November 2005

In response to the letter written by West Seattle resident Debbie Loop (Letters, Nov. 16).

I too, live and work and shop in West Seattle and I make it a point to spend my dollars in West Seattle for the greater good of the community. The result of this effort helps to contribute to the tax base, keeps and creates jobs in our community and makes West Seattle a vital and economically healthy place to live.

Ms. Loop speaks of her "disappointment" in receiving declinations from some Junction merchants when she was soliciting donations for her school auction. In fact, Ms.

Rebekah Schilperoort

People with hearing loss are often afraid to admit they have a handicap, says Karen Frohrib, national program director for the Hearing Loss Association of America.

Of the many residents of West Seattle and the overall 28 million Americans who have hearing loss, less than 1 percent are members of the national self-help organization, said Frohrib.

Judi Carr, meeting coordinator for the organization's Washington state board and a member of the West Seattle and downtown chapters, believes the group's low member count is related to people being

My husband and I are learning Chinese - from our Westside school kindergartner.

Twice a week she and her classmates listen intently to their teacher, Hong Jiang, a former broadcast journalist in China who founded the Seattle Chinese Academy as well as the program at Westside.

She gently guides the children through language and character exercises, capturing their imaginations and opening their minds to consider language in a new way.

Last week, in a fit of devotion to my bride, I drove her to Sears to find a new sports bra.

I did not dare to ask what sport she was contemplating. Good grief, could she be thinking about soccer, tennis, or the Boston marathon?

Not wishing to hang around the ladies slinky stuff department, I suggested she take her time and i would meet her at the car where I had a magazine stashed for emergencies like this.

First, though, I decided to explore the Southcenter Mall, which I have not visited for several. years.

The coffee is ready and the table is set. It's not time to eat but time to create.

Language is fascinating. Just think. A baby has the potential to produce the sounds of every language but after hearing only the language of parents, certain sounds lay dormant.

Now jump ahead into the teen years and the language learned turns into an innovative system of experimentation with words. You don't badmouth but you "dis" someone. Bad becomes good. And in our language labels abound with left becoming radical and right being conservative.

I know you like to grub, and I know you're not a health-nut. You probably don't monitor how much salt you poor onto your food but might use sugar substitute, even though it's four bags in a 16 ounce cup of coffee.

In today's column I won't try to alter your center of gravity by asking you to become a vegan, or even put you on a detox diet. I will ask you, however, to consider something better.

The eye maybe the window to the soul, but angst is undoubtedly its service entrance and, once unlocked, allows for a heavy traffic in both foolishness and wisdom.

If you're a fan of director Cameron Crowe's movies (and I am) you know he likes to set up his romantic comedies by unraveling the egocentric lives of his heroes; casting them adrift on a angst-ridden journey that leaves them a little banged up but also more awake for their troubles.

So Jerry McGuire, that poster boy for Tony Robbins infomercials, finds himself standing alone in the wreckage of his high-flying sp

There has been a spate of stories on the Internet, the music channels and even in the mainline printed press over the subject of a new style of youthful fun called Freak Dancing.

The Seattle School District has been urged by one city daily newspaper to ban it. In Palo Alto, Calif., the schools are seeking to "regulate sexually explicit dancing," says news story in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Many parents have no idea what freak dancing is and what the fuss is about.

Eric Shalit must be living in a different reality than the rest of us.

He states that (in a Nov. 23 letter) "the mayor and other political leaders didn't get behind the monorail because they saw that it was being run by amateurs, and had a fantasy-based financial plan."

Did the responsibility to provide an appropriate mass transit solution between West Seattle and downtown rest solely on the shoulders of the Monorail Authority? Who selected these people? Who was supposed to oversee them?