I’m going to get to Alaska in a moment, but that picture, above, is of Salzburg — about which I have a journal today. From which I have a journal? In any case, the article is here. I’ve been writing Salzburg journals — along with other journals — for about 20 years now. They’re not for everyone. But they’re for some — and it’s a pleasure to write for the some (so to speak). Today, I have observations social, political, and artistic. Plus a slate of photos, as usual.

If you’re interested in a sportscast — a podcast devoted to sports — I have one, here: with two of my regular gurus, David French and Vivek Dave. We cover the waterfront, or a good stretch of it. This includes the Olympics. Should PGA Tour stars be there? Should NBA stars? Is amateurism merely quaint? And how about the issue of transgenderism? If you have a male body — should you be competing in women’s sports? We also talk about Tom Brady, Shohei Ohtani, and other phenomena.

A week or so ago, I wrote,

All of my life, I have seen churches — church buildings — turned into something else. It is so good — so unusual, so refreshing — to see “something else” turned into a church.

I then quoted an Associated Press report, which begins,

A popular strip club that once beckoned customers off a busy highway leading into Anchorage is now a church offering salvation — instead of temptation — thanks to a daughter of a former exotic dancer.

Such “good, heartening news,” I said. A reader now writes,

Jay,
Commuting to my job in Anchorage, I ride a bus past the former strip club that is now a church. The funny thing is, I didn’t know the strip club had become a church until reading about it in your Impromptus. Thanks for the local-news update! The place was a blight as a strip club and remained one as an unused building for a few years afterward.
I neglected to write you a while back, but here I am and I want to say that I enjoyed your writing about Robert Service’s poetry [here]. I didn’t know that Reagan was a fan [big-time, like most boys and young men his age]. As a kid growing up in Alaska with a grandfather and great-uncles who prospected and mined gold and silver, I enjoyed Service’s writings, and so does our whole family. I have visited the cabin where Service lived and worked in Dawson City. Small and cozy.

A destination to remember, that cabin.