February 2011

Discovery Shop
4535 California Ave. S.W.
206-937-7169
Valentine’s Day only, Monday, Feb. 14, half off all clothing with red on them & all other Valentine items. Plus, Half off everything in the store Wednesday, Feb.16 thru Saturday, Feb. 19. Now, quality-brand rain/outer wear includes men’s & women’s colors and styles. Yellow Tagged items are ½ price. Bundle up against the cold in one of our fine quality winter coats or jackets. Coming on Monday, Feb 22 Our Annual Antiques and Collectibles Event! See our ad! The Shop is open on Sundays (except 2/20), 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. All other days the Shop is open from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m

American Sewing Guild Monthly Meeting
The Kenney
7125 Fauntleroy Ave. S.W.
Saturday, Feb. 12, 10-noon. We will be sewing our national charity project, the Painted Turtle Pillow. Bring you machines. Don’t forget your Sew & Tell along with your questions. For more information: Claudia at 937-5774.

Community Design Workshop for Barton & 34th P-Patch
Southwest Community Center
2801 S.W. Thistle St.

To the Editor:
I would go even further than Mr. Spenglers' letter in last Herald and add besides being embarrassed members of Congress should be ashamed of their actions. How 535 people who profess to love this country and we citizens can screw us up so bad is beyond belief.
Makes you wonder several things.........

1. When Mr. Ross Perot said, "passing of NAFTA will be the beginning of the end of the middle class in America" and had Congress and President Clinton listened where we would be today? If the media had given him the legitimacy they are giving Ms. Palin and the Tea Party... would things be different?

2. If a President is hamstrung to do anything in his first term because of always having to consider re-election maybe it is time to look at one 8 year term and it is over.

3. How many Americans are aware that when we the United States of American wrote the new Iraqi Constitution that we insisted on:

Article 31: that states and I quote "Every citizen has the right to health care. The state takes care of public health and provide the means of prevention and treatment by building different types of hospitals and medical institutions."

Bullying directly affects up to one in four students. With modern technologies, such as e-mail, social networking sites, blogs and text messaging, the potential for bullying has expanded from the playground to cyberspace.

But teaching students the dangers of bullying and related topics such as anger management, empathy and respecting each other can be difficult.

St. Francis of Assisi School in Burien on Feb. 2 found an entertaining and effective way to teach the lessons during school assemblies by presenting two captivating plays featuring compelling characters.

Taproot Theatre's Road Company presented the age-appropriate plays. The group has performed dynamic social-issue plays for over one million Puget Sound school students since 1985.

School counselor Lonnie Miller notes that St. Francis runs an anti-bullying curriculum throughout the year. Last week was Catholic School Week, during which St. Francis holds an assembly.

So, Miller said it was a natural choice to book Taproot's road company to make the presentations.

Six top jazz performers, including Rebecca Kilgore and the Butch Thompson Trio, will appear at the Highline Classic Jazz Festival on Saturday, Feb. 19.

Two shows, a matinee at 2 p.m. and an evening performance at 7 p.m., will feature a mix of early 20th-century jazz styles, from Dixieland and Gypsy to ragtime and swing. The Canote Brothers will emcee both shows at the Highline Performing Arts Center, 401 S. 152nd St. in Burien.

The afternoon program will include vocalist Rebecca Kilgore with pianist Dave Frishberg performing favorites from the Great American Songbook, the Gypsy-style quintet Pearl Django and traditional jazz pianist Ray Skjelbred.

The evening show will present the Butch Thompson Trio, best known for ragtime and a long run on "A Prairie Home Companion" radio show, the Chicago and New Orleans Dixieland septet Holotradband and jump and jive artists Casey MacGill & Blue 4 Trio.

Tickets are $20 per show for adults or $35 for both shows. Admission is free to those 18 and under. For $100, individual sponsors receive two all-day passes, preferred seating and other extras.

Does love find us - or do we find love? Haven't we all kissed a few frogs before finding the prince or princess of our life?

Or maybe you're still in love's process of transition. If so, may Cupid soon appear with a perfect Valentine designed just for you. For some, love is just a memory.

Blazing life's various love-trails is an adventure always to be remembered. Love is among the most intangible, yet precious gifts we give or receive. Indescribable joy and sometimes, miserable pain of love can be both breathtaking and or heartbreaking.

Author and poet Robert Frost wrote, "Love is the irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired."
Parents who fondly, or not so fondly, recall their kid's teen-age love-crush years appreciate author Jules Renard words, "Love is like an hourglass with the heart filling up - as the brain empties."

John Ciardi wrote, "Love is the word used to label the sexual excitement of the young, the habituation of the middle-aged and the mutual dependence of the old."

Regardless of one's age love-profile, sweethearts agree Valentine's Day should not be forgotten. It's said, "Love grows best in a fertile field of humor."

Burien Little Theatre is presenting Sarah Ruhl's offbeat romantic comedy "The Clean House" from Feb. 11 through March 6.

The comedy will be preformed at the Burien Community Center Annex, 425 S.W. 144th Street.

In Ruhl's play, Lane, a doctor who is too busy to clean her own house, hires Matilde, a feisty maid from Brazil who just happens to hate to clean and spends her time trying to make up the perfect joke. To cover for the maid, the doctor's neat-freak sister, Virginia, secretly takes over the housecleaning--and finds "foreign" underwear in the laundry. As Lane's marriage to her doctor husband, Charles, unravels, true love emerges and the perfect joke is found.

The play contains some adult language and sexuality. The show is suitable for ages 13 and older.

"The Clean House" will be performed Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. Tickets are $15-$20 online and $17-$20 at the box office, with all tickets $7 on Seven Buck Sunday, Feb. 13.

Parents can leave their children to be entertained for the evening at Jungle Gym in Burien on Parents' Night Out Feb. 18 for $25 per child. Contact Jungle Gym at 206-248-3547.

Aviation High in Des Moines is one of three schools in the state that will offer guidance on science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) instruction, Rep. Tina Orwall and State Superintendent Randy Dorn announced recently.

The announcement was made as part of the state's ongoing efforts to ensure that K-12 students are prepared to succeed in the 21st century economy. In 2010, Orwall sponsored, and the Legislature passed, House Bill 2621. The law calls for the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) to designate up to three schools to serve as "lighthouses" offering technical assistance and advice on best practices in STEM instruction.

Aviation will use a project-based learning environment with an aviation and aeronautics theme. The school is administered by the Highline School District and is tempororarily housed at the Olympic site in Des Moines. Plans are underway to construct a permanent site across from Tukwila's Museum of Flight.
Other schools chosen for the pilot project are Mead High in Spokane and Komachin Middle in Lacey.

(Editor's Note: In Publisher Jerry Robinson's travels last week he discovered Burien's Three Tree Point has gone to the birds as some chickens ran amok while their guards were apparently distracted by something fishy.)

Charges filed in double stabbing
A SeaTac woman has been charged with assault following a brutal knife attack that left another woman clinging to life. Jan. 21, Fale V. Pe'a was hosting a party at her SeaTac apartment where many of the attendees were men who live as women. 911 operators began receiving reports of a group of women fighting in the apartment complex parking lot. Emergency operators received a call that someone there had been stabbed. Deputies found a critically injured woman standing topless and "covered from head to toe" with her own blood. Another bloodied woman was found nearby. Pe'a was found face down on the floor of another apartment.

The Des Moines City Council has officially approved a new Shoreline Management Program (SMP). Des Moines plan was six years in the making.

Des Moines was one of the first jurisdictions to begin the process of revising their SMP. Councilman Dan Sherman described Des Moines' process for renewing their SMP as an experiment-- an experiment that went horribly wrong.

In 2003, the state Legislature passed legislation that requires every shoreline jurisdiction in Washington to pass a new SMP, which must ultimately be approved by the state Department of Ecology (DOE).

Des Moines began their updating process in 2004. The council approved two versions of the SMP before the final one, and submitted them to the DOE, which rejected them each time.

At one point, the DOE identified 117 deficiencies in the SMP submitted by Des Moines.

The DOE has broad guidelines for the plans, including a requirement that they must result in no net loss in ecology to the shorelines, but the agency wants the jurisdictions to be able to tailor the SMP's to their shorelines.