If you’re like me, whenever a new restaurant or other food outlet pops up in town, you have to give it a shot in the hopes of adding a bit of variety to the otherwise monotonous Juneau food scene.

Last night around 8pm, it was suggested I go to Valentine’s and try a gyro. Knowing what I know about Valentine’s, I knew they were closed by that time and didn’t serve gyros. However, through some sort of arrangement, there is a nice lady takes over after-hours, Monday through Saturday, with all her gyro-making equipment and technique and makes some of the best gyros I’ve ever had.

For $7.00 you get your choice of tsatsiki, garlic, or jalapeño sauce, and a variety of toppings like onions, lettuce, and cabbage. Well worth it!

So if you find yourself downtown, hungry, and looking for something different, give it a shot!

Worth watching for some laughs: a dramatic reading of minutes taken at a Wasilla town meeting in 1996.

Also, check out the new Juneau Videos page!

“It seems to me the most important thing that can be done by the Senate is not argue with legal or illegal but to appoint somebody to represent Juneau.” - Wayne Anthony Ross

This coming from someone in a position to become the state’s next Attorney General?

I think this is what they call a “red flag.”

Our intrepid governor, Sarah Palin, has once again said, “Talk to the hand,” in response to the another name floated to fill Elton’s senate seat, Dennis Egan. Instead, she decided to ignore that and go all mavericky again and submit three names of her own to the Senate Democrats. And to add insult to - well, other insults - two of the three names, Tim Grussendorf and Joe Nelson, have ALREADY BEEN REJECTED.

The scorecard reads as follows:

Juneau Dems: Beth Kerttula
Sarah Palin: Tim Grussendorf
Juneau Dems: Kerttula, Jeff Bush, Sally Smith, Mike Miller
Sarah Palin: Joe Nelson
Juneau Dems: Dennis Egan
Sarah Palin: Grussendorf, Nelson, Alan Wilson

Obviously, the governor wants her way. Either 1) put in a quasi-Democrat or 2) drag it out so the capital city has no representation at all. Brilliant.

It’s this kind of political foolishness that’s embarrassing Alaska. Sure, the Juneau Democrats were trying to make a little point by only naming Kerttula and Palin got her zinger in by coming back with Grussendorf, but that’s where it should’ve ended. The Juneau Democrats did the right thing and named four possibilities - there was absolutely no reason for Palin to not have chosen from those four.

Ah well, that’s logic for you and we all know that can’t exist in Palin politics.

(New word! Palintics: n. the practice or profession of conducting political affairs in a ludicrous and/or childish manner.

The District of Columbia has thrown out the sanctions on Ted Stevens’ law license in response to his conviction being overturned due to prosecutorial misconduct, meaning he can now practice law again in DC. This after Governor Sarah Palin asked newly elected Sen. Mark Begich to step down in light of Stevens’ charges being dropped.

Let me remind people: prosecutorial misconduct may throw the legality of a trial into question, but it doesn’t automatically mean the person being tried was innocent. Obviously, there were some shenanigans going on with Veco, Stevens, and his Girdwood chalet. We’ve all heard the recorded phone calls and Stevens’ utter disregard for authority. He got caught and has wriggled free on a technicality. Now it seems everyone wants to pretend like it never happened.

Does anyone remember the OJ Simpson criminal and civil trials? Simpson was found not guilty in the criminal trial, mostly due to mishandling of evidence and a crooked LAPD detective. With those factors out of the equation, Simpson was convicted of wrongful death in the civil trial.

As Yoda would say if he were a lawyer, “Prosecutorial no-nos does not innocence bring.”

Take a look at Celtic Diva’s blog entry about Palin supporters rummaging through the comments made on Anchorage Daily News, looking for and reporting comments as offensive whenever they are anti-Palin, effectively silencing any and all opposing views.

Her entry makes a good point - it’s ironic when those who complain about infringements on our freedom of speech are the first ones to abuse it by trying to stifle any opposing opinions.

Wonder if ADN will start to recognize these “abuse button” abusers and ban IP addresses? Or at least implement a system to allow other users to “rescue” non-abusive posts.

Pretty sad when things get this childish. We have middle school antics going on trying to make a senate seat appointment and it’s just filtering down…

Just wanted to reiterate that the Juneau Vampire was intended to let you, the readers, writers, and thinkers, have a place to share your thoughts on all things Juneau.

If you register to have the ability to comment on Juneau Empire articles, be aware that you can also submit articles to be published on the Juneau Vampire itself. When you sign in, look to the left of the screen and you’ll see “Posts” and “Add New.” When you are done with a post, save it and it will go into a queue to be moderated and published.

Today the Juneau Empire proclaimed, quite proudly, that it was removing the comment functionality from its website. Citing a lack of manpower to moderate comments and more than hinting at a general dislike for the whole idea, effective today you may no longer comment on stories published in the Juneau Empire.

But guess what. You can now comment here.

While it’s true that the comments could at times get distasteful and degrade into squabbling that could go, as Juneau Empire publisher Robert Hale said, “way beyond any modicum of civility,” they were entertaining. And every once in a while, a quite intelligent point was made or some error in reporting pointed out. Actually, this was the case more often than not.

So in the tradition of any number of social sharing sites, when you click on “Juneau Empire” over there in the left-hand menu, you will see the current Juneau Empire stories with links to the original story on JuneauEmpire.com. Once you are registered here, you can comment to your heart’s delight.

While the comments are still hidden behind a username and a profile that you can put as much or as little in, some level of moderation will take place, so please try your best to maintain a “modicum of civility.” Blatantly obscene or otherwise pointless comments may be removed.

Okay, that’s it. Have at. Enjoy.

The other day I was thinking of a story I was assigned to read in elementary school meant to illustrate irony, “The Gift of the Magi.” I’m not sure what made me think of it, but I was intrigued by how it was simultaneously unfortunate, tragic, and humorous.

Last night, with that sort of tragic, humorous irony still on my mind, I caught some news coverage about Sarah Palin embarking on a trip funded by SarahPAC, her own political action committee. The irony hit me when they flashed a screenshot of the SarahPAC website on the screen:
That background photo is of Mendenhall Glacier as viewed from Brotherhood Bridge, taken right here in the capital city.

Like “The Gift of the Magi,” this is a wonderful illustration of irony: Governor Sarah Palin, Queen of the Capital Move, Denier of Roads, and Hater of All Things Southeast, using a photo of Juneau, the capital of Alaska, to promote her own political action committee.

Excellent.

We’ll keep this our little secret and not tell Delta, American Airlines, or any of those other airlines in the struggling industry.

Because if we told them that we pay up to three times “normal Lower 48 ” rates just to travel from Juneau to Seattle, they might be interested in this little Southeast gold mine. Heck, they could swoop in here and offer fares a measly two times what it costs down south and they’d have people lining up at the ticket counters.

Unlike the failed MarkAir, most any airline that would have any interest in Southeast at this point would be able to survive the ensuing fare wars and underhanded tactics Alaska Airlines would surely employ to keep their lucrative monopoly intact.

But like I said, don’t tell anyone. Imagine what could happen if some other airline found out we pay $550 for a ticket to Seattle, an amount that would get you from Seattle to Boston… TWICE! And not everyone knows that you can get from Seattle to Europe for the cost of a ticket from Juneau to Bozeman on Alaska Airlines. All an airline would have to do is add a tiny little Seattle - Juneau - Anchorage route and gosh, they’d be raking in the dough, not to mention the praise of competition-starved communities.

We’re Juneau and we love our monopolies, so don’t give anyone any ideas that we actually want to pay less to fly out of this no-road town!