And now we’re nitpicking

The political tourism section on Flashlight’s bookcase got a new hardcover resident last weekend when we filed Scott Conroy and Shushannah Walshe’s Sarah From Alaska next Joe McGinnis’ The Selling of a President, squeezing an aged paperback copy of Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail ’72 in the process.

In short, Sarah From Alaska is a keeper. Enough campaign insiders talk on-the-record to give the book credibility in its campaign trail sections. The Alaska part of the story makes a solid attempt at showing how former Governor Sarah Palin returned to her home state and became a former governor quicker than anyone expected.

The problem for Alaska readers is one we’re all used too—Outsiders can’t write about Alaska without getting some of the little stuff wrong. It’s nobody’s fault. Alaska editors are few in number, and the East Coast media elites upon whom Walshe and Conroy relied missed a few things.

Here are some we hope are fixed in time for the paperback or second edition:

Alaskans get confused if you don’t use proper names for our highways: Alaska Highway, George Parks Highway, Richardson Highway, Seward Highway, etc. Where the hell is “AK-1”?

Trophy animals are mounted, not stuffed. Stuffed animals are children’s toys. There is no stuffing inside a taxidermy mount. (We’d tell you what’s inside, but that would spoil the illusion.)

The Glenn Highway is spelled correctly on first reference, then misspelled on page 191 during your description of a motorcade. The highway is named for U.S. Army Capt. Edward Glenn, an explorer. (Bonus points for Press readers who know how the town named “Glennallen” got its name.)

Wasilla is not in the Arctic. Juneau’s definitely not. If you feel the need to experience the Arctic, travel north of the Arctic Circle. (Most Alaskans haven’t; it’s friggin’ cold up there.)

The word “myriad” is used incorrectly on page 239. The word is meant to describe something “finite but uncountable” or “too numerous to count” like snowflakes or stars in the sky. The authors counted “at least twenty” ethics complaints filed between August 2008 and July 2009—proving they tried to count them, so there wasn’t a “myriad of ethics complaints” filed.

Lastly, a kudos. Conroy and Walshe did their part to promote Flashlight’s favorite colloquialism, “snowmachine,” and to protect it from the ever encroaching army of East Coast media elites and literati who always get up in our business tryin’ to change stuff. And the authors did it with aplomb. Rather than write an explanation or apology for the Alaskan word, they were dismissive of the word used Outside.

“Snowmobile,” they write, “is a word confined to the Lower 48.”

Like we said. This one’s a keeper.

scott@anchoragepress.com