Last week, our friends the French and Swiss figured this out. Using the Very Large Telescope in Chile and images from the Hubble Space Telescope and the Canada-Space-France telescope, they discovered a teeny little galaxy in the constellation Virgo that's 13.23 billion light years away. Yee-hah! A light year is 5.88 trillion miles, kids, if you want to do the math. Turn on your warp drives and sooner or later much later you'll hit Abell 1835 IR1916.

In other words, the universe is big. Really big. And here you thought it's just another crummy, dark week in March and there's no place to go. Turns out, you can go a really, really long way.

But hey, if you want to hang out here at the End of the Road, fret not. There are lots of Best Bets.

BEST WE'RE BAAACK BET: Don't you just hate this time of year? Here you are suffering in the cold, with galleries and restaurants closed, and all your friends are away. And then they show up back in town with chic new haircuts, glorious tans and tales of far-off tropical retreats. They have the gall to strut around at First Friday events, too. The real crowds don't return until May, but as winter winds down, the snowbirds come back and more and more places reopen. Friday, the Fireweed Gallery reopens with paintings and sculpture by Peg Belcastro. At Bunnell Street Gallery, Artemis BonaDea shows book art. Folk artist "Grandma" Pat Kennedy shows at Picture Alaska Art Gallery, and at the Homer Council on the Arts Merry Zumwalt shows mixed-media sculpture.

BEST PLEASE SIR, COULD I HAVE SOME MORE? BET: Here's a deal for you. If you buy a bowl made by one of many fine local potters, Two Sisters Bakery will fill it with soup for you. It's part of an "edible First Friday" fund-raiser by Otter Beach Educational Center from 5-7 p.m. Friday at Two Sisters Bakery on Bunnell Avenue. Otter Beach student art is on display, and Otter Beach families, students, and alumni present "The Hungry Thing," a reader's theatre, at 6 p.m.

BEST YOU COULD BE A WINNAH BET: Ah, the roar of the hydrocarbons, the smell of the crowd. OK, you try cramming a gazillion damp snowmachiners in a cabin as they wait to see if one of them has won $1,500 in the annual Snomad's Fun Run Raffle. The drawing is at 3:30 p.m. Saturday at the Snomad cabin, but you don't have to be present to win. You gotta get on that sled and go to have fun, though. Tickets are at the local snowmachine dealers or sign up at the checkpoints at Nikolaevsk School or McNeil Canyon Elementary School.

BEST WE LIKE IT WILD BET: Wild seafood, that is, and none of that crummy farmed salmon stuff. Yessuh, it's the North Pacific Fisheries Association 25th Annual Seafood Dinner this Saturday. The menu includes crab, salmon, halibut, octopus, fish chowder, shrimp Creole, sushi and more. The popular feast has three seatings from 4:30-6 p.m., 6-7:30 p.m. and 7:30-9 p.m. at the Homer Elks Lodge. Tickets at the door are $15 for adults and $7 for children.

BEST BLACK BEANS AND RICE BET: You know what's wrong with this town? You can't get black beans and rice, Cuban sandwiches, fried plaintains or other amazing Cuban cuisine. You can get a taste of Cuba a musical taste starting at 3:30 p.m. Sunday at the Bear Claw Bakery. It's part of the Third Annual International Women's Day Celebration. A potluck dinner is 3:30-4:30 p.m. The International Peace Choir of Alaska, participants in the 7th International Choice Festival in Santiago, Cuba, perform Cuban music after the potluck.