|
 That certain … crispness? … in the air
reminds me of one of my favorite story assignments over the past
thousand years or so. I was a reporter/columnist/feature writer for
The Anchorage Daily News, and since I had a tolerance for
eccentricities in others … well, they called me the weirdo reporter.
And one of the annual tasks that dropped in my lap was doing a story
on what kind of a winter it’s going to be. And I did this story each
August, you see. So will it be nasty cold, very mild, deep snow, no
snow … that sort of thing.
It was fun. I’d call up old sourdoughs who’d give me some estimate
and then tell me some weird reason why they thought so. You know,
the bird calls changed from the key of C to G sharp, that kind of
thing. And I’d call up some Native villages and get expert opinions
from the old guys there. Fun story.
Well, this one year I thought, hey … we have a division of the
National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration right here in
Anchorage, and they have satellites and computers and all kindsa
neat stuff. I’ll ask them. [to top of second
column] |
So I called NOAA and said, what
kind of a winter are we in for? And the guy said, “We really can’t
predict beyond maybe a week at the most.” So I said, look, you have
all those neat toys over there … why can’t you figure it out? And he
said, well, Slim, let me see what I can put together and I’ll call
you tomorrow, okay?
Now we’ll get some really educated information for the readers. I
couldn’t wait.
So next day he calls and says his best guess is we’ll have a colder
than usual winter. Super. And how did he arrive at that conclusion?
He hemmed and hawed, then said, “Well, the beavers are building
their lodges in deeper water this year, so we should expect thicker
than normal ice.”
Once again science triumphs over the tundra.
[Text from file received from
Slim Randles]
Brought to
you by Dogsled: A True Tale of the North, Slim’s first book.
Available on Amazon.com. |
