Good dog finally gets its day

Every dog has his day and for Budd the car driving dog, that day would have been Oct. 7.

But in Budd's memory, Purina will present his owner with a $10,000 check at the S&W Feed Store.

Budd has always been talented, but his entry into the talent contest put him on his way to national stardom.

S&W Feed Store owner Stan Kolbus said Purina was horrified to learn of Budd's Aug. 30 death by auto accident.

"They were just destroyed," he said. "They were ready to put the Model T and Budd onto a plane to St. Louis. What happened to Budd was a bummer."

Budd was the third dog trained to drive by Carson City's Bill Williamson. Budd won the talent competition held in Carson on June 29.

Stan and Wendy Kolbus have owned the feed store for eight years, purchasing it after Stan sold his Gardnerville Shell Station.

I made it through a grand total of 30 minutes of "Push, Nevada" this week before I walked away shaking my head.

Set aside for a moment that no one in the show knows how to say Nevada and that at 10,000 people, Push would be one good sized town, or that there just isn't that much traffic coming into Nevada from Death Valley.

Where's the creosote?

The Southern Nevada desert is covered with thick, waxy green brush. With the exception of the playas in the middle of the valleys, the entire region is thick with the stuff until you get past Tonopah, where the altitude and dryness conspire to make a real desert.

Where's the mountains?

Every valley in Nevada is surrounded by mountains. There are few places in the state where you can look out and see unbroken plain. Without mountains, Nevada would be the same color as Iowa, since there would be nothing to stop the rain from riding in.

Dayton restaurant Mia's will appear on Public Broadcasting's Channel 5 at 8 p.m. Oct. 2 as "Great Performances" looks at the "Misfits."

Max Kuerzi, who owns the restaurant in the historic Odeon Hall, said the producer of the show told him it will air.

The film crews from the television program were in Dayton back in June to interview people who where living in town when Marilyn Monroe was filming the movie.

Three days later, on Oct. 5, Max and Mia plan on celebrating Oktoberfest at the restaurant.

Speaking of television, some of you might have caught Chic DiFrancia's rerun of the History Channel program Modern Marvels, where he talked about mining on the Comstock.

Chic's significant other, Carol Clifford, said she was talking to her sister on the phone when the show was airing.

"I hear Chic's voice on the television," Carol said her sister reported. "Shouldn't you be getting a royalty."

Carol said the original show was taped for A&E seven years ago and it has been running ever since.

"It's a great show," she said. "I just wish we were getting royalties."

During my walk around the Capitol on Wednesday I saw Ed Pearce and Ande Engleman

coming out of a news conference with the governor on the budget.

Pearce is news director at Channel 8 and Ande is the former Nevada Press Association director.

We were watching the news for Ed's budget story when my wife, Jennifer, spotted Tom Jacobs giving an interview about a new DMV push to get car dealers to register cars on site. Jenn says Tom was part of the old Carson Valley theater group. I wasn't around then, but I've heard many tales of Jenn's dad, Gim Hollister, charging up the stairs in "Arsenic and Old Lace" in the role of Uncle Teddy.

Kurt Hildebrand is former managing editor of the Nevada Appeal. Reach him at kurt@tahoe.com or leave a message at 882-2111, extension 402.