Slow News Day

It's such a slow news day in Anchorage that the local paper has a picture of scenery for the banner story. Oooh, warm weather. But since it's apparently so important, here it is: a panoramic view of a small portion of the Turnagain Arm, just a few miles south of Anchorage.


(And yes, sunny & mostly clear w/ snow on the ground is still a warm day, by our standards.)




Did-You-Hear-What-I-Heard Dept: Rep. Anthony "The Whiner" Weiner appeared on The Factor last night, reputedly to clear up the "many lies and misconceptions" about ObamaReidPelosiKare ... and promptly tripped over his own tongue, contradicting himself & telling outright and obvious lies. When confronted by Bill O'Reilly about those contradictions, he turned his head and sulked, but stopped just short of sucking his thumb.

I was going to rant about this, but Anthony G. Martin has an Examiner column today which says it all very well.


I-Told-You-Once-Before Dept: Thanks to the oh-so-responsible "reporting" of sources like the AP and Yahoo!, sourdough-wannabes* have made the leap to Alaska, looking for all those jobs the articles said were available.

Only, not so much. Our unemployment rate has rocketed from around 5 percent to 8.5 in the last few months, and the paper reports today that retail sales here have leveled off, and aren't expected to recover until 2015. How they know this, I don't know: perhaps they have a magic crystal bowling ball or sumthin'. Traditionally, employment here is at its lowest level in the first three months of the year (post-construction, pre-tourist), but I'm not sure the historic trend will be of any use in this case. However, hope springs eternal.

Update: We got a dusting of snow overnight, and it's still spitting flakes this morning. I doubt anything remotely significant will come of it.



* I'm also not sure those who have traveled here recently have any idea what a sourdough is, other than a type of bread that's served in local eateries**. If any of them are reading this, be advised we had a VERY mild winter this year; it's usually much colder, and we can get a LOT more snow than this. If you wanta leave, the border's to the east. Just sayin'.

** An Alaskan sourdough is an old-timer, or one who has "wintered over" ... and survived. Things were a bit tougher, back in the day. Durn kids ... don't know how good they've got it, these days ... grumble, grumble.