Unlike snow, ice is a bitch to walk the dogs in. If Anchorage doesn’t get snow soon, I may just lose all interest in walking since it has become such a treacherous adventure. Are you listening, God? Do you really want me to stop exercising and end up dying young and having to put up with me in the hereafter sooner rather than later? If not, let’s get with the snow.
Why newspapers lose readers
The Anchorage Daily News has once again redone its comic page and the choices it has made boggle the mind unless they were made based solely on how cheap the new strips and features are. And so I turn even more to my computer and less to my paper to find Pooch Cafe and Mutts and Opus and all the really good strips as opposed to the trash that is now being run in the ADN’s Sunday comics section. If it weren’t for Get Fuzzy, there would be scant reason to ever check out that section.
It’s hard to not feel hateful sometimes
In the Sudan, Muslims are demanding a woman be put to death for allowing her class to name a stuffed toy Mohammed. In Saudi Arabia, a woman has been sentenced to 200 lashes because she was raped by seven men and her lawyer dared to appeal the original sentence of 90 lashes. Oh yeah, and the lawyer was stripped of his right to practice law. I hear this, and precious little full scale outrage from supposedly moderate Islamic groups who claim these fanatics do not represent true Islam, and I think, “Really?” Because from where I’m sitting, sign me up
In my world
Today is the first day I believe anyone should officially be allowed to start playing Christmas songs on the radio. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go shut off all my radios.
And just what would the point be?
A guide for being organized during the holidays appeared in the paper the other day. Among other suggestions was one that said to contract with a firm that will sign, address and mail your Christmas cards to everyone on your mailing list. And I must ask, exactly what would be the point of that? To waste paper? To increase the profit line of card companies? To let friends and family know you have so much money and so little time that you can hire someone else to send your love to them? If you can’t find the time to send
The Jesuits pay for their priests’ sins
A few weeks ago, Cyrano’s offered a reading based on A. J. McClanahan’s book, Growing up Native in Alaska. With just a few lines and a few sketches, the readers offered a fascinating view into what it was like to grow up a minority in your own land. A few days later, headlines blared out the news that the Jesuits would pay $50 million to Alaska Native victims of clergy abuse. And it occurred to me that growing up Native in some places in this state had challenges I could not even imagine, challenges not mentioned in A.J.’s book.
I
For those who think….
For those who think that yesterday’s shopping suggestion was a bit Bah Humbugish for the holiday season, I can only say, DUHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!
Christmas shopping suggestion
Send a donation to your favorite charity and then e-mail everyone you know and tell them you gave all you could already but thought of them as you did.
It’s a foreign world to me
I read about shoppers planning strategies for Black Friday, checking out stores beforehand, plotting their methods of attack based on the special deals offered and the layout of the mall and I realize there is a whole world out there that I will never, ever understand. Or, for that matter, want to participate in. I’d rather read a book.
A great Thanksgiving weekend
So there we all were on Thanksgiving, sitting in Elaine and Chris’ gorgeous house with heavenly smells wafting through and making all our mouths water when someone came in the front door and I heard the scream from Elaine….”KC!!!”. Now there’s the kind of thing that should happen on Thanksgiving. Good food, good company, and the surprise visit of an old friend who lives faraway. Does it get any better?