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Fashion Means Your Fur Hat is Dead: A Guide to Good Manners and Social Survival in Alaska
Move over, Emily Post and Miss Manners. Here comes Anchorage Daily News columnist Mike Doogan, Alaska's most outspoken journalist. With tongue in cheek, Doogan has written a code of conduct to help you survive in America's last frontier, where people are more interested in whether you belong to the NRA than the DAR. Learn how to be a proper guest: "Always bring beer, never bring guns . . . if the host begins brandishing a shotgun, it's time to leave." On communing with nature: "When hiking into bear country, always take someone who runs slower than you do."
- GenresNonfiction
157 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 1996
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
January 13, 2018
Quite funny! Haha I definitely have a neighbor with a toilet and bathtub in the yard. It just adds so much character. Lots of quotable lines! A few of my favorites:
"We all think tourists should give us a break, and just mail us their money."
That would be so much easier!!
"You must enjoy the outdoors. Or, pretend that you do."
Shhh- don't let my secret out.
(on having strangers show up at your door frozen, and what to do to get rid of said strangers)
"Practice a musical instrument. Playing the first sixteen bars of Stairway to Heaven over and over has actually restored the hearing of people thought deaf."
(on throwing/going to parties and how there's status in being the last to leave)
"Generally, staying longer than two weeks at a party is considered excessive."
Darn, I wonder if they'll invite me again.
(on looking for a partner in the personal ads)
"Besides, what kind of people advertise in the personals? Desperate people, that's who. So that desperate people will read them and respond. That's you."
(on how to find a partner)
"Fact is, if something wasn't seriously wrong with you, you'd already be part of a dynamite relationship. So the trick is to find out just exactly who your new love is looking for, and be that person."
Haha woooooooow thanks.
(on being a parent with teenagers)
"Your goal is not to make the teen years enjoyable. Your goal is to make the teen years survivable, for the teen and for you. And if you are successful, the teen will thank you for your trouble by leaving home."
All in all, a fantastic quick read and I will probably skim thru it again for more laughs!
"We all think tourists should give us a break, and just mail us their money."
That would be so much easier!!
"You must enjoy the outdoors. Or, pretend that you do."
Shhh- don't let my secret out.
(on having strangers show up at your door frozen, and what to do to get rid of said strangers)
"Practice a musical instrument. Playing the first sixteen bars of Stairway to Heaven over and over has actually restored the hearing of people thought deaf."
(on throwing/going to parties and how there's status in being the last to leave)
"Generally, staying longer than two weeks at a party is considered excessive."
Darn, I wonder if they'll invite me again.
(on looking for a partner in the personal ads)
"Besides, what kind of people advertise in the personals? Desperate people, that's who. So that desperate people will read them and respond. That's you."
(on how to find a partner)
"Fact is, if something wasn't seriously wrong with you, you'd already be part of a dynamite relationship. So the trick is to find out just exactly who your new love is looking for, and be that person."
Haha woooooooow thanks.
(on being a parent with teenagers)
"Your goal is not to make the teen years enjoyable. Your goal is to make the teen years survivable, for the teen and for you. And if you are successful, the teen will thank you for your trouble by leaving home."
All in all, a fantastic quick read and I will probably skim thru it again for more laughs!
February 24, 2010
I laughed outloud all the way through this hilarious book, written by third-generation Alaskan, Mike Doogan.
Some Alaskans complained about the image Mike Doogan paints of Alaskans, and of course there are pockets of people his portrayal does not apply to, but I think he describes some of my own neighbors very well, and once one leaves Anchorage (the big city!), his affectionately humorous descriptions of the overarching Alaskan cultural-personality hits the nail on the head even more. The rest of us are lone voices in the wilderness, for the most part largely ignored as inconsequential and suspected of really being sissies from California. Want public policies and business services that reflect the 21st century? Must be one of those overeducated but still useless, radical leftist, sissies from California! 'Nough said.
In fact, Alaskans continually refer to "life long Alaskans," as though it is a badge of honor carrying entitlements instead of what it really means for most, which is isolated and uninformed about how the world and the rest of the country work; "real Alaskans," as in, "Real Alaskans do" such and such; and anyone who does not live in Alaska as Outsiders. When we leave Alaska, we are going "Outside" (What you Outsiders call the lower-48 is Outside, even though we are citizens of the same country).
Not recognizing the humor in their own contradictions is nothing new. For instance, as Doogan explains, Federal employees are considered low-life, yet about a third of Alaskans are federal employees and Alaska receives more federal dollars than does any other state. Alaskans rail against anything they believe smacks of socialism, but will grab their guns or write to their newspapers and legislators to fight for their right to their own Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD) check each year. Most Alaskans resent any form of government regulation, but holler for government to investigate and do something about it when our gas prices don't go down like the rest of the country's. In the same way, Doogan's humorous descriptions of social rules and the culture in Alaska apply to a lot of these folks whether or not they like to think so!
Of course, this book was published in 1996 or so, thus some changes have occurred in Alaska since then; but not all that many! Really!
Entertaining, easy read, that provided me smiles and belly laughs; and also feelings of affection for Alaska and Alaskans.
Some Alaskans complained about the image Mike Doogan paints of Alaskans, and of course there are pockets of people his portrayal does not apply to, but I think he describes some of my own neighbors very well, and once one leaves Anchorage (the big city!), his affectionately humorous descriptions of the overarching Alaskan cultural-personality hits the nail on the head even more. The rest of us are lone voices in the wilderness, for the most part largely ignored as inconsequential and suspected of really being sissies from California. Want public policies and business services that reflect the 21st century? Must be one of those overeducated but still useless, radical leftist, sissies from California! 'Nough said.
In fact, Alaskans continually refer to "life long Alaskans," as though it is a badge of honor carrying entitlements instead of what it really means for most, which is isolated and uninformed about how the world and the rest of the country work; "real Alaskans," as in, "Real Alaskans do" such and such; and anyone who does not live in Alaska as Outsiders. When we leave Alaska, we are going "Outside" (What you Outsiders call the lower-48 is Outside, even though we are citizens of the same country).
Not recognizing the humor in their own contradictions is nothing new. For instance, as Doogan explains, Federal employees are considered low-life, yet about a third of Alaskans are federal employees and Alaska receives more federal dollars than does any other state. Alaskans rail against anything they believe smacks of socialism, but will grab their guns or write to their newspapers and legislators to fight for their right to their own Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD) check each year. Most Alaskans resent any form of government regulation, but holler for government to investigate and do something about it when our gas prices don't go down like the rest of the country's. In the same way, Doogan's humorous descriptions of social rules and the culture in Alaska apply to a lot of these folks whether or not they like to think so!
Of course, this book was published in 1996 or so, thus some changes have occurred in Alaska since then; but not all that many! Really!
Entertaining, easy read, that provided me smiles and belly laughs; and also feelings of affection for Alaska and Alaskans.
September 22, 2008
i don't have enough gear.
Read
May 26, 2009Exceptionally funny. And through the humor, so much truth.
June 16, 2012
My review can be found on my blog at: http://nextdarkage.wordpress.com/2012...
December 15, 2012
Haha this is great fun. Read this while traveling in my home state (Alaska) and it was in a cabin we stayed in.
August 9, 2008
funny
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews