The end of August brought two news stories centered on society's continuing struggle over gay rights and acceptance. First, the resignation of Idaho's Republican Senator Larry Craig over allegations he attempted to solicit sex from an undercover police officer in a Minneapolis airport men's room. And second, word that an Iowa county judge had overturned a state law banning gay marriage. The same judge later delayed further granting of licenses until the Iowa state Supreme Court decided whether to consider an appeal.
Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels has spent a busy summer trying to line developers' pockets, most notably with a proposal in June to expand property-tax exemptions for builders for median income condos and (if any remain by 2008) apartments.But hizzoner topped himself in the dog days late last month with a quiet proposal to gut permitting and environmental review requirements for new projects - a new pinnacle in cynicism, not just because it's another giveaway to developers that encourages the teardowns of what's left of this city's semi-affordable housing stock, but because of how he sold it.
When she first heard that people got paid to walk other people's dogs, Amy Sieger thought it was crazy. At that time, six years ago, she was involved a successful restaurant management career. But the notion got ahold of her, and after a time the idea of walking dogs for a living gained appeal, enough so that Sieger switched careers."It will be six years (in business) this February," she said. Sieger warmed up to the pet service concept after meeting someone that sat for her parents' pets. "I'd never heard of such a thing. I thought I really should do that. It took a couple of years for me to get the courage and quit my job."
A short but by no means inclusive primer to a few Happy Hour hauntsWhen you ask about the best happy hour on Capitol Hill, a name springs from many people's lips, and that name is The Deluxe Bar & Grill, at 635 Broadway E. Whether that is because the Deluxe actually has the best happy hour, or because my polling took place at a coffee shop around the corner from the Deluxe, is hard to say.But the Deluxe, a Broadway fixture since 1962, offers not only reduced drink prices ($1 off microbrews and well drinks) but about half-price from its extensive (15 items) appetizer menu. For between $3.50 and $4.50 you can have the Deluxe Sliders or Meatloaf Sliders (three mini-hamburgers, onion rings, "Make 'Em Sweat" spicy chicken wings and more.
Once upon a time in the 1970s, a group of artists, writers and artisans made a place for themselves on the north fork of the Skagit River known as Fishtown.They lived in abandoned gillnetters' shacks, lived off the land and the river and did their work.Fishtown has passed into Northwest legend, the lost domain where, for the better part of a decade, art and life were one.
The city is seeking candidates for the Seattle Bicycle Advisory Board. The board consists of 11 members who serve two-year terms in a volunteer capacity. The board's primary role is to advise the mayor, City Council and all offices of the city on matters related to bicycling and the implementation of the new Seattle Bicycle Master Plan.
The City of Seattle's Human Services Department has been awarded a $4 million U.S. Department of Education grant to improve the literacy skills of low-income preschool children in Seattle.The three-year grant is one of 32 grants totaling $114,972,187 that the U.S. Department of Education is awarding to Early Reading First programs nationwide.
PERMIT DECISIONS:311 14th Ave. E. (3006121) on a Council Action to subdivide three parcels into 12 unit lots (unit lot full subdivision). The construction of townhouses is being reviewed under Project No. 6112842 (environmental review under 3004731). This subdivision of property is only for the purpose of allowing sale or lease of the unit lots.429 13th Ave. E. (3007413) for a Land Use Application to subdivide one parcel into five unit lots. The construction of townhouses has been approved under Project #6098951. This subdivision of property is only for the purpose of allowing sale or lease of the unit lots.
By an odd synchronicity, when I went to Barnes & Noble to buy "Ladies Who Launch," the book's theme sprang to life. Filling a display rack behind the counter, the books - with a glossy cover photo of authors Victoria Colligan and Beth Schoenfeldt - were hard to miss. I asked the salesgirl for a copy and assumed she would reach back for one. Instead, she picked up the phone. Moments later, another woman hurried over. They consulted. And I realized they did not see the book. Isn't that what many of us do - look outside ourselves for our goals? Women have tried to fit models of success invented by men. When our way calls from within us. As the mythologist Joseph Campbell suggests, follow your bliss. But that is vague. How does a woman follow a joyful ambition and pay the bills, put food on the table, take care of a family?
After years of soaking in hot springs, they knew they had to spread their source of joy.And that's exactly what Alice Cunningham and her husband, Blair Osborn, have been doing for 30 years: selling hot tubs to, among other clients, the folks of Queen Anne through their 1245 Dexter Ave. N. outlet.Osborn and Cunningham each offer a different key to their business success, as well as their own.
Aishah Rahman's well-acted play suffers from thematic overkillThe loss of one's child is, as most of us see it, the most tragic event possible in anyone's life. Not only is it devastating to the individual members of the dead child's family, but it is destructive to the whole family structure. We see the crushing impact of such a loss in "The Mojo and the Sayso," now playing at ACT Theatre.The play, by Aishah Rahman, is the second main stage production of the Hansberry Project, ACT's collaborative venture with community organizations to honor, support and celebrate the rich African-American theatrical tradition and broaden the audience for such works. It's partially successful.The acting is good. And on the night I was there, the audience was among the most racially mixed at any theatrical event I've been to in Seattle - save for the memorial performance honoring August Wilson shortly after his death. This production met its goals in those respects.
Mary Scarvie passed away Aug. 15 at home in Marysville. She was 93 years of age.Mary Agnes Hunt was born on March 15, 1914, to Clarence D. and Nina E. Hunt in Idaho Falls, Idaho. After a brief stay in Idaho the family returned home to Oklahoma, where her sister Laurella and brother James were born. They subsequently relocated to Seattle, where Mary attended Bagley Elementary and Lincoln High School, graduating at age 16.
Messrs. Jameson, Zabel, et al.: I want to express my admiration and appreciation for your work with the Queen Anne News.You all do a terrific job of communicating a sense of the community - its history, its challenges, opportunities for involvement, current events previews and coverage and, perhaps most importantly, the PEOPLE who give our place its character.
When people ask me what's happened to big-time, modern, daily journalism, I can now stop making speeches about large corporations buying out smaller, privately owned papers, the greed exhibited by those same folks as they cannibalized a once-great business and, along the way, too often standardized what they call "the product."And I can quit talking about the decline of the smart everyday reader. I can also shelve my oration about how the news business, once a haven for mavericks, blue-collar, self-taught writer-radicals and some of the gutsiest women I ever met, has become one more yuppie career, peopled by folks who side with the bosses instead of the subjects of their crime and court stories.I can stop all of that and simply point to the amount of space both of our local dailies gave to the death of Anna Nicole Smith.The tabloids, as expected, treated the poor bimbo's collapse into eternity at a Hard Rock Hotel in Bungback, Fla., like the second passing of Princess Di. That would have happened in any age, but the regular media - God help them and us - did it, too.This wasn't Meryl Streep or Helen Mirren passing on. This was a Texas gal whose sole claims to fame were her pneumatic breasts, exhibiting those same breasts in Playboy and marrying a rich man, old enough to be my father, and then, after the poor fogy passed on (soon after the wedding), spending years trying to get and keep all his money.
"I stuck my head out the window this morning and spring kissed me bang in the face." - Langston HughesIndeed.A few weeks back, Nature treated the water-logged denizens of Seattle to their first of taste of spring. When I looked outside and saw that conspicuous yellow orb rising on the Eastern horizon, I had to head out. I spent my day wandering Capitol Hill and reacquainted myself with those places one hardly notices from behind car glass. If winter is guilty of anything, it is this: it makes mere spectators of us all, for what's more adversative to enjoying a city or interacting with its treasures than a 30-degree day or horizontal rain? Indeed. Spring kissed me "bang" in the face and gave rise to the observations below, one about human nature more generally and the other about this neighborhood we call home.Spring feverI've had the privilege of living in many cities throughout my short life, yet I find the citizens of each share at least one thing in common: when the sun begins to re-emerge from its Southern sojourn and the temperature starts to reach its leave-your-jacket-at-home levels, we head for our doors, often in clothing ill-suited for the season it actually is, and engage in a communal form of will: it will be spring.Near Boston's Newbury Street, a busy shopping district, my co-workers and I would place bets as to when we'd see the season's first short/skirt-wearer. Given Boston's difficult winters, the second its puddles no longer form their icy top sheen, people break out their summer ware. Dressing appropriately for the weather and the common sense that tells us to do so flies out the window. It will be Spring.On Capitol Hill, I stood on a street corner and watched a car with a flat stutter-step down the street, its driver seemingly unaware. I turned to the stranger next to me (a woman who on the surface appeared distant from me in terms of culture, upbringing and background) and she turned to me, and we began a random conversation about the driver. Had an umbrella been shielding me from a torrential downpour or had I been driving my car instead of walking on foot, this conversation would never have taken place. Blame it on spring.