Places to Eat: Club Paris

Earlier this week I headed to Club Paris for lunch, one of Anchorage’s premier downtown restaurants, located just down from the Egan Convention Center.

Club Paris has been cooking up some of the tastiest meals in Anchorage since 1957, and has been voted to have the best steak in Anchorage for the last 7 years in a row. Since I was there for lunch, I didn’t quite have the appetite for a big steak. Instead, I decided to go with one of their popular fillet mignon burgers.

I have to say that I was not disappointed. Not only was this one of the largest burgers I’ve ever had, but the meat was extremely tender and juicy (as one would expect from a fillet mignon).

Aside from the excellent food, the atmosphere was very pleasant. Inside of Club Paris, the lights are dimmed considerably, making for a very intimate experience. If you haven’t been to Club Paris before, I can’t recommend it highly enough. If you go for lunch, their fillet mignon burgers are hard to beat. If you’re there for dinner, they have a number of excellent steaks to choose from.

You better get a reservation, though; seating is limited and they tend to fill up fast, especially for dinner.

Last Iditarod musher arrives in Nome

Late Monday night, Deborah Bicknell was the last musher to cross the finish line under the burled arch in Nome, ending this year’s Iditarod sled dog race.

Bicknell, the 78th musher to reach Nome in this year’s race, was awarded the Red Lantern for being the last musher to finish the race.

After puling into Nome with 8 dogs, and nearly 6 days after champion Lance Mackey, Bicknell proceeded to blow out the widow’s lamp, signaling the official end of the race.

Coming in last place in the Iditarod is nothing to be ashamed of – just being able to finish the race is quite an accomplishment (18 mushers scratched before reaching Nome).

Congratulations to Bicknell, and all of the other inspiring teams that were able to endure such a harsh race this year.

Lance Armstrong gives a shout-out to Lance Mackey

I just saw that 7 time Tour De France winner Lance Armstrong gave a shout-out to 2 time Iditarod winner (and fellow cancer survivor) Lance Mackey on his blog recently:

“The inner resilience you have to develop to get through this thing has to be enormous. Mackey’s achievement is another reminder that life after cancer can hold your biggest achievements and my hat’s off to him.”

These 2 amazing athletes have shown that not even cancer can keep them down – I stand back in awe of them.  My guess is that we’ll continue to see great things from Lance Mackey in the years to come.

Dan Fagan is a big, fat idiot

Or maybe I should just call him a racist.

Last week, the local talk-radio host and ADN columnist revealed his true colors (and utter ignorance) with the following comments:

Fagan: You don’t know who Louis Farrakhan is?

Girl on show: No I don’t…

Fagan: He’s the head of the Nation of Islam of the United States, he’s a big, uh…y’know – hates Jews. But all Muslims are supposed to hate Jews. To be a good Muslim.

Girl on show: See, I’m not a Jew, so I didn’t know that.

Fagan: You don’t have to be Muslim to know that Muslims are supposed to hate Jews.

For someone to make such a broad, sweeping generalization of any group of people is inexcusable. I thought the year was 2008; this feels more like the 1950’s. This just shows Dan Fagan’s low level of intelligence and complete ignorance. For someone who purports to be a man of faith, Fagan sure doesn’t practice the love and acceptance that most religions teach.

It’s ridiculous to me what passes for “legitimate” journalism these days. People like Dan Fagan, who are not interesting enough on their own, must resort to this type of “shock journalism”, making outrageous claims, to get attention. The sad part is that it works: just look at how popular Ann Coulter’s books are. If nothing else, people love to hate her. And for some people, any attention is good attention. It looks like Dan Fagan is shooting for the same thing.

Can Don Young be beat?

After Lt. Governor Sean Parnell announced last week that he plans to run against Don Young for U.S Congress, the next obvious question is: can Don Young be beat? After 18 terms as Alaska’s lone Congressman, many people will continue to vote for him simply out of habit, regardless of his current legal woes, arguing that his seniority is too valuable to give up.

Young, who is currently under federal investigation for his ties to VECO (among other things, see the website Drop Don for all the details), appears to be at his most vulnerable in years. Even republican Governor Sarah Palin has said that it’s time for a change, and immediately endorsed Parnell after making his announcement at last week’s Alaska Republican Convention.

One can only hope that Parnell will finally be a worthy opponent for Young’s Congress seat. Many others have tried unsuccessfully in years past to take Young’s place, but none have had as high a profile as the current Lt. Governor (whose father, Pat Parnell, ran against Young in 1980, but only garnered around 25% of the vote).

Parnell may very well have the best chances of any of Young’s prior opponents, but it’s difficult to say whether the fact that they are both from the same party will help or hurt him.