Homer's Best Bets</MCC HEAD>

Story last updated at 6:02 p.m. Thursday, February 20, 2003

Homer's Best Bets
Did you ever wonder if an important fax or e-mail actually got delivered? I mean, it's all bits and bytes, electrons whizzing through the ether, and really, you can't know if that message got there until the recipient checks it. We're talking quantum physics, Betster fans -- you know, like in Schr^dinger's Cat, the physicist Erwin Schr^dinger's thought experiment illustrating the concept that electrons could be both waves and particles. Schr^dinger's Cat goes like this: put a cat in a sealed box for an hour with a glass vial of poisonous gas. If a glob of uranium decays and gives off a radioactive particle, a mechanism cracks the gas, killing the cat. If the uranium doesn't decay, the cat lives. The odds are 50-50, dead kitty, live kitty, but because we're talking quantum events, you can't know until you actually open the box.

So doesn't it seem like that's the state of the world these days? War, no war? Snow, no snow? Cold, not cold? Teachers' strike, no strike? Sunshine, no sunshine? Sen. Scalzi, Citizen Scalzi? Like the cat, we seem trapped in a box, waiting for someone to open it so we can at least figure out the reality we live in. We Snewsies can't help either: we just report reality, not make it (never mind your paranoid fantasies). But you can make your own fun, your own little cosmic corner of reality, even if all you do is strap on some garage-sale ice skates and swish away the night under the waning moon.

BEST CARCINOGENIC COMBUSTIBLES BET: Ever wonder what the byproducts of torched tobacco do to nonsmokers? Dan Boone of the Alaska Tobacco Alliance talks about the latest research on possible effects from the exposure to smoking from 7-9 p.m. tonight at the Community Resource Building on Pioneer Avenue across from Alice's.

BEST CHANGE THE WORLD BET: Democracy isn't just about voting, protests or writing letters to the editor. It's about going to dry, tedious meetings and giving your advice to the true politicians, those people volunteering on the dozens of boards and commissions. From the Kachemak Bay Advisory Planning Commission meeting tonight to the South Peninsula Hospital Board on Wednesday, citizen activists have plenty of chances to participate. See Town Crier, Page 19, for times and places.

BEST HEALTHY ATTRACTION BET: One of the biggest job markets in Homer is the health-care profession. So how come? Join in "The Heartbeat of Homer," a discussion of whether Homer is a "health-care magnet." Deland Anderson facilitates the discussion from 5:30-7 p.m. Friday at the Pratt Museum, the latest in the "Community Conversations" series.

BEST DECADENT ATTRACTION BET: Forget to get that loved one some chocolate for Valentine's Day? The Patrons of the Pratt Society offer you a chance at redemption with their annual "An Evening of Chocolate Decadence" from 7-9 p.m. Saturday at the Pratt Museum. Delectable chocolate desserts and specialties, hors d'oeuvres, fine port wines and other beverages will be served. Mike Heimbuch and Tom Klinker play jazz and swing. Tickets are $25 at the museum, the Homer Bookstore or from POPS members.

BEST FAIRVIEW AVENUE MUSICAL BET: Students protesting in the streets, radicals on the run, people living alternative lifestyles: sounds like the 1960s, or maybe last week. Nope, just 19th century Paris, as in "Les MisErables," the long-running Broadway musical as sung by the way-talented Homer High School students. "Les Miz" starts tonight at 7:30 p.m. at the Mariner Theatre and continues through Sunday; see Arts, Page 13, for exact times. Tickets are $12 for adults, $10 for seniors and kids, or $35 for families, on sale at Etude Studio and the Homer Bookstore.

BEST CATCH ME IF YOU CAN BET: With the weather we've been having, you could play soccer outdoors, only ya never know, which is the whole idea of winter indoor soccer. Homer High hosts an indoor soccer tournament from 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Saturday and 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday at the gym.

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