Homer’s Best Bets </MCC HEAD>

Story last updated at 11:02 AM on Thursday, October 13, 2005

Homer’s Best Bets

Say hallelujah, Betsteroids! Homer’s delicate spiritual and recreational balance has been realigned. We’ve always kept a 3-to-1 ratio of churches to bars in this town, proof Homer values preachin’ over partyin’. Or maybe that’s because to start a church you don’t need the OK of an Alaska Religious Commission. That pesky old First Amendment gosh dern guarantees if the Spiritual Being of your choice touches you, you, too can start a church.

So now that Refuge Chapel is on Pioneer Avenue, things even out. That poor Seventh Day Adventist building had to hold its own against bars to the east and west. With the chapel down there by a liquor store, hey, the spiritual harmony runs smoother.

Throw in a few espresso joints to keep everyone awake, and there you go: spirituality, demon likker and a good wake-you-up. Add in the philosophy that comes with any two Homeristas having a mug up, and Holy Revelation, we’re talking deep intellectual discourse.

Which is a roundabout way of saying here in Homer, you have choices. So while you’re pondering all those options, hey, think about what to do in the meantime, like some of these Best Bets:

BEST IAMBIC PENTAMETER BET:

You think you have the chops to go up against Homer’s finest poets? Bring it on! Get out your Moleskine journals and your Mont Blanc pens and head on down at 7 p.m. Saturday to the Kachemak Bay Campus commons for a Poetry Slam.

BEST BIG BANG BET:

Back during the Cold War, we really showed those Commies by blowing up big nukes on Amchitka Island. Uh, so maybe that wasn’t the best idea. A scientific team has been investigating the effects of using remote Aleutian islands as nuclear test sites. At noon Monday, some of those scientists present “Amchitka’s Nuclear Legacy,” a discussion of that research, at the Alaska Islands and Ocean Visitor Center.

BEST GOOD SWEARING BET:

People at Homer City Council meetings try to be civil, but on a rough night, you might hear a dang or two muttered quietly. Monday night at 7 p.m. it’s some swearing of a different kind, when the two newly elected city council members, Mike Heimbuch and Matt Shadle, take the oath of office. It’s democracy in action, a time to honor the American tradition of electing people to represent our interests.

BEST 100 VOICES BET:

You can’t just open your mouth and wail away, not in the Honor Choir. You actually have to know how to sing, as opposed to doing an imitation of a cat in a gunnysack. The best of the best sing at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Mariner Theatre when the 100 members of the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District honor choir perform. Tickets are $3 at the door.

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