Dave Kiffer is a freelance writer living in Ketchikan, Alaska. A freelance writer is an uncommitted independent writer who produces and sells articles to a publisher such as SitNews. Contact Dave at dave@sitnews.us

Char and Dave's Excellent Adventure, Parte Uno - What we had was a failure to communicate. - More...
Monday PM - November 16, 2009

Live, From The Egosphere! - I have been on Facebook for a few weeks now. - More...
Monday PM - November 09, 2009

Ex Gov Sideswiped By 'Rogue' Rage - More...
Monday - October 19, 2009

Wacky Visitors, Circa 2009 - Now that the last cruise ship has headed for the Panama Canal, it's time to answer the biggest question of the season. More...
Wednesday - October 07, 2009

Only in Ketchikan - So, I was thumbing through the newspaper the other day and I came across an odd little classified ad. - More...
Tuesday - September 29, 2009

A Walk Down Memory Lane - I took a walk along First Avenue the other day and I noticed something was missing. - More...
Monday - September 21, 2009

There's Always a Chance - Thank God, that aberrant summer weather has finally left our bioclime. - More...
Thursday - September 10, 2009

We're Off On The Road To Alaska's Capital! - No, not Juneau, but the capital in waiting, Willow.- More...
Monday - August 31, 2009

Read All About It! - When I was in journalism school quite a few years ago, I learned that nearly half of the readers of any daily paper simply scanned the headlines and never read the actual stories. - More....
Thursday - August 13, 2009

TOO DARN HOT, AGAIN! - It stands to reason that as you read this column it will probably be cold and raining.- More...
Friday - July 31, 2009

Ketchikan Didn't Need to Be 30 Miles Long, Four Blocks Wide - I have the greatest respect for the founders of Ketchikan. - More...
Monday - July 20, 2009

A Young Man For All Seasons - For the past two weeks, I have been walking around as though I have been hit in the stomach with a baseball bat. - More...
Monday - July 06, 2009

Got Keys? That Depends. - One of the neat-o advantages of turning 50 - other than the 50 percent off coupons for incontinence products - is the fact that I finally have an excuse for misplacing things. - More...
Monday - June 22, 2009

An Idea Whose Time Has Come - Press Release from the Office of the President of the United States of America: April 1, 2017

President Sarah Palin announced this morning a plan to locate America's newest maximum security "terrorist/enemy non-combantant" permanent holding facility in Ketchikan. - More...
Monday - June 08, 2009

When the Going Gets Tough, The Tough Get Weird - Okay, I'll admit it. I'm a sucker for what are often called "offbeat" or "weird" stories. I can't pass up a website that offers those sort of "man bites dog" or "politician NOT in jail" stories. - More...
Wednesday - May 13, 2009

TSA Worries Have Gone (Snow) Global - Somewhere, as I write this, a terrorist is planning to hijack a jet with a snow globe. - More...
Monday - May 04, 2009

Some Clouded Thinking On The Weather - I was driving an out of town guest along the Third Avenue Bypass recently and he made an interesting observation. - More...
Wednesday - April 22, 2009

Breaking Up' Is Hard To Do - I can hardly wait for the first day of Spring!

What, you say, Spring officially sprung on March 20? - More...
Wednesday - April 01, 2009

Smoke Gets In My Eyes - I saw something unusual the other day. - More...
Thursday - March 26, 2009

Don't Worry, Be Happy, Sort of - Okay, so there is still slushy white stuff on the ground and it is mid March. - More...
Thursday - March 09, 2009

What Happens in Coach - It all started with a Digeplayer. - More...
Monday - March 09, 2009

Fly, Fly, Fly Again - From the "If At First You Don't Succeed" Department: It was a stunningly beautiful morning in Juneau.

The snow had stopped- More...
Wednesday - March 04, 2009

Winter Travel As Easy As (No) Pie - In the winter, you "takes your chances" when it comes to travel in Southeast Alaska.- More...
Monday - February 09, 2009

Farewell To Some Old Friends - It's one of those truisms in the journalism biz that obituaries spike right after the holidays. - More...
Thursday - January 22, 2009

Visits by Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, or the Tooth Fairy - Spoiler Alert!: If you or anyone else in your family still believes that Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny or the Tooth Fairy still visits your house please don't read this. Or at least don't leave it up on your home computer where someone else can read it! - More...
Monday - December 29, 2008

When it Comes to Political Corruption, Alaskans Try Harder! - Alaskans were feeling pretty smug recently when Illinois leapt up and took away our position near the top of the political corruption hit parade in the national media. - More...
Thursday - December 11, 2008

Thankful We Survived Again - Well, we made it. - More...
Friday - December 05, 2008

Almost Famous - Last summer, my son asked me an odd question. - More...
Saturday - November 15, 2008

A More 'Civil' Society - I recently had the pleasure of spending several days with our Canadian Cousins in Prince Rupert. - More...
Monday PM - October 13, 2008

Characters Wanted - I was surprised to read Tom Wetzel's obituary in the Ketchikan Daily News recently. - More...
Monday - September 22, 2008

Down the Political Rabbit Hole - Yes, Boys and Girls, that giant wooshing sound you heard Friday morning was indeed the sound of 650,000 Alaskans simultaneously spitting out their morning coffee. - More...
Sunday - August 31, 2008

Is Ketchikan Still High In "Spirits? - It was their first visit back to K-Town since the early 1980s.

"Where are all the bars?" They asked. - More...
Sunday - August 17, 2008

For $100 Grand, It Better Be Sunny! - I'm sure that when you read this it will be a gloriously sunny day in our fair salmon city. - More...
Friday - August 01, 2008

One Ringie-Dingie, Two Ringie-Dingies - Yes, I have finally purchased my first cell phone. - More...
Tuesday - July 22, 2008

No Food For You! - So what will $50 buy you these day? - More...
Saturday - June 28, 2008

Life, Death and Road Maintenance - Summer is here in the Soggy Southern Southeast. - More...
Friday - June 20, 2008

An Idea That's All Wet! - It may come as a surprise, but we have a lot of "farmers" here in Our Fair Salmon City! - More...
Saturday - June 14, 2008

Your Next American Idle! - Men and Women are different. - More...
Sunday - June 01, 2008

It's The Water - For some reason, the coming of the summer always reminds me of beer. - More...
Tueseday - May 27, 2008

Thursdays With Mary - For the past decade, I have been teaching Ketchikaners how to play music At any given time, I have about a dozen students dutifully trying to get "joyful noises" out of the saxophone, flute or clarinet. \Generally these students are youngsters, anywhere from fourth grade through high school. Most take lessons for a year or so and then fall off the radar, usually because of the crush of other activities. - More...
Monday - May 19, 2008

Real Answers to Real Questions - Spring is here!

Robins are chirping, skunk cabbage is flowering and street maintenance is being deferred once again. - More...
Tuesday PM - May 06, 2008

I'm Henry VIII, I am, I am! - While the rest of you were enjoying the beautiful - rare - sunny skies last week, I was pondering my place in history. - More...
Sunday - April 27, 2008

Go North!!! - So, I was minding my own business sitting in a public convenience in a large western American airport - okay, SEATAC - recently. - More...
Monday - April 14, 2008

What ARE They Drinking In West Virginia? - Sometimes you see a headline that makes you laugh. - More...
Tuesday - March 25, 2008

Hey Youngster! - I can't remember how many times I heard that call, usually while I was wandering aimlessly in the aisles at one of our local supermarkets. - More...
Tuesday - March 04, 2008

Let's Play: Name That Cruise Ship!!! - Royal Caribbean wants my opinion! - More...
Thursday - February 21, 2008

Triangulate This, NAVSTAR! - I was sitting behind a car at a stop light the other day.

That in itself always seems a little exotic, because - naturally - I can remember when Ketchikan had no stop lights. - More...
Sunday PM - February 10, 2008

Salmon Slickers - Last week I was trolling through the couple of hundred "Ketchikan" related items on EBAY when something caught my eye. - More...
Tuesday - January 29, 2008

Looking for Sign - It was a couple of days before New Year's and my son and I were standing on the rocks at Bugge Beach. - More...
Thursday - January 10, 2008

Just Feeling A Little Testy - Since I am a baseball fan, I have been thinking a lot about steroids and drug testing lately. - More...
Wednesday - December 26, 2007

An Unexpected Holiday 'Card' - I was minding my own business in the checkout line at Wingrens- SeaMart- Carrs- Safeway the other day, when the clerk threw me for a loop. - More...
Friday AM - December 21, 2007

Are You Really Ready for An Alaska Man? - From time to time I have noted that I'm still receiving numerous emails from Outsiders - mostly of the female persuasion - wanting info about Alaska. - More...
Thursday AM - December 13, 2007

It's a Beautiful Day, In Frost Patch USA - By the time you read this, Ketchikan's normal wet winter will probably have resumed. - More...
Monday AM - December 10, 2007

Is K-Town The Sweet Hairy-After? - Sometimes something just leaps out and smacks you upside the head and really gets your attention. - More...
Monday AM - December 03, 2007

But It's a Dry Rain! - One of the most interesting weather related phrases I have ever heard is "yes, but it is a dry heat." - More...
Monday AM - November 19, 2007

It's A Wet World, After All! - Okay, this may not look much like work, but I'm on the clock here on this sandy beach in paradise, let me tell you! - More....
Monday AM - November 12, 2007

Just A Little Craik In The Manger, Officer! - Recently, I attended one of those grand Ketchikan soiree's in which the food and beverages flowed quite freely. - More...
Tuesday AM - October 30, 2007

Will Juneau Finally Learn How To Guzzle? - I have always thought our neighbors in Juneau are a little different from you and me. - More...
Wednesday - October 24, 2007

This Column Must Be Consumed by 12/06/09 - As I sit at my computer terminal, I notice that my bottled water (no "heliocentric" acid rain water from KPU for this boy!) has a "sell by" date. - More...
Sunday - October 07, 2007

Alaska in the Spotlight - Alaska has been in the national media lately and - for a change - it was nothing about a Bridge to Nowhere/Somewhere/Anywhere. - More...
Monday AM - September 10, 2007

Tailgating Idaho - The following factoid should come as a shock to anyone who drives in Alaska.

Especially someone like me who has been "bumped" by "distracted" (cell phones!) drivers twice in the past month (nothing serious, thank goodness for big cushy, gas guzzling SUV bumpers). - More...
Wednesday - August 29, 2007

It's That Time Again - A few days ago, I was walking downtown and I saw a group of visitors irritably huddled under an awning. - More...
Wednesday PM - August 22, 2007

Wonders Will Never Cease- There has been much media hoopla lately over a new internet poll determining the New Seven Wonders of the World. - More...
Saturday - July 21, 2007

Still Hazy After All These Years - The Ketchikan High School class of 1977 turned 30 a couple of weeks ago. - More...
Monday PM - July 16, 2007

A Drip Off the Old Block - My good friends in Lost Angeles are a little parched.

It seems they have just suffered through the driest weather "year" since records started being kept 130 years ago. As of June 30 (weather years are July 1 to June 30 in LA, go figure) a total of 3.21 inches of rain had fallen in the City of "Angles." - More...
Monday - July 09, 2007

Beware: Dangerous Curves Ahead! - Marriage is an interesting institution.

And I mean that in the Chinese way of "cursing" someone by saying "may you live in interesting times." - More...
Tuesday AM - June 26, 2007

An Airline Upgrade You Don't Want - Tired of sitting in a cramped economy class on a long plane flight? - More...
Saturday - June 09, 2007

Lose Weight Instantly: Become Canadian - Lately, I've been getting a lot of email about something called "Hoodia." - More...
Sunday - June 03, 2007

RIP: Golden Nugget Service - Our national airline, Alaska, is choosing this month - May - to make us jump through some big wild hoopla over its 75th anniversary. Alaska celebrating its history all the way back to Mac McGee and his three-seat Stinsons in 1932. - More...
Saturday AM - May 19, 2007

Remembering the 'Thunderer' - It was good to see people all across the political spectrum turn out for Jim Elkin's memorial service recently. - More...
Saturday - May 12, 2007

April IS the Cruelest Month! - I'm pretty sure that T.S. Eliot was not thinking of my adolescence when he penned "The Waste Land" but he wasn't far off. - More...
Friday - April 27, 2007  

Beware the 'Curse' of the State Quarters - Alaskans have until April 22 to weigh in on which design they think is best for the Alaska state commemorative quarter that the US Mint will produce a year from this fall. - More...
Monday - April 16, 2007

Ketchikan: Unplugged - It was a sad scene at one of Ketchikan's more popular eateries one morning recently. - More...
Wednesday AM - April 11, 2007

I Grocery Shop Therefore I Am - You can date a local by how they refer to Ketchikan grocery stores. - More...
Wednesday - March 28, 2007

One Way To End Channel Surfing - A couple of recent news items caught my eye.

First, La-Z-Boy is facing a "difficult sales environment" and is slashing jobs and closing several manufacturing plants in order to cut losses estimated at some $10 million last year. - More...
Monday AM - March 19, 2007

The Next Billy Graham - ike most six year olds, Liam appreciates a bit of a schedule.

Oh, he complains a bit when we cut off his morning cartoon in order to pile him into the car for school, but he appreciates the fact that there is a morning routine. - More...
Friday AM - March 09, 2007

Captive Audience: 'Bin' There, Done That - Years ago, there was a bar in downtown Ketchikan that had beer advertisements plastered on the walls above the urinals. - More...
Wednesday AM - February 21, 2007

Our Cajun Sister State - I read recently that the most popular baby names in Alaska are "Madison" for girls and "Ethan" for boys. - More...
Monday PM - February 12, 2007

Men in Sage Brush - If you Google "Men in Trees" you come up with my name.

I know this because quite a few folks in other locales have done just that and then reached out and electronically touched me. - More...
Saturday AM - February 03, 2007

Alaska's Third Largest City!?! - Back when I was a young lad in the late 1960s and early 1970s, a momentous event happened in the First City.

There was a rare stagnant period in what is normally exponential state government growth. When you combined that with a boom in the timber industry, Ketchikan briefly outstripped Juneau as the third largest "city" in Alaska. - More...
Monday AM - January 29, 2007

Totems - In the last few years, we've all watched our Downtown turn into something different than we all remember. Part of that is just the one constant in all our lives: Change. - More...
Tuesday - January 23, 2007

Dousing a Dangerous Development - The petty dictators of airplane discipline gave travelers an early Christmas present recently by allowing us to take water on plane flights again. - More...
Tuesday - January 09, 2007

2006 Year In Review: Jet Crash Top Story In 2006 - Some newsworthy events happen every year. Elections, crime, storms, and other relatively normal events can be expected to make local headlines.

But the most newsworthy event in 2006 in Ketchikan was completely unexpected: the crash of a military jet into a trailer park near Carlanna Creek in January. - More...
Tuesday - January 02, 2007

Statistically Speaking - I love statistics.

When I was a little kid, I memorized reams and reams and reams of sports "stats". - More...
Friday AM - December 15, 2006

Still 'Fishy' After All These Years - Recently, I wrote about Seattle coming up with a new "brand," calling itself the "Metro Natural" place. - More...
Saturday - December 09, 2006

Lessons Learned - We learn the most from our parents. We learn second most from our school teachers.

But often there are other people in our community who teach us things that are very important. - More...
Saturday - December 02, 2006

The Big Recliner In The Sky - A gentleman in Pacheco, California had a lot to be thankful for last week.

It seems his wife shot him with a .357 Magnum. But he was saved. By his recliner. - More...
Friday PM - November 24, 2006

Dreaming of a Wet Christmas - I've been asked by three different people what it means to have significant snow before Thanksgiving. - More...
Monday AM - November 20, 2006

Flying the 'Fiendly' Skies - Alaska Airlines is celebrating its 75th birthday next year by printing heartwarming stories from passengers on its website. - More...
Thursday AM - November 09, 2006

Seattle's 'Branding' is A Great Big Ouch! - I see in the news that our good friends in Seattle are once again concerned about how they market themselves to the outside world. The Seattle Convention and Visitors Bureau has undertaken another "branding " campaign and have spent 16 months and two hundred thousand dollars to get a new "brand." - More...
Monday - October 30, 2006

Commuter has the Midas Touch - A few days ago, I was driving into town from Settler's Cove. It was rainy and there were "puddles" in the low lying areas of the North Tongass Highway, so I was cheerfully hydroplaning around the corners at 50 mph. - More...
Tuesday PM - October 24, 2006

Pass, Shoot, Score! - Liam's final micro-soccer game was last week. That means that I am no longer a "soccer mom." At least until next fall. - More...
Monday AM - October 16, 2006

Hear That Lonesome Whistle - Several years ago I was working at KRBD and I got a pretty funny phone call from one of the federal agencies that deal with transportation safety. I can't remember which acronym it used. - More...
Wednesday - October 04, 2006

Men In Trees" - Ketchikan's own A.J. Slagle got a "shout out" last week on national television.

Slagle was mentioned in an episode of a new television series that is "set" in Alaska called "Men in Trees." The premise of the show is that a "relationship" expert sees her relationship implode and she ends up in Alaska, where the sexual ratio is so out of whack that there are "men in trees." - More...
Monday PM - September 25, 2006

We're No. 26!!! - It's fall and that means that the sap gets cut off from the branches and more surveys and studies drop down to clog up my driveway. - More...
Monday - September 18, 2006

Cowered By Corvids - I can't go out on my deck anymore.

No, not because the fall weather has arrived. We have a mostly covered deck and I can sit there and watch the rain drip off the clogged gutters as well as the next guy. - More...
Tuesday - September 12, 2006

It's A Small World - Okay everyone, after me! - More...
Tuesday - September 05, 2006

Studies Are Hazardous To My Health - I read last week that being just a "little obese" can be hazardous to your health. - More...
Monday - August 28, 2006

This Will Only Take A Minute! - We all like to be thought of as important.

That's why it is so hard to turn down a chance to be "surveyed". - More...
Monday PM - August 21, 2006

O Where, O Where is Delaware? - Several folks have asked how my annual License Plate Bingo battle is going, so time for an update as we head into the dog days of August. - More...
Sunday - August 13, 2006

The Best Wage of All - This is my 100th column for SITNEWS. - More...
Monday AM - August 7, 2006

Wild Kingdom: Ketchikan Style - There was a wee bit of a traffic jam on the Third Avenue bypass a week ago. - More...
Friday - July 28, 2006

Slumming With The Locals - Garrison Keillor was in town this week and that qualifies as a celebrity sighting. - More...
Sunday - July 23, 2006

Digging the dirt on Revilla Man - A zillion years ago I was sitting in a college literature class and the teacher said a strange thing. - More...
Monday - July 17, 2006

Red Neck leaves me feeling Blue - Ouch.

Okay, let's try again.

Ouch.

Sorry, it's not so easy to type when your neck and arms are the color and consistency of a boiled lobster. - More....
Monday - July 10, 2006

Driving Is Going To The Dogs - My wife maintains a somewhat amused eye toward local "traditions" despite the fact she has now lived here 15 years. - More...
Monday - July 03, 2006

Forsooth! - We live in a small town, sometimes - amid all the summer hustle-bustle and thousands of visitors milling around in the middle of the street - I forget that. - More...
Sunday - June 25, 2006

Ketchikanites, Ketchikanians, Rainbirds, Wet Heads? - A while back I was at a gathering and someone stood up and addressed the group as "my fellow Ketchikanites." - More...
Saturday - June 17, 2006

Should Ketchikan Warm to GLOBAL WARMING? - Our good friends in Juneau are concerned with GLOBAL WARMING.

I have to use all capital letters when discussing GLOBAL WARMING because proper protocol demands that "good stewards of the Earth" always use all caps (the written word version of shouting) for GLOBAL WARMING because it is such an important issue. - More...
Sunday - June 11, 2006

Who IS Cinco de Mayo? - I was skulking about downtown the other day when I noticed two Amish couples walking down the sidewalk. They were most definitely "plainly dressed" and the men had remarkable facial hair. - More...
Thursday - June 01, 2006

Giving Our Fellow Lawbreakers A Break - Once again, a tip of the ten gallon hat to our "fellow Amaricuns" in the Great State of Texas. - More...
Sunday - May 28, 2006

From Google Eyes to Googling - One of the advantages of living in a small town is that you pretty much know what you're getting when you get "involved" with someone new. After all, many folks have lived here for a while and everyone has a really long memory. - More...
Friday - May 19, 2006

Warning: This Warning May Make You Crazy - I was at my favorite office supply purveyor last week, when I noticed something odd on the pens I was buying. They came with a disclaimer which read in part "please remove cap before use. Failure to remove cap will prevent proper operation." - More...
Friday - May 12, 2006

Bigger and Better, New and Improved! - When I was at Kayhi (during the Ford and Carter administrations!), one of my favorite TV shows was the original "Saturday Night Live" with Ackroyd-Belushi-Radner et al. It was "must see" every week TV for myself and my semi-delinquent posse. - More...
Monday -May 01, 2006

Take Off My Studs? Snow Way! - I suspect that about 80 percent of Ketchikan drivers broke the law last week. - More...
Friday - April 21, 2006

Spring has sprung, rat-a-tat-tat! - Everyone seems to have a different way of determining when spring has arrived in Ketchikan. - More...
Monday - April 17, 2006

Suddenly Over the Hill - I had a weird experience in the aisles of Safeway recently. - More...
Sunday - April 09, 2006

A 'Token' for Your Thoughts! - When my older brothers vacated the old family homestead on First and Jefferson, they left a lot of fun stuff in the attic for me to discover. - More...
Monday - April 03, 2006

For Once, Four Wheeled Was Fore Armed - Last week was the one week out of the year where I could feel an "eensy-weensy-teensy" bit smug about owning an urban assault vehicle. - More...
Saturday - March 25, 2006

Shopping for Unmanly stuff - The other day I was in the checkout line at A and P and I found myself explaining to the checkout clerk why I had all these little kiddie toys and games in my basket. - More...
Friday - March 17, 2006

Some Local History To Chew On - I was walking along Water Street recently when I noticed The Pizza Mill had closed down. - More...
Saturday - March 11, 2006

Citius, Altius, Fortius, Ketchikanius! - Well, the Winter Olympics are finally over. - More...
Thursday - March 02, 2006

Of Flat Roofs and Pointed Heads - Earlier this year, I was mesmerized by the reflection of water as my flight home sailed over the First City. - More...
Monday - February 27, 2006

Just a touch of gas - It's safe to say now that the bottom end for gas prices in town is now around $2.70 - More...
Friday PM - February 17, 2006

The Day I Came To Ketchikan - was really impressed when my SITNEWS colleague June Allen wrote about her first day in Ketchikan, all those years ago. - More...
Monday PM - February 13, 2006

Talk of the Town - The jet crash near A&P recently remains the big topic of discussion in Ketchikan. - More...
Monday - February 06, 2006

Blue Monday - As usual, I was feeling a little depressed on Monday. The weather was dark and icky, the holiday season was passed, our trip to sunny California was over. - More...
Friday AM - January 27, 2006

And the Drip Goes On - Anyone else out there "relieved" that it finally sunned on Seattle earlier this week? - More...
Friday AM - January 20, 2006

Honey, we shrunk the state! - My fellow Alaskans, our great state in shrinking! - More...
Saturday - January 14, 2006

Quibbles and Bits - At least once a year, all columnists are required to clean out the sock drawer and dump all those scraps of paper and bits of ideas they have been hoarding into a column. - More...
Friday - January 06, 2006

Vox Populi #7 - A lot of readers had thoughts on my column on whining about aging. - More...
Friday AM - December 30, 2005

Faux Tanenbaum, Part Two - Those of you playing along at home no doubt remember that the Glover-Kiffer family chose to go non-natural for our holiday tree last year. - More...
Friday PM - December 23, 2005

A Fine, Old Whine - I've been thinking about wine and cheese lately.

Probably because they are the few things that everyone agrees get better with age. And as one ages one begins to appreciate such subtle distinctions because we don't live in a society that gives a lot of "props" for aging. - More...
Sunday AM - December 18, 2005

Keep on (big) Truckin - My wife and I have both have a problem with big trucks, but for different reasons. - More...
Saturday PM - December 10, 2005

Still Drizzly After All These Years - This column is about what didn't happen Monday, November 28, 2005

There was no measurable precipitation. It was the first day since October 19 that there was no precipitation. - More...
Friday - December 02, 2005

Tanzanite Basin - It's going to be a long winter and no I'm not referring to the darkness, the icky weather or even the dozens of local folks chewing off their arms to extricate themselves from domestic entanglements. - More...
Monday - November 28, 2005

And Not A Drop To Drink - Stop the presses! The hydrologists and meteorogists and fearmongerologists say the western United States is running out of water. - More...
Monday - November 21, 2005

Splat - My four year old asked me an unanswerable question last week. - More...
Sunday - November 13, 2005

Truth in Advertising - There was an old magazine advertisement for sale on EBAY this week (told you they sold just about anything!). - More...
Saturday - November 05, 2005

Termination Dust - In early July, I found a wooley bear caterpillar the size of my thumb crawling across the sand at Bugge Beach. - More...
Monday - October 31, 2005

Vox Populi #6 - Recently, a reader emailed in to find out what "Vox Populi" really means. It's Latin (I feel sort of comfortable saying that, even though none of the original Latin speakers are alive to confirm that diagnosis). And it generally means "voice of the people" or "the people speak" although I firmly expect to hear from some dead language expert who will correct that assumption. - More...
Monday - October 24, 2005

"It's a Jungle Out There" - When I was a child, my mother insisted that I take as many trips off island as possible. And she didn't mean Gravina and Pennock. - More...
Monday - October 17, 2005

Tie-breakers - Well, the local elections are all over but the shouting.

Some of my friends won, some of my friends lost. So it goes.

One of the races appears to have been decided by six or seven votes. Two years ago, one of races was decided by five. We all think that our votes don't count but that's not the case. A few years back, the Alaska governor's race was decided by about a hundred votes and we all know what happened in Florida in 2000. - More...
Friday - October 07, 2005

"Totem Land Tinsel Town" - A few weeks ago, there was an interesting item on EBAY. It was a 16 mm movie reel, the type of movie reel you only used to see in movie theaters and high school science classes. - More...
Monday - October 03, 2005

Being in the "right" mind has nothing to do with it - When you drive by the student parking lot at Kayhi these days, you won't see many motorcycles. - More...
Thursday - September 29, 2005

"Close Encounters of the Cellular Kind" - Since my family is apparently the only one in North America to not go "cellular" that puts us in a unique position to observe the ways that other folks use their cell phones "conveniently" intrude upon our lives. - More...
Friday - September 16, 2005

"Sometimes nothing is really something" - Forty years ago today, I had a life changing experience. Too bad I can't remember much of it. - More...
Friday - September 09, 2005

"School Daze, Part One" - School has started again in Our Fair Salmon City and that has me remembering my school days. Surprisingly enough, I was paying attention all those years ago, sort of. - More...
Saturday - September 03, 2005

VOX POPULI #5 - An alert reader dropped an email to let me know that the old Ketchikan PBY is back on EBAY again. The deadline for bids is Monday. This time the opening bid has been lowered to $100,000 and there have been at least two bids tendered thus far. No clue what the "reserve" price is but you can bet it's well below the $250,000 price that drew no takers at least twice this summer. The estimate on getting it airworthy (in the pictures it's missing its horizontal stabilizer!) remains at $16,000. As before, bid early, bid often. - More...
Friday - August 26, 2005

"A Modest Proposal" - I think it's time that we should stop whupping Governor Murkowski upside the head for his desire for an official state jet plane. - More...
Monday - August 22, 2005

"Too Darn Hot" - It was inevitable.

I was walking down Dock Street one afternoon this week and I passed a good friend.

"This weather is killing me," She said, raising her hand as if to wipe her brow.  - More...
Friday - August 12, 2005

One of the "Big Three" By Dave Kiffer - Like many Alaskans I have a Jay Hammond story to tell.

Hammond - who died last week at 82 - was one of the "big three" Alaskan governors. I don't necessarily mean that he, Bill Egan and Wally Hickel were the best Alaskan governors, just that they dominated Alaskan politics even when they weren't in sitting in the governor's office. They cast bigger shadows. And Hammond - with his rugged Alaskan Central Casting outdoorsman image - clearly cast the biggest.   - More...
Monday - August 08, 2005

"Halibut Be Thy Name" - I've always been amused by parents who tell me their toddlers are religious.

Sure, First Communions are very important in some families as are declarations of faith (such as being "born again.") But those are for older children, not three and four year olds, no matter what their parents might think. For the average four-year-old, "Sleeping Beauty " or "Power Rangers" is about as close to deity worship as they come.  - More...
Friday - July 29, 2005

Times change. I was reminded of that this week when a gentlemen off a cruise ship gave me a copy of The Alaska Sportsman from 1942. The copy had belonged to his father who had always wanted to visit Alaska but never had. The son - well past retirement age himself - was clearly fulfilling his father's wish. - More...
Sunday - July 24, 2005

Pent up demand - One of the first rules in marketing is to find the pent up demand and then supply it.

Over time, it would be harder to find a place with more pent up demand than Ketchikan. As an example, just about every time a new retail or dining opportunity arises, it is swamped by local interest. - More...
Monday - July 18, 2005

"Lies" we tell ourselves - On the Friday before the Fourth of July, an acquaintance remarked "It doesn't look good for the 4th." - More...
Friday - July 08, 2005

Pyro-leeryia - My wife and I have a running disagreement when it comes to candles. She - of solid New Mexican stock - loves to have burning objects scattered hither and yon around the house. New Mexicans love their candles so much that they even string lighted grocery bags around their property at Christmas timeand, no, the bags are not Gore Tex. What do you expect from a place that measures rainfall in millimeters rather than cubic meters?  - More...
Sunday - July 03, 2005

Vox Populi #4 - For those of you all playing along at home, the PBY on EBAY ("Going Once..") didn't get a high enough bid to meet its unkstated reserve, but I received a lot of feedback on that column. If we all chip in a buck we might be able to get it after all. Some internet research indicates that there are quite a few old PBYs sitting in Moses Lake after all. It seems that someone was trying to corner the world market in the old amphibians. Go figure. - More...
Friday - June 24, 2005

"Things We Tell The Tourists" - A couple of weeks ago, I made light of the "unanswerable" questions that the visitors often toss at us.
 
For the record, I have been reminded that the Redington family (of Iditarod fame) did have a store here briefly and they had a couple of huskies on the premises so the question about where all the "cute little Iditarods" were wasn't totally off-base. - More...
Thursday - June 16, 2005

"Going once, going twice......" File this under "if money were no object."
 
I spend way too much time on internet auction sites, trolling about for cool stuff. And stuff relating to Ketchikan's history is always the coolest. - More...
Friday - June 10, 2005

The beginning - It was a rare sunny summer day in June of 1970 and I was with my father on his trolling boat, the "Gony." We were headed down to the New England Fish Company dock to get ice for a trip to chase salmon on the back side of Gravina. - More...
Sunday - June 05, 2005

Unanswerable questions - Just 10 days into the summer visitor season I received my first "unanswerable" question. - More...
Thursday - May 26, 2005

"Progress" Progress is the root of all evil, progress is the cause of it all! - Lil Abner, The Musical. - Without progress Ketchikan would look something like Loring. Not that that would necessarily be a bad thing - depending on whom you talk to - but it would certainly be a different thing. - More...
Saturday - May 21, 2005

Hits and Misses" - Now that my son Liam is 4 1/2 , he is starting to show interest in sports. He gets excited when we drive by the ball park and he sees the big kids playing baseball. He gets really excited when we see one team that has red uniforms. I suspect he thinks they are cool because they dress like Spider Man. - More...
Saturday - May 14, 2005

"Star Bowling at the Billiken" - Hall of Fame bowler Dick Weber died earlier this Spring and that got me thinking about my "misspent" youth at the old Billiken Bowl on Stedman Street. - More...
Saturday - May 07, 2005

Not-so-young man's fancy - It's spring, the sun is high in the sky and a not-so-young man's fancy turns to baseball.....cards! - More...
Sunday - May 01, 2005

"Our Lifestyle, Your Reward" - I jumped the gun in my last column ("Hearty Alaskan Haven") and confused two different parts of the visitor industry "branding" plan. - More...
Saturday - April 23, 2005

Hearty Alaska Haven - Six months ago, I wrote a column noting that local tourism officials were looking to improve the marketing of Ketchikan by coming up with a "brand"that could be used to distinguish Ketchikan from its competitors for the visitor dollar. - More...
Monday - April 18, 2005

Jury of Peers - Every so often a tiny bit of sanity floats up from the morass that is our insane world.

This week a jury in Massachusetts declined to blame an airline when a passenger claimed a bumpy flight caused "post traumatic stress disorder." - More...
Sunday - April 10, 2005

Vox Populi #3 - For those of you playing along at home, I did misspell the word "crucifixion" in a recent column ("Talk About Multitasking"). Three alert (be alert, the world needs more lerts!) readers brought it to my attention. I could claim that the misspelling (crucifiction) was a Freudian slip but even my subconscious isn't that smart. - More...
Saturday - April 02, 2005

"Onward Christian Soldiers?" - I guess I must have missed another memo.

I missed the memo that apparently stated: Easter is an important holiday, for goodness sake! Buy lots of stuff for other people. - More...
Sunday - March 27, 2005

"Talk About Multitasking!" - Last week sitting in a Sea-Tac departure lounge I came to a shocking conclusion.

I was waiting for a flight to Oakland (yes, Gertrude, there is a "there" there) and it dawned on me that I was only person (amongst a whole herd of folks) that wasn't talking on a cell phone. - More...
Saturday - March 19, 2005

Nostalgia like that... For my birthday, my darling wife Charlotte bought me a video of the movie "Ray." - More...
Friday - March 11, 2005

Big honking "egg" design - Judging by the "design" competition just completed for the new Capitol building in Juneau. I am absolutely, positively, 100 percent sure the following conversation MUST have taken place earlier this week. - More...
Saturday - March 05, 2005

AKA CLUELESS, PART 3 - Thanks to the generosity of Sitnews readers, the fun just never stops! Here are some more stories of folks from Ketchikan's history who were both foolish and felonious! - More...
Saturday - February 26, 2005

Good Old Days - Once upon a time, I would have gone into serious withdrawal if the National Hockey League season was cancelled like just happened this week. - More...
Saturday - February 12, 2005

License plate "bingo"- I saw a Rhode Island license plate this week on Dock Street. - More...
Saturday - February 12, 2005

AKA Clueless, Part 2 - I was pretty sure that last week's column on clueless criminals in Ketchikan history would jog a few brain cells and, sure enough, I received several emails and phone calls suggesting other mentally muddled miscreants worthy of note. - More...
Saturday - February 05, 2005

AKA Clueless - Last week, I was reading one of those "stupid criminal" stories (man tries to rob donut shop in Cleveland and doesn't notice three uniformed police officers sitting at one of the tables!) and it got me thinking about the stories I've heard of local criminals who were a "few credits short of a law degree." - More...
Saturday - January 29, 2005

Catalogs - If your favorite slogan is "shop local" please avert your eyes for a few minutes. - More...
Saturday - January 22, 2005

"Winter sports? Snow way!" - I must finally be an "adult." - More...
Saturday - January 15, 2005

Vox Populi #2 - A lot of you were pretty amused when I misspelled the word satellite a while back in a column about spelling. I suppose I should it say it was an intentional mistake that was placed there to make a point. But no, it was an unintentional one. That definitely makes my point about the spelling bone suffering from osteoporosis as one ages. - More...
Saturday - January 08, 2005

Happy New Year - When I think about New Year's Eve in Ketchikan, I think about Annette Funicello. - More...
Saturday - January 01, 2005

"And To All, A Good Night." - The following story may or may not be true. The names may or may not have been changed to protect the ...... More...
Saturday - December 25, 2004

The Christmas Wish List - When I was a child it would have been easy to shop for me for Christmas. All my parents had to do was order one of each toy in the Sears Wish Book. Well, every toy except the Easy Bake Oven and Malibu Barbie, but you get the idea. - More...
Saturday - December 18, 2004

O' Faux Tannenbaum - We bought our first fake Christmas tree this year. - More...
Saturday - December 11, 2004

Deck Those Halls - Okay, it is after Thanksgiving, you may now put up your Christmas lights! - More...
Satureday - December 04, 2004

DRIVEN TO DISTRACTION - Ave (Hail) Automobius, God of Traffic and Parking."

I often find myself muttering that tribute whenever I safely pull into traffic. Usually it means that some unseen hand has parted the Red Sea and allowed me to finally enter the flow after a lengthy wait. In the old days, drivers used to occasionally allow someone else to enter the traffic stream but today we are in a such a big hurry that such archaic manners have been left behind at the last light. - More...
Saturday - November 27, 2004

Geographically challenged! - I have always wondered how other Americans can be so geographically and intellectually challenged when it comes to Alaska. They don't seem to know much about it and what they do know is - for the most part - wrong. When I was growing up, I had several cousins down in Seattle and even they couldn't grasp what Ketchikan was all about. - More...
Saturday - November 20, 2004

"The Smell of Money" - My mom likes to talk about the "good old days" when a dozen canneries clogged the Ketchikan waterfront and the "Smell of Money" was in the air all summer long. - More...
Saturday - November 13, 2004

"Spring Ahead, Fall Down" - In all the hoopla over the Nov. 2 elections, I almost forgot to "Spring Ahead, Fall Back." - More...
Saturday - November 06, 2004

Halloween in Ketchikan... Now that's scary! - Halloween has always been somewhat of a dicey proposition for Ketchikan. - More...
Saturday - October 30, 2004

It's a guilt thing - Like many other locals I have been somewhat amused (and a whole lot aghast) at the proliferation of jewelry stores in Ketchikan's Combat Shopping Zone over the last few years. We've always had a few local jewelry stores meeting the needs of locals and visitors but is there any logical explanation for 43 purveyors of fine gem stones to be located in downtown Ketchikan each summer? - More...
Saturday - October 23, 2004

Vox Populi - An astute reader recently called me on the carpet for misspelling "nurture" not once but twice in a previous column. My only defense is that I'm a graduate of the Ketchikan school system and judging by the creative spelling in signage around these parts poor spelling is not an uncommon affliction. - More...
Monday - October 11, 2004

Hope springs eternal - One of the great advantages to growing up in Ketchikan is that you don't necessarily have to become obsessed with the success or failure of a professional sports team. - More...
Monday - October 11, 2004

The More Things Change .. Just about once a decade, some enterprising artist/entrepreneur gets the bright idea to sell advertising space on a "map" of Ketchikan, usually of the downtown area. Some are big and colorful like the one that fledgling artist Ray Troll did in the early 1980s, some are tiny and in black and white like ones that were done by local photographers in the 1920s and 1930s. I collect these maps because they are fascinating snap-shots of what the community was like in a given a year. - More...
Tuesday -October 05, 2004

Ketchikan Flashback - Last month my family and I spent a few days in Wenatchee, Washington. It was hot (105 degrees), dry (maybe a foot of rain a year) and everything Ketchikan is not. But it did give me a great, big Ketchikan flashback. - More...
Tuesday - September 27, 2004

Bypass Promenading - It's fun to see Ketchikan residents promenading back and forth along the newly opened Third Avenue Bypass (AKA 5 Minutes Quicker to Liam's Daycare! ). Having fresh pavement to pound always brings out the good cheer amongst our landlocked bretheren. - More...
Tuesday - September 21, 2004

I LUV that gun! - It is hunting season again but my 3-year old son is not going to be heading out into the muskeg this year to bring home the venison. At least I don't think so. - More...
Saturday - September 11, 2004

Branding Ketchikan - The Ketchikan Visitors Bureau is conducting a "branding" campaign in order to come up with a way to better market Ketchikan to visitors. This process does sound rather painful, but it does make sense because the visitor industry has supplanted other industries as the engine of the local economy. As much as we like to say Ketchikan is a "working" community, the only real work we seem to be doing lately is for the benefit of those who want to come here to see us "work." - More...
Sunday - September 05, 2004