The Seattle City Council tweaked its 2005 budget on May 9 with a hefty $56.2 million infusion. According to the council's communication specialist Jackie O'Ryan, the added funds will "concentrate on enhancing public safety" across the city. An incredibly modest slice - $40,000 - of this budgetary-bonus pie is marked for the restoration of lifeguard services at Pritchard Beach, a South End area swim spot that has hosted lifeguards during the nine-week summer season since 1928. According to Kathy Whitman, the Seattle Parks and Recreation Department's director of aquatics, the beach, from 1983 until 2002, saw an average of 10,365 visitors splashing off its shores. Assuming the parks department follows the council's recent budgetary marching orders, three to four lifeguards will be keeping an eye on swimmers when the season opens on June 26.
In the media, on food labels, even at the backyard barbecue, "low-carb" has become the new diet buzzword. Forget fat-free. Go ahead, eat that steak, cheese and butter, but stay away from bread and pasta and sugars, the real villains when it comes to weight gain.Or so the theory goes.With Americans growing in girth, anything claiming to be "the solution" sounds appealing. But are high-protein/low-carbohydrate diets really good for people in the long-run - especially for those over the age of 60?No, say nutritionists. In fact, they may even be dangerous. Better to eat a variety of foods and fewer overall calories if you want to lose those extra pounds, advises the Healthy Aging Partnership.
Chronic macular degeneration is a terrible optical affliction that has deprived many people of their eyesight. Patients and doctors alike are all too familiar with the phrase "There's nothing more that can be done." And unfortunately, for the "dry" type of macular degeneration, there is no medical treatment. But when it comes to the "wet" type, what is there to do? "Plenty," says Dr. Richard J. Shuldiner, a low-vision optometrist who treats people with vision loss- as do I. "The name of the game is prevention or arresting the progression, and there are a number of things that people can do for themselves."
"I hope that I can be like Ruth when I grow up. Ruth is so inspirational. She is relentless and absolutely dependable. If Ruth says 'I'll do it,' it will get done - in no time flat. She is just so dynamic."The speaker is John de Graaf, acclaimed documentary filmmaker and producer of PBS' "Affluenza" series, and he's talking about the woman who stands at the center of his latest production, "Back to Life: The Iron Goat Trail." The half-hour program, which premières next Wednesday, May 25, at the Mountaineers Club in Lower Queen Anne, chronicles three years of work constructing the 9-mile Iron Goat Trail along the west side of Stevens Pass. In capturing the history of the trail and the volunteer effort that helped make it happen, the film inevitably highlights the vision of Queen Anne resident Ruth Ittner.
It's May, it's May, that glorious time of year, when the earth wakes to the spring sunshine and the gardens of Queen Anne and Magnolia are lush and green, a blaze of color with blossoming trees and flowering shrubs.May, when this side of the Atlantic celebrated Mother's Day on May 8. In Britain, Mothering Sunday, as it is called, is celebrated the fourth Sunday in Lent, on whatever day it happens to fall, but always before Easter. The celebration, like many old customs, dates from me-dieval times and originally honored the mother church; this later developed into people honoring their own mothers with gifts of flowers and simnel cake, made from the ingredients left over from Shrove Tuesday's pancakes. Many country churches hold services for children who bring their pets and violets to the altar to be blessed.
Recently, an item appeared in the Times mentioning that during Nixon's vice presidency a drive-in along Whittier Boulevard down in southern California by the name of "Nixon's" was the teenage hangout spot. I know; I grew up nearby, and I've eaten more than a few Nixon-burgers.One night my father almost inadvertently caused a riot there when we cruised past. "What kind of tires are those?" I asked one evening in 1961 after my father had pulled into the driveway with what looked like red tires on the car he'd brought home that night. "They're a set of experimental Goodyears that we had mounted on this new Chrysler to help promote it," he explained. "They aren't made out of rubber but a soft translucent plastic that Goodyear thinks may replace rubber someday. We'll take a ride after dinner; they do something that I think will really surprise you."
My son came in just now from taking the dog for a walk. I'm fairly certain that the dog took the kid for a walk, but I'm not going to make him feel less useful simply because the dog out-weighs him, by about 30 pounds. He walks into my room (the son) and sits on the bed to talk to me as I am writing on the computer. I have no memory of the conversation up to the point where I hear, "Eww! What's in my hair? Ewww! It's a slug!
e first day of the Magnolia Farm-ers Market is my personal version of "Opening Day." I begin to anticipate the start of the market season in February, when the daffodils are opening their sunny faces. By then, I've had it up to here with winter produce and fruit that is shipped unripe and half-frozen from half the world away, frequently arriving hard as stones or full of brown mush.I begin to wonder and pine: "When will I get strawberries that can't be confused with a pink Styrofoam craft project? Or a squash variety I've never even seen before? Or an entire bucket of fresh raspberries covered in cream over just-baked scones?"Well, this year it will be a week sooner than last year. On Saturday, June 4, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., the Magnolia Community Center, 2550 34th Ave. W., will once again welcome the farmers and vendors who provide Magnolia and Queen Anne with the best and the brightest in fresh, organic produce, fruit, flowers, baked goods, fish, cheeses and local grass-fed beef.
Pundits and alleged experts of every stripe in today's United States of America are always citing polls when they want to pull you over to their side of an argument.The in-creased reli-ance on public opinion polls, be they Gal-lup, Harris or The New York Times, to fuel public discourse coincides with the decline of civility and literacy in our ever-devolving little republic.First of all, linking what is popular with what is right or wrong, or good, better, best, is just another way of saying might (or in this case, mighty numbers) makes right.The proof of this obvious misapprehension is everywhere.
hile preparing and planting this year's vegetable beds, I was struck by the contrast between the full and vigorously blooming garden beds surrounding the stark but neatly made vegetable beds. Such enthusiastic chaos meets tidiness. Or is the plain openness of the vegetable plot a calming clearing in the exuberant garden jungle at this time of the year?We are all taught to plant our vegetables in neat rows to maximize the exposure to sunlight. And then the proper thinning of the seedlings will commence in a few days/weeks. I always find the thinning part to be quite troublesome, for I seem to pull up all the seedlings' neighbors, so I leave two or three side-by-side to tough it out for themselves.
Land that once belonged to a 19th-century African-American entrepreneur in Seattle was officially opened as the Central Area's newest park and dedicated to a modern-day African-American man of high achievement on May 14. Homer Harris Park, in the 2400 block of E. Howell St., was named after a Queen Anne resident who grew up in the Central Area and went on to become Garfield High School's first black football-team captain. He also later became the first African-American football-team captain at Iowa State University, for which Harris was inducted into the Iowa Athletic Hall of Fame in 2002. In addition, before retiring in 2000, Harris worked for 43 years as a dermatologist in Seattle, where he is honored as a "Pioneer Black Doctor."
Five of six candidates and two incumbents running for three Port Commission positions tackled the subject of North Bay development at a Magnolia Community Club meeting last week.The race is significant because the Port's approach to redeveloping North Bay could change if all three seats are filled with newcomers, noted MCC president Victor Berry. "It could change the balance of power very easily," he said.Community activist Dan Becraft was clearly skeptical of the Port's intentions for the largely vacant area north of Terminals 90 and 91. "They're not even going to commit to how much money they're going to commit to this project," he said.
Countless passengers have ridden ships of his design without necessarily knowing his name, but Philip Spaulding was a legend in West Coast and international maritime circles."I had a fantastic desire to create a good-looking ship," he told this newspaper in an October 2003 interview.Philip Spaulding died at his Magnolia home May 5. He was 92 years old.Spaulding-designed ships include the Port Angeles-Victoria ferry MV Coho, seven Alaska Marine Highway System ferries and the 440-foot Walla Walla and its sister ship Spokane, work-horses for Washington State Ferries since 1971. Other designs include 14 ferries for BC Ferries in British Columbia, three aluminum high-speed San Francisco Bay ferries, plus numerous tankers, tugs, barges and yachts.
There were unintended consequences about a year and a half ago when Seattle City Light put in new transmission lines on Elliott Avenue West to handle the increased power needs for Amgen and development in South Lake Union, according to City Light worker Leo Schmitz.The power lines were also strung higher than they used to be, and that suddenly turned the lines above Albert Lee Appliances into a comfortable roosting area for hundreds of pigeons that naturally did what birds do, complained Albert Lee. "It is a real mess," he said of the droppings that coat the sidewalk and crosswalk in front of his building. "You've got to clean it off every day; it's a constant battle," Lee said. "You'd think it would be a freaking health hazard." And the pesky pigeons haven't targeted just the sidewalk. "I had to repaint the whole front of the building [twice]," Lee said, explaining that attempts to clean up the mess with a power washer was too hard on the building.
June 4, the first day of the Magnolia Farmers Market, is my personal version of "Opening Day." I begin to anticipate the start of the market season in February, when the daffodils are opening their sunny faces. By then, I've had it up to here with winter produce and fruit that is shipped unripe and half-frozen from half the world away, frequently arriving hard as stones or full of brown mush.I begin to wonder and pine: 'When will I get strawberries that can't be confused with a pink Styrofoam craft project? Or a squash variety I've never even seen before? Or an entire bucket of fresh raspberries covered in cream over just-baked scones?'Well, this year it will be sooner than usual, because the Magnolia Farmers Market is opening a week earlier than last year. On Saturday, June 4, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., the Magnolia Community Center, 2550 34th Ave. W., will once again welcome the farmers and vendors who provide Magnolia and Queen Anne with the best and the brightest in fresh, organic produce, fruit, flowers, baked goods, fish, cheeses and local grass-fed beef.