We all read alone.The printed word offers sanctuary, a wholly individual, subjective escape from the external world. The act of reading is isolating by nature. And yet, what we read draws us together. Through reading and the inevitable discussions that follow, we share ideas and form connections. These bonds, based on a shared love for the boundless expanses of the realm of the written word, are far more profound than connections made through mere physical proximity. Magnolia is lucky enough to host a neighborhood bookstore that understands the need for local readers to both engage and retreat.Magnolia's Bookstore is a place where journeys are begun and where they are discussed. It is also a place to simply pass the time, a part of the daily routine of the neighborhood.
Everyone knows Puyallup (pronounced "pew-al-up") as the home of Washington's largest state fair. What many don't realize is that this is a town with much more to offer than a once-a-year trip to eat those famous scones and cheer on the cowpokes as they wrestle the steers. The fact that Puyallup is the name of the local Native American tribe, meaning "land of generous people," should give you some clue as to the hospitality you might expect. After spending time in this eclectic community, I can attest that it really does live up to its name. The people of Puyallup welcome visitors with open arms and will gladly show you around to share their best-kept secrets. One of these is the "Arts Downtown" Outdoor Gallery; an alfresco sculpture gallery that includes more than 50 pieces of art displayed on the streets of the urban core, as well as in Pioneer Park, Puyallup's central green space. It is here that residents gather to picnic, shop at the Farmers' Market (weekends in May-October), attend local festivals and hunt for good reads at the spacious Puyallup Library, the cornerstone of the park. Sculptures dot the park walkways and pop out at you from streetcorners or building façades. They serve as wonderful conversation pieces and provide ideal sensory and interactive experiences. Some are permanent; others are replaced annually by new ones to provide up-and-coming Washington artists an opportunity to display their work.
Once upon a time in the county of King, a select group gathered at the Diocesan House to hear a tale told by an expert signifying much. The audience, all members of the English Speaking Union (ESU), included many Queen Anne and Magnolia residents having a common interest in education, antiques, architecture, British heritage and the art of gracious living. The late-afternoon program started with a short tour of the historic Diocesan House. The stone mansion at 1551 10th Ave. E. was originally designed to be the dream house of John Leary and his second wife, Eliza Ferry, daughter of the first elected governor of the state of Washington. The place was sold in 1948 to the Diocese of Olympia - hence the name, Diocesan House. The impressive mansion, which was inspired by a manor house in Ireland, has a fascinating history, which I will share with you in another column. Meanwhile...
After all the global news, including war, deaths and weddings, it was good to be baking with friends. A casual remark at a birthday party a few weeks ago started the ball rolling. A beautiful fruit tart, baked by Dieter, arrived at the table. Would Dieter teach me how to make one?Days went by after the party with no word about a baking date. I began to think I had probably been a little too assertive with my request, for he is an amazing pastry chef, having been taught by his father, who was an important baker in Germany.Finally, a date was chosen, Sunday at 10 a.m. My schedule was incredibly tight, but I was pleased to make two or two-and-a-half hours available for this event.
The Seattle Landmarks Preservation Board voted 6-2 last week to reject a Mayfair Neighbors Association (MNA) effort to nominate four homes in the 2600 block of Nob Hill Ave. N. for landmark status, said Karen Gordon, a city historical-preservation officer. "The board decided they did not meet the criteria of the ordinance." Three of the homes belong to the Seattle Country Day School, and giving them landmark status could have potentially blocked the private school's goal of demolishing them to make way for a planned expansion, conceded Sal Thompson, a member of the neighborhood association's steering committee.The association has been battling the school over its expansion plans, but the goal of nominating the four homes for landmark status was not to block the school's plans, she insisted. "If that was all we wanted to do, it would have been just the Seattle Country Day School homes," Thompson said. "We want to make the whole thing a historic district," she said of the neighborhood.
Alyssa Virtue, a 14-year-old former Magnolia resident, says she wants to raise enough money so she can join her best friend in helping with tsunami relief efforts in Sri Lanka - in person.Alyssa's best friend is Robin, a Roosevelt High School classmate and the daughter of Queen Anne residents Adam and Janet Salmon. The Salmons run Asiana Education Development (AED), a nonprofit group that was founded in 1998 and runs 71 schools and one residence for orphans in war-torn Sri Lanka.But the AED educational mission changed to disaster relief as a non-governmental organization following the Dec. 26 tsunami that devastated the island south of India. The Salmons were not available for comment, but a blog Adam Salmon has written at www.asianaeducationdevelopment.org paints a picture of a near-apocalyptic disaster worsened by bad roads, governmental squabbling and suspicious Tamil rebels.
One of the best things about Sally Bjornsen's new book, "The Single Girl's Guide to Marrying a Man, His Kids and His Ex-Wife," is the humor and candor that Bjornsen brings to a touchy topic - becoming a stepmother. Her book reads like a chat over coffee with one of your wisest and dearest friends."From the moment I got married," begins Bjornsen from her office on top of Queen Anne, "I thought gosh, there needs to be a better book out about this stuff, because this is hard."For Bjornsen, a Queen Anne resident for 13 years, the hard stuff translated to entering into the role of stepmotherhood before she had ever mothered. While most couples have at least nine months to ponder parenthood and think about the changes on the way, stepmothers often enter into family-ville and parenting roles overnight.
Like many of you out there, I am aging. When I say many of you, I mean me. It's all about me. OK, it's not really all about me, but I like to pretend that it is because it makes me feel like I'm important. And as we all know, with age comes wisdom, Social Security (we hope) and fun with medical procedures.Speaking of me, I had an endoscopy this week. This is where a doctor puts a camera down your throat to see how your tummy is doing. First, though, they have to make you relax by sticking you numerous times with sharp needles, which is always a good way to cause the relaxation response if that response includes teeth-clenching, foot-wiggling and scrunching your face up so you appear to be part Sharpei. After the first nurse was unable to find a cooperative vein on the back of my hand - which coincidentally is one of the most painful places to be poked with a needle - she wrapped my hand in a steaming-hot heat pack that I was certain would leave me with third-degree burns, then went off to find a more experienced nurse to try again. As she departed, I mentioned that this in no way was increasing my anxiety level because, according to my color-coded personal-threat chart, I was already at puce. There was no higher color. Puce was it and I was there. I could go no further up on the anxiety.
Once again it's been about six weeks since your correspondent (that's me) strayed off course. Lately, I've been focusing on one or two issues each week. But at least once every 42 days or so, I start to feel I'm falling way behind the news curve. And when that happens, it's time for the catch-up column, a scattered commentary on the many things that make living in 2005 Seattle (and America) such a frustratingly interesting experience.* For starters, on April 5, the federal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals turned down the appeal of an Oregon National Guardsman who didn't want to serve an extra 26 years. That's not a typo: 26 years!
LEE BURDETTE"Sirsana - a handstand in yoga. It is a really quiet place, and when you are able to do it with control, it completely inverts your world upside down. You are in a calm and comfortable place where you understand things clearly."PIYUSH JHA"It looks like the colors of the rainbow. It is vibrant - different colors coming together that I go towards. I follow the colors until I come to the pot of gold - the end of rainbow. I still haven't found the pot of gold, but life is more about following that rainbow."
As Kent Stowell and Francia Russell prepare to retire from Pacific Northwest Ballet, the programs are becoming more personal for the couple, the dancers and, now, the choreographers involved. "My parents wanted me involved in their last season, and originally they were going to repeat 'Zais,'" said Christopher Stowell, who became artistic director of Oregon Ballet after retiring from San Francisco Ballet as a dancer. His "Zais" premièred at PNB in 2003. "Then they asked if I'd like to do something new, which is always better, even though the scheduling has been really hectic. But creating a hectic schedule for me for their last season is totally worth it."
The curtain rises to reveal a vast sky against which stands the silhouette of an oversized cowboy. He overwhelms the stage in his boots and 10-gallon hat. So begins "Giant," a tale of love, prejudice and aggrandizement, Texas style, as adapted by Book-It and now playing at Seattle Rep's Leo K Theatre in Seattle Center.The Texas portrayed in this staged version of the 1950s Edna Ferber novel is not a place in which many of us would feel comfortable. The moneyed Texans have achieved their wealth through subjugation of the Mexicans and theft of their land. They maintain it through a corrupt political process.White women, for the most part, look pretty and do what their husbands tell them to do. Mexican women cook and scrub. Many labor in the fields. They have little access to schooling and almost no medical care. Their men work with the white owners to make these million-acre ranches productive, but are paid scarcely a subsistence wage.Into this world comes Leslie Lynnton, a socially conscious, highly intelligent, emancipated woman from genteel Virginia who has lost her heart to Bick Benedict, the oversized cowboy whose silhouette opened the play. Bick came to Virginia to buy a spirited horse owned by the Lynntons. He returns to Texas with the horse and a spirited wife.
Only an author who creates unabashedly autobiographical protagonists with a penchant for self-destructive relationships and equally dangerous outdoor adventure would boldly pen a novel featuring a risky 12 - count 'em, 12 - first-person narrators. More perilous still, two of those voices belong to dogs, and one to a cat.Pam Houston climbed into the literary limelight in 1992 with a collection of her short stories, "Cowboys Are My Weakness," about women in love with the West and inappropriate men. Houston's latest book, "Sight Hound," is the story of Rae and her dog Dante, an Irish wolfhound who practices Buddhism and teaches his human that love is more powerful than fear.
Decades before the "The First Wives Club" exacted its revenge on the male sex, W. Somerset Maugham's 1926 comedy of manners "The Constant Wife" titillated theater audiences. While women will relish the production now playing at Seattle Repertory Theatre, men may squirm in their seats as they watch their gender gleefully being taken to task.A contemporary of Noël Coward, with a wicked wit often compared to Oscar Wilde's, Maugham exposed the infidelities, deceptions and hypocrisies of England's privileged class. Not surprising, because Maugham was an agent for British Intelligence during World War I, before he became a playwright, and a playwright before he became even better-known as a novelist. His tomes have inspired movie versions, including "A Moon and Sixpence," "Of Human Bondage," "The Razor's Edge" and "Up at the Villa." Most recently, "Theatre" was adapted to the screen as "Being Julia," starring Annette Bening in her Oscar-nominated performance.
Tom Robbins likened eating an oyster to French-kissing a mermaid. Hemingway lost the "empty feeling" after a famous oyster meal, and Shakespeare believed the world was his oyster with sword he would open.There is something about oysters. "Oysters are good for you, and they remind you of the ocean," offers Jon Rowley, an international expert, connoisseur and advocate of the oyster.On Saturday, May 7, a bit of the ocean and the First Annual Pat's Oyster Bash come to Queen Anne Hill. The event, a benefit for the "Big Howe" Playground renovation, features oysters from Taylor Shellfish Farms, nude, stewed and barbecued. There will be Hilltop Gumbo from Hilltop Alehouse, Mac and Jack's beer and live music. Other sponsors include the Drachen Foundation, Metropolitan Market and, of course, Pat's on the Ave.