The Java Jazz drive-through espresso business in the Magnolia Village 76 station is closing at the end of February after three years of steady growth. It has not, however, been a pleasant parting of the ways between the owners of the espresso business and the new owners of the gas station.In fact, a dispute about a new lease for the place has produced hard feelings all the way round. Charges and counter-charges have been leveled, an attempt was made to bar the espresso-business owners from the space, police were called in at one point, hours have been cut way back and all that customers can get these days is drip coffee, say those involved.Sue Reynolds and Cherie Mueller, owners of the coffee business, feel the new gas station owners are unfairly trying to take over a business the two women have built up almost from scratch. "We have quadrupled the business from what it was when we took over," Mueller said. As far as the gas station owners are concerned, the change is simply a matter of doing business.
My life has become a scavenger hunt.Today I found my ice cream scoop in the overstuffed chair in the living room. I wasn't hunting for that particular kitchen gadget when I discovered it sitting there, and I still have no clear understanding about why it was removed from the kitchen drawer and dropped onto the chair. I doubt I'll ever find the reason, and even if I did, I doubt I'd understand it. Later I was searching in the family room for the remote to the television. Naturally I couldn't find it because it wasn't in the family room. I found it later under the table runner on the kitchen table. I still don't know why it didn't occur to me to look there first. Silly me.
A quick summation of the stories in last week's Magnolia News: There are big cost increases for "solving" or rescuing the crumbling Magnolia Bridge; a citizen activist, John Kane, plans to run for a Port Commission slot being vacated by Paige Miller, who will run for the Seattle City Council; and the Port of Seattle spends a huge chunk of taxpayers' dollars to buy the 3.4-acre South Tsubota Steel site on 15th Avenue West, with no firm plans for its development.It seems to me that Magnolia and Queen Anne will need to come together as concerned and thoughtful communities deeply involved in future Interbay development. They did this very successfully years ago when they blocked the Port's plan to make terminals 90 and 91 into huge container-ship terminals.
The next time you brave I-5 traffic between Portland and Seattle, think about this: You are traveling a highway linking more organizations focused on ending poverty and human misery than anywhere else in the country.You are, in effect, on a highway of hope to the capital of compassion. The sum total impact of these organizations makes our region the world leader in compassionate action for those in need.Along with that, there are local institutions and companies involved in public health and medical research which create synergies unique to Seattle, and the likes of which cannot be found anywhere else on this planet.A notable example of an organization blending research and aid is the Ballard-based PATH, where cutting-edge medical research benefiting our poorest citizens is targeted for maximum effectiveness.
Ladies and Gentleman, get your binoculars at the ready - it's time for the Great Backyard Bird Count!During the weekend of Feb. 18-21, all bird-loving people across North America are encouraged to count the birds in their backyards and then report them over the Internet. This is one of the world's largest volunteer efforts of its kind. In addition to its value in research, the Great Backyard Bird Count (or GBBC) allows people of all ages and backgrounds to celebrate birds while also providing vital information on our feathered friends.This is the eighth year of the popular event developed and managed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society. This year's theme, "North America's Great Backyard," was chosen as a way to celebrate the beauty of birds found across the continent.
During the past year of my life I chose to study abroad in what I consider the best place possible: Ireland. Drawn to the mythology of the land, the much-talked-about friendliness of the people and a master's degree that would cost me less in Ireland than in Washington, I departed for the Emerald Isle.And I've never regretted it.
"Skin is a very honest part of the body," says Mary Napolitano, the 45-year-old knockout and owner of Napolitano Day Spa Salon on top of Queen Anne. "It responds to practically everything that we put into it and expose it to."Skin, our largest and most visible organ, is a powerful gauge of how we are doing from the inside out. It allows us to touch and feel, and can reveal our internal values in a very external way."I think that there is an energy to beauty that cannot just be taken off a flat picture," says Napolitano, a woman who incorporates silliness and a sense of humor into her beauty regime. "Beauty is something that you can feel and see; there is an aliveness to it."
"Steel Magnolias" was a bad movie.Sentimental and manipulative, the strength of its central characters and the depth of their relationships were glossed over in true Hollywood style. The conflicts came across as contrived, the resolutions too cloying and easy. It was a good story gone terribly awry, an honest portrayal of human connection and tragedy that collapsed under the weight of self-conscious over-production and a surfeit of melodrama.In spite of this, there is more to "Steel Magnolias" than a demographic-pandering homage to soft lighting and star power. Originally written by Robert Harling for the stage, this comedic drama has roots that run deeper than the sandy topsoil of Hollywood.As a play, "Steel Magnolias" succeeds in ways the movie never could, and Village Theatre's current production in Issaquah, which features Magnolia resident and actor Ellen McLain, is a testament to that success.
Magnolia Garden Center joined an elite class of landscape designers at the 2005 Northwest Flower & Garden show when it was announced Tuesday, Feb. 8, that the store's entry garnered a gold medal - the highest award given out by the judges.The Center's full-sized display garden, a collaborative work co-created by Phil Wood Garden Design and Rock Solid Landscapes, was called "Formality and Exuberance" and was one of 25 show gardens judged at the 17th annual event, which took place Feb. 9-13 at the Washington Convention Center.
The sky was blue and the air crisp last Wednesday afternoon as a battery of skills evaluations kicked-off the early season for Magnolia Little League. The local league draws nearly 600 kids between the ages of 5 and 16 - all the way from T-ball to the serious business of competing in the Little League World Series.A gaggle of parents, coaches, league board members and volunteers stood with clipboards in hand as boys age 10-12 were evaluated on such fundamental baseball skills as batting, fielding, throwing and running. For many, it was the first time swinging a bat since last summer.
It began as a class project. Seven University of Washington business majors needed to develop a company for their entrepreneur class. What they came up with was greeting cards for the lesbian/gay/bi-sexual/trans-gender community.The cards, some with historic photographs and some with art by a graphic designer, are tasteful, dignified and unlike anything you would find in a Hallmark store - or a sex shop."The majority of cards are kind of tacky, and it made me kind of angry," said Martha Reyes of the other cards targeting the LGBT community. "It made me kind of angry, and I'm not gay."In fact, six of the seven members of the group behind Happy Greetings are actually straight. The idea for the cards came from a desire to start a business that was inexpensive to get into (greeting cards) and then find an under-served niche. The rest, as they say, is history - or will be history. The students plan to take the business private at the end of the class with a small business loan.
Worldwide pledges to countries devastated by the tsunami have topped $10 billion, with $2.2 billion of that coming in private donations. Earlier this month, the international aid organization Doctors Without Borders stopped accepting donations, and other groups are following suit.Bud Crandall, head of Indonesian operations for CARE, said his organization has been literally overwhelmed by the amount of money received - so much so that they are scrambling to create projects into which to funnel funds. To put this in perspective, Crandall pointed out that tsunami aid is likely 10 times the amount that was raised for the one million refugees who in 1994 fled the ethnic bloodletting in Rwanda.Enough is enough, folks.
Presidents get elected and movie people win Academy Awards, but increasingly it seems that, even as the victory cheers are still echoing, the race - the fact of there being a race - goes on. There's probably no changing that. We have 24/7 news now, and it demands 24/7 reality, or at least the will to confect reality. You'll hear about the next Oscar race as early as January or February, when - with the current awards season nearing its grand finale - some scribe or broadcast reviewer announces the first sighting of an "Oscarworthy" performance.Reality sometimes gets in the way of "reality." Industryites and critics alike are still marveling at the way a picture that hadn't been part of their calculations at all quietly appeared in screening rooms around the beginning of December and began knocking their socks off. Clint Eastwood's "Million Dollar Baby" is such a good movie - so sure in its craft, so powerful in its impact for viewers of just about any stripe - that it just may succeed in reminding enough voters what "Best Picture" is, after all, supposed to mean.To the betting parlors, then:
Michael Hatfield"The 'push' is arriving on the Hill. The same 'push' that changed Madison Valley and the Central District. Eventually, you will need huge money to live within 20 minutes of town."Holly Hatfield (no relation)"There is some good and not so good. I like the idea of building community, but I'm not so sure this is community. I'd rather see restoration than the demolition of old buildings and homes."
Ladies and gentleman, get your binoculars at the ready - it's time for the Great Backyard Bird Count!During the weekend of Feb. 18-21, all bird-loving people across North America are encouraged to count the birds in their backyards and then report them over the Inter-net. This is one of the world's largest volunteer efforts of its kind - the Great Backyard Bird Count (or GBBC), which allows people of all ages and backgrounds to celebrate birds while also providing vital information on our feathered friends.Now in its eighth year, popular event was developed and managed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society. This year's theme, "North America's Great Backyard," was chosen as a way to celebrate the beauty of birds found across the continent.