“Don’t ever walk out on the mudflats,” my new boss told me my first week. “The ones south of town. They look inviting when the tide is out. Gorgeous,” Jeannie Parker said. “Why not take a little walk? But get a few feet out and you get stuck. Your feet are locked in goop. Then the tide comes in. Unless a rescue crew is called immediately, you will sink into the muck. And the water will cover you.”
Welcome to Alaska.

The dustup was coming from the office of Clara Termidity. Clara was Alaska’s longest serving news anchor in history. Rumor said she began at a small station before statehood.
No one knew or dared ask how old she was.
But legend had it she broke the story of the Yukon gold strike of 1893.
Now she was screaming awful things in her office and everyone was listening.
Then I saw him…. videographer Carl Zerminian slowly walked out of Clara’s office.
He ducked as a bit as a small piece of clear acrylic plastic came flying towards him. It bounced off his shoulder, too small to cause anything but psychic damage.
“What is wrong with you? How could you do that?” Clara screamed.
Turns out, Carl was doing one of those shoots where you illustrate how hard a TV person works by showing them typing furiously at their computer.
Carl had set up his tripod just behind Clara to get the shots. And, wouldn’t you know it, just as she started typing, he suffered one of his spasms. His arm shot out and smacked her prized regional Murrow award, sending it rocketing across the room. It shattered. So did Clara Termidity’s practiced on-air charm. She loved that award.

Cuddy Park was apocalyptic.
Rusted and ripped RV’s and cars, old torn tents, shelters badly constructed out of wood stolen from nearby big box stores. Unsafe propane tanks burned inside the structures. Food wrappers, empty cans and plastic shopping bags blocked much of the grassless ground from sight. Feces sat in open buckets because the city decided to remove porta potties after a woman took up residence inside one and died while on the throne. The rain encouraged a swamp of sulphurous smells.