When Pigs Fly -- Or at Least When Salmon Do

Alaska has used a $500,000 federal grant to paint an airliner to look like a fish (left).

It's part of $29 million Sen Ted Stevens (R-AK) has gotten for the Alaska Fisheries Marketing Board since 2003. The money goes toward advertising Alaskan seafood. The Senator's son, state Senator Ben Stevens (R) is chairman of the agency's board.

It took 30 painters 24 days and 140 gallons of paint to decorate the Alaska Airlines 737 like a giant king salmon. The airline refers to the plane as the "Salmon-Thirty-Salmon."

That'd be funny -- if you hadn't paid $500,000 for the paint job. The joke's on taxpayers. (Anchorage Daily News) [Photo Credit: Alaska Airlines via AP]