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These are the Chronicles of Famous Surf Writer Ben Marcus and his trip into the Wilds of the Alaskan Frontier.
Latest Update:
September 24, 2000

9:20 OTSEA KITCHEN

I am in the Otsea kitchen on a Sunday.

Peter and Anouk and Calder are making blueberry pancakes.

Peter speaks French to his kids, and they read Tintin and Asterix. Smart.

Margie is at yoga class.

I'm reading the Juneau Sunday paper.

The latest news:

There were four bear shot in Juneau this summer. They wander down into parks and won't go away, so they get the silver bullet.

Peter and Margie have had bear on their back steps and front porch in the past. They didn't shoot them. They invited the bear in for tea and salmon hors de ouevre, but the bear refused. "You aren't NATIVE Alaskans."

This year Alaska is paying all qualifying Alaska citizens almost $2000 just to live in the state. That is the PFD, the Permanent Fund Divided, all of the revenues from oil and minerals and tourism and pickled bear meat and whatever, invested wisely, and paid out once a year to more than half a million Alaskans.

This PFD is the biggest ever. Someone here knew how to play the stock market.

Let's see: $2000 times 500,000 = $1,000,000,000, give or take a few tens of millions. A billion dollars. "Righteous bucks" as Spicoli would say.

Two thousand is about what I make a year now. I should move up here.

Other news. There's a big debate in Juneau over building a $230 million road to Skagway, or updating the ferry system. Seems to me that a capitol city should be road-accesible, but people in Juneau don't seem to feel that way. I wouldn't mind being able to drive in and out, but I'm a Cheechalker, or however you spell it. A visitor. A dingaling from the Lower 48, so no one cares about what I think.

The debate continues. Peter says the road to Skagway will be a mother to build: Avalanche zones everywhere. It'll make PCH along Big Sur look like a country road.

They could build it using only one-fifth of the PFD. Pac Bell Park cost three times as much.

But a road would most likely congest Juneau beyond the breaking point. So maybe it's not such a good idea.

That's all the news that's fit to print. Going to organize the van today and get ready to hopefully catch the ferry to Haines tomorrow. I'm on standby. Gotta be there at 6:15 in the AM.

Then I'm going to make for Anchorage. After that, I don't know. Everyone is warning me to be ready for winter, because it's going to get brutal. I doubt I'll stay around for that long. I might try to get back to Washington by October 16, to contest that ticket. But I doubt it.

Anyway. Keep those e-mails coming.

Ben

 

 

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