In his absence, novel and exotic rumors about Mr. Obama have flourished ...

Mr. Obama is Arab, Jack Stern’s friends told him in Aventura. (He’s not.)

He is a part of Chicago’s large Palestinian community, suspects Mindy Chotiner of Delray. (Wrong again.)

Mr. Wright is the godfather of Mr. Obama’s children, asserted Violet Darling in Boca Raton. (No, he’s not.)

Why are old people so susceptible to believing this email-forward crap? Is there some "skepticism center" of the brain that just totally decays in later life? Or they do they just grab on to these lies, in this case, to rationalize not voting for the black guy?

Good
Mixed Bag
Good Luck
Good
About Time
Good
I'm Shocked!
This is Why They Hate Us
Says You
Good
Good
Good Luck
And Yet Nothing Will Change
It Takes a Thief
Good Luck
Government Solves Everything
Why Can't We All Just Get Along

"It was planned this way by the Creator" as was me being ganged banged by 20 guys on the set of a new hot porno!!!!

Newsflash: old people confused, scared.

What is surprising is how un-laughable (and sweet) the Christian Interpretation of Sexual Adjustment in Marriage is.

Also: way to lump all Jews in with the elderly ones in Florida. Because they really speak for us, you know.

Aw, I'm bummed about the Ballard Dennys. The Seattle Good Taste Police win yet again. If it doesn't look like it fits in the Pottery Barn catalog, it doesn't belong in Seattle.

We'll never be as cool as San Francisco, we'll never be as funky as Portland, we can't find our own identity, so we have to settle for yet more beige. It's the Jean Jongeward effect.

Oh well. There's no reason to go to Ballard anyway, unless you're in the mood for kitsch or tat.

I understand that Mr. Poe plays some mean piano - piano duets, just as the creators of them had intended.

@4 - I'm with you Abby on the sex excerpts. Both yesterday's and today's made me think... aww, how cute.

do they just grab on to these lies, in this case, to rationalize not voting for the black guy?

Uh, yeah. Isn't it obvious? Do you think the "he's a filthy A-rab" rumor would work if we were talking about a white guy? People simply see a black guy, wait for a suitable rumor (and the threshold for suitable is extraordinarily low), and repeat!

Also, today's Christian Love manual excerpt reminds me of the South Park episode when the kids find a porn. One of the parents tries to explain it by saying (paraphrasing), "when two people love each other, blah blah blah..."

The kid then asks, "SO, what does it mean when 5 guys urinate on the same woman?"

@ 7: Poe doesn't play the piano, he plays the organ! Oh, yeah, he can play the skin flute too!

I actually think the "Christian" comments about sex are kind of sweet, innocuous of themselves, and a big a fuck you to the people who keep saying the slog exists only to slander religious folks.

Fuck the Ballard Denny's. How about we start preserving buildings that are...you know...not fucking ugly.

My suggestion to appease both the NIMBY's and the condo developers. Tear down buildings built between 1960 and 1980 and leave everything older than that alone. The Bellevue strip that's being torn down is a good example of tearing down something ugly.

Does anybody else find it incredibly depressing that X-tians 40+ years ago were more enlightened about sex than most people are today?

Christians 40+ years ago were more enlightened about EVERYTHING than they are now.

Mr. Learnsalot, you are utterly full of shit.

Nickels has a lot of nerve. Is he going to give up his city limo? CAN he? Doesn't he weigh like 400 pounds now?

@14 Christians also were a little more LAID BACK about their Christianity 40+ years ago about their Christianity. (with their exception of hot topics like pre-marital sex-which was done but not talked about, homosexual sex, and abortion)

@ 12,

People are so freaked out about tearing down the Ballard Denny's because--while it's not exactly tasteful per se--it is distinctive.

Whatever replaces it is likely going to be another of the bland, boring, poorly designed and detailed and cheaply constructed Seattle box-style buildings that have sprung up like weeds all over the city. It's this dreadful development style that led California to pass so-called "anti-monotony" laws so that builders would be forced to stop constructing miles of identical tract homes and strip malls.

If they actually built something of architectural interest that compliments and improves the neigborhood, then people would be all for it.

Sir Learnsalot is a great example of the America mentality: Unable to form their own opinions on things, they instead look to popular culture, which relies heavily on nostalgia for a country that never existed. They want everything to look like Wisteria Lane. That is, until the next new look comes around, and they are told that the Wisteria Lane look is ugly. Then they'll want all of that torn down.

Those Bellevue apartments, deemed to be so ugly because they don't conform to the standards of a soap opera set, probably have units that are twice the size of what's going to replace it. To me, the irony is that the ugliest building in that picture is the newest one - and it's the only one that will stay.

@ Catalina Vel-Duray,

I recently drove—yes drove, don’t tase me—out to this subdivision near Sammamish to visit a friend of a friend who’d bought a house in suburbia and Oh. My. Gawd. their street looked almost exactly like Wisteria lane, but with houses in proper NW shades of brown and gray instead of Wisteria Lane’s candy-colored surrealism.

I could totes imagine Gabrielle, Bree, Lynnette, Susan and Edie cooking up all kinds of unspeakable acts of bitchcraft behind those somber brick and wood façades. Could suburbia really be as debauched as it seems on TV? (Answer: Yes).

My grandmother and older relatives LOVE forwarding e-mails about anything they get. Here's how I'm convinced it works out "logically" in their heads: email= computer= science= true! But at the same time, with a fairly religous background, you're supposed to take things on faith, and having the all-powerful computer e-mail telling you something, who's to say it isn't true (like the Bibe!)?

people are confusing disapproving of something because they actually like it and disapproving of something because they dislike the alternative.

The latter latches on to the former but in their hearts they know they are only being reactionary.

The creator loves piano solos. And I'm a virtuoso!

I love teh piano.

Nickels is sooo obnoxious and condescending. With the price of gas and amount of traffic, we’re already not driving more than we have to.

For what it's worth, I like the building: The soaring roofline, the vast expanses of glass, the exposed timbers are all very cool. Sort of a Canlis for the working man.

But also, it evokes a very specific time in this city's history. A time when Seattle was yet again re-inventing itself - morphing from backwater port town to the exciting new Jet City. Part and parcel of the "New Frontier".

It was that Seattle - with its new and thriving middle-class - which the creators of its latest incarnation as a high tech hub were raised in. Why not selectively preserve a few examples of that era?

And yes - if property owners go the distance to engage in preservation, they should be given special consideration when it comes to zoning, taxes, etc.

Not that I fly American Airlines, but I'm pissed at their move anyway because other airlines may follow suit. They should've just tacked $15 on the price of the tickets and not said a word. Now people are going to try and carry on everything again, just when the hassles at security finally dissuaded most people from doing that. The lines at security will be longer, it'll take longer to load the planes, and people will be duking it out over the stupid overhead bins. As if flying doesn't suck enough already.

The luggage surcharge (tax) is really annoying because the amount of luggaged checked has increased due to security issues like restrictions on fluids in carry ons and reductions in allowable size for carry on bags.

I want Catalina Vel-Duray to assume sole responsibility for the Landmarks Board.

The luggage surtax doesn't bother me; carrying tons of crap with you is raising the cost for everyone else (weight = fuel).

Herbert Miles: "Let us begin the discussion of sexual adjustment in marriage with the illustration of a piano-violin duet."
Ron Mael: "It's a lot like playing the violin / You can not start out and be Yehudi Menuhin."

"It is normal in the love play and arousal period for a couple to touch and handle each others sexual organs."

That may be the unsexiest sentence I've ever read.

Denny's is ugly and good riddance.

We should preserve a typical asphalt parking lot because that went with a crucial period of our history postwar the emergence of the automobile blah blah blah??

No, we should preserve things that people like. Some like the Denny's mainly because it is UGLY. Most dislike it.

Maybe we should wait till we get some better architecture before we start preserving -- otherwise we are just preserving all the mistakes.

@27 People will still be carrying the crap, they'll just be carrying it ON the plane instead of checking it. Besides I don't think checking ONE FUCKING BAG is carrying tons of crap with me.

Oh fuck it, I could argue for hours about this but I won't. I guess Obama's statement should be amended to "We can't just drive our SUVs, eat whatever we want, and take clothing with us on trips..."

Poptart, you know that there are limits to carry on right?

@32 Well, yes, yes I do know that. I do actually fly quite a bit. I still believe this charge will lead to people trying to carry on more to avoid the fee which will hold up the loading of the planes adding to flight delays. Not to mention longer lines at security.

Of course I'm rich and entitled so this really won't inconvenience me one iota so I'll shut up now.

PC, thank you for being such a stimulating intellectual sparring partner. Your quick wit, keen insight into the minds of Seattleites, and provocative challenges to my feeble points keep me on my toes, and help me hone my arguments. Please don't ever change.

Oh, and fnarf - thank you for the vote of confidence, but between my civic obligations, care of the livestock, and looking after the mannequins, I really can't put anything else on my plate. I'm just a Beacon Hill housewife, and I wouldn't have it any other way. :-)

and what about that poor little chihuahua? All chihuahuas should be fed to pit bulls.