Author: admin

Am I the only one who thinks that at the rate the Republicans are going in the presidential race, Obama can probably bank his campaign funds for his future because he will easily slide into a second term? I mean, have you seen the debates? OMG!

The weather turns cold. The snow creeps down the mountains. Every day I wake up and wonder if today will be the day that snow covers the ugly remnants of my summer lawn and flowers. But Mother Nature is sometimes nothing more than a big tease… she coyly turns the sky a steel grey, blows the leaves off the trees and turns the ground to frost every morning. Yet still no snow. Girls who were considered teasers in my generation did not have a nice reputation. I wonder if Mother Nature is aware of this?

Back in the day when Alaska was flush with oil money, programs for treating substance abuse, sex abuse and domestic violence flourished. You could find state funded programs from Barrow to Ketchikan and all places in between. So what happened? Why did all those programs disappear? And why are the citizens of Alaska now being told that they were actually quite cost effective in dealing with difficult problems?

A lot of points converged that led to the dismantling of the state’s efforts to deal with societal problems like abuse and dependency. Money was drying up. There were public cries to

If there were a nuclear war, members of my family would dutifully march down the ladders into underground bunkers to survive the hostilities. The minute the bombs stopped falling, even as the clouds of dust and smoke still filled the air, certain of those members – and you know who you are – would come up from the bunkers, briefcases in hand, wondering where the hell everyone else was and why they weren’t doing the same thing and getting back to work. After all, they would reason, the bombs have stopped falling, so what’s the problem?

I’m just saying, in

Watching the debacle in DC that is supposedly our government functioning in our best interest, I find it amazing that Native Americans across the country have not risen up and told all of us to get the hell out because we’ve not only despoiled their land, seas and rivers, but now we’ve just become one huge embarrassment. I thought this after hearing a commentator opine that nothing will happen in DC that will actually be helpful between now and the next election because neither party wants to give the other party any edge or advantage. Way to go, people. Let

I was getting dressed to go to a fundraiser for our local public broadcasting station. I took out the green plastic bag that held the clothes in which I will be cremated given how much they initially cost when I had to buy them for a wedding. It was the only grown up part of what I had available. My shoes were walking store shoes because the others hurt my feet. And since these shoes are a little big, I wear heavy socks to fill the space while telling myself they won’t show because of the length of my pants.My

When I was young, I dreamed about the day I’d retire and be able to sleep in every morning like I once did in my early teens before my mother found me a job. Now I’m old, semi-retired and guess what… yep, I wake up every day between 7 and 8 and can’t get back to sleep. Sometimes I wake up at 3 AM and read New York Magazine cover to cover before my body is even slightly interested in going back to sleep. On those days, if I’m lucky, I can sleep in until 9.

Life is simply not

Saw Bill Clinton on Letterman a few nights ago and haven’t been able to get the interview out of my head. He may have been a lousy husband, but he has an amazing mind and was the last really good president we had. Too bad he can’t run again.

I saw them in the store. Each fig was carefully set into a little depression in the plastic container that held them. Each fig was perfect… same size, same shape, same color. My mind raced back to my childhood. Mrs. Letizia is standing in my dad’s store holding a fig from her fig tree. She has cut it into four pieces so we can each have a taste. In the city, fig trees didn’t produce a lot so you shared what they provided so everyone could have a taste. I remember putting that piece of fig in my mouth and

Class warfare.  It’s the latest campaign buzzword. Try to have any reasonable discussion of our financial troubles, huge federal deficit and sinking middle class that includes asking the rich to kick in a few more bucks and you are accused of class warfare.  Yet somehow, the fact that about 400 families in America now control 50% of its wealth is not seen in the same light.

So if I have this correct, it’s class warfare when any attempt is made to have the very wealthy pay an incrementally small amount of their incredible wealth to keep America financially sound. But