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The good news about the snow

I have two dogs. They poop a lot. My yard is full of their poop. But the snow that keeps falling hides it faster than I can get out to scoop it.  OK, I don’t exactly rush out to scoop it up but still.  The only down side to this is that while I am enjoying no poop scooping in the winter, my yard this spring after everything melts should resemble Calcutta in July.

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I did it!

I walked the dogs the whole three miles yesterday despite the forty foot of snow that had fallen since morning and despite the fact that I was often wading in snow above my knees. I came home pumped up on adrenaline and caffeine. Then the high wore off. It was, ultimately, a painful victory.

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Columns 2007

Build the facility

Well, this year made it a clean sweep. Every year since I’ve moved to Anchorage, I’ve spent Christmas Day with a kid on my GAL caseload either at McLaughlin Youth Facility or API.  And let me assure you that if you want to be depressed for the holiday, there is no better way to be sad than to spend your day with kids in places like that.

So I spent part of Christmas Day sitting in a bare room on molded plastic furniture staring across at a 14-year-old boy who, under the best of circumstances, would have had trouble making

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Oh yeah, about the dogs

Blue slept at my side through all the noise of firecrackers and other assorted bangs that started at midnight on New Year’s Eve. Blondie didn’t do so well. She actually made Mr. T’s gyrations look almost calm.  Maybe because she weighs about four times what he weighed so when she jumps up on the bed to try to bury herself inside my skin, it’s a little more forceful. She tried to dig a hole in a plastic bag in my clothes closet to hide in. She tried to get under the couch and pushed it halfway across the room before

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Why the new year scares me

One of our more intelligent Alaskan politicians…and believe me, in this state to be called more intelligent than most politicians is to be damned with faint praise…has announced that rather than give same sex couples state health benefits, he would strip those benefits from everyone, including people who in his mind are legitimately married.  How much hate does that take?  Since this is based on his Christian belief that marriage is only between a man and a woman (forget that this is not about marriage – that is a concept way beyond his level of hate), I have to ask

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New Year’s Eve

When I was young, I spent an inordinate amount of time begging my parents to let me stay up till midnight. Eventually they did. I don’t know what I was expecting, but it didn’t happen. Midnight came and went, indistinguishable from 11:59 PM or 12:01 AM except for the fact that my parents woke up long enough to say Happy New Year and go to bed.  So my New Year’s Eve expectations are limited.  When I hosted the KBRW Barrow radio show on New Year’s Eve, I actually stayed up till midnight because I had to. Then Mr. T exhibited

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Friends

In my one bit of holiday entertaining, I had some old friends over for dinner a couple of night ago. I was thinking about it today and realized that it was one of the most pleasant evenings I’ve spent in a long time.  Old friends are really one of the great hidden positives of growing old.

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The Hall of Infamy

Apparently some of my readers object to the fact that no Republicans made it into the Hall of Infamy this year.  I guess they are so used to Republicans getting everything that they feel they should also get this honor.  But these readers clearly do not understand the criteria for admission. Just being an asshole isn’t enough. Just being a warmongering, incompetent neocon isn’t enough.  Just being president against all odds, common sense and wisdom is not enough.  The thing about the Hall of Infamy is that the people and things admitted have to be more subtle.  There is nothing

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I am not my parents

When my parents got older and used blood pressure medication and bent down, they were often dizzy when they straightened back up. I now take blood pressure medication but when I bend over and then straighten up, I get a head rush.  It’s two totally different things and it’s why I will NEVER become my parents.

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Columns 2006

Hall of Infamy 2006

We now come to that time of year when, for want of something better to do for amusement, I decide who merits entry into my Hall of Infamy 2006. The criteria are fairly lax.  Nominees mostly have to have annoyed the heck out of me or in some other way caused me to want to chase them off this planet during the past twelve months.

Just so we’re clear at the outset, Tom Cruise has achieved permanent residence in the Hall of Infamy.  So have Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie and any variation of their names that combines them into

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