Can anyone possibly know about Mr. Stickland, a little lame man, a beautiful man, a graceous man, a cartoonist, who lived under the west end of that bridge over the Duwamish (sp?) to W. Seattle in a hand carved one room house with a “Dutch” front door but reminding one of Scandinavia? I have wondered for forty years what was to become of that beautiful double-ender he was building (entirely of teak? – I can’t remember) a copper clad sculpture of Norse influence, with trusses for deck beams, with no more head room than needed for a lame man that would have difficulty standing up at sea anyway. It breaks one’s heart thinking of what might have happened to such a solitary labor of love. A museum should have been built for it as a monument to Mr. St(r?)ickman.

And then, of course, there was Fred Leber aboard the MARY HILYER, growing up working for his uncle out of Half Moon Bay during prohibition in the fastest boats on the West Coast (but which couldn’t outrun the shells from the 3 inch guns the Coast Guard started mounting on their cutters) and who amply supplied the Chinese community of Seattle with their medicinal supplies ala the Cascades. It was amazing how a man as large as Fred could navigate in and out of the Chinese byways and know the important places behind small doorways where important transactions took place. Fred was a great and loyal friend. He was exceedingly generous, kind and a gentleman who was respected by those who knew him and considered an obscure, enigmatic character by those who knew only of him.

Regardless of the ineptness of the planners and politicians and developers, people like these, along with Doc Henry and Hewitt Jackson, BAM Morse and others, made the Seattle I knew worth knowing.

Cheers.

I just had nice trip to Seattle’s new Central Library this morning with my daughter and I recalled a quotation Mike Gastineau (a sports radio personality here in town) used to frequently recite at the time when the city was debating whether to fund the building a new ballpark for the Mariners. In a frustrated yet reverent tone, Gastineau quoted a colleague as saying about Seattle, “a city that values its museums and libraries more than its sports stadiums can’t be all bad.” Indeed.

Normally I shrink from acknowledging anyone’s kudos for my offerings – no matter how delightful such appreciation feels. This time, however, is slightly different, as you’ll see.

I wrote the ‘tell-all’ an hour or two after the show on a computer that wasn’t mine. Worse – no, torturously worse – it had a standard keyboard instead of my MS ‘Natural’ with the curved and split-down-the-middle ‘qwerty’. Which meant that not only was the act of typing a second-by-second exemplar of frustration and misery, but every so often my right pinkie or another stray, crowded finger would accidentally hit a key I think is called ‘ScrLk’ – or something else up there by ‘Pause Break’.

This key, should I ever lose my mind and find Jesus, will undoubtedly be the reason.

When activated, anytime you go back to edit a previously typed line, the new, correct-as-you-go line of type eats all the stuff you’ve already drafted.

A ‘word-limit’, I surmise.

Now then, the inventor of this unambiguous evidence of Satanism deserves the following:

To be made to smoke a pack of Greek cigarettes – ESPECIALLY if he or she hates smoking.

To be dressed in French Foreign Legion garb.

And then:

To be shoved at dawn before a bullet-pocked and blood-spattered concrete wall, and summarily executed.

Now, just in case the inventor is reading this:

DO YOU HAVE ANY FRICKIN’ IDEA HOW ANNOYING YOUR INVENTION IS?

Deep, deep, out-breath.

Ah.

That’s better.

Soooo…

…the ‘tell-all’ would have been a bit longer and more detailed but for the torture of its writing.

For example, I’d have mentioned the guests’ malfunctioning headphones to better illustrate Chris’s improvisational ease, but it wasn’t worth the temptation to find a hammer and wreak havoc on my brother’s boss’s computer.

Therefore: I’m delighted to have provided descriptive pleasure to one and all, and in this rare instance, am willing to admit it openly.

Which is a long way of saying: ‘You’re Welcome!’

To my surprise, one thing that was never discussed, and which could never have been omitted from a show on Vancouver, was the, impact, heritage and present role of the First North Westerners–no, not the Scandinavians. What about all those place names, including the name of the city itself?

In 1854, Chief Seattle spoke: “A few more moons, a few more winters, and not one of the descendants of the mighty hosts that once moved over this broad land or lived in happy homes, protected by the Great Spirit, will remain to mourn over the graves of a people once more powerful and hopeful than yours.”

And now we even erase them from memory.

>The computer guy has been here for three years — he can he even know anything?

I’ve visited 13 cities in just the past 2.5 months. How many have you visited?

And, I lived near San Francisco for more than 30 years. I kept hearing yesterday that it’s Seattle’s “big brother” that you all are jealous of. So, maybe that makes me a little knowledgeable on what makes Seattle special.

Let’s put it this way: I’m not moving back.

(let’s see if I got that bold thing)

or…

bold italics?

I enjoy reading and listening to Mr. Raban, but I’m not sure I’m in agreement that this area has the *most* liberal/progressive point-of-view in the country. But, since I’m learning my Seattle chi, I’ll not split hairs over what is ultimately an extremely uninteresting question…would it be instructive to articulate indices for progressive-ism and conservativism? Problematically that activity would amount to an appeal to reductionism, which has taken us in wrong directions and gotten us into enough trouble.

As to what makes a city great? Many things. One item that is helpful Herb Caen figure. Keeps you grounded on the importance all things trivial. Being a newbie here, I’ve probably not bumped into this yet. A few of many memorable quotes: http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Herb_Caen/

A wiki entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herb_Caen