July 2012

Denny International Middle School's Joan Allen Memorial Garden is set to be transformed on Aug. 1 by a group of community and student volunteers and will include José Banda, new Seattle Public Schools Superintendent, plus a host of Seattle sports stars.

The project is sponsored by The Center for Green Schools at the U.S. Green Building Council, Washington Green Schools, Seattle Public Schools, Seattle Mariners, Seattle Seahawks and Seattle Storm.

Work crews will build raised planting beds from recovered cedar, plant fall crop seedlings, weed existing planting areas and improve the school’s garden storage shed.

The list of participants includes:

• Students from Denny International Middle School and Chief Sealth International High School
• Forey Duckett and Kerry Carter, Seattle Seahawks alumni
• Lucas Luetge and Steve Delabar, Seattle Mariners pitchers
• Camille Little, forward, and Svetlana Abrosimova, guard, Seattle Storm
• Taylor Graham, former defender with the Sounders and currently Seattle Mariners Manager of Business

Operations

Schedule:
10 a.m.-Noon Work party

The Interim Director of Communications at South Seattle Community College, Candace Oehler is leaving the institution on July 31. She is taking a similar position with a community college in Phoenix Arizona.

Oehler, who started with SSCC part time in 2008, took on the job full time in 2010.

Until a replacement can be found, a temporary person will fill in.

Shortly after midnight on July 29, two suspects committed an armed robbery of a man and woman near 14th Ave and E. Howell St. in Capitol Hill. An hour later, the suspects were back at it, attempting to rob two women near the intersection of Delridge and Genesee, according to Seattle police.

SPD said the two women, 26 and 27 years old, were walking along Delridge Way when the suspects asked for a cigarette. The women said they did not have one and continued to walk away when one of the suspects pulled out a handgun and demanded their purses.

Police say a witness saw the robbery and interrupted it, causing the suspect to run. The witness and victims gave chase and saw the suspect getting into a vehicle.

They called police with a good description of the vehicle and it was found on the 2300 block of S.W. Brandon St., where one of the suspects was standing with the trunk open. He was detained and identified as the getaway driver by witnesses. Property of the Delridge and Capitol Hill victims was found inside the vehicle along with a handgun.

Disadvantage of communal living
A man living in an apartment complex on the 9000 block of 45th Ave S.W. called police in mid-July to report someone stole his and several other tenants' seats from their bicycles housed in the communal storage unit. There were no signs of forced entry, so he told police it was likely a tenant with a key and, to get more specific, likely the tenant who has been harassing other tenants recently, working on motorcycles in the parking lot and revving the engines loudly. There was no clear evidence linking the motorcycle-revving tenant to the crime, so police had to leave it at that.

Fast recovery

Some years back I was in New York traveling with former partner Al Sneed.

We were looking  for printing equipment but  we had some time for sightseeing and noticed Jack Dempsey's restaurant. For youngsters reading this Dempsey was once  the  world champion heavyweight boxer so we decided to have breakfast there.

A young lady greeted us with a  smile and showed us to a table.

A waiter  about  our  age came over  with menus and in a heavy German accent greeted us . He said, "My name is Max and I am your vaiter. I am from South America and I vas a soldier for  Adolf Hitler during the var and someday I vill go back to Chermany because  Chermany will rise again."

By Kyra-lin Hom

After reading last week's column, 'Dolling Up Sexy,' my boyfriend had the brilliant idea of doing the same children's toys now-and-then-compare-and-contrast but with the toys aimed for young boys. I'd love to take credit for the idea, but I can't. I, like much of the research money, am a little tunnel visioned when it comes to the affects of media-propagated gender roles on all of us and our children. We all tend to forget that the X-chromosome is only half of the equation. Well, three-fourth's actually but you know what I mean. Girls aren't the only youngsters being marketed to and bombarded with images of what they should be like when they grow up.

Without the handy dandy Huffington Post slideshow at our disposal my boyfriend and I went to work in the google way, comparing the toys he and my many other guy friends played with as children to the top ten lists of today. What were the results?

By Georgie Bright Kunkel

We have come from being almost anonymous in archaic times to being on every corporation’s radar. Information about your life is being sold to the highest bidder for marketing and exploitation. Even though I have put myself on the Do Not Call List.

I have received increasing phone calls scaring me about the allergens in my furnace duct system or how easy it is to steal my identity. We have the latest technology but we evidently need to pay for protection when it doesn’t work. But try calling the help line. It takes a half hour or more to get someone on the line and then they are from Mars.

Discovery Shop
4535 California Ave. S.W.
206-937-7169
Two for One Sale on all women's wear Wednesday, August 1st through Sunday, August 5th and all items with yellow tags are 50% off marked price through August 21st.  Don't forget to bring your own bags when you shop.  In keeping with our motto: "A World With Less Cancer is a World With More Birthdays," come in on your birthday and receive a 20% discount on your entire purchase.  When you shop and volunteer with us you help fund cancer research.  The all volunteer run, non-profit American Cancer Society shop is open Sundays 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and all other days 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.  Follow our blog at www.discoveryshopwestseattle.org.

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center’s “Pete Gross House” Benefit
Salty’s on Alki
1936 Harbor Ave. S.W.

Are vitamin D and calcium really super supplements we should take?

Not necessarily.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recently announced its finding that normal doses of vitamin D and calcium did not reduce the risk of broken bones in elderly women. (A normal dose is 400 international units of vitamin D and 1,000 milligrams of calcium.) Even in larger doses, the supplements didn’t help. Another study showed women taking high doses of vitamin D and calcium were more likely to get fractures than those not.

As a dietitian, I like to think that if you’re getting enough vitamin D and calcium from your food, you don’t need a supplement. But that means eating three servings of fortified milk or yogurt a day. Not many people eat that much dairy every day.

By Marjorie Young

One of this column’s readers, Michael, wrote in with an interesting observation. While admiring the author Victor Frankl, Michael disputed his philosophy that ‘finding a meaningful existence’ was a certain key to fulfillment. Michael’s question was this: what if one IS leading a ‘meaningful life’ ... yet still found happiness elusive?

I believe this is a common occurrence. For example, a parent may renounce a rewarding career to stay home and raise the children, an act that is certainly worthwhile. Conversely, someone may dive into challenging work, then find they have little time or energy left for family. While raising kids or focusing on a fascinating field may indeed prove rewarding, there may always be ‘something lacking’ when believing we’re required to cut off vital aspects of ourselves.

There are also many who believe they must be ‘practical’ ... thus putting aside things that give them true pleasure. For example, a doctor may find her career to be absorbing, yet regret having no time for artistic pursuits she also loves. As a result, her life might prove draining rather than fulfilling as she’d envisioned.