Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Hello, everybody. After spending 9 days, 21 hours, 38 minutes, and 46 seconds on the trail with an average speed of 4.76 miles per hour, Lance Mackey has officially settled in Nome for the third straight time as Iditarod champion, crossing the Burled Arch earlier today at 11:38 am Alaska Time. And just like last year and the year before, he gets $69,000 and the keys to a new Dodge truck.

Meanwhile, Sebastian Schnuelle and John Baker are expected to finish second and third as they have left White Mountain. And last year's runner-up Jeff King is right now in 12th place. But for now, it's all about Lance Mackey.

However, while Lance is basking in the glow of his Iditarod three-peat, there is some very sad news to report: Actress Natasha Richardson has died earlier tonight in New York from her injuries stemming from a skiing accident; she was 45. I'll have more about this tomorrow, so so long.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Hello, everybody. As I said on my Twitter preview, there are two major stories I'm following on this St. Patrick's Day: Natasha Richardson clinging to life and Lance Mackey clinging to his Iditarod lead as he's still miles away from Nome.

First, Richardson. The Tony-winning actress, daughter of Vanessa Redgrave and wife of actor Liam Neeson is in a New York hospital after suffering from a near-fatal skiing accident in Canada. She was first treated at a Montreal area hospital on Monday before being transferred to New York. There have been conflicting reports about Richardson's condition, from "brain dead" to "critical condition", but the latter appears to be the latest for now.

A couple weeks ago, it was the Rocky Mountain News; now, another paper has bit the dust: The "Seattle Post-Intelligencer" printed its final ever edition today after 145 years and will continue only online. That leaves the "Seattle Times" as the only major paper in Seattle and based on its circulation (not to mention also being at Alaskan libraries), it ain't going anywhere anytime soon.

Finally, the Iditarod as Lance Mackey's final push to Nome continues. He checked into White Mountain earlier tonight at 6:05 Alaska Time and it appears that the big finish will be between 10:00 am-3:00 pm tomorrow (that's 2:00 pm-7:00 pm Eastern Time, 11:00 am-4:00 pm Pacific).

Because I work around that time frame, I won't be able to watch the live finish online, but I will try to have a Twitter update moments after; if not, the full details here tomorrow. So long and stay strong.

Monday, March 16, 2009

Can Lance Mackey be stopped?

Hello, everybody. I Twittered this morning with news that Lance Mackey left Shaktoolik and was on to Koyuk as the 2009 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race is in its second week. Well right now, he is in Koyuk with 123 miles to go. But watch out for Sebastian Schnuelle; he's on Mackey's tail, exiting Shaktoolik at 10:00 am Alaska Time.

Lance is well on his way to becoming the second musher to three-peat since the last one from Doug Swingley in 1999-2001. The late Susan Butcher first won three years in a row from 1986-88; it came a year after Libby Riddles' only title and those two have been the only females so far to win the Iditarod (Aliy Zirkle, DeeDee Jonrowe, and Jessie Royer are now 13th, 14th, and 15th respectively).

Will it happen? The famous Burled Arch is in place on Front Street in Nome right now waiting for Mackey's arrival, and if the weather holds up, we may be expecting him between tomorrow night (yes, on St. Patrick's Day!) and early Wednesday morning (around the time the East Coast starts to wake up). We'll see what happens, so so long and stay strong.

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Hello, everybody; we've got a very filled-to-the-brim blog tonight, so here we go!

First up...For stealing millions of dollars that led to hardships for many who've invested their money to him, Bernie Madoff on Thursday got his just desserts: 150 years behind bars!

He has lived the good life in a penthouse overlooking the New York skyline, but his new home for the rest of his life will be anything but swanky: The Manhattan Correctional Center for a few months followed by a permanent home at a medium security prison far away from the Big Apple. And here's how his new daily schedule will go:

Lights on--6:00 am
Breakfast--6:30 am
Lunch--11:00 am
Dinner--5:00 pm
Lights out--11:00 pm

Yep, 11:00 pm means no more staying up late for any more bombardment of Madoff jokes from Leno, Kimmel, Ferguson, Letterman, and now Jimmy Fallon.

With the way our economy is going, I think Bernard Madoff got what he deserved on the eve of Friday the 13th, only that it's 1 1/2 centuries of bad luck instead of seven years. May he rot in hell for all eternity.

By the way,
the news of Madoff being hauled to jail immediately knocked the Chris Brown/Rihanna/Octo-mom trifecta off the headlines, and yes, I've had enough of them.

Now, we don't know how much the 2009 Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend will be until this fall, but in 2013 thanks to the recession, the pay is going to be low...very low...how about $68 low!

That's the Alaska Permanent Fund Corp.'s projection, as we could be receiving around $1,500 this year before plunging back to three figures for the next three years ($845 in 2010, $244 in 2011, $345 in 2012) and then $593 in 2014 and finally back to four figures in 2018 with $1,771.

I don't know if I'm still going to be in Alaska by the time we get that $68 check, but can you imagine the commercials they'll be running? Hell, the only thing that $68 is good on is groceries!

The first full week of the 2009 Iditarod was capped off with Lance Mackey's arrival in Anvik Friday afternoon, making him the first musher to reach the Yukon River. His reward? A nice, nourshing eight-course meal compliments of the Anchorage Millennium Hotel; the menu consists of:
  • Braised Pork Belly
  • Heirloom Beets Salad
  • Crab Agnolotti
  • Alaskan Bouillibasse
  • Breast of Duck
  • Artisan Cheese Plate
  • Flamed Strawberries Romanoff
  • After-dinner mint of $3,500 (not edible, but...)
Meanwhile, Jeff King is in second place followed by Sebastian Schnuelle, Aaron Burmeister, and Cim Smyth rounding out the top five so far.

And last but not least...awards season already ended weeks ago with the Oscars and now spelling bee season has begun. Spelling bees for years have been the only way for kids across the country to gain instant fame and fortune without going on any of those stupid reality shows by doing one thing they love best (or dread most): spell the toughest words known to mankind. The road starts at local schools, followed by the citywide or statewide bees, and then on to the big one being the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C.

Mississippi, one of my old stomping grounds, had their statewide bee this week televised on Mississippi Public Broadcasting (the same people who brought Clyde Frog into America's classrooms over 30 years ago); and watching it on YouTube, it was a cakewalk.

We all remember this scene from "A Boy Named Charlie Brown" in which Charlie went all the way to the spelling bee and was one of the only two contestants remaing. His misspelling of the word "beagle" as B-E-A-G-E-L cost him the championship.

I had my own "beagle" moment, albeit prematurely. It was 1993, and seeing that movie years prior made me want to take part in a spelling bee and hopefully claim my fame. A few days before the school bee, I was given a booklet of words that may be featured in the bee for me to study on; I concentrated on the tough words and I would spell each of them with my eyes closed.

So now we move on to the school spelling bee; I was attending Tanana Middle School at the time and there were a handful of other contestants besides me. Everything turned out smooth...until I hit a brick wall with "bosky", some Russian word. I spelled it B-O-S-K-E-Y...ding! It was all over immediately. My one and only shot at making the big time melted away for good because I didn't know there was no "e" in "bosky"! At least I tried my best.

This year's national bee is early this summer; who knows what words will be in their vocabulary. And you don't have to be a "numbnut" to find out. So long and stay strong.

Monday, March 09, 2009

Hello, everybody. As always, a whole lot to cover, so here we go!

First up...the unemployment rate for February released Friday rose to its highest in over a quarter-century: 8.1% as 650,000 jobs during that month were lost. And since the recession began in 2007, over 4.4 million Americans have been out of a job.

Now this comes as job fairs all over America are happening, and like I said before, with summer about to creep in on us it's going to be a tough time filling those jobs even if most of them are temporary. President Obama in his weekly address over the weekend may have said that we will get through this, but he doesn't have a magic wand to wave around and end this overnight. It's going to take a few years before most of us will be back on our feet.

A couple weeks ago, we've seen another newspaper roll the presses for the last time, as the "Rocky Mountain News" after 150 years published its last ever edition. We here in Alaska experienced something similar, as the "Anchorage Times" (famous for screaming out the "WE'RE IN!" banner headline in 1958 when the Statehood Act passed) stopped their presses for good in 1992.

But come June 12, though some already signed off forever on the original February 17 date, all other TV stations across America will be shutting off their analog transmitters for the final time as they'll be broadcasting only in digital. For them, it'll be the end of an era; and for us? Six decades of smacking the tops of our TVs and fiddling with our antennas struggling for a better picture will be done away with once and for all.

Since this is a once-in-a-lifetime occasion, I think there should be analog TV shut-off parties being thrown on June 12 to celebrate and witness this historic transition. If you have old TVs stashed in the storage shed that still work after countless years (black-and-white or color, portable or console), hook those "rabbit ears" antennas and tune each of them them to whatever stations who'll still intend to sign-off. Also, I should consider livening up the atmosphere with decorations and illustrations proclaiming the end of analog TV and the beginning of digital TV; one example is a tombstone reading "R.I.P. Analog TV: (insert date and year the first station signed on in your area)-June 12, 2009".

We don't know when each station will press the "OFF" buttons for the final time, but they should have a final countdown to the big moment. And yes, we'll be counting down along with them, and I'm certain those videos will be hitting YouTube almost immediately, just like those Britney Spears concerts so far!

Speaking of which...Britney's first concert tour in five years, "The Circus Starring Britney Spears", kicked off last week in her home base in New Orleans where I first saw her back in 2000 during her second tour. And looking back at that (covering it of course as an "Allen Report Special Report"), I thought it was a bit cheesy and paltry.

The marquee outside the New Orleans Arena on the first night of the "Circus" tour still said "Tickets on sale now", but shouldn't it have said something different, like "SOLD OUT!"? Also, I remember most of the crowd at the 2000 show being tweens and younger teens (and handfuls of horny adults like myself); now of course, it's teens and older adults; the latter who've followed Britney's adventures every step of the way over the years. Even though I'll be following it thanks to the magic of YouTube, I'm sure Britney Spears' tour will be one of the most-talked entertainment stories of 2009 so far...that and Octo-mom, Chris Brown/Rihanna, and "The Bachelor" scandal.

Last but not least...Britney may be scorching up venues all over the Lower 48, but here in Alaska, we're cooling things off with the 37th running of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race already underway. And this year's field is a bit paltry as well: 67 of the world's finest mushers including familiar faces like back-to-back winner Lance Mackey as they challenge 1,150 miles of the most treacherous terrain known to mankind, facing bone-chilling weather and whatever else comes their way. Also, after a successful trial last year, all mushers have GPS tracking devices so we could follow their every move in real-time.

Even though the recession has hit them with a smaller purse, $69,000 and the keys to a new Dodge pickup truck awaits whoever musher's lead dog marks the first pawprint under the Burled Arch in Nome. Will it be Mackey in a three-peat? Will it be Dee Dee Jonrowe, after coming so close so many times before. Or will it be someone from out of the blue, like a rookie? We'll find out in the next 1 1/2 weeks, so so long and stay strong.