Results tagged “westernwashington”

Yesterday's stormy weather left over 35,000 homes in Western Washington without power. Nearly 20,000 of the homes affected were in Seattle and South King County. The National Weather Service warned of gusts of over 55 mph yesterday and, while it's no scientific measure, the windows of our house were rattling and the power flickered more than once last night. Thankfully, it never went out. The Washington State Ferry Service reported "steady winds at nearly 40 mph" off Alki Beach, which must have made for some unpleasantly rough weather on the Sound.

Seattlest may be more attuned to these reports, since we spend the greater portion of our day browsing local news sites...but what is going on with the spate of stabbings in Western Washington? Every time we refresh the local news sites, it seems they are reporting a new fatal or near-fatal stabbing.

One month from today, Salish Lodge & Spa will host the second annual “The Falls Come to Life” dinner and auction to benefit Food Lifeline--the nonprofit dedicated to ending hunger in Western Washington. Guest chefs Armandino Batali, (Salumi) Holly Smith (Cafe Juanita), Jason Wilson (Crush), Johnathan Sundstrom (Lark), and Matt Costello (The Inn at Langley) will each prepare a signature dish for the menu, as well as contribute a culinary experience as part of the many items up for auction.

Someone just forwarded Seattlest the coolest Washington State ferry pictures of all time saying they were embedded in an email going around the office. We'll paste them all below, in order and with the authors commentary intact. If you took these or if you know of a place online where we can link to these, please email Seattlest. [UPDATE: We've been directed to the Bitter End blog, although he didn't take them either. Ross Fotheringham took them, it turns out. Thanks for coming forward, Ross--We removed the cropped versions in favor of your tagged ones.]

Don’t you hate when you’re out by the lake sitting on a dock with your best buds, sipping on some mass produced brew, just laughing and having a caucasianly good time, when someone pulls out a guitar and starts strumming until a song breaks out—evening ruined.

Whitman College: Jeffrey Sachs, economist and author

They can handle uncertainty--it is a professional requirement, in fact--but they tend to avoid speaking about their research unless they are very certain about something. (At least the good ones do.) Increasingly so, the precision and certainty of science are being put on trial on a public scale never before experienced. And to a degree, the admirable tendency of scientists to demand certainty is in conflict with our need as the public to potentially act on less inviolable evidence.

We don't often attend sporting events voluntarily. But when a blood relation is competing, we not only decide to show up, we figure we'll plug the event. Especially because it's free sports for spectators.

8bitjoystick called Seattlest out yesterday (which we love, btw, whether you do it on your random blog you expect us to magically find, or you have at us in the comments or you send us email. Please, tell us what we're missing and we'll consider it internally and then publicly enumerate the reasons why you're wrong.), and, befitting a blog about video games, 8bitjoystick is all over us for our lack of video game coverage.

The latest Survey USA Election Poll has Maria Cantwell at 54% and Mike!!!!!! at 42%. The poll was taken the weekend after the kick-ass debate on KING-5, and during the release of McGavick’s Seattle Times endorsement.

We've got a sun hangover after this weekend's heat. It was 97 on Friday (!) and 96 on Saturday. Those were both records. Then it was 95 on Sunday. That's 288 degrees of heat in three days.

DIY isn't just for musicians and craftistas anymore. If the words "artisan cheese" kick your salivary glands into overdrive and and spur your desire to be that artisan, call the Mt. Townsend Creamery in Port Townsend and make plans for an August weekend workshop:

Vermont farmstead cheesemaking pioneer and renowned teacher Peter Dixon will be returning to Western Washington Aug 4-6 to teach two cheesemaking courses at the Mt. Townsend Creamery in Port Townsend.

Continue reading "Who Made Your Cheese?"

The Western Washington chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists retreated to their hidden bat cave this weekend, probably performed some elaborate initiation rituals for new members involving chalices, robes and candles and then handed out some lucite. We covered this last year and blah blah blah it costs money to be considered for awards so a lot of people don't submit and it's hardly the Pulitzers anyway. We weren't going to say anything about it at all, but a few things are noteworthy regardless, particularly in the Online Media arena.

A new biodiesel refinery in Western Washington was announced Tuesday that would dwarf the 5 million gallons a year that local guys Seattle Biodiesel (actually it's the same guys: Imperium Renewables) can currently come up with. Supposedly the new Gray's Harbor plant will be able to produce 100 million gallons of biodiesel fuel a year which there may actually be a market for due to The Energy Freedom legislation passed in the state earlier this year which says that 2% of all diesel used in Washington will need to be biodiesel by 2008.

Two weekends ago, Seattlest took a trip to one of our favorite mountain biking areas, Galbraith Mountain outside Bellingham. Galbraith is a summer staple for us, but we've also found it holds up well even during the winter. One of our favorite aspects of living in Seattle is the ability to ditch the snow for a weekend if we want to--we may not boast Rocky Mountain snow conditions as a result, but we can do almost anything we want year round.

The only reason we’re mentioning Stupid Prices is because we love its irresistibly ridiculous name. But as long as we’re on the subject...

. We loved their shtick, from the cool uniforms to the way they pantsed their opponents. We mistakenly assumed they were simply too good to be allowed in the NBA.

When Seattlest saw that the Northwest Film Forum, in conjunction with Americans for UNFPA (United Nations Population Fund) and Planned Parenthood of Western Washington, was hosting a screening of : "This great work of art has the potential to change the world."

In Western Washington, enjoying the water is a huge summer perk.

Our friend Erika, a recent transplant from New Jersey, doesn't have trouble making conversation with strangers at Seattle parties. She simply asks: "how's the band?"

It's hot today and it's going to continue through the weekend, but think twice about cranking open a fire hydrant NYC style. Despite assurances from the Seattle Times, all is not well with our region's water supply after the extremely dry winter. Typically we count on mountain snow to melt throughout the summer and provide our rivers and streams with a constant supply of fresh water. This year what snow there was is already gone.

Seattlest is feeling an amount of motivation to write on this subject that is nearing absolute zero, but we already contacted the editors of various weekly newspapers so we feel committed to posting something. The Western Washington branch of the Society for Professional Journalists recently released an avalanche of awards, a great many of which buried the Seattle Weekly under mounds of lucite. Congratulations Seattle Weekly. Seattle's other alternative weekly paper won one honorable mention. For shame, Stranger.

Horse racing is known as "The Sport of Kings." Once, perhaps, its fans were mostly royalty. But based on our visits to the track, it seems that the current audience is primarily discontented middle-aged men in pleated pants.

Once upon a time lumberjacks and timber money ruled Seattle. Today a flannel paired with an axe or saw are likely to get you chased down the street under a steady rain of mochas and biscotti.