Remember Sisters: Coming of Age & Living Dangerously in the Wild Copper River Valley, by Samme Gallaher & Aileen Gallaher from the March 6, 2016 post? Here is a collection of more stories from that wild and remote area: Moonlight Madness: Tall Tales From the Copper River Valley. In the past, when travel was by dog team or on foot, there were road houses about every 10 miles or so along the Richardson Trail (Valdez to Fairbanks) where a weary traveler could get a meal and shelter from the elements. Naturally there was talk ... news, gossip, and wonderful tales, some true, some, well, not so much! Samme Gallaher remembers those stories with great fondness and has gathered them together here.

Okay, so it's not a foreign language, but there are territorial differences in our speech and How to Speak Alaskan, edited by J. Stephen Lay and Sue Mattson (revised second edition) explains the ones from the great state to the north. Quite amusing!

Then, a side trail: Speaking American: How Y'all, Youse, and You Guys Talk: a Visual Guide, by Josh Katz. Tennis shoes or sneakers? Traffic circle or roundabout (or something else). How do you say pecan? Grocery? The words we use and how we say them depends on where we live and this is a great way to learn about these differences. I find I often use two of the possibilities (semi-truck and 18-wheeler, for example). How about you? Great fun!

J. Stephen Lay is also the author of What Real Alaskans Eat: Not Your Ordinary Cookbook (with illustrations by Barbara Santora). In addition to the, mmm, recipes unique to Alaska (how to cook a salmon on a boat motor. Inboard or outboard), there are also tidbits of history, such as when bacon helped put out the fire in Fairbanks in 1906.

Reading Hermit With Dog