Columns 2015

Families who care for members with chronic illnesses often find themselves overwhelmed with the responsibility of making life comfortable and bearable for their sick relative. But when that illness is a mental illness, the difficulty increases exponentially until it flies off the top of the charts. The simple truth is that we are no better at dealing with the effects of mental illness on the family and society than we were 100 years ago except for new drug therapies. Of course, those drug therapies require the cooperation of the ill individual and, as anyone knows who cares for someone with

Now that our historic presidential visit is just about over, we can focus on the important things in life. Important things like will it be warm enough to grill outside on Labor Day? And let’s be honest here. Alaskans have been known to grill in below zero weather so absent torrential rains, I’m guessing most of us will celebrate the day with something charred on a grill.

According to a government website, “Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes

In case you are wondering, what you’ve been observing on a national level the past six years is the politics of spite. Republicans announced at the beginning of Obama’s first term that their sole objective was to make his presidency a failure and they have worked to accomplish just that while failing to actually contribute to our country’s welfare. Now it seems as though our Republican legislature has decided to emulate their national brethren. With the announcement of the lawsuit against Governor Walker for expanding Medicaid, I fear we have heard the opening salvo of four years of spite politics

This Saturday. Bird TLC will be holding its annual farewell to our migratory bird friends at an event called “Gone With The Wings”. I’d planned to write about the event but then another article about the North Slope Borough hit the paper and I felt a great sense of obligation to try and explain, if possible, that things are done differently up north. It’s something I spent almost ten years as the borough’s public information officer trying to explain to the outside world. It’s not easy.

So, let me just urge you to go to the Bird TLC property above

I turned my furnace on today for the first time since May. Thank god. Winter is on its way!

And yes, I turned it off as soon as the house got up to 64 degrees but still…

Anyone who watched the Republican candidates’ debate should have come away understanding why Donald Trump is beating all of them in the polls. It’s not because he’s the craziest of the group or says the craziest things. Let’s be real, in this group that designation will be hard fought for many months to come. No, the reason Donald Trump is so high in the polls is because he is not boring while the other candidates make my brain explode with boredom.

I used to be in a high school debate club. I remember that you were expected to answer the

Last night I sat down with a margarita and the last four Daily Shows that I’d taped. I started crying right after Jon Stewart appeared. Too many goodbyes this year. Letterman, Colbert, now Stewart. The people who made the world a little more understandable and funny are now gone and I’m left to make up my own jokes. I feel like I’ve just watched the passing of a very golden age of TV and can only hope the people taking over can be even half as good.

We frequently read about countries in which people walk for days to get to a polling booth and then risk death by actually voting. We’re awed by the courage it takes to vote under those conditions. Then we go back to our lattes and forget that in this country, we have basically thrown our voting privilege away by avoiding the voting booth in droves.

It sometimes seems that the people who vote the least bitch the most. Many justify not voting by saying that no candidate pleases them completely. If they can’t have a perfect candidate, then they just won’t

When Donald Trump entered the presidential race I reacted as many columnists did. We tried to suppress our glee. But he keeps crossing lines that make me feel as though the fun we’re having watching this blowhard is now tainted by the nasty, ugly content of his message and, perhaps even more troubling, the acceptance of that ugliness by way too many people.

Donald Trump comes from the same part of the world in which I originated so I am perhaps more familiar with his type of bloviated ego and strange hair than others. The first casino he opened in

This is a story with disparate characters who eventually come together. The characters include me, a Marine and Alaska Airlines. Alaska Airlines gets mentioned because coming home to them after flying on other carriers is like climbing back into mom’s womb.

But let’s start at the beginning. I was flying from Philadelphia to San Diego on United with a plane change in Houston. A thunderstorm was in full roar as we boarded the flight to San Diego. We sat on the runway for four hours waiting to take off during which time United offered us each one cookie and a