My State is Better Than Your State

In the spirit of junior high that I discovered in today's In A Nutshell, I just wanted to let you know. Nyah, nyah, nyah.

In October we get a dividend (usually around $1,000) from the state just for having lived here the previous year and intending to live here the next. Nice. In plenty of time for Christmas. Each person gets it. A couple with three children gets five. I've known people to buy a good used truck with that money. Some have put it into a house. Some have saved it for their kid's college education. Some use it to go "outside" (out of state) and visit family or go to Disneyland. Some buy school clothes with it. In some of the smaller villages, it may be the only reliable source of money all year long. Of course, there are people who waste it. Some give their kids the full amount of their checks. That can be good if a teen learns to budget for a given length of time. Not so good if a kid just has a spending spree.

The other thing, we get two state holidays. One is Seward's Day, the celebration of Seward purchasing Alaska from Russia. That's today. I have a three day weekend. The other is in October 16, Alaska Day, which celebrates the day we became a state.

Just thought you'd like to know that we have more than beautiful landscapes and northern lights and the teddy bears' picnic. More than low crime rates and wild berries. More than friendly communities and stories about Raven. More than wild flowers and glaciers and cool summers and snow capped mountains. More than fire hydrants that pop out of the earth and avalanche guns. We get money. We get extra days off.

I have today off. All for myself. To do anything I want to do.

In A Nutshell follows.