Today there is an extra skip in our step, and song in our whistle. All across Arizona pitchers and catchers are reporting to work, which means Spring Training is underway. [Large sigh of happiness] The Seattle Times’ Geoff Baker has this glorious day covered on his blog, including the news that Eric Bedard has been named the Opening Day starter. Larry Stone can catch you up on what you have may have missed during......

Boom! Governor Gregoire comes right out of the gate at the new legislative session with a new bill laying "the groundwork for concrete limits on greenhouse gas emissions beginning in 2012." And, in just four short (or long, depending on how you look at it) years, the bill "would give the state Department of Ecology the authority to regulate those emissions," reports the P-I. The main thing is that "big polluters" in Washington State would......

As we write Pioneer Square is alive with the blue and white. The booze is flowing and more than a few Redskins fans are being cursed. The scene outside Tiki Bobs is one of belligerence and enthusiasm. The playoffs are here and the time for the rock solid game plan is now. Keys to victory: A. Blitz their nobody QB Collins often and early. This guy has never played in Qwest Field before, if......

This fall we are combining our love of the football and our dream of learning to cook. On Sunday morning, following a trip to a local farmer’s market/major supermarket chain, we will be preparing a meal from the city of the Seahawks opponent. Then at halftime we will throw our badly burned hands in the air and make hot dogs. Seahawks vs. Arizona Style Enchiladas with Homemade Corn Tortillas and Salsa preview When preparing food......

This fall we are combining our love of the football and our dream of learning to cook. On Sunday morning, following a trip to a local farmer’s market/major supermarket chain, we will be preparing a meal from the city of the Seahawks opponent. Then at halftime we will throw our badly burned hands in the air and make hot dogs. It’s very possible that the Arizona style enchilada was made up by a marketing firm......

This fall we are combining our love of the football and our dream of learning to cook. On Sunday morning, following a trip to a local farmer’s market/major supermarket chain, we will be preparing a meal from the city of the Seahawks opponent. Then at halftime we will throw our badly burned hands in the air and make hot dogs. Seahawks vs. Cheesesteaks Preview We feel bad for the people of Philadelphia. They’ve given us......

All hail Lofa Tatupu and the Seahawks defense. But mostly Lofa Tatupu. While the offense (311 total yards) and the special teams (2 missed field goals, 30.4 yards per punt, that late game return) were shitting the bed in today's win over the Eagles, the defense forced four punts, two interceptions, a missed field goal, and a turnover on downs on the Eagles' last eight drives. Tatupu, who had three interceptions including the game-clincher, should......

The glorious fall sunsets have disappeared along with the mouldering husks of Halloween pumpkins, and according the weather report, we can all expect a long, cold, wet weekend. But this being the Northwest, that's never stopped us from getting out and about; here's the weekend plans of your intrepid Seattlest contributors: By the time this hits the digital newsstands, Jeremy is going to be on his way to Fadó for post-work cocktails; after that......

When Semisonic's Feeling Strangely Fine came out in 1998, Seattlest was 18 years old and leaving the crushing open spaces of Wyoming for good. We liked the album then, but it wasn't until a year later -- this time leaving Phoenix, Arizona for good -- that we really fell in love with it. We were by ourselves, pulling a U-Haul trailer behind our '76 El Camino, and we were on our way to Washington state......

It's Seattle Shakespeare Company's version of the wandering prince Pericles on Friday night for MvB, followed Saturday night by Britain's accordion-driven, Brechtian street opera trio with neo-castrati Martyn Jacques, the Tiger Lilies at the Moore, ladies and gentlemen. Having been invited down to San Francisco for a friend’s bachelorette bacchanalia with only one directive ("Bring a wig"), Courtney is hoping she doesn’t end up in the clink this weekend. While laughing at Charles for attending......

There is no prettier place in America to watch a sporting event than Husky Stadium. Boats dot Lake Washington off the east end zone, the foothills are beyond, and, off in the gloaming, the Cascades. And there's the Husky band too, who last week did a James Brown tribute. Seriously, even if you aren't into sports, you should check it out. Tomorrow's game is at noon, and it's supposed to be 50 and sunny--perfect football......

A more dismal Northwest football weekend we can hardly remember. First, on Saturday afternoon--as NYC sportscaster Warner Wolf would say, "If you had Washington State and 45 points, you lost!" Oregon beat the Cougs 53-7, and the game wasn't as close as the final score indicates. The Cougs were down 40-0 at halftime. We flipped on the post-game show to hear the Cougs' radio team explaining why it's hard to recruit top athletes to Pullman.......

As we were ducking out of yet another Garfield blowout loss to Franklin, we joked to our friends, "What if the Huskies and Seahawks lose too! That would sure suck." But the Huskies were only three point underdogs, and the Seahawks favored to beat lowly Arizona, so we laughed the laugh of a man who's about to go late to a dinner party. We were still laughing at halftime of the Husky game, having moseyed......

While you're enjoying an unseasonably sunny summer afternoon, we will be at Safeco Field, showing our undying support for the 2007 Seattle Mariners, authors of one of the greatest collapses in baseball history. We're not fairweather fans, not us. We gallantly display our pride for the local nine, those proud lads who...um...ok, fine, we lucked into a free ticket and didn't have other plans. Anyway, misery loves company, so we've fired up the Seattlest History-O-Matic......

The Avett Brothers make Arizona football coach Mike Stoops look even more like a pussy than he typically does. Ya see, while packed into the 20-deep, stage-width-wide crowd for The Avett Brothers at the Mural Amphitheater, we had one eye--as we often do--on a sporting event. The banjo is the Avetts' featured instrument, and it takes no small amount of moxie to try to rock out an outdoor crowd with a banjo. For one thing,......

Well-known alterna-librarian Jessamyn West came to town recently, and finally had a chance to check out our flagship library. Her verdict? I saw a real disconnect beween the lovely outside and grand entry spaces to the library, plus a few other very design-y areas, and the rest of the building. Materials were hard to find. VERY hard to find. Signage was abysmal, often just laserprinted pieces of paper, sometimes laminated and sometimes not. Doors to......

The Pac-10 media pre-season football poll is out--saw it first on the Husky football wonderland that is Bob Condotta's blog--and the Huskies are ninth. USC is a unanimous pick for first. Only Stanford will suck worse than the Huskies, according to the fourth estate. Here's the full list: 1. USC 2. Cal 3. UCLA 4. Arizona State 5. Oregon State 6. Oregon 7. Arizona 8. Washington State 9. Washington 10. Stanford The thing that jumps......

Meeting Jesca Hoop before a recent opening-slot gig at the Showbox, we weren't entirely sure what to make of her. With her debut LP not out for two months and only a few songs available streaming on the net, we labored--mistakenly--under the impression that this waifish Jack Mormon who'd spent several years homesteading was really just another singer-songwriter strumming an acoustic guitar. And it's true--when she took the stage, she did open with set of......

We’ve been on a mountain bike clinic road trip smörgåsbord, starting in Bellingham a few weeks ago and then cruising through Hood River and ending up this past weekend near our hometown of Salt Lake City, Utah. This past weekend we coached a camp up in Park City, where it was a breezy 92 degrees for our afternoon rides—a temperature that is ridiculous in its own right yet still a respite from the record-setting spree......

The rumor is that liberals don't vote. That goes for presidents as much as it does for American Idol, and our guess would be that it applies even more to the latter. We've heard it from several people that adults don't vote, either. After last week's grossly misguided injustice, we're fairly certain both rumors are true. That's why we're making it a point to head off further sadness the best way we know how:......

Tom Porras, who started 17 games at QB for the University of Washington in the late 70s, is now wearing an electronic monitoring device along with his '79 Sun Bowl ring. He's been indicted for sexually assaulting a student at the Phoenix-area school where he was a substitute teacher and coach. A rather prurient account comes from the Arizona Republic:There was soft music playing in the loft when the 17-year-old track athlete arrived at her......

One day in the early 90s, then-Husky basketball coach Lynn Nance said to himself, "You know, I'm pretty happy with Prentiss Perkins and Bryant Boston at guard," and declined to offer a scholarship to a young Canadian and UW fan named Steve Nash. And a damn good thing, too. Nash, as we all saw Sunday afternoon, will do anything to stay off the court in crunchtime, including spontaneous hemophilia. Gutless. Just gutless. The 92-93 Huskies......

Tomorrow is Cinco De Mayo, so you already know that any vaguely Mexican destination is going to be filled with jackasses drinking margaritas and acting like idiots over what isn't really Mexican independence day. We're fine with the drunkenness, we're fine with the jackassery, but really, there are much better ways to spend your day and night than in some overly adorned restaurant. Here are three of them, and since we know you're going to......

Dammit, she auditioned in Seattle. Can't we claim her? It probably wouldn't be fair, since she's from Arizona, but last night it was the closest Seattle got to blowing minds on American Idol. Sparks gave us chills and goosebumps, proving that she has what it takes to be the runner up for this year's show. She still hasn't quite shut MindyDoo down, but chances are nobody really will. MD came out and rocked it......

Via Seahawks Insider: Sep 9 Tampa Bay 1:15pm Sep 16 @Arizona 1:05pm Sep 23 Cincinnati 1:05pm Sep 30 @San Francisco 1:05pm Oct 7 @Pittsburgh 10:00am Oct 14 New Orleans 5:15pm (Sunday night) Oct 21 St. Louis 1:15pm Week 8 BYE Nov 4 @Cleveland 1:05pm Nov 12 San Francisco 5:30pm (Monday night) Nov 18 Chicago 5:15pm (Sunday night) Nov 25 @St. Louis 10:00am Dec 2 @Philadelphia 10:00am Dec 9 Arizona 1:05pm Dec 16 @Carolina 10:00am Dec......

Really the only thing worth remembering from last night's game was an amazing swing by Ichiro. In the 4th inning, Harden threw him a nasty splitter that fooled him. But he changed his swing mid-stroke, adjusted his bat downward, and reached the ball about a foot off the ground. And he didn't just make contact, which would've been an amazing feat in itself--he lined the ball into centerfield. Then Beltre grounded into a double play.......

...in which we pit two bands against each other, to better determine how you should spend your Tuesday night. In this corner: Peachcake Weight: 200 lbs soaking wet Hometown: Phoenix Peachcake is composed of Stefan Pruett and John O'Keefe, two enthusiastic Arizona kids who like to dress up and make sunny electro-dance rock. Their debut full-length won't be out until this summer, but what we've heard of it is upbeat synthy pop songs with completely......

Spring practice is underway (the Huskies start April 9), so here's an early look at the Pac-10 in 2007 --Arizona: After scoring in single digits four times last year, Coach Mike Stoops fired almost his entire offensive coaching staff and brought in a guy from Texas Tech to run the Air Raid offense. Think multiple formations, short passes, backs running routes in the flat. Often teams will defend it by dropping linemen back into......

No, we can't root for the Huskies, but there are plenty of former kids who a few short years ago were playing in front of sparse crowds at some smelly high school gym, but in the next two days will play ball on a national stage: Thursday --Mitch Johnson (O'Dea) of Stanford, vs. Terrance Williams (Rainier Beach) of Louisville, 9:40am --Micah Downs (Juanita) of Gonzaga vs. Indiana, 6:45pm Friday --Marcelus Kemp (Garfield) and Lyndale Burleson......

Seattlest was down in Arizona for spring training last week, and dammit if we didn't just miss what sounds like a hell of a lot of fun with Jerramy Stevens. From The Arizona Republic:A Seattle Seahawks player faces charges of driving under the influence and possession of marijuana after his Tuesday morning arrest in downtown Scottsdale. Jerramy Stevens, the NFL team's starting tight end, was taken into police custody around 2:30 a.m. after he admitted......