Hey There, Little Neophyte, In answer to your queries, yes, and yes.

Sam and Andy's (or Salmonella's as some of the local yokels refer to it, myself included) is still there, but the original owner sold it. The food is not quite as good as it used to be, but the portions are still bigh enough that you can eat until you should really stop, for not a lot of dough.

The Alpine Bakery is very much still there. Their bread is very very tasty, and their fruitcake won an international award on the internet earlier this year. Which is nice, I suppose, if you like fruitcake. I've always found fruitcake a bizzare concept, but then,I play bass, accordion, and banjo, so what do I know?

It does get dark here, but when the sun shines, it really is bright outside. We have a street festival called The Yukon Sourdough Rendezvous in february to get folks back on their feet, and to beat back the effect of Seasonal Affective Disorder, or SAD. We also have the acclaimed Frostbite Music Festival, aaaaaand we have one of the toughest dog sled races in the world around the same time of year. The trail goes 1000 miles from Whithehorse to Fairbanks, which is fine if that's what you want to do with your life. I'm a kat person, anyway. To quote Fritz Weaver,"Of course, cats are smarter than dogs. Just try to get six cats to pull a sled through the snow."

I dunno. I just thought up Owlkat out of the blue. Mostly because I'm a veteran insmomniac, and I think kats are the most highly evolved life form on the planet. Well, yes, they do reproduce in large enough numbers to rival the fecundity of homo sapiens, but anything with fur that soft, and blessed with the ability to purr can't be totally evil. Unless of course, you're a sparrow, a mouse, or a gold fish.

That's my story, and I'm stickin' to it. Bed-time! (Yeah. Right.) Night all. Plant you now, dig you later. ;-) Mart.