How? All you have to do to is go nine weeks without food or water, locked inside a window seat. David Blaine, take note! From September 28 to November 30, Bess the cat was trapped inside a window seat, wasting down to 4.7 pounds before finally deciding to meow for help and being rescued. "Nine weeks locked in a box, without food and water, or even much air. What was left? What was meowing?" $3,000 in vet bills later, she's moving slowly but is back up to 6.4 pounds. And now, a LOLcat. (Thanks to tipster H.W. Duncan.) more ›

Holy smokes! Giant fish on the MTA, Paris Hilton in jail, then out, then in again, Al Gore, goatses, blumpkins, Matt Damon, and baby art critics! It's been a busy week across the Ist-A-Verse, and here's a smattering of what's been going on. more ›

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. more ›

David Streitfield in the LA Times (registration required, regrettably) notes a new experience for him at Amazon.com: books he adds to his shopping cart get more expensive if he doesn't buy them right away. On Nov. 6, seeking to boost my dubious culinary skills, I decided to buy "The Cast Iron Skillet Cookbook." I went to Amazon and placed the book in my electronic shopping cart but got distracted and never finished the transaction. The... more ›

Monday, after posting our pro-lap dance response to Susan Paynter's PI column, we received an email from an anonymous local stripper:

I just read your defense of your right to make women touch you sexually for pay and was wondering: more ›

Seattle-based Fortune 500 companies have been getting a lot of attention from Consumerist lately -- first Starbucks, now WaMu:

Washington Mutual Inc. says it moved tellers out from behind counters to encourage "friendly customer service in a welcoming retail environment," a design it proudly patented. more ›

Celebrate Ben Franklin's 300th birthday with the Bikini Bandits and Phillyist! (NSFW). Speaking of Mr. Franklin, send in a picture of Ben (or Ed Rendell) with a red tongue and win a free t-shirt. And they might have the next YearlyKos in Philly. more ›

Lots of people love Anne Lamott. Us? Well, we're big fans of Bird by Bird, and moderate fans of Operating Instructions. Then, around the time Traveling Mercies came out, we kind of burned out on Annie. We're not sure if she's gotten more precious as time goes on, or if we've just gotten more sensitive to it, but over the years, as we read more and more of her Salon.com columns, we became less and less enthralled. more ›

Ray Bradbury has written an editorial in the LA Times begging the city to build a monorail. In a year. A note from Seattlest to LAist: welcome to hell. more ›

According to news stories via The Globe and Mail and The LA Times (registration required), an accused lawyer by the name of Jules Zalon representing Robert Crumb filed a lawsuit in a Seattle court December 21 against Amazon.com seeking compensation for an older case of copyright infringement whereby the online shopping behemoth allegedly made an unauthorized use of Crumb's keep on truckin' character on its website in 2003. more ›

While anyone working under the title "former police chief" could reasonably be expected to endorce throwing the book at drug users, actual former Seattle chief of police Norm Stamper wrote a book entitled, "Breaking Rank: A Top Cop’s Exposé of the Dark Side of American Policing." more ›

The FBI is investigating a man who spent a signifigant amount of time in Seattle from 1999-2000 for possible connections to the London bombings. more ›