The current record of 9 days 23 hours and 20 minutes, was set last year by Sebastian Schnuelle on Day 11. At the rate the leaders are going they could knock almost a day off that record.

Gerry Willomitzer (5) decided to scratch because he couldn’t get the plastic runners [like skis] to fit properly on his sled. The runners are designed to slide on and slide off, so you can change them for different conditions. Apparently Gerry had either a bad set of runners, or his sled is warped, but in either case going on would have worn out the dogs for no good reason.

Many of the top mushers use the $3K+ aircraft aluminum sleds built by Hans Gatt, currently running third. This is not an inexpensive sport to enter, especially when you consider feeding up to 14 dogs for two weeks, as well as the $200/dog for harness, coat, and booties.

Now “the people” get to speak about the quacks who created our current mess: Dynamite Prize in Economics :

The Dynamite Prize in Economics is to be awarded to the three economists who contributed most to enabling the Global Financial Collapse (GFC), or more figuratively, to the three economists who contributed most to blowing up the global economy.

Vote early and often for false prophets who justified greed with their “academic brilliance” and love of the works of a chain-smoking, Russian-immigrant, romance novelist who never learned to share. Select 3 ne’er-do-wells from this Rand-om selection of cult figures with a Galt complex.

Note: Alfred Nobel made his money by inventing dynamite. Irony in every bite.

Update at 11:30PM CST. The leaders are evenly spaced across 59 minutes. This is the endgame. They are at Braeburn for the mandatory rest stop, and then the sprint to Whitehorse. The leaders are more than a day ahead of pre-race predictions.

At Braeburn
1 Hans Gatt (13)
2 Lance Mackey (11)
3 Hugh Neff (23)

Beyond Carmacks
4 Zack Steer (2)
5 Ken Anderson (17)

At Carmacks
6 Sonny Linder (20)

Beyond Pelly Crossing
7 Brent Sass (12)
8 Abbie West (1)^R
9 Joshua Cadzow (21)^R

At Pelly Crossing
10 Normand Casavant (10)

[Read more →]

Why are you being hustled by street vendors to buy sad and drooping former roses, vegetative matter that missed the cut for bouquets, or were too late to the hospital?

Blame Esther A. Howland (1828 – 1904) of Worcester, Massachusetts. Her guilt is writ large by the Greeting Card Association’s Esther Howland Award for a Greeting Card Visionary. She imported the concept to the US from Britain to bolster her father’s stationery store in 1847.

Of course, it wasn’t long before the stationers had infiltrated school boards and imposed the now mandatory exchange in the classroom to push the low end product of Asian children and prisoners.

Seeing the success of the card merchants, the confectioners jumped on board to fill the lull between Christmas and Easter with the benefit that the bulk of purchases would be made by desperate men with less sense of taste than a golden retriever. If the box was red, heart-shaped, and said chocolate, a man would buy it.

[Read more →]

Year of the White Tiger Geng Yin

Chinese New Year
[Spring Festival]