Settling back in after last week’s trip to the Interior has been eventful for a number of reasons, but while we really enjoy exploring places in this Great Land that we’ve not seen before, it’s good to be home. Our overnight temps are dropping well below freezing now almost every night, and we’re filling our bird feeders more regularly, as the nuthatches, chickadees and woodpeckers are gobbling down the sunflower seeds, and the gray jays are hitting the suet pretty hard. That’s fine; that’s why we put the feed out. These little guys have a serious winter ahead, and we want to help them prepare.
We’ve also had, again, a cow moose and a half-grown calf hanging around. Is it wrong of me to look at that calf and remark on what great eating it would be?
Anyway, back to some Alaska news. It’s a little early for this, but… Trick or treat!
The walk-in who showed up at the hospital on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson early Monday had no appointment, no ID card and no patience for the waiting room. It went straight for the Halloween candy.
A black bear roamed a darkened hallway near the base hospital’s emergency department around 2 a.m., stopping only when it found a bucket of donated Halloween candy, according to a visitor who found herself alone in the corridor with it.
“This is like being in a tunnel with a bear,” said Sherri Warnke, who had been at the hospital helping her mother settle in after a transfer there.
Warnke, who does not work at the hospital, said she was walking toward the exit through the emergency department, glancing at the hallway displays, when the bear stepped out of a side hallway ahead of her. She estimated it was about 30 feet away.
“And if I was like 15 seconds faster, we would have ran into each other,” she said.
Fortunately, nobody was hurt. That's far from guaranteed in encounters like this, and it's generally unfortunate for the bear most of all, who was, in this case, just being a bear.
Alaska Man score: 5 bear scats full of candy wrappers.
In other news, we have some smart cookies right here in Alaska, in our own beloved Matanuska-Susitna (Mat-Su). And Chickaloon’s Ron Clarke is a smart one indeed – smart enough to win a pretty good haul on Jeopardy.
Chickaloon’s Ron Clarke staged a dramatic comeback on Tuesday night’s episode of the iconic TV trivia show Jeopardy!, correctly answering a rare tiebreaker question to break a deadlock with three-time champion Greg Monson and win $18,200 and a return to the show Wednesday evening.
“It still really doesn’t seem quite real,” Clarke said after watching the episode alongside about a dozen supporters at the Sutton Public Library on Tuesday evening.
And, as befits the season, Clarke won on a question of political history.
That forced what Clarke said was just the seventh tiebreaker in Jennings’ more than five years as host. Jennings read another clue. This time, it was about politics:
“As part of the George W. Bush administration, she served as National Security Advisor and later as Secretary of State.”
Clarke buzzed in first and confidently answered, “Who is Condoleezza Rice?”
Game over.
That’s a great story; we’re always proud when one of our fellow Alaskans wins a challenge of wits and knowledge. I've often wondered how I'd fare in a game show like this; I've got a pretty fair head for trivia, but I don't care to travel to one of the places where these things are produced. If I liked cities, after all, I'd live in one.
Alaska Man score: 5 correct questions.
Finally, I’d like to tell you about a great humanitarian crisis that is unfolding nationwide, even as we speak.