Oh, Oprah, your boundless enthusiasm for all things Seattle has turned downright dangerous. First, Groupon offered its first-ever coupon for Nordstrom. Well, Nordstrom Rack, actually, but it was a big deal nonetheless, and then you made it even bigger by talking about it on your program. Crash! went the Nordy Rack site. Crashed the Groupon site, too. Then you added the mac & cheese from Beecher's Handmade Cheese to your list of ultimate favorite things. Crash! went the Beecher's site. (And crash went Oprah's site, too, briefly!)
Oprah Crashes Seattle Websites
Amanda Knox's Family on Oprah Tomorrow
The family of Amanda Knox, the Seattle college student jailed for the murder of her roommate in Italy, will speak to Oprah tomorrow at 2:00 p.m. on KING 5.
Neighborhood News and Local Blog Round-Up
- Seattle's newest main stream celebrity: Bacon Salt. The bacon-loving boys reached the pinnacle of fame and product placement, on today's episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show.
- Keep an eye on the road, because this weekend will be filled with road cones and construction delays.
- We scream, you scream, everyone screams for ice cream--especially for Molly Moon's ice cream. Capitol Hill's newest--and most indulgent--resident opens its doors on Saturday.
Don't Cry for Me, Seattle Pee-Eye
You know that Real Age test? Maybe not, if you're under 30 and don't give a rat's ass. But plenty of older folk take the damn thing, which ends with a promise to shave years off your age if you join RealAge.com. After all, the spokesman, Dr. Mehmet Oz, is on Oprah, for Christ sake. Well, it turns out (according to an article in the NYTimes), that RealAge.com sells your private information to pharma marketers, who then try to sell you shit that promises to make you feel younger. And who owns RealAge.com? Hearst Magazines, that's who. They bought the site for $60 to $70 million in 2007, according to the Times. And, yeah, they also own O, the Oprah Magazine. So let's stop shedding tears for the local fish-wrapper, shall we? The suits know perfectly well how to play the internet game, and whatever they're doing over at seattlepi.com isn't some half-assed online experiment. These guys are pros.
We Went: Gottman on Raising an Emotionally Intelligent Child
Sure, we've read his bestselling book, Raising an Emotionally Intelligent Child: The Heart of Parenting. Heck, we even own the DVD. But it wasn't until after last night's lecture at Town Hall, presented by Parent Map, that we could truly call ourselves John Gottman fans. He charmed the sold-out crowd with heartwarming anecdotes and stone-cold research, and by the time we left, we were better, calmer parents (or soon-to-be parents).
Seattlest at Large: MacWorld San Francisco
Since there's a "Blogger Lounge" here at MacWorld, we figured we'd use it. What the hell.
Former Center Robbie Tobeck Now Lines Up on the Right
Barack Obama's celebrity endorsement by Oprah Winfrey didn't go unnoticed by local Republicans. Never shy about borrowing strategy, they've recruited their own big name person--former Seahawk and Coug Robbie Tobeck.
Get Out Tuesday: Barack Obama @ Showbox SoDo
For a Presidential candidate—especially one who has recently surged in the polls—Barack Obama is kinda a rock star. So it makes sense that he'd host his latest Seattle appearance at a rock club. The Seattle Generation Obama Concert takes place Tuesday night at the Showbox SoDo. Obama will be there, doing his campaigning thing, along with special musical guests the Dusty 45s and (the still-reunited) Brad. Since Obama and company are going after the...
Saturday at Bumbershoot: Let's Hear It For the Girls
So we woke up with no intention of getting all Gloria Steinem on you early on a Sunday morning, but after searching for the tie that bound together our first day of Bumbershoot, we couldn't help but gloat that the women of Bumbershoot were kicking ass/taking names.
Announcing: The Seattlest Book Club
The first rule of Seattlest Book Club is you have to read the book.
All the News, AM-ish Edition
--Sean Penn, book your hotel room now.
Elsewhere in the Ist-a-verse
As fall settles in and another calendar page gets turned, thoughts turn from bbq's and vacations to holidays and the realization that '06 is coming to an end. With all that going on, with change in the air, we wonder what is it that made that makes the -ists ponder?
Dishin': Ezell's Famous Chicken
Bummed by bumper-to-bumperdom, Seattlest recently jumped off I-5 and onto Route 99 for a journey north. Late for an appointment, we now had limited time for a much-needed snack. We wanted it quick, cheap, and crisp. Yes, we had a crispy craving (not to be confused with a Krispy Kreme).
The Espresso's Bitter. The Literature? Sickly Sweet.
They've sold music. They've sold movies. Now, Starbucks is adding a "third leg to the stool": books. But not, you know, good books. They're officially launching their "book strategy" with Mitch Albom's new novel, For One More Day. Per the PI:
Albom's sentimental narratives are far from the Beat poetry traditionally associated with coffeehouse culture, and from CDs by Coldplay, Antigone Rising and others that Starbucks has sold. But Lombard said the author's new book, the story of a son reunited with his late mother, "embodies Starbucks values" because it's "an inspirational tale that encourages people to examine their lives with family and friends."Albom, of course, is famous for writing books no sane person would wish to be stranded on a desert island with: Tuesdays with Morrie and The Five People You Meet in Heaven. It's a bold move we can only assume is calculated to out-sentimentalize Oprah. (Yeah, yeah, their heart's in the right place -- they're donating $1 per copy sold to an educational program for preschoolers.)
Hitch in our Giddyup
Seattlest is horribly distracted right now. Not only is our site acting a wee bit like Tom Cruise on Oprah’s couch (sorry about the paucity of posts, and comments may be down for a little while), but we’re getting married in a few weeks. OK, not all of Seattlest is, just this contributor and well, our esteemed editor Dan (huzzah!). But not to each other. Really. But we digress.
The Man Who Would Be Editor
USA Today reveals that America's next would-be culture czar is already enthroned as (gulp) the nation's barrista baron.
The Film is Deceitful Above All Things
[See the end of this post for contest information. Win a shirt!]
Seattlest Interviews Vern, film reviewer, political commentator, and ex-con
"Hey guys my name is vern. I am a Writer who is trying to go clean after a life of crime, alcohol, etc."
All The News
-The Seattle Times finally deigned to soil its dainty hands with The Stranger's FSU story.
Low-Fat Ain't Worth a Damn
Turns out that a low-fat diet doesn't reduce your risk of getting cancer or heart disease. Thank you, thank you, thank you, medical science. Cheer over your spilled skim milk and then make haste to the following former danger zones:
James Frey on Oprah
Seattlest is home sick this afternoon. Bad. But, happily, we're able to watch disgraced "memoirist" James Frey lick Oprah's boots on KING 5. She's decided that she was wrong to defend him and confronts him directly about his apparently fictional A Million Little Pieces, live. She also brings on the book's editor, literary celebrity Nan Talese, who comes off as a total phony. She says that an "author's note" will explain what Frey made up, and what he didn't.
Book Shopping With Bill Maher
Seattlest loves it when huge local retailers start getting into what those in the content business call "the content business." You may remember reading our post about Starbucks and Hollywood recently. To paraphase ourselves we weren't very excited about it. Kind of ambivalent and not really expecting much from it. Amazon.com and Starbucks are two different creatures, though, and when we heard yesterday that Amazon would be launching a show of its own we were a bit less skeptical. Amazon sells media, at least, and not something that you drink.
WA Praised For Oppressing Smokers
The American Lung Association recently released their "State of Tobacco Control" report cards and Washington did a lot of work buffing up our transcript. "A"s in Smoke Free Air and Cigarette Tax, a "B" in Tobacco Prevention and Control Spending and an unfortunate "C" in Youth Access. All in all it's not a report card we'll have to hide from mom until we can forge the "F"s into "B"s like we had to in grade school. As an aside, why can't "F"s be easily forged into maybe "C"s? "B"s? C'mon, it strains credulity that a note we failed to intercept at the mailbox mid-semester indicated a low failing grade in English, but, miraculously, we were able to elevate ourselves to a "B" by the time grades are given. A "B" is praiseworthy in some instances. Do you know what it does to a child to get praised for a "B" that was actually an "F"? It isn't pretty. Twenty years and thousands of hours in group have failed to break our praise/guilt association.
Light in August
Ryan Adams, the prolific bad-boy of alt country, is performing tonight and tomorrow at the Moore Theatre. Despite the fact that he once referred to his former girlfriend Parker Posey as his exe-'cute'-ive, we still have a soft spot in our heart for the guy. His songs are generally pretty good and if you ignore the fact that he releases approximately 14 albums a year, you are almost guaranteed to have a good time. Plus, he will most likely play his radio hit 'New York, New York' and he stopped getting so angry when people scream out 'Play 'Summer of '69'!' during his set.

