ALASKA

Last week, each of the 555,415 lucky residents of Alaska received a $1,296.54 check simply for living in the nation's coldest state. It's Alaska's annual lagniappe of North Slope oil money. This year's windfall--the biggest ever at $720 million--has set off a spending spree that has become as much a rite of autumn as the first snowstorm. Across the state, every opportunistic merchant is offering a deal. Want four tickets to Hawaii? Just $1,296.54. A computer? A mere $1,296.54. A camcorder? That's right--$1,296.54. "It's another Christmas up here," says author Richard Nelson.

The buying orgy is triggered by dividends paid from the state's Permanent Fund, created 20 years ago to receive the torrents of oil and mineral revenues. This year's total income of more than $4 billion, half of which came from investment income, brings the Permanent Fund to a dizzying $22.1 billion. The only thing that seems to arrest the spending is the advent of direct-deposit bank accounts. Notes Mary Jo Cunniff, the owner of Keyboards West, which sells pianos: "If it's sitting there in your checking account, you figure you might as well pay some bills."

--By Susan Q. Stranahan/Anchorage