Maybe Fageol Knows...

[Electric Chicken]

There's no point in nitpicking the obvious. I'm just happy to see the refugees are being welcomed. I have a bartender friend here in Anchorage who hails from southern Poland near the Carpathians. One would not know she's Polish by her accent, actions, etc. I'm guessing that her surname, Zakrzewska, just might give away her heritage. She maintains ties with her family there. Her relatives there have opened up an old house for refugees. I think that's pretty cool.

Yeah I can agree with that. Refugees from war zones especially should never be stopped at a political border.

 

[Fageol]

I'm thinking about taking orders as I plan to be at this year's event. I have yet to hear of any truck launches. But if you need car parts, I might be able to assist. Glacier View Car Launch – The Perfect Independence Day Celebration – eEuroparts.com

 

[389 Hood]

That looks to be a hell of a lot more fun than bolstering the Asian economy by igniting those damned noisy fireworks. I hate those things with a passion.

Nice to see that the land is made pristine again after the event is over.

 

[Fageol]

That looks to be a hell of a lot more fun than bolstering the Asian economy by igniting those damned noisy fireworks. I hate those things with a passion.

Nice to see that the land is made pristine again after the event is over.

I thought I had written something this effect but I don't see it. Perhaps because I've been talking to 2 other people. But here goes. You might have heard that Alaska is known as the land of the midnight sun. Around the 4th of July the sun might set at 5 a.m. and rise a 5:45 a.m. i.e. it never gets fully dark. Alaskans buy lots of fireworks but they're kind of useless as they are shot into a sky that at its lowest brightness might look like its covered with rain clouds. So some creative souls push vehicles over a cliff to blow off steam. In many of the villages there are huge water balloon fights. And of course those activities are more or less fueled by beer, booze, wine, weed, chemicals, sex, and who knows what else.

 

[389 Hood]

Hmmm! A water balloon fight in an Alaskan winter. Ouch, that could hurt!

I even hated fireworks as a kid. It's tolerable for an hour. But enter the American brain-dead idiot that has to fire them off in the middle of the night for 3 days before and 3 days after the silly holiday that they bought them for. On New Years, the 4th of July and other related holidays, I just sit and a wish blindness, dismemberment and death upon those that have to get the loudest shit money can buy.

By the same token, the stupid little firecrackers that go on for hours and hours and days and days are just as annoying.

My favorite news stories are those that report the fireworks injuries of missing fingers, burns and hearing losses. Serves them right.

 

[Fageol]

Hmmm! A water balloon fight in an Alaskan winter. Ouch, that could hurt!

I even hated fireworks as a kid. It's tolerable for an hour. But enter the American brain-dead idiot that has to fire them off in the middle of the night for 3 days before and 3 days after the silly holiday that they bought them for. On New Years, the 4th of July and other related holidays, I just sit and a wish blindness, dismemberment and death upon those that have to get the loudest shit money can buy.

By the same token, the stupid little firecrackers that go on for hours and hours and days and days are just as annoying.

My favorite news stories are those that report the fireworks injuries of missing fingers, burns and hearing losses. Serves them right.

No water balloon fights in winter. Snowball fights suffice.

We're members of a social species. I expect to cut others some slack on a few occasions because to me those considerations are not worth much consideration. But if I or another had to put them into come kind of context, perhaps these ways of rationalizing that behavior can work.

If we have to have an economic/sociologists basis, Axelrod's "The Evolution of Cooperation," tells us that the winning strategy is tit for tat with forgiveness. If we have to have a philosopher guiding us, we can just listen to Hannah Arendt's requirement that we just be kind. Failing those two ways of dealing with perceived bad behavior, perhaps one or another faith will suffice.

 

[Rigjockey]

I thought I had written something this effect but I don't see it. Perhaps because I've been talking to 2 other people. But here goes. You might have heard that Alaska is known as the land of the midnight sun. Around the 4th of July the sun might set at 5 a.m. and rise a 5:45 a.m. i.e. it never gets fully dark.

That would be awesome to see, The sun kind of set and then rise again within an hour.

 

[Fageol]

That would be awesome to see, The sun kind of set and then rise again within an hour.

Go further north and it doesn't set at all. It looks like I lied. Here are the tables. All I can say from living here and at not too distant latitudes is that it doesn't get dark. In the old days when the bars had to close at 5:30 am one could walk out into the sunlight and it initiate or intensify a hangover. Check: https://sunrise-sunset.org/us/anchorage-ak/2022/7

 

[Rigjockey]

Go further north and it doesn't set at all. It looks like I lied. Here are the tables. All I can say from living here and at not to distant latitudes is that it doesn't get dark. In the old days when the bars had to close at 5:30 am one could walk out into the sunlight and it initiate or intensify a hangover. Check: https://sunrise-sunset.org/us/anchorage-ak/2022/7

I am very familiar with greeting the morning sun after a night of drinking. It's not fun.
Johnny Cash knows...

 

[Fageol]

I am very familiar with greeting the morning sun after a night of drinking. It's not fun.
Johnny Cash knows...

Canadians seem to take that sport more seriously then Alaskans. No matter what the poison, I wouldn't want to be around if Canuks were competing with Aussies in a drinking contest.

 

[Rigjockey]

Canadians seem to take that sport more seriously then Alaskans. No matter what the poison, I wouldn't want to be around if Canuks were competing with Aussies in a drinking contest.

I think that all comes down to the outdated serving hours in Canada. You only got until last call. 2am or something like that. Of course people will drink to excess if there is a time limit.
Without a time limit there would be no need to slam down beers.

IMO it is a cultural thing that we share in N. America. Alcohol is prohibited for minors under the age of 19-21 depending on where they reside.

Most of my friends that had parents from other countries allowed their kids to drink at an early age and IMO, They were better at controlling their intake. My friends knew how to drink and did not get hammered

 

[Fageol]

I think that all comes down to the outdated serving hours in Canada. You only got until last call. 2am or something like that. Of course people will drink to excess if there is a time limit.
Without a time limit there would be no need to slam down beers.

IMO it is a cultural thing that we share in N. America. Alcohol is prohibited for minors under the age of 19-21 depending on where they reside.

Most of my friends that had parents from other countries allowed their kids to drink at an early age and IMO, They were better at controlling their intake. My friends knew how to drink and did not get hammered

I think your conclusion is correct. My Dad would always offer me a beer a shot since I was a little guy. Once in a while I took him up on it. So when my high school buddies came around with a case of beer or other alcohol I was surprised that they made a big deal of it. I'm not sure that my Dad would ever buy booze for me, but if he had it and I wanted it, he'd give it to me just as if he were handing me a glass of water. When I was in the army in Germany, I saw that the kids could drink that good beer that's over there. I never saw as many alcoholics there as I have here in Alaska or in America (to old-time Alaskans, America = the Lower 48 states).

 

[Fageol]

Here you go RJ. No sunrises or sunsets for a while up north.

 

[389 Hood]

I seriously just could not handle the cold. Beautiful place, but way too cold for this kid.

 

[Fageol]

I seriously just could not handle the cold. Beautiful place, but way too cold for this kid.

I can recall those -40° nights and early mornings in Fairbanks, splitting and dropping a set and then hooking to and checking a return set. I should have gotten a pic of my dash thermometer but always failed to get one. One had one pair of gloves on and two pair cooking away on the windshield defroster duct. So you'd drop the tail trailer and then change gloves. Next

It gets a tad colder up at the town in the picture that used to be called "Barrow." But the worst was when I was doing some consulting work in Bethel around 1990. With the wind chill factor tossed in, it was -100° on those thousand steps between my apartment and the city office. It took a half-hour to dress for that walk and a half hour to undress at either end of that walk. Bethel is in the middle of a vast plain of lakes, ponds, and brush (like in no trees). There's not much to stop the wind.

 

[Rigjockey]

I seriously just could not handle the cold. Beautiful place, but way too cold for this kid.

I deal with the cold a lot better than I deal with the heat. Especially humidity oh I hate the humidity.

 

[Rigjockey]

I can recall those -40° nights and early mornings in Fairbanks, splitting and dropping a set and then hooking to and checking a return set. I should have gotten a pic of my dash thermometer but always failed to get one. One had one pair of gloves on and two pair cooking away on the windshield defroster duct. So you'd drop the tail trailer and then change gloves. Next

I remember working -40 at the airport. Christ! Nothing works right and somethings break and damn it makes you tired real fast.
I was working an Aeromexico flight.

 

[389 Hood]

I can recall those -40° nights and early mornings in Fairbanks, splitting and dropping a set and then hooking to and checking a return set. I should have gotten a pic of my dash thermometer but always failed to get one. One had one pair of gloves on and two pair cooking away on the windshield defroster duct. So you'd drop the tail trailer and then change gloves. Next

It gets a tad colder up at the town in the picture that used to be called "Barrow." But the worst was when I was doing some consulting work in Bethel around 1990. With the wind chill factor tossed in, it was -100° on those thousand steps between my apartment and the city office. It took a half-hour to dress for that walk and a half hour to undress at either end of that walk. Bethel is in the middle of a vast plain of lakes, ponds, and brush (like in no trees). There's not much to stop the wind.

You have my respect. You have 15+- years on me and you do it.

I deal with the cold a lot better than I deal with the heat. Especially humidity oh I hate the humidity.

I'm the exact opposite. I'm used to working in 90 degree heat with like humidity. That's what they make air conditioning for! But being born and raised in Ft. Lauderdale and spending only 2 winter in the NE and midwest, I'll pass. My whole body wants to lock up under 40 degrees F.

 

[Fageol]

I remember working -40 at the airport. Christ! Nothing works right and somethings break and damn it makes you tired real fast.
I was working an Aeromexico flight.

No doubt. Airports have a lot of wide-open spaces.

 

[Fageol]

You have my respect. You have 15+- years on me and you do it.

I'm the exact opposite. I'm used to working in 90 degree heat with like humidity. That's what they make air conditioning for! But being born and raised in Ft. Lauderdale and spending only 2 winter in the NE and midwest, I'll pass. My whole body wants to lock up under 40 degrees F.

Hard to knock liking warmth. As one of the memes running around FB notes, "People don't retire and move north."