March 2009

It’s an annual affair, “a spring fling” if you will, between myself, and the African Violet Society here in Seattle.

Sweet, little, tiny plants are proudly displayed among the “regular sized” plants – and, like me, the smaller the plant, the better.

So, I picked up a couple of Sinningias – only because I always come late to this show, and I’m always missing them. I also found those neat containers that keep them watered – because they are so tiny, I might miss them when I get really busy with work.

And, I had to pick up a couple more miniature African violets of course, but these ones are trailing. “They’re different than the ones I already have!” I tell my husband while watching his eyes roll to the back of his head.

(He is slowly being driven around the bend by my mini plant addiction – you’ll probably find him in the nut house in a few years. But, I’ll make sure to plant a miniature garden outside his window, so he’ll think of me often.)

Surprise is an inadequate word to describe my reaction to the recent publication of poetry in the West Seattle Herald. Pleasant surprise or even astonishment would be more accurate words.

For, you see, I’m a long-suffering would-be poet. I even took a course in poetry and writing poetry in a former life when my idealism was nearer the surface. Since that time I’ve produced what some might recognize as poetry and others would merely suffer through out of politeness. Which leads us to this:  What’s poetry, anyway?

Like the plastic arts, some would say that poetry is defined only in the eye of the beholder. Some would also say that, like the plastic arts, poetry has a traditional framework on which to hang. I am one who thinks that both are true.

Some rules do apply, but that the images and emotions evoked in the reader are most important. How the poem appears on the page is also important to me because that structure impacts on how it’s read and understood. That appearance often translates into how it means as much as what it means. But the most important element in any poem is how it sounds when heard read aloud. 

Come be a part of the Gathering of Neighbors: Businesses and community organizations from across the West Seattle Peninsula, all together, one day, one place, as “one community."
 
More than 75 businesses, resource and community information groups have registered to  participate, so that attendees can experience, in one place and time, the tremendous wealth of services and goods available to them in their own neighborhoods right here in West Seattle.
 
Sponsored by the Delridge Neighborhood Development Association (DNDA) and the West Seattle Chamber of Commerce, the combination of both community and businesses participants promises to have Chief Sealth High School (at Boren) bursting at the seams with booths full of information. Entertainment and refreshments will also be part of the celebration. 

Boren is at 5950 Delridge Way S.W.

Directed by David Fincher
Rated PG-13
(Three stars)

Benjamin Button was born old, literally.

“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” the story of a boy who came into the world with a body already ravaged with the infirmities of age, opens with a touching piece of irony. His father is so repelled by the boy’s appearance that he abandons him, unwittingly, at an old age home.

Benjamin is given the first gift of his unusual life: camouflage. Tucked in with a group of seniors passing through the home in their last, fading stage of life, Benjamin doesn’t attract much notice as his body mysteriously grows younger. “God in heaven,” exclaims one old woman when she first lays eyes on baby Benjamin, “he looks just like my ex-husband!”

Of course, Benjamin has a couple of other things going for him: the unflinching love of his adoptive mother, Queenie (Taraji Henson), and the fact that he is slowly transforming into Brad Pitt. This may be one of the most literal spins on the ugly duckling story to grace the silver screen and the conceit works brilliantly, partly because Pitt’s unearthly good looks are as compelling to wait for as they are to watch.

Dear Editor,

He’s at it again-- Pastor Randy Leskovar and his obsession with homosexuality (March 18 Letters to the Editor). His letter is full of personal opinions he calls “facts”, and with facts he labels “lies.” Not surprisingly he cherry-picks the Bible, attempting to add credibility to his ill-informed points.

Respected theologian and Roman Catholic priest Daniel Helminiak, respected theologian and Episcopal Bishop (ret.) John Shelby Spong, and scores of other learned men and women from across theological traditions have often pointed out “the Bible has been used to justify slavery, inquisitions, apartheid and the subjugation of women” and I might add many more sins against humanity and the natural environment.

One may use the Bible to validate just about any argument one wishes to make. Now a minority of misguided pastors and others of like mind seek to continue to marginalize gay and lesbian men and women in the name of Jesus. Their weapons include selective interpretations of the Bible, their clerical titles, and of course FEAR.

Dear Editor,

I read your article, ("Two lawsuits stall Fauntleroy Place project," March 20, 2009) and I am disappointed that this project is making no progress, tied up in litigation. There is the ugliness, and unsafe conditions, but I would like to add the impact on neighbors due to this project.

The church and bowling alley adjacent to this project have many patrons. The result is a parking issue that has become a huge inconvenience for many. Before the project, the previous open parking lot was used by many for the spillover from parking right in front. Now that the lot is gone, particularly patrons of the bowling alley, fill the area up and down the adjacent streets most every evening of the week. When the church has activities, they too find it hard to find parking.

Those of us who live within a block of the bowling alley are displaced if we get home after about 6:30 p.m. If we leave to run an errand in the evening, we can forget finding a parking spot within a block of our homes.

What to do with the Alaska Way Viaduct?

Build something with it. First recycle the asphalt. Then break it apart in big pieces and drop it, maybe off of Alki, in 20 to 100 feet of water 25 yards off shore.

Building a mile long artificial reef. In about three years it will be a great place for scuba divers and anglers, on different days of the week.

Tim Carney
Ballard

(Editor's note: The following is a letter to the community that was also sent to this newspaper from the Southwest Seattle Historical Society.)

Dear Editor,

Because of community uncertainty over the fate of the Fir Lodge/Alki Homestead Restaurant after an early-morning fire damaged the building on Jan. 16, 2009, the Executive Board of the Southwest Seattle Historical Society states the following:

The Southwest Seattle Historical Society advocates protection and preservation of significant historic structures on the Duwamish Peninsula. We nominated the Alki Homestead Restaurant building for city landmark status and the Seattle Landmarks Preservation Board designated it a Seattle landmark on Oct. 18, 1995. Then and today, the building needs preservation.

It is Wednesday night and an intimate crowd gathers around the kitchen table for dinner and conversation as it has every Wednesday night since October.

The core group has about a dozen of Amanda Knox’s University of Washington pals, her grandmother, and a medley of other family. Knox, 21, grew up with her sister, Deanna, 15 months her junior, in the Arbor Heights home with their mother Edda and stepfather Chris Mellas. Their father, Curt Knox, and stepmother Cassandra, live nearby, also in West Seattle.

Knox is on trial for the slaying of her 21-year-old English roommate Meredith Kercher, whose body was found on Nov. 2, 2007 at their home in Perugia, Italy. The trial started in January.

After a late dinner, the extended family leaves. But the college kids spend the night. That’s because every Thursday at 7:45 a.m. Seattle time Amanda is allowed her weekly call home from the Capanne Jail where she has been held for 16 months while her court case proceeds.

These four seem to be having a staring contest at the Woodland Park Zoo. Only nobody loses. A fringe-eared oryx, below the zebra, appears indifferent.