No, Seattlest is not just a fan of alliteration and 80's slang, as the headline might suggest. Burying the beef, is the current plan of the Seattle Public School District to rid itself of 230 cases of possibly contaminated beef. The beef, provided to school districts through a USDA lunch program, came from a California slaughterhouse in the center of the largest beef recall in USDA history.
Bad Beef to Be Buried
Private School Basketballers Prepare Public School Counterparts For a Lifetime of Frustration and Hopelessness
The forward-thinking youth at private Kennedy High don't want the hopeless, powerless lives of their public school lessers to come as a shock, so they are preparing them for it by obliterating them on the basketball court.
A Part Of Me Died When My Parents Divorced. Well, Not So Much 'Died' As 'Was Hacked Off By My Dad's Rabbi'
Kids have been getting shafted by disputes between their parents since the first caveman hired an attorney to protect his rock collection after breaking it off with the cavewoman. Or at least since the 70s--same difference. But there's a kid down in Oly who's about to suffer above and beyond what most casualties of divorce go through. His father has converted to Judaism (we're picturing Goodman in The Big Lebowski) and wants his son to convert as well. The son has agreed--although maybe "agreed" should have quotes around it because a twelve-year-old can't really disagree with much that his legal care-giver decides--to also convert to Judaism, even though one of the stipulations is that he gets circumcised.
Licata in Heaven on the Hill
City Council President Nick Licata will be fulfilling his wettest dream on Thursday when he testifies before Congress on the negative economic impact of publicly-funded sports arenas (something we wrote our senior thesis on, thank you very much).
Pol to Sonics' Players: If You Stay, We'll Tax Ya
Seattlest remembers that back when Gary Payton was about to be a free agent, we saw some ESPN story about how players like to play in Florida because there isn't (or wasn't) state income tax there. The interviewer asked Payton about this, and he said something along the lines of "Yeah, that sounds pretty sweet."
School Levies Pass 9 to 6
By now we don’t have to tell you that both Seattle Public School (what-what) levies are passing, it’s what everyone is talking about.
Elsewhere in the Ist-a-verse
Texas is thawing, the Northeast is freezing, and a sort of natural order seems almost restored to the Ist-A-Verse. Almost.
Elsewhere In The Ist-a-verse
Sunday. Usually, a quiet, contemplative day in the Blogosphere. But not here in the Ist-a-Verse. Nonono! Just look below and see all of the wild and crazy stuff our staffs are up to.
Yesterday's School Board Meeting Will Be Better TV Than The Project Runway Finale
There are very few public meetings which Seattlest regrets not attending. Very few. In fact, last night's Seattle Public School Board meeting might represent the very first time Seattlest has ever been convinced by the morning RSS that we made a mistake in skipping a meeting.
All The News
-Had a butterfuly flapped its wings differently somewhere in another hemisphere we'd have read Blatherwatch's deconstruction of Sheriff Hairspray before the P-I's. As things stand they're both worth reading.
The Real Reason For School Closures
We completely bought that whole line about the Seattle Public School District closing schools to bring the budget into some semblence of balance. We've had our coffee this morning, though, and the fog has been lifted. School closures have nothing to do with the budget - It's all about condos.
The New New Final School Closures List
By this point it's pretty obvious that the Seattle Public School Board's strategy is to continue this shell game of school closures until students, parents and the public at large is so completely confused as to put up little or no struggle. And as if by magic, the budget will be balanced. If we were the sadistic type, your computer would currently be downloading a MIDI version of some clown music to further illustrate our point.
All Mac Rumors All The Time
We heard a rumor and since rumors are one of our favorite things to propagate (second only to "the species") we're getting off to a good Friday. Unfortunately, while there are potentially lots of good rumors surrounding the Seattle public school district (no school closures, across the board school closures, Gates Foundation bought the district) AND lots of good rumors surrounding Apple (new wireless iPod will get you chicks, Apple recalling those crusty and yellowing iPod sleeves, Jobs going to space and not coming back), this rumor falls squarely into the "meh" category.
All The News
-David Goldstein is first on the scene of the heartwarming story of Sacajawea escaping the Seattle Public School advisory committee's carving knife. Which hasn't happened as of this writing. (and didn't, it turns out, happen at all)
All The News
-Bombs Over Bahgdad Jim McDermott will be guest hosting on KIRO radio while Dave Ross is on vacation.
Seattle Novelist (And Seattlest Friend) Generating Buzz With First Book
Pauls Toutonghi, a product of the Seattle Public School system who now lives in Brooklyn, is in town to publicize his first novel,
Unstealth Sealth
If you want to avoid the media's glare, you probably don't want to beat an opponent by 84 points. But the Chief Sealth girls' basketball team did just that. And the Seattle Times fixed them in their sights.
Calling All Cosmonauts
Somehow, when we weren't looking, Seattle fell behind Cape Canaveral, Florida and Houston, Texas as a destination for those who wish to boldly go where no man has gone before. But, now that the Greenwood Space Travel Supply Co. is open for business, that's all gonna change.
Don't Try This at Home
A Seattle middle-schooler was recently found dead after an apparent round of "the choking game" in which she tied a karate belt around her neck. In response to that incident and others the Seattle Public School District is going on an information campaign to raise awareness of this age-old method of getting high. The standard "talk to your kids about the dangers of __insert idiot behavior here___" seems to be the path they're taking on the website being circulated to parents.
Try Try Again to Balance the Budget
The Seattle Public School District has proposed a new budget to the board and Seattlest is guessing that it doesn't include any school closings. Instead, a variety of one-time financial sources will help bring a little balance to the budget, at least for the time being. Let's postpone those closings one more year, shall we?
We Also Read the Weeklies: PanzerKardinal Edition
Last week we guessed that this was going to be a big week for papal comment in the weeklies, and we're glad to see we weren't wrong. We were hoping for some fresh perspectives, or maybe some Seattle angle to the commentary, but maybe that was expecting a lot. Knute Berger in "Mossback" was the first to weigh in on the Catholic boss and the whole "the Vatican isn't a Democracy so why don't we go invade it" joke is tired and not funny, but we were surprised and delighted when he called out the secular right at the end of the column. Thanks, Knute! We forgot there was a secular right! For more comment on Dregs Benedict in this week's Seattle Weekly see "Glory Days" in the arts section.
Madness Begins
March Madness isn't just the NCAA men's tournament, though Seattlest knows they've trademarked the name. At the risk of a lawsuit, we apply it to the hundreds of loser-out basketball tournaments taking place all over the country, from the South Dakota state "A" championship to the public school championships in New York City. Local teams began tournament life last weekend with the Pac-10 Women's basketball tournament and the State 3A Boys and Girls Tournaments.
State of the City
Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels delivered his State of the City speech Monday in the midst of a political climate that sees him more or less untouchable in the next election. Nickels has so far been the chief political benefactor of a city repairing itself after the tumultuous reign of Paul Schell and appears set to ride his position far into the future, for better or for worse.

