Look, ma, I'm on the teevee!

Israel needs a designated driver

Thomas Friedman's column on Israel's ill-conceived recent actions is right on. I haven't been much of a Friedman fan in the past, but he's growing on me. If only Israel -- or, for that matter, the U.S. -- actually listened to him.

Fun Forest, we hardly knew ye

Well, truth be told, we probably knew ye a little too well. Your midway games were staffed by wretchedly bored individuals who always seemed to be dying for a smoke, and your laser-tag maze smelled like old feet. I did, however, really like your roller coaster, even if riding it wasn't the safest thing in the world. Soon enough, you'll be nothing but a distant memory, replaced by something that certain Seattleites consider even tackier than a third-rate miniature amusement park: Chihuly art. Though it'll probably be better for our collective mental health to mock the art instead of walking through the Fun Forest and sighing about the utter lack of fun to be found there.

Welcome to the 21st century, Michigan!

It's nice and cozy here, and smoke-free.

Wal-Mart is evil

Yes, "Wal-Mart is evil" is a statement of liberal dogma, the kind of received wisdom that leads conservative critics to use the term "lockstep liberalism." However: Wal-Mart actually is evil. Here's the proof. Homophobic insanity is one thing; homophobic insanity directed at a couple with special-needs children? Nice one, Wal-Mart. Classy.

The economy claims Bailey/Coy

I'm not terribly surprised, but it's still very sad. Bailey/Coy is one of this town's loveliest bookstores -- I always preferred it to the much larger Elliott Bay -- and it deserved a longer life.

Now we're talking!

Helloooo, public option!

McGinn changes tack on tunnel

The P-I has the story, and Crosscut's Knute Berger (my former boss at Seattle Weekly) offers a bit o' commentary. My ballot's in the mail, so there's not much I can do. I can't say I'm 100% surprised, given the City Council's unanimous show of support for deep-boring. Still, as one P-I commenter points out,

Actually, if the tunnel is a done deal, a vote for McGinn gets us better Transit in the form of expanded light rail and streetcars, which helps people who won't use the tunnel.

As Berger notes, McGinn's switch makes sense on one level:

The upside of the switch for McGinn is that it might win him votes, and observers (like the pro-McGinn folks at Publicola) think he looked at his polling numbers and realized he had less to lose by flip-flopping than by sticking to his guns. And it's true that McGinn was leaving a lot of votes on the table with his tunnel opposition.

But on the macro PR level, the idealist-vs.-corporate-realist level, it's a strange shift:

If Mike McGinn is a conviction candidate — as contrasted with Mallahan, who seems to be an avatar (or is it shill?) of Seattle's power establishment — he's undercutting his main strength, which is to take bold, challenging stands against the conventional wisdom. You can say this is smart politics, and I suppose it would be if he were running as a conventional politician, but everything about his campaign's appeal — the low budget, the accessibility of the candidate, the insurgent tactics, even the beard — have pointed in a different direction.

I have a feeling Mallahan will win, but I suppose we can't count McGinn out yet.

Was I the last person in Seattle to find out?

At Shabbat dinner tonight, someone told me that President Obama won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. Despite working (for the moment) at a news-gathering organization, I may be the last Seattleite to have heard about this. I had to field several good-natured questions about the size of the rock I live under, etc. Holy mackerel.

Oh, and Rachel Maddow's take on the subject is wonderful:



Thanks to Nancy for posting it on Facebook.

Stairs vs. elevator

NPR has the story (and that gorgeous, scene-stealing photo, displayed above). Here's a taste:

Over the years rabbis have approved various methods of automation, such as lights that run on timers, as permissible on the Sabbath.

But now some prominent rabbis have declared that Shabbat elevators must not be used. The rabbis say Shabbat elevators are a "severely prohibited" desecration of the Sabbath. Thus, the eternal debate about what an observant Jew may and may not do on the Sabbath has taken another turn.

MADD about... boozeless party drinks?

Mothers Against Drunk Driving, which has courted controversy before by shifting its focus from combating drunk driving to fighting underage drinking, recently introduced a line of alcohol-free party beverages called, somewhat unfortunately, MADD Virgin Drinks. While I'm skeptical about the flavor of non-alky wine, I wonder even more about the drinks' real-world appeal. As Kelly noted, it's hard to imagine many adults wanting to be seen at parties holding mother-approved bottles of beer. McClatchy thinks it's pretty boneheaded, too. To wit:

MADD's national president, Laura Dean-Mooney, said the faux margaritas, mojitos, pina coladas, beer and wine will provide hosts the option to serve drinks with "the great taste needed to make guests feel like they are part of the party — but without alcohol."

Nothing like perpetuating the notion that to be part of the party, you either need to drink or to be seen as drinking.

Because the beverages are nonalcoholic, they may be legally consumed by teens. Nothing like acquiring a taste for the unleaded stuff before switching to high-test.

Godwin's Law: Alan Grayson edition

It's funny when apologies for imprudent speech end up causing even more controversy. What with LaRouche supporters drawing Hitler mustaches on Obama posters and Grayson using the loaded word "holocaust" to describe our health-care crisis, it seems Godwin's Law no longer applies exclusively to Usenet discussions.

Coming to theaters near you (in 2011): "Battleship"

Yep, the popular electronic board game is being adapted for the big screen, with Peter Berg (Hancock) at the helm. I imagine we'll be seeing Chinese Checkers: The Motion Picture soon enough.

The man behind the curtain

According to NPR, it's getting harder for those who spew bile online to maintain their anonymity. As someone who's been cyber-harassed, I appreciate that.

R.I.P., Ted

You'll be missed.

High-concept doll designers: You've gone too far

Zelda Lily reports on a doll that breastfeeds. Next, I suppose, we need one that develops colic. Or maybe one with a taste for human blood.

Still waters run scary

Seattle Times writer Nancy Leson recently tweeted about a startling report on Fiji Water in Mother Jones, and it's really worth a read. Here's an excerpt:

I sat down and sent out a few emails—filling friends in on my visit to the Fiji Water bottling plant, forwarding a story about foreign journalists being kicked off the island. Then my connection died. "It will just be a few minutes," one of the clerks said.

Moments later, a pair of police officers walked in. They headed for a woman at another terminal; I turned to my screen to compose a note about how cops were even showing up in the Internet cafés. Then I saw them coming toward me. "We're going to take you in for questioning about the emails you've been writing," they said.

What followed, in a windowless room at the main police station, felt like a bad cop movie. "Who are you really?" the bespectacled inspector wearing a khaki uniform and a smug grin asked me over and over, as if my passport, press credentials, and stacks of notes about Fiji Water weren't sufficient clues to my identity. (My iPod, he surmised tensely, was "good for transmitting information.") I asked him to call my editors, even a UN official who could vouch for me. "Shut up!" he snapped. He rifled through my bags, read my notebooks and emails. "I'd hate to see a young lady like you go into a jail full of men," he averred, smiling grimly. "You know what happened to women during the 2000 coup, don't you?"

Sad news for fans of Scandy food

BallardBlog.com reports that Olsen’s Scandinavian Foods is closing its doors. Another sign of Ballard's changing face, the reality of which truly began to hit home with last year's Sunset Bowl closure.

Nice round number

Weren't the six-point-whatever figures getting irritating? Thank goodness we're closing in on a number that's so much easier to remember.

Hillary: I'm not Bill

Awesomeness.