Alaska Ear---The Divine Appendage
(Anchorage Daily News)
Published: August 7, 2005
Last Modified: August 7, 2005 at 02:04 AM
NOTE:
IBEW Local 1547 Retirement,
New Business Manager,
Managing the IBEW Radio Station,
Who's looking for an IBEW job?
The IBEW is in the gossip column on one day...MW
Well, darlings, last week's rumor about a garage sale at Sen. Lisa Murkowski's Government Hill house on Saturday was true (imagine that), and of course Ear couldn't stay away. With a six-year term stretching in front of her now that she's won election on her own, the senator and her family are moving to Washington, she and hubby Verne told shoppers.
The house on Ash has apparently been sold. Ear wasn't vulgar enough to ask how much they got, but word is it went for close to $500,000.
Saturday wasn't so much the usual assortment of goods on tables in the garage and driveway as an open house with items for sale in each room and on the deck.
Ear expected to find the event being run by staff, but Lisa, Verne and at least one of their children were there, being gracious and watching strangers paw through their stuff. (Ear bought two red ice-cube trays that make cubes shaped like stars.) However, the Murkowski/Martells are obviously new at the garage sale game. Books could be bought only by the box-load, and even though the $20 price was OK, where's the fun? And few of the items for sale were priced, which made it difficult to get the statutory bargaining started. As Saturday morning veterans know, the true satisfaction of garage-sale-ing comes from paying $1 for something that was marked $1.25.
OLD WHITE GUYS ... Did one of the local television stations really illustrate news of Jay Hammond's death with video of Norman Vaughan?
Alors, darling, one old bearded Alaskan is much like another. Except Jay hated being mistaken for Norm, which happened now and then. Earwigs heard him complain about it more than once. He said someone once mistook him for Capt. Joe Hazelwood of the Exxon Valdez.
Ear didn't personally witness the TV gaffe so isn't using any names.
NO HELP FROM SPELLCHECK ... And speaking of Jay, did you catch the following in the Veco Times' back-handed eulogy?
"Besides his backwoods persona and pension for writing poetry ..."
All this time Ear thought his pension was for his service as a legislator and governor and his penchant was for bad poetry.
CHANGING OF THE GUARD ... Thursday was Gary Brooks' last day as the head of IBEW, the electrical workers' union. Ear hasn't heard what he plans to do next. Whatever happened to the rumor he was going to run the radio station the union bought recently?
The new IBEW boss, Larry Bell, also from the Valley, officially takes over today.
ON THE MOVE ... Ass't AG Alex Swiderski gets sworn in Friday as an Anchorage District Court judge.
• Daily News sports writer Eric Smith, who's covered high school sports the last couple of years, is moving to Memphis, Tenn., and a job at the University of Memphis.
PEOPLE ARE TALKING ... about the legislator who maybe has his eye on Melinda Taylor's old job at IBEW. Apparently he thinks his votes in favor of letting employers count tips when calculating minimum wage and against injured workers makes him right for the job ... about International Trade director Margy Johnson's alleged disappointment that once again she was not named commissioner of commerce ... about whether interest in the so-called "real" reason for Edgar Blatchford's resignation as Commerce commissioner will fade now that he's also resigned the please-go-away job at the seafood institute in Seattle.
HE'S REALLY SORRY ... Jurors in a civil trial before Judge Mark Rindner report receiving court-ordered letters of apology from John R. White, the plaintiff's lawyer, who failed to return to court after jurors reached a verdict. The panel waited around for a couple of hours until Rindner took the verdict without him. Rindner, a generally pleasant guy, was steamed. He ordered White to explain and apologize in writing to every juror, which must have been galling since the verdict they returned was against his client.
CUE THE PYRAMIDS, MR. DEMILLE ... Some information should be delivered without comment. You know how Ear loves keeping track of ex-pat and former Hickel aide John Hendrickson as he makes his way through the overwrought world of his wife's moneyed East Coast pals. Here are some bits from a story about Marylou Whitney's annual summer costume festival in the race-course town of Saratoga Springs, N.Y., from the current issue of The Saratogian newspaper, written by Jeannette Jordan:
"The most coveted invitation in Saratoga Springs arrived this year with King Tut on its cover. ... A crowd of 750 people, who didn't receive a to-die-for invitation ... stood Friday evening outside Canfield Casino awaiting the arrival of their 'queen' and the 'somebodies' dressed in high fashions.
"Trumpeters sounded their instruments as veiled dancers led the parade for Whitney and Hendrickson's arrival. Cheers abounded. The couple came in a Landau horse-drawn carriage like the one Queen Elizabeth II rides to the Royal Ascot in England. ... Whitney was a knockout in a long white crepe gown by designer Bill Blass with a diamond and pearl collar necklace. ... She and Hendrickson made their way through the crowd shaking hands, posing for snapshots and passing out squeezable Birdstones with help from her staff. Birdstone was their horse that won the 2004 Belmont and Travers stakes.
"TV camera rolled and photographers' bulbs flashed ..."
Darlings, that's as much as Ear can take. For descriptions of the gilded Egyptian motif decorations, the palace columns and gold chairs, go to www.saratogian.com.
-- Compiled by Sheila Toomey
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