Columns 2003

Abortion laws can open Pandora’s box

I find that abortion is one of those topics, like religion and politics, which is best left out of lunchtime conversations unless you are very sure about the opinion of the other people at the table.  From my very unscientific observations, I find that the majority of women I know question whether they could personally have an abortion but they are pretty firm that they don’t feel they should tell other women what to do.

The current lawsuit working its way through the state court system isn’t about a women’s right to an abortion per se. It’s about whether or

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Columns 2003

Parents need to teach kids about cops

A friend of mine recently commented that part of the problem at the teen dance at the Egan Center over Fur Rondy was that parents no longer teach their children how to respond to the police or how to act when stopped by them.  I thought about that and realized that I never actually remember my parents teaching me that either. I just remember that we were always expected to be respectful to the police and to go to them if we were in trouble. Seen from that perspective, the actions of the teens who went up to the cops

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Columns 2003

Locked in a bird cage becomes a defining moment

I think that everyone in his or her lifetime has certain defining moments. Moments when you know that how you act, how you conduct yourself, will say more about who you are than you would perhaps want the world to really know.

I had one of those defining moments recently.  In the general scheme of things, I think I can now definitely say I am not the person you want with you in case of emergency. I am not the person who will remain calm, cool and collected.

I am the person who will break into a cold sweat, lose

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Columns 2003

The color of bird houses in Anchorage

I remember the first time I saw the “birdhouses” out here in south Anchorage. I’d just turned off of Minnesota and suddenly there they were. In a sea of beige and boring sat this amazing village of color adorning these somewhat oddly shaped houses.

My first reaction was to be somewhat startled and my second was to wonder how the neighbors were taking it.  I guess all the recent press coverage and letters to the editor about them has answered that question for me. 

I can’t say I’m surprised by the negative reaction.  In a town that seems to have

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Columns 2003

It’s all slip sliding away

“Slip sliding away.  Slip sliding away. The nearer your destination, the more your slip sliding away.”

When Simon and Garfunkel first sang these words to my generation, the destination seemed very far away.  Now, 30 years later, not so much.  It’s not that we’re not slip sliding anymore, it’s just that our destination is much, much closer.

I went to see Simon and Garfunkel in concert a week ago.  It was quite a blast from the past.  For many of us, if there was a defining word for our generation as we looked to the future, it was “plastics” and

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Uncategorized

Cold makes me homesick for Barrow

Did you notice it was 37 below in Barrow recently? Boy, talk about getting hit with an overwhelming wave of nostalgia and homesickness.  37 below. Just the thought of it sets my heart pounding and my feet itching to lace up and go out and take a long walk on the tundra.  Of course, I learned a long time ago that expressing these opinions just gives my relatives another piece of paper for the file marked “Why Elise needs to go to a home” but I can’t help it.  I can’t not express my exuberance at the idea of challenging

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Columns 2003

I don’t have a cell phone.  I don’t want a cell phone.

I may be the last person alive who neither owns a cell phone nor knows how to use one.  Whenever I am with my friends and they hand me their cell phone to use – say, while they’re doing 65 mph on the highway and I’m hysterical because they want to dial and talk on a phone at the same time – I have to ask one of their children to get the dial tone and then send the call for me. 

When people tell me how lost they are without their cell phone, I honestly question their sanity.  In

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Uncategorized

A politician who actually stands up for what she believes in

When I think of politicians in general, I think of lemmings all heading mindlessly over the cliff because that’s what the ones in front are doing.  Many politicians nowadays shy away from taking a stand on principle that will cause them to break away from the pack. They don’t lead the people they represent to a hopefully higher plane of thought and aspiration. Instead, they wait for the latest poll to come in and then cater to the lowest possible denominator. 

That’s why someone like Lisa Murkowski is such a breath of fresh air.  She actually seems to have principles

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Good pet sitters are a blessing

Going east to visit my family is always a fun moment.  Coming home to three birds and a dog who feel they have been sorely tried by my absence is not so much fun.

I was away for three weeks this go round and I believe they all felt that I had stayed one day too long at the fair.  My dog Mr. T expressed his feelings by sitting on the carpet outside my bedroom and howling and barking till 1 AM.  Mind you, the door to my bedroom was open. He could have come in if he wanted.  I’d

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Uncategorized

Alaska winter driving – not for the fainthearted or weak-bladdered

Thank god winter finally arrived here. I’ve been on the East Coast for three weeks and it was getting downright embarrassing to answer people’s questions about the weather in Anchorage. As the northwest endured snowstorms and ice storms, Anchorage basked in 50-degree weather.  People were starting to look at me funny and muttering about how I brought it all down from Alaska with me.

Just the threat of a snowstorm caused my sister to check us out of a perfectly lovely casino in Connecticut called Foxwoods – where we had free accommodations thanks to friends in high places – a

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