Comments on: It’s Alaska Day

By: LJ "Beaglescout" Miller

LJ "Beaglescout" Miller — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 12:43:04 +0000

America had popular poets. None of the poets were more popular than Robert W. Service, whose collections of poetry lived at the top of the bestseller lists. Naturally, it was the work of the Frankfurt School and other anti-American groups to discredit easily memorized, rhythmic, narrative poetry and replace it with the junk that goes by that name today. They did such a thorough job that Service’s name is almost forgotten today, except in Alaska and among military poetasters.

I am convinced that a traditional poet in the mold of Robert W. Service could write books of poetry that would shoot to the top of the NYT bestseller list. No doubt the academic mafia would scorn him/her with equal loathing.

By: Achance

Achance — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 06:17:46 +0000

some good, more obscure stuff in it. Don’t know where I got it but it’s the kind of book you don’t find much anymore.

By: nessa

nessa — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 02:10:54 +0000

…the first was when I was in grade school, but they’re worth reading a second or third time. I grew up just south of the Arctic Circle in Minnesota, so I could relate to poor Sam McGee. I feel the same way when I go back to go hunting with the family.

Kipling was the only poet who ever really caught my fancy, probably due to “Tommy” initially. For someone who didn’t serve in the military, Kipling “got it.” “The Young British Soldier” teaches more than one worthwhile lesson, and I still can’t make it through Gunga Din dry eyed.

Its amazing the stray tid-bits I pick up around here.

By: Achance

Achance — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 01:26:39 +0000

and Alaska too. “To Build a Fire” is one of my favorites, but there are many, many more. And, of course, there’s Call of the Wild and White Fang and a bunch more. Especially with those two, the Disney movie ain’t the real thing. Not sure that London is either, but he’s a lot closer.

By: nessa

nessa — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 21:59:57 +0000

But after perusing your link I’d put him right up there with Kipling.

By: Achance

Achance — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 21:43:37 +0000

common meaning; it was a better time.

By: kyle8

kyle8 — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 19:26:52 +0000

there is many a queer site, but I don’t link to them.

By: Achance

Achance — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 19:24:20 +0000

Under the Northern Lights/
But the queerest I ever did see/
Was along the marge of Lake LeBarge/
When I cremated Sam McGee.

Oh, an I rattled that off before I realized you’d linked it. If you live here, you have to know some Robert Service.

There used to be a guy that hung out at Fletcher’s Bar in the Captain Cook Hotel in Anchorage, my home away from home for many years, who could recite Robert Service stuff endlessly. He was retired or independently wealthy, so he didn’t work and was always there reciting poetry for drinks and tips. There were days when I don’t know how he stayed on the barstool but he never missed a word.

By: LJ "Beaglescout" Miller

LJ "Beaglescout" Miller — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 19:18:59 +0000

Now Sam McGee was from Tennessee, where the cotton blooms and blows.
Why he left his home in the South to roam ’round the Pole, God only knows.
He was always cold, but the land of gold seemed to hold him like a spell;
Though he’d often say in his homely way that he’d “sooner live in hell”.

On a Christmas Day we were mushing our way over the Dawson trail.
Talk of your cold! through the parka’s fold it stabbed like a driven nail.
If our eyes we’d close, then the lashes froze till sometimes we couldn’t see;
It wasn’t much fun, but the only one to whimper was Sam McGee.

And that very night, as we lay packed tight in our robes beneath the snow,
And the dogs were fed, and the stars o’erhead were dancing heel and toe,
He turned to me, and “Cap,” says he, “I’ll cash in this trip, I guess;
And if I do, I’m asking that you won’t refuse my last request.”

I guess the story of Alaska is as old as the hills. The rest.

By: Empiricist

Empiricist — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 03:35:42 +0000

They shut down PHX bc the books they had governing how much fuel is needed for a given aircraft at a given weight only went to 119F. Since FAA regs won’t let them guess at it, they had to have info faxed from Saudi.
We played 27 holes – walking – that day.

By: mbecker908

mbecker908 — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 22:45:53 +0000

By: JX12

JX12 — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 22:38:18 +0000

then you probably also remember that they literally had to shut the airport down that day over concerns that there may not be enough air for lift upon takeoff.

By: civil_truth

civil_truth — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 22:35:49 +0000

Hope you get to do what you want and that you don’t have to eat “honeydew melon” today.

By: mbecker908

mbecker908 — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 22:27:51 +0000

And I’ve been in both places at that temp. In Philly people died. In Phoenix we stayed indoors and drank water.

I also lived in the northeast long enough that I think snow on postcard sucks.

By: JX12

JX12 — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 22:24:50 +0000

There actually is something to that, by the way. I’d rather experience 105 here than 85 in, say, south Florida.

By: JX12

JX12 — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 22:17:52 +0000

The next best thing to being “charming” is to have a bunch of people on the boat who already see things your way anyway.

By: SteveLA

SteveLA — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 22:16:57 +0000

By: JX12

JX12 — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 22:06:58 +0000

That snow actually looks kind of refreshing.

By: Achance

Achance — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 21:01:33 +0000

The Titans ain’t looking very happy in all that snow. I’m loving snow in mid-October in jon karry’s state. It’s pretty close to shirt-sleeve weather in most of Alaska.

By: Achance

Achance — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 20:07:04 +0000

Not full time but enough to legitmately be able to call the boat a business. I don’t think I’ve ever gone out during the season without seeing whales if I wanted to, so keeping the customers happy in that regard shouldn’t be an issue. I probably ought to go to charm school over the winter though.