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Three-month old Evita the ocelot was born in January at Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle. She was introduced to zoo visitors for the first time yesterday. See more pictures at the zoo blog. Link -via Urlesque
Poor Easter Bunny! Seattle public school is renaming Easter eggs “Spring Spheres.” The story broke on Dori Monson Show on the radio:
Jessica, 16, told KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson Show that a week before spring break, the students commit to a week-long community service project. She decided to volunteer in a third grade class at a public school, which she would like to remain nameless.
“At the end of the week I had an idea to fill little plastic eggs with treats and jelly beans and other candy, but I was kind of unsure how the teacher would feel about that,” Jessica said.
She was concerned how the teacher might react to the eggs after of a meeting earlier in the week where she learned about “their abstract behavior rules.”
“I went to the teacher to get her approval and she wanted to ask the administration to see if it was okay,” Jessica explained. “She said that I could do it as long as I called this treat ‘spring spheres.’ I couldn’t call them Easter eggs.”
The School District said that it was done to comply with their “Religion and Religious Accommodation” policy, where “no religious belief or non-belief should be promoted by the School District or its employees, and none should be disparaged.” (Update 4/19/11 – The School District didn’t say it was done to comply with their policy. That was my mistake – they did put a statement pointing to their Religion and Religious Accommodation policy – Thanks Joe Mondo!).
A+ for political correctness, but what grade do you think the school should get for common sense? Link
While many towns were built on corruption, greed and scandal, few are as embracing of these embarrassing roots as the residents of Seattle. Of course, it wasn’t always this way, around fifty years ago, most of the city’s residents only knew of the white-washed town history that was (and still is) retold in school history books. Fortunately, when the city threatened to tear down the city’s gorgeous Victorian and Edwardian buildings in the historical Pioneer Square area, residents rushed to save their town’s heritage. To help protect this historical area, one amateur historian and professional journalist, Bill Speidel, set out to uncover the back story of the slum-ridden district. In the end, his findings resulted in the famous Underground Tour and helped establish the neighborhood as a preservation district, ensuring the continued protection of all the historical buildings in the area.
So what is so important about Pioneer Square and why should anyone outside of the city care? Read on, my friends, read on.
In 1851, a troupe of pioneers known as the Denny Party established the first white settlement in the area at Alki Point. The group was led by Arthur A Denny, who soon realized that Alki Point wasn’t a good place for a settlement and then moved his party to a tide flat off of Elliot Bay, which they named Duwamps, after the local Native American tribe.
Within the first few years of settlement, another leader, Doctor David Swinson Maynard moved in from Cleveland. Whereas the members of the Denny Party were dedicated teetotalism Methodists, Doc Maynard was a heavy drinker who believed vice was one of the most effective industries in a frontier town. Maynard convinced the other townspeople to rename the city Seattle after the Duwamps Chief Seattle, who was a friend of his. He did so not only to help honor his friend, but also because he knew Seattle would be a lot easier to promote to people back East than Duwamps, which sounded like a swamp.
In 1852, Maynard built his cabin, and contained a store inside of it, establishing the first shop in Seattle. He soon obtained the right to host a post office in his store, meaning everyone had to visit his store to get their mail. Throughout his life, Maynard helped build a number of important establishments in Seattle, building the first pharmacy, hotel, casino, saloon, brothel and hospital in the area.
When plots of land were officially established, Denny’s property stretched north of Pioneer Square, while Maynard’s extended to the south. Because each established their streets according to their piece of shoreline, the streets now have an awkward bend at what is now Yesler Way and that area of town is noticeably jumbled when it comes to driving.
Maynard helped jump start the city’s industry by offering his land at exceptionally cheap prices, provided the buyer started building a business on it immediately. He attracted critical business professionals such as blacksmiths into town, along with purveyors of vice, which helped attract more frontiersmen to the city. Early real estate records show that 90% of the city’s first businesses were built on Maynard’s land or immediately adjacent to his plot.
While Maynard obviously did a lot to help establish the town, he was left out of history books and almost completely forgotten about until Bill Speidel’s research helped bring his contributions to light. So why would such a key figure in the town’s founding be forgotten? Mostly because he was seen to be amoral.
When Maynard left Cleveland in 1850, he was married to a woman named Lydia. She eventually filed for divorce on grounds of desertion, but she never completed the divorce. Before arriving in Seattle, the good doctor circulated amongst several wagon trains, helping to fight cholera. While serving as the leader on a small wagon train that brought him to Puget Sound, he fell in love with a widow, Catherine Troutman Broshears. At first, her brother refused her permission to remarry, but after Maynard made a good deal of money in Seattle, he relented and the couple was married.
Years latter, Maynard’s first wife sold off her share of property and the man who purchased it then went after Maynard, claiming he was owed everything that was Lydia’s since the couple was never officially divorced. Lydia came to Seattle to help defend her husband and Catherine and the doctor became friends with her and let her live in their home. According to Speidel, Doc Maynard was the only resident that was commonly seen with one wife on each arm.
more …
I like culture but not the type that grows in a petri dish. This Seattle tourist attraction is one I’d avoid like the plague.
One of the most offbeat attractions in the United States, the Seattle Gum Wall is also one of the most germ infected tourist spot in the world.
Located in Post Alley, under Park Place Market, the Gum Wall has its beginning in the early 1990s, when people, irritated that they had to wait in line to get tickets to the theater, stuck chewing gum on the wall. At first, they would use the gum to stick small coins to the wall, but in time, the tradition of the coins disappeared, and the gum remained.
Link – Via Book Of Joe
When you’re going to squat, why not do it in style? That’s what some squatters just did in Seattle:
The 8,000-square-foot mansion was dark and in foreclosure for years. So last weekend when the for-sale signs came down and the lights lit up, neighbors were relieved.
"We were like — ‘finally, somebody’s going to make that place a home,’ " says one.
But then some new signs went up.
"No trespassing," the signs say. "Privately owned property. Not for sale."
That’s odd, neighbors thought. The West of Market neighborhood in Kirkland is friendly, easygoing. So one of them called the real-estate agent to ask what was up.
What he said floored them. The house is still for sale for $3.3 million. Whoever is living there had broken in. They’re squatters.
Danny Westneat of Seattle Times has the story: Link (Photo: Alan Berner/Seattle Times)
Erik Martin always wanted to be a superhero. The 13-year-old even designed his own secret identity as Electron Boy. On Thursday, his wish came true with the help of the regional chapter of the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Erik suffers from liver cancer, but he was ready to respond when Spider Man called for his assistance.
Pulling off a wish like this one required a big story, and a lot of heart. And so, with a note of panic in his voice, Spider-Man explained the dilemma: “Dr. Dark” and “Blackout Boy” had imprisoned the Seattle Sounders in a locker room at Qwest Field. Only Electron Boy could free them.
Erik got into his red-and-blue superhero costume, and called on the powers of Moonshine Maid, who owns a DeLorean sports car. For good measure, more than 20 motorcycle officers from the Bellevue Police Department and King County and Snohomish sheriff’s offices escorted Electron Boy to Seattle.
“They shut down 405 — they shut down I-90,” marveled Moonshine Maid, aka Misty Peterson. “I thought it would just be me, in the car.”
At Qwest Field, Electron Boy was directed by frantic fans to the Sounders locker room, where the entire team was shouting for help behind jammed doors. With a little help from Lightning Lad, the alter ego of local actor Rob Burgess, Erik opened the door with his lightning rod. The Sounders cheered.
That’s just the beginning of the story. Dr. Dark and Blackout Boy had also trapped a city worker in a bucket truck and stalled elevators at the Space Needle. Erik rescued everyone, helped police arrest the bad guys, and accepted a key to the city. Link to story. Link to photographs. -via I Am Bored
(image credit: Dean Rutz/The Seattle Times)
Also, Electron Boy has a Facebook page.
HP preserves the garage where Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard started their company. Google bought the garage Larry Page and Sergey Brin rented to start theirs. But Red Robin has decided to let go their original Seattle location because it is too expensive to maintain.
Nancy Leson of The Seattle Times’ All You Can Eat Blog has a brief history of the US burger chain:
It was 1969 when Gerry Kingen — now owner of Salty’s restaurants — bought the Red Robin tavern. "I ran it as a tavern for a couple-three years," recalls Kingen, whose clientele included the university crowd and local houseboat habitues. "Before we put in food, we were serving burnt popcorn and plastic-wrapped sandwiches prepared in an infrared oven, doing about 12 grand a month — which was big money back then."
In 1973, Kingen did a thorough remodel of the hillside joint, built in 1916, and upgraded its menu. "We put a deck in the back, added two burgers, fish and chips and a strip steak out of Andy’s Diner. It wasn’t exactly Andy’s recipe, but the concept was the same."
More than a few of my boomer-buddies remember the first Red Robin as the place where they could flash their fake IDs before sitting in front of a fabulously sloppy burger washed down with a beer — or three. Seattle historian Paul Dorpat remembers its storied jukebox: "Muddy Waters, psychedelic, none of that teen-y pop." And he recalls the night Kingen closed the tavern in preparation for the makeover. "When you know a place is going to be destroyed, you `help’ it along the way," he says of the "spirited community" some 200-strong, who enthusiastically brought down the house that night. "By 2 a.m., it wasn’t the same place that we showed up at earlier in the evening."
In the wake of his splashy redo, business tripled, says Kingen. Red Robin eventually expanded to Northgate and elsewhere, and later franchised. "I basically created a grownup’s McDonald’s," he says.
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One day, Neatoramanaut Cory Calhoun and friends had an idea so brilliant they just had to do it: remake the intro to the old TV sitcom Perfects Strangers shot by shot, in Seattle (instead of Chicago – get out of the city!). Hit play or go to Link [YouTube]
What? You don’t believe it’s shot by shot? Don’t be ridiculous! Here’s the side-by-side comparison. Thanks Cory!
I’m not sure why, but every year, there is an unusual New Year’s Day tradition in Seattle, Washington: The Bad Wig and Ugly Track Suit Walk.
All you have to do to participate is don the ugliest wig and track suit you have tucked away in your closet somewhere (I’m sure you have ‘em) and walk around Green Lake.
Hey, it’s easier than putting on a zombie make up! Link – Thanks Marlow Harris!
