Elise Sereni Patkotak

Yes, I am a diehard public broadcasting fan. Have been since the first day it was heard in Barrow back in the early 70s. Until then, if you wanted to listen to the radio, you went out to the end of Fresh Water Lake road and tried desperately to tune in AFRN out of the Fairbanks area. If you were very, very lucky, you heard the scratchy sounds of a song playing in the distance. It was not until public broadcasting became a reality that those trips became unnecessary.

Beyond that, I have always, ALWAYS, found the reporting to actually Continue reading →

I got a message from Netflix today about confirming my subscription. It started with the words, “Hello, dear”. I think it may not really be from Netflix. What do you think? Dears… Continue reading →

When I was growing up, my mother had a question that I heard a lot. It went like this. “Doesn’t he/she have a mirror in their house?” She was usually referring to someone in the news – or someone walking past our grocery store on a slow day. Either way, the meaning was clear. The way they were dressed was simply ugly or wild or stupid looking, i.e. tasteless. And now, here we have our very own militias embracing all three errors in one sweet look.

So like my mother, I must ask, do you people not have mirrors in Continue reading →

I know. I know. I should be impressed and grateful that we are even having a trial about just how corrupt and despicable the current administration is. There are so many countries where this would not be happening and the chief executive would continue criminal activity unabated. Is it terrible to wish that Trump would move there before we become them?

I admire the sheer guts of the Dems to even expend the energy to bring this to the senate. (And I do believe that from now on, given how the senate is acting, we no longer need to capitalize Continue reading →

Dear Olive Garden,

Came to see you again. Yep, I admit it. I’m addicted to your bread sticks and salad. What I’m not addicted to is your insistence on bringing your drinks out with a plastic straw already opened and stuck in them.

I can only think of two reasons a restaurant with any sense of anything remotely resembling civic responsibility would do this. One is that they are totally unaware of a Texas sized lump of plastic floating in the Pacific Ocean that will be there long after our planet has flamed out. The other is that the owners Continue reading →

I thought what I wrote about Mike Bloomberg would get me a lot of heated responses defending the other candidates who have been campaigning since Christ was a child. But I didn’t. In fact, what I mostly got were people interested in the idea or willing to consider a new candidate because, like me, they could not get any enthusiasm for the current crop of candidates.

For me, at least, the current crop of candidates seems old and tired, offering the same arguments over and over, just changing the words a bit so we won’t notice they are ultimately saying Continue reading →

Maybe it’s because I grew up in the Northeast. Maybe it’s because he defies all dearly held beliefs about billionaires. Maybe it’s because anyone who says he is willing to spend $1 billion of his own money to defeat Donald Trump has my attention. And maybe it’s because if he doesn’t take contributions, he isn’t beholden to anyone.

I can’t really put my finger on it. Sometimes I think I’m just being catty and want to see a real New York billionaire go up against a fake New York billionaire.

I know Bloomberg is to some extent just another old Continue reading →

I have heard all the pious commentary about how America has to unite from the divisions we are currently feeling and come together to heal our country. Good luck with that.

I think this is something I will happily pass down to the next generation. Or maybe the generation after that. Because, quite honestly, I can’t do it. I don’t want to do it. I won’t do it.

Why? Because I have taken a look at the faces of Orange Peel’s supporters and they horrify. They are so filled with hate and rage at those less fortunate; they laugh at Continue reading →

I know I shouldn’t but I wanted a treat. I bought these two piece per packet fairly well respected frozen food company treats, brought them home, allowed one to thaw while I drooled, figured how much extra insulin I needed to cover it and finally bit down on it and thought, “Wait, was it always this sweet?” And by that I mean did each bite cause me to slow down and gag in the past? By the third bite, all hope was lost. The indigestion had already started. The burning spread northward like a southerner’s dream of winning the Civil Continue reading →