Rock, Paper, Scissors is SO amateur hour by Alaskan standards.

A college education decision is riding on you, buddy...

Sometimes you go the rock, paper, scissors route when deciding things. Sometimes you gun down a bear. But this is Alaska we're talking about, so you get one guess where this is going.

High school senior Chase Ferris of Palmer, AK, had the choice of playing football at the University of Mary or attending the University of Wyoming to hit the books. Sports versus academics. Both had advantages for our young charge here, but both left Ferris confused what to do. So Ferris took the logical step, as the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman reports:


(Ferris) picked a spring bear hunt earlier this year to help him make the final decision. If he got the elusive bear he’d tracked before, Ferris would follow the call to play football at the University of Mary. If not, Ferris would turn his focus to academics at the University of Wyoming.

[...]

"I let it all come down to fate, and fate chose University of Mary," Ferris said Monday after he signed his National Letter of Intent to attend the Bismarck, North Dakota, school and play for the Division II Marauders. "We'd gone up for (the bear) once. We hadn't seen it in two days. I said, we kill it, I'll go play football."


Sure, why not? I'm not sure what the correlation is between bear killing and football, unless you're talking about the anemic Chicago Bear variety. But it's Alaska. This sort of rationale is Ph.D. type material.

No word on how Ferris plans to decide upon future life issues, like marriage, kids, or sensible midsized sedans. Animals have been warned to keep their heads on a swivel though.




The University of Mary football team went 1-10 last year. So a lot more bears need to die for that record to change.

Copies of Shakespeare's First Folio to begin hitchhiking across America.

To celebrate the anniversary of Shakespeare's 400th birthday, the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., is sending copies of the Bard's First Folio on a tour of the country, starting today in...Oklahoma? Because if we're all being honest, Tulsa is a natural start for all things from Renaissance England.

There are 233 known remaining copies of Shakespeare's First Folio in existence of the 750 originally printed, which is a strikingly high number, all things considered. A third have survived 400 years? By comparison, Sir Thomas Malory wrote Le Morte d'Arthur (a version of the King Arthur fable) in 1485, and there are only two known first edition copies in existence today, one of which is incomplete. Shakespeare's First Folio is doing pretty well by comparison.

The Folger Shakespeare Library owns roughly a third of those remaining 233 copies--82 to be precise--and will circulate a half dozen of those copies across America. Oklahoma included, each of the 50 states will host a copy anywhere from three to four weeks, but only at one location per state. This is great if you live in Rhode Island (Brown University, April 11 – May 1), and not so hot if you live in Alaska (Juneau, Alaska State Libraries, Jul 26 – Aug 24).

But nothing's hot in Alaska, I guess.

The 25 Coldest Colleges in North America

The polar vortex that's gripped North America has led to lists like this, as reported by College Prowler.

The website based their rankings on average high and low temperatures during the winter and summer, average precipitation amounts during those two seasons, as well as student reviews on the weather. Because why use science to back up a list when you can ask Johnny, an incoming freshman poli-sci major, his take how chilly he feels?

The result? Ten of the twenty-five colleges exist in Minnesota, six in Wisconsin, and three in Vermont. Somehow, no school from Alaska made the cut--this, despite the University of Alaska Fairbanks being home to regular everyday winter high temperatures in the -15°F to -40°F range.

Once those students thaw out around July, we can ask them for their take.



photo: The Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Looks balmy to me!