental Grapes dont taste enjoy them, especially magreatZinfan-del And-, frosting just isnt like the topping of a Zinger, butllove its radioactive yellow tint and the fact that I could peel ttoffandeatrtseparatefy.havingbotha TwinkieandagcboffrostJngtoboot. Yet, for all the nostalgia, I rarely gave into the temptation.

I always seemed to enjoy peeling the foil off a Ding Dong more than the faintly chocolate taste of the snack cake. I had hoped to pass on my love of bad snacks to my children. When I saw a few years, ago that Hostess had introduced Twinkies with strawberry filling, I saw my chance to mdortrinate the next unsuspecting generation. Mollk, barely a year old, was less than impressed. I couldn't blame her.

No frosting and the pinkish filling tasted like something, althoughl am not sure if it was strawberries. Still, for as many times as Ipassed by the racks of Hostess snack cakes, I never realty bought. I always liked the idea of them being there, andlam fairly certain that some day my kids would have tried afnnt pie, wMchrrigm have been the onty way my friends andl would will-Jngty have eaten fruit when I was young. It had been almost two years since I had bought my last Twinlde -not by intention, but just because snack cakes weren't an everyday part of my life, regardless of what my famine-proof physique may suggest. Yet, the second I caught wind of our kxal Hostess outlet on CY Avenune going out of business, I sent a io bill with our reporter and said, "I need a box of Zingers and a Ho-Hoiftheyhaveit." 1 And the taring on the Hostess announcement couldnt be a better lesson to mam' like me, who always trusted a rjeloved product would be there forever.

We have to support what we love whether that's locally produced fruits, vegetables or food. That also applies to local retailers and merchants. Loving a produd or service is fundamentally different than supporting it. This isnt just a shop-local column. It's more of a reminder that what we support -or don't does matter.

And for most retailers, mey'renowmtherr-or-break time of year. I guess tiiat leaves onty little Debbie to hold the rebel position on the shelves in the supermarkets. And sure, IH ad- mil to being a dessert hussy HI rush to whatever mack cake looks good and available. Indeed, lam weflfamfliar with star crunches, caramel cookies, oatmeal pies -all Little Debbie fare, But Godhelp I don't think Zebra Cakes will ever quite have the hold on me as a Zinger or Ding-Dong. j.v The Wyoming House GOP leadership shakeup led last week to the airing of an issue that has been percolating ever since the House discarded its old leadership progression system years ago.

Rep. Keith Gingeryof Jackson brought it all out in the open when he repeated publicly a message he had delivered to the House Republicans at their closed caucus in Casper. His message was that the Wyoming House Republicans shouldretum to the traditional system of allowing a legislator to continue, on the ladder to the speaker's chair once he or she has a leadership position. The ladder starts with the post of majority whip and goes on to speaker pro tem, then to majority floor leader and finally to the goal, house speaker. Gingery has been speaker pro tem and expected to continue on to majority floor leader in the session that opens in January.

Instead, Rep. Kermit Brown of Laramie, who hasn't been in leadership, popped in and won the straw poll for the position. Both legislators are attorneys with eight years experience in the House. Gingery said his point was that the House is hurting itself every time a member is knocked off the leadership ladder." "We are sort of eating our own," Gingery said, using a familiar description of internal GOP contests. In addition to Gingery's comments, the GOP caucus produced other noteworthy events.

Sen. Eli Bebout of Riverton is the new Senate vice president. He also will be chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. Bebout also is a former house speaker. If he continues on his march through the Senate leadership he will be the only legislator in Wyoming history to have been both Senate President and House speaker.

Not taking anything away from Bebout, who is a highly skilled legislator, he nevertheless would not have been in this position had he remained a member of the Democratic party. Bebout was a Democrat in the House in the 1993-94 session and served as minority party whip. He switched parties and four years later was the majority floor leader and then went on to become speaker in the 1999-2000 session. Rep. Rosie Berger of Big Horn, who also has not been in a leadership position, will be new speaker pro tem.

Berger, who has been a co-chairman of the Joint Appropriations Committee, could go on to become the second woman speaker in Wyoming history. The first one was Verda James of Casper in 1969. The new majority floor leaders, Kermit Brown in the House, and Phil Nicholas in the Senate, are both from Laramie in Albany County. Tom Lubnau of Gillette, the new house speaker, had the sante experience as Gingery a couple of years ago. Lubnau was speaker pro tem in the 2007-2008 Legislature and Ed Buchanan was majority whip.

Whenthecaucusesforthe2009-2010 leadership positions were over, Buchanan, not Lubnau, emerged as majority floor leader. Lubnau was out of the leadership but made a comeback in the 2011-2012 session as majority floor leader while Buchanan was speaker. In the past before the threat of term limits emerged, the "dog fight" if there was one, would be the majority whip job, said Sen. Charles Scott of Casper, who served in the House before moving to the Senate. When lawmakers thought they could serve only 12 years, they hustled to get on the leadership ladder quickly.

Although the Wyoming Supreme Court threw out term limits for legislators, the horse was out of the bam, as it were, and the seniority system never recovered. Other speakers pro tem who were cut off from moving up to floor leader after the term limits threat included Rep. Rodney "Pete" Anderson of Pine Bluffs, the late Peg Shreve of Cody, and PattiMacMiflanof Laramie. Anderson's grandson, Matt Teeters of Lingle, got bumped from the whip leaclersrup post this year by Tta Stub-son of Casper. The Senate leadership elections held no surprises as usual.

The upper chamber never was as disrupted by the term limits threat as the House. I I he idea of a civic audito II rium seems like an idea I I whose time has come. And gone. Last week, the Casper City Council rightly decided to hold off on funding for the Iris Stadium 8 purchase that would be used for a civic auditorium because a new City Council is just weeks away from taking office. While the decision on putting funds toward the theater has merely been placed on hold until after the new council members take the path of office, the deci-sion to not go forward should be permanent.

A funding gap of more than $10 million remains and a group which has been working admirably and tireless for years to raise as much as $18 million isn't close to hitting that mark. It has taken years to raise less than $5 million for the project. At the rate it's going, the project may take decades. The real point is: The community at large has not placed a particularly high value on the concept of a civic auditorium. The economics of such a theater aren't pretty, either.

A total capacity and an $18 million price tag means each seat in a theater would run more than $13,000. At nearly 60 percent the cost of a new library, the civic theater seems like too much money for too little project. We admire the vision of those who want such an amenity for Casper. And we believe the facility would be an attraction. Yet the civic auditorium has obviously not resonated with the public.

The concept has been floated for nearly 20 years without much traction. And if the community doesn't rally for this cause, then it's simply not a priority, especially not one that should consume millions in taxpayer funding. Especially not now. The problem extends beyond the construction and renovation of the theater, though. The more the city chooses to buy into the theater, the more it might own the problem.

Let's be brutally honest: The group trying to buy the theater has struggled to find the cash to finance the project. What happens when it comes time for yearly operational costs? Again, the more the city buys into the project, the more it could inherit and even finance -an albatross. It seems like so many projects throughout Casper receive "angel" funding heavy-hitting donors willing to write the big checks to turn dream projects into reality. Yet, this civic auditorium dream remains just that. Is it time to finally commend the groups for their efforts but move on to a different 'community project? How can the funding gap be bridged in a reasonable time period? And where is the community support that extends beyond a handful of people? The issue boils down to scarcity on two levels.

First, one of the reasons the civic auditorium idea may be languishing is because of or the lack thereof. Look around: There seems to be sufficient venues throughout Casper from the events center to high school auditoriums to Casper College. While purists may argue these settings aren't always acoustically or aesthetically ideal, they may be adequate for the community. Second, scarcity comes into play when talking about taxpayer funds. Looking around Casper there seems to be plenty of other needs, from literacy to homelessness to economic development.

We'd ask the four new councilmembers -along with the other officials Is this really the best use of city funds? And, how widespread is support for this idea? During this previous election, without exception, every City Council candidate talked about scrutinizing the budget. Many talked about the need to separate the city's wants from needs. The civic auditorium appears to be one of the best tests of the council's appetite for putting their election-time philosophies into real-time practice. A 8 Km -a vki P--H i otfu'siriuuiit; NathM M' publisher 7 DmlEiifck, editor- OTSteLm.fttBiitt' ton Crjmanagir editor .7 toryfc opinion editor My Ann Imt, immunity news editor.