Best Bets
-
As the city of Homer slouches toward a budget to be born, seasoned citizens might ponder how the heck we ever managed in the days before huge oil revenues and big federal spending. From what the Betster understands in talking to pioneers who lived here long before reliable internet, it was dang toug...
Thu, 10/22/2015 - 9:42am -
On Oct. 18, 148 years ago, at the Governor’s House in Sitka, Russia formally transferred possession of Alaska to the United States. Soldiers marched, sabers flashed and, oh yeah, the double-eagle flag of Imperial Russia got stuck on the flagpole. Several soldiers had to shimmy up the flagpole to g...
Wed, 10/14/2015 - 2:16pm -
If it seems like Alaska has gotten a little less populated, well, you’d be right. According to a recent report In Economic Trends by economist Neil Fried, 7,500 more people left Alaska than moved here in 2014. That’s not as big as in 1983, when 25,000 people left the state. Don’t panic: the fi...
Wed, 10/07/2015 - 2:58pm -
Should a 22.3-foot tide fall at the same time as a southwesterly, people are like, OMG, look at that, waves be crashing on the Spit. They seem surprised that rocks as big as basketballs get thrown up on the road, turning the asphalt into Tranquility Base after Neil and Buzz blasted off to Apollo 11....
Wed, 09/30/2015 - 2:50pm -
In the past week, the weather has ranged from toasty warm to rain with a chance of seagulls to just a light touch of mid-elevation termination dust. On Tuesday morning ice covered the Betster’s windshield thick enough to require three minutes of scraping. That includes digging out the ice scraper....
Wed, 09/23/2015 - 3:53pm -
Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, started on Sunday. Yes, it’s now year 5,776, a pretty respectable run for a culture and a religion. It’s also the anniversary of the creation of Adam and Eve, so congratulations ye distant ancestors....
Thu, 09/17/2015 - 9:52am -
The sandhill crane colts have begun to gather together for the big migration. On the Spit, except for a few brave businesses hanging in there for one last cruise ship visit, many places have closed. At Mariner Park, Mavis Muller and her magical assistants are getting close to finishing Reach, this y...
Thu, 09/10/2015 - 9:13am -
Now that Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell has ordered Mt. McKinley be renamed Denali, will other prominent Alaska geographic features be next? The renaming of a mountain with a dead guy’s moniker on it to an indigenous name does raise the question of other appellations. Ahem, like Homer....
Thu, 09/03/2015 - 9:46am -
The other day the Betster ran into a friend who has toiled for decades in the visitor industry. Oddly enough, she was not chained to the counter at her way-cool shop on the Spit, but out and about in the middle of the day. As if reading the Betster’s mind, she smiled, and said, “Late August.” ...
Thu, 08/27/2015 - 9:32am -
In the past it happened that moose hunting season and school opened in the same week. The School Board didn’t realize that a hunting family kid might want to skip school the first few days and go hunting with Ma and Pa on opening day....
Thu, 08/20/2015 - 11:01am
