Homer's Best Bets </MCC HEAD>

Story last updated at 9:04 PM on Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Homer's Best Bets

Redoubt calms down and then a few days later she blows a puff of ash. All weekend the sun shines with temps in the double-digits and then it drops to zero for spring break. Tuesday, it warms up again. The Dow shoots up, falls, and 418 insurance executives get big fat bonus checks for screwing up big time.

Holy Heraclitus, what's up next? A plague of frogs?

Photographer: Aaron Selbig, Homer News

All for the Cause
"DOJ" takes the stage at the Rock Concert Fundraiser For Prom 2009, held Friday night at the Homer Theatre.

That old Greek philosopher had it right. The world sho' nuff is in flux. Quicker than you can say "Cost of power adjustment," what once seemed stable, like bargain power at 15 cents a kilowatt hour, goes through the roof and you have to think twice about boiling a pot of tea. If you can afford tea. If you can afford a pot to boil it in. If your well hasn't run dry, your roof leaked or if you have four walls and a floor.

Last November America voted for change you can believe in. Like the Chinese say, "Be careful what you wish for you just might get it." We got change, all right, but unbelievable change, the change only really strange science fiction writers can imagine. Not that it's the Big O's fault anyway. He's just a bull rider that got plunked down in the middle of a really wild rodeo.

We Alaskans thrive on change. If we wanted nice boring weather we would have stayed in Hawaii on our last vacation, except for that making a living thing. It's that making a living thing that slips us up every time. So here we are, in the land of fickle weather, in the world of a fickle economy. Things will calm down soon enough.

Eventually we'll turn the magic corner. We'll believe we'll still have jobs and start spending money a chocolate bar here, a book there, a slightly-used Subaru with a good sound system, and happy days will be here again.

So while you're waiting for that economic miracle, get out and celebrate, because really, truly, honestly, it is spring time and from here on out, our days are longer than everything south of us. Bask in sunshine and enjoy a good time with some of these Best Bets:

BEST BIG EASY BLOW BET: How do you wrap your brain around a hurricane that wipes out entire neighborhoods and leaves the survivors begging for food in a stadium? Well, that's what they pay artists the big bucks for, to grapple with the unimaginable. See Jose Torres Tama's performance piece, "The Cone of Uncertainty: New Orleans after Katrina" at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday at Bunnell Street Arts Center.

BEST BET BET: People will bet on anything: who gets the biggest winter king salmon, when the ice breaks in Nenana and what square of ground an alpaca will go poo upon. If you're feeling lucky, or think this is just too damn weird to miss, check out the Alpaca Dung Pile Challenge from 5-11 p.m. Saturday at the Down East Saloon. The event benefits the Homer Broomball League and the Homer Hockey Association.

BEST MAYBE NANCY WAS RIGHT BET: Hipsters like to mock Nancy Reagan's "Just say no" drug policy it's a bit more complicated than that but maybe she had a point when you consider what saying yes to meth can mean. If you need a bit more convincing, check out a presentation by the Alaska Meth Education Project at 7 p.m. Friday at Armageddon Caf. Door prizes will be given away, and "Found Among Stones" performs afterward.

BEST STILL STICKY BET: Memories of the Exxon Valdez oil spill endure like, well, a layer of asphalt buried on a Prince William Sound beach. It's hard to believe 20 years have passed. From 5-7 p.m. Tuesday, go to the opening reception of "Reflections of a Spill: 20 Years Later" at the Pratt Museum, then join a candlelight procession to the Bunnell Street Arts Center for music and readings.

BEST BIG FISH BET:

Don't forget Saturday's Winter King Salmon Tournament, starting at 9 a.m. Side bets are announced at 7 p.m. at Duggan's.