Unlike our beloved baseball All Star Game, we’ve tended to skip the NBA's version in recent years. However, with our hero Brandon Roy, in Sunday's game we can’t wait to watch our fellow ex-Bulldog cram some FANtastic™ action down the East’s face. However, we’ll be in Vancouver--sorry TNT.
Roy Meets All Star Game
Depressing Crime News
We may have the lowest crime rate in 40 years, but it sure doesn't feel like it.
Suspect Held in Capitol Hill Stabbing
An artist who "used his own blood as ink" is now cops' main suspect in the murder of Shannon Harps.
Psychic Feels "Energy" at Ted Bundy's Old Hangout
The British show Conversation With A Serial Killer was in town this weekend, taping a segment at Dante's, the four-decade-old college bar north of the UW campus on Roosevelt. Producers interviewed owner Zach Peterson and hired an actor to "portray" Bundy, that is, sit on bar stools and look menacing.
No More Free Ride to the Eastside: 520 Tolls Are Coming
The Times reports that the toll would be around $6 at peak hours.
The Express Will Be Here Any Moment Now
You know how when you're at the bus stop and the Local shows up and it's packed and obviously only has room for you if you stand in the aisle and clutch at a post and you think, "I'm better than that. I'm waiting for the Express," the Express--which is scheduled to come only minutes later--never shows, late or ever? Then, thirty-five minutes later you're presented with the same dilemma, only this time the Local is even more packed and traffic has really picked up by this point so it's sure to be a week and a half before you can finally sling your shoulder bag on the floor inside your own front door if you take the Local, but the Express could be tantalizingly close--just down the street maybe... Or it could be up on blocks at base somewhere, who knows? You know how that is?
To Port Townsend: A 3-Hour Tour
The other week we enthused about the new passenger-only ferry to Port Townsend, read the post about the beer in Port Townsend, and put two and two together. The ferry is temporary, until January 6 last we heard, though you can sign a petition to keep the Seattle-to-Port Townsend run around. Here are the departure times.
S.L.U.T. Accident? Yes--S.L.U.T. Creams S.U.V.
The Seattle Times is reporting, way at the top in an unlikable breaking news sentence (read: cub reporter with a police scanner), that there has been an accident involving the Mercer Streetcar. According to the bolded sentence paragraph, an SUV ran an intersection and collided with an empty streetcar at the corner of Mercer and Terry.
HIV Still Smarter Than Scientists
The Seattle Times and the P-I are both reporting on the story, which if nothing else illustrates a case of Donald Rumsfeld's "unknown unknowns" in action. The Times says:
The vaccine used a disabled form of a common-cold virus to carry three synthetically produced HIV genes into the body. It was hoped that those genes would spur the body to unleash an HIV-targeted immune response using so-called "killer" T cells. Neither the cold virus nor the HIV genes could reproduce, so volunteers could not catch a cold or become infected with HIV directly from the vaccine.The immune system was just supposed to have a better chance to spot the otherwise very sneaky HIV as it responded to the known enemy, adenovirus, type 5. Yet volunteers who had been exposed to that variant of the cold virus were determined to be more vulnerable to HIV infection.
City Council Primary Preview: Position 1
Jean Godden used to write a column where she would point out humorous license plates, as well as the little things that make living in Seattle the silliest. Now she is on the city council and running for re-election. Her main opponent is weightlifting coach Joe Szwaja, who spent some time on the Madison City Council.
Q: Who's Cleaning Up on the Loss of 'Summer Nights'?
To mark Stevie Wonder’s first tour in a decade and his stop at the Chateau Ste Michelle Winery down the road in Woodland, our compadres over at The Seattle Times invited its readers take their "Stevie Wonder Quiz" in their Monday edition. Having fond memories of one Stevland Hardaway Judkins as this funky white blog’s first introduction to Motown, funk and the ever –ambiguous “R&B”, Seattlest curiously accepted The Times’ challenge to find out just how well we know Stevie.
Greg Nickels' Son Indicted
Greg Nickels' son Jacob has been charged with one count of conspiracy and four counts of theft stemming from a multi state casino cheating ring.
Get Out: Michael Chabon at Elliott Bay
Michael Chabon's new book The Yiddish Policeman's Union is THE SHIT. We finished it in a little over a weekend recently and regretted not that we'd once again failed to execute our long-held dream of eating every single item on the Taco Bell menu on Cinco de Mayo night.
We Just Noticed the Sounders' Season Started
As evidenced by last summer's Qwest Field sellout for Real Madrid, Seattle is full of soccer fans.
David Halberstam Dead in a Car Crash, Which Is Bullshit
Permit us to bloviate some on the death of David Halberstam today in a car crash, which is utter bullshit considering that the guy reported from fricking Vietnam and he dies in a traffic accident in San Mateo (the car that hit him driven by, in a terrible irony, a Berkeley journalism student) (actually, I'm an idiot, his driver was a Berkeley student, so there's no irony, just terribleness).
Both Dailies to Stick Around for Now
Seattle will continue to have two daily newspapers, at least for the immediate future. It sounds like both papers were unwilling to leave things entirely in the hands of the arbitrator who was set to deliver a binding verdict on the dispute: They settled with each other and the terms include the Times buying the P-I out of JOA stipulation that the smaller paper would continue to receive revenue in the event that that paper ceased publishing.
Mike Hargrove is a Genius
Even the best managers, for instance, Earl Weaver, admit that--at best--they can win an extra two or three games a year for their team.
Dan Roach Will Be Heard
Republicans in Olympia are tired of the Spend-o-crat majority rendering their very existence moot, and they've decided to do something about it—make funny noises.
The WCC Won't Take Seattle U. for Basketball
We were jazzed, and, it appears, overly optimistic, when we heard Seattle U might go D1 in basketball again.
And Yet More Snow
About two inches here near Greenlake. Some downtown streets are closed. KOMO just reported that even full buses with chains have bad traction. They also report about 15 accidents in the last 30 minutes. But, Aurora and I-5 look pretty good, at least in Seattle, if you can get there.
J. Vander Stoop Knew a Piker, and Gregoire is no Piker
The 2007 Washington Legislative session begins today, and Governor Gregoire wants to spend big. Her argument, we have a $1.9 billion surplus, and we should spend that money on education, health care, and other gross poor people things.
Wind Returns Wednesday, More Outages Could Result
King County Journal has the rundown of which areas are still without power, and when they're likely to get it.
Flash Flood Killed Woman--an Award-Winning Audiobook Narrator--in her Madison Valley Basement
The Times reports today that it was a sort of flash flood that drowned Kate Fleming, an award-winning audiobook narrator and producer, in her basement Thursday night, as she tried to move her expensive audio equipment upstairs.
Can Somebody Check the School Board's Diplomas?
The Times has already called on the School Board to resign. Seattlest is calling for the school board to repeat 9th grade English.
Crane Collapses, Kills a Guy
You'd think you could enjoy a quiet evening in your apartment without a crane falling over and killing you, right?
Against McGavick Before They Were For Him
The Times' endorsement of Mike McGav!ck has generated the predictable outrage from HorsesAss and The Stranger, but they make good points. Feit shows that the Times' previous editorials put them at odds with pretty much everything McGav!ck stands for.
Hong Defeats Cantwell
Those sad, wet, cold people holding signs and waving to you this morning means that it is Election Day.

