el ártico bar and grill

Kick back, pour yourself a cuppa and get comfy. This is gonna get wordy. The piece on “ Why I hate museums ” by a CNN Senior Travel Producer is not an isolated point-of-view. It's not unique to him. In fact, I would go as far as saying that his piece didn't go far enough. It was an inward, naval gazing piece about him that failed to do much more than than talk about … well, him. The problems our intended audience, that is potential visitors, have with our shops (aka museums) are myriad and well documented in the museum professionals' world. Heck, even us non-professional worker bees have a good idea what they are since we are on the front lines of dealing with bored, tired, and downright unhappy visitors. It's not fancy lights, the best practices IPM program, nor the shiny, carefully word-smithed brochure – though all these things are important in maintaining the shop – that engage a visitor. It's the ability to tell your shop's story in the most compe...

Maybe it is because it's Breakup, Alaska's distant cousin to Spring. Maybe it is because we are already spending our Permanent Fund Dividend checks, despite not knowing how much (or little) that will be. Or maybe it is because "just because." Whatever the excuse, I've noticed several folks around here are suddenly spending money like drunken sailors on shore leave. Or like sun-deprived Alaskans who are emerging out of their cold-induced funks into the manic glory of 24 hours per day of visible sunlight. I am one of them. Which is sort of odd because I generally do not like to shop. I especially do not like to browse. If I have to buy something, I want to get that one thing, and bail. I do not want to linger. I do not want to surf. Brick and mortar. Virtual. Do not matter. Buy and bail, that's me. Usually. During Breakup that changes. And that change is predictable. It starts with the arrival of my garden porn, aka seed catalogs. Suddenly I am for...

I t's a new month already and Spring is a mere 3 months away! It's becoming that wickedly busy time we get here when the sun comes back (we are well over 10 hours of daylight now) and all of a sudden there is almost a manic quality to life. For instance: this weekend will make the third weekend in a row that I have been to a concert, and there's more to come. For me all of this means it is time to start making serious plans about my garden. It's now to the point where I'm even going to be taking a Cooperative Extension course to become something called a "Master Gardener". Actually, aside from probably learning just how much I don't know, the part that I'm looking forward to the most is the volunteer commitment. For someone like myself who is doing this on the cheap, I have to do 40 hours of volunteer gardening - which apparently includes a mandatory stint booth-sitting at the Tanana Valley Fair this August. But other than the Fair gig, we are ...

Day One, post one. And she's off ... 31 May 2008 starts off with a ton of things to do and not enough healthy me to do them. I managed to come home from the 2008 Alaska Democratic Party Convention with a brand, spankin' new cold. Several days of cold meds, ab muscles so sore from coughing I've resorted to paid killers, and gallons of tea later - I'm still sick. But determined as today is my first planting day. I may not get much done, but I'm gonna try! On the political front I found some so-so blogs from the Convention but I think the bloggers think more mightily of themselves than they need. Lots of coverage of the big stars; the lesser lights (i.e. local candidates) nada, nada, nada y nada. Vale. Here's some linkage - you will need to scroll some Progressive Alaska Celtic Diva's Blue Oasis Once I really get up and running this will be mainly about some of my favorite things: local Fairbanks politics, gardening, fun reads and any other random topics that g...