"I only drank so that the Statue Of Liberty would take her clothes off." - Peter Griffin, Family Guy

Is this art, or the work of a mad serial killer who has dismembered ice statues? I'm not sure. Click on this one for a larger version. Do it. It's worth it.

The Mrs. and I were walking amongst the statues, and as I said in my last post, the artwork this year was far superior to last year’s carving. A bit of history: during the first year, the Ice Art Championships had to import ice to Alaska from Seattle. Yes, you read that right. I believe we have the recipe down now, though, and I hear that we now export to places as far away as Israel for ice carving. Since in most places the ice is over 3’ thick right now, we’ve got plenty to spare.

As you can see from the pictures with this post there were also a large number of studies of the female form. There was also a lot less carved clothing. Which equals a lot of statues of ladies without clothes. I think if this had been going on near where I grew up, I would have had a lot more appreciation for art when I was thirteen. As it was, I had to get by with the snowwomen that I’d make.



If this were the crazy cat lady, I doubt that the health department would try to get in to take her cats, even if she had fifty of them. A related question is what the heck is she doing? Do leopards fetch sticks thrown by nude women? Click on this for larger leopardy goodness.

You can see from the pictures the incredible textures that the artists evoke using . . . well, frozen water, chainsaws, heat guns, hammers, and chisels.

This, though, is the time of year when Fairbanks is at it’s best, and not just because of the ice carvings. It’s still cold (-35ºF yesterday when I got up) and snowy, but it’s now bright and sunny, and we have more daylight now than those of you unlucky enough not to live 93% of the way up to the North Pole (distance as measured from the plane of the equator to the plane that Fairbanks is on – I figured that out yesterday using my trusty slide rule).

Today there’ll be a snowmachine race. The only rule is that the snowmachine has to be older than a 1975 model. So, if The Mrs. were a snowmachine, she’d qualify as an entrant. I may be in trouble after typing that. (Note: I was.)



A woman astride Pegasus. I cropped this one because the statue was just way too much to show in a single picture. Pegaus seems distracted. Anyhow, click on this one for larger flying horse goodness.

But there’s also mushing, cross-country skiing, downhill skiing, sledding, picking up on nude women riding Pegasus, and snowmachining on sleek, new machines. This is also prime aurora-watching season – warm enough to go out and watch, and for some reason that’s probably related to Global Warming or Al Gore’s hair, the aurora is more active around the equinox. It might be active in summer, too, but you’d never see it since it’s daylight 24/7. But, it's daylight now, and that ice won't last forever . . . .