December 2020

By Tim Robinson

Co-Publisher

At age 10 I was finally allowed to have a bike. It was a family rule "no bike before age 10". I had already been riding a neighbor's bike so I knew what to do. I promptly fell off the new bike. So much for being over confident. 

On Christmas eve,  after dinner, at 8 p.m. my brothers and I got tiny little crystal radios. They were shaped like a rocket ship with an antenna that would rise from the top like a radio antenna on a car. A crystal radio does not need a battery to operate.

information from the City of Seattle

Mayor Jenny A. Durkan, City Council President M. Lorena González, and Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda today celebrated the City Council’s unanimous vote to provide a new $5 million relief package to support small businesses and workers impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. In response to recent statewide restrictions needed to slow the surge of COVID-19, the $5 million will be directed toward small businesses and workers in the hospitality industry. $2.5 million will go to restaurants and bars, and $2.5 million will go to hospitality workers. Recent data indicates that over 600 restaurants and bars have permanently shut down in Seattle since the COVID-19 pandemic began. 

If you would like to obtain some well considered financial advice, contact Sarah Cecil 206-938-6017.

Brought to you by Sarah Cecil Financial Advisor with Edward Jones Investments.

Sponsored Content.

By Jean Godden

If Shakespeare were around today, he'd have a heck of a time understanding us. While we still do speak English, the language he used writing the world's most famous plays, we've been mighty busy since then adding new words and using old ones in novel ways.

English is a living language, always changing, more dynamic and expressive. As playwright Will knew, language is not meant to be static. He himself added 1700 words to the then young language (Elizabethan English), words like bandit, critic, swagger, scuffle, grovel, madcap and zany.

Like all languages, English evolves from three main influences: (1) movement of people from other locations, (2) the influence of technology, and (3) appropriation of useful foreign words like tsunami, avatar, schadenfreude and kitschy.

By Jerry Robinson

Publisher Emeritus 1920~2014

Originally published in 2012

I still look forward to Christmas even though Oregon Bank and Trust is now calling it something else and is probably not sponsoring Bank Day at grade schools anymore.

Starting in the first grade, I took my nickel or dime to school every Tuesday for Bank Day deposit. It was money I made, sometimes as much as a quarter, selling perfume or flower seeds or Liberty Magazine to neighbors down the street.

We lived in a middle class area (rented for $15a  month) near an extended family that owned the Hog Ranch, the Slaughter House and a cooperage (they made wooden barrels) and even in the twenties and thirties during the Great Depression they had money.

“The Spirit of West Seattle” luminaries and candles, a special program that aims to bring together neighbors, families, and friends all participating in the lighting at home on the same day, at the same time is sponsored by the West Seattle Junction and set for Dec.19 at 7pm

“The Spirit of West Seattle” is a celebration and reminder that while we may not be together in-person, we are together as a community.