Weirdly, the case of Amazon's disappearing "Buy Now" button does, in fact, have something to do with Harry Potter. But it's more about accounting wizardry than the fun kind. We colonials have mostly* been spared being unbuttoned, but on its British site, Amazon has been dematerializing the impulse buy-friendly buttons right and left when disputing with publishers over the vig for book sales. Amazon has not been cutting off its button nose to spite its......

First of all, we haven't read the book. We've read other Dostoevsky novels, but not this one. On the other hand, we're not stuck in that dreadful Harry Potter situation where we're gonna tell you all the stuff they left out. What they left in is the poverty, fear, gory ax, greed, and other good stuff that makes for theater you leave talking about. That Theater Under Ground's Crime and Punishment is a different take......

Seattlest is obviously rather excited about the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows tomorrow night. So excited, in fact, that we thought we'd go to the Google to find out what sorts of happenings are going to, well, happen tomorrow in celebration of the big release. We knew about an event at the University Bookstore and figured something similar would be going down at Elliot Bay Books and maybe one or two local......

The seventh and final Harry Potter book comes out this Friday at midnight and OH BOY are we excited. We've reserved our copy, cleared our schedule, and—like a sports fan with a game on Tivo—have made plans to live in seclusion, away from all media sources and other fans until we've finished. It's going to be awesome. But let's indulge in a little speculation before the blood bath begins. Obviously, good will triumph over evil......

I love Al Gore and I was really looking forward to seeing him talk at Town Hall on Monday night, but I was under no illusions that I would get to see him announce that he was running for President. I fell for that one before. When Barack Obama came through town on a book tour I got in a blood-boiling, fist-pumping frenzy for some kind of announcement, but what I got was a tepid......

Washington's own Gig Harbor. How do we know? Amazon.com's running a contest. If your town pre-orders more copies of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows per capita than any other, Amazon will donate $5000 (via Amazon gift certificate) to a local charitable organization. Four Washington towns are in the top 10: Gig Harbor, Issaquah, Snohomish, and Woodinville. Also in the top 100: Port Orchard, Poulsbo, Lake Stevens, Bothell, Redmond, and Sammamish. And yes, we......

This week we'd like to congratulate the -ist network's Mother Hen, Gothamist's Jen Chung, who found herself a recipient of Wired Magazine's Wired Rave Award. If that doesn't sound terribly exciting, keep in mind another recipient was J.K. Rowling. Yep, that's right, the -ist network and Harry Potter now have something in common. Go us. Austinist has a chat with the ever-fashionable Golden Girl Rue McClanahan, and managed to catch some local fashionistas making......

When we asked which Mariner hit the game winning home run on Opening Day in 1986 we felt we had come up with a question that would stump the room. However, when we saw that nearly half teams correctly answered Jim Presley we realized that we weren't the only ones to have their childhood ruined by the boys in blue and yellow. After the shock had worn off we found ourselves with a three way......

Marya Sea Kaminski as Rachel in My Name is Rachel Corrie on the Leo K. Stage at Seattle Repertory Theatre March 15 through April 22, 2007. Photo copyright Chris Bennion 2007. Writing on The New Republic Online in November, 2006, James Kirchick snarkily commented, "Of all the subjects for a 90-minute, one-woman show, Rachel Corrie ought to have been at the bottom of the list." Rachel Corrie was an Olympia native and Evergreen State......

Between fake terrorist alerts and scandals big and small, this just might be the Best Best of the -ists ever. We're exhausted just thinking about it. First up, SFist, who saw their little 'ole site be the center of what was a nice little scandal (even getting their editor on TV) only to find their scandal dwarfed by the even bigger scandal caused by their Mayor boffing one of his aides' wife. We're not......

International travel is a challenge for a book whore like Seattlest--how many titles can we cram into our carry-on and still have room for at least a few necessary items? (Our journey began before the foiling of the London plot, when we liked to carry toiletries with us in case our checked luggage got lost.) True, we have an iPod and we did load a few goodies of the bookish variety onto it, but in......

If you’re like Seattlest, you hate the game, not the playa. If you’re a Seattle City Council member, you heart the homeless, but they tents the live in? Not so much. Councilmembers unanimously approved Harry Potter-esque District 2 council member Bill “Fergie” Ferguson’s proposal to turn closed motels into homeless housing. The “Jumpstart Initiative” is modeled on the Aloha Inn, the Aurora Avenue motel-turned-tent city remedy the city purchased in 1991. That earsplitting sound you......

A movie will cost you nearly ten dollars at a theater. March of Penguins at the Guild 45th, for example, will set you back $9. We hear that's something to see. Cheapskates can drive up to the Crest and see second-run films for a three-spot weeks after everyone else, but generally a movie costs you ten in the theater. You get a break with home rentals. Blockbuster, Hollywood, Scarecrow, et all charge a couple bucks......