Anchorage Daily News

SPELLCHECK RUN AMOK ... Congregation Beth Sholom gave school super Carol Comeau its Shining Light award for public service at a dinner last Sunday.

As part of the event, they published a booklet full of good wishes from dozens of people, including our two U.S. senators. The usual stuff, except for the address on the letter from Lisa Murkowski:

Ms. Carol Comeau, Superintendent, Anchorage School District, 5530 E. Northern Illumination Boulevard.

ALASKA MURDER ... Dateline NBC will air a 90-minute television program tomorrow about the Bethany Correira case. The show, called "Mystery at Bootleggers Cove," focuses on her disappearance, the investigation led by Detective Glen Klinkhart, her family and the trial.

That's Monday at 8:30 p.m. on Channel 2.

Given that we usually have fewer than 20 murders a year, we do seem to be getting more than our fair share of air time lately on these national crime magazine shows.

KNOW-IT-ALL EARWIGS ... The Omniscient Orifice wondered last week about Native woman TV news anchors and whether there were any in Anchorage before Andrea Gusty, who takes Matt Nordin's place on the Channel 11 news next month. Thanks to all who remembered that Sharon McConnell, from Bettles and currently executive director of the Doyon Foundation, anchored the Channel 13 news with John Valentine in the early 1980s.

• This e-mail showed up in answer to Ear's question about why there are so many references to Alaska in the scripts for the clever TV series "Boston Legal:" The show "is a creation of and written by David E. Kelley, who did 'Ally McBeal,' 'The Practice,' 'L.A. Law' and 'Picket Fences.' Kelley has had an interest in Alaska for a long time. His last feature film was 'Mystery, Alaska,' with Russell Crowe, about a hockey team in a fictional small Alaska town that gets to play the N.Y. Rangers."

HOW MANY VERSES IN ... The National Anthem? David Williamson, band teacher and athletic director at West High School, walked away with $16,000 in winnings on an episode two weeks ago of "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire," seen here on KIMO, Channel 13.

He made it up to the $8,000 question on Tuesday and continued as a holdover contestant the following day. The music teacher finally folded at the $25,000 level: "Though only the first one usually gets sung, "The Star-Spangled Banner" actually consists of how many verses?"

Leaning toward "four" as the right answer, but unsure of himself, Williamson decided not to guess and took the guaranteed $16,000 he had already won. If he guessed incorrectly, he would have ended up with a mere $1,000 in winnings.

The Star-Spangled Banner does, indeed, have four verses.

COMING HOME? ... Word is John Vezina is headed back to Alaska to work as a fund-raiser on the Begich campaign. John was an operative on the first Knowles campaign and a special assistant in the first Knowles administration before seeking his fortune in Washington. He came back in 2004 to work on Tony's failed U.S. Senate effort and in 2006 for the failed governor re-run. Before all that he was a legislative aide in Juneau.

He's reportedly due this weekend.

SMARTER THAN A 5-YEAR-OLD? ... State Fish and Game, along with Alaska Waste, distributed a bunch of "bear resistant" trash cans last week. An earwig who got one reports they're very sturdy, green containers that came with a bright yellow instruction strip on top that warned:

"This can is NOT bear resistant if left open."

SPIRITUAL CHAOS ... Tom Brennan, writer of true crime and an editor of the online version of the old Anchorage Times (voiceofthetimes.net) has bought the Government Hill home once owned by former ADN editor Howard Weaver, now vice president of news for McClatchy.

Tom says he and wife Marnie had their eye on the house for a long time but "will be having an exorcism for old liberal ghosts before we move in."

UP SHIP CREEK ... A columnist for the online San Francisco Chronicle reported last week that Anchorage got its name from "a popular hardware store that operated out of a dry-docked steamship named Berth."

It was in a travel piece about his visit to the city at the edge of the "Chugash" Mountains.

How may times has Ear told you darlings, it's not nice to play tricks on visiting writers.

Compiled by Sheila Toomey.

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