Ice Fishing

HOUGHTON, Mich. -- In the land of big snow, where college students jump harmlessly out of third-story dormitory windows into snow banks, the longest season of the year sure isn't what it used to be. Snow that was dependable as a sunrise - and last year tallied higher than 20 feet - is being rationed in the city of Houghton, which this week canceled a downtown inner tube race - the Yooper Luge - to save snow for the annual winter carnival, the biggest tourist...

IMAGINE growing up not knowing that the water you drink, the air you breathe and the food you eat are contaminated with radioactive waste.Imagine getting radiation sickness and having doctors tell you only that you are suffering from some "special disease." Imagine finding out 35 years after the fact that a major nuclear accident had taken place near your home but that the authorities had kept it secret. Imagine all that, and you have only begun to imagine the horror of Muslyumovo.Muslyumovo looks like an idyllic Siberian village of about 3,500 souls on the Techa River.

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia - The wind was blowing, and the snow was blinding. That was when, last weekend, a village-size piece of the annual ice shelf in the Gulf of Finland broke free from shore, carrying about 200 terrified ice fishermen with it more than a mile into open water. Then the floe split in half, frightening the fishermen all the more. The icebreaker Semyon Dezhnev arrived to rescue most of the hapless anglers just in time. The rest were plucked from the ice by helicopter. All in all, it was a typical winter weekend on the Baltic coast, where ice fishermen are passionate enough about their punishing sport to risk drowning each time they venture onto the ice. Every winter, the open waters of the gulf and of nearby Lake Ladoga freeze over, creating shelves of ice that stretch miles from shore.

Elk were all around us -- big bulls with magnificent antlers, calves and babies staying close to their mothers -- at the %J National Elk Refuge just north of Jackson, Wyo.From October through December, more than 8,000 elk, the nation's largest herd, make their way from the slopes and meadows of Grand Teton and Yellowstone national parks and national forest lands down to the the refuge. Here they are fed pellets of pressed alfalfa hay, 7 to 8 pounds per animal per day -- 30 tons for the herd -- during the most severe winter months when deep snow makes it difficult for them to find any grass or shrubs to eat.We went to see the elk at the end of a ski trip to the Tetons.

EU defense ministers reaffirm '03 deadline for security force SINTRA, Portugal -- European Union defense ministers endorsed a timetable yesterday for creating a security force to enable Europeans to defuse crises beyond their borders without American troops. The ministers reiterated their pledge to create the rapid reaction force of 50,000 to 60,000 soldiers by 2003. However, no nation stepped forward to contribute to the force, and officials said a "contributors' conference" will not be held until later this year.

What do basketball, ice fishing and dog-sledding have in common?Members of Western's girls basketball team will be doing all three during their stay in Anchorage, Alaska for The Great One Tournament, Jan. 2-5. The team departs for Alaska on Dec. 31."We have a slew of activities planned," Western coach Breezy Bishop said. "There will be plenty of time for basketball, but there will also be time to learn about their culture."The second-ranked Doves were one of four teams in the country invited to join four Alaskan teams for the tournament.

The pitcher dominated. The hitters produced. The defense was solid.All in all, a typical game from Archbishop Spalding's softball team.Senior windmiller Kim Sheridan allowed just one hit and struck out 11, and the Cavaliers gradually distanced themselves from visiting Mercy in a 9-0 victory in the Catholic League Tournament semifinals yesterday at Randazzo Park.Spalding (15-3) can secure its third straight title with a win over the Institute of Notre Dame Monday afternoon at McDonogh. IND defeated Catholic, 9-5, in yesterday's other semifinal.

"Gates of Eden," by Ethan Coen. Rob Weisbach Books/ William Morrow. 261 pages. $24. Oh geez, Marge. Ya know those Coen brothers, right? Sure ya do. Those two fellas from 'round Minneapolis, went off to New York, make those movies folks are always callin' "darkly comic?" "Raising Arizona," "The Big Lebowski," "Fargo," for gosh sakes. So anyways, what I'm tryin' to tell ya is that the younger one, Ethan, he's got a book out now and I'm tellin' ya, it's a hoot!"Gates of Eden" is a hoot. Or several little hoots, actually: 14 short pieces of writing in the forms of monologues, scripts, memoirs and the occasional narrative populated by the same sorts of irony-plagued characters and situations that are the staples of Coen films.

I would love to take the week of Thanksgiving to go on a dog-sledding expedition in Alaska. What are the more affordable options? As odd as it may seem, last year many places in Alaska did not have enough snow on the ground for mushing until late November, said Amy Cockerham, a spokeswoman for Alaska Travel Industry Association. Because the time of the first snowfall varies from year to year, you will want to monitor snow conditions as winter begins and perhaps delay booking your flight until tour operators confirm that they will be running trips.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The BASS Classic might want to consider an ice-fishing tournament, given the number of cubes being used each day by competitors trying to keep their catches cool. With an intense sun, temperatures hovering in the low 90s and humidity above 70 percent, it's an uphill battle, but one the anglers have to join. Each bass that dies before the afternoon weigh-in is a 4-ounce deduction for the angler. Down at Paradise Point Marina, the tournament's launch point on Lay Lake, a muscled worker slings 7-pound bags of ice into a cooler every morning and replenishes it in the afternoon.