Last year, a duo from Glenrock made a bit of culinary history. Now, for the next three weeks or so, they'll have their names - sort of - up in lights.

That is, Jim Downs and Aric Parkinson of Glenrock will have the name of their new creation, the Mexican Stacker - up in fluorescent lights on a Taco John's menu board until February.

The fellas were crowned in March as champions of the statewide Taco John's West Mex Culinary Competition and winning $500 in scholarships.

The Glenrock Independent notes in its Jan. 10 edition that their product, the Mexican Stacker, will be in restaurants in Casper, Douglas and Cheyenne until just before Groundhog Day.

So what is the Mexican Stacker?

It's a grilled flour tortilla with slices of chicken, cheese, chipotle sauce, sour cream and a corn shell in the middle.

"I could throw down two," Downs told the paper.

"I could too," Parkinson said.

The duo got advice from home economics teacher Candace Stoll.

"They worked hard. They deserved this," she told the paper. "And they work well together."

You know what they say. Two great tastes that taste great together.

Lifesaver saves the life of another

There's a message here, and it's that you never know when you might need to potentially save someone's life.

That's what Arjen Van Garderen did for Alan E. Smith when the two were inside the Sheridan Memorial Hospital's staff lounge on Jan. 3, the Sheridan Press reported in its Jan. 8 edition.

Smith, an anesthesiologist at the hospital, was choking on a piece of a pear and motioning for someone to help him when he caught the attention of traveling nurse Arjen Van Garderen. Smith told the paper he tried to do the Heimlich maneuver on himself when he turned his back to the Belgrade, Mont.-based nurse, in a gesture to tell him to help out.

"I think he thought I was joking," said Smith. "He said, 'Do you want me to do a Heimlich?' and I nodded yes."

Smith said he could feel the piece of pear acting as a valve shutting off his flow of air, he told the paper.

Van Garderen dislodged the pear within seconds, the paper noted.

"In all fairness, he talked me into eating that pear," Smith joked.

Aren't they all snow-capped this time of year, anyway?

It's rare when this column does the paper-on-paper-on-paper trick, but forgive us if we can't resist. The Jackson Hole News and Guide reported in its Jan. 9 edition of an ad campaign running in the Honolulu Advertister of a snow-capped mountain, luring tourists to a six-night stay in New Zealand.

Problem is, the photo isn't anywhere near the Southern Hemisphere. It's right near Jackson - Mount Moran, to be exact, the paper reported.

Diane Henderson notified the Jackson paper of the gaffe.

"I laughed and laughed," she told the News and Guide. "New Zealand has so many lovely spots, as well. They have wonderful mountains, just as good as the Tetons."

Heather Falk, marketing manager of the Jackson Hole Chamber of Commerce, was flabbergasted.

"How crazy is that?" Falk told the paper. "You'd think New Zealand would have enough fabulous stuff that they wouldn't need our Tetons."

This problem's for the birds

In the winter of 2005-06, it was the crows of Riverton that bombarded the city's downtown before giving way to vigilante shooters, cops with sidearms, a falconer (briefly) and some bright lights that finally shooed the birds away.

But a photograph published in the Jan. 10 edition is enough to make the ghost of Alfred Hitchcock shudder and Tippi Hedren, star of his thriller, "The Birds" go asking for a royalty check.

There, hundreds of hundreds of starlings darken the evening sky at the Crown Hill Cemetery, in a scene that brings Baby Boomers seemingly back to 1963, the year "The Birds" made it to the movie theater.

"We still shoot at them every once in a while, more out of frustration than anything else," Curt Stebner, the man in charge of the Powell cemetery upkeep, told the paper.

A man used to vacuum the waste accumulated on the cemetery, but it's been a problem for years that doesn't seem to be going away any time soon.

The people who run the cemetery even tried to lace bird feed with poison. The birds have never eaten the food, the paper reported.

Baby patrol

Newspapers across Wyoming are still rolling out that old staple of community journalism - a town's first baby of the year. So without further ado, we roll out some of the more notable seen on paper in 2008:

From Powell: The Powell Tribune reported in its Jan. 8 edition of Trisha and Jay Croft of Lovell, who gave birth to a girl, Elyssa Jo, on Jan. 3. The boy was born on the same date in the calendar as Trisha's father.

From Buffalo: And how about this little one - On Jan. 10, the Buffalo Bulletin reported on the Jan. 6 birth of Velvet Rose Barnum.

From Thermopolis: The (Thermopolis Hot Springs) Independent Record reported on Jan. 10 in its paper of the birth of Stone Pebbles. The boy was born Jan. 4 with fluid in his lungs. Based on his name, we figure the kid's a tough fighter.

It's tank tops and cutoffs in Laramie

You wouldn't know it by checking out the nearby Snowy Range, but someone in Laramie appears optimistic that summer is right around the corner, if not here already. The Laramie Boomerang reported in its Jan. 10 edition of the projected temperature for that day: a high of 82 degrees.

Hey, at least the sun is shining.

Got an item or tip for this column? Contact night editor David Mirhadi at (307) 266-0616 or david.mirhadi@trib.com