Scribblings

Why I should never shop alone

Posted on by Elise Patkotak

I needed a new bathrobe. The one I was using was twenty years old and I had bought it second hand so there’s a good chance it was a lot older. But I loved it – right up until it simply started falling apart piece by piece in the wash.

So I did what all good Americans do who go shopping nowadays. I went to Amazon and typed in bathrobes. Quite a variety showed up. Some as expensive as $80 and some as cheap as $34. My nona’s cheap genes jump in when I least expect them to. I bought Continue reading →

Scribblings

Ah, the life of a dog in my house

Posted on by Elise Patkotak

So there I am, outside on a warm summer evening, enjoying the sunshine with my two dogs by my side. Well, not quite by my side. Rizley was a bit freaked by the idea of outside and needed to sit in my lap while shaking and waiting for the onset of Doomsday. Snowy peed on the ferns and then curled up under one of the rocking chairs to see who would rock on his tail first.

At some point, my arms hurt too much to hold Rizley anymore so I put him down and told him to go be a Continue reading →

Scribblings, Uncategorized

The Catholic Church has no credibility when it comes to morality

Posted on by Elise Patkotak

“A reminder that Catholics should not support or attend LGBTQ “Pride Month” events held in June. They promote a culture and encourage activities that are contrary to Catholic faith and morals. They are especially harmful for children.”

This fun quote comes to you from Rhode Island Bishop Thomas Tobin. And if you ever want to know why I left this mockery of a moral institution years ago to look for my god in a place not so disgusting, this says it all.

Let’s not forget this is the bishop who, while an auxiliary bishop in Pennsylvania, heard about the allegations Continue reading →

Scribblings

The psychosis may run deeper than I thought

Posted on by Elise Patkotak

I bought a bathrobe online. I ordered a 2x because I’m not a good shopper and somewhere in my head, I think I still am a 2x. The bathrobe is too big, the zipper doesn’t work well and it’s a thin material that is bound to keep me cold on long Alaskan nights.

I should have returned it. But I didn’t. Proving once again that I shouldn’t shop online because returning stuff is just too hard for me. But then again, I’m a lousy shopper in stores too so it may not be the online part that’s the problem.

There Continue reading →

Scribblings, Uncategorized

Sending foster kids away

Posted on by Elise Patkotak

The ADN has written some pretty amazing articles recently about foster kids sent to outside facilities. Same kind of articles that were written a few years back and resulted in a push to bring kids back to the state. Once the spotlight left the topic, it slowly and inexorably slid back to the good old ways.

I’m not here to actually discuss why a state as rich as Alaska is can’t afford to treat its children here at home rather than sending them to the lower 48. That’s a travesty that is best handled by voting out the idiots who Continue reading →

Uncategorized

Whitekeys, we’ll miss you

Posted on by Elise Patkotak

When my column stopped running over a year ago, I swore I would never write another one unless it was really, really important to me. Well, this topic is really, really important to me because Mr. Whitekeys is retiring after this summer’s run of the Whale Fat Follies and it breaks my heart. Where the heck am I supposed to bring my summer visitors now to have them publicly mocked?

            To start at the beginning – there was a place back in the day called Spenard. While an area known as Spenard still exists and is doing its best Continue reading →

Scribblings, Uncategorized

It’s so sad

Posted on by Elise Patkotak

Every day I feel as though I am watching my country be torn apart piece by piece. Our democracy is history. The idea that we have three co-equal branches of government has been tossed to the wayside by a president and party that want nothing more than raw power, no matter what gets destroyed along the way.

I am grateful my life was mostly spent in a wonderful country that I could take pride in – a leader of democracy in the world. Now I live in a country that exports guns, ammunition and soldiers as our main products and Continue reading →

Uncategorized

Sorry for my absence

Posted on by Elise Patkotak

Of course, I’m assuming that you missed me… you did, didn’t you? I would be heartbroken if you didn’t but no pressure…

Anyhow, the problem has something to do with my webpage and trying to sign in. But the help number has now been firmly ensconced in my ” Help for Idiots” folder. And, just as a word of advice – if you start off your conversations with tech support by announcing you are an old lady who could understand Russian more than the letters and symbols on the error message, they very quickly drop their language to a first Continue reading →

Scribblings, Uncategorized

Apologies

Posted on by Elise Patkotak

I could not get in to my blog for the past week because of something that I don’t pretend to begin to understand. But after only an hour’s wait on the phone, some nice young man eliminated something that was causing the problem and promised I wouldn’t even miss what he’d deleted.

We’ll see…
Continue reading →