EAGLE DAZED: Over the weekend, I saw my first Holgate bald eagle. It was all but oozing, “You do realize what I am, right? National bird? American symbol?”

I guess I was impressed with its majestic continence. At the same time, I recalled that in Alaska these buggers are easily on par with our pesky herring gulls, even to the point of being trash bin divers and chronic circlers of county dumps.