The big news today in the brewing world is that northwest staple Pyramid Brewing will be bought by a Burlington, VT brewery. The deal should not have much of an effect on the consumer here in Seattle, but we will hopefully start getting Magic Hat brews sometime soon. Magic Hat #9 has been a popular pale ale in the Northeast for quite a few years, and it would be a welcome addition to the......

Back when Seattlest lived in Wallingford, we went to the Fremont branch of the library once a week. We got to know the staff there very well -- hi, Carl! Hi, Joan! Hi, Betty! We served as one of two citizens on the committee that picked the architectural firm that handled the branch's remodel. While Fremont was closed for construction, we switched our regular patronage to the University branch. It's bigger than Fremont, and worked......

One Saturday a few weeks ago, we went to the Rainier Beach library with Little Miss Seattlest. After picking out several books, we were making our way to the circulation desk when one of the librarians behind the public service desk spoke. "Excuse me," she said. "Have you heard about the summer reading program?" We were, of course, familiar with the concept of a summer reading program, but we hadn't really thought about enrolling our......

Pretend for a moment that you work the circulation desk at a Seattle branch library. A patron asks you to change the information on his account. He's moving, so you change the address. And he asks you to change his default pickup branch to a new, rather distant location. From, say, North East to Rainier Beach. While you're doing this, you notice that he's got 18 hold requests already placed in the system. Pop quiz:......

In between obsessively checking their progress in various NCAA tournament pools, here's how Seattlest types will spend their weekends. David S. will be watching college basketball. And planning this year's family camping trip. Editor Dan will spend all weekend working on his Enemies List, but he may take a break at dusk on Saturday to drive down to Green Lake and run over rabbits with his car. Matt Silvie may or may not make it......

This morning, Seattlest received a "Notice from the Seattle Public Library." Before telling us that Everything You Know About Sex Is Wrong is now available for us to pick up at the North East Branch, the email said: Starting April 1, 2006, the check-out period for all DVDs is ONE WEEK. A DVD may be renewed twice if there are no holds on the item. A shorter loan period brings DVDs back sooner for the......

Last year, while Seattlest was enjoying the "free" part of "freelancing," we packed up our PowerBook and set off to visit our local library -- the Seattle Public Library's North East Branch. We figured we'd relax among the stacks and search the Web. We discovered to our chagrin that the library did not offer Wi-Fi. No SPL branch offered Wi-Fi, in fact, except for the bauble-tastic Central Library. So we trundled off to nearby Grateful......