The end of summer brings many events and one of the largest was the 18th annual Summer Celebration given by the Aspen Institute on Aug. 6. The 2011 Public Service Honoree was Brent Scowcroft, co-chair of the Aspen Strategy Group, and National Security Advisor to Presidents Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush. Two cadets from the Airforce Academy accompanied Scowcroft and he held a conversation with former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at the Greenwald Pavilion at the Aspen Meadows which was followed by a reception and dinner at the Doerr-Hosier Center, also at the Meadows campus. Co-chairs for the event were Robert Steel, chairman of the Aspen Institute, Walter Isaacson, president and CEO of the Institute and Jane and Michael Eisner. Honorary co-chairs were former Congresswoman Jane Harman and Brian Frank.

A special dinner tribute was given in memory of Sidney Harman, Jane’s late husband, Aspen Institute Trustee from 2000 to 2011, and who purchased Newsweek magazine several months before his death.

On Thursday, Sept. 1, at 6 p.m. at the Explore Booksellers, former Aspenite Joanne Brand will discuss and sign her new book titled “Ten Miles from Aspen.” Joanne and her late husband, Larry Brand operated the Elk Mountain Lodge in Ashcroft during the 1950s and 1960s, through snowpacked winters and frightening fires in several of the cabins of the lodge.

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Undercurrent … I have the end of summer blues!