March 2008

It has been a year of service to people who are blind or disabled.

We need a sense of community and neighbors getting along with each other in SeaTac City. The City Council did a goodwill thing when it made it "not illegal" to share a parking lot that is not being used with a neighboring community, whatever the faith or membership affiliation.

So with the Muslim community, I hope the negotiations over the parking spaces near the SeaTac Mosque have engaged fruitfully and all agreements and safety regulations are properly enforced and adhered too.

We didn't use to have parking problems in SeaTac.

I am hoping you will help me get the word out about an important issue affecting the Highline community. As I'm sure you're aware, education is of vital importance to most members of the community, but many members may not know how they can easily make an impact in our local classrooms.

One of my best friends, Ryan Reilly, is a new teacher at Madrona Elementary in SeaTac and has already spent several hundred dollars buying necessary teaching tools for his class.

When you see college students with cameras invading Des Moines' main business district and marina this spring and summer, never fear.

This is not the rise of a dark side of the moon with alien kids overtaking earth, or an on-site lesson in Law and Order types resolving crime.

Unless you think the appearances of some downtown business storefronts look like a crime scene, then you could be right.

These University of Washington architecture graduates will conduct a resourceful and highly successful "Store Front" outreach project, bringing their fresh outlook and s

(Editor's note: Ralph Nichols is still ill. His column will return next week.)

Ever work with an "office wife?"

It's often the boss' secretary.

He treats her like crap. Loads her up with overtime work. Takes credit for her ideas. Pays her a pittance.

Meanwhile he basks in her admiration. Sneaks out for long golfing afternoons. Hasn't had a creative thought in decades. Soaks up the executive bonuses.

Like a victim of Stockholm syndrome, she coddles him, defends him and worries about him.

I recently wrote about how I got sandbagged into a million dollar bet with Elsbeth on whether the garbage man was due to pick up the big blue recycle bin and lost, and she went out and spent 35 bucks on a new outfit the next day.

Well ... my drivers license was about to expire so Elsbeth urged me to go to the White Center license office next door to the Westwood Village shopping center and get it renewed this week.

This is a five-year event and requires taking a number and a chair and waiting.

'Cloverfield' through the lens

Directed by Matt Reeves

Rated PG-13

(Three Stars)

For those with an appetite for cinema verite, the film "Cloverfield" can be described in a single phrase: "too much Christmas." This is a film that takes the joys of shaky-cam to the edge of vertigo and then a few steps beyond.

I recently wrote about how I got sandbagged into a million dollar bet with Elsbeth on whether the garbage man was due to pick up the big blue recycle bin, and lost.

The Legislature has made the right first step, but there is much to do to come up with a coherant housing policy in the city.

Lawmakers in Olympia passed a measure that strengthens protections for tenants displaced in the overpowering rush to turn usually older apartment buildings into cash machines for their owners. Hundreds of rental spaces have been lost to conversions into condominiums.

As we bring the West Seattle and Fauntleroy YMCA's Partners With Youth Campaign to a close, I am amazed at how much people can do for their community.

For those of you who do not know about Partners With Youth, let me quickly bring you up to speed.

Every year during the month of February, the Greater Seattle YMCAs hold their only fundraising event, bringing in donations to keep YMCA programs accessible to everyone in the community.

The money goes to a variety of uses so let me share some of those with you.

Partners With Youth programs include, but ar