Connect with us

Alaska

‘Blown by the Same Wind’: Mysticism meets mayhem in Straley’s latest novel from Cold Storage, Alaska – KCAW

Published

on

‘Blown by the Same Wind’: Mysticism meets mayhem in Straley’s latest novel from Cold Storage, Alaska – KCAW


Blown by the Similar Wind is the fourth novel in writer John Straley’s thriller collection set within the fictional Alaskan city of Chilly Storage. Set in 1968, the story sees the Christian mystic and guru Thomas Merton come to Alaska and “turn out to be concerned in an enormous, messy crime,” says Straley. (KCAW picture)

Sitka writer John Straley has printed a brand new novel. The story weaves a little-known strand of Nineteen Sixties popular culture into the material of life in a distant, Southeast Alaska fishing city.

KCAW’s Robert Woolsey just lately spoke with Straley in regards to the guide, and what’s subsequent for one in every of Alaska’s most prolific fiction writers.

Word: Writer John Straley will learn from Blown by the Similar Wind at 6 p.m. Thursday, December 8, at Outdated Harbor Books in Sitka.

The novel is known as Blown by the Similar Wind, and like all of  John Straley’s books, there’s extra to the title than meets the attention.

Advertisement

Writing mysteries and detective fiction is simply Straley’s day job. By night time, Alaska’s former Author Laureate is a poet, and a scholar of literature and historical past. Throughout his many years working as an investigator for the Alaska Public Defender Company, Straley says he saved a quote from the monk Thomas Merton on the duvet of all his notebooks.

“I wrote this quote down and it was, ‘I’m blown by the identical wind that strikes all of those individuals down the road like lifeless leaves and bits of paper in all instructions.’” Straley recited, from reminiscence. 

Realizing that he carried Thomas Merton with him as he explored the felony underbelly of Southeast Alaska, it’s a bit of shocking that it’s solely in Straley’s twelfth and newest novel that Merton makes an look. I requested Straley to inform me the story of the story, which begins shortly after Merton, a Cistercian monk dwelling at a monastery in Kentucky, had printed a best-selling guide referred to as The Seven Storey Mountain, making him one thing of a famous person on this planet of spirituality.

“Dozens and dozens of vacationers would come to wish to sit on the toes of Thomas Merton,” stated Straley. “The abbot recommended that he go someplace extra distant, to hope and meditate and serve a small group. They usually talked about coming to Alaska. In 1968. Merton truly did come to Alaska, and he wrote some letters indicating that after his journey was over, he was going to return again and reside in Alaska –  in southeastern Alaska. (Though he was nervous about bears.) Anyway, after he was in Alaska, went to California after which to Asia, the place he traveled and met with the Dalai Lama. He was additionally of curiosity to the FBI and the CIA as a result of he was not in help of the battle in Vietnam. And he died in Bangkok. His brothers discovered him underneath an electrical lamp, which they thought will need to have killed him.”

That Merton truly got here to Alaska – and will have moved right here had he not died suspiciously – was all Straley wanted to weave him into the fictional world of Blown by the Similar Wind.

Advertisement

“It’s an fascinating story stuffed with conspiratorial overtones,” stated Straley. “And so I assumed, that’s simply good for me. So I assumed up each conspiratorial mind set that I might from 1968, researched all of the totally different sorts of issues and have Thomas Merton come to my little fictional city of Chilly Storage and get entangled in an enormous, messy crime.”

Blown by the Similar Wind is Straley’s fourth novel set within the fictional Southeast Alaskan city of Chilly Storage. He’s written eight different novels in a unique collection that includes his ne’er-do-well detective, Cecil Youthful. His plan is to write down a novel for every collection in alternate years. 

Twelve novels up to now, some poetry collections, an anthology, and a biography make John Straley one in every of Alaska’s most prolific writers, however there’s a small downside – he doesn’t reside in Alaska anymore. Earlier this fall, Straley and his spouse, the famous humpback whale biologist Jan Straley, moved to Carmel, California.

Straley is attempting to make the adjustment.

“I really like the local weather there,” stated Straley. “It’s good for my well being. It’s good for my spouse’s well being. I really like the meals down there, the recent greens, however I miss the individuals right here.”

Advertisement

Straley has been knocking round among the roughest corners of Alaska for about 4 many years. He’s in Steinbeck nation now, and he’s already observed that  most residents seem “skinny, wealthy, and wholesome.” However, there are many skinny and wholesome individuals in Alaska. However Straley is having to recalibrate his concepts in regards to the wealthy.

Straley – “Brad Pitt has a $42 million residence in Carmel, California now, with like 62 fireplaces. He employed a man simply to work on his fireplaces.”

KCAW – “Wow.” 

Straley – “That’s the place I’m rolling now. That’s the sort of crowd I’m in.” 

KCAW – “Does Brad Pitt have a library?” 

Advertisement

Straley – “He ought to. I haven’t pushed as much as the gates with the guard canine and the boys in black fits and sniper rifles to attempt to drop a guide off, however you by no means know!”

Straley feels obligated to write down one other novel about detective Cecil Youthful, for the reason that final title within the collection, So Far and Good, noticed our hero locked up within the Lemon Creek Correctional Middle. “I’ve simply acquired to get poor Cecil out of jail,” Straley says. Subsequent comes a biography of his spouse Jan, and solely then may he flip his consideration and his pen to Northern California. There may be actually no place John Straley can’t work.

“Everyone has failings and tries to cowl them up and will get in hassle,” Straley noticed. “Everyone will get in hassle. And I’ve to say there’s some stunning nation round Huge Sur and a few loopy individuals down round there and close to the place I reside. So each place is worthy of writing about.”



Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading
Advertisement
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Alaska

Alaska Airlines Flight Attendant Gets Fired For Twerking On The Job

Published

on

Alaska Airlines Flight Attendant Gets Fired For Twerking On The Job


A flight attendant’s viral TikTok video ended up costing her job. Nelle Diala, who was working as a flight attendant with Alaska Airlines for over six months was reportedly fired from her job after recording a twerking video while at work, the New York Post reported. After losing her job for “violating” the airline’s “social media policy”, Diala set up a GoFundMe page for financial support. The twerking and dancing video, posted by Diala on her personal social media account, went viral on TikTok and Instagram. The video was captioned, “ghetto bih till i D-I-E, don’t let the uniform fool you.”

After being fired, Diala reposted the twerking video with the new caption: “Can’t even be yourself anymore, without the world being so sensitive. What’s wrong with a little twerk before work, people act like they never did that before.” She added the hashtag #discriminationisreal.

Advertisement

According to Diala’s GoFundMe page, she posted the “lighthearted video” during a layover. The video was shot in an empty aircraft. She wrote, “It was a harmless clip that was recorded at 6 am while waiting 2 hours for pilots. I was also celebrating the end of probation.”

“The video went viral overnight, but instead of love and support, it brought unexpected scrutiny. Although it was a poor decision on my behalf I didn’t think it would cost me my dream job,” she added.

Also Read: To Wi-Fi Or Not To Wi-Fi On A Plane? Pros And Cons Of Using Internet At 30,000 Feet

Advertisement

Talking about being “wrongfully fired”, she said, “My employer accused me of violating their social media policy. I explained that the video wasn’t intended to harm anyone or the company, but they didn’t want to listen. Without warning, they terminated me. No discussion, no chance to defend myself-and no chance for a thorough and proper investigation.”

The seemingly “harmless clip” has led Diala to lose her “dream job”. She shared, “Losing my job was devastating. I’ve always been careful about what I share online, and I never thought this video, which didn’t even mention the airline by name, would cost me my career. Now, I am trying to figure out how to move forward.”






Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Alaska

Federal funds will help DOT study wildlife crashes on Glenn Highway

Published

on

Federal funds will help DOT study wildlife crashes on Glenn Highway


New federal funds will help Alaska’s Department of Transportation develop a plan to reduce vehicle collisions with wildlife on one of the state’s busiest highways.

The U.S. Transportation Department gave the state a $626,659 grant in December to conduct a wildlife-vehicle collision study along the Glenn Highway corridor stretching between Anchorage’s Airport Heights neighborhood to the Glenn-Parks Highway interchange.

Over 30,000 residents drive the highway each way daily.

Mark Eisenman, the Anchorage area planner for the department, hopes the study will help generate new ideas to reduce wildlife crashes on the Glenn Highway.

Advertisement

“That’s one of the things we’re hoping to get out of this is to also have the study look at what’s been done, not just nationwide, but maybe worldwide,” Eisenman said. “Maybe where the best spot for a wildlife crossing would be, or is a wildlife crossing even the right mitigation strategy for these crashes?”

Eisenman said the most common wildlife collisions are with moose. There were nine fatal moose-vehicle crashes on the highway between 2018 and 2023. DOT estimates Alaska experiences about 765 animal-vehicle collisions annually.

In the late 1980s, DOT lengthened and raised a downtown Anchorage bridge to allow moose and wildlife to pass underneath, instead of on the roadway. But Eisenman said it wasn’t built tall enough for the moose to comfortably pass through, so many avoid it.

DOT also installed fencing along high-risk areas of the highway in an effort to prevent moose from traveling onto the highway.

Moose typically die in collisions, he said, and can also cause significant damage to vehicles. There are several signs along the Glenn Highway that tally fatal moose collisions, and he said they’re the primary signal to drivers to watch for wildlife.

Advertisement

“The big thing is, the Glenn Highway is 65 (miles per hour) for most of that stretch, and reaction time to stop when you’re going that fast for an animal jumping onto the road is almost impossible to avoid,” he said.

The city estimates 1,600 moose live in the Anchorage Bowl.



Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Alaska

Flight attendant sacked for twerking on the job: ‘What’s wrong with a little twerk before work’

Published

on

Flight attendant sacked for twerking on the job: ‘What’s wrong with a little twerk before work’


They deemed the stunt not-safe-for-twerk.

An Alaska Airlines flight attendant who was sacked for twerking on camera has created a GoFundMe to support her while she seeks a new berth.

The crewmember, named Nelle Diala, had filmed the viral booty-shaking TikTok video on the plane while waiting two hours for the captain to arrive, A View From the Wing reported.

“I never thought a single moment would cost me everything,” wrote the ex-crewmember. TikTok / @_jvnelle415

She captioned the clip, which also blew up on Instagram, “ghetto bih till i D-I-E, don’t let the uniform fool you.”

Advertisement

Diala was reportedly doing a victory dance to celebrate the end of her new hire probationary period.

Unfortunately, her jubilation was short-lived as Alaska Airlines nipped her employment in the bum just six months into her contract.

The fanny-wagging flight attendant feels that she didn’t do anything wrong.

Diala was ripped online over her GoFundMe page. GoFundMe

Diala has since reposted the twerking clip with the new caption: “Can’t even be yourself anymore, without the world being so sensitive. What’s wrong with a little twerk before work, people act like they never did that before.”

The new footage was hashtagged #discriminationisreal.

Advertisement

The disgraced stewardess even set up a GoFundMe page to help support the so-called “wrongfully fired” flight attendant until she can land a new flight attendant gig.

“I never thought a single moment would cost me everything,” wrote the ex-crewmember. “Losing my job was devastating.”

“Can’t even be yourself anymore, without the world being so sensitive,” Diala wrote on TikTok while reacting to news of her firing. “What’s wrong with a little twerk before work, people act like they never did that before.” Getty Images

She claimed that the gig had allowed her to meet new people and see the world, among other perks.

While air hostessing was ostensibly a “dream job,” Diala admitted that she used the income to help fund her “blossoming lingerie and dessert businesses,” which she runs under the Instagram handles @cakezncake (which doesn’t appear to have any content?) and @figure8.lingerie.

As of Wednesday morning, the crowdfunding campaign has raised just $182 of its $12,000 goal.

Advertisement

Diala was ripped online for twerking on the job as well as her subsequent GoFundMe efforts.

“You don’t respect the uniform, you don’t respect your job then,” declared one critic on the popular aviation-focused Instagram page The Crew Lounge. “Terms and Conditions apply.”

“‘Support for wrongly fired flight attendant??’” mocked another. “Her GoFund title says it all. She still thinks she was wrongly fired. Girl you weren’t wrongly fired. Go apply for a new job and probably stop twerking in your uniform.”

“The fact that you don’t respect your job is one thing but doing it while in uniform and at work speaks volumes,” scoffed a third. “You’re the brand ambassador and it’s not a good look.”

Advertisement





Source link

Continue Reading

Trending