If the people of a landlocked, snow-covered land, maybe a mythical place, the glorious Republic of Slobobia, say, were really stupid, the world could say, So what? There are no consequences, outside Slobobia's borders, stemming from the stupidity of their lumpy populace.Say the Slobobians were brutal, warlike, lacked compassion and knowledge. Unless you were that rarest of birds, a smart Slobobian, what's the diff? ... as teenage girls used to say way back when I was a teenage boy.But when the citizens of the allegedly most powerful nation on earth are determinedly stupid and fanatically self-interested on the (sadly) most trivial levels, the entire world suffers.Bachelor friends desperately seeking that first or second marital connection I've already had always react angrily to my scoffing dismissal of yet another Internet dating failure. "Yeah, but you have a rich social life," they say. "So you haven't had to go online yet."Most of the folks I socialize with, some older than moi, many younger, some straight, some gay, some Caucasoid and many not, all share one trait: they are smart. At least none of them has admitted any desire to see "Jackass Number Two," the commodity that led movie grosses in its first week two weeks ago, pulling in $29 million.
Another historic Queen Anne building is facing demolition. This time it's the Seventh Church of Christ Science at 2555 Eighth Ave. W., and like the razing of the Black Mansion on West Highland Drive, there doesn't appear to be much anyone can do about it.Still, a number of upset neighborhood residents called the Queen Anne News to complain about the plan. One of them was Pat Griffith, who was brought up short when she saw the large Master Use Permit sign that has been erected near the church."I just felt like I was kicked in the gut," she said of the notice, which calls for tearing down the 1920s-era building. The church was on a list of architecturally significant buildings in Queen Anne several years ago, Griffith said.And it deserved the designation, as far as she's concerned. "This is absolutely an architectural gem for the city, not just Queen Anne," Griffith said."It's really a lovely building," agreed John Hennes from the Queen Anne Historical Society. The church is the work of a well-known architect, but it isn't listed anywhere as a historic landmark, he said."I'm very sad, but I don't know there's a lot we can do," Hennes said, referring to the neighborhood historical society. Besides, he added, the historical group is exhausted from its successful battle to get landmark status for the Treat House at the corner of West Highland Drive and Queen Anne Avenue. "At the moment, we don't have any plans to save that building."It's probably impossible, anyway.
It's been decades in the planning and 10 years since the first section of a bicycle and pedestrian path was completed along the Lake Washington Ship Canal in Queen Anne.But now the Seattle Department of Transportation is poised to finish the job by building a 3/4-mile extension of the path near the ship canal from Sixth Avenue West to West Emerson Street by the Fishermen's Terminal."This is a big deal," said SDOT project manager Stuart Goldsmith at a public meeting last week. "It's a really, really critical piece in the urban trail system," he said. "It's a huge leap in connectivity."Indeed, completion of the asphalt trail will allow pedestrians or bicyclists to leave Magnolia and make their way to the Burke Gilman Trail by crossing the Fremont Bridge, Goldsmith noted at the Sept. 26 meeting.It's been a difficult planning process, according to Pete Lagerwey, an SDOT supervisor who helped oversee the construction of the first link in the Ship Canal trail in 1996. "Logistically, it's probably the most complicated project we've ever done," he said.
Phil Lane has a vision. That vision is complex, expansive and founded in basic humanitarian principles, and though it contains applications in the realm of international politics, it is not meant for politicians. It is meant for the people.Lane - CEO of United Indians of All Tribes Foundation (UIATF) headquartered in Discovery Park's Daybreak Star Cultural Center - is the brains behind "The Fourth Way," a 42-page document that lays out a plan for global peace and prosperity in the 21st century. Broadly populist in nature and ideologically grounded in aboriginal folk wisdom, the document is subtitled, "An Indigenous Contribution for Building Sustainable and Harmonious Prosperity in the Americas." In basic outline and tenor, "The Fourth Way" is an urgent cry for unity among indigenous peoples everywhere, with the message that such a collective bonding carries social, spiritual, economic and political implications for a worldwide demographic that largely has existed on the tenuous margins of mainstream society."We believe the timing is right," said Lane, who today will deliver "The Fourth Way" to an international conference on endogenous development and biocultural diversity in Geneva, Switzerland. Lane said that a confluence of recent developments - the advent of communication technologies such as e-mail, the shakeup and realignment of many nation-states, growing political activism among indigenous populations, the threat of terrorism, economic upheaval - has brought about a dynamic international arena primed for change. He added that world leaders such as Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez have opened the door for positive change by creating strong democratic institutions and economic empowerment in countries traditionally hobbled by poverty and political oppression.
In the weeks before the Toronto International Film Festival in early September, I deadpanned with all due solemnity to friends and colleagues that "'Borat' will be the linchpin of the festival." I was referring to the feature-film expansion of one of the most outrageous fixtures on HBO, the segment of "Da Ali G Show" that chronicles the passage of an imbecilic, sexist, homophobic, ethnically bigoted and obsessively anti-Semitic video journalist from Kazakhstan through these United States. It never occurred to me that my mock-prediction would come true.At Toronto, Borat ruled. Not only the vehemently improper movie, whose proper title is "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan," but Borat himself in the person of the brilliant, fearless, Cambridge-educated - and quite Jewish - Sacha Baron Cohen, who stayed in character (possibly even in his sleep) and showed up for his film's first public screening in a carriage pulled by a donkey. That the screening was permanently interrupted 20 minutes in by projector problems seemed only fitting. The replacement screening the next night was mobbed. So were all the shows in the largest reserved-for-press auditorium, and the critics' scorecard on the back page of each day's festival bulletin had "Borat" topping the chart, no matter how many high-profile Hollywood releases and latest works by esoteric cinema masters were also in the running.Now, all power to Borat, whose latest publicity coup cum act of political theater was to invade Washington, D.C., to invite "your great warlord Premier Bush" to come see his movie, even as the visiting leader of the real Kazakhstan was fuming over the film's myriad insults to his nation. And all power to Sacha Baron Cohen, who had already stolen "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby" from Will Ferrell during the summer (he played the gay, macchiato-sipping, Camus-reading "Frawnch" race-car driver), and who will be huge (along with being giraffe tall) when "Borat" opens in November. However, the sober critical fact is that "Borat," albeit an indecently funny and liberatingly un-PC event, barely hangs together as a movie even at 82 minutes.
Last Sunday, on morning TV, an old man with a fine, lived-in face - America's new PoetLaureate, in fact - opined that "We need poetry now, perhaps more than ever. Poetry teaches ushow to feel ... how to feel more than one thing at once." How gently, lucidly, this wisdom wasimparted. And it hit home, making me wish that the Toronto International Film Festival, where Irecently spent a glorious week, offered takeout service. Then one could bring home to Seattle'sscreens some of the most illuminating and beautiful cinematic poetry the world has tooffer.Two of my favorite films - Rolf de Heer's "Ten Canoes" and "The Journals of KnudRasmussen," co-directed by Zacharias Kunuk and Norman Cohn - fish for truth inhumankind's "primitive" past. "Canoes"' slyly genial narrator (David Gulpilil) spins a tale, circa1930, about a feisty young Aborigine who covets his older brother's youngest wife. In turn, as thetribe journeys upriver to build canoes and hunt geese, elder brother serializes a 1,000-year-oldlegend for the boy's instruction. Set in gorgeous widescreen landscapes and populated by unaffected, first-time actors, "TenCanoes" slips from black and white into color, from recent past to prehistoric times, from theelegant art of making a canoe to a fabled warrior's life and death immortalized in oral history.Telling time and stories, reading nature and humankind's place in it, human life itself - all flowas currents in "Ten Canoes"' great river, moving us in an ageless, democratizing medium.
When the Henry decides to celebrate the birthday of a friend, it does it with panache. A splendid exhibition of 75 world-class photos marks the 75th birthday of Joseph Monsen who, with his wife Elaine, has provided almost two-thirds of the more than 1,500 images held in the Henry's photography collection. If you like photography, come to this party.The Monsens began collecting photographs in 1969 when both were at Harvard on fellowships. Interested in art and searching for a collection focus, they turned to Harvard art historian James Ackerman. His advice: collect photography. When Dr. Monsen exclaimed that he didn't even like photography, he was told to do it anyway. He had a duty, because by the time the museums got around to it, it would be too late.That was discerning guidance. Monsen's duty became his passion almost immediately. He began buying at a time when few others were interested in old photos. Not only were the pictures more affordable then, but many would probably have been lost had he not purchased them. Finding them wasn't easy. There were no dealers and few books. But the Monsens persevered, and so began one of the country's truly fine private photograph collections.
It would be a sin to miss the production of "Doubt" now playing at Seattle Repertory Theatre. Playwright John Patrick Shanley's 90-minute Pulitzer- and Tony-winning drama delivers a perfect blend of humor and drama in a thought-provoking evening of theater. Audiences know Shanley's work from his Oscar-wining script for the film "Moonstruck." Here he delves into human and social issues by way of a moral whodunit. Shanley asks the questions and leaves the answers to the audience. Strongly directed by Warner Shook, the play takes place some 40 years before shocking allegations of sexual abuse seared headlines and heaped shame upon the Catholic Church. JFK had been assassinated, civil rights and women's liberation movements were being hatched and Vatican II had sprouted progressive limbs.Set against the backdrop of a Bronx Catholic school in 1964, Shanley's drama tells the story of a conservative, tough-as-nails nun facing the decision of a lifetime. Should she voice her suspicions about a liberal-minded priest's possible pedophilia? Or bury her fears and leave room for doubt? With this cross to bear, Sister Aloysius goes on a holy rampage, determined to do what she thinks is right - at all costs.
Game resultsLake Washington 27, Juanita 9Sept. 21, 7 p.m.In a Thursday night home game at Juanita, the visiting Kangs upended the Rebels, thanks to the superhuman effort by LW tailback Justin Kim, a 5-foot-11, 205-pound senior, who ran for a 4A Kingco record-breaking 360 yards on 20 carries. Kim has averaged about 171 yards thus far this season and scored the game's four touchdowns. The Kangs are now 3-1.The Rebels, who are 1-3, were bolstered by Nick Shipley's touchdown on a 72-yard kickoff return.
Rose Hill Elementary's first day in the brand new school building was very exciting. Students and parents waited anxiously for the first bell to ring to get their first view inside their new school building.What a wonderful sight to see such happy and excited faces! The hallways hummed with the sounds of thrilled students as they bustled down the hallways with their teachers, touring the school building.Rose Hill Elementary is happy to announce that it now offers extended day care at school. We welcome Audrey Lemek, the program's supervisor. There are still openings. If you are interested please call the extended day care office at 882-8175.
To help the school year start off in a positive direction, the Lake Washington Schools Foundation (LWSF) awarded grants of $200 to more than 80 teachers in the Lake Washington School District with one year or less of teaching experience. During a training session in mid-August, I made the surprise announcement and distributed the first of the checks.The grants are given to every grade level, from preschool to high school. Recipients included regular classroom teachers as well as teachers in special education, the English language learners program, Quest, music, library and physical education.The only stipulation on how to use the grant is for the teacher to spend the money in a way which benefits the learning environment. The grants have been spent on basic supplies and materials, organizers, washable pens, walkie-talkies, posters and books on tape. One teacher spent the majority of her grant at Half-Price Books to create an in-classroom library that she previously had thought would take her years to put together.
Discovery Community School and Carl Sandburg Elementary share more than a building; they share a common desire to keep their kids as safe from pesticides as possible. Because the campus is herbicide-free, parents and kids at these schools regularly pull weeds and spread mulch. It began in 1999 when Kirkland nurse and DCS parent Jill Albinger noticed that the district was using 60 gallons of a combination of Surflan, RoundUp and Signal at her children's school. (Surflan is listed as a U.S. EPA possible carcinogen, according to the Washington Toxics Coalition.)So began Jill's quest for pesticide-free grounds for the schools in the Lake Washington district. Three years later, she went on to work at the state level. The Children's Pesticide Right-to-Know Act passed in July 2002, requiring that schools notify parents when and where pesticides are used. Forty-eight hour notice prior to application is now required for any parent who requests notification.
Lake Washington School District (LWSD) students continue to improve their performance on the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL), according to the 2006 test score results. Long-term trends remain up in all grades and subjects that have been tested before. Gains occurred in all three grades tested in both writing and science. The largest gain was a 13-point leap in students reaching standard in eighth-grade science. Tenth-grade scores rose in all four subjects, including a 12-point gain in the percentage of students at standard in writing. This year was the first in which tenth-grade students will be required to meet the WASL standard in reading, writing and math in order to graduate. Just over 73 percent of tenth-graders tested passed all three of these tests on their first try. Another 18.4 percent missed only one test.Science scores reflected consistent increases in each of the three grades in which the test was administered. In fifth grade, 58.7 percent of students met the standard in science, up 2.2 percent from the 2005 scores. The state average in fifth grade is 35.7 percent. Eighth-grade science scores showed the greatest gain of all categories. This year, 67.4 percent of students met standard, up 13.1 percent from last year, and well above the state average of 42.9 percent. In tenth grade, 58.7 percent made the standard, up 2.6 percent from the previous year. That compares to an average of 34.9 percent statewide.
Talk about being stuck between a rock and a hard place.Some Lake Washington School District parents - particularly those in the Conifer Ridge neighborhood whose home school is Mark Twain Elementary - are up in arms about their children's school bus route being axed. How can this be, they say, when their homes exceed the one-mile limit from the school - the required minimum to get busing.On the other hand, the school district says these routes were informal to begin with: friendly arrangements were made among the bus driver, parents and the school. "Drivers, out of the goodness of their hearts, would say, 'I have room for more kids,' and pick up these extra kids," explained Kathryn Reith, the district's public information officer.So, traditions were established and expectations were formed. Families came to depend on these unregulated stops, some not having any idea of their informality. "When changes get made and transportation doesn't know that the driver was stopping on an informal basis," says Reith, "and suddenly the route is longer, and there's no room for kids. ..." Use your imagination. Retribution is demanded.
Ruth HambyRuth Hamby was born Oct. 20, 1906 in Earlington, Ky.Son Jack and family send birthday wishes to their "Southern belle." Marion SteinerMarion Steiner, nee Murphy, was born Sept. 21, 1906 in Providence, Rhode Island, one of five children. She and husband George had three daughters: Georgia, Fritzie and Karen. In 1942 the family moved to Seattle where George worked for Nordstrom.Two years later, George and Marion opened their first Merry-Go-Round Children's Store on 5th and University in Seattle. They subsequently opened one in Everett, Federal Way, Northgate and Bellevue.