It had been three months since the Stroller last joined the South Franklin Street Sages for their mid-morning coffee klatch, a ritual conducted weekdays in the Baranof Hotel’s ‘Capitol Cafe’, just off the legendary hotel’s historic lobby.  Since first opening its doors in 1939, The Baranof has played host and second home to Alaska’s political movers and shakers  Everybody who’s anybody and those who want to be somebody will eventually sign the room register and in the process become inexorably entwined in the tapestry of “The Great Land”’s colorful political history.

All the Stroller wanted on this day was a good cup of coffee, sustenance in the form of blueberry pie, the benefit of the Sage’s astute observations of the status of key state legislative campaigns and the name and phone number of the cafe’s attractive and charming new hostess.

The dram of a thirty year old handcrafted product from Scotland glowed amber in the fading flickers of flame emanating from the Stroller’s old river rock fireplace.  The soothing sambas of Stan Getz and Astrud Gilberto waifed gently through the scents of wet, yellow leafs, woodsmoke and fresh baked blueberry pie.

The pie had been Stroller’s contribution to the potlatch that accompanied the weekly gathering of the South Franklin Street Sages investment seminar.  The Sages agreed that although the pie had been superb and a perfect conclusion to the Cesaer Salad, ‘Bullwinkle’ Bourguignonne and crusty french bread (bought fresh that morning at Juneau’s Silverbow Bakery), it did not achieve the mythical standards of taste bud legend created by our friend and neighbor, the ‘Jewels of the North’.

Cold, gray, rain laden weather buffeted Alaska’s capitol city from the north and the ensuing downpour wasn’t fair to look out upon nor loiter around in.  Likewise, the political winds swirling around Governor Sarah the past few weeks have engendered a similar response.

The gale force winds of Presidential politics gathered around the issuance last Friday of the Legislative Council’s investigative report finding Governor Sarah violated the state’s Executive Ethics Act and abused the power of her office in pursuing her family’s vendetta against her ex-brother-in-law, Alaska State Trooper Mike Wooten.

The ‘Jewels of the North’ stood in the crook of the horseshoe shaped end of Juneau’s Triangle Club’s bar regaling the assembled Sages with the tale of her encounter with four bears behind the back porch of her downtown condominium.  At 2am that morning she had been drawn outside to investigate some loud banging noises.  She discovered a black bear sow and her two cubs rummaging through a dumpster in search of a pre-hibernation snack.

Suddenly the three gourmands were joined by an uninvited guest in the form of another adult black bear who immediately challenged Mama Bear for possession of her prized cache.  The ensuing discussion got loud and ugly, scaring the cubs who took refuge on the porch, pleadingly bleating for their mother.

An unusually warm wind blew strong through Alaska’s capitol city, carrying with it the last vestiges of a Southeast Alaska summer that never came.  After raising the temperature into the 60’s the wind chilled suddenly, subtly scenting the thinning air with a hint of the season’s first snows falling high in the Coast Mountain Range guarding Alaska’s southeast panhandle from the Juneau Ice Field and the frigid plains of northwestern Canada.

A gust lifted the Stroller’s fine beaver fedora from its jaunty perch and it fluttered erratically down a deserted South Franklin Street, briefly visiting rain and mud choked gutters while maintaining a safe distance from his desperate, embarrassed grasp.  Gena, the Stroller’s overly energetic Queensland Heeler, leaped to the chase, her excited barks echoing off deserted souvenir shop storefronts, shuttered against the ill winds of winter.

Thursday evening, at 5pm AST, Alaskans, and a large portion of the rest of the nation, paused for a moment and watched with sadistic expectation as embattled Alaska Governor Sarah faced off with veteran Delaware Senator Joe Biden, in this election’s one and only debate between candidates for Vice President of the United States.

“Jewels of the North” had the volume on the Triangle Club’s two television sets turned up loud enough to drown out the din of opinionated patrons occupying space at the plank or comfortably ensconced on a naugahyde stool.  The Stroller, ever vigilant of his self-imposed diet restrictions, ordered a Diet Coke with a squeeze of fresh lemon, snagged a recently vacated captain’s chair and settled in for the much anticipated spectacle.