January 2011

Age Only Matters If You're Cheese Musical
Thu, Feb. 3, 7:30 PM
Sat, Feb. 5, 2:00 PM & 7:30 PM

A lively, one-Kleenex musical about love rekindled late in life. Written by Yvonne Belshaw and scored by Bronwyn Edwards Cryer, both West Seattleites, with a talented cast, chorus, and orchestra of community volunteers.
$12 general admission, $10 65+, $25 family of four

Fauntleroy Church, 9140 California Ave. SW; ADA accessible
Tickets at church office (932-5600) or at the door

Sleep Country USA’s Foster Kids Shoe Drive
Jan. 3 - Jan. 30. Donations of new shoes for boys & girls in all sizes can be dropped off at the nearest Sleep Country and they’ll be matched with an area foster child in need. The gift of new shoes is a small but important step towards helping foster kids put their best foot forward. For information: www.sleepcountry.com or 1-888-88-SLEEP.

Discovery Shop BOGO Sale
4535 California Ave. S.W.
206-937-7169

Per the most recent issue of the Times/News, renowned '60s-'80s left wing radical Bill Ayers will be making a speech at Highline Community College on Jan. 20 in regards to MLK Day.

The school has a right and maybe a duty to bring controversial persons to speak, which means controversial persons like Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Dennis Miller, Cal Thomas, et al can expect invites....right? After all, taxpayer money is being used here and not all taxpayers think alike.

Mr. Ayers has had a long and close connection to Obama, is married to Bernardine Dohrn who was on the FBI 10 Most Wanted list, and was secretary to the SDS in 1969. In Chicago, he put a bomb at the Haymarket Memorial where police officers were killed in 1886 and on 9/11/01 said his previous bombings were "not enough," though now he denies it.

He participated in the Days of Rage riots in 1969, participated in bombing of the NYC police HQ in 1970. U.S. Capitol in 1970, and Pentagon in 1972. But, of course, they were attacks on buildings, not "people," so that makes it all right?

Your paper recently announced the speech to be given by Bill Ayers at Highline Community College. I am dismayed.

With the recent shootings in Arizona and the subsequent heated debate about threats against public officials, I am aghast at the description given Ayers as an activist.

You must surely be aware of his past connection with the Weather Underground and their terrorist activities to bomb government buildings and kill the public employees therein. You must surely be aware of his book, "Prairie Fire" that he, Ayers, dedicates to Sirhan Sirhan, the murderer of Sen. Robert Kennedy.
An activist? Really?

Let me inform you how one of the Kennedy's feels about Bill Ayers. Chris Kennedy, Robert Kennedy's son, sits on the University of Illinois board and spoke out at the thought of Bill Ayers being given "emeritus" honor at the university.

Chris stated to the board, "I intend to vote against conferring the honorific title of our university to a man whose body of work includes a book dedicated in part to the man who murdered my father, Robert F. Kennedy."

Over an 11-week period last fall, Highline residents counted salmon on Miller and Walker creeks. Braving snow, rain, and dirty stormwater, the volunteers slipped and splashed along the two streams in Normandy Park.

Not afraid of fish guts, they conducted necropsies on salmon carcasses to determine whether the fish had been able to spawn before dying. The fruits of their volunteer labor were a better scientific understanding of the stream -- and a deeper appreciation for wildness that can be found in Highline.

The volunteers were part of the first year of the Community Salmon Investigation for Highline program, also known as CSI: Highline. The purpose of the program is to better evaluate the condition of the streams, which drain most of Burien, part of SeaTac, and the northern part of Normandy Park. Because of their important role in stream ecology, salmon populations serve as an important long-term indicator of whether the water and surrounding land is healthy.

South Puget Sound League gymnastic teams met at a four-way meet on Wednesday, January 12, at Mount Rainier High School with the host Rams continuing their steady ascent towards district.

Thomas Jefferson scored an impressive 168.15 points to clear away from Mount Rainier (156.8), Decatur (154.7) and Kentridge (144.8).

Madi Kellar won the all-around title with a score of 36.3 points for Jefferson to pace all performers.

Kellar's performance included a trio of individual event victories. The Raider athlete captured the uneven parallel bars at 8.9 and the balance beam with a 9.1. She also took the top spot on the floor exercise (9.35) Monica Church won the vault with a 9.1.

For Mount Rainier, a strong second place behind last season's Class 4A state fourth place team Raiders showcased the steady progress the Rams are making.

Last season's ninth place Class 3A/2A state placer in the all-arounds Kerrie Heckel led the home-standing Rams with a fourth place all-around score of 34.45. Teammate Nikki Ginnett earned a fifth-place all-around tie with 32.35 points.

Competing in Class 4A has been a real motivator for sophomore Heckel.

DES MOINES - South Puget Sound League gymnastic teams met at a four-way intersection on Wednesday, Jan. 12, at Mount Rainier High School with a pair of Federal Way School District squads recording high achievements.

Thomas Jefferson earned the right of way and continued the 2010-2011 season unblemished (15-0) by scoring an impressive 168.15 points in a clear separation from Mount Rainier (156.8), Decatur (154.7) and Kentridge (144.8). Accumulated team scores by each specific event favored the athletic Raiders.

Junior Raider Madi Kellar, who finished fifth in last season's Class 4A state all-around (36.525) while also earning fourth on the floor exercise (9,55) and fifth on the bars (8.75), maintained her current season's high standards by winning this meet's all-around title with a tally of 36.3.

Kellar's performance included a trio of individual event victories. The Raider athlete captured the uneven parallel bars at 8.9 and the balance beam with a 9.1. On the floor exercise, she danced to a 9.45. On the vault, Kellar notched an 8.85 second place.

To be safe, how can we know when people or pets really are brewing up a hurricane force of hatred &/or mental instability?

Miss Katrina, my Shih Tzu is a social butterfly. I've gotta watch that little girl every time we're in public parks or she'll be rounding up a bunch of equally excited 4-legged friends in no time for one happy, "Let's play" roundup.

You see she's very smart, yet, kinda too trusting as well, believing most other dogs love her that much also. Innocence dealing with other pets, people and parks has its good, and not so good influences and opportunities.

Then there was Rosie, the Newfoundland dog that made news around the world at her death.

As adults we know the important roll pets play in our life, yet there seems to be a lack of understanding of our pets and what is going on in their thinking process. They can't speak English and we can't read their minds.

Today, some dogs, such as pit bulls, are trained to be mean and ornery, but not Rosie. Miss Katrina and I only met Rosie once in the park about 2 weeks before she was killed. We found her gentle, although cautious.

How can we really know when people or pets are safe or not?

I don't know how to write this. My friend and business partner of fifty years died last week. He was Al Sneed. He had been a young go-getter not long out of an Air Force uniform where he had been a P-38 fighter pilot during WW II.

A lot can happen in fifty years, particularly if there was never a serious disagreement, ever, in all that time.

Arguments? Debates? Of course. But never an angry pillow to punch. That is hard to believe but true.

My introduction to Al Sneed was facilitated by another prominent area citizen.

John Muller was a legendary Highline banker, building contractor of luxury homes on Marine View Drive in Arbor Heights and Seahurst and also a banker in Alaska in the forties until he got the publishing bug. A newspaper owner in Cordova fell on hard times so the bank took it over and asked Mr. Muller to run it.

When he retired up there he came to early-day Burien and bought a tiny weekly paper called the Glendale Highline Gazette.

Burien was just starting to blossom and White Center was the booming home of six taverns and a movie house, five grocery stores and three furniture stores and one bank. It had a tiny weekly also.

The Highline Community College Foundation has received a $155,325 donation from a lifelong Des Moines resident in support of the college and to help struggling students pay for school.

The donor is Daisy S. Sonju who lived near Highline for almost 50 years and died in 2010.

She also donated her 10-acre property on 16th Avenue South to the city of Des Moines. The groundbreaking for the new community garden and pea patch will be in early April.

HCC Foundation is an organization dedicated to raising funds that help provide quality education at Highline.
Upcoming events that support the HCC Foundation include a special performance of Breeders Theater's production, "Casting Call," on Jan. 26 at E.B. Foote Winery in Burien.

The performance benefits the HCC Foundation's Breeders Theater Performing Arts Scholarship.

Tickets are $20. Doors to the E.B. Foote Winery open at 6:30 p.m. and the show starts at 7 p.m.

Tickets are available from the HCC Foundation and at E.B. Foote Winery, 127 S.W. 153rd St., Suite B, and Corky Cellars, 22511 Marine View Dr. S. in Des Moines.

In between the two varsity games on Friday evening, the Ballard High School Basketball program retired Sue Stimac Verduin's #15 jersey during a retirement ceremony. Verduin is the first female basketball player to receive this honor.

Verduin played varsity basketball at BHS from 1975 to 1978, received honors for both league and region, and was Student Athlete of the year in 1978. She also played varsity tennis and was the first to compete at the state tournament during her senior year.

She continued her athletic career at Seattle University where she played varsity basketball until 1982. She received All–American honors during her junior and senior seasons and was Student Athlete of the year 1981. Her #33 jersey was retired and she was inducted into the SU Hall of Fame.

“It’s nice to receive that recognition,” Sue Stimac Verduin said in a previous interview. “I’m proud of my school to recognize female players.”