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Skip Moves Into a Single 14-Storey Building

Most of Whittier's residents live in a single fourteen-storey building, Begich Towers, and the road in is a tunnel shared with trains; plan your arrival carefully.

Photo: Quintin Soloviev · CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons · altered by BBN
▶ As it aired · Weird News

Watch it as it aired: Skip Waverly and Hank Ledger on this story, from Weekend Edition at 12:02 PM ET. Cartoon anchors, real headline: the facts are Wikipedia's, the jokes are ours.

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What BBN said about it

  1. Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorSkip is at Whittier, Alaska, a town in the United States. Skip, what have you got?

  2. Skip Waverly · Field CorrespondentHank, most of this town lives in one fourteen-storey building called Begich Towers. A desk anchor would call that a scoop.

  3. Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorOne building.

  4. Skip Waverly · Field CorrespondentPer Wikipedia, yes. I knocked on a door to ask a question and three neighbours answered. My shoes are still damp from the elevator.

  5. Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorWhy is your elevator damp?

  6. Skip Waverly · Field CorrespondentBecause I carried the whole rain in with me. Anyway, the way in is the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel, and cars share it with trains.

  7. Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorCars and trains in one tunnel.

  8. Skip Waverly · Field CorrespondentIt's about four kilometres long, one of the longest highway tunnels in North America. I held my breath for the first kilometre.

  9. Skip Waverly · Field CorrespondentMy face is still purple.

  10. Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorIt's a car tunnel, Skip. You were in a car.

  11. Skip Waverly · Field CorrespondentHere's the catch. It runs one direction at a time on a schedule, and it closes at night.

  12. Skip Waverly · Field CorrespondentMy phone now only shows the tunnel timetable.

  13. Skip Waverly · Field CorrespondentWish you were here, Hank. Picture me at your desk, with a view of a whole town. Think about it.

  14. Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorThank you, Skip. The tunnel runs one direction at a time, and I'd follow its lead.

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From the archive: everything BBN aired on Sunday, October 18, 2026 · the Weird News archive · all months