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Casa Bonita Musings 

$40 million? We could build a new health clinic for outpatient care, with a welcoming building, a diagnostic testing laboratory, an X-ray department, a pharmacy, plenty of examination rooms with bright lights for the doctors, physicians assistants, nurses and patients, conference rooms and staff offices, a comfortable sunshine-filled waiting room, plus all of the equipment needed, large and small, down to the last bottle of rubbing alcohol and canister of fluffy white cotton balls, for $40 million. Just sayin’. 

Nancy McCurdy (�Ѱ�ٲ�’90)&�Բ�����;
Denver

The current edition of the Coloradan features an article about Trey Parker (DistSt’18) and Matt Stone’s (FilmSt, Math’93) acquisition, renovation and relaunch of Casa Bonita. The article states Mr. Stone as having earned degrees in math and art. This is not accurate: Mr. Stone earned degrees in math (BA) and a BFA in film studies (currently “cinema studies & moving image arts”). We proudly list Mr. Stone as one of our alumni, and would really like to see a correction in your online issue and in your next print issue. The readers of the Coloradan should have accurate news and information about the institution that they so much love and support, and the individual departments should be acknowledged properly. 

Ernesto R Acevedo-Muñoz 
Professor, Chair, ��ƷSM����ӰƬ Department of Cinema Studies & Moving Image Arts Boulder 

[Editor’s Note: We have updated Matt Stone’s degree information to reflect his film studies degree.] 

Our readers also sounded off on social media about the 2023 Casa Bonita renovation: 

They did a really great job with the restoration. The food is worth the price, and the entertainment is top-notch. 

Eric Anhold (�ʴDZ�������’00)&�Բ�����;
Via Facebook 

Yay for Matt and Trey and saving Casa Bonita! Always enjoyed it as a kid. 

Susan Schlatter (�ʲ��⳦��’93)&�Բ�����;
Via Facebook 

Fantastic alumni story. 

Chris Rockne (MechEngr’07; MS’07) 
Via Facebook 

During my four years at CU (1990–94), I recall on several occasions walking past the fine arts building on the way to the UMC from my dorm at Cheyenne Arapaho. I’d see the students on the grass, and I arrogantly thought to myself — “what a bunch of suckers studying art.” Not long after graduating, I learned that two of those actual “suckers” were the geniuses behind the show I was then obsessed with: South Park. I got such a kick out of realizing how stupid I was back then, and I still tell that story to anyone who foolishly tries to reduce someone’s path. Shout out to CU fine arts. And shout out to Matt and Trey for repping the Buffs as good as anyone ever did. 

@themiket 
Via Instagram 

This is so awesome for me — a reminder of fond trips to Casa as a family when I was young, and then even sweetened as I remember reading Matt and Trey’s cartoons when I was at Boulder during the same time. 

@carterasc5 
Via Instagram 

A Gift from Betty Woodman

I worked for Betty Woodman [Origins, Fall 2023], and she gave me a very large teapot at my wedding reception that she attended. I have a photo of her at my reception which would have been about 1970. 

Marie McCreery (��&������;��’67)&�Բ�����;
Niwot, Colorado 

From Casa Bonita to Star Trek 

Lovely job — thank you. I really enjoyed your stories on the remodeling and new ownership of Casa Bonita, and on the science advisor for Star Trek. 

Sabrina Sideris (Engl, Hist’00) 
Niwot, Colorado 

The Tiny Hill Diner 

It was with something of a shock I opened the fall issue of the Coloradan and saw the photograph of the little diner that sat just across Pennsylvania Street opposite The Sink. For years I have interrogated friends and acquaintances, even Boulder history writers, in search of someone else who remembers this diner. At some point, it simply vanished. I had begun to think of it as a will o’ the wisp. 

But here is the Twilight Zone part: Contrary to the account in the Coloradan, I could not have eaten there prior to the summer of ’63, which was when I came to Boulder, and I remember it being the Buff Top Hat Diner. 

Now if I can only find someone else who remembers Bennet’s Brick Oven. 

Earl Noe (���dzܰ�’66)&�Բ�����;
Boulder 

Are We Ready for Self-Driving Cars? 

In reference to the Fall 2023 article “Is the World Ready for Self-Driving Cars?,” an image by Sam Gross from page 21 of Everyone’s a Critic: The Ultimate Cartoon Book edited by Bon Eckstein. 

Ernst Anton Kemper (���𳾷��Բ���’59)&�Բ�����;
Lakewood, Colorado 

Coloradan Shenanigans  

I’d like to share my recent experience regarding the alumni magazine. My son Page (CivEngr’05; MS’15) and I are both CU graduates, so we’re both on your list to receive the Coloradan. However, for many years his copy has come to my address. I asked him to notify you of this but he couldn’t be bothered. So, every time it comes, I hand off his copy, usually in a batch of articles I’ve curated for him from magazines and newspapers. When I hand him one of these envelopes, he goes through it, surreptitiously or blatantly, and when he finds the Coloradan he sneaks it back into my stuff, under the windshield wiper or slipped through a cracked-open window of my car. We’ve played this game a looong time. 

But this Christmas he took it to the next level. When I visited, he told me to sit down and close my eyes. When he said I could look, there was the cover of the Fall 2023 Coloradan on a shower curtain. Of course, it was his copy, with his name and my address. We laughed and laughed, after which I was left wondering, “How do I top this?” 

Clearly, the only way to go one better is to have you print the shower curtain pic in your next issue, and to update his listing to his address! 

Without silliness, we are all doomed. 

Nancy Ball Weil (��ܲ���’77)&�Բ�����;
Denver 

CU’s First Female Olympians 

I’d like to offer a fact check and possible correction on page 65 of the Fall Coloradan. 

According to my research, CU ski coach Bob Beattie took over the U.S. ski team in 1962. He created a de facto national training center at CU and most of the men and women lived in Boulder and went to CU. Some were down the road at DU and some not in college, and at least one was too young and went to high school in Boulder. About this time of year they would take “incompletes” in their classes and head to Europe to race, then come back and continue classes in the spring. They also trained at Eldora and on St. Mary’s Glacier. In the spring of 1963, that CU/U.S. program became the core of the 1964 Olympic team. Again Boulder was the epicenter, and most of the team that went to the Innsbruck Games were full or part-time CU students. So, this leads me to believe the note in the Coloradan about Sandy Hildner (A&S’67) [“THEN,” Fall 2023] might not be accurate. 

I was on the B team in 1976, did some pro skiing, then helped with the CU skiing program working for then-head coach Tim Hinderman. Later I worked for filmmaker Warren Miller and have been involved in the ski industry in various ways ever since. This includes occasional writing gigs. 

David Butterfield (��ܳ�’81)&�Բ�����;
Ketchum, Idaho 

[Editor’s Note: Further research shows that while Sandy Hildner was among CU’s first female Olympians, she was not necessarily the first. We regret the reporting error.] 

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Photos courtesy Nancy Ball Weil (shower curtain); Marie McCreery (Woodman photo); Casa Bonita
Illustration by Sam Gross from Everyone's a Critic by Bob Eckstein © 2019; Used with permission from Chronicle Books LLC, San Francisco.