How do you know when it’s time to put your dog down? When she’s had enough? Dog owners walk a fine line between reason and compassion. The suffering and diminished quality of an old dog’s life is one thing. But rational thinking can be clouded by sweet memories and the moments when our dogs seemed to transcend their animal nature, responding uncannily to our needs, our thoughts, our human-ness.
For 25 years now, the animation company Pixar has been making quality movies, from “Toy Story” to “Up” and all of them for the most part have been extraordinary. However, nobody’s perfect. From time to time even the animation powerhouse will make a movie that doesn’t meet the expectations of their previous films.
A teenage boy was rushed to Harborview Medical Center after an apparent homemade explosive blew up in his hands at a Queen Anne park on July 4. According to the Seattle Fire Department, the youth was in a park located at 3rd Avenue West and West Blaine Street at about 11:30 p.m. The park is believed to the West Queen Anne Playfield. The boy was in the park with other teens when he said he found the explosive on the ground. The boy told firefighters he picked the up device and it exploded, causing the severe injuries to the teenager. The force of the explosion knocked the teen out, and caused him to lose one of his fingers. The teen also had his hair singed and his leg burned.
The Rotary Club of Magnolia presents guest speaker Ron Reagan, the author, commentator and son of former President Ronald Reagan. Reagan will share his unique perspective on his father and discuss is best-selling book, “My Father at 100, A Memoir.” Reagan will be speaking at a 7:15 a.m. breakfast meeting on Thursday, July 7, at the Seattle Yacht Club Elliott Bay Outstation, next door to Palisade Restaurant, at 2601 West Marina Place at the Elliott Bay Marina. The cost is $17 per person. Reservations are required. For more information, call 206-972-0505.
Pistol Pointer Three people called 911 after a strange man waved a gun at them on Broad Street in Queen Anne at 3:37 p.m. on Wednesday, June 29. The three told police they had been walking down the sidewalk on Broad Street when they were approached by a man coming from the opposite direction. The stranger bumped into one of the three, and a verbal altercation began. The three continued walking, and when they got about a block away they heard the stranger yelling at them. When they turned around the saw the man pointing a gun. Alarmed, and fearful that they would be shot, the three ran away and then called police.
Beginning July 5, 2011, scofflaw vehicles – those with four or more overdue, unpaid parking tickets – found in public right-of-way may get the boot, a wheel-locking device, whether they are parked illegally or legally. Seattle plans a slow start to the program, booting only a limited number of vehicles in the first week. Once the program is in full swing, the city anticipates it can boot approximately 40 to 50 vehicles a day.
Without golf, my profane vocabulary would likely be more limited than it is. Much has been said and written about golf by players, sports writers, humorists, and a lot of folk most of us never heard of. Golfers try to explain why they play, and non-golfers look at them as if they’d just escaped the loony bin. Why do we play golf - a game more frustrating than just about anything I know? I’m not quite sure, but I think it demonstrates an addictive personality.
My wife was walking home on a sunny afternoon this spring. She’d been shopping in Chinatown/International District, did a spin through the Goodwill store on South Dearborn Street and turned up 10th Avenue South when the jerk stopped and propositioned her. She told me, “He was driving a black Jaguar. He was a well-dressed, white businessman. He was in his 30s.” With the warm weather, the johns come out trolling along Aurora Avenue North and the Upper Rainier Valley, in the University District and Pioneer Square. They are seldom caught. Occasionally, a police sting nabs a bunch.
More than a quarter of Washington state’s population, 26.4 percent, is already considered obese, according to the Center for Disease Control’s 2009 statistics, and it’s been trending upward since 1998. Despite the constant chorus from doctors and nutritionists — heck, even the First Lady — saying people need to eat more healthily and keep active to prevent obesity, that message is being ignored.
With Friends Like These Police responded to a reported assault in the 1500 block of Fifteenth Avenue West at 2:06 a.m. on Wednesday, July 6. Upon arrival they met with the victim, who was sitting at a bus shelter and had many visible, large lacerations on his head and one on his leg.
For those of you who missed Queen Anne Helpline’s annual fundraiser this year, the Crown of Queen Anne Fun Run and Walk, put a note on next year’s calendar to make sure you attend this great community event. Everyone I spoke with mentioned the great sense of fun emanating from the crowd. The walkers get a 20 minute head start and then usually at just about the same place on Bigelow, there is the thundering ‘hooves’ of the runners as they weave through the sometimes somnolent walkers. But it is back at the Lutheran church at 8th West and McGraw that even more fun takes place.
Superman fights Lex Luther. Batman fights Joker. Spiderman fights the Green Goblin. Superheroes are in constant battle with their enemies who, while they never triumph, never completely disappear either. Well, move over, boys, because there’s a new super hero in town. Meet Clean Irene, or as she is known to her family, OCD Woman.
For many reasons, Seattle’s first planted park has suffered from years of neglect. By the mid-2000s, the park and surrounding urban forest that wraps around the lower southwest corner of Queen Anne Hill had become an overgrown and seedy environment.
The Magnolia Summerfest & Art Show is scheduled for Friday, July 29 and Saturday, July 30.
When I saw the man’s eyes, I knew I might be in danger.