Alaska Ear

If this is the person former ADN reporter Cinthia Ritchie wrote a long profile of in Your Favorite Good Morning Newspaper back in 2005, he's a Presbyterian official and author of a book called "Why Men Hate Going to Church."

As of Friday, the book was No. 27,322 on the Amazon bestsellers list.

Rumor is he did the media for Lite Gov. Sean Parnell's run for Congress. Hmmmm, Ear doesn't remember.

FOR SALE . . . One ginormous, very slightly used treadmill. Original owner has moved out of state.

Actually, the Alaska Zoo ad that showed up Wednesday on Craigslist looking to get rid of the zoo's failed experiment in elephant exercise is pretty terse, aimed at "serious buyers" only. And it includes this sentence: "Please, no complaining liberal animal rights activists, thank you."

It gave Ear an excuse to check on how Maggie is doing at the PAWS sanctuary in California. SearchEar couldn't find any written report or convince anyone at PAWS to return a phone call, but there's some video at pawsweb.org that shows what is allegedly a happy-looking Maggie practically prancing through a meadow.

JUST WONDERING . . . Now that Justice Department screw-ups mean Pete Kott and Vic Kohring will probably slide through the bars, can we expect the governor to publicly call on Wes Keller to resign from his House seat and give Kohring a chance to get it back?

Not that Vic is going to need an invitation to run again if his felony record goes away, right?

ON THE MOVE . . . The state's top doctor, Jay Butler, is leaving the Division of Public Health effective June 21 for a job at the federal Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. The announcement says Butler will be working on the H1N1 (swine) flu outbreak.

• Butler's boss, Director of Public Health Bev Wooley, on Friday announced her resignation too, "per Governor Palin's request." Ear can't wait to see who Sarah wants to put in that job, and why.

• In Fairbanks, Mark Hamilton announced Friday he plans to retire. He didn't say when, but soonish. He's been in the job since 1998; his announcement was expected. Unanswered is whether it's part of a plan to run for governor.

• The Alaska Court System announced Friday that Walter Carpeneti will take over as chief justice of the Alaska Supreme Court on July 1, when Dana Fabe's current three-year term expires. The chief justice job rotates every three years and is filled by a vote of the five-member court.

• And last, Craig Medred, the outdoors writer so many outdoorsman love to hate, is leaving the Daily News after 26 years, having finally succumbed to the call of the wild.

COMMAND PERFORMANCE . . . One of the 14 contestants in the Mrs. Alaska pageant tonight at the downtown Marriott had an escort problem. Contestants, who have to be at least 21 and married, are usually escorted across the stage by their husbands. But Deborah Spratt's husband, Terry, is deployed to Iraq.

Not to worry. Col. Edward Daly, deputy commander, U.S. Army, has volunteered to stand in for him.

Actually, according to the press release, his wife volunteered him.

WELCOME TO THE WORLD . . . as we know it, Alice James Elizabeth Hopkins, born May 31, daughter of Rebecca Palsha of Channel 2 News and Kyle Hopkins of the Daily News.

So, what happens when a first-time mother goes into labor at a remote cabin with an outhouse, then has to walk half a mile through the woods to the car, and then get driven to the hospital an hour away?

If mama and daddy are both reporters, baby makes her TV debut at 3 days old and gets cooed over by Ear.

MEOW . . . While giving the Class Day address at Princeton University on Monday, New Yorker Katie Couric took a backhand swipe at Sarah:

"Coming here was a real no-brainer," Couric said. "After all, I can see New Jersey from my house!"

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Compiled by Sheila Toomey. Contact Sheila at stoomey@adn.com. Find Ear online at adn.com/ear.