The EPA Answers Alaska’s Mayday
This time of year I tend to get nostalgic about commercial fishing. I miss the nocturnal calm of wheel watch and still feel lucky to be alive when recalling some of the more harrowing moments. We were always eager to get into port after a stormy trip across the Gulf. Once again we’d survived to hear the most amazing voice ever on the radio. Peggy Dyson of Kodiak would come on the radio twice a day. “Hello all mariners, hello all mariners, this is WBH-Two-Nine Kodiak.” Peggy was our lifeline to land life. She’d give baseball scores, announcements of babies…
Open Thread – So Close
Do we give them points for getting almost all of them right? No we do not. No mercy for apostrophe crimes.
Becoming Mom
By Shannyn Moore My mom liked her schedule. Every day had regular chores, but a few had special tasks. Wednesdays we made bread. On a snowy, wood stove-cranking sort of day, I would sit on the kitchen counter. As she measured ingredients, I put them in the bowl. Our 1970s wallpaper had strawberries. I was 4. My mother’s Southern accent flavored the activity. “When you grow up, Shannyn, you can have your own little girl and make bread on Wednesdays.” “Do you get to tell me what to do when I’m a grown up?!” I wasn’t an easy child. I…
BREAKING: Alaska Democratic Party Chair Steps Down to Challenge Millett in November (UPDATE)
~Patti Higgins, announcing her retirement as Democratic Party Chair Linda Kellen Biegel who is at the Alaska Democratic Convention in Fairbanks this weekend, reports that Democratic Party Chair Patti Higgins has just announced she’ll be stepping down to run against incumbent Republican State Representative Charisse Millett this November. “I will be passing the gavel,” said Higgins. The gavel will be passed to the new Party Chair. Mike Wenstrup of Fairbanks, the current chair of the Interior Democrats, is the only other Democrat that was running against Higgins for the Chair position. Wenstrup has an impressive track record of victories for…
Open Thread – Lizz Free or DIe
Friend of the Mudflats, Lizz Winstead has a banner day coming up! Her book ‘Lizz Free or Die’ will be out in two days! If you’ve never had the pleasure of hearing Lizz interviewed, or seen her live comedy, you’ve missed out. She is one amazingly talented, insightful, and brave woman. The fact that she’s hilariously funny doesn’t hurt either. Shannyn and I got the privilege of hanging out with Lizz when Netroots Nation went to her home town of Minneapolis last year. We got the royal tour, and had a blast. Then, she returned the visit and came…
Open Thread – Occupy May Day
The first of May seems to be destined for association with popular and raucous holiday celebration. To the ancient Celts, it was the spring festival of Beltane. It is also associated with the Germanic celebration of Walpurgis Nacht. Celebrations are full of flowers, dancing around the May pole, and crowning the Queen of the May. In Roman Catholicism, it has become a celebration of the Virgin Mary. But there’s another meaning to May Day that was on in full force yesterday in New York City. Occupy May Day. May Day is also known as International Workers’ Day which celebrates the international labor movement….
Sean Parnell Still Works for the Oil Companies
By Shannyn Moore – Cross-posted from the Anchorage Daily News On Thursday, May 20 1993, Bob Van Brocklin left a suicide letter. “The stress from Exxon which brought about my financial stress was too much to deal with alone. The end should be good and maybe my spirit will live. I have a lot of fear right now, but faith is all that is left. I wish I could have done more good for others but I guess my time is up.” Bob was the former mayor of Cordova. He shot himself. Bob sat in the Cordova High School on the…
In My Cottage Garden: ABG Conference–Growing In Containers (& My Herb Seeds are In!)
When I saw Verna Pratt at the front of the room, I had no idea she was the author of several of the Alaska wildflower books I have on my shelf as well as wonderful pressed-wildflower pictures I’ve always wanted to hang on the walls of the little English Cottage I’m going to have some day! But I digress… Verna was there to talk about the joys of growing vegetables in containers. I was actually rather surprised that she chose to do it that way because I knew she had beautiful gardens and lots of space. However, there are things…