Marolt: Which came first, the wagon train or the hotel?

I stared dumbly at the giant screens above the baggage carousel waiting for my suitcase at the airport. The big TV offered a parade of luxury real estate ads and opulent hotel promos in high definition. There were brokers and uniformed drivers of logo-emblazoned black vehicles turning into stars from pixels.

Just as I thought it would be more productive to scroll through news on my phone by the paragraph, a movie promoting a new airport to accommodate bigger jets for a brighter Aspen future lit up the wannabe jumbotron. Aspenites with smiles as white as televangelists moved their lips and made hand gestures. Although there was no sound, the message was loud and clear: “Rearrange the tarmac for bigger jets, because bigger jets won’t bring more people to Aspen and bigger aircraft of the future will be fueled by environmentally friendly fairy dust!”