Friday, December 12, 2008
Drugs This Week on Drugs
Posted by Dominic Holden on Fri, Dec 12, 2008 at 6:23 PM
The Leading Question for Obama at Change.Gov: "Will you consider legalizing marijuana so that the government can regulate it, tax it, put age limits on it, and create millions of new jobs and create a billion dollar industry right here in the U.S.?"
Paper Tiger: Atlanta established a civilian review board after police shot a 92-year old woman in a drug raid. Now police are trying to gut it.
Vanillaroma Won't Save You Now: Six air fresheners can’t cover up stink of skunk.
Those Exaggerated Anti-Meth Ads: They made kids like meth more. (I called it.)
Those Silly Pot Ads: Tenth-graders are smoking pot more than cigarettes, according to a new federal survey. Commenting on the report, the drug czar says, “What we see here is a very good trend for the youth of the country.”
Has Beans: McDonalds calls Starbucks prices “dumb.”
Housekeeping There Is No Strangercrombie Party... Sorry
Posted by Megan Seling on Fri, Dec 12, 2008 at 5:40 PM
Congratulations to all the winners of the eBay auctions!
If you won a Strangercrombie auction, then you probably got a message from eBay telling you about a party at the Showbox. However, that message is from a previous Strangercrombie (as in, like, three years ago), and shouldn't have been sent out. We very much regret the error.
So again, there's no party at the Showbox for the auction winners. I'm sorry. But you still get your prizes! Your glorious prizes!
Yay!
Politics Meanwhile, in the KC Elections Director Election...
Posted by Erica C. Barnett on Fri, Dec 12, 2008 at 5:18 PM
KC Elections director candidate Chris Clifford has filed a challenge to current elections director Sherril Huff's voter registration, alleging that she does not live in King County, a requirement for the office. Huff is a longtime resident of Bremerton; her campaign staff says she signed a lease on a home in Seattle this week in order to run to keep her current position.
Clifford, however, insists otherwise, alleging Huff not only doesn't live in Seattle ("So what, she spent one night in an empty house?"), she neither has a working Seattle phone number nor knows her own street address. "She lives on 66th Avenue North, and she listed it as 66th Avenue," Clifford says. He says he'll pursue his challenge in court, if necessary (which, because Huff would conceivably be the one who would review his residency challenge, he thinks it will be). Huff's campaign consultant, Christian Sinderman, says Huff "moved before she filed."
Clifford says he doesn't care how long his challenge takes. "I'm not going to let [King County Executive] Ron Sims and Sherril Huff, the two criminals in this case, decide the pace at which it moves," he says.
Clifford—whose own number, ironically, has a San Diego area code—is actually the chair of the North Bay Redevelopment Project Area Committee, a San Diego planning group that has no residency requirements. Asked whether this wasn't similar to, if not more egregious than, what Huff (a Kitsap County resident willing to move to King County to keep her job as elections director) was doing, Clifford responded, "I'm very proud of my work down there." He added: "Until [Huff] pulled this crap, the only opinion I had of her was a high one. Now I think she's more foul than Pat Davis"—the Seattle port commissioner Clifford is leading an effort to recall.
Besides Clifford and Huff, the candidates who've filed for elections director so far include former county council member David Irons, fired former elections director Julie Anne Kempf, state senator Pam Roach, and someone named Bill Anderson.
Media Bad News
Posted by Dan Savage on Fri, Dec 12, 2008 at 5:07 PM
WSJ via TPM (hat tip Sullivan):
The publisher of the Detroit Free Press, the country's 20th largest paper by weekday circulation, is expected to announce next week that it will cease home delivery of the print edition of the newspaper on most days of the week, according to a person familiar with the company's thinking.
Strangercrombie Strangercrombie: THANK YOU!
Posted by Megan Seling on Fri, Dec 12, 2008 at 5:03 PM
This year's Strangercrombie is OVER! All auctions are now closed and winners are being notified as we speak. Congratulations to everyone who won the auction they were bidding on, and thank you, thank you, THANK YOU so much for all your donations.
You have all donated a lot of money to Treehouse, but we're still a few grand short of where we were last year (goddamn recession). But there's still time to help! If you didn't win your auction (or if you weren't bidding, but are feeling generous), you can still donate to Treehouse via PayPal:
If you give $20, you get an awesome Stranger tote bag! And if you donate $50, you get your choice of a Gentlemen or Ladies of Slog calendar (where some of your favorite Slog commenters are wearing bacon, bathing, and doing a lot of hilarious and/or inappropriate things.
What perfect stocking stuffers!
Thank you all again, so much, for another amazing success.
Strangercrombie Five Minutes Left...
Posted by Paul Constant on Fri, Dec 12, 2008 at 4:55 PM
...to bid on every Strangercrombie item! You can beat the vicious, sociopathic eBay snipers at their own game!
Go! Bid! Buy!
City This Viaduct Debate Will NEVER, EVER END
Posted by Erica C. Barnett on Fri, Dec 12, 2008 at 4:54 PM
As I told Ross Reynolds on KUOW's The Conversation this afternoon, the debate over how to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct is far from over. The obvious factor, of course, is House Speaker Frank Chopp, who isn't going to let his enclosed elevated highway proposal (more about that here, here and here) die. Although the governor, mayor, and county executive have narrowed their list of preferred options to two (a six-lane, divided surface option and two new two-lane elevated viaducts), that decision is merely advisory. Sources who've met with Chopp say his current line is: "The executives are making a recommendation, the Legislature is making the decision." In other words, this week's "final decision" was anything but—at least as far as the House Speaker is concerned.
Supporters of the surface/transit option are characteristically optimistic about their chances, noting that now that all the tunnel options are off the table, those whose primary motivation is improving the waterfront should be ready to rally behind the surface/transit option, if only because they consider it the lesser of two evils. However, two recent developments should be cause for worry: First, the group that came out in support of a combo surface/tunnel option this week—the so-called "grand compromise"—seems far from unified, with some members likely to support the surface option and others likely to defect to the elevated rebuild, depending on whether their primary motivation was improving the waterfront or moving traffic through downtown. (Any surface option would be slower than an elevated highway, with speed limits of 30 mph rather than 50 on an elevated viaduct).
Second, there's the fact that many officials still aren't sold on any of the available options, especially surface/transit. For example: Unbeknownst to most outside the county, county council budget chair Larry Phillips inserted an item in the county budget adopted earlier this month that allocates $250,000 to an "expert review panel" (yes, another one) to "develop an independent analysis" of the various viaduct replacement options. "This analysis shall evaluate the mobility impacts of the options and the county's ability to provide transit services assumed in each option"—a clear slap at the surface/transit proposal, which assumes a much greater increase in transit service than the elevated and tunnel options. The panel, unlike the stakeholder advisory group whose work led to this week's decision, would consist only of transportation professionals "who have published in a national trade journal and have the skills to evaluate mobility impacts and transit functionality and the county's ability to provide transit services assumed in each option." That would probably eliminate surface/transit proponents like People's Waterfront Coalition founder Cary Moon, who is a landscape architect, not a traffic engineer. Initially, Phillips's proposal would have only taken effect if a surface/transit option was chosen as the preferred alternative.
Moon says she thinks surface/transit has a strong shot—"if community groups and business groups and environmental groups stand together." But the more divisiveness people like Phillips (who was not able to return a call for comment this afternoon) sow, the more likely it is that the Great Wall of Chopp will emerge victorious.
City Moxie Management Changes
Posted by Eli Sanders on Fri, Dec 12, 2008 at 4:50 PM
Moxie Media, the hot local political consulting firm, is going through a management change. John Wyble, who has been with Moxie for about eight years, is leaving to start his own firm, WinPower Strategies, which will focus on local races. Lisa MacLean, the other well-known partner in the firm, will be staying put and will continue to focus more on national campaigns.
Both said the change is amicable.
“Nothing acrimonious," said Wyble. "It’s mostly because Lisa’s doing a lot of national work and I’m doing a lot of local work.”
"It’s a very amicable division of the company," MacLean said. "We are pursuing separate individual ventures moving forward."
I asked each of them where they'd be working now that they're no longer partners in the business, which is based in Fremont. Wyble told me MacLean would be working from home. MacLean said: “John’s going to move out an have an office somewhere else.”
Not exactly coordinated talking points.
But, figuring it was possible I'd misheard (it's been a distractingly giddy afternoon here at The Stranger offices) I called Wyble back. He explained: MacLean has been working from home a lot lately because of her young kids, but in terms of office space she's staying in the Fremont office with Henry Underhill, the other Moxie partner. Wyble will be finding other office space.
Strangercrombie Calendars for Good Causes
Posted by Paul Constant on Fri, Dec 12, 2008 at 4:47 PM
Tonight at Conor Byrne up in Ballard, there will be a release party for the Bike Girls 2009 calendar. There will be some sort of a band called Golden Robot Army. Are Golden Robot Army any good? I don't know; I am the book editor and not the music editor. There was a golden robot army in Hellboy II, and that was not a good movie. I'm willing to bet that Golden Robot Army is better than Hellboy II.
But I digress! The Bike Girls calendar is in its second year. It has sexy women on bikes. It is fun and cute. Here are some Bike Girls:
Many, if not all, of the Bike Girls will be in attendance tonight at the calendar release party. That should be reason enough to attend. But! The evening will also benefit Bike Works!, which has been "working for kids, bikes, and community in the Rainier Valley since 1996." So you get to hang out with the Bike Girls, buy their calendar, listen to music almost certainly guaranteed to be better than Hellboy II, and help a good, bike-related cause.
As they say, it doesn't get any better than that.
And if you're interested in calendars, why not buy a Gentlemen of Slog or Women of Slog calendar? For a fifty dollar donation below:
You can get your very own sexy, funny, Slog-related calendar. There are not bikes in every picture of the Gentlemen/Ladies of Slog calendars, but there are pit bulls and bacon and also babies in ovens, like so:
I saw mockups of the completed calendars yesterday. You will not be sorry if you buy one of these beauties, I guarantee.
Strangercrombie. Once a year, we do something good™.
Visual Art In Case You Didn't Catch This in the Comments
Posted by Jen Graves on Fri, Dec 12, 2008 at 4:46 PM
Preston reveals the identity of the best worst artist at OBAMA: John Pitre! (I tried to bring an image here from his site but can't.)
The amazing details from Preston:
I happen to be well acquainted with the artist who crafted that masterful Tower of Babel piece, which you so rightfully picked as the "best worst" in your Bad Art Temple post. His name is John Pitre and he's been a friend of my father's for years. He actually made millions selling posters in the 70s and like I mention in my comment, now spends most of this time flying around in tiny helicopters. John also happens to be the proud owner of a three-foot ponytail, despite being totally bald up top. I think you get the idea. Peep his site for some truly amazing gems. (Bonus Points: See if you can guess which three pieces I happen to have signed prints of!)http://www.johnpitre.com/gallery2.html
Also in my comment, I mention that he happens to be the inventor of this, which I've only ever seen at his house and in in-flight magazines:
http://www.fastexercise.com/
Many of his friends seriously consider him a modern day da Vinci.
Preston, please tell me you are in possession of Queen of Swords?!
Strangercrombie Fifteen Minutes Left...
Posted by Paul Constant on Fri, Dec 12, 2008 at 4:45 PM
...to bid on this Strangercrombie item:
B'wana Go to Africa?Be a citizen of the world with this African safari for two. That’s six days and six nights at either the Zulu Nyala Game Lodge or Heritage Safari Lodge—both in South Africa, surrounded by cheetah, kudu, and rhino. You’ll take safari tours, go tiger fishing at Lake Jozini, shoot at clay pigeons if you like, and much more! Strap on your pith helmet and get ready to voyage to the savannahs and jungles of the awesomest continent on earth, and the land that Shaft once visited in the 1973 masterpiece Shaft in Africa.
Find other amazing bargains here.
Strangercrombie Half an Hour Left...
Posted by Paul Constant on Fri, Dec 12, 2008 at 4:30 PM
...to bid on this Strangercrombie item:
From Washington to Washington, With LoveFew things are prettier than a Barack Obama–led Washington, D.C., in the springtime, so take a trip to the District of Columbia that will reinvigorate your belief in this great country of ours, including round-trip airfare for two, and three nights at the Fairmont Washington, D.C. Patriotism is sexy again!
Find other crazy-ass shit to bid on here.
Visual Art How You Like Him Now?
Posted by Jen Graves on Fri, Dec 12, 2008 at 4:24 PM
I just got this note from Slog tipper emma's bee:
I thought it was interesting to peruse the link with the large donors to Obama's inaugural. Dale Chihuly kicked in $50,000. Now I feel bad for trash-talking him on Slog.
Chihuly gave twice as much as Jamie (Lee) Curtis and Christopher Guest, and the same as Robert Zemeckis.
Chihuly also gave the same amount as a fellow named Cantwell Muckenfuss, who works for Gibson, Dunn in Chevy Chase, Md.
Strangercrombie One Hour Left...
Posted by Paul Constant on Fri, Dec 12, 2008 at 4:00 PM
...to bid on this Strangercrombie item:
Attention Video-Game Nerds!There’s nothing more American than sitting on a couch and massacring faceless enemies. This package comes with two tickets to Video Games Live (an “immersive concert” of video-game soundtracks at the Paramount), a special edition Zune player loaded with tons of Gears of War 2 media and oodles of extras [note: Zune does not come with the actual game Gears of War 2], and the priceless opportunity to play video games with resident Stranger video-game nerd Sam Machkovech, who will defeat you with guile, wit, and nuclear-powered weaponry.
Find other unbelievable deals here.
Life Jesus Fucking Christ
Posted by Rod Blagojevich on Fri, Dec 12, 2008 at 3:40 PM
Like I've been saying: fuck you, Lisa Madigan. If you wanted that Senate seat, you should have done like Jesse. Now you've got to go running off to the fucking Illinois Supreme Court to ask them to declare me "unfit to serve" or some bullshit. But, uh, who's still fucking here?
Me. Fit as a fucking fiddle, returning to normalcy, praying with the ministers (that was a good fucking move, huh? stole that shit from Bill Clinton), and planning my presidential run in 2016. Yeah, I know, 2012 is out. But people got short memories. 2016. Be there.
John Harris? Didn't need him anyway.
So, you know, now that things are all normalcy and shit I've got this little sideline gig. Don't make me talk too much about it. It's a delicate subject. And I still got these fucking wiretaps to worry about. But click here. Or just push here:
I'm the fucking Governor of Illinois, you know what I'm saying? Still am. Always will be. (Unless.) But really, ignore all this bullshit that's going on. You have until 5 p.m. and I promise, it'll be worth your fucking while.
Books Seattle Poetry Chain 3, Part 1: John Olson
Posted by Paul Constant on Fri, Dec 12, 2008 at 3:28 PM
As you may recall, last week we ran a lovely poem by Sarah Mangold as our second entry in the Seattle Poetry Chain. Ms. Mangold chose another poet to be the third link in the chain. That poet said they would send me a poem last weekend. And then Monday. And then "in two days." And then it was late. And now it will never be in Seattle Poetry Chain.
Mangold was quick to pick another link, though, and she actually picked two: John Olson and Roberta Olson. The two poets will be a weird dual-link in the Poetry Chain. Today will be John Olson's turn and then, to make up for today's edition being late, Roberta's poem will appear during the week next week before the Poetry Chain resumes next Friday at noon with the fourth entry in the series.
All clear? All clear.
John Olson is a certified Stranger Genius. Christopher's profile of him probably explains better than I ever could why Olson is so great.
Olson is the author of a collection of poems called Backscatter. It's great. He just published a novel called Souls of Wind, which is about Rimbaud in the American West. I'm very excited to read that one.
So here we go:
Tract
by John OlsonTake this rain and quaver it. Shake it. Salt it. Beat it. Hammer it into chintz. Delirium gravel. Thunder shed. Scintillate the nickname between the cyclones. I am labial and oblong. I am chafed and curlicue. There are bubbles in my wallet and a pond in my brain. The caterwaul answers its own jetsam. Ultraviolet bulbs of aperture lacquer. I am black from standing in a thesis of war rattling at yarn. I have handled this gland before it is a canopy of mist illumined from within by a stubborn animal. I feel the same way about beavers. Clarinets quarreling in pennies. The fist comes apart to reveal a trembling percussion. Cut the arcade and paint it into buds. Take a jab at inventing a teaspoon. Feel your swelling. Describe it to a glee club. You can see how this squirts. There is the auxiliary of a verb and the flaws of a billboard. Do you see how it all comes together? Each gear, each word, each sound, each shape and rope and bearing appertain to the appetizers of the moment. The sand as it taxis from dune to dune. The zeal of the seal. The lassitude of the altitude of beatitude. Hold this. It is a consonant in winter. The late night hugged by the lungs of catastrophe. Tassels on a tarantula. Verb in a fall pastel. The intestine is everything.
Many thanks to John Olson.
Economy / Enviro The Future of the Auto
Posted by Jonathan Golob on Fri, Dec 12, 2008 at 3:19 PM
It's been a busy day:
For General Motors Corp., the question is no longer whether it will get a government loan or if Chief Executive Officer Rick Wagoner will be replaced. It’s whether anything can prevent the largest U.S. automaker from sliding into bankruptcy.
And, lest you think this only has to do with the US automakers:
GM and Chrysler have been stretching payables, which means that many auto parts suppliers are in dire cash flow straits. And if auto parts makers fail, it doesn't hurt just the Detroit car makers, but the foreign transplants as well.
Few people outside of the industrial Midwest really understand the astonishing breadth and terrifying importance of the auto industry, and the central role it played historically in generating the American middle class.
I still think this is a big mistake. Creating the vast infrastructure, human capital and technical expertise needed for even a mediocre automobile industry is no small feat. Take the Koreans, for example, who easily captured the global market for shipbuilding and high-rise construction. Despite billions of dollars in subsidies and decades of effort, the Korean automobile industry struggles to even meet the worst of US markers in quality, efficiency and overall design. The $25-50 billion in loans is cheap, in comparison to what it would cost to restart this industry from scratch—or drag an automaker out of bankruptcy.
Even from an environmental perspective, this decision seems shortsighted to me. If the US automakers are allowed to fail, the $18 billion or so spent every year on R&D won't come back, even in the rosiest scenarios in which foreign automakers set up more plants in the US. Out of those labs came catalytic converters, airbags and most of the technology that made hybrids possible. Commuting by car to and from sprawling suburbs cannot be made efficient; I still think GM's approaches to the problem are better than most anyone else.
But, I'm biased.
I grew up outside of Detroit. Since leaving Europe just before World War I, my family has lived in Detroit. My father assembled Thunderbirds to pay his way through school. My grandfather worked for Packard. My Great Grandfather worked at Ford's Rouge plant. In a strange twist of fate, I've become a dues paying member of the UAW—thanks to the unionization of University of Washington's graduate students. That's four generations in the UAW for my family. (As my dad put it, when he heard of the grad student unionization, "can't one of us not pay these assholes dues?")
About a year ago, I was asked to write a piece on the future of the automobile—combining my background in science and engineering with my family's intertwined history with the American auto industry.
I spent the year researching—going to auto shows, reading scientific and technical reports, as well as histories. Thanks to the totally collapsed publishing market, the piece is unlikely to ever be printed.
Today seemed as good as anyway to at least post excerpts from it. Perhaps someday the full version will find its way into print.
Visual Art Currently Hanging/Art of the Death Day Calculator
Posted by Jen Graves on Fri, Dec 12, 2008 at 3:16 PM
A little while ago I posted here about an artist making a work that will continually sell itself on eBay. Here's a bit of a conversation I had with the artist, Caleb Larsen, yesterday, about a newer work of his. (Longer podcast forthcoming.)
And here's an image of his 1 1/2-inch-square homage to Robert Ryman, a little piece of frost living on the wall (kept cold by a fan system behind the wall) at Lawrimore Project.
Strangercrombie Two Hours Left...
Posted by Paul Constant on Fri, Dec 12, 2008 at 3:00 PM
...to bid on this Strangercrombie item:
Seattle Art Museum Staycation!One of the weird downsides to living in a great city is the propensity to forget you’re living in a great city. Smash that bad habit with this awesome, artsy Seattle weekend. First, get yourself settled at the new Four Seasons Hotel, where you’ll be granted luxury accommodations for two. Then get ready for an extravagant art bath at Seattle Art Museum, where SAM’s curator of American art Patti Junker will give you a private viewing of Edward Hopper’s Women, supplying you with an autographed catalog of the show and sending you away with a limited-edition print of the Hopper painting Chop Suey. Added bonuses: Yearlong SAM membership benefits for two (including unlimited free admission and invitations to exclusive member events). Wrap up your day with complimentary dinner for two at SAM’s TASTE restaurant.
Find other killer deals here.
Boom While They Were Drinking…
Posted by Dominic Holden on Fri, Dec 12, 2008 at 2:50 PM
About 60 people were standing around last night at Slog Happy in the Twilight Exit on 22nd Avenue and East Madison Street, under blue and pink bulbs, sucking down drinks and exchanging some seriously weird gifts. (Thanks for the bells on a string, Scary Tyler Moore. And, Rhett Oracle, that’s some card...)
But at the same time, exactly 23 people were standing around two blocks north at the Miller Park Community Center, under fluorescent lights, sucking back cups of coffee and snacking on eggplant and mozzarella sandwiches. They were there to hear developer Jim Mueller’s plans for two six-story apartment buildings to be constructed on 22nd and Madison. One of those buildings requires demolishing the Twilight Exit.
“Hopefully everyone has had some free food, because we’re going to start in a minute,” said Mueller. Earlier this year, he purchased the old Deano’s site on the north side of Madison—formerly home to Seattle’s most terrifying open-air drug market—and announced plans for the Twilight site. The Deano’s block already had a building permit in place; however, those plans looked like a Craftsman compound of cheap townhouses. “The design was clearly dated when we bought it,” he said. (A model of the previous building form is over here.) Mueller has revamped the design, which will influence both buildings, to look like this:
After about 20 minutes, I grabbed a sandwich and ducked out for another whiskey and Coke. It was probably my last drink at Twilight Exit—at least in that location. Stephan Mollmann, owner of the Twilight Exit, says the bar will remain open through the end of this month but he is unsure when it will open in a new location near 25th and Cherry.
Games Lips Review (Xbox 360)
Posted by Sam Machkovech on Fri, Dec 12, 2008 at 2:39 PM
Lips
(Microsoft/iNiS, Xbox 360)
I'd like to prattle about the potential of Lips, Microsoft's first-ever karaoke game, but I'm just as tempted to merely say that my family adored it, and my nerdy friends did not.
Mom and sis each had favorites out of the 40 songs spread across all genres (John Denver and Rihanna, respectively). They liked the songs' original videos as the backdrop while they sang; they liked the focus on duets and people taking turns singing; they liked the no-fail aspect and not having to “unlock” any songs. And they liked having a reasonable scoring system that proved the "winner" on a given song's duet.
On the other hand, I've had short spurts of play that ran out of steam quickly with friends. Like when Slog's own Jon Golob came by and put his special atonal twist on Destiny's Child and "Survivor." You have a limited song selection, not much progression for solo play, and a lack of Rock Band's bells and whistles. Fun, full of laughs, but brief. (Though if each copy of the game came with a shlub who badly sang the Beyonce tracks, replay value might skyrocket.)
Film "If It's Not Alternative It Must Be Boring."
Posted by Lindy West on Fri, Dec 12, 2008 at 2:37 PM
I know this is completely dumb to even bring up, because nobody saw this movie except me and five sailing enthusiasts who now hate me, and it came out like two months ago, but whatever. My Morning Light review just got another comment from a disgruntled sailor and I will now respond. Because what else am I doing. PERIOD.
Typical review from the Stranger. If it's not alternative it must be boring.
Yes. This is obviously true. Typical Lindy West inner monologue: Let's see. Was this movie...alternative? FUCK YEAH! That was the alternativest movie I have ever seen. Oh man, I was so not bored by all the alternatives that that movie offered me.
This movie may not have a broad audience , but I don't think that Roy Disney would spend millions of dollars that he knew he would not get back purely in vain.
I do not understand your words.
BTW. I dont recall ever sailing in southern cali on a day that I didnt see dolphins.
Cool story.
I think that you wish it was staged.
Yes. It is my fondest wish. (!?)
You should go sailing, you may see why Roy Disney wanted to share the experience on the big screen.
Listen. Just because a movie happens to be about your most favorite thing in the world does not mean that it is good. Morning Light is not good, and it is not a documentary. It's a bunch of sexist fucks on a boat reciting scripted inspirational speeches written for them by an old man whose frozen dad uncle invented a famous mouse or whatever. It is SO STUPID. God. So stupid. And totally not alternative enough. Bye.
Chow / Economy Austin Cantina to (Maybe) Close Down
Posted by Erica C. Barnett on Fri, Dec 12, 2008 at 2:15 PM
Austin Cantina—a restaurant in Ballard that styled itself "Seattle's Best Tex-Mex Experience!" and which Stranger reviewer Angela Garbes said left her "desperately hungry for real Mexican food"—may close down. According to an press release, the restaurant will be serving dinner only through December 26, then "closing for 2 weeks to determine if there is enough interest, business, and reserve cash to re-open for business on January 6th." The email blames "being a new restaurant next door to a multi-year construction project, having the sidewalk closed on both sides of 24th Av, and the stock market crash in September, which led to the second largest drop in sales we’ve experienced" for the restaurant's financial crisis. As a native Texan, I tend to stay the hell away from places that label themselves "Seattle's Best" Texas anything, so I never went to Austin Cantina; however, our reader reviews (which averaged one star out of five) would seem to indicate Austin Cantina's problems maybe stemmed more from its food than from the stock market or the housing boom in Ballard? (In fairness, they liked it more on UrbanSpoon and Yelp, which gave it an average approval of 60 percent and three stars out of five, respectively.)
Strangercrombie Three Hours Left...
Posted by Paul Constant on Fri, Dec 12, 2008 at 2:00 PM
...to bid on this Strangercrombie item:
You Lucky DogThe Obamas aren’t the only people getting ready for a new best friend. The centerpiece of this package is an ultramodern dog bed—leather with chrome frame, inspired by Le Corbusier—from Kasala. Plus, a smorgasbord of necessities for your new puppy from Lucky Pet Petsitting: two ceramic dog bowls, a leash, a collar, a Chuckit! toy, chow-down-able food (five cans of dog food and some dry-food sample bags), a stuffed toy, poop pickup bags and holder, puppy pads, stain and odor removers, natural shampoo, a paw towel for rainy days, a light-up safety tag, a combo brush, toothbrush and toothpaste, a “Wag More, Bark Less” sticker, an emergency “Pet in House” sticker, the book The Nature of Animal Healing, and the November issue of Whole Dog Journal. Oh, and the Bottleneck Lounge will put your pooch and your favorite cocktail as the top dog on their Hair of the Dog drink menu in the spring of 2009.
To find other amazing bargains, cast your eyes over here.
2008 Great Expectations
Posted by Dominic Holden on Fri, Dec 12, 2008 at 1:47 PM
Americans still love poll brother number one:
More than a month after his November victory, President-elect Barack Obama is enjoying a larger post-election honeymoon with the American public than his recent predecessors did, according to the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll....Indeed, the poll shows Obama with a 67 percent to 16 percent positive/negative rating. That’s compared with the 48 percent to 35 percent rating Bush had in December 2000 and Clinton’s 60 percent to 19 percent rating in December 1992....
In addition, 48 percent believe that Bush will go down as one of the country’s worst presidents. Only 18 percent said that of Clinton, and just 6 percent said that of George H.W. Bush.
Democratic pollster Peter Hart says the Blagojevich fiasco will have "zero" impact on Obama, reports the Christian Science Monitor. "I don’t think it is Obama-related and that voters are going to see it that way.”
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