GETTING OUT OF RITA'S WAY...ON MY BIRTHDAY WEEKEND!

Hello, everybody. Well, as I celebrate both my 27th birthday and the season premiere of "Desperate Housewives" this weekend, Galveston and Houston, Texas are getting out as far as they can -- well, maybe to Dallas -- to escape the imminent wrath of Hurricane Rita as the Category 3 storm makes her way to the Texas-Louisiana coast with winds of 120 miles per hour. Landfall is expected to be early Saturday morning.

But Rita has caused new flooding in Katrina-ravaged New Orleans, as the rain and wind sent water gushing through a patched levee on the Industrial Canal. Meanwhile, the Mississippi coast will also see some rain and flooding as well.

Of course, we'll be keeping ourselves informed on whether or not Rita will be like 1900 all over again, when a hurricane (long before they started naming them) nearly destroyed Galveston.

Now, I'm sorry I forgot to break the news to you on Tuesday night, but the amount for the 2005 Alaska Permanent Fund dividend is $845.76, down $74.08 from last year's payout of $919.86, but only $18.83 more from the $826.93 check in 1988. This is going to be the last year we'll be seeing low checks like these; the amounts are expected to go up again slowly starting next year. Many including myself who asked for their dividends to be direct deposited will be in their accounts on October 12; others will have to wait till near the end of the month to see if their check's in the mail.

Well, that's it from yours truly. Now please let me celebrate my birthday in peace, thank you.

EMMY LOVES "RAYMOND" ONE MORE TIME

Hello, everybody. Well, Sunday night about 18.6 million of you tuned in to the 57th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards, where "Everybody Loves Raymond" capped off their nine seasons in true fashion with Best Comedy and Supporting Acting wins for Brad Garrett and Doris Roberts. Heavy favorite "Desperate Housewives" on the other hand took only one major honor: Felicity Huffman beating out fellow co-stars Marcia Cross and Teri Hatcher for the Comedy Lead Actress prize; Actor went to Tony Shalhoub for the second time.

On the drama side, "Lost" found Emmy gold with their Best Drama win, while James Spader claimed his second straight Lead Actor statuette and co-star William Shatner, Supporting. And "The Daily Show" and "The Amazing Race" are both 3-0 in Variety Series and Reality Competition Series respectively.

Other than host and New Orleans native Ellen DeGeneres handling things, there were two standout moments for me: S. Epatha Merkerson forgotting her acceptance speech for Miniseries/Movie Actress in the Halle Berry-produced "Lackawanna Blues" -- IT ENDED UP IN HER LOWER CHEST AREA!!!! Why couldn't she stuck it in her shoe?

Then there was the tribute to Tom Brokaw, Dan Rather, and the late Peter Jennings, with the former two on stage in a standing ovation. David Letterman in a rare appearance paid tribute to Johnny Carson, while there was "Emmy Idol" in which Donald Trump's and Megan Mullally's rendition of "Green Acres" (and Mullally omitting "Times Square" for "Trump Towers") outperformed them all...including William Shatner and some opera singer belting out the "Star Trek" theme which had us...well, you know.

Of course it all began on the red carpet, where Eva Longoria's, Hatcher's, Cross', and Nicollette Sheridan's fashions weren't desperate to gawk at. Halle Berry bloomed in blue, while Heidi Klum popped out just days after giving birth (take that, Britney!) as does Jennifer Garner, who's months away from her baby being popped out.

In the end, it was Berry and fellow Oscar winner Charlize Theron as my best-dressed. And writer Tess Smith in her barely there dress gets the Emmy for "Most Likely to Look in the Mirror before Heading Out the Door", aka worst-dressed.

To sum it up...even though we thought this year's show would be like 2001 all over again in the wake of Hurricane Katrina's aftermath, the 57th Annual Emmys did go on as planned. And Ellen did blow us away like four years ago.

Now that it's over, here in Alaska the attention now turns from Emmy Night to Dividend Night. Tomorrow, we'll know how much -- or make that, how low -- our 2005 Permanent Fund Dividend will be when Gov. Frank Murkowski makes the big announcement in Juneau. I'm predicting the check will be somewhere between $830.71 and $857.03. Of course, I will break the news of the amount to the world tomorrow night, so be watching.

And last but not least...As you know, I flew on Northwest Airlines to the South for my two weeks of R&R this past summer. Five years ago, it was Delta for my own "spring break". But last week, the aftereffects of Katrina landed those two air carriers in bankruptcy court. What does this mean to aviation atmosphere here in Fairbanks, in which Delta and Northwest serve us on a seasonal basis? Absolutely nothing.

Northwest started flying to and from Fairbanks in 1978 after Pan Am got the boot, while Delta's acquisition of Western Airlines had them serving us in 1987; the latter ended regular service in October 2001 though they've made that announcement a month before 9/11. And what's even scary is that the two airlines codeshare with Alaska Airlines along with dominant carrier American! The new season of A&E's "Airline" has already taken off; why shouldn't their cameras focus on Alaska instead of being it all Southwest, all the time?! Oh yeah, Alaska is a regional carrier, though they've recently started serving Dallas/Fort Worth. With that, Chicago, Miami, Orlando, Boston, Washington, D.C., and Newark (technically New York) to go along with the other Alaska/West Coast cities, perhaps a good name for Alaska Airlines should be "Southwest Airlines II."

All right, I've talked too much; check back here tomorrow for the number to this year's dividend. So long!

NEW LOOK FOR FALL...PLUS BELATED KATRINA RAMBLINGS

Hello again. Well, you can really tall it's beginning to look a lot like autumn in America: School is back in sesson; the falling leaves having us break out our rakes a few more times before the snow flies; the NFL is back and raring to go; a new crop of shows to go along with the old favorites will be busting right through our TVs; and as you've already noticed...the Allen Blog has a whole new look.

But of course, even though they overestimated the death toll by about tens of thousands, the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina still remains the hot topic. And for the last week, everybody's been helping from celebrities to the American Red Cross to various other relief organizations around the world...while at the same time, bitching about the lack of federal aid and whether or not the Bush administration and FEMA dropped the ball.

Rapper Kanye West fired the ultimate salvo during NBC's hurricane benefit telethon the other day, saying that "George Bush doesn't care about black people." Those seven words immediately set off heated debates about the race factor playing a big part in the disaster.

New Orleans remained Katrina's Ground Zero, while the Mississippi coast is slowly but surely starting to get back on its feet. But not everything was all gone; the neighborhood in Gulfport where Aunt Bobbie resides received minimal if not some damage. Looking at the digital photos Cousin Anthony took, her house and several others barely survived the brunt of the storm. Boy, they sure are lucky souls alright.

As we saw on Friday, all the major broadcast networks as well as TNT, Superstation WGN, Lifetime, FX, Game Show Network, Speed Channel, Bravo, Showtime, CNBC, anc MSNBC on the cable side plus CTV and CBC in Canada and Sky One in Britain ran the hour-long "Shelter from the Storm" telethon to raise even more funds for the Katrina victims.

And just like we saw on the last two telethons after 9/11 and the Asian tsunamis, some of entertainment's biggest names were on hand; among them Jennifer Aniston, newlyweds Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner, Jack Nicholson, Julia Roberts, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, James Woods, Danny DeVito, Ray Romano, Ellen DeGeneres, and my girl (and two-time Sexiest Woman winner) Sarah Michelle Gellar...who always looks great even in brunette. Even though it was only for a hour it seemed hard recognizing those people on the phone bank. That's why we have TiVos and good ol' VCRs.

Anyway, that's my playing catch-up on all the post-Katrina happenings. Till next time, stay strong.