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!