Elise Sereni Patkotak

I lost my favorite gardener and all around wonderful person to cancer this month.  I know her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren are all missing her very much. As for me, I have to believe she is in heaven advising God on how to plant Her spring garden and gently telling Her which are weeds and which aren’t.  And if God has any sense at all, She will listen to Pat’s advice.

Well, I guess I have my answer now. If your dogs are loose and threatening me when I walk, it’s my problem.  Animal Control not only is of little use, but if you complain, you get a call from someone who makes it sound as though you are the annoyance and those poor people with the loose dogs are being harrassed. At least I know where I stand now.

By the way, Anchorage Animal Control, you should screen your officers better and only let certain ones actually have contact with the public. The others should stick to animals who won’t

I know that when someone invokes their Fifth Amendment rights I should not automatically assume they are guilty of something and covering up. But I do. And I bet you do too. What’s scary is when the person doing it is from the highest levels of the Department of Justice.

Due to local elections, my column has been bumped to next week in the paper so it won’t show up here till then either. So this is my week off. I don’t have to sit here staring at the blank computer screen trying to come up with a topic that will hold my interest long enough to write about it.  Wow.  You’d think I’d feel more relieved than I do.

Meanwhile, for all Alaskans reading this, please vote no on the advisory vote to deny same sex couples health care benefits. First of all, let’s not codify discrimination into our

I was interviewed by a high school student about the March on Washington in the fall of ‘67. Not only is my youth now officially history, but her mother informed me that the dear child had no idea what a draft board was so my telling her about joining sit-ins there was like speaking a foreign language.  Ditto for the words Quakers, Society of Friends, Abbie Hoffman and levitating the Pentagon. Sigh.

In the eyes of conservative moralistic Christians that listen to all those televangelists, Hillary Clinton would have more respect from their corner if she’d divorced Bill like Gingrich and Giuliani and McCain did with their spouses. In fact, based on their support for Giuliani and Gingrich, they should be wild for Bill since they seem to embrace men who cheat. Oh wait, that’s right. Clinton went back to his wife and they seem to be at least making a surface effort to keep their marriage together. That’s his problem. Had he dumped her for one of his bimbettes, he would

It wasn’t that you fired those prosecutors. It was that you lied about it. How hard can that concept be to understand? And why does each new generation of politicians seemingly have to learn it over again? Don’t they remember Watergate? Irancontra?  For god’s sake, Bill was impeached for lying under oath, not for screwing with Monica!  It wasn’t the initial act that brought them down. It was the lies and cover ups.

I guess it is true that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

It’s officially spring in Alaska. I know this because the robins are singing through the snow that’s falling.

It’s supposed to be Thursday. I need another day this week.  Help!