Don Schulze (with white shirt, in back), of Shultzy's Sausage, 4114 University Way N.E., holds up the plaque (also inset) renaming his building The [Calmar] McCune Building after the "unofficial mayor" of the University District during a Sept. 20 celebration. The event also marked the area's tribute to La Tienda Folk Art Gallery founder Leslie Grace and owner Fred Hart (at right).
To outsiders, Seattle has a reputation: a place full of tree huggers, the politically liberal, environmentalists and the like. But it's also been deemed a city where folks not only care about politics and the environment, but about their bodies and what they put into them.But is it true? If you look at the number of farmers markets, restaurants and grocery stores that are either certified organic or feature organic choices, indeed it is. But why is organic food so popular? Most agree, it's the type of people who live here: "forward-thinking people," some say.While eating organic may be expensive and a little frivolous to some Seattleites, more people are spending a few extra bucks to fill themselves up with all things natural.
Fiorello!October 1, 8 p.m., October 2, 2 The Tony and Pulitzer prize-winning musical "Fiorello!" by "Fiddler on the Roof" team Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick is a love story set to the beat of a changing New York City, run by legendary Manhattan mayor, Fiorello LaGuardia. Presented by Showtunes! Theatre.But wait! There's much more!
The sea is as unforgiving as it is bountiful. Those who seek their livelihood upon the often tempestuous waters of the Northwest - from the Salmon Banks of the San Juan Islands to the legendary chop and toss of Alaska's Bristol Bay - face dangers most people can scarcely imagine. Many a crewmember aboard a crabber or purse-seiner has lost his or her life in pursuit of that elusive big catch.Established in 1985, the Seattle Fishermen's Memorial Committee is a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving the memory of workers lost or killed at sea, creating safer on-board working conditions and ministering to survivors and families within the fishing community who are overcoming a seagoing tragedy.If fun and education are the organizing spirit of the Fishermen's Fall Festival taking place Saturday, Oct. 1, at Magnolia's Fishermen's Terminal, the heart of that festival is the Fishermen's Memorial. The centerpiece of Saturday's activities will be the formal unveiling and dedication of the Fishermen's Memorial Tile monument, a fundraising project that provides support and training to fishing families, as well as a means of honoring and remembering those who have been lost at sea.
Beginning Nov. 15, Medicare is offering prescription drug coverage to anyone enrolled in or eligible for Medicare, an important and beneficial development for millions of American seniors.For the many Washingtonians who live with or care for their parents, this Medicare plan presents an opportunity to save money on necessary prescriptions. In a time when skyrocketing healthcare and drug costs have left seniors and their families with large bills and few options, the Medicare Prescription Drug Plan is something worth considering.
I tore into the lower section of yard with a vigor that surprised even me. Suddenly, I felt... well, half my age. The fresh air, temperature in the 80s, swinging that pick and watching it dig deep into the earth was like a tonic that stripped away the years. I ripped and tore at that bamboo. You have to dig deep to remove those roots. Three hours later I had dug up the first 10 feet of roots. By now I was on my knees swinging the pick. I couldn't get as much head speed, but it was easier on my back, and probably prevented me from toppling over.I was about halfway through the job when the logical half of my brain kicked in, reasoning that this didn't have to get done in one day. I didn't want to be found face down in the dirt.I showered and sat down at the computer. Thankfully, all I have to move to write this is my fingers. We're going to our friend's house tonight for dinner and board games. I must fight the urge to nod off around nine.Apparently, our brains don't get old. They may get addled, which would explain my volunteering to tackle this project, but my brain doesn't seem to acknowledge that my body is six-plus decades old, not three.
Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Seattle) recently introduced two pieces of legislation related to the impact and aftermath of Hurricane Katrina: The Emergency Action for Vulnerable Children Act and The Gas Stamps Act of 2005."We don't yet know the extent of the tragedy affecting thousands of foster children in the Gulf," McDermott said last Thursday, Sept. 8. "We do know the need will be great and the time to act is now." He added: "Skyrocketing energy prices in the wake of Hurricane Katrina have affected every American, and people least able to cope, whether they live in Louisiana, Washington or Illinois, need relief until the market stabilizes."McDermott, a medical doctor and child psychiatrist, noted that as many as 10,000 foster children in the hurricane-affected region need help. Many are unaccounted for, he said, and with each passing hour come new stories of injured and missing parents, or parents who don't have adequate medical care and therefore can't take care of their children.
Once, long ago, in the faraway land of Cincinnati, site of the biggest Oktoberfest anywhere in the world outside of Munich, Germany, I lived a very different life, populated by very different people than the friends I have here in Seattle.People were less fluid there. Less able to take the ball on the short hop.Everything seemed more serious there, too. When the city finally got an alternative newspaper, even it was serious. Not that that's such a bad thing; The Stranger wears thin after you get the joke.Still, I'd much rather live here, in the bosom of what an L.A. friend calls Dripping Lotus Land, than back in the square box of other folks' expectations in Ohio.The great thing about Seattle is that you can leave for three or four years, then come back and pick up almost the exact same life, with even some of the same people, and it's as if you were never gone. "You were in Idaho? Hawaii? Bremerton? I thought I hadn't seen you at the Two Bells for awhile."Hey, they have been talking about building a monorail here since Grant was president. Leave and come back and you'll be just in time for another vote on the damn thing.
You can't help but dwell on things when you're traveling through a foreign country alone.I spent a couple of weeks wandering through "Old" Europe, France and Germany, on my way back to Iraq. I had a decent time, but a couple of my experiences there really stand out in my memory. Both, more or less, relate to my afternoon at the Buchenwald Concentration Camp.I spent a few hours there, atop a tall hill just 6 kilometers north of Weimar, Germany. This is where an estimated 50,000 people were murdered by the Nazis during the camp's nine-year existence. I witnessed something that still irritates me for some reason: a group of German women casually talking about God-knows-what inside the camp's crematorium. What bugs me about those women - and a discussion I had a couple of days later - is that, to me, concentration camps are hallowed ground. They are in essence the extreme opposite of battlefields, where once a nation or group tried to dominate another. A nation or group did dominate another at a concentration camp. Don't ask me if either side of the spectrum is right, though.
I have a couple of suggestions on how to save some money, not by investing in the stock market or real estate, but in an activity we all do every month - pay bills.It all started with my wife Rita opening a piece of mail from Pemco Insurance Company; we have our home and 1993 Buick insured with them. Rita read me the new premiums, which it turns out were significantly lower than the previous year. "Why?" I wondered. "Because we have a good credit score," she replied.Rita went on to read other reasons for lower monthly premiums: a good record, a home security system and longevity with the company. Having both our car and home with the same company also proved a positive factor.With all those components a
Will the lessons of Hurricane Katrina resonate with Seattle citizens when they vote on Initiative 912, which repeals the funding for the Alaskan Way Viaduct fix and other transportation safety improvements?This year, Democrats and Republicans in the Legislature united to pass a historic plan to save lives, move people and deliver goods. It's the Transportation Partnership Act of 2005 - a 16-year investment package that will make our roads safer, improve our mobility and economy, and protect our transportation structures before they crumble or fall. Now the Initiative 912 Gridlock Gang, as I call them, wants to blow that plan apart with a combination of deception and anti-Puget Sound demagoguery. Will they succeed? Will the viaduct tumble down because there is no money to fix it? Will the 520 Bridge, or more than 130 other at-risk bridges in Washington, be fixed before lives are lost in a catastrophe?Will you spend more and more time sucking fumes in nasty traffic jams and arriving late to meetings, childcare and work?The answer to these questions depends on you - and on all of us who understand what is at stake.
Grindline Skateparks last week revealed its computer-generated design for a new skateboard park and basketball court to replace the ones closing down next year at the Seattle Center.The old facility off Fifth Avenue North near Mercer Street has to go to make room for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which plans to build its world headquarters on the Seattle Center parking lots, said Kim Baldwin, a landscape architect managing the project for Seattle Parks and Recreation. "This gives us the opportunity to redesign the skate facility and perhaps make it better."The proposed new location is next to the King County Combined Sewer Overflow pump station in the 500 block of Elliott Avenue West, a move Parents for Skateparks objects to in no uncertain terms.
Students from all seven Magnolia and Queen Anne public schools rallied last week to help students driven out of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina. They did that in each school on Sept. 22 by loading backpacks with school supplies for displaced students who ended up in Baton Rouge, said Joanne Testa-Cross, principal of John Hay Elementary School and president of the recently formed Successful Schools in Action, a non-profit umbrella organization that oversaw the relief effort."What we did," she said, "is the schools collected money." The original goal was to collect $14,000 in a week's time, an amount that would have been used to buy enough school supplies to fill 700 backpacks, which were donated by World Vision, Testa-Cross said. "And all of a sudden, the money started pouring in."In fact, $30,000 was collected from students, their parents, local businesses and people who don't even have children in school yet, she said.
"Don't block my view!""Soccer is king!"These two messages were heard loud and clear by Parks Dept. workers at the third of three public meetings addressing slated improvements to Magnolia Elementary Playfield on 28th Avenue West between West McGraw and West Smith streets.The Thursday, Sept. 22, meeting at the Magnolia Community Center, presided over by Cathy Tuttle from Parks and designer Mark Brands from Site Workshop, was characterized by a low rumble of discord and discontent as the 40 or so citizens in attendance peppered the presenters with a litany of questions and itemized complaints.In fact, Tuttle at one point protested that Parks was not being driven by "greedy self-interest" when a Magnolia resident who lives near the park asked if a proposed pavilion was being positioned simply in order to "maximize revenues" for the city.So it went, in a meeting where the project itself often got sidelined by discussions of process and motive.
You can't help but reflect if you're traveling through a foreign country alone. I spent a couple of weeks wan-dering through "Old" Europe, France and Ger-many, on my way back to Iraq. I had a decent time, but a couple of my experiences there really jut out of my memory. Both, more or less, relate to my afternoon at the Buchen-wald Concentration Camp.I spent a few hours there, atop a tall hill just 6 kilometers north of Weimar, Germany. This is where an estimated 50,000 people were murdered by the Nazis during the camp's nine-year existence. I witnessed something that still irritates me for some reason: a group of German women casually talking about God-knows-what inside the camp's crematorium. What bugs me about those women - and a discussion I had a couple of days later - is that, to me, concentration camps are hallowed ground. They are in essence the extreme opposite of battlefields, where one nation or group tried to dominate another. A nation or group did dominate another at a concentration camp. Don't ask me if either side of the spectrum is right, though.