Columns 2007

Here’s the most amazing thing I’ve ever been told by a parent.  “I can’t make my kids to go to school if they don’t want to.” The kids in question were in elementary school.

My parents had surprisingly little difficulty in telling me what to do when I was in elementary school.  The had no trouble telling me what to do in high school. And they had no trouble telling me what to do when I was an adult. The only difference was that when I was an adult and not living at home, I didn’t necessarily do what they

It seems to me that in a world in which parents and kids have immediate access to each other through cell phones, instant messaging, e-mail and the occasional actual face-to-face encounter, parents should be able to exert a lot more control over what their kids see and hear than they actually do.  In fact, I’d be willing to venture that my parents had much greater control over the content in my life till I left for college than most parents have over their elementary school kids now.

Whenever I see ads on TV for parental controls on programming, I wonder

I recently watched my African Gray parrot Abdul dealing with something that scared him.  I’d put him on my counter while I was cleaning up from dinner and getting some fruit and vegetables ready for bird breakfasts in the morning. I cut up a pineapple and, thinking it might amuse him to tear up the top of the pineapple rather than the drawers in my kitchen island, I put this down next to him.

I don’t usually bring pineapples into the house so this top appeared fairly threatening to him since he’d not seen it before. Despite this fear, he

The news coming out of Fairbanks concerning misspent federal grant money got me thinking about my days writing grants for the North Slope Borough Health Department back in the seventies.  I was new to the business of grants and had to learn on the job what did or didn’t impress the feds.  I also had to understand that their learning curve about Alaska was nothing short of mind-boggling in its slow, painful progress.

Each year I would write renewal grants to Indian Health Service for a variety of programs serving our eight North Slope villages.  Each year I would submit

It was the look on my brother Phil’s face as I invited him into the eagle mew to rake it out that told me more clearly than anything else that maybe, just maybe, not everyone voluntarily enters an eagle’s pen when the eagle is in residence.  He told me he’d take my back and be ready to fling the door open if the eagle attacked but that was as close as he was getting to the whole situation.

I really couldn’t complain. After all, he’d come all the way up from Delaware to spend a week in Alaska and here

A few years ago, my cousin’s son announced he was not as amused as he thought he might be in his job as a newspaper reporter in a small town.  Many in the family were thrilled with this decision because, quite honestly, most of my family does not view writing as an actual career choice.  Their happiness at the decision lasted only until he informed his parents of his next career move.  He was going to go back to school to get his doctorate in philosophy.

I happened to be visiting the East Coast soon after he made this pronouncement. 

Sometimes it’s just harder than others to remain the pleasant sweet person I usually am.  No, seriously, ignore the hysterical laughter coming from friends and family alike.  Normally, if left alone and not annoyed too much by state and national headlines, I can be a relatively fun person to have around. 

There is one thing, though, that will set me off beyond all belief – people who do not control their dogs.

I’m not referring to the occasional mishap. That happens to all of us dog owners once in a while. I recently came back from my walk to find

As the new legislature convenes in Juneau, at least some members are determined to make health benefits for same sex partners an issue whether the public wants it to be or not.  According to an article in the Anchorage Daily News recently, Representative Mike Kelly of Fairbanks is quoted as saying, “The people of Alaska are sound asleep on this and they better wake up.” Adding to the general fun being had up there where the cold seems to be freezing brains at an astonishing rate even for legislative gray matter, House Majority Leader John Coghill of North Pole added

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