Own the Sidewalk

• Gone Rogue

  I read “Going Rogue” this week. Well, speed-read, more like. Let’s call it an intense skim with my sharper microscope.
  
  One of the women from our business office was showing a new graphics contractor around the newsroom this week. The contractor spotted my dogeared, marked-up copy of “Going [...]
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  Posted: November 20, 2009, 6:31am EST
  

• Halcro Reads Palin, Part III

  [...]
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 9:16am EST
  

• Halcro Reads Palin, Part II

  In which our hero goes off-script.
  
  
  I love my job. [...]
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  Posted: November 18, 2009, 11:44am EST
  

• Halcro Reads Palin On Halcro

  This is what I did at work today:
  
  
  You can be jealous later. When you're done laughing.' [...]
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  Posted: November 17, 2009, 2:30pm EST
  

• Another Winter Day With Barry O

  Someday I’ll get a chance to see the president that doesn’t involve me standing outside in the cold for a long time. That day was not today.
  
  Barack Obama came to town today, and when offered the choice between hearing him speak in a hangar and watching his [...]
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  Posted: November 13, 2009, 8:01pm EST
  

• Real Estate Reunion

  I had one of those “Oh yeah, I’m a grown-up now” moments last night in the grocery store. As I was walking out with the ingredients for a compromise dinner (Side Note: Cooking reasonably nutritious meals that a reformed semi-vegan and a man who doesn’t eat vegetables can agree on [...]
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  Posted: November 06, 2009, 9:35am EST
  

• Happy Anniversary To Me

  I realized something last night: I missed my own anniversary. It’s hard to believe, but yesterday marked the fifth birthday of Own The Sidewalk and my entree into what has become known as the blogosphere. (Side Note: Can I just say I really don’t like the word “blog”? I mean, [...]
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  Posted: November 02, 2009, 9:45am EST
  

• Ethan’s New Look

  I told Candidate Berkowitz that if these photos had come out in an earlier election, he would have made the cut for Alaska’s Dreamiest Politicians for sure. (Also, it’s a good thing for me that he, like so many other local politicians, has a good sense of humor.) [...]
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  Posted: November 02, 2009, 7:30pm EST
  

• Close Encounters Of The Moose Kind

  Last night I took the dog out to the yard to take care of some errands she had. (Side Note: Did I mention we’ve moved? Well, we have. I’ll tell you the whole story in due time. For now, all you need to know is we no longer have a [...]
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  Posted: October 29, 2009, 5:47am EDT
  

• It’s Not Your Momma’s Chorus

  Maybe I’m the last person in America to have stumbled upon this (considering they have something like eleventy billion views on YouTube), but have you heard the P.S. 22 choir?
  
  
  
  If elementary school students singing The Cure doesn’t turn your crank, perhaps you’d prefer some [...]
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  Posted: October 27, 2009, 7:59am EDT
  

• On The Pitch

  MLB and I went to a soccer game today at my alma mater. The Pilot women scored eight goals. The Dons did not.
  
  “Eight-nothing qualifies as a blowout, doesn’t it?” I asked.
  
  “Three-nothing qualifies as a blowout,” MLB said. “Eight-nothing qualifies as a cricket match.”[...]
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  Posted: October 26, 2009, 7:04pm EDT
  

• Cognitive Dissonance

  Cooper Landing, the Kenai Peninsula town that, back in the 1990s, capitalized on the popularity of the television show “Northern Exposure” by erecting along the Sterling Highway (where all the tourists would see it on their way to the Kenai Princess Lodge) a sign bearing the town’s name in the [...]
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  Posted: October 22, 2009, 8:35pm EDT
  

• The Shoe Is On The Other Foot (Mine)

  Bless me, readers, for I have sinned.
  
  See, it all started a few weeks ago when we had this party, before which I stood in the kitchen cooking and cleaning for two days. The kitchen has hardwood floors, and I don’t wear shoes in the house. At about four [...]
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  Posted: October 18, 2009, 9:34pm EDT
  

• Serving Two Masters

  I got an irritated e-mail from Brendan this morning.
  Your "job" seems to be really interfering with your blogging girl... I already read the damn Naughty Monkey post...Why I’m taking abuse from someone whose own “job” appears to be (a) going to Hawaii and (b) scanning for typos in my [...]
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  Posted: October 13, 2009, 8:39am EDT
  

• I Am Not Making This Up.

  This landed in my inbox this morning:
  
  
  
  Attention Naughty Monkey contest judges: If Sarah Palin does not win this contest, we will know for sure that either (a) she didn’t bother to enter because she assumed — as she should — [...]
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  Posted: October 06, 2009, 9:33am EDT
  

• Elevating Alaska

  Remember back in March when we met Nils Andreassen, the brainiac behind Candidate Speed Dating? Here’s what I should have realized when I met Nils for coffee that day: If you make eye contact with this man, you will be locked into his tractor beam of civic engagement. Which [...]
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  Posted: October 02, 2009, 8:11am EDT
  

• What’s The Deal With Vikram?

  My friend Vik has complained — on multiple occasions — about the fact that I never mention him on this blog. I mean, honestly, a lot of my friends complain about not being mentioned here, but most of them don’t then run out and decide to become stand-up comics in [...]
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  Posted: October 01, 2009, 9:35pm EDT
  

• A Kindred Spirit

  At last, someone else who gets it:
  Of all the current assaults on our noble republic, perhaps none is more dangerous than the public option - specifically, the public library option.Read the rest at SFGate. (Side Note: If you didn’t “get” my post Monday about “Annie,” don’t bother. [...]
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  Posted: September 24, 2009, 7:44am EDT
  

• Stage Fright

  I was listening to show tunes and painting the bathroom tonight (because, honestly, what else would I be doing on a Monday night?) when I became aware of a dangerous cultural phenomenon the treachery of which I feel morally obligated to inform the American people — or at least the [...]
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  Posted: September 22, 2009, 8:48pm EDT
  

• This Must Be What It’s Like To Be Deborah Bonito

  So. I see how it is.
  
  

  Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

  
  
  I’m pretty sure Sen. Mark Begich was invited on your show to talk about health care reform, not to make out with you via satellite link, Rachel [...]
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  Posted: September 14, 2009, 8:00pm EDT
  

• Things I Will Not Be Making A Habit Of Doing

  I was over at B-Dice’s house yesterday afternoon, cleaning his oven. (Side Note: Yes, I will explain later this week why I would clean B-Dice’s oven.) Here’s a sampling of our exchanges as I cleaned and he didn’t pretend to contain his amusement:
  
  B-Dice: (As I clean grease [...]
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  Posted: September 08, 2009, 6:13am EDT
  

• A Different Kind Of Birther

  As a Red Sox fan, I liked Curt Schilling more when he was playing baseball and staying out of politics. But I have to take issue with this piece by Boston Channel commentator Ted Reinstein, who advises Schilling against running for the late Sen. Ted Kennedy’s seat, saying:
  You [...]
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  Posted: September 04, 2009, 9:36am EDT
  

• Levi In His Own Words (Only More So)

  I think I’ve made no bones about the fact that I’m Team Bristol all the way (not to be confused with Team Sarah, which is a horse of a completely different color). That doesn’t mean I’m not as excited as anyone else about Levi’s tell-all Vanity Fair article, which won’t [...]
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  Posted: September 03, 2009, 6:14am EDT
  

• A Different Kind Of Vigilante

  A woman about my age was arrested in Anchorage yesterday after she tried to run down a rookie police officer with her car. Apparently she was doing it for the good of society, to teach those terrible peace officers a lesson:
  

  Margaret Andrew, 29, told rookie officer Nicholas Saldana [...]

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  Posted: September 01, 2009, 8:02am EDT
  

• One Year Ago Today

  I was all set to write a big reflective post about the Palin nomination one year later, how it changed Alaska, blah blah blah, but after getting about seventy-five words down I realized I just couldn’t do it. So if you’re dying for some Palin anniversary insight, here are my [...]
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  Posted: August 29, 2009, 6:32am EDT
  

• Air Rage

  My feelings about air travel have been well-documented on this Web site over the course of nearly five years, and yet I keep writing about it, perhaps because there’s some part of me that believes that being humorously neurotic about flying will help me get [...]
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  Posted: August 27, 2009, 5:36am EDT
  

• Lessons In Sensitivity

  This week Mayor Dan Sullivan vetoed the ordinance that would have added sexual orientation to the Municpality of Anchorage’s anti-discrimination laws. But believe it or not, that is not necessarily the saddest story I’ve heard this week. Here’s what it’s up against:
  
  Dedicated readers (so... my dad and a [...]
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  Posted: August 19, 2009, 3:15pm EDT
  

• Cultural Differences

  With most people, if you were to ask them to act out a scene from a movie and then give them twenty minutes to put it together, you’d get some lines from “Star Wars” or maybe a reenactment of the deli scene from “When Harry Met Sally.” With camp people, [...]
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  Posted: August 18, 2009, 2:06am EDT
  

• Coming Up Roses

  I’ve been out of bed for just under an hour, and already I’ve managed to correctly operate the public address system and solve a printer drivers problem on my MacBook that had me running around camp yesterday afternoon with a flash drive in my hand, frantically trying to print celebrity [...]
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  Posted: August 17, 2009, 1:57am EDT
  

• This Is Where The Apple Falls

  I was told last night by a family friend that when I talk about the former governor I look just like my dad looked at an anti-Trans Alaska Pipeline System protest on the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus in the early 1970s. Apparently my dad, who organized the rally, was [...]
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  Posted: August 14, 2009, 12:21pm EDT
  

• Vacated

  MLB and I are making the rounds of New England this week. So far, we’ve experienced:
  The most picturesque country inn in Vermont.The Ben & Jerry’s factory tour.
  The most perfect wedding of all time. (Not ours.)An Adam Sandler sighting on Newbury Street.
  Yawkey Way on game day.MLB’s [...]
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  Posted: August 12, 2009, 4:22am EDT
  

• Sullivan’s Tweets Set Free

  Apparently someone in the Begich administration didn’t remove Own The Sidewalk from their RSS feed before moving out of City Hall. That has to be it, because I can’t think of any other reason for the mayor’s communications director to be reading (unless, of course, she enjoys things that are [...]
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  Posted: August 08, 2009, 8:37am EDT
  

• Open & Trans... Oops.

  Despite the derision ex-Gov. Sarah Palin has drawn for her use of Twitter, many politicians and public figures are using the microblogging service successfully and appropriately to spread their messages and communicate with their supporters. I would imagine that it was in this spirit that Mayor Dan [...]
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  Posted: August 07, 2009, 4:23am EDT
  

• Mayor To Residents: Oh Yeah? If You're So Smart, YOU Fix It

  There's a long list of Jobs Somebody Has To Do But I'm Glad I Don't Have. The list includes such items as "garbage collector," "proctology resident," "professor of chemistry," and "spokesperson for either of last year's vice presidential candidates." But at the top of the list right now is "Mayor" [...]
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  Posted: August 04, 2009, 10:13am EDT
  

• More Political Lawbreaking

  Apparently Ethan Berkowitz isn’t the only politician who lives his life with flagrant disregard for the rules of the road; alert reader Laz spotted Mayor Dan Sullivan jaywalking at the very same spot in front of City Hall earlier this week. You can’t tell by looking at him, [...]
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  Posted: August 01, 2009, 3:45pm EDT
  

• Some Final Thoughts On Sarah Palin

  I’m kind of over Sarah Palin and I’m way stoked to be moving on to more interesting subjects. But before we kiss the ex-Gov goodbye for good, I have a few parting remarks:
  Girlfriend was definitely rocking a Bumpit at the Governor’s Picnic in Fairbanks. Check the photographic [...]
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  Posted: July 31, 2009, 7:11pm EDT
  

• Peace Out, Girl Scout

  And now we bid farewell to Governor Sarah Palin in Own The Sidewalk’s traditional fashion: A Spice Girls reference.
  
  
  
  Brought to you by the First Blog In The World To Compare Sarah Palin To A Spice Girl. [...]
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  Posted: July 26, 2009, 8:13am EDT
  

• What I Did This Weekend

  It almost seems unfair that a day that begins with two Sunday newspapers and then includes such events as (a) one’s boyfriend coming home from Las Vegas with a bag from Tiffany & Co. tucked into his carry-on and (b) being complemented complimented on one’s fine taste by the lady [...]
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  Posted: July 22, 2009, 7:35am EDT
  

• Farewell To Frank

  A little over a year ago, when Nephew was born and he and Geneva were still in the hospital, Geneva, the Brubster and I whiled away a few hours at this Irish baby names Web site. I think they already knew they were going to name Nephew after the [...]
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  Posted: July 20, 2009, 8:30pm EDT
  

• Role Model Fail (Or: Libertarianism FTW)

  I was on my way to meet a friend for coffee yesterday when I spotted former legislator and once-and-future-candidate-for-stuff Ethan Berkowitz dashing across Fifth Avenue... against the signal. And I’m not talking about a flashing red hand or a yellow light, kids; this was a steady “don’t walk” red hand. [...]
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  Posted: July 18, 2009, 3:18pm EDT
  

• A Second Chance At Salmon

  A couple of weeks ago I mentioned (in my usual winding, self-absorbed manner) that Trout Unlimited was giving away free samples of Bristol Bay salmon at the South Anchorage Farmers’ Market. I was out of town that weekend, drinking every bottle of wine in the state of Oregon, [...]
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  Posted: July 15, 2009, 6:07am EDT
  

• Underwhelmed By Overstock

  Oh. Hello. Do I have a blog? Perhaps I should post something on it now and then so you don’t forget I’m alive. That way when I finally sell my novel I can be sure at least six people will check it out from the library.
  
  Someone asked me [...]
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  Posted: July 13, 2009, 2:23pm EDT
  

• Arctic Thriller

  This is awesome.
  
  
  
  Read the story of the video at Chemical & Engineering News Online. [...]
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  Posted: July 08, 2009, 7:47am EDT
  

• Coincidence?

  The Alaska Ear reported this weekend that Sen. Mark Begich (D-Adorable) will move his Anchorage offices into the Peterson Tower, where Rep. Don Young and Sen. Lisa Murkowski already have offices. The Peterson Tower is literally blocks from my home, and even closer to Ye Olde Law Firm, where [...]
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  Posted: July 06, 2009, 7:16am EDT
  

• Don’t Cry For Me, Dr. Suzuki

  This morning our good pal Gov. Sarah Palin shocked the heck out of everyone by announcing she’ll step down in a few weeks. Her reasoning goes, in part:
  Once I decided not to run for re-election, I also felt that to embrace the conventional “Lame Duck” status in this [...]
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  Posted: July 03, 2009, 10:22am EDT
  

• Edward Sitkahands

  Southeast Alaska is buzzing with rumors of Johnny Depp sightings. Among the rumors in the air:
  He’s hanging out in Juneau.
  His sailboat is moored in Auke Bay.He was at a Ketchikan restaurant until 4 a.m. so he tipped the waiter $4,000.
  Johnny Depp, if you happen to be reading [...]
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  Posted: July 02, 2009, 12:04pm EDT
  

• The Race Is On (And Off)

  This just in: Hollis French is thinking about running for governor. In other news, the sky is blue, Dan Sullivan drinks beer, and Friendster is totally over.
  
  There has been some disappointing news out of the 2010 gubernatorial race, however; apparently, APOC is reporting that failed mayoral candidate (and [...]
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  Posted: July 01, 2009, 4:01pm EDT
  

• Forking Salmon

  Confession: I don’t really like fish. I know. Worst Alaskan ever. And let me tell you, growing up with parents who believed in (and enjoyed, and insisted on) harvesting the bounty of the sea was no picnic. I could spend all day telling you about the many nights I spent [...]
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  Posted: June 26, 2009, 7:11am EDT
  

• What MLB Wasn’t Doing In Undergrad

  MLB is at his college reunion this weekend. Last night, as I was preparing to head out for a rare night out sans boyfriend (a gathering at which I was, I think, the only person at the table who has never worked at the Anchorage Press. Side Note: Do you [...]
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  Posted: June 21, 2009, 7:59pm EDT
  

• The Return Of The Birds

  Enclosure: [download]

  Some readers laughed at me when I posted about last summer’s magpie trouble. Because HA HA! Nothing is funnier than crazy filthy birds dive-bombing that girl from the Internet! Look at her run! My favorite part is her dog cowering on the couch!
  
  Laugh all you want. I [...]
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  Posted: June 17, 2009, 7:18am EDT