Courtesy of Seattle crime blog extraordinaire, Seattle 911, comes an infuriating answer to a reader question about cops and hand-held cell phones. While the rest of us face fines of $124 for driving while operating a hand-held cell phone, the officer writing that ticket and pulling you over just might be using theirs, completely legally. It turns out the recently enacted law does not apply to police officers or ambulance drivers when they are operating emergency vehicles. more ›

Remember in the Mission: Impossible movies, when Tom Cruise is given messages that self-destruct into a puff of smoke after he memorizes them? Normal text messages should have that feature. This ill-fated Snohomish County couple is likely to agree with Seattlest: the P-I reports that during a homicide investigation, police investigators checked out the twosome's text message histories and found incriminating evidence that led to first-degree murder charges against them. more ›

The failing state of the roads on Capitol Hill (and maybe all over Seattle, we just happen to spend most of our time cursing Capitol Hill potholes) has been getting to us the last few days. Biking around, we're spending as much time avoiding potholes that will swallow our front tire as sleep-deprived drivers on cell phones. We wanted to get a photo to illustrate what we're talking about, and the only issue was, which huge pothole would it be? more ›

We spent last weekend at Crystal Mountain Resort, and we picked up a few tips from the staff to help you manage the crazy crowds during MLK weekend. more ›

There's an article bemoaning our pending loss of Daly's Drive-In in Eastlake in the Post Intelligencer today (with accompanying blog item--probably both inspired by a slightly previous blog item from the Stranger) headlined "Popular drive-in on way out." The thing is, Daly's isn't popular. It should be, and it was, but it isn't. more ›

THIS MONTH we've been talking about Seattle author Timothy Egan's The Worst Hard Time. We went over the big plow-up of the prairie, the hard-scrabble living, and Egan's decision to tell the story novelistically, rather than textbookily. more ›

We don't know why we agreed to this. Seattlest has given us another reason to be hopelessly addicted to the weirdness that is American Idol, and we've agreed to keep you updated on all things Fanjaya from here on out. Honestly, the only good thing to ever come from that show was Kelly Clarkson, and it's all been down hill from there. Until now. more ›

It seems like, all across the network, folks were up to no good. Maybe it was all the green beer from last weekend... more ›

Michael Dirda, in the New York Review of Books:

In contemporary America, as Jonathan Raban reminds us in Surveillance, any quest for anonymity—"to live obscurely" according to the Greek ideal for happiness—has grown increasingly difficult, if not impossible. And it's not only an Orwellian Big Brother who is watching. We track each other. We check out the backgrounds of friends, Saturday-night dates, and business associates; we data-mine and Google-search; when on line we worry about hackers, viruses, and identity theft. Schools and playgrounds are patrolled by guards, while spy cameras observe our children in the hallways and bathrooms. Only those who know the code can unlock the steel gates to our "planned communities." Amazon monitors our taste in books. Our cell phones take pictures and record conversations. People can't walk their dogs now without taking along their Blackberry or wearing their Bluetooth.

Howard Schultz is probably enjoying his first relaxing day in a while today after the Starbucks shareholder's meeting yesterday. At least, he finally had a chance to explain to everyone just what the hell he was talking about with that whole memo thing. You remember the memo--we're talking about the one where he complained that Starbucks had lost its way in the name of growth and had become a cookie cutter retail chain that was squeezing the romance out of caffeinated beverages. When he was dictating that memo it must have occurred to him that he'd be standing on the stage inside McCaw Hall someday soon explaining it. Yesterday was the day. more ›

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 and injuries. more ›

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. more ›

Seattlest finally got out to see a performance of Line One at the CHAC on Friday. The premise of Line One is that the actors on stage are all wearing Bluetooth cell phone earpieces - Different people call the show and are patched through to various actors' cell phones and the actors repeat what they say. The theme is different for each performance's phone calls, and part of the reason we took so long to get to a show is that we were waiting until the "Meet Me At The Mall" night. However, we screwed it up and went on Friday which was spooky and supernatural Friday the 13th night and had nothing to do with the mall. Meet Me At The Mall was Thursday night. more ›

In Bothell this weekend there's something called Country Village that's apparently a period piece shopping experience. So, kind of like a smaller version of Port Gamble? And 4Culture and the artist Amy-Ellen Trefsger will be doing an installation there in which AE lives on a small boat in the village for nine days. more ›

Alan Durning's experiment of severing his family from their car has gotten a good deal of ink from Seattlest, other places, and Seattlest again, not to mention his own experiences recollected at the Sightline blog. Heart-throb news stud Anderson Cooper has jumped in the mix, though, with a segment on his CNN show devoted to "low-car diets." more ›

Shanghaiist probably knows a little more about China than the Chicago Sun-Times. Giving them the benefit of the doubt on that one. The city does to have a music scene. Don't even front like they don't. They also have Dorito bananas and white guys shopping for wives. What they don't have is any more tolerance for jaywalkers. more ›

On Tuesday evening, Seattlest saw United 93 so you don't have to. Because really, who in the hell is eager to watch this particular film? Even with free admission, the theater was pretty empty. more ›

Recently, Seattlest had the pleasure of meeting and chatting with actor Thomas Haden Church, regarding Over The Hedge, Dreamworks' new animated feature opening in theaters May 19th. more ›

On Monday night, Seattlest arrived at the Showbox like we often do, a half hour early so we could sit in the Green Room, have a beer or two, and watch the under-agers patiently waiting in line outside. Our well planned arrival turned out to be somewhat premature however, as we held court with very few other grown-up types in the cozy little bar hugging the south side of the Showbox. Meanwhile, a growing line of minors in faux-punk fatigues wrapped itself around the building like a python to a rat. more ›

Last Saturday night Seattlest was shivering outside the Paramount waiting for the friend-with-the-tickets to show up for the New Pornographers/Belle and Sebastian show. From our vantage point, we watched as the doors opened and the line poured into the Paramount, a standing wave forming a few feet before the marquee, as people held up their cell phones to take a picture in case of massive cerebral trauma rendering them unable to remember where they were later on. more ›

Protector of all things free in the Interwebs, Pied Piper of copyright freedom, Underdog of the digital era--Lawrence Lessig has a new love, and it is...Microsoft? Lessig recently wrote a short post for Wired, in which he lauds the new Borg technology in Vista called InfoCard. more ›

-Senator Cantwell deftly parlays the Stevens/BP sucker punch and sends a heel in the direction of their chin by propsing to beef up oil transport safety in the Sound. more ›

“It is always SO crowded.” more ›

So you can't eat anything these days. That bag of chips has just given you cancer, that candy bar has just turned you into a blubbery whale, oh, and the fish you had for dinner last night had toxic levels of mercury in it. more ›

Boeing is currently working hard to keep you connected during the dead air you now experience during flight. Seattlest, personally, is gratefull for the one window of opportunity we have to turn off our cell phones. Not muted. Not vibrate only. Off. Man, is that sweet. Boeing, don't take away our in-flight naps. They're all we have left. more ›

If you're so sick of it...and you can take the time to write to the paper about it...maybe you should say something to the rudies. more ›

A bit light on the levity this week on Showdogs: Seattle's own Liberace fell down the stairs and broke his little leg. Brandon and Ryan hung tough with him at the vet's, at least until Brandon had to leave to sell cell phones. We think we're starting to "get" the relationship...especially when Brandon referred to Ryan as his "housewife." more ›