Mouth to Snout to Finish Line – The Best Iditarod Story Ever.
The Iditarod sled dog race is officially over. The last musher reached Nome in the wee hours of this morning, and got the traditional “red lantern award.” There are always great Iditarod stories, but this year had one of the best ever. Was it Dallas Seavey being the youngest winner ever? Pfft. No. Martin and Rohn Buser – father and son – crossing in a photo finish? Nice, but nuh-uh. The best story belonged to the 39th place finisher Scott Janssen, better known to all as the “mushing mortician.” Here is his bio: Scott Janssen, the “Mushing Mortician,” 50, was…
Florida’s “Walking While Black” Shooting — Could It Happen In AK?
by Linda Kellen Biegel I’ve been waiting to see what crappy legislation (considered to be “a lesser of evils” by legislators who desperately want to trade for votes on their own bills, or shore up their second amendment credentials) would show up this session. Ding, ding, ding, ding…we have our winner! House Bill 80 has cropped-up as one with a long list of sponsors in both the House and the Senate. As we are told, HB 80 sailed through the House and now has “broad bi-partisan support” in the Senate. What is HB 80? It is another bill that has…
Open Thread – Luck o’ the Muddish!
Happy St. Patricks Day to all! Raise a glass of green beer, green tea, and cheer! Most of all, stay safe and happy. Enjoy our two Irish musical selections for the day. One for the tea-totallers, and one for the whiskey drinkers. Pick your poison.
Happy Pi Day!
Happy Pi Day, everyone! The post below is actually recycled from last year’s Pi Day. But rather than confess to you that it’s a lot easier and quicker to repost this one, than to write a new one, I’m going to come at this from the angle that just as pi is eternally, beautifully constant, so will be my annual Pi Day post. It’s not laziness… it’s simply an homage to the great unchanging gloriousness that is pi. (How’d I do? That’s my story and I’m stickin’ with it!) *********************************** I was reminded this morning that today is “Pi Day.”…
Open Thread – Mudpuppy Project: Day 8 (Updated!)
For those of you following the Iditarod leaders, this morning we’ve got 25-year old Dallas Seavey in the lead with 9 dogs, and 41-year old Aliy Zirkle nipping at his heels with 10 dogs. The end is in sight, with a winner expected Tuesday afternoon! Here’s the final batch of mudpuppies submitted by our readers. It’s been a great deal of fun getting these emails from all of you. I hope you’ve enjoyed them as much as we have. This last group is quite the menagerie of mudcritters! Since nobody is ever going to get cats to pull a sled,…
Open Thread – Mudpuppy Project: Day 7
The Iditarod mushers continue their race to Nome. As of about an hour ago, musher Aliy Zirkle is still in the lead with 12 dogs. She’s followed by last year’s Iditarod champion John Baker. Musher Zoya DeNure has just become the fourth musher to scratch from the race due to concerns about her dogs. Follow all the excitement at Iditarod.com! Here are more reader submitted dog pics to enjoy during this week of dogdom! Our newest pup Gypsy, a rescue. Formerly named Kiya. Peanut isn’t a sled dog, but she is queen of the yard. Our Molly aka Molly muffin,…
A Fool’s Errand – Brought to You by Rep. Kyle Johansen
By Carl Johnson While preparing to head off alone into the bowels of the Death Star to disable the tractor beam holding theMillenium Falcon captive, Obi Wan Kenobi rhetorically asked of Han Solo, “Who is more foolish? The fool, or the fool who follows him?” I think of such questions sometimes when my legislators act foolishly. You don’t have to be a lawyer to be a state legislator. You also shouldn’t have to know all the relevant facts in relation to a proposed law in order to sponsor it. But somewhere along the way, someone who knows the law and the…
Open Thread – Dying Light
This was one of those sunsets where each minute you thought to yourself that this must be the absolute peak of color and light. And then another minute would go by and it would get better. Ultimately, though, I went with the shot from the last bit of dying light. It looks as quiet and breathtaking as it was.
Open Thread – The Calm After the Storm
As anyone who has been keeping track of the weather in these parts knows, the past week has seen its share of nasty wind storms, blowing snow, sleet, rain, and any kind of driving hazard you can name. Yesterday, the wind in Anchorage was so bad that planes were diverted to land in Fairbanks until it was deemed safe to land. On the ground things were pretty bad. The only place I wanted to get a picture of that was from the comfort and safety of my house. This is what it looked like from there. Last night, after the…