As lawmakers in Olympia prepare to fill a $5-billion budget gap for the next biennium, one of their targets has been higher education. And every parent of a college-age child knows exactly what that means: ever higher tuition rates.
Since the Food and Drug Administration (F.D.A.) has lowered the minimum weight requirements for gastric Lap-Band surgery, which made many more millions of Americans eligible for the procedure, a whole new industry of weight loss device makers has emerged, trying to cash in on this vastly expanding market (no pun intended).
Two of my dear little friends from the neighborhood, Johnny and little Mary, needed inoculations last week for one of the numerous childhood diseases. Their mother, Barbara, in an effort to show the kids that getting a “shot” was no big deal, volunteered up her arm for use as a pin cushion first.
Last December, Gov. Christine Gregoire all but wept when she presented her version of the 2011-13 biennial state budget. “I hate [my budget] because in some places, I don’t even think it’s moral," she said, and she was right.
The other night, I had a neighborhood gathering to prepare for an earthquake. I’m sure a lot of people are doing this, but this was a little different from most such events. Usually, we get an expert to come from the city, but this time, we didn’t.
A recent poll conducted by independent pollster Stuart Elway showed 65 percent of Seattle voters rate Mayor Mike McGinn as “poor” or “only fair” in the categories of leadership, vision, managing government and representing the city to the state and country.
Nirvana: Taking Punk to the MassesOrganized by EMP, Nirvana: Taking Punk to the Masses is the most extensive exhibition of memorabilia celebrating the music and history of Seattle grunge luminaries, Nirvana. The exhibit features more than 200 rare and never-before-seen artifacts and photography from the band, their crews, and families. The show opens to the public on Saturday, April 16, 2011. Winter hours September 7, 2010 - May 30, 2011, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. The museum is located at 325 5th Avenue North, Seattle, WA 98109. 206-770-2700, main line; 206-770-2702, box office; 1-877-EMP-SFM1, toll-free; www.empsfm.org <http://www.empsfm.org>
Magnolia resident James H. Liddell was known as a charming talker. Now, he's a jailbird. The alleged finance whiz was sentenced recently to 57 months in prison and ordered to pay about $1.2 million in restitution for his role in what state officials are calling a ponzi scheme.
My dear partner, the Lady Marjorie, has turned more and more into an unabashed an unashamed tea freak. Here in Seattle -- a town with a coffee shop every half block, the town that started Starbucks, after all, and a town that is generally blamed for the caffeine jitters throughout the country -- she’s embracing the national drink of England even tighter.
I was hunting through our storage area last week, going through some of my proverbial “junk boxes,” when I came across my old, scuffed up baseball mitt. One of the leather laces that held the fingers together was broken, but other than that, it’s still a usable ball glove. Funny, the things that you save.
The Magnolia ice cream shop, Cocoa & Cream, is hosting its third annual Magnolia Village egg hunt. This ambitious affair includes shop employees hiding eggs and plastic ducks around Magnolia Village. The prizes have been hidden from 35th Avenue West to 32nd Avenue West and between Barrett Street and the southern border of Magnolia Village. The eggs and ducks are full of coupons redeemable at the ice cream shop. The Children’s Museum at the Seattle Center will host an egg hunt Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, Apr. 21-24. The hunts begin at 8:30 a.m. and cost $4 per child. The Magnolia Community Center is hosting an Easter egg Hunt on Saturday, April 23, at 11 a.m. The hunt is for kids 12 and under and the eggs will be hidden in the playground and areas around the center at 2550 34th Avenue West in Seattle. Kids taking part are advised to show up by 10:45 a.m. Make sure and bring something in which to collect the eggs. For more information, you can call 206-386-4235. Also on Saturday, April 23, the Queen Anne Community Center, at 1901 1st Avenue West will host an egg hunt for kids between 2 years old and 10 years old. The hunt begins at 10 a.m. Kids are reminded to bring something in which to collect the eggs. For more information, you can call 206-386-4240
What’s more fun than a barrel full of monkeys? A hot tub full of your best friends! Last weekend, my daughters surprised me with an early birthday celebration. They whisked me away to breakfast at a Capitol Hill creperie and then to a nearby women’s spa where, unbeknownst to me, they had sneakily assembled six of my closest women friends.
The daffodils have bloomed and the tulip buds are beginning to open. Spring is making its presence known in the Northwest, and of course, along with Spring comes Easter. Easter preparations usually begin at least a couple of weeks before the holiday itself; Easter clothes must be selected, a lily plant must be purchased for your grandmother, and eggs must be dyed.
Finally - it happened on Sunday - a glorious sunny day in the garden. I was signed up and had fully paid to attend a Writer’s Conference. Some of the speakers would have been inspiring. Perhaps I would have made that “connection” that would have led to the multi-bucks contract, including the sale of film rights. But a sunny day in the garden outshone the thought of a day spent schmoozing with my fellow writers and their agents and editors.
In 1861, during the second week of April, while local militia pounded Fort Sumter at the entrance to Charleston Harbor in faraway South Carolina, Seattle was a village, not to be incorporated till 1865, then unincorporated in 1867 and then incorporated again in 1869. This early experiment in trial-and-error decision-making is the first recorded instance of “The Seattle Way,” our local curse.