Fifty-two students from Queen Anne/Magnolia area have been named to the dean's list at the University of Washington for winter quarter 2007.To qualify for the honor, a student must have completed at least 12 graded credits and have a grade-point average of at least 3.5 (out of 4).
inclair Lewis, America's first Nobel Prize winner for Literature (1930), even wrote a novel satirizing a pathetic, chamber of commerce-type go-getter, "Babbitt," whose mythical environs of Zenith were rumored to be our own hometown - Cincinnati.Of course, bemoaning what the corporatization of this country has done to American culture, and to the deluded majority who judge their own and everybody else's worth by what they drive, where they live and how they dress, isn't anything but the revival of an already-lost cause.I was driven to these picked-over recollections by something I read in The Seattle Times last week. Mayor Greg Nickels, the former populist who has hitched his mayoralty cart to the biggest businessmen of them all, shelved his planned proposal to charge developers fees to create open space in six of the city's fastest-growing urban areas.Nickels cited the fact that there was little "enthusiasm" for the plan. Of course, Nickels proposed these so-called impact fees during his reelection campaign of 2005. Anyone carefully auditing Big Boy's performance wouldn't be chastised in this corner for doubting His Rotundity was ever serious about taxing his developer buddies in the first place. Sounded good on the campaign trail, though.
With recently-opened locations in Montlake and Wallingford, a two-year birthday celebration for its original location on our own Capitol Hill, and, as the 2007 recipient of the Greater Seattle Business Association's New Business of the Year award, Fuel Coffee and its owner Danielle Cone have clearly created something special. A visit to their flagship location on 19th Avenue East demonstrates just that.Cone's success, however, speaks to more than just a shrewd business model, her eye for logo and graphic design or her discerning palette. It speaks to our values as a neighborhood and city that no amount of critical smugness, homegrown or foreign, can diminish.
The biennial Seattle Poetry Festival returns to the Hill this weekend with more than 100 poets, musicians, dancers, theater performers and visual artists who will regale with verbal dexterity in both daytime and nighttime performances. "In 2005, more than 1,500 people showed up for the event," said festival programming director Jennifer Borges Foster. "This year, I'm expecting even more. The buzz in the community about our guests has been really strong and people are getting excited."For her first year as programming director, Foster wanted to create a festival that would appeal to poets, poetry lovers, and people who aren't that fond of poetry or think that poetry is too intellectual for them
Talk, talk, talk... the mayor and the police chief and their new policing plan add to my distrust of our leadership. Why, in this construction boomtown, is there a police force still stuck at about the same size as it was 30 years ago?Where is the actual increase in these periodic media promises of more police protection? And why do we still have this police chief who infamously stated that he didn't intervene in the deadly Mardi Gras riots because he didn't want to put the police "in harms way"? I repeat, "in harms way." The police.Why is it so difficult to fund more police? Why is this city's leadership allowed to continue playing lip service to protection from crime and protection from loss of poor and lower income housing, and protection from erosion of our unique Seattle cultural values, while the only real protection seems to go to our increasingly rich citizen's net worth?
How do you fire someone who can bring up to $50 million (MSNBC reports $15 million) to the mother-ship, every year?Money talks; the rest is just hot air."I've been running my mouth for 30 years and I've said some stupid stuff," Don Imus said. But this time, the radio personality continued, his remarks were "really stupid.""Stupid" is stating it rather kindly. He has said things that were terrible about races and faiths, but each time the group insulted was not strong enough or united enough to kick up the fuss that might jeopardize Imus' future.Think of the money, CBS executives must have said among themselves, and life continued. In the past, he saved some of his most poisonous ire for the free-fire zone of Muslim-bashing.He called Arabs "goat-humping weasels."He called Palestinians "stinking weasels" and suggested they all be killed.When an Iran airplane crashed killing 43, he said, "who cares? Too bad it wasn't full of Saudi Arabians."America laughed
This Saturday, April 21, one of the nation's largest Earth Day events will occur at the West Duwamish Greenbelt beginning at 12:30 p.m. With nearly 500 volunteers expected to help dig out blackberry bushes, rip out ivy, spread mulch and maintain trails at Seattle's largest contiguous forested area.To join the Duwamish effort on April 21 or to learn about other Earth Day opportunities, visit www.greenseattle.org or www.cityofseattle.net/parks.
Getting your whole family involved in physical activity shouldn't require bribes or threats. If you plan it right - and create the right atmosphere - you can have them begging to exercise with you.There are ways to spend time with your family and help keep your family healthy and fit.Children learn from their parents. It is important to show kids that staying physically fit is necessary for their health. The key to successful family fitness is to keep it simple and fun for everyone. Make your activities a family tradition that everyone will look forward to.
As Pacific Northwest Ballet enters the third week of the Celebrate Seattle dance festival, figuring out what happens when is as easy as A, B and C. As in, Program A takes place April 19 and 22; Program B is April 18 and 21; and Program C happens April 20, 21 and 22.For PNB ballet master Paul Gibson, who creates the schedule for rehearsals, getting everyone ready to present a multitude of new works and share the stage with other dance companies meant one very big spreadsheet."It's crazy on our side, but I love it," said Gibson. "We're basically rehearsing four to six ballets a day, so everyone is a little overloaded. But the festival is exciting because we have so many new works and we have all these other companies coming in.
Playwright August Wilson kept his promise. To portray the African American experience in 20th-century America decade by decade, a journey that began in 1979. Paralleling the African American quest for dignity, he framed his metaphor in Pittsburgh's rundown Hill District where he grew up.Although Wilson did not write in chronological sequence, the current Seattle Repertory Theatre offering, "Gem of the Ocean," ninth in his 10-play cycle, heralds the official beginning of Wilson's powerful saga. The time is 1904 and we finally meet Aunt Ester Tyler, the spiritual matriarch of 1839 Wylie Avenue, mentioned in previous Wilson dramas."Gem" may not be his most accomplished effort, but it offers insights into an often-neglected phase of history - the aftermath and failed promises of the American Civil War.
Playwright August Wilson kept his promise. To portray the African American experience in 20th-century America decade by decade, a journey that began in 1979. Paralleling the African American quest for dignity, he framed his metaphor in Pittsburgh's rundown Hill District where he grew up.Although Wilson did not write in chronological sequence, the current Seattle Repertory Theatre offering, "Gem of the Ocean," ninth in his 10-play cycle, heralds the official beginning of Wilson's powerful saga. The time is 1904 and we finally meet Aunt Ester Tyler, the spiritual matriarch of 1839 Wylie Avenue, mentioned in previous Wilson dramas."Gem" may not be his most accomplished effort, but it offers insights into an often-neglected phase of history - the aftermath and failed promises of the American Civil War.
Locals have a chance to witness a rare sports championship event here this week, as Seattle Pacific University hosts the USA Gymnastics Women's Collegiate National Championships, a three-day affair, April 19-21, at SPU's Royal Brougham Pavilion, at Third Avenue West and West Nickerson.Sessions for the national championships at SPU are set for Thursday, April 19 (prelims at 3 and 7 p.m.), Friday, April 20, at 7 (team finals), and Saturday, April 21, at 4 (individual finals).
The Better Business Bureau (BBB) is warning consumers and businesses about a door-to-door magazine sales scam in which young people are posing as area high school and college athletes to solicit money.Arrests have already been made in Portland, Ore., but the BBB forewarns that the scam could potentially spread throughout the Pacifc Northwest region. The scammers have been targeting local neighborhoods dressed as cheerleaders and baseball players soliciting money for their school programs. They are going door-to-door taking checks from consumers ranging from $40-$200, as well as asking for cash donations.The scammers are allegedly part of a group of sales people representing Quality Sales, Inc., a company based in Georgia.
The theater department of Seattle Pacific University (SPU), the academic jewel located on Queen Anne Hill, is presenting the very English Restoration comedy by Oliver Goldsmith, "She Stoops to Conquer," for the next two weekends, April 19-21 and 26-28. There's a show at 7:30 p.m., with a Sunday matinee on April 28 at 2 p.m. Oliver Goldsmith (1728-74) was a playwright, novelist, poet and essayist. Born in Ireland, this son of an Anglican curate received a general education at Trinity College, Dublin. Goldsmith lived during an important period of change in English theater, the period of Restoration comedy. He first attracted attention with a series of letters supposedly written by a Chinese traveler and describing London; these were later reprinted as "A Citizen of the World" (1762). Once Goldsmith's authorship of this successful series became in known in London literary circles, he made any influential friends, including Samuel Johnson, the foremost literary figure of the day; Sir Joshua Reynolds, the greatest British painter of the time; and the statesman and orator Edmund Burke.In 1763 Goldsmith became one of the original nine members of the celebrated literary society known as The Club, of which Johnson was the central figure.Goldsmith is a mixture of the old and the new. His novel "The Vicar of Wakefield" (1766) begins in dry humor but passes quickly into tearful calamity. In such plays as "She Stoops to Conquer" (1773), Goldsmith, like the younger Richard Brinsley Sheridan in his "School for Scandal" (1777), demonstrates the satirical quality and artistic adroitness that were to be anathema to a younger generation. "She Stoops to Conquer" was an immediate success and remains one of the best-known comedies in the history of British drama. Restoration comedy dates from 1660 to approximately 1789. During the time of Cromwell (1653-1660), plays had been banned and theaters closed. Restored to the throne, Charles II gave a Royal Charter to build two new theaters, the Dorset Garden and Drury Lane Theater, where Nell Gwynn sold oranges (that's another story). Women played the female roles in elegant costumes, jewels, frills, flounces and feathers.Restoration comedy was comedy of manners, which developed upon the reopening of the theaters. The dominant tone was witty, bawdy, cynical and amoral. The plays were mainly in prose, with passages of verse for the more romantic moments; the plots were complex and usually double, sometimes triple, though repartee and discussions of marital behavior provide much of the interest, reflecting the fashionable manners of the day.
deacon.Over recent years she enjoyed volunteering at the Adult Day Center in Magnolia, where she provided care for individuals with age-related dementia.Longtime Magnolia resident Elizabeth "Betty" Eather passed away April 3 from cancer. She was 81. A devoted wife and mother of four children, Mrs. Eather had several passions in life, especially gardening, animals, being around children and helping those in need. She was a long-time member of the Children's Hospital Guild and Magnolia Presbyterian Church, where she served as an elderand deacon.Over recent years she enjoyed volunteering at the Adult Day Center in Magnolia, where she provided care for individuals with age-related dementia.