The unexpected closure of the QFC grocery store on South Henderson Street has left many community members scrambling, but especially Orthodox Jews living in the area. The QFC closed on May 28 due to low profitability, according to a QFC news release. Saar's Marketplace will open in the space by mid-August. While the new grocery will cater to those folks who still cook at home, the closure of the QFC is especially painful in the Jewish community, for it was the only kosher butcher and deli in south Seattle, according to the JT News. This makes it difficult for Orthodox Jews, particularly the elderly, on the Sabbath and other holidays.
Why must Superman, Spider-Man and Batman suffer such split-personality angst that their Prozac refills break the bank? Let Freud clue you in: Caped and sticky-fingered crusaders alike are propelled into their life's work of offing badguys and righting wrongs by the death of dad. Yes, yes, I know, Superman later gets adopted by a salt-of-the-earth Midwesterner, and Spidey only loses a fatherly uncle - but it's still the shattering loss of the guy who largely defines a boy's sense of masculinity that grows the compensating superpower.In "Batman Begins," fifth film in the franchise Warner Bros. inaugurated in 1989, that pattern plays out with a vengeance for Bruce Wayne, offspring of wealthy, beautiful parents whose charity drops like manna from heaven for Gothamites mired in the Depression.
The Frye Museum is exploring new ground with a series of exhibits by contemporary artists who bring a bold, fresh look to the museum. The visitor can still see the extensive display of well-loved items from the permanent collection, but complementing these works are temporary exhibits that challenge perceptions about representational art and encourage dialog about its diversity and complexity.The latest of these arresting exhibitions is "Oliver Herring: Taking and Making." This is Herring's first solo exhibition in the Northwest, although his work has been shown in top museums both domestically and internationally. Born in Germany, educated at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art at Oxford University, he obtained his master's in fine art at Hunter College in New York, the city in which he currently works.
The Frye Museum is exploring new ground with a series of exhibits by contemporary artists who bring a bold, fresh look to the museum. The visitor can still see the extensive display of well-loved items from the permanent collection, but complementing these works are temporary exhibits that challenge perceptions about representational art and encourage dialog about its diversity and complexity.The latest of these arresting exhibitions is "Oliver Herring: Taking and Making." This is Herring's first solo exhibition in the Northwest, although his work has been shown in top museums both domestically and internationally. Born in Germany, educated at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art at Oxford University, he obtained his master's in fine art at Hunter College in New York, the city in which he currently works.
It was a weekend gilded in sweet Seattle sunshine. There were naked people riding bicycles, elves clad in leaves and merrymaking was in the air. On June 18 and 19, thousands rolled, walked and danced in celebration of the summer solstice and Fremont's 34th Fair and Parade.
Jim Mar has a distinct take on things. He is a pragmatist, and at almost 91 he has perspective that only time can bring. Then there is his worldview. During World War II, he served in North Africa and Europe, so he has seen other lands. But Seattle's Chinatown is the realm he knows best.Jim was born on July 11, 1914, in Seattle, at Providence Hospital. He is the fourth of eight children born to Mar Fook Hing and Lee Shee. Both his parents were born outside Canton, China, and immigrated to America separately in 1906. They met after they'd arrived in the West.Once here, his father renamed himself Henry, but his mother kept her Chinese name. When Jim was born, he was given the Occidental name James as well as the traditional name Mar Gim Toon.Like all his siblings (and, eventually, his children), Jim attended Garfield High School. He lettered in basketball and baseball, and graduated in 1933.His father Henry was an import/export merchant who, over the years, branched out into many aspects of that business, providing a livelihood for all his sons as they entered adulthood.
Christmas comes and goes in a whirl of activity for most people and is barely remembered by them six months later. That's not the case for Asifa Pasin. Pasin remembers this past Christmas vividly. It was the Christmas when she found out about the Queen Anne Helpline.Last December, Pasin contacted the Helpline through the Christmas Giving Tree campaign. Participants write down what they wish to receive from Santa and send their wishes to the Helpline. Most requests from families are for toys, bicycles, books, etc. Pasin had a different Christmas request for her little boy, Kendon. Kendon, 6, severely disabled, no longer had a proper place to support himself. His parents were recently separated, and his father, who shares custody of Kendon, took Kendon's special chair for Kendon's visitations. Pasin, who has primary custody, needed another one but couldn't afford it. Could the Helpline help?The cost of the chair was beyond the means of the Helpline. They said no but invited Pasin and Kendon to come meet Santa and receive some other gifts. At the gathering, the Helpline staff learned more about Kendon. He was currently using a wheelchair for transportation, but his disabilities were so severe that the chair did not provide adequate physical support for him, and he could not be in it for long. The boy was spending the majority of his time lying on the floor and being physically moved from one place to another by Pasin.
Ah, the supreme joy of using a fresh, new computer is countered by the steep learning curve imposed by migrating from a PC to an Apple system. I certainly do not miss all the quaint "work-arounds" I had developed on the old system, but I sit here in awe of the massive amount of features lurking nearby in this gorgeous and (I'm told) powerful new system. Where will I find the hours to unearth them when this recent spate of beautiful weather is calling me out to the garden?
If you believe what John Adams once wrote in the Constitution of Massachusetts - "Wisdom and knowledge, as well as virtue, diffused generally among the body of the people, being necessary for the preservation of their rights and libertie" - then David McCullough's books are a must read. That's no chore, because McCullough's books are fascinating adventure stories meticulously sculpted out of historical bedrock. His biographies of President John Adams and President Harry Truman won Pulitzers. Both sold a million. His latest, "1776," made Newsweek's cover.Last Wednesday night, McCullough, 73, walked onto the stage of Town Hall, an immaculate room in a 1916 church where Capitol Hill meets Downtown. We first saw his silver eyebrows sparkling in the lights. He looks like Walter Cronkite. And then he opened his mouth, and that signature voice, a bit winded from this marathon book tour, drew us closer around the campfire, eager to hear good stories.
Because my ex-wife is African American, and because I single-parented my two daughters through their teens, I have a little more inter-twined rela-tionship with the oft-talked-about enter-tainment end of  "black" culture than many of my fellow pale-faces.From 1993 to 1996 I knew rap backwards and forwards. I could identify every prominent rapper by the distinctive way he said motha- ... well, you know. My youngest (15 to 18 then) loved rap, and I either had to listen so I could defend myself by making fun of the day's most famous misogynists by their correct names, or be considered an even older fogy than she already thought I was.I knew who Tupac was running with and who Will Smith was dating. Up to the minute. I heard Mikey Jackson's music in my sleep. Literally.It wasn't fun necessarily, but it helped me stay in contact with my kids as they passed through their turbulent teens. I did it that way because I remembered my own father, opera-loving Big Lou Wilken, storming into the house after work one day and screaming contemptuously at me because I was listening to the Rolling Stones.
Want to glimpse the future of South Lake Union, Seattle's evolving rust belt that stands between downtown and the water? You can check it out at Vulcan's South Lake Union Discovery Center at Westlake and Denny. I did last week, along with more than 100 other curious folks who showed up for a Greater Queen Anne Chamber of Commerce tour. In case you'd forgotten, two Seattle Commons votes in the 1990s spared the district from becoming a condo-lined, Champs Elysées of yuppiedom.It's happening anyway, without the green acres. Money will overcome. And the language of money - "lifestyle" - would colonize our minds as well as our streets. Treasure your own, private thoughts and your own way of being at your own risk.
To hear Vulcan real-estate marketing manager Alison Jeffries tell it, Paul Allen's ambitious plan to transform South Lake Union is the best thing to happened to Seattle since, well ... just about anything. Speaking at a larger-than-normal Greater Queen Anne Chamber of Commerce luncheon held at the project's so-called South Lake Union Discovery Center last week, she noted that Vulcan's primary focus is making money. "Then we look at what is the positive impact we can create for this community," Jeffries said of an area that has seen better days. But there was a spillover of positive impact that affected Lower Queen Anne when a Vulcan representative handed Uptown Alliance president John Coney a $5,000 check to be used for construction of the neighborhood's newest park at the corner of Roy Street and Queen Anne Avenue.
Preserving history and getting the best bang for the real-estate buck seem to be going head-to-head on an architectural battleground in Queen Anne.But while old housing isn't always making room for new construction, the redevelopment option is taking the lead, according to three recent examples.For instance, four luxury "residences" are going in at 222 W. Highland Drive, where the J.C. Black mansion once stood. The historic Gable House at Highland and Queen Anne Avenue is being marketed as a $8.75-million tear-down, and a couple who live at 120 Prospect St. held a belated 100th birthday party for their restored home just last weekend.
Yes, there is goat cheese at the Magnolia Farmers Market!Taking the time to seriously peruse the vendors on a recent Saturday, I found the Monteillet Fromagerie (www.montecheese.com). According to their Web site, they were the first artisanal cheese facility in the Walla Walla Valley. They have Alpine goats and East Freisan-Lacaune sheep, guarded by Sassy the llama, along with chickens, ducks, lambs and many cats on their 27-acre farm located in Dayton along the Touchet River. Their herbed chèvre is creamy and divine and perfectly complements my fresh arugula and Brandywine tomatoes.
The island of Maui, Hawaii, is paradise on earth as far as my wife Rita and I are concerned. We've been vacationing in the Kihei area of Maui for almost three decades.The Sugar Beach Resort sits on the longest stretch of sandy beach and provides an area for exercise similar to Green Lake in Seattle. We enjoy this resort for its simplicity, price and comfort. The mix of residents, old and young - plus families with children - provide constant entertainment and conversations. When we arrived last time we had a interesting experience.Perhaps as a vacationing couple fresh off the airplane in Maui, we looked forlorn and dejected to the youthful-looking attendant behind the Budget Car Rental counter at the Kahului Airport. Maybe he looked at my wife and me and decided we were illiterate and hard of hearing.Or - and this is my conjecture - the fellow had been on duty for too many hours and his Pavlovian response system simply went into overdrive. As our turn in line brought us face-to-face with the agent, he looked at us with a bland expression and asked automatically and matter-of-factly, "What can I do for you?"I replied with a level voice, "We're the Sadowskis, and we reserved a car. May we have one, please?""Oh, yes, sure, let me check." The agent started to shuffle many sheets of important-looking documents. Many were typed, some only partially completed; a few were badly mistreated, with bent and folded corners."Here it is!" he exclaimed at last, almost as if he discovered King Kamehameha's lost throne. He thrust the sheets onto the counter, using his large hands to rub out the tiny wrinkles.