An Early Sign of Spring in Alaska

Mon   3 Mar 2008   10:18 by Kevin McGehee 61° and partly cloudy in Coweta County, GA 0 comments [Alaska]

The waiting to find out who won the Nenana Ice Classic is underway. The Ice Classic is a Nenana tradition that, according to organizers, started in 1917 when a group of engineers placed bets on when the warming spring air would cause ice on the river to melt and break into pieces. So they built a tripod from spruce logs, placed in on the frozen river, placed their bets and waited. The first Ice Classic generated a jackpot equivalent to about $13,000 in today�s dollars. Last year’s led to a pot worth more than $300,000. So as contestants inside the civic center were scarfing bananas, volunteer Dennis Argall was on the river, nailing a red wind sock onto the peak of the tripod, which would be raised in a couple of hours. The uniqueness of the Ice Classic has drawn occasional interest from out-of-state media outlets. Argall remembered an incident about 15 years ago when a reporter from a national newspaper traveled to Nenana and, while walking out to see the tripod, fell into a hidden hole at the edge of the otherwise frozen water. “Oh, they just pulled him out,“ Argall said. “But he got wet.“ » Classic Oddities I bought tickets in the Classic a couple of times—the first time I was just less than 24 hours off the winning time, but that was close as I ever got. Chris never participated, not wanting to provoke grumbles of a conflict of interest because of her job at the National Weather Service. I have some pictures I took in Nenana in my online photo gallery, here, here and here. This was before we had a digital camera or a decent scanner, so the picture quality isn’t real great—and the visit in question was before that year’s Tripod Weekend.

But It Could Turn Alaska to the Democrats

Tue   26 Feb 2008   9:27 by Kevin McGehee 55° and thunder in Coweta County, GA 0 comments [Alaska] [Get Offa My Lawn!] [SARAH!]

Here’s another possible McCain running mate who could potentially get my vote in November—but I’m not sure it would set too well with most Alaskans. As John McCain inches closer to the 1,191 delegates he needs to secure the Republican nomination, attention has turned to the vice presidential sweepstakes. Who should McCain pick as his running mate? The answer will be especially important if the aging four-term senator’s general election foe is a youthful freshman agitating for change. Sarah Palin, the beautiful conservative Republican governor of Alaska, would be an ideal choice to help McCain slay this unholy ObamaOprah beast which is set to rake in nearly $50 million a month in campaign donations alone, and has intense auxiliary support coming from the unions, George Soros’s billions-infused Democracy Alliance organization, and other rich Democratic networks. Mrs. Palin is one of conservatism’s own, and would be the first female vice president. She’s young being only 44 (two years behind Senator Obama), she is wildly known to despise government corruption. She defeated a horribly entrenched and corrupt Republican political machine in Alaska. She has a son in the U.S. military. She’s strongly pro-life, belonging, in fact, to Feminists for Life. » Que Sarah, Sarah She’s also highly popular in Alaska—and it’s unlikely Republicans up there would be very happy about the prospect of losing her to the vice-presidency. If it brought in votes McCain couldn’t get otherwise, he might just find Alaska’s three electoral votes an acceptable trade-off. But like Condoleezza Rice, Palin would steal the limelight from McCain—which is why this one won’t happen either.

Somebody Who Lives Up There Ought to Know Better

Mon   25 Feb 2008   16:42 by Kevin McGehee 10° and mostly cloudy in Fairbanks, Alaska 1 comment [Alaska] [Media Ochre]

Again, I’m posting from blamy balmy* Coweta County, Georgia, not chilly Fairbanks—but for this post I thought I’d offer the current conditions up there as background for the content. The caption for the picture reads: Smoke billows out of downtown smokestacks on a cold early-February afternoon. Due to Fairbanks consistently failing air quality regulations, the Department of Transportation is funding a multi-million dollar study on local air pollution. » Air pollution concerns spark study, possible measures (The headline and link in the above goes to the associated news article.) At the temperatures Fairbanks tends to have during the winter, those towering plumes—which appear dark only when backlit as above (and the big plume is in fact directly in front of a sun already heavily filtered by the photographer’s equipment)—consist overwhelmingly of moisture condensation, not smoke. There are particulates embedded in the emissions, but mostly what comes out of these smokestacks is air that is so much warmer than the atmosphere, that it contains far more water vapor than the ambient outdoor temperature can support. But of course it is better for Teh Narrative™ to mislead readers by calling it all “smoke.“ There’s a reason people up there refer to their local daily newspaper as the News-Minus. *Had eye trouble this evening—though “blamy” does seem like it might be an appropriate adjective for Coweta County these days after all…

Jurassic Pork Rides Again

Sat   23 Feb 2008   16:19 by Kevin McGehee 44° and mostly cloudy in Chattanooga, TN 2 comments [Alaska] [Here's Your Sign]

You’d think after 18,000 years in the U.S. Senate ol’ Uncle Ted would have solved all these problems by now. High energy prices and a lack of jobs are choking the Alaska economy outside Anchorage and Fairbanks, U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens said Thursday, and he intends to do something about it. Stevens, the longest-serving Republican in Senate history, filed for re-election with a familiar campaign message that Alaska must develop its natural resources. With a 40 percent dropout rate in many Alaska high schools, he said, the state’s youth need hope for employment. “I’m going to work to get them jobs,“ he said. » Stevens files for re-election The saddest part is, he’ll win. He could keel over dead tomorrow and he’d still get re-elected in November. And again in 2014, and 2020, and 2026…

Ice Fog!
Tue   5 Feb 2008   12:17 by Kevin McGehee -47° and fog in Fairbanks, Alaska 0 comments [Alaska] [Nature]	I’m not actually posting this in Fairbanks—just providing the current conditions at the time these pictures were taken at about a quarter past 8:00 a.m., Alaska Standard Time: » Read more "Ice Fog!"

Seems an Appropriate Time…
Wed   16 Jan 2008   18:57 by Kevin McGehee 34° and light rain in Coweta County, GA 3 comments [Alaska] [Yee-haw!]	Since it’s (been) snowing here, today seems like a good time to take another look at the Fairbanks-area ice tower. I don’t think we’d have much luck trying that here in Coweta County.

The Other Reindeer Are At a Boarding School in Vermont

Sat   15 Dec 2007   9:34 by Kevin McGehee 51° and cloudy in Coweta County, GA 0 comments [Alaska]

For those of us living here we sort of forget that there are two reindeer living right in the middle of town. When you think of it, how many towns in the country do you suppose have reindeer living just down the street from the local Safeway and McDonald’s? Probably not many. And the pair we have are Santa’s reindeer, no less. Their names are Dasher and Blitzen and they have been photographed so many times that they must be considered the stars of the reindeer world. All summer long, and even throughout the rest of the year, you can see people snuggled up to the fence, watching the two reindeer at Santa Claus House and taking photo after photo of the pair. So, who cares for Santa’s reindeer? Well, I have it on good authority—from Mike Miller of Santa Claus House himself—that the head keeper of the reindeer, who is helped out by Tom Peretti, is Miller’s son-in-law Phillip Wyman. » Dasher, Blitzen are photogenic stars of the reindeer world Rudolph, however, lives in Arizona because of his allergies.

‘Hey Rocky! Watch Me Pull These Christmas Lights Out of My Antlers!‘

Sat   1 Dec 2007   22:14 by Kevin McGehee 45° and partly cloudy in Coweta County, GA 0 comments [Alaska]

ANCHORAGE, Alaska—What do you call a bull moose tangled in Christmas lights and drunk on fermented crab apples, standing glassy-eyed and dizzy in the front yard of a downtown bar? Buzzwinkle? But seriously, the juiced moose had certainly seen better days than Tuesday, when he became a bewildered tourist attraction, parked in the courtyard of Bernie’s Bungalow Lounge as shoppers clicked by with their Nordstrom bags. “He just has this goofy look on his face,“ said Rick Sinnott, a Fish and Game biologist who came to check on him and guessed he’d probably eaten too many crab apples from an old tree in Bernie’s yard. “He’s either drunk or in gastric distress.“ Even before his crab-apple bender, the downtown moose was something of a seasonal celebrity, making the television news after he spent the weekend clumping along the avenues with his big rack, thrilling the holiday shopping throngs. But Tuesday was a banner day for moose hijinks. » Moose dazed by crab apples, Christmas lights There’s a reason why Fairbanks had a law against serving alcohol to a drunken moose. H/t: Blue Crab Boulevard.

Better Than I’d Hoped

Thu   29 Nov 2007   10:03 by Kevin McGehee 46° and mostly cloudy in Coweta County, GA 0 comments [Alaska]

Fairbanks recently elected a new city mayor, in the wake of a debacle in which voters first all but junked the city’s property tax system while also rejecting a sales tax to take its place, then opted to restore the property tax system rather than let the city go bankrupt. In following news of the mayoral campaign, I was less than thrilled with the eventual winner, Terry Strle—but I’m reconsidering. In the fallout of a failed tax plan, Fairbanks city Mayor Terry Strle called Wednesday for a budget rewrite that would eliminate direct city financial support for nonprofits next year. The plan would also halve the city’s capital-budget savings proposal for 2008 and cut all but one new position from previous efforts to add eight non-grant-funded employees. Strle said the changes will give the city, which has wrestled almost continuously with financial questions for a full year, time to reassess its responsibilities and services. She listed the bed-tax grant program, which was slated to share $270,000 in revenue from hotel bed taxes to two dozen nonprofits through grants, as a sacrifice for a city looking to correct a $1.8 million budget imbalance. “The discretionary grant program does good things, but it is not part of the city’s essential functions,“ she said. » City must tighten belt, Strle says Local governments spending money on non-essential functions have been a point of contention for years up there. I had feared Strle’s background in non-profits would make her less likely to take a fiscally conservative approach to government, but I may have been too quick to generalize. Municipal elected officials in Alaska serve three-year terms. We’ll have to see how Mayor Strle works out over the course of her term.

We’ll See Him on CourtTV

Tue   6 Nov 2007   8:22 by Kevin McGehee 58° and mostly cloudy in Coweta County, GA 1 comment [Alaska] [Here's Your Sign]

A North Pole Man has been charged with 11 offenses after leading police on a high-speed chase Thursday afternoon. Alaska State Troopers were notified about 6:45 p.m. that Kenneth Lerhman, 37, was inside the Fox General Store, 2226 Old Steese Highway, stumbling and unable to stand without holding himself up on the shelves, according to a criminal complaint filed in court. [...] Lehrman did not stop at the direction of troopers, instead heading toward the Johansen Expressway at more than 80 mph. Lehrman also drove over the median into the westbound lane on the expressway and ran several red lights, according to the complaint. While running a red light at the intersection of Johansen and Danby Road, he struck a Ford truck driven by William Byerly. Byerly and two passengers, Jennifer Byerly and Jason Kunishier, were taken to Fairbanks Memorial Hospital for minor injuries. Lehrman continued toward the University Avenue intersection, where University of Alaska Fairbanks Police set up a spike strip. He avoided the strip and turned right on to University Avenue, where he was also seen driving into oncoming traffic. Fairbanks Police set up more spike strips further down the road, which Lehrman again avoided. One officer said he had to jump out of the way to avoid being hit by Lehrman’s truck at the road block, according to the complaint. As he continued southbound on University Avenue, Lehrman struck the rear of a 1996 Toyota 4Runner, pushing it into the rear of 2005 Honda CRV. No injuries were reported in that collision. After striking the 4Runner, Lehrman headed westbound on Geist Road. He then turned onto the Parks Highway, where troopers said he accelerated to a high speed, according to the complaint. He drove southbound on the highway for about one mile before he lost control of the vehicle while crossing the median into oncoming traffic. » Man leads police in long high-speed chase Every so often I catch one of those police-chase video shows on CourtTV. This chase has all the makings of a featured incident—it’s just too bad Fairbanks TV stations don’t have traffic helicopters. Update: Apparently some of this bird’s maneuvers have not been described. In Fairbanks at least, when you go westbound on Johansen Expressway and then turn right on University Avenue, you’re usually not heading south. I suspect that’s probably the same in most cities that have a Johansen Expressway and a University Avenue, that intersect. Maybe even in those cities that don’t. Furthermore, to get from westbound on Johansen Expressway to westbound on Geist Avenue, one thing you’re strongly discouraged from doing is turning on University Avenue at all. The overwhelming majority of those westbound on Johansen who want to go westbound on Geist, go straight through the intersection and voila! Assuming the light is green, of course. So, I’m thinking Lehrman must have found some way to reverse course on University Avenue. So maybe he really did turn right, only to subsequently be heading south. Admittedly, the degree of detail included in the article as it was published is unusually specific. If they left out an impromptu 180 somewhere along the way, I don’t think I’ll hold it against them. If it was an action movie, though, Fairbanksans would feel cheated if that one—on icy streets, yet—were left out. ‘Nother update: Strangely enough, in Fairbanks if you’re westbound on Geist Road and want to go southbound on the Parks Highway, you do turn right. So, it’s not as if it’s totally unprecedented.

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