Best Bets
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Sometimes the Betster isn’t tuned in to all the action going on in the world. On Monday while driving to work, the Betster grew puzzled by the inactivity in town. The school parking lots were empty. Traffic was light. It was like aliens had come down in the mother ship and abducted 500 of our fine...
Wed, 03/12/2014 - 12:38pm -
The fun thing about living in Alaska is that it challenges us to get out of our comfort zones and embark on great adventures. Sometimes this happens in our own homes, like when a blizzard dumps 3-feet of snow on us or the power goes out for five days and we’re forced to wash up with bottles of fin...
Wed, 03/05/2014 - 5:17pm -
Thanks to the web, you can now find not just winter jokes, but Alaska winter jokes. One of the Alaska winter jokes going around shows a pie chart of the months, with the line “How Alaskans perceive the calendar.” January and February get big chunks and the summer months little slivers of the cha...
Wed, 02/26/2014 - 4:50pm -
If anyone doubted winter had finally returned to Homer, all you had to do was dance in the snow on Valentine’s Day last week or sing in the cold last Saturday. In warmer states less used to winter, the slightest snowflake might cause people to race back to the comfort of their suburban homes. Uh, ...
Thu, 02/20/2014 - 11:28am -
As has now become apparent, the Betster has only been posing as a smart-aleck social adviser and in reality works as a secret instigator of weather. How else to explain why when the B. writes about weather, any weather, shazam! the whole world turns upside down?...
Wed, 02/12/2014 - 5:42pm -
Just when you thought our winter weather couldn’t get any weirder, along comes a new twist. We’re in a fire weather watch. “Winter” is used here in the Florida sense, to describe a time of the year and not the actual weather normally experienced in Alaska because, well, abnormal is the new n...
Thu, 02/06/2014 - 11:40am -
The Betster would like to call back last week’s Best Bets in which yours truly said it appeared parts of Alaska had drifted down into Washington and Oregon. That now seems not to be the case. What actually has happened is that Alaska has swapped places with the Pacific Northwest. Not only did we d...
Thu, 01/30/2014 - 9:50am -
A quick glance at the weather forecast for a Pacific Northwest city calls for a chance of rain, and temperatures in the high 40s and mid 30s. And at another Pacific Northwest city, the forecast is for rain, highs in the high 40s and lows in the mid 40s. Betsteroids, here’s a quiz: Which one is for...
Wed, 01/22/2014 - 3:11pm -
Pretty nifty — guess who’s 50? That would be us, of course, as we celebrate 50 years of reporting on this wild, wacky and wonderful town. Holy Mimeograph! Fifty years doesn’t seem like that long a time, not if you can remember 1964 and stuff like the Beatles first performing on the Ed Sullivan...
Wed, 01/15/2014 - 2:27pm -
Ya know, it just doesn’t seem right that while we’re enjoying balmy weather here in Alaska, subzero cold has descended upon our southern neighbors. Holy Polar Vortex! On Tuesday, it was colder (19 degrees) in Pensacola, Fla., than Homer (34 degrees). The temperatures plunged 50 degrees, from 55 ...
Wed, 01/08/2014 - 4:14pm
