The late James Widener Ray was a man of many passions. A talented artist, musician and skier he descended from one of the country's wealthiest families. His Capitol Hill mansion was filled with art from around the world. He was an expert and devoted yachtsman, also a man who funded his own charitable organization. Ray also suffered from severe mental illness but, unlike many, his financial resources allowed for the kind of treatment many can only dream of. A staff of 10 tended to his needs and wishes. He received the best possible medical care. But when he died suddenly last Oct. 9 at age 53, his passing left his large estate in limbo. Perhaps playing out like a TV miniseries or airport novel, his death has led to a legal battle over that estate. Key to its conclusion will be determining which of two wills accurately reflects the wishes of a man worth $78 million.
Seattle officials estimated 15,000 people marched from St. Mary's Church on South 20th Street and down South Jackson Street (center photo) to the Federal Building on Second Avenue on Monday, March 10. The peaceful demonstration took place from 3:30 to past 6 p.m. as part of the "National Day of Action for Immigrant Justice." The Seattle protest was held in conjunction with an estimated 70 other similar marches in city's across the United States calling for comprehesive immigration reform that provides a clear path to citizenship while ensuring workplace and civil rights protections.
United States consumers lose millions of dollars each year to thieves using wire transfers as part of their scams. Western Union, Moneygram and similar businesses allow you to send money quickly. Their services are useful for transmitting funds to friends, relatives and others you know well. But cons frequently try to take advantage of victims by convincing them to wire money to a stranger, usually someone in Canada or overseas. The results can be tragic - our office recently learned of a Spokane man who lost $4,500 to such a scam. The initial hook can take many forms: Someone wants to buy something you advertised, or they want to pay you to do work at home. You're told that you won a sweepstakes or were selected for a loan. A foreigner asks for your help withdrawing money from a U.S. bank account or transferring funds from an offshore fund. In every case, the scam ends the same way - you are asked to wire money, and when you do it's gone.
Recently, in the baking aisle at the grocery store, I encountered a young woman clutching a large, spring-form pan and a box of cake mix. Glancing my way she sighed: "I want to bake a birthday cake but I've never baked one in my life and I'm terrified that it won't come out well. Plus I have no idea which pan to buy." Her statement was not unusual. People's days are now so frantic that home baking, like home cooking has become a cherished memory for many. Gorgeous bakeries inside grocery stores, neighborhood specialty bakeries and supermarkets selling dry mixes have each taken a toll on home baking as well.However, baked items prepared "from scratch" allows us to avoid ingredients such as partially hydrogenated fats, artificial colors, flavors and additives frequently found in mixes. Being able to control the ingredients used in our food is one of the benefits of baking from scratch, not to mention the freshness and taste.
What will kids in the NewHolly community be doing this summer? Normally they go to the Van Asselt Community Center to shoot hoops, make art, or attend summer camp. But the center was closed for remodeling and expansion in September 2005, and won't open again until late 2006. The recent groundbreaking ceremony was well attended by the rainbow community that is NewHolly. When completed, this center will be a great resource. For now, the Seattle Parks Department has relocated some programs to the nearby Jefferson and Rainier Community Centers. Parks has also placed one staff member at the NewHolly campus.But this is not enough. With more than 2,000 young people, NewHolly has an enormous need for youth programs. The development of Rainier View and Othello Station will increase the demand for such programs. This winter, at the NewHolly Branch Library, I've seen the number of rowdy kids escalate since the community center closed. Where could these kids go to get out of the rain and have well-supervised fun?Van Asselt Elementary School is across the street from the closed community center: Parks' staff and programs could have used that facility after school hours. Last month, Christopher Williams, Division Director for the Parks and Recreation Operations Division said, "we will be meeting with the principal of Van Asselt Elementary School to explore the use of the school gymnasium for parks sponsored drop-in programs. Securing the gym for drop-in programs will be especially critical this summer while young people are on summer break. We are moving to gain access to the gym for immediate use."
"What kind of mouth-breathing cretin steals a car, with a baby seat in the back?" I asked myself soon after rounding a corner one block away from my office on a sun-filled spring afternoon. I felt more stupefied than angry when, three weeks ago, instead of spotting my black, four-door Honda Civic parked next to a green recycling bin, I stood over a blank expanse of worn, charcoal colored asphalt. And no, I didn't forget the keys inside or leave the doors unlocked or just plain space as to where I left it last. It was a theft, as clear as the robins singing among the nearby apple blossoms.It was also the third life-altering challenge my wife and I were forced to face in a month's time. The first two hit us at the end of February, when we learned our landlady would be selling our home, one week after we happily found out we are expecting our second child. The question of where we'll live, combined with our planning for our next baby, was causing a solid amount of stress in the house. But the emotional tone changed after my mother called me from Billings, Mont., on March 2 to talk about her neighbors Marc and Melissa. I knew Marc, a close friend of mine from high school, was in his own state of parental anxiety during the last few weeks of February with Melissa due to deliver their second daughter, Chloe, any day. It had been a few weeks since Marc and I had touched base about Melissa's pregnancy, and my mom beat me to it by telling me Chloe had been born."That's great news!" I said after she noted that everything went well and Chloe was in good health.My mom agreed, but her voice sounded flat and shaken as she continued. "Erik, Marc has cancer."My brain reset itself. My perspective altered.Cancer. He's my age. He's only 35.Instantly my own stressful situations were minimized to nothing.
Equipped with handheld computers and digital cameras, a team of volunteers paused at the intersection of Rainier Avenue South and Hudson Street in Columbia City, making note of a few pieces of litter and uneven pavement. They spent a recent drizzly Saturday afternoon surveying the area for problems and opportunities for improvement that will eventually be reported to the city and community stakeholders by the non-profit organization Sustainable Seattle. The volunteers hoped their work would lead to continued revitalization in the Columbia City and Hillman City neighborhoods."This is a wonderful opportunity to be methodical and detailed. It's not just calling up some city department and saying, 'We have a problem.' Since it's a focused, continued survey, hopefully it will make improvements over time," said volunteer and Mount Baker resident Deborah Sturm.
I recently attended a youth worker conference focusing on the issue of passion. The speaker talked about passion in teenagers, and how adults can help them find it.I was very excited after the conference. I've spent much of my life following my dreams and passions, finding a deep joy in life. Growing up, it was difficult for me to understand why so many of my peers were chasing so many broken roads and dead ends. Whether it be movies, music, parties, drugs, alcohol, smoking, vandalism or sexual relations, they would pursue and lose themselves in things that brought temporary excitement and pleasure.These are what I call false passions, or infatuations. In high school I searched a few of these to see what was so intriguing to my peers. I asked myself, what is it about these things that brings them life? They seemed so happy, had lots of friends, and really seemed to enjoy life. This is what it looked like from the outside. As I attempted to seek out how these activities and materials brought so much freedom and happiness, I found myself becoming trapped in this world of false happiness. In an attempt to find joy, love and passion in my own life, I opened up to these lusts. They satisfied for a short time, but even then, they left me feeling empty-yearning for more.
"If you don't believe in Easter, don't kid yourself-don't call yourself a Christian." So says Owen Meany, the main character in John Irving's magnificent novel, A Prayer for Owen Meany.Perhaps Owen's straightforward advice seems a little like preaching to the choir.Don't most people recognize that the Christian faith is so intimately tied to the actual resurrection of Jesus that separating them is an astonishing oxymoron? Not necessarily. Periodically it becomes fashionable, usually in the interest of being "original" or "relevant," for someone to rework the thinking about resurrection. In recent years Bishop John Shelby Spong, Dr. Marcus Borg and others have come along to inform the faithful that it is just the spiritual idea of resurrection that is important, not the actual physical resurrection of Jesus.Apparently somebody forgot to tell this to the Apostle Paul.
Brandon Green and Jesse Weidenfeld have a vision. It involves a film crew, a road trip and a great deal of enthusiasm for revolutionizing the open mic scene. This journey will be completely documented, resulting in "Open Mic: The Movie."Typically, an open mic (pronounced mike) is a stationary event held at a designated venue where artists may sign up for allotted time slots in which to perform music or read poetry. It's considered an excellent setting for artists to try out new material, and everyone is welcome as either a performer or an audience member. Lower Queen Anne residents Green and Weidenfeld are fans of this tried-and-true scene and will use it as a point of departure-literally. The guys and their film crew are planning to take the open mic scene on the road. "We're like a vessel," Green says, "carrying this journey to people, to help them come up as artists [and] musicians."The pair are working on procuring an Airporter, or other vanlike vehicle (to be painted by a local artist), which they will drive through Washington, Oregon and California.
Evangeline Edwards, a very remarkable lady, died on March 19 at the age of 104 (and a half) in her Magnolia home. Permit me to share a column I wrote for the Queen Anne News upon her centenary four years ago:I had the great pleasure of being invited to a birthday party in Magnolia on Aug. 7, 2001. Not just an ordinary birthday party, but a celebration of 100 years of eventful and joyous living. The guest of honor, a bright and beautiful lady, Evangeline Edwards, had many interesting tales to tell.Her ancestors really did come over on the Mayflower. The name Howland is on the Mayflower's passenger list from the year 1621, and the family has many connections with the early Pilgrims. Evangeline-or Van, as she is known by her many friends-was born in a log cabin at the foot of Queen Anne Hill on Aug. 7, 1901. Her parents had arrived from Georgetown, Ohio, a year earlier. Her father, Dr. Orange Edwards, a recent graduate of Cincinnati Medical School, set up his medical practice in downtown Seattle.
TV stories and articles about our state-based Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) frequently show up in myriad media newscasts.Parents of school-age children know this acronym as well as their favorite church prayer. But some have likened the WASL pronunciation to the sound of fingernails screeching across a classroom blackboard. And more than a few alienated students utter expletives when they discuss the new graduation requirement.Perplexingly, students are allowed five chances to obtain a passing score. Holy smokes, the famous behaviorist B.F. Skinner trained goldfish in fewer trials!
We are near the end of a three-year, $10-million project to site and design a new Magnolia Bridge to replace the current structure, which was built in 1929. Alternative A has been selected by the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT), the Port of Seattle, the Magnolia Community Club (MCC) and the Magnolia Chamber of Commerce, and others.How "A" won requires a little background.The SDOT design team began with 25 potential route options, and reduced them to eight after assessing their technical and legal challenges. (Even a tunnel through the east hill was considered.) These eight they brought into a public process that the MCC has participated in along with other stakeholders in and around the Magnolia community.Alternative B required no bridge be built; it followed the shoreline near the marina, came up the valley between the two hills of Magnolia to the Village, and merged into Viewmont. However, the residents who would have been adversely affected successfully lobbied the Mayor's office, and this option was tossed out.Everyone then assumed that any option that did not have its entry point into Magnolia other than where it is now was DOA. Every other alternative route except "A" cut through the Port's North Bay development plans, and was thus "routis non gratis."Therefore Alternative A is left holding the ribbon-to-be-cut by default. It will be built parallel to and slightly south of the current bridge, in keeping with SDOT's promise from the beginning to keep the old bridge carrying on until the new bridge is built.But every good story deserves a good twist, and SDOT didn't disappoint. A couple of days after they announced in a press release that they agreed with MCC, the Chamber and the Port to officially endorse Alternative Route A, SDOT told The Seattle Times that they might change their minds and pick a "slight variation" of Alternative A-one that involved tearing down the old bridge before starting construction on a new bridge, so it could be built within the same footprint.
Sounding an insistent note of alarm and sometimes even despair for the economic health of Magnolia, prominent members of the neighborhood's business core on Thursday blasted Mayor Greg Nickels' choice of Alternative A for replacing the aging and decrepit Magnolia Bridge.The alternative was chosen among the handful considered because it offered a way of reducing both the overall cost and the environmental impact of the large-scale construction project, according to a city press release sent out last week.However, for the folks speaking out at the April 5 meeting of the Design Advisory Group (DAG), the crucial question was how Magnolia's business community was going to weather a bridge closure that could last up to 20 months. The conclusion among many of the project's critics - which included Magnolia Community Club president Vic Barry, Chamber of Commerce president Glenn Harrington and LaRoux Fine Apparel owner Alex Smith - was clear: it can't.
Before Shary Flenniken was born, her parents and two other daughters of theirs lived in Hawaii, where her father, a Navy officer, was stationed. A skilled diver, he performed the grim task of extracting dead sailors from the USS Arizona and other sunken ships when Pearl Harbor was bombed.In 1946, one of the daughters, Sally, died of rheumatic fever. But a few years later, Shary's parents had two daughters once more when, in 1950, she was born near a Navy base in Virginia. The family moved to Kodiak, Alaska, and then, in 1954, to Seattle, where Shary's father worked in Navy intelligence at Pier 91 and Sand Point. Shary's parents liked the area so much they bought a house on Magnolia."My dad was an archconservative," says Shary, "and my mom was a typical '50s mom. Happy hour at 5 and all that." After a couple of years on Magnolia the family relocated yet again - to the Panama Canal Zone. When that stint ended, they moved back to their Magnolia home, and Shary's father, by then a rear admiral, retired. He became a stockbroker, calculating stock movements on a slide rule.Shary was still young, so despite her nomadic Navy-brat beginnings, she can say she grew up on Magnolia. She spent many idle days on the beach north of what is now Elliott Bay Marina. "All those little houses on stilts," she says. "I can still smell the creosote in the logs."When she was about 11, Shary made her friends laugh. She can't remember the joke she told, but she vividly remembers the result. "It was a rush," she says, "a feeling of power. I felt like I had discovered a treasure."She attended Magnolia Grammar School, Catharine Blaine Junior High and Queen Anne High schools. "I grew up on the 'poor hill' of Magnolia," Shary says, "and I was continually reminded of that. "I didn't like the caste system among kids. It's not defined, but still felt. I wanted to be just a person, not part of any group."