"King County Executive Along for the Ride" by Seattlest Flickr Photographer HonuPhoto White Center Now reports that King County Executive Ron Sims has proposed two staggered fare increases for Metro buses on his blog. In other news--Ron Sims writes a blog?!Yesterday's late afternoon thunder and lightning struck a little too close to home for a West Seattle Blog reader. A cedar tree in their neighbor's back yard was split in two by a lightning strike,......

"Ghost Pedestrians" courtesy of the Seattle Municipal Archives If recently released rankings of big cities in America are to believed, yes. Seattle is the #1 Big City in the U.S. for Pedestrian Safety. And to that we say--remind us never to walk anywhere else in America, ever again. In the lifetime we've called Seattle home, Seattle has never seemed less friendly or safe for pedestrians. Every time we step into the street, be it in......

While the printed media may be calling it the "Seattle streetcar" now, it will always be the S.L.U.T. to us. Yesterday afternoon one of the South Lake Union Trolleys struck a parked truck its backend was hanging over the streetcar's path. While the accident did not seriously damage either the streetcar or the parked truck, it did shut down service for 25 minutes, and the streetcar has been removed from service for minor repairs.......

We just barely made it into Be Kind Rewind. Due to the previous night's snowstorm, director/brilliantly weird little man Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Science of Sleep) didn't make it all. It's too bad, since his creative vision is what makes this film worth a viewing (in theaters soon). The cheesy storyline--after erasing the VHS inventory of a dying video store with magnets, Mos Def and Jack Black have to......

Ever see a basketball shot end up sticking in between the rim and the backboard? Seems a similar accident of physics happened Saturday night in West Seattle, where a elderly woman driver lost control of her car, hit one of the anchor wires on a utility pole, and somehow her car ended up balancing right on the wire. West Seattle Blog has video of a tow truck pulling the car off the wires. More photos,......

As of this morning, queer couples in the state of Washington have about three new rights, which include, but are not limited to: 1. The right to spend time together. 2. The right to talk to each other's doctor. 3. The right to call each other "partner." Whoopdeedoo. We're not as excited about the new domestic partnership law that goes into effect today, as we are that, when you sign up, you get a......

A few days ago, in previewing Thursday's Be Your Own PET / Arctic Monkeys show at the Showbox, Seattlest said something like, "This could be a band to watch in '07 and '08" -- referring to Be Your Own PET. Today, we modify this statement a bit: "...band to watch, like a horrible car accident on I-5." To be clear, the singles released thus far, such as "Adventure" and "Bicycle..." really are good, infectious......

This month Seattlest Book Club is reading Seattle-born and -raised Pauls Toutonghi's debut novel Red Weather, just out in paperback from Random House. You'll get a discount if you buy it at Bailey-Coy or Santoro's. We emailed questions, he emailed us back answers. Red Weather is set in Milwaukee, but are there any aspects of your experience growing up in Seattle that make their way into the book? Many of them, absolutely. Well, "Alexander Hamilton......

--How the hell does Hugh Foskett end up standing in for Conor Oberst in this newspaper clip? I barely even know Foskett was a candidate for the Fightin 43rd's 1st position, and now Toronto thinks he's a rock star. --There's a "Ride of Silence" going on tomorrow Wednesday, May, 16 at 6:30 at Gasworks to raise awareness of the fact that cars and bikes share the road. --Bellevue will start offering domestic partner benefits......

It was a one-night-only monologue, Mike Daisey's Stories from the Atlantic Night Cafe, and CHAC artistic director Matthew Kwatinetz was happily rearranging chairs for a packed house. Backstage, the program informed us, Daisey was taking an hour to scribble away on a yellow legal pad the outline for what would be a brand-new 90-minute-ish monologue, his delivery punctuated only by pauses as he sipped from a glass of water or glared at remembered insults......

--Bus wraps are dead! No longer will we have to stare out at a dim world through other people's smiling faces. We can handle the fare increase if that's what it takes. --Seattle startup Exbiblio is blogging their own layoffs restructuring retrenchment. Now that's an open blogging policy. --Best "Hello, My Name Is" sticker ever. --Best umbrella ever. Seriously, we're getting Make Magazine after these guys. --Your giant dog, your tiny condo, and you.......

Those beknighted souls with web-enabled cell phones will now get places faster than everyone else, because the Washington State DOT has created small screen versions of their wildly popular real-time traffic maps. The larger real-time maps, launched in 1994, receive 400,000 daily page views. (Though state officials admit that much of this comes from people who've Googled "Seattle Traffic" in search of local reunion concerts of the seminal 1960's Steve Winwood-fronted band.) Until now they've......

Much like Izzy, Seattlest was curled up in a ball(gown) throughout most of the Grey's Anatomy summer break. Now, Sunday is the new thursday and it's just Grey's, OK? Saying the full name is so last season. Episode one kicks off with Meredith riffing on time. It's elastic, like your momma's pants. We return to find Izzy on the floor, and Meredith wondering why she's called to console her--because she's the "president of people......

Well, well, well friends—and by "friends" we mean people with whom we have established an imaginary, one-sided rapport—we're just about at the end of the line, season-wise, and you know what that means: Time for the writers to trot out the hottest, most cutting-edge, gripping, edge-of-your-seat plot points imaginable. Shish-ka-bob train passengers? Done it. Between-the-sheets shockers? Done it. Peeing without washing your hands? Bingo. (Before we delve too deeply into the sterilization shenanigans of the......

Show of hands, Seattle—how many of us called in sick this morning with plans to just end it all? Well, postpone those urges of mass suicide for a little while longer as we answer this week's burning question: What in the name of Mike Holmgren is a Code Black? We've been teased, taunted, nigh on tortured with those incessant All Important Episode promos showcasing the two words no surgeon wants to hear. And no, they're......

Well, well, well. Will wonders never cease? We guess if you complain about the formulaic opening of a show long enough, sooner or later someone starts listening. So this week, dear viewers, feel free to send letters of congratulatory adulation (and sizable cash donations) to Seattlest for finally using its powers for good. Because, as far as we're concerned, it was our big mouths that managed to turn those trite, poorly woven medical-affliction-as-metaphor-for-life opening moments......

My daily downtown waterfront run takes me past the ticky-tack piers and the trolley garage into lovely Myrtle Edwards Park. Who was Myrtle Edwards and how can I thank her? Myrtle Edwards was a longtime Seattle City Councilwoman who served from 1955 until her tragic death in a car accident in 1969. She worked hard for Seattle parks--including heading up the acquisition of what would become Gas Works Park, thus transforming an industrial-waste eyesore into......