HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: jsdph@acad3.alaska.edu (Dennis P. Harris)
Subject: Re: SITKA
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41.UAC
Organization: University of Alaska - Fairbanks
Date: Sun, 20 Dec 1992 09:31:00 GMT

154s@oasys.dt.navy.mil (Mona Hatfield) writes:
> 
> Also, is a 4-wheel drive car necessary there.  We will be driving from
> Maryland and everything I've read speaks of roads that I am not use
> to.  We will be leaving in March and have to report in Sitka in April.
> 
well, first you have to remember that you can't drive to sitka!  you have to
drive to either prince rupert, b.c. or bellingham, washington (and make your
ferry reservation now, since there have been some ships in for winter refitting
that have been delayed coming out of the yard).  since you apparently are being
xferred by the federal government (coast guard?) you will probably want save the
driving and leave from bellingham.  

you certainly won't need 4 wheel drive to get to b'ham.  sitka is relatively
flat, unlike juneau or ketchikan, so 4 wheel is not really necessary --- as
long as you have snow tires, you should be able to get around in the snow,
which usually only lasts from november/december to march, with a lot of slush.
most roads and streets in sitka are paved, and you'll find yourself walking a
lot, since sitka is really a small town.

>> Again, any help/advise will be greatly appreciated.
> 
sho'nuff.  hope you enjoy your stay in the old russian colonial capital ---
probably one of the most charming and scenic places in alaska.

================================================================================
dennis p. harris				  bitnet: jsdph@acad3.alaska.edu

  "The nation that controls magnetism controls the Universe." --- Diet Smith
================================================================================
From: system@freds.cojones.com (George W. Hayduke)
Newsgroups: alt.culture.alaska
Subject: Re: employment in Alaska
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 92 11:45:42 AST
Organization: Radio Free Fredbox

wisner@hayes.ims.alaska.edu (Bill Wisner) writes:

> Actually, Floyd, Polsky's right.  I know of at least one netwise person
> at Elmendorf who reads USENET.

I've seen an Elmendorf address listed as someone's system of origination who
was rlogin'ed to acad2 at one point. Damn if I can't remember what the
address was, tho.

And yet I call El Cajon, CA for my feed. feh.



      Fred Polsky v1.0, who has been known to handle under George.
            "This is Usenet. Facts are irrelevant here."
 The Fredbox +1 907 344 8437  system@freds.cojones.com  Anchorage, Alaska
Sean "Bandwidth" Ryan's favorite BBS, with lots of neat texts and lunatics.

Newsgroups: alt.culture.alaska
From: amie@hubcap.clemson.edu (Amie Spitzer)
Subject: Re: Juneau, was I love Alaska!
Organization: Clemson University
Distribution: na
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1992 18:54:01 GMT

gauss@cco.caltech.edu (Edward J. Gauss) writes:

>In article <Bz0DJt.2wt@mail.boi.hp.com> jburrill@boi.hp.com (Jim Burrill) writes:
>>:
>>Juneau has some form of precipitation 300 days a year...
>>....... Is there any employment base, other than the state offices?
>>

>Nearly all people in Juneau work in government or in the lobby groups
>that enjoy the splendid isolation that keeps the Alaskan citizen far
>removed from their legislators.  It is a paradise for well funded special
>interest groups.  Women are much in demand for secretarial/clerical jobs
>but there is no work for men.  I would guess that the sex ratio for singles
>in Juneau is very heavily skewed toward female.  Nonetheless the shortage
>of female workers makes the salaries for them rather high.  So fellows,
>let your wife work.  You go fish salmon, and hunt bear!  Insist on
>having your kitchen redone by my friend Eric there.  He needs the work.


>                         --Ed
>                          Fat Moose Flying Service, retired
> 
Um, just an observation, but why can't men do secretarial/clerical jobs?
They do down here in the "backwards" south. We've come a long way, ya know? :)
Just a curious female. :)
                                       Amie
                                 (AK REALLY wannabe but knows better)
From: terrylee@bigwpi.WPI.EDU (Patricia M Currier)
Newsgroups: alt.culture.alaska
Subject: dividends
Date: 15 Dec 1992 02:27:10 GMT
Organization: Worcester Polytechnic Institute
NNTP-Posting-Host: bigwpi.wpi.edu


I need the number for the dividend office, preferably in Fairbanks.
Can anyone help me?  I lost my form booklet, and they appear to have
lost my dividend. 

Thanks,
terrylee@wpi.wpi.edu
-- 
===============================================================================
And the #1 difference between WPI and Hell is...   |terrylee@wpi.wpi.edu
                                                   |
     "You wouldn't tell a friend to go to WPI."    |Patricia Currier
Newsgroups: alt.culture.alaska
From: hull@kong.gsfc.nasa.gov (Larry Hull - 522)
Subject: travel cost
Summary: any inexpensive ways to visit?
Keywords: vacation, travel
Organization: Goddard Space Flight Center
Distribution: alt
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 92 15:57:36 GMT

Hi--

My family would like to visit the state next August.

We'd rent an RV and travel around the central area
for about three weeks.

The kicker is the high cost to get there and back.

Round trip tickets are currently $722 each or $4,322
for all of us.  That's about twice what we have in
the vacation budget for travel.

Are there any less expensive ways to get into the
state?

(Driving from Maryland and back is out because of
 the time required for the trip - coast to coast
 is a comfortable week's trip for us but we only
 have 19/20 days at best so driving isn't an option)

Larry 

------------------------------------------------------------
|  hull@kong.nasa.gsfcmail.gov | standard disclaimer here  |
------------------------------------------------------------
| "I'm from the government and I'm here to help you."  :-) |
------------------------------------------------------------
From: vmarsch@adobe.com (Vonn Marsch)
Newsgroups: alt.culture.alaska
Subject: Re: Anti-Texan sentiment (was "Alaskan Joke")
Date: 11 Dec 92 18:02:01 GMT
Organization: Adobe Systems Incorporated, Mountain View

In article <1992Dec11.091834.12827@raven.alaska.edu> floyd@hayes.ims.alaska.edu (Floyd Davidson) writes:
>Hmmm...  Honest truth is I know a guy who lives in Tok that thinks
>the fun thing to do on a winter day when its 60 below is drive
>down to the Canadian border and give a one-finger salute to everyone
>leaving the state...  in hopes they take it serious and stay gone.

Please, Floyd, people are going to start to think that Alaskans are
misanthropists.  

I grew up in Alaska, and I don't hate Texans.  My father was born in
Anchorage in 1925, when it was 1/100th of its current size, and has
lived there his entire life; and he doesn't hate Texans, nor have I
EVER heard him complain about all the Outsiders moving there.

I've lived in Alaska, Washington and California, three places where I
constantly hear loud complaints about people moving there and "ruining
it for them," as if anyone (other than American Natives) can claim that
they (or their family) came their for any better reason than the people
who they complain about.  What these people don't know is their
intolerance is as ugly as racism (only more hypocritical) and they
should be ashamed.  I'm ashamed to be an Alaskan when I see this stuff
broadcast over INTERNET.

I know your just reporting the truth, Floyd, but I'm proud of my state
and hate to see its image tainted with hatefulness.  Alaska needs more
of the kind of people that this stuff turns off.

-Vonn Marsch
vmarsch@adobe.com
From: 22-9702@wwiv.cojones.com (Opal Luna Saturnyne #22 @9702)
Newsgroups: alt.culture.alaska
Subject: Re: living expenses?     
Date: Sat, 12 Dec 92 09:25:03 GMT

> From: adye#news1.boi.hp.com (Alan Dye) #118 @502
> 
> I was last there in 1987.  Is the dairy job at Wasilla (Matanuska valley) or
> in the surrounding area?  If so, you'll experience Anchorage prices, which 
> are pretty reasonable.  I found clothing, and other non-perishables to be 
> approximately the same as here in the L48.  The cost of housing is higher, 
> electricity, and gasoline are higher (not by much) and (if I remember right)
> phone service prices were lower.

Seems we still have one of the lowest prices in the country for telephone
service (although they're working on fixing that :-/). Gas is pretty
reasonably priced too (even if we're being forced to use that over-priced
oxy-crap...the local stations are starting price wars now, which is a break).
Not sure what the cost of electricity is here, although we certainly tend to
use more during the winter.

> This leaves meat and produce.  Since meat is frozen, it can be shipped in and
> is not unreasonable.  Produce is the most expensive, with highly perishable 
> (tomatoes, lettuce, etc...) being the most expensive, upwards of double the
> cost in the L48 at certain times of the year.   At other times it might be
> suprisingly low.  Carr's Grocery (Anchorage Area Grocery Chain) is probably
> cheaper than Safeway.  Local independent grocers are occasionally better than

Produce prices were about the same as in PA, at least in September when I
visited there (they also had a 6% sales tax on top of that), and they get
their stuff trucked in from Jersey. Then again, my sampling was done at the
"Ack-a-me"... there may be cheaper sources of produce in the area.


=> QWK'n'Dirty: it's a floor wax *and* a dessert topping!
=> QWK'n'Dirty 1.1, Reader and terminal program in one! (registered)
                
Newsgroups: alt.culture.alaska
From: wisner@hayes.ims.alaska.edu (Bill Wisner)
Subject: Re: Tammy's quest for Alaska! 8-)
Organization: Trailing Edge Technologies, Mountain View, CA
Date: Sat, 12 Dec 1992 19:17:55 GMT

In article <marcl.724105317@os-d> marcl@os-d.isc-br.com (H. Marc Lewis) writes:
>How about calling them the "Conterminous States", meaning being contained
>within a common boundary?

Perhaps because a quite substantial portion of the population has never
heard of the term "conterminous"?

w.
From: system@freds.cojones.com (George W. Hayduke)
Newsgroups: alt.culture.alaska
Subject: Re: SITKA
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 92 10:16:16 AST
Organization: Radio Free Fredbox

154s@oasys.dt.navy.mil (Mona Hatfield) writes:

> Also, is a 4-wheel drive car necessary there.  We will be driving from
> Maryland and everything I've read speaks of roads that I am not use
> to.  We will be leaving in March and have to report in Sitka in April.
> 
> Again, any help/advise will be greatly appreciated.

Not mandatory. I got around with a little teenie thing (rear wheel drive and
all) for quite some time.

If you have the dough, get one. Just remember that 4x4 doesn't mean you're
invincible: you won't stop any faster, you'll just not get stuck when the
nice grader leaves a snowberm blocking your driveway.

But then, Sitka, it'll just be raining anyway.



      Fred Polsky v1.0, who has been known to handle under George.
            "This is Usenet. Facts are irrelevant here."
 The Fredbox +1 907 344 8437  system@freds.cojones.com  Anchorage, Alaska
Sean "Bandwidth" Ryan's favorite BBS, with lots of neat texts and lunatics.
From: bj368@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Mike E. Romano)
Newsgroups: alt.culture.alaska
Subject: Tech Homesteading
Date: 14 Dec 1992 06:55:35 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio (USA)
NNTP-Posting-Host: hela.ins.cwru.edu


Although I am still a long way from being able to spend some
time up there in Alaska (saving my pennies, etc.), I will be
making a trip probably in a couple of years.
Anyway, my questions are: is homesteading still available up
there--like free land if you work it, etc.
Probably not I would guess.  But let's go on to the other
quizzies:  with all that rain up there at least in parts,
there must be a lot of streams and rivers and I am very
interested in independent energy systems for a remote
home site.
Is any one doing small hydro to supply a homestead?
What about wind?  Much in the way of personal wind
generators (i.e. 3-10 kw)?
Down here in certain places like northern California,
Colorado and New England there are clusters of retired
engineers and other tinkerers who have set up a variety
of homesteads independent from the grid.

What is the cost of utility electric for home use per
kilowatt hour, does it vary from one city to another?

How about harnessing a couple of caribou to a walk
around dynamo?
Sorry, that's only a joke.
Would appreciated info on independent energy projects
up there.
Thanks.
mike romano


-- 
Capt. Kirk: let's head for that planet, third from the sun, it
            looks promising.... |-)
Newsgroups: alt.culture.alaska
From: floyd@hayes.ims.alaska.edu (Floyd Davidson)
Subject: Re: Anti-Texan Sentiment
Organization: University of Alaska Computer Network
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1992 06:42:14 GMT

In article <1992Dec14.221227.25480@adobe.com> vmarsch@adobe.com (Vonn Marsch) writes:
>
>My whole point is this:  The kind of people who read NetNews, and are turned
>off by provincial attitudes, are just the kind of people that Alaska needs.
>Alaska needs more cosmopolitan, educated folks to move up there.
>
>- Vonn Marsch


I'll buy all but the cosmopolitan.  The neatest thing about Alaska
is its culture.  "Worldly" people who come here and try to change
the local culture and way of life to match what they left behind
should stay behind!

When I first moved to the Fairbanks area it was very noticable to
me how the people here were NOT as friendly as people where I'd
come from!  Yet most of the people I met here all remarked about
how the first an most noticable impression they had of Fairbanks
was just how much more friendly people here are than where they
came from...

Its all a matter of perspective.  I moved here from a village
where people were even more friendly than they are here.  The
others came from the USA.  (Heh, my kids as teenagers used to
refer to Eielson AFB, where they went to school, as "the USA".)

There is a reason its that way, and all we need to do to make this
place much closer to, say LA or Seattle, or whereever, is
encourage people to bring there own culture here and transplant
it.  That is exactly why we say Anchorage (and Fairbanks, IMHO)
are only one plane ride away from the REAL Alaska.

The reason to live in Alaska is Alaska and its culture(s), not
because it is some wild frontier that one can civilize by bringing
your culture and transplanting it.

Floyd
-- 
floyd@ims.alaska.edu        A guest on the Institute of Marine Science computer
Salcha, Alaska              system at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks.
Newsgroups: alt.culture.alaska
From: system@freds.cojones.com (George W. Hayduke)
Newsgroups: alt.culture.alaska
Subject: Re: Anti-Texan Sentiment
Date: Sun, 13 Dec 92 10:08:48 AST
Organization: Radio Free Fredbox

fsjfz@acad3.alaska.edu writes:

> all of the time.  Not to mention the humor aspect of it- my comments about
> Anchorage not being ``real Alaska'' don't elicit complaints from people who
> live in Anchorage, who are used to the jokes.  Personally, i look at such
> attitudes broadcasted across INTERNET as beneficial for two reasons: 

How could we complain? We know it's true.

Anchorage is geographically isolated from the rest of Alaska by mountains and
water, with only a teenie stretch of highway on the north and a teenie
stretch of highway on the south connecting us.

I lived in the Valley for about 5 years and the other 15 have been in
Anchorage. I *know* this ain't real. But, we have consolation.

At least we don't live in Bearflanks. err, Squarebank..er, Fairbanks.

"Fairbanks is a funny place. It combines the worst aspects of live in a big
city with the worst aspects of life in the bush. It's actually bad enough to
make you feel *lucky* to be living in Anchorage!"
   -- Anthony Hursh <root@moosevax.cojones.com>

Real Alaskans don't use smilies.



      Fred Polsky v1.0, who has been known to handle under George.
            "This is Usenet. Facts are irrelevant here."
 The Fredbox +1 907 344 8437  system@freds.cojones.com  Anchorage, Alaska
Sean "Bandwidth" Ryan's favorite BBS, with lots of neat texts and lunatics.
From: vmarsch@adobe.com (Vonn Marsch)
Newsgroups: alt.culture.alaska
Subject: Re: Anti-Texan sentiment (was "Alaskan Joke")
Date: 14 Dec 92 21:27:56 GMT
Organization: Adobe Systems Incorporated, Mountain View

In article <1992Dec12.082157.27203@raven.alaska.edu> floyd@hayes.ims.alaska.edu (Floyd Davidson) writes:
>
>Gee Vonn, I'm sorry you believed all that stuff I said.  (By the
>way I gots this little bridge in the New York Area you might wanna
>buy...)

Well, I'm a very gullible person who's likely to overreact.

-Vonn Marsch
From: terrylee@bigwpi.WPI.EDU (Patricia M Currier)
Newsgroups: alt.culture.alaska
Subject: Re: dividends
Date: 15 Dec 1992 17:28:20 GMT
Organization: Worcester Polytechnic Institute
NNTP-Posting-Host: bigwpi.wpi.edu

In article <1992Dec15.032909.8338@raven.alaska.edu> randy@raven.alaska.edu (Randy Hayman) writes:
>Can't tell from your name any specifics, but your electronic address is
>certainly Outside.
>
>
>Randy
>sxrmh1@orca.alaska.edu
>
>PS. Another thing Alaskans hate (and I'm not saying Patricia is) is
>Outsiders, and (other)
>ineligable Alaskans collecting dividends.
>
Last I checked, being out of state to go to school was still perfectly
permissable. Least it better be. There aren't any other colleges besides
just the state schools (I think. I couldn't find any.)

-terrylee


-- 
===============================================================================
And the #1 difference between WPI and Hell is...   |terrylee@wpi.wpi.edu
                                                   |
     "You wouldn't tell a friend to go to WPI."    |Patricia Currier
Newsgroups: alt.culture.alaska
From: wisner@hayes.ims.alaska.edu (Bill Wisner)
Subject: Re: living expenses?
Organization: Trailing Edge Technologies, Mountain View, CA
Date: Fri, 11 Dec 1992 20:06:18 GMT

>Local independent grocers don't exist anymore. At least, not in Anchorage.

There's one in Fairbanks: Gavora Super Valu.  The other grocery stores
are Safeway (two of them), Carr's Foodland, and the new Fred Meyer.

w.
From: gauss@cco.caltech.edu (Edward J. Gauss)
Newsgroups: alt.culture.alaska
Subject: Re: Dog Questions
Date: 13 Dec 1992 11:34:32 GMT
Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
NNTP-Posting-Host: alumni.caltech.edu

In article <92347.111759U49654@uicvm.uic.edu> U49654@uicvm.uic.edu (Susan M.
Singler) asks many questions about Alaskan dog culture:

In my Fairbanks years it was almost considered un-Alaskan not to own
at least one dog, or two, or three.  Nearly every pickup truck seems
to have a dog riding in back and I suspect that a large dog is included
in the sale, along with the gun rack across the back window and the
poster "let the bastards freeze in the dark" or "Alaskans don't tan,
they thaw".

When Spring came to Fairview Manner (Fairbanks's apartment house ordeal
for all new comers), and when the snow begins to melt, just outside the
front door is a huge pile of frozen dog and cat poop that had been hidden
all winter long by snow.  Indoor dogs and cats rarely go very far from
the front door.  

When I finally moved to the banks of the Chena, a couple of dogs of
various sorts moved in with me.  I enjoyed a couple of Irish Setters who
stayed outside all winter long.  During a January when the temperature
ran below -40 most of the month, they ate 100 pounds of dog food.  We
put musher harnesses on them and they used to pull us on skis along the
frozen river.  There was a dog musher trail there and those folk like
neither stray dogs nor other people on the trail.  I have seen them run
down a helpless mutt from my household who had some territorial claim to
the ice in back of his house.  Being a terrier type mutt he had a bad
habit of chewing through the wire fence and running stray.  One winter
I found him next to a dog musher trail quite dead.  He had been shot.
I never did find out who did it, but the shooting of stray dogs seems
to replace leash laws as the Alaskan means of dog control.

The Irish Setters used to love to go camping.  I remember one cold
and damp night when they insisted in coming in the tent and it was
a good thing too.  Those Setters were much warmer than an electric
blanket!

When I used to land my little plane in the Indian villages a gackle of
kids and dogs would always run out to meet me.  I have seen one dog run
successfully through the propeller disk of still running propellor.
That sort of thing used to fighten me.  Fortunately the kid did not
follow its dog.  In the villages there are more dogs than people.
While most dogs are tied, there are no laws and little dog control,
so there are always a few running about barking at everything.

                         --Ed Gauss,  Fat Moose Flying Service, retired
Newsgroups: alt.culture.alaska
From: brady_p@apollo.hp.com (Peter Brady)
Subject: Re: Tammy's quest for Alaska! 8-)
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1992 20:17:33 GMT
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Corporation, Chelmsford, MA

In article <1992Dec10.143135.1@acad3.alaska.edu> fsjfz@acad3.alaska.edu writes:
>My favorite is of course ``flatland'' which kind of ignores the rockies, but
>pokes fun at states like Maine and Vermont who think they have mountains (it's
>one of those two that has a highest point of something like 4000 feet. 
>Mountains, eh?)
Mount Washington is the highest point in the Northeast and is in the White Mountain
range in New Hampshire. It hovers in the 6000 foot range as I remember. Nothing
like the Sawtooth Range in Idaho or Denali (Western mountain ranges that I have
been to). Mt Washington does hold the record for the highest recorded wind 
(over 200mph) -- probably cuz no one could stay up on a place like Denali to 
record something faster! :-)

--pete (Nashua, NH resident, AK wannabe)
From: marcl@os-d.isc-br.com (H. Marc Lewis)
Newsgroups: alt.culture.alaska
Subject: Re: Tammy's quest for Alaska! 8-)
Date: 11 Dec 92 20:21:57 GMT
Organization: ISC-Bunker Ramo, An Olivetti Company

system@freds.cojones.com (George W. Hayduke) writes:

>Rather than refer to "The Continental 48 States" (a misnomer -- Alaska is on
>the North American continent), or the contiguous 48 states, I simply say
>"America". 

How about calling them the "Conterminous States", meaning being contained
within a common boundary?
--
H. Marc Lewis                 |  Phone: (509) 927-5480
ISC-Bunker Ramo Corp.         |  e-mail: marcl@hela.ISC-BR.COM
22425 E. Appleway Ave.        |  or:  ...!uunet!isc-br!hela!marcl
Liberty Lake, WA 99019-9534   |  "Nature bats last..."
Newsgroups: alt.culture.alaska