FAITHFUL READERS OF THIS COLUMN will know that I am no shopper. Give me a catalogue or a website and a credit card and I’m good to go on everything from blue jeans to floor lamps. This unashamed anti-American uncapitalism extends to holiday bazaars, of which there have to be at least 439,572 in Anchorage alone. I mean, really, how many crocheted jam jar covers, moose turd tree ornaments and painted gold pans is one woman supposed to buy?

But there is one bazaar I never miss. When I tell you it’s called the Bad Girls of the North, you begin to understand. The brain child of artisans Carol Green and Vickie Potter, who, Carol says, “wanted to create a craft show with an atmosphere that was top notch.” Vickie’s husband, inspired by a famous Alaskan photograph of two polar bears titled “Bad Boys of the Arctic,” named the bazaar, and Carol and Vickie started jurying vendors…

Traditionally Bad Girls opens Fridays from 4-9 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. I’ve never been to a Friday night Bad Girls opening that doesn’t make a salmon spawning stream in July look positively roomy. It might have something to do with the fact that they serve wine and hors d’oeuvres opening night, and that there is music, Denise Martin on hammer dulcimer and Jim Kerr on acoustic guitar. And did I mention? Admission is free.

Chatter Bad Girls of the North