A plethora of “p” words has cropped up. Podcasting’s popular, but us old-school audio book fans were interested in a NYTimes.com opinion piece by Daniel Willingham titled, “Is Listening to a Book the Same Thing as Reading It?” The short answer is “no” because different parts of the brain are…
Tuesday, June 11, 2019
June is National Papaya Month! As a frequent visitor to Mexico, I’ve had the opportunity to enjoy this fruit from seeing how it grows to picking and eating it. Finding papayas in Alaska isn’t as easy, but when in season, they can be found on sale and sometimes they even end up in the dollar …
Saturday, June 08, 2019
The special session of the Alaska legislature drags on: no operating budget, no capital budget and pink slips being handed out. If a budget isn’t approved soon, Alaskans who rely on state payments to health care providers could be left in a lurch.
This is an authentic Alaska experience, one that Nenana residents are building on every year. Last season, 40,000 visitors stopped here for a quick visit en route to either Fairbanks or Denali National Park.
Wednesday, June 05, 2019
All these decades and books later, there’s still so much to know. I recently encountered Majd ad-Din Usama ibn Murshid ibn Ali ibn Munqidh al-Kinani, aka Usama, a Syrian nobleman, diplomat and faris, or knight, who authored the incredible “Book of Contemplation” in the 1180s, and the librari…
Saturday, June 01, 2019
“This year, we were lucky to not only have some very talented art students, but half of those students were also students in the building trades program,” said Kassandra Mirosh, art teacher at Tri-Valley School in Healy. “It was a good year to ‘go big’ with our art projects and to combine some of the skill sets from each class.”
As a compound word, “logjam” is interesting because of its longevity in its figurative sense versus its literal sense. Its figurative sense, meaning a deadlock, originated in 1890, and is pretty much the primary definition today.
Wednesday, May 29, 2019
“Beware of ‘Snakes,’ ‘Invaders,’ and Other Fighting Words” warns a recent NYTimes.com article about the power of rhetoric and how it subconsciously influences all who listen to them, even those who disagree. In fact, “asking people even purely hypothetical questions unconsciously shifts thei…
Tuesday, May 28, 2019
When people talk of energy sources, they use categories such as fossil fuels or renewables. The one resource that usually doesn’t fit into either category is nuclear energy.
Saturday, May 25, 2019
“Bjerremark” reads a neighborhood gateway sign installed when 23rd Avenue was repaved in 2015.
