On June 12, the Jane Austen Society met at the elegant home of Kimberly Brangwin on Queen Anne. Several Queen Anne and Magnolia residents were in attendance, many of them in beautifully authentic 18th-century costumes. All greeted the speaker, John Beresford Welsh, LL.B., representing the persona of General Rochambeau attired in full dress uniform of the period resplendent with masses of gold braid, three-cornered hat, sword and cane. He gave a very interesting talk about the French connection during the American War of Independence. The talk was followed by a very proper English tea, complete with cucumber sandwiches, lemon tarts and all the trimmings. The place of honor on the table was held by a genuine English trifle in all its glory, created expertly by the hostess. This multi-layered and textured dessert has been a British favorite in various forms of custards since the time of Jane Austen.
Hamburgers.What could be a more American taste treat than that great ground-beef sandwich named after a Ger-man city? (We're purposely ignoring frankfurters, of course.)And who among our more mature readers could forget that lovable character, Wimpy, from the "Popeye" comics? Or his ever-present tag line, "I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today."Around hamburgers empires were built. The lowly hamburger is almost responsible for the very existence of the franchise-restaurant industry. One of the first was the famous Big Boy double-decker.Big Boy restaurants were started in California (where else?) as Bob's Big Boy, named after a drive-in on Colorado Boulevard in Glendale. Then, as the restaurants were franchised in other states to the east, they became Friches' Big Boy and Elias' Big Boy and probably a few other names, too.Then came the phenomenon we all know as McDonald's. From a little, self-serve drive-in that served cheap hamburgers (does anybody else remember 15-cent hamburgers?) to a worldwide operation that serves billions. There are probably kids today whose first solid food came from the Golden Arches.All this from a simple hamburger.
I read with some trepidation in the June 23 Seattle Post-Intelligencer that a divided Supreme Court ruled local governments may seize people's homes and businesses against their will for private development. Not for the development of parks or other public facilities, but for private enterprise.As a card-carrying liberal, I understand the need for some form of government, given our apparent inability to govern ourselves - our breaking one rule or law after another, running red lights, speeding, cheating on our taxes, etc.But this decision causes me no end of angst.
Ah, the monorail. Talk about a great idea that turned out to be anything but. At first it seemed like a visionary, populist plan that had the added cachet of bucking bored-sounding official objections. Plus, we already had a moneymaking monorail, so why not expand on the concept? If you re-member, cabby Dick Falken-bury's idea was to build a gigantic, X-shaped system that pretty much hit all four corners of the city, and Seattle voters approved the idea in the late-1990s. The Seattle City Council responded with yawns, and nothing happened - until another vote at the turn of the century approved spending $6 million to really study the plan.Sure, the study came up with a more realistic concept of building a 14-mile "starter" line that could be expanded in the future. But hey, the scaled-back version was something a narrow majority of us could still live with, and voters gave the project another thumbs-up in 2002. Queen Anne and Magnolia residents living near the 15th-and-Elliott-avenue corridor of the line were especially enthusiastic, according to voting records.It was sometime before the 2002 vote that, unfortunately, the monorailists started to turn flaky.
Obsession has always interested me. And I am not alone. Artists from day one have either written about obsession or been obsessed. Think Dante and his Beatrice for starters.In my own life I have had my obsessions. Rather than people, I've tended to fixate on games that combine skill and physical exertion. Currently, for me, that's golf.But as a young boy in the rancid reaches of the Lower Midwest, I lived, ate and slept baseball for three or four years.All my friends played baseball, in those glorious days before computers, cell phones and obesity. But they played only in the spring and summer. Come fall, the rest of my friends put down their bats and picked up a football or basketball.Now, I too played those sports, but I kept baseball front and center even in the dank, cold Ohio winters. I haunted the only indoor batting cages in our area. And I read about baseball. Not just sports magazines glorifying guys we now know had as many or more problems than our parents did. I read strategy and instructional tomes I hauled home from the library by the bushel.My obsession ended when I reached the ripe old age of 14 and moved up from Little League to Babe Ruth. I started running into pitchers who could actually throw a curve-ball.
Washington State Department of Transportation's Alaskan Way Viaduct and Seawall Replacement Project, partnering with the city of Seattle's Central Waterfront Plan, organized three public meetings last week. At their presentation in the Interbay National Guard Armory Drill Room, the space was filled with posterboards on easels and a bevy of eager men from the government agencies and engineering businesses representing their involvement in these projects. With graphs, charts and glossy handouts the agencies were hard at work performing the legal requirements to have public meetings, and ready to answer all questions.However, scratching the surface one found that there did not seem to be an overall and cohesive vision. A bit of a focus here, an attractive rendering of a revitalized waterfront scheme there; a truly inaccurate map showing SR99 going up the west side of Queen Anne Hill; an interesting new project, to my eyes, called AWW that would connect the South Lake Union development (Vulcanville) to Queen Anne by lowering Aurora Avenue outside the Battery Street tunnel. This project would require two or three new on and off ramps. I have forgotten the stated cost.
DON CORCORAN "I don't eat red meat. I used to. I am a Montana boy. I grew up around cattle. Initially I stopped eating red meat for dietary reasons, but the Mad Cow issues have made it really easy to quit for good."JOHN H."I don't eat red meat anyway. I haven't eaten it for a long time. I read 'Fast Food Nation' and was affected by the treatment of animals."
There was much to celebrate at the Secondary Bilingual Orientation Center on Friday, June 17, as the institution became an official National Wildlife Fed-eration-certified Schoolyard Habitat site. SBOC staff and students, along with numerous community partners, came together to celebrate this yearlong proj-ect with a ribbon-cutting ceremony, student poetry readings and the release of thousands of live ladybugs.
Basil Ulich, a third-grade student at John Hay Elementary School who lives in Magnolia, won first place in the Seattle Aquarium "Your Ocean - Our Home" art contest. This earned him a $2,500 college savings account from T. Rowe Price College Savings Plan and a Seattle Aquarium Family membership.
The blooms this year have been heavy, profuse, and on average about three weeks earlier than I remember. My journal bears me out! I keep hearing people exclaiming that they have never seen their climbing roses so overflowing with blooms. This year my Stewartia monodelpha bloomed in early June rather than July. I sadly reflect that this new blooming cycle represents the drought and serious climatic change we are experiencing here in the Northwest.
It's high time - sky high - for the 41st annual Fourth of Jul-Ivar's Independence Day Celebration at Myrtle Edwards Park on, yes, July 4.The noon-into-late-evening event features a wide variety of live music; food booths; Ivar's clam-eating, chowder-slurping and other contests; a special kids zone with a new lapslide, inflatables to jump on, a train to ride around the park, clowns, magicians, spin art, face painting, and more; and, in general, family entertainment designed for all ages.
A series of three workshops last week on replacing the Alaskan Way Viaduct with a tunnel were supposed to give state and Seattle transportation officials a feel for the public's preference for either a short or a long project timeline.It's a significant question for the future of a vital, north-south transportation link because, although the shorter approach would be cheaper, the shorter approach ironically would see the viaduct completely closed to traffic for more time than the longer approach, officials said.
As umbrellas are ceremoniously retired for the summer, Queen Anne's beautiful array of parks are blossoming, ready to provide a welcome respite from cabin fever. Replete with breathtaking views and soft air, these urban oases are area jewels.Take Kerry Park, a treasure regularly shared with visitors from all over the world. Its striking vista, memo-rialized on postcards, has served as the backdrop for countless newscasts and welcomes tour buses on a regular basis. Camera enthusiasts, particularly at sunset, flock to the place, and with good reason. Nestled on Queen Anne's south slope at 211 W. Highland Drive, the site offers a panoramic view of the city that is unparalleled. The Space Needle typically serves as the star attraction, with Mount Rainier vying for the top honor on clear days.
I can offer no greater proof of devotion than this: For the screen name on my personal e-mail account I took the moniker of a minor, but oh so memorable, character in Preston Sturges' "Christmas in July."Sturges was an American original, a Renaissance man for the 20th century who - in between inventing kissproof lipstick, running a grand but money-losing Hollywood eatery and going into short-lived partnership with Howard Hughes just as that fellow American original took a definitive turn toward whacko - wrote and directed eight of the most remarkable movies ever released in a stretch of barely five years (1940-44).
Obsession has always interested me. And I am not alone. Artists from day one have either written about obsession or been obsessed. Think Dante and his Beatrice, for starters.I have had my own obsessions. Rather than people, I've tended to fixate on games that combine skill and physical exertion. Currently, for me, that's golf.But as a young boy in the rancid reaches of the Lower Midwest, I lived, ate and slept baseball for three or four years.All my friends played baseball, in those glorious days before computers, cell phones and obesity. But they played only in the spring and summer. Come fall, the rest of my friends put down their bats and picked up a football or basketball.Now, I too played those sports, but I kept baseball front and center even in the dank, cold Ohio winters. I haunted the only indoor batting cages in our area. And I read about baseball. Not just sports magazines glorifying guys we now know had as many or more problems than our parents did. I read strategy and instructional tomes I hauled home from the library by the bushel.My obsession ended when I reached the ripe old age of 14 and moved up from Little League to Babe Ruth. I started running into pitchers who could actually throw a curveball.