Two juvenile suspects were arrested on March 23 in connection with a March 13 arson fire at a Kirkland church. The fire hit the Christians Gathered Unto the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ church, located at 8042 132nd Ave. NE, at roughly 1:45 in the afternoon.
Fifty years ago Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson and James Dean costarred in "Giant," giving performances that mesmerized the country when the film was released. It was a colossal cast for an oversized movie based on Edna Ferber's novel of the same name. This month Book-It Repertory Theatre presents the world première of "Giant" as a stage production."Giant" is an enormous novel with larger-than-life characters, set in the vast state of Texas and mainly on the two-and-a-half-million acres of it that makes up Riata ranch. Part love story, part history lesson, part socio-political commentary, it follows two generations of the Benedict family as they struggle to come to terms with contradictory views of the world.
Do you love your mother? Does she drive you crazy? Sarah Goldman loves her mother a lot, and she'll do almost anything to make her happy ... even if it drives the whole family crazy. "Beau Jest," the current production of Taproot Theatre Company, is a guffaw-producing comedy that tests the limits of filial obedience.Mrs. Goldman, the quintessential Jewish mother, insists that when Sarah marries it will be to a Jewish man. Mr. Goldman agrees. Their darling Sarah will have a lovely Jewish wedding and good Jewish children.But Sarah is in love with a Christian advertising executive. Ma and Pa believe that she ended that relationship some time ago and arrange dates for her - usually the dregs of the Jewish community dredged up by their friends. To get her parents off her back, she tells them she is dating a nice Jewish doctor. After months of waiting to meet him, they insist on coming to dinner where Sarah will introduce them to Dr. David.In her desperation, Sarah hires a paid escort, who happens to be an actor. His job: to make believe that he's the good doctor.
Recently I went to the market with the intent of buying lamb for dinner. In my opinion, there are very few meats that rival the tender juiciness of a grilled lamb chop. On this date, however, I was met by an insistent butcher who sang me the praises of lamb sirloin. He confided that although he didn't generally enjoy lamb, sirloin was the exception. I'd never heard of the cut, but at half the price of the chops I was willing to give it a try. Now I am a convert.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro" is a very funny, very bawdy romp that premièred in 1786. Yet the manner in which the characters throw on and toss off schemes and identities, even genders, like changes of clothes, leading to plenty of hiding in odd places, creative explanations and improbably escalating chaos, calls to mind television sitcoms like "I Love Lucy" or "Friends." As my companion observed last Saturday night after watching the Seattle Opera Young Artists Program's version of Mozart's masterpiece, "If you like modern television, you can't help but like this opera." That accessibility makes "The Marriage of Figaro" a stellar choice for introducing young people to opera. Adding to its approachability, performers in the Young Artists Program are themselves in their 20s and 30s, more or less the ages of their characters.
For the past six weeks the King Plaza shopping center has been Ground Zero for South End businesses impacted by Sound Transit's 4.3 mile Link Light Rail Rainier Valley project. Some of the businesses report that they have lost from one-half to two-thirds of their customers to a 72-inch sewer line blocking the intersection of the center at Martin Luther King Jr. Way South and South Myrtle Street.The closest intersection and two - but not all - driveways are closed while crews dig and work to put in the huge sewer pipes. That is impacting business enough, but on at least two different occasions, the electricity was off to the shopping center, and traffic signals were also off at Martin Luther King Jr. Way and South Othello Street - the only way to get to the back entrance to the center.
Sporting a moniker that unfortunately hearkens to an age-old college ailment, hurling is Europe's oldest field game - an ancient sport that emanated from Ireland which requires a combination of skill and bravery. But, to Rob Mullin, the team manager, hurling is really all about craic (pronounced crack), Gaelic for fun. The Seattle Hurling Club practices on the Genesee Meadows playing field down by Stan Sayres Park.
In one of my favorite books, One Hundred Years of Solitude, written by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, a plague strikes the mythical South American village of Macondo. It is no ordinary plague, however.It is the plague of insomnia, and it infects every man, woman, and child in the village. At first the villagers are happy to have the extra time on their hands, but soon, lack of sleep begins to cause memory loss, and a global amnesia grips this village of insomniacs. Out of necessity, the villagers begin labeling everything in pen and ink.The cow wears a placard stating, "This is a cow. She must be milked every morning so that she will produce milk, and the milk must be boiled in order to be mixed with coffee to make coffee and milk." Then, after five years, the plague disappears as mysteriously as it arrived, and the villagers of Macondo can go back to sleep.While there certainly is no such plague of insomnia, there may as well be. It is estimated that 60 million American suffer from insomnia, and I have no difficulty believing this number because, every day in my practice, I see patients who suffer from it.
Put on your overalls and come visit the Alvarez Farm in Mabton, Washington. The Alvarez family's organic-farm transcends time and space (It could be anyplace in the centuries since organized agriculture began).There is a little of everything on the Alvarez farm, variety is the specialit. You never know what is around each corner.Spring has turned to summer and the farm is fecund. The sandy fields are bright green, laden with basil, lettuce, asparagus, squashes, peas, onions, garlic, peanuts, egg plant, exotic zucchinis and - their speciality - tomatoes and all the peppers.
(This is the first of a three part article about Market resident Jim Stoughten.)At the Livingston Baker Apartments, located in the historic Market District, Jim Stoughten (pronounced stawton) stands by his home-made seismograph. It looks very complicated.On top is a plate with a strip of paper covering the top. The paper comes from a roll at one end of the machine. Over the paper is a little needle sitting very still. Underneath the plate and at the other end are wires and gizmos and other things that look complex. On the floor is a sensor set for 3.0 on the Richter Scale. A smaller setting and the sensor would pick up vibrations from trains traveling through the railroad tunnel running underground nearby, so Jim has it set for earthquake size vibrations.There's an oscilloscope, amp readers, and voltage meters covering two old metal desks in the corner of his apartment. He once built an Electrometer to measure the voltage output from lightning; but there isn't much lightning in Seattle. He misses the thunder storms over the farm in Indiana where he grew up. It was there in Lawrenceburg, on his parents' farm, where he milked 30 cows, did farm chores and worked the wheat harvest.
One of the cab drivers I know recently quit after driving taxis for many years, for several companies. He decided to give it all up and take a vacation. He'd compiled enough dosh to go anywhere - Hawaii, Pakistan, Ethiopia, Sweden - but he chose to vacation on the coveted real estate below the Pike Place Market clock (you know that famous clock, up above where they throw the fish). He wakes up when he feels like it, then leisurely strolls down to his spot to view the spectacle of this urban village, watching and talking for hours. He then collects fresh food for dinner and goes home ("Its such a perfect day...").He says he's going to continue this routine - with self-elected variations- until the money runs out. He reminds us how lucky we are to have this place, and to be here right now (Not to mention that it may be safer to stay domestic; have you heard about the roving packs of wild chihuahuas devouring campers in northeastern Mexico?)
Standing in his well kept nature garden about 100 yards above the corner of South Garden Street and Rainier Avenue South, Jeremy Valenta, a neighborhood activist and urban horticulturist, looks out upon a blighted scene of third world proportions. Nearly every inch of sidewalk between Jeremy's house and the corner is covered with pop cans, cigarette wrappers, fast food containers, and other debris. Across the street, a pile of junk and rotting furniture partially obscures a tumbledown triplex apartment building. High chain-link fencing variously topped with bent and twisted barbed wire surround both business establishments on the adjacent corners. This scene rises in stark contrast with the tidy, modest houses and pretty flower gardens along the aptly named Garden Street nearby, an attractive hillside thoroughfare.
There is so much to love about summer in Seattle that, frankly, I don't know where to begin.The first thing I did when I moved to Seattle on a balmy summer evening more than a decade ago was drive to Alki Beach. With daylight still beaming at 9 p.m., I headed for the sand to see the end of the day slip into sea, sat on the flattest log until the sun, no longer round, sank below the horizon, its glow making the rest of the sky seem even darker.
As detours go, it was brief. My family and I had piled out of the car to examine a round and some-what homely creation - the world's largest ball of twine - in tiny Cawker City, Kan. We examined it, photographed it, made fun of it and continued on our journey. At the tender age of 6, I'd just had my first experience with a peculiar slice of Americana known as roadside tourist attractions.Covering the vast frontier from North Pole, Alaska, to Key West, Fla., they range from the irreverent to the extraordinary. Some have an obvious connection with the host community while others are seemingly completely random. Some provide a service, like the barbecue joint in a cave (Richland, Mo.), while others lead services like the Drive-in Christian Church (Daytona Beach, Fla.). There are the historic, like the grave of Stonewall Jackson's arm (Fredericksburg, Va.) and the not so historic, such as the Britney Spears Museum (Kentwood, La.).Little did I know it at the time, but Cawker City's giant ball of twine serves as a paradigm - I'm tempted to call it a microcosm - of the road-side attractions that dot our nation.
In times of stress on the golf course - say, after an errant tee shot or a woefully flubbed chip - all but the best golfers usually hit another bad shot.Why?Well, if they are anything like me, it is because they are flustered and stressed. They can't believe what they've just done. Out of the rough into the trap! What the hell is wrong with me?That's right. After the stress comes the negative self-talk. Getting down on oneself. And for some, including good old Denny when I was younger, anger. Club throwing. Cursing. I've finally put that blow-off stuff behind me, but the stress and negative self-talk and resulting lack of focus cling to me like my shadow on a sunny day.But the greatest thing about golf, other than those sporadic pars and rarer-than-a-compassionate-conservative birdies, is that it is the game that most accurately reflects our larger lives.