October 2010

Take Off Pounds Sensibly
Guadaloupe Church-Pastoral Care Center
7000 35th Ave. S.W.
Every Tuesday, 9:30 a.m. TOPS is an encouraging weight loss support group with weigh-ins every Tuesday. For information contact Peg at 206-932-2621.

Host for Chinese Teacher Urgently Needed!
West Seattle High School is looking for a host for Mr. Jinan Jia for the 2010/2011 school year. Mr. Jia is a teacher in China and will be teaching Chinese this year at WSHS. He arrives July 30th. A home in West Seattle is preferred as he will use Metro to get to work and will be networking with his colleagues in the area. Anyone interested, please call Principal Ruth Medsker at 206-252-8800.

GriefShare Class
Grace Church
10323 28th Ave. S.W.
Saturdays 10 a.m.-noon. This international grief recovery support group is open to anyone who has lost a loved one to death. You can start at anytime. For information: Barb at 206-932-7459.

Call for Vendors for Arts & Crafts Fair

A man called police from a payphone to report he had been robbed at gunpoint on 14th Ave s.w. Officers arrived at the scene and the caller, who appeared “extremely intoxicated,” stumbled over to their squad car. He stated the while riding Metro Bus #132 he was attacked by a 5’10” black male weighing in at 200 pounds and sporting a black coat and blue jeans. As the story went, the caller saw the suspect push a female and her two children on the bus, so he stepped in to save the day. He said the suspect punched him in his chest and leg and then stole $100 in “$80 bills” from his wallet. Officers checked his wallet, which still had cash inside. Next, the story changed a bit and the suspect attacked him on the sidewalk (instead of the bus), then fled in a black Cadillac. There was never any mention of a gun. Police contacted the driver of Metro Bus #132 and he/she said there was no disturbance on the bus.

Ballard resident and neighborhood activist Stephen Lundgren is a busy man.

He has served on the Crown Hill/Ballard Neighborhood Planning Association Board, he is a member of Friends of Ballard Commons Park and was on the park's project advisory team, and he helped get funding for the Ballard Bridge art. Most recently he has been working with the Northwest Market Street/45th Avenue Transit Priority Improvement Advisory Panel.

And, at some point between asking the tough transportation questions at Ballard District Council meetings and facilitating communication between the neighborhood and the city, Lundgren finds time to indulge his true passion – photography.

"Just doing the politico assignments on request," he said. "Art and writing being my main preference."

Lundgren recently sorted through fives years of photos of Ballard and the rest of the city in order to share some of his less-visible work with the community.

He describes his artistic aesthetic as magic surrealism with Nordic influence.

Ben Klinkman-Sinatra is 14 years old and an eighth-grader at St. John Catholic School on North 79th Street. He plays soccer. He runs cross-country. He lives in Ballard. He has to be coaxed to get in the shower.

He would seem to be an average teenage boy with two busy but involved parents, one younger sister and varied interests.

So why do strangers stare at Ben when we meet at The Scoop after his Saturday morning soccer game? Why are they looking at his chest as if it contains a riddle that needs to be solved?

Ben hasn’t had his teenage growth spurt yet; he actually looks a bit younger than 14. He has dark eyes, probably from his mother’s Sicilian side of the family.

Drinking a hot chocolate with whipped cream on top, it’s not immediately obvious why anyone would stare. Until you read the white typeface on his black T-shirt: tolerate lactose!

The phrase started as wordplay on the morning ride to school, then a bumper sticker and now there are T-shirts, less than 24-hours old.

Tolerate lactose, people read on the white-on-black bumper stickers. “That’s clever” they say, wondering, what it really means.

By MaryBeth Dagg

If any movie needs a second run, it’s Inception. Unlike many Hollywood productions, this movie is not dumbed down to appeal to the masses. It’s complicated. It is also a daring, imaginative and wholly original piece of movie making.

Writer/Director Christopher Nolan took 10 years to write the Inception screenplay, so no one can blame themselves if they can’t absorb all the details in the 148-minute viewing. In fact, many viewers have gone back several times to grasp the whole mind-bending story line. The film is designed to be disorienting, much like Memento or The Matrix. You never quite know if you’re watching reality or a dream. Even the ending leaves you with that nagging question.

The story revolves around Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio), a skilled thief and leader in advanced corporate-intelligence methods. He steals valuable information and ideas by raiding the subject’s subconscious during the dream state. Cobb's mind-infiltration skills have made him a big player in the high-stakes world of corporate espionage. They have also cost him his wife, Mal (Marion Cotillard), and forced him into exile.

It was a fun night for hundreds of Burien's ghosts and goblins who attended the Night of the Pumpkin sponsored by Burien Parks and Recreation on Friday night, Oct. 22.

Free painting, games of chance and ghostly stories around a blazing fire highlighted the event held in Dottie Harper Park and the Burien Community Center.

Click on the photo to begin slideshow.

Almost six months to the day after purchasing the former Gatewood Baptist Church building, 7141 California SW at Othello, and 125 gallons of paint later, the Westside Unitarian Universalist Congregation held its Dedication Service October 24, at 7:00 PM. Their first official service was held Sept. 12.

Unitarian Universalist Association President, Rev. Peter Morales, who oversees nearly 1,000 congregations in this association, came in from Boston to give his sermon, “To Dream the Possible Dream.” In addition to the 200 congregational members, over 50 Pacific Northwest District Ministers and leadership from other congregations joined the celebration.

The Dedication Service also included greetings from Janine Larson, District Executive of the Pacific Northwest District of UUA; the Reverend Dr. Joanne Carlson-Brown, Minister of Tibbets United Methodist Church; Rabbi Zari Weiss, and other local clergy. Funds from the evening’s collection plate will be donated to the West Seattle and White Center Food Banks.

If you normally use I-5 and Spokane Street to come back to West Seattle, plan on taking an alternate route tonight because the off ramp will be closed until 5:00 a.m.

Press Release:

The contractor working for the Seattle Department of Transportation to widen the Spokane Street Viaduct (the raised roadway that connects I-5 to the West Seattle Bridge) tentatively plans to close the westbound lanes of the viaduct on Wednesday night.

Crews plan to work from 10:00 p.m. on Wednesday, October 27 to 5:00 a.m. on Thursday, October 28 to stripe the roadway and install a temporary barrier in preparation for widening the easternmost portion of the Spokane Street Viaduct.

During this work, traffic from southbound I-5 that would otherwise take the Spokane Street Viaduct will instead be directed to the Forest Street exit to access surface streets. Traffic from northbound I-5 and westbound traffic from Columbian Way will be detoured to surface streets at Sixth Avenue South.

For more information: LeAnne Nelson, (206) 684-3897, leanne.nelson@seattle.gov

For the week of October 25 through 31 the Seattle area Neighborhood Farmers Markets have posted the fresh produce and other products they will have available. Note the designations of which products will be at each market. The West Seattle Farmers Market is staged every Sunday, year round just behind the West Seattle Junction from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

Next Sunday they are offering a $2 coupon to anyone who shows up in a costume that can be spent at any booth at the market, plus pumpkin carving and decorating (see below).
They have posted online what's good, fresh and new.

Here's what will be for sale at the area Farmers Markets this coming week.

Press Release:

Neighborhood Farmers Market Alliance Markets:
University District (UD) – Saturdays, 9 am – 2 pm, YEAR ROUND
West Seattle (WS) – Sundays, 10 am – 2 pm, YEAR ROUND
Broadway Sunday (BW) – Sundays, 11 am – 3 pm, 5/9/10 – 12/19/10
Columbia City, Lake City, Phinney, and Magnolia – Closed for the season

Locations, Hours, Vendor and Event Info: www.seattlefarmersmarkets.org

*****NEW ITEMS IN BOLD*****

Apples –

I used to think waking up to KUOW was a good way to start the day. In one week, I heard about the study trying to negate the benefits of mammograms in early detection of breast cancer and about how a girl was sexually assaulted in California while her classmates did nothing to stop it.

“Women are so screwed,” I grumbled that morning and switched over to KEXP. John in the Morning has yet to depress me.

Although the mammogram study seemed inaccurate and enraged me, it also kicked me into gear to get an early mammogram (while my insurance would still pay for it).

I was able to make an appointment for the same week, and I know it sounds strange, but I immensely enjoyed the experience.

Having my breasts smashed didn’t hurt as people told me it would. In fact, I even liked it. (Remember, I’m also the one who liked the feeling of getting tattooed and fell asleep on the table.)

When not smashing, the doctor filled me in on all that was wrong and misleading about the Preventative Services Task Force study.