You can tell it's Seafair when your pets are trembling under the coffee table. Nothing signifies the dog days of summer in Seattle like the roar of a defanged F-18 driving your dog to piss himself. Combined with the Navy sending a sampling of its Pacific Fleet into Elliott Bay this week, Seafair isn’t so much a summer celebration as it is a friendly flexing of our military might. Since the Seattle area may......

A Bellingham man accused of deserting his Army unit in 2001 has been arrested by U.S. Border Officers. Nicholas Olson, now 29, was arrested in Sweetgrass, Mont., on July 3rd as he was trying to re-enter the country from Canada. He will be extradited to the Army to face charges of desertion. The maximum penalty a U.S. soldier can face for desertion during a time of war is death. While the U.S. has not......

The most unfortunate victims of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor--which happened 66 years ago today--were surely the 2,333 military personnel who lost their lives. FDR called it, "a date which will live in infamy." Perhaps in 1941, a surprise attack on another country's military was infamous. But considering that in 1986 the U.S. launched a surprise attack on another country's civilians, 12/7 looks a lot less infamous than the direct domestic aftermath, felt especially......

We haven't read a ton of military history, but we've read enough to know that the most grievous mistakes by battle commanders aren't those that lead to defeat, but those that are made in the wake of victory. The biggest mistakes are by commanders who, having driven their opposition into full retreat, fail to press the advantage, chase the retreaters down, and destroy them. To cite just one example, had Confederate General P.G.T Beauregard ordered......

Look out, Kate's: Mulleady's is a new contender for Seattlest's favorite Monday trivia quiz. And since we only came in second place, you know we actually like it. The host kicked off trivia with theme music, and we were immediately jealous. If we can figure out how to play Darth Vader's entrance theme next time we host at the Old Pequliar, we're totally ripping off that idea. The questions were a potpourri -- some......

The protests being staged at the port down in Olympia by the Port Militarization Resistance seem like a huge operation when you read the papers: Police wearing riot gear fired pepper spray projectiles into a crowd of more than 150 protesters Tuesday night at the Port of Olympia, and several military convoys eventually moved out. Olympia police spokesman Dick Machlan said 43 people were arrested and then released while prosecutors decide whether to charge them.......

Last night, in the middle of the movie round, Seattlest officially became old. "What Canadian actor, who died in Mexico, appeared in seven movies directed by John Hughes, more than any other performer?" we asked. "Who's John Hughes?" we heard some people ask in response. The rebellious voice of your parent's youth, said our head. Occasionally we figure Seattlest Trivia should have some Seattle trivia in it, so we did a Seattle round. The......

Tonight the Elliott Bay Book Co. hosts a trio of writers touring as the "Akashic All-Stars." Akashic is a small literary press based in New York (specifically, Brooklyn--is anything cool left in Manhattan?). Only ten years old, Akashic is a sign of a promising future for American letters. Like the music industry, publishing is being transformed by technology, allowing for smaller firms run by people with both business smarts and passion for what they......

The Central Library played host last night to a host of concerned citizens and Thomas E. Ricks, author of the best-selling Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq. They put Ricks in the big auditorium for good reason. Fiasco was a #1 New York Times best-seller, finalist for the Pulitzer, winner of the Gelber Prize, etc., etc. Plus it plays to the liberal instincts of Seattle's finest. The room was crammed full of business suits......

We're not a tough, no-nonsense ex-military policeman. We're not an "extraordinarily smart, almost supernaturally tough, self-sufficient wanderer who, when he decides something needs doing, gets the thing done with his own unique blend of brains and brawn." Our weight may be somewhere in the range between 220 and 250 lbs., but we're nowhere near 6'5" tall. And when we relate our adventures in first person, we scrupulously avoid the singular. But, just like Jack Reacher,......

Some guy who decided Halloween was just too fun to be only one day a year got a heavy dose of ironic justice yesterday:A Puyallup man who posed as a decorated Marine Corps captain for two years will tend graves at the Tahoma Military Cemetery in Kent as part of 500 hours of community service, a federal judge has decided. Reggie L. Buddle, 59, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to unlawful wearing of U.S.......

Watching David Hare's dramatization of the run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq last night at ACT, we were reminded of an email exchange we had that summer with an old college friend. Our friend, a Brit, was at the time starting her career as a history teacher, and if we recall correctly, we wrote her something to the effect of, "You know why World War I started, you know why World War II or......

Okay, okay. So Pride is actually going to happen. Even now, on the precipice of this extraordinary weekend celebration o' gayness, all our friends have no effing clue what's going on. If they, in all their gay glory, don't have a clue, we figured maybe you don't either. But Seattlest is here for you in these tough times and that's why we're gonna break it down all easy-like and tell you what we think......

This week's Comment of the Week was posted as a reply to a post about an immigration announcement out of the office of Mayor Greg Nickels and uses the word "homo" six times, including such creative constructions as "homo liberals," "homo culture," and "liberal homos." Funny how homo liberals, choose not to see the real enemy in North America and they opt for hating America. Mexico has no culture except being forced into the Catholic......

We are, in fact, over half-way there, and yet we continue to live on a prayer--a prayer that the latter half of SIFF contains nearly as many fine films as what's been shown thus far. Seattlest applies our well-honed knowledge of all things cinema to the SIFF catalogue in order to point out some notable films playing this weekend: · Children of the War We've heard good things about this powerful documentary on the......

Another group of noobs got rescued off Mt. Hood recently, and we scanned the news looking for what people had to say on the subject. We follow climbing-related news not because we're climbers per se (in fact Seattlest is really nothing of the sort), but to keep tabs on what the rest of the world thinks about "extreme" sports. And sadly we've found that digging up people saying stupid things on the topic of high-altitude......

At the Microsoft Strategic Account Summit yesterday morning Bill Gates dropped some future knowledge on the assembled ad men and tech types. A few of those nuggets we found particularly interesting and insightful: Prediction #4: There Will Be No Street Cars in Our Large Cities. All hurry traffic will be below or high above ground when brought within city limits. In most cities it will be confined to broad subways or tunnels, well lighted and......

Everything we know about dodging the draft by heading to Canada we learned from The Brothers K and popular mythology. So, we don't know much. Little before our time, there. Despite the fact that today's army is all volunteer (and today's Canada is more Conservative) there are still some soldiers waiting out Iraq up north. Almost everyone that this Salon article mentions seems to have already pulled a shift in the Middle East and is......

--Much to our surprise, the father of Anna Nicole Smith's baby is not Shawn Kemp. --Adam Morrison gets a fine handed to him, Warren Moon gets a breathalyser handed to him, and Jeff Weaver gets his ass handed to him. --Little Nemo in the dead letter office. --There was a bench-clearing altercation in today's otherwise-awful M's game. --Turns out the military doesn't always want to hear about toxic gas. M-4 tank crews of the......

The scoreboard at Everett Memorial Stadium will be incredibly accurate this season. Why? Because Dino Rossi is buying a minority share in the Aquasox, and he tends to get bitchy when people lose count. Rossi will be making the announcement with fellow new minority owner Jay Buhner, where it’s a safe bet that Rossi will make sure that the two are seated. This will complete Rossi's reverse-Bush résumé-- elected official, lost disputed election for higher......

Example number fourteen of Seattle's trend towards blandness, homogeneity and steady corporate march (wingtipped jackboots) towards complete and total cultural entropy comes today via sporting goods retailer G.I. Joes, or, as they are currently rebranding themselves, "Joes." Mother fucking "Joes?" God dammit. Seattlest loved G.I. Joes. Its mix of urban trail gear and skiing equipment alongside camping, hunting, fishing and outdoor work gear gave us hope that Red and Blue might one day get......

"We're gonna send you to military school" will no longer be an idle threat only of rich parents, if Governor Gregoire gets her way. She's backing a "boot-camp-style" academy for our state's high school dropouts.The governor is seeking about $6 million to build and operate the academy, which would serve about 300 dropouts each year — two intensive five-month sessions of 150 youths, drawn from around the state. After scouring the state for possible sites,......

Realizing that trying to protect our way of life with humans gets people killed, the Navy has decided to do the job with sea lions and dolphins. "Dozens of dolphins and sea lions trained to detect and apprehend waterborne attackers could be sent to patrol a Puget Sound military base, the Navy said Monday." The dolphins would use their sonar to detect an enemy intruder, and then the sea lion would attach a special cuff......

In some ways, we wish we could experience Sundance every week, but on the other hand, we're pretty f-ing exhausted. So it's a good thing that this is our last day here. We've had a great time with both the movies and the festival-goers. We've had film discussions with strangers everywhere we went, we've argued with film critics, and we've interacted with some really remarkable people, including two Lauras from Portland, a Bermudan film......

President Gerald Ford's memorial service is today, we thought we'd present these remarks Ford (shown here with George Harrison) made about Seattle upon his visit here as president on September 4th, 1975. Not the most interesting reading, but they seem extemporaneous and are perhaps a good snapshot of what one president thought when he thought of Seattle in the 70s: fish, Boeing, and international trade:It is really wonderful to be in Seattle, and I......

--Tim Eyman is still doing his Tim Eyman routine to the thunderous ticks of the second hand drawing his fifteen minutes to a close. --Nial Kennedy punked Microsoft today by replacing an image of his that Microsoft was linking to with this modified goatse picture. --Remember that guy your sister used to date who was a cousin of the guy's dad who worked with the neighbor of that Merit Financial dude from the news?......

--Expect to share I-5 with military vehicles this week. --This guy isn't into being frisked by a homosexual man. --Darwin caused the Columbine shootings. --Lookout Landing on the newest Mariner: "I imagine a party with Jose Guillen involves Tecate by the gallon, militant graffiti, and at least one guy getting stabbed." --Maybe the Mariners do have a chance at signing Barry Zito! --Rain City Real Estate Guide gleaned some lessons from the collapse of......

How is that these one-man-play guys are so good at building sets? Are they really as good as it seems or is it Seattlest's imagination? Set designers bust ass for weeks to put something together and/or spend thousands of dollars and guys like Mark Pinkosh of Balagan Theater's "A Dangerous Age" just pull something out of the air from their perch on a blank stage. One minute on Saturday we were adjusting our drink on......

You may have noticed all the rain recently. Here it is just mid-November and we've already beaten the previous record for rainiest November. But unless you were watching your family float away in your house, it might have just seemed "rainier than usual" to you. We took the precautionary step of buying a pair of military surplus rubber boots, but other than that...enh. That's where Sightline's Lessons I've Learned from my Rain Barrel post (first......

Rory Stewart spoke at the University Bookstore on Monday courtesy of the World Affairs Council, which, frankly, we had never heard of before. Rory Stewart is that cool guy who's written two bestselling books, walked 6,000 miles across central Asia, and served as Deputy Governor of two provinces of Iraq under the Coalition Provisional Authority. He's 33. What have you done with your life yet? His most recent book, Prince of the Marshes, is about......