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The Talkeetna index.

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In years past I’ve done both long-form writing and mock-tweet compilations about the Talkeetna Bachelors Auction and Wilderness Woman Competition. And this year I did Talkeetna in six pics.

Today I realized that wasn’t nearly enough coverage, given how many other photos I still had to share, and how many experiences I hadn’t yet described when I put up the six pics. After all, that post went live the same night we arrived in Talkeetna. Surely there was more to tell.

So I decided to tell it, in the style of the long-running “Harper’s Index” from Harper’s magazine. But I’d be doing it Talkeetna-style.

For the uninitiated: The Harper’s Index is a list of random facts, sometimes connected, sometimes not. Rather than draw from multiple sources, I will of course focus on the bachelors auction and wilderness woman competition.

Some of my index items will be illustrated and some won’t. One of the photos will be not suitable for work. You’ve been warned.

 

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6 money lessons from “Ghostbusters: Afterlife.”

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I didn’t expect “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” to be a cinematic classic. It was clear from the first preview that this would be a popcorn movie. What I did expect is that Paul Rudd and Carrie Coon would take the lead in supernatural heroism.

So I was pleasantly surprised when the middle-school nerd, Phoebe (Mckenna Grace, of “The Handmaid’s Tale,” among others) and her new (and only) friend, Podcast (Logan Kim) pretty much walked away with the movie. They – and especially Phoebe – are the film’s heart and mind.

And the scene where Podcast asks if she would be….

…wait for it…

his lab partner? That was one of the shyer, sweeter movie scenes I’ve encountered in ages.

The protagonists are the daughter and grandkids of one of the original Ghostbuster gang, and they’ve inherited his dilapidated house in Middle-of-Nowhere, Oklahoma. The mom, Callie, tells the kids they’re just going out there to sell the place, but we know before they do that they’re going to stay; after all, an early scene shows Callie begging the landlord not to evict them.

What could go wrong? Especially when teenaged son Trevor (Finn Wolfhard, of “Stranger Things”) and his new buddies start hanging around an abandoned mine? Or when Phoebe starts noticing some strange things of her own around their new home?

“Ghostbusters: Afterlife” drags a bit here and there, and I could have done without the Hallmark-y denouement, but overall I had a pretty good time. Didn’t hurt a bit that I paid only $6 because it was cheap Tuesday, or that I had a $3-off coupon for the concessions stand. (Like I said: Popcorn movie.)

And, of course, I found money lessons therein. Don’t I always? 

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Holiday 2021 giveaway: Alaska chocolate.

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Here we are, a bit closer to Christmas and Kwanzaa, Hannukah in the rear-view mirror, and still supporting the local economy. This week’s holiday 2021 giveaway is pretty sweet. But not too sweet, even though it’s made up mostly of chocolate.

That’s because the Chugach Chocolate company specializes in dark chocolate. Headquartered in Anchorage, it’s been the subject of a couple of previous giveaways and it’s always been a big hit.

If you win, you could give free chocolate to someone you love this holiday season?

And yes, that someone could be…yourself. Charity begins at home. Sometimes chocolate does, too.

In addition to the four chocolate bars in the giveaway, the winner will also receive a fun (yet useful!) piece of Alaska kitsch: a face mask featuring the Alaska Tastee-Freez logo.

More on that in a minute. Right now, let’s talk about the chocolate.

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Six pics of Talkeetna.

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For the first time in three years, Linda B. and I are attending the Talkeetna Bachelors Auction and Wilderness Woman Competition. The drive up was smooth sailing, with hardly anyone else on the road. It was also gorgeous, once the fog burned off – especially the eye-popping vistas of Mt. Hunter, Mt. Foraker and Denali (see below).

It’s 13 degrees below zero right now, but that’s all right because we’re indoors. If anything, it’s a little too warm in our hotel room. Pretty sure I won’t be needing the blanket and comforter tonight, or maybe even the top sheet.

Thus far we’ve viewed the annual parade (made up mostly of emergency vehicles, plus a flatbed truck with some shivering bachelors), eaten not wisely but too well, and chatted up some of the old-school auction folks. One of them pointed out that this is the 40th annual event, out of 41 years (the pandemic nixed large indoor gatherings last year).

The Wilderness Woman Competition is a large outdoor gathering; it takes place tomorrow. The Talkeetna Bachelor Auction will be indoors, but tickets were limited. They sold out in six minutes flat. Fortunately, Linda B. was ready to pounce the moment they went on sale.

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Monday miscellany: Porch pirates edition.

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It’s not enough that inflation and supply-chain issues are putting a crimp in preparing for the 2021 holidays. Those dirty rotten porch pirates are back in business, too. According to a study from SafeWise, more than 60 percent of U.S. residents have had a package stolen in the past year. Obviously the holidays are prime … Read more

Holiday 2021 giveaway: Scented candles.

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We have one month before Christmas and a little more than that until Kwanzaa, so let’s keep these giveaways coming! This time around, the holiday 2021 giveaway is sponsored by Abigail Perry of I Pick Up Pennies, whom regular readers will know is my daughter. These highly scented candles could become four or more holiday gifts for some lucky reader, or maybe a really nice self-gift.

The backstory, as I recall it: Abby had written about the importance of supporting local and small-biz economies. One of her readers mentioned that she had an Etsy shop called BettysOnly. Abby visited and spent a little money, and decided to donate them to my holiday giveaway series.

As you can see from the photo, there are four good-sized scented candles and four little tulle bags. The bags are full of what I initially thought were small, flat candles, but which on closer inspection  proved to be wickless. I concluded that these are fragrance blocks, designed to perfume a room. Put one or two of them into a dish in a musty-smelling room, closet or dresser drawer and they’ll change the dynamic pretty quickly.

(I brought them home wrapped in plastic bags in my suitcase several weeks ago, and that Gladstone still smells sweet. Since I’m heading for the Talkeetna Bachelors Auction and Wilderness Woman Competition next weekend with Linda B., I’ll be even more irresistible than I usually am. Or my clothes will, anyway.)

You could give this prize as one great big holiday or birthday (or Valentine’s Day) present, or split it up into individual gifts. Three of the four candles are heart-shaped and one is a tall, square pillar. The smaller bags would make good stocking-stuffers, or little gifts to someone you’d like to treat but with whom you don’t want to provoke a gift war; such a small remembrance shouldn’t make that person feel, “Oh, but I didn’t get you anything!”

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Dr. Demento and the desecrated turkey

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(Happy Throwback Thursday! This article is from WAY back in the day: May 10, 2010. It was the eighth piece I published. Since the article has a Thanksgiving theme, sort of, I thought I’d re-run it in honor of turkey day.)

About five months ago I walked over to the Asian market to buy carrots and came home with a turkey. Yes, I know the difference between root vegetables and edible fowls. But the bird was on sale for 25 cents a pound. The whole thing cost only $2.65. I’ve paid more than that for a soft drink at a ballpark.

(What does this have to do with Dr. Demento? I’ll get to that.)

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Two quick grocery hacks.

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DF and I didn’t plan to buy eggs or meat today at the supermarket. But we wound up using two quick grocery hacks that saved us quite a bit of money.

While these quick grocery hacks are recurring deals, they’re not always available. We’ve made it a habit always to look for them, though, and today is one of those days that paid off.

The first is to watch for “repack” eggs. Sometimes one or more eggs in a carton will crack and the dozen is unsellable as-is.

An enterprising dairy manager simply repacks the unbroken eggs into cartons with “Grade B” stamped on them.

Some of these cartons are just standard white eggs. Other times, it’s quite the mix of cackleberries: medium-sized, huge, white, brown, bearing an “EB” (Eggland’s Best)

Sometimes I think the B stands for “broken.” Other times I think it stands for “better deal” – because non-organic eggs usually cost from $1.99 to $2.99; those Eggland’s Best are currently $3.99 a dozen. The repack eggs cost 99 cents at one store and $1.29 to $1.49 a dozen at the other. On this trip we bought two dozen.

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How not to starve in an emergency.

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Recent flooding in British Columbia led to a double-barreled consumer emergency: Stores emptied rapidly of food and household items, and because both road and rail links were so badly damaged, there’s no clear idea when regular deliveries can resume.

Shades of the early days of the pandemic: Once again, we’re seeing the fragility of the modern retail supply system.

It’s essential that we learn from this. Specifically: Don’t wait until an emergency threatens. Instead, build a good-sized stockpile of food and other vital items in advance.

Understand: I am not advocating hoarding. The Canadian government was pleading with folks in B.C. not to panic-buy, which would leave nothing for others. (That worked well.) Instead, I am talking about a simple, targeted approach toward not just getting these items, but using and replacing them regularly.

This isn’t only about food, either. Do you tend to wait until the last minute to buy cat litter? Ever found yourself purchasing tampons at a convenience store at 11 p.m.?

What about the allergy meds that keep your eyes from swelling shut every spring, or the lotion that makes your psoriasis flare-ups a little less painful? Suppose you were running low but kept procrastinating – and then an emergency made it impossible to get more?

Fortunately, there’s a bonehead-simple solution. Just three basic tactics can help keep you from running out of food, pet supplies, OTC meds or, yeah, toilet paper.

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Extreme Frugality: Use all the bits.

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Every time we cut into a loaf of that super-simple rustic bread, we wind up with bread crumbs. As I swept them off the butcher-block work station one day, I remembered a scene from Zola’s “Germinal,” a realistic (and depressing!) book about 19th-century French coal miners. As the eldest daughter makes sandwiches for everyone to take to work, her 11-year-old brother, Jeanlin, gathers up the crumbs and puts them into his bowl of coffee. Now that’s some extreme frugality.

I figured that what’s good enough for Jeanlin is good enough for me. So I started saving the crumbs.

Before you think that I’ve finally gone ’round the bend in terms of economy, or that I’ve become a parody of frugality, hear me out.

At first I made fun of it myself. Early on I displayed probably one-sixteenth of an inch of breadcrumbs in the plastic container, and told DF that in another seven or eight months we might have enough to make a batch of meatballs. A small batch.

But as regular readers know, DF and I have found a ton of ways to save on food  and are always looking for new tactics. This isn’t because we’re afraid we’ll go hungry – it’s just another part of our frugal ethos. Each piece of food represents not just money but also resources: Think of the dollars and fossil fuels that went into planting, irrigating, spraying, harvesting, packaging and transporting the elements of our meals, and of the dollars we spend to get those elements.

So why not use all of it? Especially if there’s a way to bring Harry Potter into it? 

 

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