"Get me a quarter-inch open end and a three-eighths open end" came my fathers voice from under the car, where he lay in the driveway on a creeper as he worked on the hydraulic lines that led from the transmission.Earlier he'd taught me about basic mechanical hand tools: what the difference was between a box-end and an open-end wrench, how a Philips-head screwdriver differed from a blade screwdriver. After all-what good was a gopher if he didn't "go-fer" the right tools?My father had discovered a few drips of an oily substance on the driveway earlier and, being red, he knew it was automatic transmission fluid. He pulled the jack out of the garage, lifted the front end of the car and then slid two jack stands under the front suspension.With the car safely supported, he got out the creeper and slid underneath it. After a close examination of the car's underside, he'd decided on the site of the slight leak that was oozing oil; hopefully, with just a tightening of that line, the leak would be taken care of.I had returned from the garage after getting the requested wrenches from out of the red drawers of his gray Craftsman toolbox. I was always surprised that he could just look at a nut or bolt and tell what size it was.He never missed. Just one glance and he knew a seven-sixteenths from a half-inch.
There is no Department of History in our city, no revenue (not a single penny) is dedicated to funding heritage preservation or related projects.This matter of giving and getting grants is a huge commitment by the city of Seattle's Department of Neighborhoods and to those seeking a grant. The cash-for-match relationship must become a true partnership. Projects must be positive for the city and good for your neighborhood.The Department of Neighborhoods Matching Grant Program is the only way historical societies can procure funds to do academic historical projects of any depth.Neighborhoods play a unique and important part in piecing together the who, what, when and where of what made and makes Seattle history. We are contributing to the written record, the Magnolia history piece.In the Magnolia Historical Society project, called the Magnolia Historical Essay Project II, we are creating a quilt of stories-making a blanket in which each piece of material added to the quilt is a unique addition to the fabric of Magnolia history. In so doing, we also add to the larger history of our city; we add to the storytelling and the completeness of Seattle history.
I have something to confess, and it doesn't involve illicit relations with Cheetos, overconsumption of choco-late (I'm saving that one for later) or my days as a mole in the CIA. No, this unburdening of my soul re-gards feet. I can't stand them. I dislike them so much that I can hardly bear to touch my very own feet, let alone the feet of any other human being. I like putting the tops of my feet on my husband's feet, but other than that, don't ask me to touch anyone's feet. Baby feet aren't considered "feet," for purposes of this column. They're brand spanking new, corn-free and über soft. I love those. It's the larger, older feet that I have trouble dealing with.This brings me to today. I did something today that I've never, ever, in all my many years walking upon this earth, done.I got a pedicure.
"Get me a quarter-inch open end and a three-eighths open end," came my father's voice from under the car in the driveway where he lay on a creeper as he worked on the hydraulic lines that led from the transmission.Earlier he'd taught me about basic mechanical hand tools; what the difference was between a box-end and an open-end wrench, how a Philips-head screwdriver differed from a blade screwdriver. After all - what good was a gopher if he didn't "go-fer" the right tools?My father had discovered a few drips of oil on the driveway earlier, and because they were red, he knew it was ATF, or automatic transmission fluid. He pulled the jack out of the garage, lifted the front end of the car and then slid two jack stands under the front suspension. With the car safely supported, he got out the creeper and slid underneath it.After a close examination of the car's underside, he'd decided where the slight leak that was oozing oil was, and hoped that, with just a tightening of that line, the leak would be taken care of.When I had returned from the garage, after getting the requested wrenches from out of the red drawers of his gray Craftsman toolbox, I was always surprised that he could just look at a nut or bolt and tell what size it was. He never missed. Just one look and he knew a seven-sixteenths from a half-inch.
Occasionally, very occasionally, somebody comes along who, when they leave the public eye, leave a gaping hole where their presence once loomed.The Reverend Dale Turner was one of those people.For years Turner wrote a religion column for The Seattle Times that was actually more like a "wisdom" column.You didn't have to be a Christian to enjoy Turner's work. The Rev. was scholarly, entertaining, occasionally witty and always compassionate.Without even realizing it (after all, religious columns have never, before or since, been my thing), I read Turner's work religiously. I even wrote him a note of disagreement once, and within a week had a thoughtful, non-dogmatic reply.Turner's column ended in 2005. The Times, as near as I could figure, replaced him with a committee of preachers of different denominations. I read a couple of columns and then, without thinking much about it, dropped the Saturday Times from my can't-miss reading list.It was only last week, when Rev. Turner passed, that I realized how much I already missed him.Turner, who wrote his column for 22 years, was 88.
As we move towards the Summer Solstice, there is a hint in the air that summer just might be arriving here in the Northwest. The dull-gray mornings are not particularly inspiring, but the golden afternoon light, that lingers for hours, does say SUMMER.The garden still feels damp and dewy, but do a further check. I sus-pect that you will find patches that are quickly drying out. The brief rain showers, even though seemingly drenching at times, are not pene-trating through the summer thickness of our tree and shrub canopies.Sadly, this summer season, the field trips and pilgrimages to Heronswood Nursery in Kingston are all canceled. For those of you not joined at the hip with the gardening world, this nursery created by Dan Hinkley 19 years ago and owned by Burpee since 2000 was abruptly closed by them on May 31. Screaming outrage from the nursery's worldwide fans can be found on the Web, with many sites inviting further comment.The loss of this Northwest famed specialty nursery should be a sharp reminder to us all about the importance of shopping locally. Yes, the prices are better at the "box" stores, but the next time you need just three nails to finish a project, hopefully you won't find an out-of-business sign at our local small hardware stores.
Biggest and best ever - that's what event representatives say every year about every event, but the organizers of Seattle's Gay Pride event this year, Seattle Out And Proud, have reason for their optimism."I really think it is true this year," said Dale Kerschner, president of the Seattle Pride board of directors. "This year we have four music venues." The event moves this year from its traditional Capitol Hill location to the Seattle Center, primarily to give it more space. For instance, the event has never had more than one music venue before.This year entertainment will be available on the Center House Stage, the Mural Amphitheater stage, Fisher Pavilion (the festival's de facto main stage) and the DJ stage at the International Fountain. Dancing in the International Fountain will be encouraged, a first for Seattle Center.Festival entertainment takes off at 11 a.m. Saturday, June 24, and continues to midnight. It resumes at 11 a.m. Sunday, June 25, and continues to the close of the festival at 6 p.m. Admission to the entertainment venues is free.
Fans of "A Girl with a Pearl Earring," Tracy Chevalier's story about a Vermeer painting, may love Debra Dean's first novel. The Queen Anne author juxtaposes a woman's love of art against the destructiveness of war and of Alzheimer's in "The Madonnas of Leningrad." I looked forward to reading the book because of its theme. However, only chapters into the story, despite writing both gorgeous and polished, I was plodding rather than enjoying. Why? The story shuttles between America and the Soviet Union. In 1941 Leningrad, having stored the Hermitage Museum paintings, leaving only bare frames on the walls, the staff takes shelter in the museum. As Marina endures bombing raids, hunger and cold, the memory of different paintings feeds her consciousness. Years later, in the Pacific Northwest, she is in the first stages of Alzheimer's, and those memories break into her present. The novel's theme - the influence of art over suffering - comes through like a radiant truth. Dean's writing and artistic knowledge dazzle. So why did my interest flag? A first answer came when I examined descriptions of the artwork.
Lawton Elementary School at 4000 27th Ave. W. is inviting representatives from schools across the Seattle School District to an intro-ductory meeting of Seattle Green Schools, a newly formed network aimed at encouraging positive, hands-on environmental education activities.This meeting, which will take place Thursday, June 15, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., will focus on the lunchroom composting program Lawton this year has piloted for the district, and will also include a student presentation of a yearlong Eco-Village project. Teachers, parents, school officials and students interested in promoting positive solutions to the environmental challenges facing the world today are being encouraged to attend.
Student scientists from McClure Middle School made an impressive showing at the Seattle Public Schools districtwide Middle School Science Fair on June 8, winning several top awards. Ten Seattle middle schools participated in the annual event, held at the Museum of Flight. Serving as judges were scientists and teachers from local institutions, including the University of Washington, Pacific Science Center, Institute for Systems Biology, Bellevue Community College and Washington State Department of Transportation. Howard Coleman, CEO of Genelex Corp., gave a lively keynote address on DNA.Seventeen McClure students from grades six through eight were selected to participate in the event. Their projects were displayed in the museum's main exhibit hall as throngs of spectators viewed the results of experiments in fields ranging from microbiology to aerodynamics. Each student stood by his or her project and confidently fielded questions from the judges.Prizes were handed out by grade. McClure sixth-grader Joshua Hurley was honored with an "Excellent" for his project, "Clothes Connec-tions," and classmate Evan Fitz-gerald won the top prize ("Best Overall") for his experiment, "Weight vs. Flight."Six of McClure's seventh-graders also brought home awards. Will Weckel-Dahman won "Best Data Analysis" for his experiments on water viscosity; Casey Graham, "Best Engineering" for his bridge design; Jennifer Charoni, "Most Original" for her inquiry into yawning; and the team of Paul Kitchell and Travis Smith, "Excellent" for their investigation of physics and marble-rolling. Connor McKittrick won a "Superior" - placing among the top three projects - for his study on the effects of caffeine. All of the projects were impressive and creative. Congratulations to our budding scientists for their ingenuity and months of hard work.-Submitted by Faith Conlon
It's been more than 60 years since the trial, but a Queen Anne politician and a Queen Anne author may be able to correct the allegedly unjust convictions of 28 African-American soldiers at Fort Lawton for rioting and the lynching of an Italian prisoner of war in the waning days of World War II."On American Soil," the book written about the courts marshal by longtime Queen Anne resident Jack Hamann, has received critical acclaim including a starred review in Publisher's Weekly. In it, he details the case and points to withheld evidence that may have cleared the men of wrongdoing. But the book also attracted the attention of United States Congressman and neighborhood resident Jim McDermott. "I barely finished reading it before I directed my staff to prepare legislation to reopen the cases," he said in a press release.That was around a year ago, said Hamann, and the bill would have directed the Secretary of the Army to review the cases of all 28 men following the 1944 incident, and to correct their military records if their convictions proved to be unfounded.Nothing happened to that bill, but McDermott's staff executed an end run around normal channels and came up with a better way to address the issue, according to Mike DeCesare, the congressman's spokesman.
The Wild Salmon Seafood Market in Fishermen's Terminal is a busy place. Owned and operated by Queen Anne residents Jon Speltz and his wife, Paula Cassidy, the store sells around 200,000 pounds of aquatic fare a year, Speltz said.And most of that, roughly 140,000 pounds, is wild salmon, he added. That includes Copper River salmon, a seasonal delicacy that was selling last weekend for $23.99 a pound for a Chinook fillet. The price is worth it, according to Cassidy. "It really is a fabulous fish," she said. "You liken it to a great wine, I think."The business also used to sell farm-raised salmon when the couple bought the store around a decade ago, and dropping that kind of fish was one of the first changes the couple made, Cassidy remembers. "That was something we wanted to do."The fish market was first opened, she said, as a co-op in the 1970s by a bunch of self-described hippies who caught and sold their own fish. Since then, the business has been sold a few times, but Cassidy said she and her husband bought the place because they felt there was a need for a great seafood market for the locals. Pike Place Market is more for tourists and it's not as convenient, she said.
As morning commuters stream toward the Magnolia Bridge on their way to work, some may have spotted a certain well-dressed, older gentleman meandering along the sidewalk, plastic bag in one hand and trash-collecting instrument in the other.A keen observer would notice that the man follows the same route every day, walking down the hill to West Galer Street and onto the bridge. On his way he stops to pick up little items that people fail to throw away properly-paper, aluminum cans, even an old t-shirt soon fill multiple bags. Heavy traffic does not deter this individual, who steps out in the road if necessary in order to secure a "misplaced" piece of something.A nice overcoat and dress clothes are not the usual attire for someone cleaning the streets; nor do you usually see an older person doing such work.But as the man makes his way down to Elliott Avenue, it becomes evident that he is no ordinary trash collector. Depositing the bags in a nearby garbage can, he continues down the street before turning into an office building: The End of Elliott Complex.The man in question is 82-year-old Arthur Hays-long-time Magnolia resident, founder of Hays Distributing Corp., and the owner of the complex along with many other buildings along Elliott Avenue and 15th Avenue West.
Martin O'Callaghan, principal of the Secondary Bilingual Orientation Center, has seen the school go through incredible changes since it opened in 1980. Although only in his second year as the head of SBOC, he has been connected with the institution from the very beginning. "It began at grades one through high school - three elementary teachers and three secondary teachers when we opened up on that first day," he says. "We started approximately six weeks into the first semester; that's when we received our first students."As O'Callaghan sits behind his desk, talking about the history of the center, he describes how the makeup of the student body has changed drastically since those early days."Demographically, when we first came in, most of the students we had were Lao, Vietnamese, Viet-Muong students," he says. "Now, out of that population, we have maybe one or two Lao students, a handful of Vietnamese."O'Callaghan also points out that the school's population can depend in large part on current events around the world."Take a look at the newspaper, and figure in six months to 18 months, we might be seeing some of those languages come through Seattle," he says.
It was only a postscript on page 23 of a 24-page school-closing report prepared by the Community Advisory Committee, but the report suggested that the Secondary Bilingual Orientation Center (SBOC) be moved out of the Old John Hay school building on Boston Street.The idea, which the school board recommended last year, is to relocate the SBOC program to South Seattle, where most of the students live, said Peter Daniels, a spokesman for the Seattle School District.The possibility has the Friends of Old Hay group concerned, said member Marjorie Lepley. "Then it becomes a piece of property that could be sold," she said of the Queen Anne school, which was built in 1905. That, in turn, leads to the possibility that the historic building could be bulldozed to make room for a new development on Queen Anne Hill, she said.Not to worry, according to Daniels. While no decision has been made specifically about selling off the old neighborhood school, there is not much of a possibility that would happen, he said.The reason is demographics.