Well, hell, it’s a slow day and I’ve seen others post this sort of thread (usually to dismal failure), so I thought perhaps folks on the Board may have some questions about the largest and most spectacular of the 50 states.
I can answer a few right off the bat:
Yes, we have telephones and electricity.
No, we don’t live in igloos.
No, we don’t mush to work (well…some do).
Yes, we use 'Merkin currency (much to the annoyance of the Alaskan Independence Party).
So ask away and get the Straight Dope (or as close as I can get it) straight from God’s Country (or whomever is in charge at the moment).
The coldest recorded temperature in Alaska was -80F at Prospect Creek in 1971. In Anchorage (where I live), it generally will only get to about -20F for brief periods. Last winter tied the warmest winter on record. We had virtually no snow, it rained the entire month of February, and never got below zero.
Alaska being the size that it is, the climate varies from arctic to temperate rainforest, and the temperature extremes go accordingly. North of Anchorage, temperatures in winter drop dramatically. Southeast of us, they go up correspondingly. In the summer, the interior bakes in the 90s.
Hmmm…I’m not familiar with it. There’s a place called the Log Cabin Tavern that’s popular.
No, unless one lives in the Bush. In Anchorage, milk is about $4.00 a gallon. Things are VERY expensive in the villages, though, and $8.00 a gallon wouldn’t be out of the realm of possiblity. And yes, everything to the Bush goes by either train, barge or plane (mostly the latter), so it’s quite expensive. Most consumer goods in Anchorage are comparable to what you folks pay.
Strangely, we pay about $1.85 at present for regular gas. It’s a real sore point for Alaskans, as we drill, pump and refine the stuff right here and still pay premium prices.
My sister and her hubby used to live in Kodiak. He was stationed there with the Coast Guard. I think she worked in a Burger King. So what got you up there? Are you a native? What do you do to make ends meet?
I had a friend who’d lived in Fairbanks who claimed that during the winter it was so cold and dry that you could go outside, toss a hot cup of coffee out, and it would evaporate before it hit the ground. Is that so?
And how often do you see the aurora borealis during the year?
I mulled over several sig lines, none of which are original to me, including “Spawn 'til you die”, “There’s no nookie like chinookie”, and “If you must smoke, smoke salmon.” But I still laugh when I see the ‘odd men’ quote, so went with that.
The oddness is sadly and joyously still with us, but the odds have gotten significantly better, at least statistically. However, the statistics don’t take into account whether or not you would really want to have some of these gems as an SO. Goes for the women, also. I would say that the ratio of women to socially acceptable men is still pretty much in favor of the women.
I’ve heard that old saw as well, and some claim it as true, but I’ve never performed the test. I lived in Fairbanks for two years when in college and I can tell you that it’s a frozen hellhole in the winter. Engine oil freezes, gasoline gels in the lines and “square tires” are the norm. I frostbit both ears on Thanksgiving weekend 1966 by walking with nothing on my head from the dorm to the student union building at -63F. Miserable damn place.
We see them seldom here in Anchorage because of the city lights. When I was a whippersnapper, we saw them all the time, and occasionally we still get a good display. But you really need to be outside of the city or in a darkened area. Fairbanks gets spectacular displays, as of course does the arctic.
I’m not an Alaskan Native, but am a native Alaskan, being born and raised here in both Juneau and Anchorage. I’ve been to Kodiak several times.
I’m the director of construction at a public housing authority. My wife is a property manager for GSA, but is not from here. I was gone for 30 years in a military career and some other doings and moved back up here five years ago. I never wanted to leave in the first place, but dat ol’ Vietnam decided that for me. I intend to die here.
You’ve said that temperature varies quite a bit depending on where in the state you are. How much wind do you guys usually get, and how much does windchill affect temperature in the winter?
How much is land up there? Say I wanted to build a log cabin within an hour or three of a city. A few acres, maybe near water.
Can said cabin and land be rented for a long summer escape? How much?
I’m from Colorado, so I only know about its hunting season. What about Alaska’s? Can you hunt year-round, or only once a year?
How bad are the bugs? Skeeters, ticks, etc.
If someone wanted to be a tourist, what would you recommend? I’ve thought of everything from a cruise ship to a 3month backpack trip.
Maybe more followup questions will come…I’ve been interested in Alaska for a long time…I first got interested when I was a pilot and heard about a bunch of work one could do there. I heard statistics of 1 in 10 people being pilots.
There is local theater and even some credible opera singers. There are some excellent jazz musicians, with one of them in the Diana Krall class of jazz singers. We do import a lot of acts, particularly in the winter when everyone is starved for entertainment.
We don’t allow gay people in Alaska. We have the Gaydar 5000 scanner installed at the airport. Any gays trying to get in are quarantined and spanked hourly until they agree to sing a Streisand medley. :rolleyes:
Well, I’m not Alaskan, but I spent a month traveling from Seattle to Denali National Park this summer, with lots of stops on the way. If you’ve got time and don’t mind the occasional 3 a.m. departure or arrival, I recommend the state ferries (the poor grad student’s version of a cruise ship, only a hell of a lot more fun, and you get to meet people who actually live there). The scenery is drop-dead amazing – especially if you’re camping out on one of the deck chairs, poor grad-student-style, and can watch the mountains go by without leaving your sleeping bag – and you see whales, porpoises, and bald eagles everywhere. One of the coolest experiences of my life.
Chefguy, you live in a gorgeous state, and I wish I could think of some questions to ask you, but nothing comes to mind at the moment.
Wind obviously can determine the affect of temperature on skin. I’m not sure how one can quantify ‘how much wind’ there is. The coastal areas get quite a bit. Our strongest winds in Anchorage come off the mountains to the east, but the coldest winds come off the ocean to the west. I wouldn’t say we get a “lot” of wind.
Southeast Alaska and the Aleutian Island chain, on the other hand, get more wind than most places I’ve been. The Navy had a base out on Adak Island for many years. The motto there was “Birthplace of The Winds”. Pilot accounts of flying in the Aleutians in WWII relate terrifying weather, with the wind making the rain appear to be falling upwards.
Southeast Alaska gets some violent winds, one of the most notorious of which in Juneau is called “Taku” winds, which come off of Taku Glacier. These can hit gusts of 80-100 mph and take the roofs right off of houses.
Land is still available and people sell all the time. Waterfront is obviously going to be more expensive, particularly if it is road accessible. Remote lands that you could fly into are still relatively cheap.
I don’t own a cabin, so don’t have first-hand info. I’m sure you can rent places, but am not tapped into that market at all.
Alaska has hunting seasons like everywhere else. It is presently moose season. There are also lotteries for many areas to control how many animals are taken.
No ticks in Alaska. No fleas either. No poisonous spiders, no snakes, no poison ivy. The mosquitoes are large, plentiful and bloodthirsty, particularly out in the Bush. Large supplies of Deet are a requirement for camping and hunting. There are also ‘white socks’ and ‘no-seeums’ which bite, and some other biting insects.
That would depend entirely on the amount of effort you want to expend. Cruises are for people with time constraints and no interest in adventure. I would recommend taking a ferry up the Inside Passage. You can get off at each stop of your choice and backpack the area before moving on, ending the adventure at Skagway, hiking over the Chilkoot Pass (assuming you’re in good physical condition) to Bennett Lake. Keep in mind that SE Alaska is often rainy and there are a lot of bears.
Every man, woman and child (who is a resident) gets a permanent fund dividend check each year. The amount is determined by how well the corpus of the fund does in the investments. Last year I think it was about $1500, so a family of four would get $6,000.
There is some abuse, naturally, with people who don’t actually live here year round scamming the system. But the oversight is fairly intense.
This measure was passed into law many years ago as part of the decision as to what to do with all the oil money. The people of Alaska rightly surmised that if the legislators could easily get their hands on it, they would piss it away in no time.
The large bulk of the money is in a reserve, which is supposed to be there for a ‘rainy day’. Well, the rainy day is here, but no politician in his right mind will propose touching the money, unless he has a political death wish.
So we now have the laughable situation where the state has a deficit, the governor is cutting jobs and services, and there are literally billions of dollars sitting there unused, and everyone gets a check every year. How stupid is this?
The annual dividend check is now viewed by many as an entitlement. Personally, I wish it had never been started. It’s nothing more than welfare, and it drags people down to the lowest common denominator.
After 9/11, I donated my check to the firemen’s fund, and generally look for charities to give it to, such as the local shelters.
Generally how colder it is with the win; ie windchill. I know in Ottawa it can be -20C outside but the wind can drop that to -40 sometimes. Just wondering how much difference there was where you live.