Columns 2007

A friend who was visiting me noticed that some housing improvements happening next door were spilling over slightly onto my property.  It was nothing that wouldn’t be removed when the work was done. But still, my friend felt that I should say something. I just smiled.

When this project first started, I watched the initial efforts from my office window. One day, my neighbor was using a loader to prepare the ground. His young son came out to watch, fascinated by the loud noise, big tires and giant scoop.  He stood next to the cab of the machine and held

My wonderful Mr. T died a year ago October 16.  My new girls, Blue and Blondie, came to live with me within a week of his death.  Some people say that the pain of losing a dog is so bad that they will never get another one.  My feelings have always been that by getting another dog, I have someone to hold on to when I cry for my loss.  As my mother would say, different strokes for different folks.

Since childhood, my life has been enriched by the presence of pets.  There was Major, the boxer who used to

Once again, despite our best efforts, Alaska must take second place to New Jersey in the world of political scandals. And really, if we don’t beat them this time with all we have to ante with, I fear we never will.

I headed East for a family wedding last week, secure in the knowledge that finally I could face friends and relatives with my head held high.  We had two convictions and two pleas with multiple indictments still to come at what is only the start of mucking out the smelly stuff in Alaska’s political attic.  Nothing happening in New

Alaska has been blessed with a lot of one-name women who have made, and are making, this great state even greater.  Lisa.  Arliss. Ramona.  Sarah.  Ah, Sarah.  Our governor, almost one year into her term, is sitting on the kind of approval ratings you usually only see in a place like Cuba or North Korea after the government conducts a poll on whether you approve of the job the head of state is doing. What’s equally amazing is she continues to garner very small negative numbers.

Sarah is someone who has every right to be extending a certain digit on

I think of it as the Hillary dilemma.  Of all the people of either party running for president right now, she is probably the most qualified and the one with the most common sense and chutzpah needed to extricate us from the misery our current administration seems to revel in.  She’s intelligent, experienced and, if she was a man, would probably be sailing towards the Democratic nomination while people asked, “Obama who?”

But this is Hillary Clinton and she comes with lots and lots of baggage.  The question is, of course, whether this baggage will make the slightest bit of

The most interesting reaction I had to the column I wrote last week about the zoo and Maggie came from a lady who wrote to me that when she first started reading it, she thought it was going to be about politics and politicians again.  She expressed great relief to find that when she got into it, it was actually about an elephant.

I guess that’s where we are at this point. Anything that will turn our minds from the headlines detailing just how sleazy our politicians are is a welcomed relief. Heck, I’m even glad to see OJ back

The Alaska Zoo is generating enough bad publicity to make me wonder if they have learned nothing from the travails of our political class?  As the situation with Maggie drags on, negative news about the zoo continues to pile up.  What may ultimately be lost in all this is not Maggie, but the tremendous good the zoo actually does with other animals.

I don’t think anyone but the most diehard of diehards is still trying to justify keeping Maggie in Alaska. The majority of people seem to agree on two things. One, we all love Maggie dearly. Two, Alaska is

There’s going to be a lot of political campaigning in the coming months. Heck, there’s already been more in the past twelve months than probably occurred in the first one hundred years of America’s existence. So much hot air at a time when global warming is already a problem.  So there is every chance that you join me in feeling as though hearing one more word from Obama or Hillary or Rudy or (non-candidate but somehow mysteriously still acting like one) Fred, will cause you to run into the Alaska night screaming, “The horror!  The horror!”

There is hope on

If I was still a school kid, I suppose this column would be entitled, “My Summer Vacation Adventure.” Since I’m not, it might end up being titled, “Why Elise’s Friends Remain Stunned By The Fact That She Has Managed To Grow This Old Without Accidentally Killing Herself.”

It all began quite innocently. I was invited to a friend’s house for dinner.  She and her husband live about four miles away, a straight shot down C Street. Since a nice path is available, I decided to walk there. Because this was going to be such a simple task, I didn’t take

PBS recently ran a special on The Sixties. For my generation at this point, that could refer to age as well as a specific time period. So I should clarify that in this case, it had nothing to do with the need for calcium supplements. It was about the decade that will forever define my generation, no matter what else we may accomplish.

Being a typical, self-absorbed, over indulged member of that generation, I settled into my recliner, unwrapped my calcium chews, and settled in for what I thought would be a pleasant romp down memory lane.  Yes, I was