DUDE 'TUDE ... Has the Outside media ever said anything really snarky about The First Dude? Ear doesn't think so. Even New Yorkers, who don't like anyone but themselves, apparently see him as a likeable guy.

Check out "Talk of the Town" in the May 25 issue of the New Yorker magazine for a piece on Todd filling in for Sarah a couple weeks ago to push Alaska salmon at a fancy fish feed in Manhattan. There's a nice riff where Todd tries to explain that running a Nushagak setnet isn't anything like crewing on a Bering Sea crabber a la "The Deadliest Catch."

Lesil McGuire and Bruce Schactler also got a mention, but Lyman Hoffman was the most fun. He told the reporter the crowds on the streets of the city were annoying and looked like salmon. "I don't know where they're going," he said of the New Yorkers. "I think the salmon have a purpose."

It's a nice piece, but will this stuff never end?

There's a story in the last issue of Esquire featuring Todd at home. A Vanity Fair reporter is working on a story about Sarah. And Thursday night at the Fireweed, an Outside right winger named John Ziegler offered a "documentary" he produced called "Media Malpractice." It purports to demonstrate how "the media" did in Sarah and got Obama elected. Brendan Kelley, an Anchorage Press editor, reports getting thrown out of the event when he chatted up The First Dude and tried to ask Ziegler a couple of questions.

There's probably more to this story but frankly, Ear doesn't care. If you do, check the usual blogs and Web sites. (Kelley and Dennis Zaki both have video on the Press site). Ear's point is this: Just when you think the tsunami of Palin-related trivia can't get any more bizarre, you get your June copy of GQ. magazine (see next item).

FOR ABSOLUTE PROOF ... that we have passed into an alternative universe, check out a long story in the current issue of GQ, starring Levi Johnston with supporting performances by mouthpiece to the stars Rex Butler and the amazing Tank Jones, private eye. Tricked out and overwritten, breathlessly opinionated, metaphors on steroids, fond and sneering at the same time, the piece is a view of Levi through a very un-Alaska prism. And worth reading.

OK, maybe not every paragraph. For example, you can skip this one:

"We are a couple of beads farther along the necklace of cultural time from Levi. We are post-Levi. It's decadent to think of him now. But the chemical traces remain of a plausibility structure inside which his very face seemed full of information and even warning. Something was happening to the country, it was splitting in two. Levi looked like a place where the ripping might start."

A QUESTION ... In the new "Star Trek" movie, why is there a thank-you to the Alaska Department of Natural Resources?

A MORE INTERESTING QUESTION ... How hard are mainstream Democrats, perhaps including Ethan Berkowitz, Hollis French and Eric Croft, trying to convince Bob Poe to drop out of the nascent governor's race "for the good of the party?" It's hearsay, but a persistent claim, the fear being he splits the primary vote enough to win but can't take the general. Unclear who they think the best candidate is. Probably some differing opinions there.

The Republicans are a bit more subdued. After all, as one GOP honcho put it, they have a sitting governor who "is entitled by state law to run again."

But, if she doesn't, the Republican names being bandied about most include Jeff Staser, who has declared, Ralph Samuels, John Binkley and Ed Rasmuson. At this point, none of it means anything.

AND YET ANOTHER ... Is the governor getting a new chief flack? Ear hears it's so, effective mid-June. Assuming it's true, how many does that make?

PIG ME NOT ... Ear weaseled enough last week about the Don Young gathering at Gallo's to escape actually being wrong. It is not the old pig roast, says GOP boss Randy Ruedrich. It was a birthday party, and the $20 suggested donation per person or family might not even cover the cost of the food.

And that other thing isn't called the Pig Roast anymore, Ear is admonished. It's now apparently known as "The August Recess Fundraiser." Zowie. That sings!

Yes, Ear definitely believes that's what people call it.

FLYING FACTOID ... The last book by Lynn Vincent, the best-selling California author chosen by Sarah to co-write her book, is called "The Blood of Lambs." It's the memoir of a former Muslim terrorist, published last month. Lynne, who lives in San Diego, is a U.S. Navy vet.