There are two recipes I know most people will find invaluable for the months of January and February. I call them my winter-weather "arsenal." One is perfect ammunition for chilly, cold weather, when you need a beverage to warm you. The other has several uses: Sunday-night, casual dinner with friends; delivering to someone as comfort food when they are feeling under the weather; or making ahead for a weeknight dinner you know you won't have time to prepare during the week. Both are also conveniently available by opening a can or using a dry mix. But believe me, it is worth the effort to make them yourself.
I've been reviewing my last column about Christmas. I wanted to see whether I sounded like a fundamentalist - which I am not - and I wanted to verify whether I had said what I wanted to say - which I feel I did not.It so happened that I was downtown a few days after I wrote that column, watching the activity around the carousel, admiring all the lights in the trees and in the decorated store windows. I found myself at Santa's home at Nordstrom along with a horde of children, all hardly able to stand even semi-still as they contemplated what they were going to say to Santa when it was finally their turn to talk with him.Naturally, I wanted to see how various children would react when the moment came that they'd been waiting for. They walked, or were dragged, up to Santa. I edged my way up toward a viewing window, an area where mothers, fathers and rebellious siblings were able to observe the momentous encounter.
To think that 40 years ago our very own Madison Park was small enough in population that folks knew each other - if only by their first names - and that was mostly because it was largely a singles' neighborhood.Apartments rented for $35 per month and up, and on the luxurious side a four-bedroom house split four ways could be had for $60 each person. The house provided easy and affordable living but also enough space for keggers - I mean "formal affairs."As etiquette books will espouse, it was always appropriate to bring a bottle of liquor or a half-case of beer to these occasions. If someone were to fail at this gesture of sociability, he or she would be required to make a run to the liquor store. Heaven forbid, this sorry sort forgot his or her liquor card, because, otherwise, the next step was to stand outside the store and beg a customer to purchase the liquid.Such was one of the liquor laws in days of yore.
Part IV They build our homes, landscape our yards and harvest the produce we find in our grocery stores. Migrant labor fuels our economy, in Seattle and across the country, yet these 13 million workers - the majority traveling from Latin America - remain largely a statistic.Working in the United States as an immigrant laborer, documented or not, is a dangerous proposition. According to a spring 2005 report on immigrant workers' rights compiled by the National Immigration Law Center, low-wage immigrant workers are among the most vulnerable to exploitation on the job, especially concerning wage, hour, health, and safety issues. This observation is backed by a January 2005 Human Rights Watch report that found "federal laws and policies on immigrant workers are a mass of contradictions and incentives to violate their rights."In Seattle, CASA Latina is the primary place where these workers gather to gain good, temporary employment. The nonprofit organization's Belltown worksite is also the spot where immigrant workers learn how to deal with the legal contradictions and incentives to maximize the rights allotted them by the local, state and federal governments.
Enter Room 120 at Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School in Madison Valley and you'll find lots of activity - but not everyone is doing the same thing.At one table, a boy is learning to write the alphabet, while another is counting beads on a string and separating them into groups of 10s.One girl is gluing macaroni onto black paper to form a frame, while another girl sitting nearby is concentrating on math equations. Yet another girl is stapling blank sheets of paper together to make a book.A group of students lie sprawled on a large rug with their teacher, Ms. Anastasia, as they use wood blocks to learn about units of 10s, 100s and 1,000s.Then, suddenly, as if a silent bell has rung, some of the students switch tables and activities.
The Christmas crunch is over. Maybe this is the time to buy a gift for yourself.'Pacific Voices'"Pacific Voices: Keeping our Cultures Alive" - just published by the University of Washington Press - qualifies as a gem.It's a lavishly produced volume brought together by University of Washington anthropology professor Miriam Kahn and Erin Younger, director of public programs for The Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture.The book grew out of the Burke's ongoing Pacific Voices exhibit, which opened in 1997.
It's amazing how simple a world-altering opportunity can be, as simple as sitting down. With the October death of Rosa Parks at age 92, we were reminded how her refusal to adhere to the racist bus-seating rules of Montgomery, Ala., in 1955 gave birth the civil-rights movement. This ordinary act also gave rise to one of our country's most powerful leaders: the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.The 27-year-old reverend emerged as a leader of the bus boycott that grew from Parks' civil disobedience. While he helped organize carpools for Montgomery's black population, King showed his community, and his country, how to protest for the right to live a peaceful and respected life. This was not easy to do, for his peaceful protests were often met with violence. Four black churches were firebombed by white segregationists, and a shotgun was fired through the front door of King's home, which was also bombed. However, the persistence and courage of King, Parks and the rest of Montgomery's black community paid off when the Supreme Court outlawed segregation on the local bus line in 1956, a crucial step on America's long walk to racial harmony.King is a national hero honored for fighting racism, wherever it occurred in our society, while standing up for social justice.
Two years ago, Lootas miscarried late in her pregnancy. She grew very ill and required an emergency C-section. Drs. Allen Johnson and Russell Patterson performed the surgery and made the decision not to remove her uterus. Last December, Lootas safely delivered her fourth pup. "We were nervous about this birth in particular," C.J. Casson, curator of life sciences at the Seattle Aquarium stated. "We were very lucky to have such dedicated and talented professionals available and willing to perform surgery on a sea otter. They are heroes."The board-certified veterinarian surgeons at Animal Surgical Clinic of Seattle, located on Stone Way North, spoke humbly about their role in the surgery, as if unaware that they made this latest birth possible.
Last Wednesday evening, the Wallingford Community Council held its first meeting since learning two days before the Christmas holiday that the Summer Nights concert series would be moving to Gas Works Park this year. The room was filled to capacity.Several officials - including Seattle Parks and Recreation Superintendent Ken Bounds, Seattle City Councilmember David Della and two representatives from One Reel, the nonprofit company that produces the concert series - also were on hand to discuss the move and any potential problems that may arise.
More than 2,200 markers, each representing an American soldier who has died in Iraq since March 2003, lined the shore along Green Lake Park on Sunday, Jan. 8. Known as the "Arlington Northwest display," the markers each had a name of a fallen soldier.
Cleo Wolfus is almost 6 feet tall. But in her street clothes, red hair pulled away from her pale, bespectacled face, she looks like just another Seattle woman trying not to drown on a typical windy, rainy January day in the urban Northwest.But the 30-year-old Fremont performance artist (at left) does have the ability to embrace a "look" that is bound to attract attention.A 'social experiment'Wolfus is the driving force behind Dead Awake, a protest organization struggling to be born.Wolfus said she is seeking help to "stop the zombiefication of Americans!"Wolfus posted a call for fellow marchers on the Internet and via fliers to turn out for the Jan. 16 Martin Luther King Jr. march in the Central Area.
Where in this world can a lifelong journalist, who has always written fiction and poetry (but never theater), get a chance to write two plays in two days? For two different directors? And have a crowded house, more than 150 people both nights, watching my double debut?14/48, the world's quickest theater festival, that's where.14/48, which began in 1997, is a two-weekend festival taking place this year at the Capitol Hill Arts Center (CHAC), on 12th Avenue, just a stone's throw from the Seattle Police Department's East Precinct.None of the artists involved during the fest's first weekend on Jan. 6 and 7 were arrested, although my second play was probably a crime against coherent theater.I didn't apply to be one of 14/48's guinea pig writers. A "friend" on the steering committee put my name in the hat. But when I got the call I said yes immediately.I liked the idea of writing two plays in two nights and having the chance to work with two different directors and, in my case, six actors. I'd been to 14/48 twice when the fest was staged at Consolidated Works.
Now that I've taken down and recycled the Christmas tree, boxed the ornaments and stored away the wrapping paper, I'm finding my usual post-holiday blues haven't arrived. Despite the predictable Seattle rains during this time of year, I'm actually enjoying the normalcy of it all. After several years of drought- like winters, the wet stuff is making a comeback, ensuring a sufficient water supply for our region in the drier months ahead.Last Saturday en route to the Broadway post office, I crossed through Cal Anderson Park, one of my favorite neighborhood corridors. Ever since the park's reopening last September, I've made a habit to visit the it as regularly as possible. The wide open space, the reflecting pool and the conical shaped fountain that resembles the white capped Mount Rainier to our southeast - all of it provides inspiration on clear and rainy days alike. I love the symmetrical rows of benches on either side of the water treatments and the steppingstones that children for a time dashed on in the warmer days of autumn.
It's amazing how simple a world-altering opportunity can be, as simple as sitting down. With the October death of Rosa Parks at the age of 92, we were reminded how her refusal to adhere to the racist bus-seating rules of Montgomery, Al., in 1955 gave birth the Civil Rights Movement. This ordinary act also gave rise to one of our country's most powerful leaders, Martin Luther King Jr.The 27-year-old reverend emerged as a leader of the bus boycott that grew from Parks' civil disobedience. While he helped organize carpools for Montgomery's black population, King showed his community, and his country, how to walk the talk of protesting the right to live a peaceful and respected life.
When former Seattle City Councilmember Jim Compton abruptly resigned his seat last month two years into his second four-year term, the way was paved for a large number council hopefuls to toss their hat in the ring. Among the first 10 applicants was Robert Sondeim. While perhaps not a household name across the city, Sondeim has owned and operated the Rosebud restaurant on East Pike Street since 1993. As the former president of the Capitol Hill Chamber of Commerce, he's well versed in issues of importance to the Hill and the city. "I'd like to think I'm a strong contender," Sondheim said. "I'm a fourth-generation Seattleite, a two-term president of the Capitol Hill chamber, a longtime owner of a small business. I think my application should be taken seriously."As to why he applied, Sondheim points to his lifelong Seattle residency, his strong advocacy of arts organizations and the business perspective he has gained from running his own business for more than a decade.