ALASKAN ANGST

Normally I figure I'm beyond the adolescent angstiness of worrying what others think, but in the face of tomorrow's election I've regressed. "What will the rest of the country think of Alaska," I fret, "if we re-elect a convicted felon and a buffoon who has spent a million dollars on legal defense? And if they wake up with a vice-president whose foreign policy experience amounts to supposedly seeing Russia from her home state?"

Even though I've heard Alaska's getting positive attention from all this flap, I didn't believe it until I read "Author Gains from Interest in Alaska" in today's Publisher's Weekly. Sales of Seth Kantner's two remarkable books, Ordinary Wolves and Shopping for Porcupine, have soared during the past several weeks, and he's drawing crowds at public appearances, presumably without the name-calling and slurs that Palin stirs up.

In his PW interview, Kantner reiterates that while she may claim to know the real America, Palin is bad for real Alaska. If her candidacy is helping the sale of good books, I'll set aside my angst. But I'd still prefer we Alaskans not embarrass ourselves tomorrow.