Ordering at the bar

We’ve been known to go to Naked City, a new pub in Greenwood. I wanted to add a review to Yelp when I noticed an interesting pattern in the other reviews. The reviews were almost all favorable, but quite a few complained how at Naked City you order your beer at the bar. Some of [...]

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Smoking ban hits my local pub

My local pub in Seattle is The George & Dragon. I’ve been going there for trivia night on Tuesdays for almost eight years now. It’s a British pub in the real sense of a British pub: sticky bar, greasy food and it’s low on the frills. Before Washington state passed a bar smoking ban, the [...]

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Returning train service to Leavenworth Washington

I first blogged about Leavenworth Washington to describe why there exist in America things like fake German villages. A sawmill and a healthy logging industry eventually fell apart, however, when the Great Northern Railway Company pulled out of Leavenworth. The re-routing of the railroad and the subsequent closure of the sawmill sadly converted the town [...]

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Half Marathon in Leavenworth

One of the great things about the Leavenworth Marathon is that you run on Saturday morning leaving the rest of the weekend open to spend in the beer gardens. This is Patty who won a costume prize for the run two years in a row. She actually ran the race with at stein in her [...]

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Microbrews per capita in the U.S.

Damn, Oregon beat Washington. Then again they do make fine tasty beers. If I had to name my top favorites I’d say: 1. Scuttlebutt Blonde Ale – Everett, Washington 2. Manny’s Pale Ale – Seattle, Washington (Georgetown neighborhood) 3. Mirror Pond Pale Ale – Bend, Oregon Via wikipedia.

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Back in Seattle

I think it’s fairly appropriate that I return to 60 degree weather and rain. Seattle, I hardly missed you. A lot of people who come to Seattle say that people here are not as friendly as other places. I’m from California and I’ve never really noticed this observation, but I must say that people in [...]

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Fake German Villages

I thought I might talk a bit about why there exist fake German villages in America for McCain to do photo ops at. The fake German village in Washington state where I live is called Leavenworth. And it’s history is as follows: A sawmill and a healthy logging industry eventually fell apart, however, when the [...]

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You can’t have our water

In the winter we often drive through the town of Enumclaw on the way to Crystal Mountain ski resort. It’s a small humble town where some parts look more affluent than others. The town gained some notoriety a few years back due to a rather embarrassing story that I won’t go into here. But Enumclaw [...]

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The Trouble with Strawberry Festivals

Things were so much better in the olden days. I say this having never lived in the olden days, but noticing the folly of planning a time-sensitive harvest festival in advance. Take this strawberry festival in Bellevue: These are tough times for lovers of local strawberries. The unseasonably cool temperatures have delayed the annual harvest [...]

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The Arctic Club Seattle

The Arctic Building is associated with one of the lesser-known facets of the Klondike gold rush–the formation of social institutions for the men who returned from the Yukon gold rush after “striking it rich.” Though most who headed north found no gold, a small percentage did return to Seattle with more than just memories. The [...]

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The Politics of Fear

It turns out this man is not a terrorist. He’s just mad about suspicious people taking his photograph. They were software consultants in town for a weeklong business conference — not terrorists planning an attack to cripple the country’s largest ferry system. Last summer, the FBI launched an international search for two men after crew [...]

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Bush Creates Wilderness Area in Washington State

I’ll give him credit where it’s due. Nice work. I’m crossing my fingers that he won’t be announcing a snowmobile theme park in the wilderness area tomorrow. Click here for more pictures. Nearly six years after it was first introduced, a bill to create a Wild Sky Wilderness northeast of Seattle has become law. President [...]

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Brew Espresso in the Woods

This is why I have a coffee category. If you prefer your coffee fresh-brewed when hiking, Spokane-based GSI offers a number of coffee solutions. If you want a steaming mug of Starbucks Yukon blend during your hike, toss your favorite lightweight stove into your pack, then add a GSI Lexan Javapress — a French-press style [...]

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A Japanese Starbucks Knockoff: Rainier Coffee

As soon as I saw this in the vending machine in Tokyo, I knew I had to get a picture. Not only is the logo a complete knockoff of Starbucks but the logo and name is Mount Rainier — a mountain near and dear to my heart as it’s located in Washington state where I [...]

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But I Don’t Wanna Give Up Trout

I love trout. Trout and butter and almonds, trout grilled on the barbecue with herbs inside. After I read this nausea inducing article on maggots being the answer to the trout farm, I swore off farmed trout: University of Idaho and Idaho State University scientists are working on a new maggot-based feed capable of fattening [...]

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Podiatrist By Day, Bicycle Thief By Night

I’m always fascinated by kleptomaniacs or pathological liars, because they often have fairly stable jobs and would seemingly have little reason to deceive. On a drizzly day last February, a young, athletic man in hospital scrubs walked into a triathlon-supply store in Seattle’s Fremont neighborhood and said he wanted to buy a very expensive bicycle, [...]

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The Sellout of Youth Culture

I just got back from skiing at Mount Baker, the original ski resort of snowboarders so I am told, and I couldn’t believe the amount of Dolce&Gabbana crap out there.  That’s right, Dolce&Gabbana, they don’t use spaces. They’re too cool for that. The last time I watched winter sports on TV I saw the logo, [...]

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Washington State Breaks Records for Caucus

Washington state has broken the record for the largest caucus in the nation’s history. The 244,458 people who showed up for Democratic Party presidential-nominating caucuses in Washington last Saturday may have set a national record for attendance at any of the party’s 18 state caucuses. “We’ve done some research, and we haven’t been able to [...]

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Republicans Don’t Like to Count

So the recount results for the Washington State caucus are in and McCain has once again been declared the winner over Huckabee. The consensus is from state party officials that the delegates don’t matter anyway. I’m having a hard time following their logic. Esser said four counties — Snohomish, Benton, Grant and Jefferson — had [...]

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Oh, the Selective Election Outrage

Where was Mike Huckabee when we had Presidential election inconsistencies (a nice way to put fraud) in 2000 and 2004? It’s hard to be sympathetic. Mike Huckabee continued to cry foul Monday over the results in Saturday’s Washington State GOP caucuses, saying the state party chairman’s decision to call the race there early for John [...]

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Caucusing for Obama in Washington State

Preliminaries There were definitely more caucus goers today than four years ago. My precinct had 9 delegates to give. We all signed in with our name and information and included our preferred candidate. At first count, we had 6 Obama delegates, 2 Clinton delegates and 1 undecided delegate. All On the Same Side Throughout the [...]

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Super Tuesday is a lot like waiting in line for Star Wars

I hate those people who line up for an event hours early causing us the rest of us to line up early too in order to get a ticket. Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Seattle International Film Festival, getting a spot up front at a popular concert — it’s all the same. I just [...]

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Canada and Me and “How Canadian Are You?”

Living close enough to the border with Canada, I often reflect on our similarities and differences. I love driving into Canada from Washington. You immediately feel the effect of smooth roads and less garbage. Vancouver is in many ways superior to Seattle. It’s more cosmopolitan and is greatly more international. A few years ago, I [...]

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Dirt – Who Needs It?

This article brings us yet another way our species is negatively impacting the planet. While the earth will most likely eventually recover from whatever we throw at it, we will not. We can’t grow food if we have no top soil in which to grow it. “Globally, it’s clear we are eroding soils at a [...]

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Wow! A Vehicular Assault Conviction that Doesn’t Involve Alcohol

It always makes me angry that people who drink and drive get the book thrown at them for vehicular assault, but negligent drivers who kill people get a slap on the wrist. To the family that has lost their loved one, it’s little comfort that the person is just a bad driver. Well today a [...]

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