Dramatis Personae

for Travels with Samantha by Philip Greenspun

Alan                   Buddhist philosopher in Telluride,
                       Colorado
Ali and Michelle       Australians on a post-college world
                       tour, Glacier National Park
Alison                 "I've never dated a man who wore a
                       suit to work" (Alaska Marine
                       Highway)
Amber                  16-year-old clutching doll in
                       Theodore Roosevelt National Park
                       (North Dakota)
Arleigh                crushed my long-cherished delusions
                       of irresistibility (Yellowstone)
Arthur                 HIV+ for nine years (Moab, Utah)
Bruce                  old friend and business partner
Carl                   Mormon engineer demonstrating True
                       Manhood in Yellowstone with wife and
                       five kids
Charles                ironworker, scholar, Macintosh wizard
                       (Anchorage)
Charles                struggling in Aspen to fund a round-
                       the-world bike trip
Chicca                 Italian girlfriend, lives in Rome
Cid                    left husband to teach school in
                       Eskimo village, Homer
Claire                 Francophone Montrealer with no
                       Anglophone friends
Christina              visiting from Germany on a Marlboro
                       cigarettes tour (Utah)
Darryl and Leif        "You can get anything you want if you
                       have a pure desire" (Jasper)
Dave                   78-year-old wildlife photographer,
                       Katmai
David, Doug, and Sue   praying for the Jews to return to
                       Israel (Salt Lake City)
Dawn                   wistful 22-year-old super-
                       Midwesterner-but-dying-to-live-the-
                       adventurous-Western-life (Missoula,
                       Montana)
Denise                 demonstrated just how far up the wall
                       a woman can drive me in two days
                       (Portland)
the Dukes              British family making their 14th
                       journey across North America
                       (Whitehorse)
Dwight, Emily, Karla   superhosts in Portland
Eero                   old friend, former MIT grad student,
                       professor at Penn
Elder Pomeroy          answered polygamy questions in Salt
                       Lake City
Elke                   East German Fulbright Scholar
                       (Vancouver)
Emma                   striving "cupcake" at Katmai
Eric and Laurel        fled the rat-race in Minneapolis
Erika                  stunning Hungarian single mother
                       (Whitehorse)
Frank                  moved back to the ghost town in
                       Montana where he was born in 1912
Gil and Shavit         Israelis who thought Alaska was the
                       Promised Land (Alaska Marine
                       Highway)
George                 Samoyed dog, died June, 1991
Glynn                  left an assortment of wives,
                       girlfriends, and children to be
                       single in Homer
Brenda Griffin         George's last veterinarian
Harry                  my brother, an anesthesiologist in
                       Baltimore
Heather                21-year-old divorcee in Montana
Henry                  old friend and business partner from
                       Hong Kong
Walter Holland         walked across America, walked from
                       Mexico to Tok, Alaska
Jackie                 completely invested in victimhood
                       (Cambridge)
Jennifer               beautiful Jewish woman in Boulder
Jim                    Baptist Army chaplain who wants to
                       shoot all the wolves (Denali)
Jim                    professor at University of British
                       Columbia
Jo-Anne                Australian actuary living in
                       Vancouver
Jody and Eric          "We're probably the only Jews on this
                       boat" (Seward)
John                   selling insurance to polygamists
                       (Monticello, Utah)
John and Judy          Northern and Southern Ireland meet in
                       Calgary
Joel                   old friend from MIT (Seattle)
Joseph                 Blackfoot Indian with a taste for Ted
                       Kennedy jokes (East Glacier,
                       Montana)
Judy, Jason, Justin    tough, beautiful single mother and
                       her sons from Memphis (Skagway)
Kaarin                 Arctic biologist living in a
                       condemned house in Whitehorse
Karin und Walter       "In Europe, old people look old"
                       (Denali)
Keiko and Kazuyo       inscrutable Japanese girls, my
                       companions from Banff to Lake Louise
Keith                  "I'd rather face a charging grizzly
                       bear than start a conversation with
                       a strange woman." (Homer)
Keith                  bum in Salt Lake City, "[The Mormons]
                       are better at helping their own."
Kelly                  truck driver on the Alaska highway,
                       "Why would anyone call himself
                       'Jewish'?"
Kelly                  a mother at age 12 (Kansas City)
Kirk                   can't wait to get out of Duluth
Ted Kerasote           author of Bloodties -"don't go to the
                       supermarket; shoot a deer"-Katmai
Kleanthes              physicist and urban philosopher at MIT
Lavonne                living Christian in Petersburg,
                       Alaska
Lily                   first love (Cincinnati)
Lisa                   Jewish ranger in Katmai, half of
                       local production of Dido and Aeneas
Lisa                   New York artist moved to Telluride
Liz                    old friend from MIT, professor in
                       Boulder
Lloyd                  heavy equipment operator
                       straightening the Alaska Highway
                       (Whitehorse)
Maple                  Chinese-Canadian college student in
                       Ottawa
Marcia and Tony        my hosts in Fairbanks
Mark                   writer and social worker, Denali
Michael                engineer/photographer met in Egypt,
                       Vancouver
Michael                Germany university student.  "Germany
                       is full of Jews.  In my life, I've
                       actually met five." (Moab, Utah)
Mike                   gave up $100,000/year paramedic job
                       in Anchorage for the simple life
Patrick                managing 600 fish-gutters in
                       Petersburg, Alaska
Ralph                  teaches British Columbia school-by-
                       mail (Lake Louise)
Randy                  fell in love with Yellowstone 14
                       years ago and couldn't leave
Randy and Cathy        Fairbanks attorney and transplanted
                       Chicagoan
Ranger Lisa            Jewish park ranger in Katmai
Rebecca                second love (Seattle)
Richard and Cindy      itinerant preachers, Petersburg,
                       Alaska
Roland                 rehabilitates the homeless, Mormon
                       style (Katmai)
Ronen                  torn between American blonde and home
                       in Israel (Glacier)
Sadie                  just your average Indian transvestite
                       fisherman (Seldovia)
Sallie and Ben         hot dog roasters on the Alaska
                       Highway
Samantha               Macintosh PowerBook 170 computer
Sam and Ken            frontier woman and oil worker in
                       Skagway
Scott and John         iron ore miners in Marquette,
                       Michigan
Stan                   grizzled bush pilot in Homer
Stefan                 biked LA/Yellowstone in the rain
Stephanie              trophy wife singing the praises of
                       the Midwestern WASP women (Homer)
Steve                  New Age avalanche skier in the
                       Canadian Rockies
Steve                  moved from Montana because of the
                       fences, Katmai
Dr. Stobie             veterinarian
Susan                  a free spirit living for today in
                       Homer
Susan                  woman in Boston who couldn't
                       bear to hear of a world without AIDS
Teddy                  nightclub owner in Aspen
Terry and Rebecca      serving espresso in 100-degree heat in
                       Moab, Utah
Thomas                 Danish superman in Lake Louise
Tom and Lisa           quit their yuppie jobs to roam the
                       continent in a motorhome (Alaska
                       Marine Highway)
Wendy and Angie        high school graduates in Sauk Centre,
                       Minnesota
Woody                  "if it didn't fit into my backpack,
                       it didn't fit into my life," Denali
Yvonne                 came all the way from London to see
                       Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump

Chapter I: White fur, red blood

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