West Seattle, Washington
18 Monday
Photographer par excellence Christopher Boffoli wants everyone to know he took these baby-seal pix on Alki with a long lens from the prescribed distance, with Seal Sitters standing guard. We’re envious, since we have been down to the beach several times in the past few days but haven’t managed any in-person seal sightings ourselves …
Christopher also shared some gorgeous shots of the water, the Olympics, the lifting fog … here’s one of them. Truly a lovely afternoon:
Hot out of the inbox 2 minutes ago. Not verified but passing along in case you are waiting for someone:
Just got a call from my husband that the throttles on the Water Taxi
are broken. The captain is taking it out for a cruise right now but
would not let passengers aboard. They are hoping to have it fixed by 6:50
p.m. Just wanted you to know in case there are people waiting for
someone to arrive on the Water Taxi (like I was).
8:30 PM UPDATE: From the same reader (thank you SO much!):
My husband just got home….but on the bus. As of 7 p.m. the Water Taxi was still out testing the throttles in the bay. Therefore, the 6:50 never took off. Don’t have any more info.
Two bits of red meat for you, so to speak. First one is a reader recommendation request, second is more like a reader invitation.
READER RECOMMENDATION REQUEST: Someone who just moved back to West Seattle after 12 years away is hungering for a “good old-fashioned butcher shop” somewhere in the area. Is there one? Maybe even White Center or Georgetown?
READER INVITATION FOR OTHERS IN WSB-LAND: Reader Megan e-mailed us looking for others to join her in a meat-buying club:Read More
VIADUCT MEETING: “Scoping meeting” regarding the project that the state says will replace the south end of The Viaduct no matter what’s decided about the rest of it — 5-8 pm tonight, with the official presentation starting at 6, Madison Middle School.
DINING FOR LITERACY: A portion of tonight’s proceeds at three WS restaurants — Angelina’s Trattoria, Garlic Jim’s Pizza, Talarico’s — go toward a literacy campaign, as part of Page Ahead’s area-wide Dish Up Literacy campaign.
In the “reserve” greenspace near Salty’s, this blazingly bright little tree:
This sighting also gives us an excuse to mention a new site – featuring an interactive map to find “urban nature” near you.
The rest of this post, anyway. Its loose theme — history.
-This obituaries (Times, P-I) for ski-school legend “Buzz” Fiorini, who died in what’s described only as a “West Seattle nursing home” the other day, makes us think — when you drive by all our fine elder-care facilities, The Kenney (11:20 PM UPDATE: a reader tells us that’s where Mr. Fiorini died) or The Mount or any of the many others, think about who’s in there, living out lives that were remarkable in their own way, big or small. Programs like Friend to Friend find people to remind them they’re not forgotten.
-The Duwamish Tribe longhouse project on the eastern edge of WS — their ancestral lands — will get a boost from a fundraiser downtown tonight. The P-I has a good writeup with an interesting spin regarding how none of us really know how to pronounced “Seattle.” Meantime, Indian Country Today has an update on the project, as well as on the campaign in Congress to get official recognition for the tribe.
-West Seattle’s wonderful Log House Museum has remodeled its website. We discovered this after learning the Log House Museum is one of the participants in this Saturday’s Smithsonian-sponsored Museum Day (hat tip to saveseattleschools.blogspot.com for mentioning that nationwide free-admission event). Looking further into the fall, the museum will celebrate its 10th anniversary with a fundraising gala November 3rd @ Salty’s.
Finally, another live cam to add to our WS cams page! Hotwire Online Coffeehouse proprietor Lora Vickrey e-mailed us to announce Hotwire’s new baristacam. Unless you’re on a Mac (which unfortunately in this case we are), you can check it out here — Lora notes you likely will be prompted to download ActiveX in order for the live video to work.
The West Seattle Little League renovation project at Alki Point’s Bar-S Playfield just got a big boost — a $100,000 Boeing/Mariners Care Athletic Field Grant. The official press release says an official presentation is planned at Safeco Field this Friday night during a ceremony before the Mariners-Rangers’ game.
Received an intriguing note yesterday from someone saying she works with one of 
the two people forced out of their house by the Admiral/38th fire on Sunday night. The note-writer says the victims believe the fire was caused by something electrical, not “smoking materials” as the Fire Department was quoted in the P-I as saying, because, says the note-writer, neither of the victims smoke. We called the Fire Deparment’s public info office and left a message asking if anything about the suspected cause of this fire had changed; they didn’t call back. The note-writer says the folks at their unnamed workplace have started a collection for the fire victim, who reportedly suffered some other recent personal tragedy too. We’ll try the Fire Department again later …
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