News from Patrick Flynn

Here we go, another set of generally disjointed topics jumbled together and called a blog entry…

This morning’s Alaska Ear column almost had it right – my new son’s name is Kylan Antony Patrick Grovier Flynn.  Actually, their only real error was adding an “h” to Antony, a name intended to honor Kylan’s maternal great-grandfather.  Similarly Patrick isn’t included in reference to me, but to Kylan’s paternal great-great grandfather.  One made great pancakes, the other was pretty good at picking winning horses, I’ll let you guess which was which!

During a chat with a somewhat-public figure the other day the discussion turned to her previous work in the pharmaceutical industry.  When she rattled off the name of the firm the quizzical look on my face elicited the explanation that, while almost no one had ever heard of the company, almost everyone knew about their one of their more famous products, Ambien.  I mentioned that I’d never taken one but that I’d heard several folks speak quite highly of it.  She responded that one of those little pills, plus a bottle of champagne, was directly responsible for the birth of her first child!  How does one reply to such a revelation?  Let me know if you have a good idea because I still don’t…

As last week’s municipal election approached and polls indicated the mayor’s hoped-for conservative landslide was unlikely to occur several of my more conservative colleagues began discussing an Assembly leadership team featuring moderates.  Because I’ve been involved with virtually every consensus achieved by the Assembly in the past couple years the idea sounded good to me.  Since the election it has become apparent that those colleagues’ vision of moderate leadership includes one of their own as chair.  It’s not yet clear how that will play out…

I was in midtown yesterday and noted that city Street Maintenance crews had already swept part of Spenard Road and the adjacent sidewalks.  Kudos to them for getting a fast start and yet another reminder to you that, once your local street is clear of snow and ice, you can use their feedback form to request that they drop by your neighborhood.  It works pretty well but shouldn’t be used for state-maintained roads, generally the larger ones like Minnesota, Northern Lights and Benson.  For state roads your best bet is to cross your fingers and hope DOT doesn’t bollix up their street sweeping contract like they did last year.  Or be patient; August is just around the corner!

Regards,

Patrick