The Denver Post interviewed people who remember Howard Dean's year as an Aspen ski bum. He washed dishes at the Golden Horn restaurant. His former employer disses him, but most of those interviewed are either mildly favorable or say he didn't stand out.

Dean spent the 1971-1972 ski season in Aspen. That's the year we moved to Denver. Aspen was so, so fun back then. We liked Sheriff Bob Braudis's comments--he is the coolest sheriff we know.

Update: Katha Pollitt bashes the press over their treatment of Judith Dean :

I don't think Dr. Judy is weird at all. She's leading a normal, modern, middle-class-professional life. She has been married forever. She has two children. She likes camping and bike riding and picnics. She volunteers. She has work she loves...I have no idea why Judith Steinberg hasn't slogged through the snow for her husband. Maybe she's busy. ('It's not something I can say, 'Oh, you take over for a month,' she explained to Diane Sawyer. Imagine that, Tina, Diane, Maureen-a job where if you don't show up, it matters!)."