Photo: That's me and my friends Sharyn and Rhonda sitting on the Last Train to Nowhere outside Nome this August.

On December 5 the Outdoor Network is showing a documentary on the twentieth anniversary of the Dalton Highway, the one you can drive to Alaska's Prudhoe Bay oilfields. I was interviewed for it. Go here for showtimes. I don't have cable so you can tell me if I wound up on the cutting room floor.

Meanwhile, back at the Danamaniacs website...'maniacs managers Sandy, CathyO, Cathy Rose and Caroline have put their heads together, always a dangerous activity, and have come up with a Danamaniacs polo shirt with Mutt for a logo. Couldn't have done it better myself. They'll be chatting on December 7th at 5pm Alaska time/9pm East Coast time. Go here to take a look.

Known Reader Helen Ge suggested I begin posting some of Kate's recipes on the website. My gift to you this Christmas:

Kate's Fry Bread
One batch of white bread. Try the classic on the Fleishmann Yeast website here.
Let rise, form into balls, flatten. Fry in hot grease until golden brown on both sides.
Serve plain, or sprinkled with granulated or powdered sugar, spread with nagoonberry jam, or pretty much any way you want.
Best made and eaten in a loud, laughing crowd.

Kate's Shopping List
Kate's got a list, and she's checked it twice. Among the nice, Bobby is getting Dion's Deja Nu, wherein the Wanderer with Runaround Sue for a girlfriend sings Springsteen doowop. Oh yeeeaaaah. It's post-CCR and we all know how Bobby feels about music recorded after Fogarty went out on his own, but Kate thinks he'll like it.

Dinah's getting Marc Cohn, a gravelly-voiced, bluesy rock and roll pianist. ('I got twenty-nine ways to make it to my baby's door/And if she needs me real bad I can find about two or three more')

Katya is getting a copy of Wild About Books, a Seussian tale of a near-sighted librarian who drives her Bookmobile into the zoo by mistake and gets all the animals reading.

Johnny's getting the Harry Dresden series, all six of them, because Kate knows he'll love a wizard who advertises in the Yellow Pages under "W".

Auntie Vi is getting Jimmy Buffet's Banana Wind, because Auntie Vi loaned her copy to to Old Sam, who promptly used "Bob Roberts' Society Band" to seduce Mary Kvasnikof, and was so successful that Mary refused to give the album back.

Everyone else is getting The Naked Olympics by Tony Perrottet and Bitten by Karen Armstrong. Some might say from the sublime to the ridiculous; Kate says from the hairless to the hirsuite.

Among the naughty, well, Jim's been very naughty indeed. Kate has something special in mind for him. You just can't buy it on Amazon, is all I'm saying.

To read the September newsletter, go here.

Happy holidays to all, and have a wonderful new year!