Just out of the WSB inbox, one more look at the orcas – transients, according to The Whale Trail‘s Donna Sandstrom – that visited our area: Rick Rasmussen, who provided the photos you can see in this Sunday report, just sent the link to that video he also recorded when his sailing trip turned into an unexpected round of whale-watching.
Also visiting West Seattle on Sunday, a young seal promptly dubbed Flipper:
Alki photographer and Seal Sitters volunteer David Hutchinson shares the photo, and this update:
Even though the calendar says February, Seal Sitters is busy responding to young harbor seals on West Seattle beaches. Yesterday a weaned pup, nicknamed Flipper, spent 5 hours ashore on the steps along the promenade at Alki Beach. A large number of people were out taking advantage of our sunny weather, and volunteers had an opportunity to answer their many questions.
It is important, if you come across seals or other marine mammals on the beaches of West Seattle, to call our hotline at 206-905-SEAL (7325). Please ask others to keep a respectful distance and all dogs should be on a leash. The goal, as always, is to give these young animals an opportunity to rest safely while ashore. A pup has recently been hauling out on the beaches at Lincoln Park, so if you spot him, please give our hotline a call.
For more details about Flipper and the other recent visitors to West Seattle beaches, please visit our Blubberblog.
Seal Sitters will soon be announcing the first training session of 2012 in preparation for the upcoming pupping season. For more information please visit Volunteer Now on our website.
(From left, Katherine Schlick-Noe and students Katherine “Kit” Hall, Taylor Chapman, Andres Acevedo)
On any given day, you never know who you will see at a local school. Special-education teacher Paula Tortorice‘s Language Arts class at West Seattle High School hosted a local author today. Dr. Katherine Schlick Noe is the author of “Something to Hold,” which does a turnabout on the topic of discrimination. Tortorice explains that the book is written from the perspective of “Kitty,” a white girl who with her family moves to the Warm Springs Indian Reservation in central Oregon, and that the book also explores topics including bullying. She says Dr. Schlick Noe showed a PowerPoint presentation featuring many of the places in the story, answered students’ questions, and listened to their opinions about “Something to Hold.” During their study of the book, they wrote about it and drew posters depicting “what they thought their favorite scenes in the book might look like,” Tortorice says. (In addition to being a writer, Dr. Schlick Noe is a professor at Seattle University.)
Five years after the “sexpresso” trend was the talk of the town, people don’t seem to get steamed up any more over the concept of espresso stands with baristas in lingerie. Nonetheless, it’s noteworthy that one of these stands has turned up here, first one we recall hearing about: At 9435 Delridge Way SW in the South Delridge Triangle, the former Java Joint drive-up stand has just been repainted pink and given the new name Brewlesque Espresso. Noticing this while in the area today, we stopped for a photo; the barista told us the stand has new ownership as of just a few days ago, and that’s who made the change. (As was noted in coverage five years ago, as long as the baristas keep their naughty bits covered up, it’s all perfectly legal.)
If you look up Metro Transit info online, Metro wants to know what you think about a new homepage they’ve put up for a test drive. They say it highlights the most popular features – route schedules, announcements, trip planning – and works better on mobile devices than the current site. Check it out here, and then answer a survey that you’ll see at the very top of the page. This is just for the home page; they plan to roll out other changes later this year.
Longtime West Seattle businessman Jim Sweeney, who has operated Alki Lumber in The Triangle for more than half a century, has died. (This was reported in the WSB Forums last night, and both the family and the business have now confirmed it.) Our photo is from September 2010, when the Kiwanis Club of West Seattle honored Mr. Sweeney as an “Everyday Hero” for donating materials to a club service project at Westcrest Park. He had told club members that day that, while Seattle had more than 130 lumber yards when he took over Alki Lumber in 1959, only a handful remained by the turn of the millennium. Mr. Sweeney was 73 years old; his memorial service is planned for 2 pm Sunday at Our Lady of Guadalupe. We’re expecting additional information from his family later, and will add it then.
ADDED 3:32 PM: From the Sweeney family:
James Brandon Sweeney, 73, of West Seattle died peacefully with his family by his side on Sunday, February 5, 2012 at Swedish Hospital. The cause of death was cardiac arrest. Jim was born in Seattle on December 30, 1938 and grew up in West Seattle. He graduated from West Seattle High School in 1957. He is survived by his wife of 47 years, Judy, and their two daughters, Lisa (John Guthrie) and Lynn (Matt Pedersen), five grandchildren, his sister Karin (Don Boos) and many loving nieces, nephews, cousins, aunts and a long list of friends. Jim owned and operated Alki Lumber for over 50 years. The business was founded by his grandfather in 1921. He was an avid, expert skier and enjoyed traveling the world with Judy by his side. Among his greatest gifts, above all, were his generosity, patience and incredible wisdom that touched many lives.
A vigil will be held at Our Lady of Guadalupe (OLG) Catholic Church, 7000 35th Avenue SW, on Saturday, February 11, at 7 pm, and funeral Mass at OLG on Sunday, February 12 at 2 pm. A reception celebrating Jim’s life and legacy will follow at The Hall at Fauntleroy. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests memorial contributions to West Seattle Pee Wee Baseball or the Medic One Foundation.
Thanks to Eric and Kristen, who both sent word of what looked like a car-bicycle crash at 8th and Roxbury (map) earlier this morning – but was instead a case of a pedestrian hit by a car, according to King County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Sgt. Cindi West. (It’s their jurisdiction because it happened on the county side of the Highland Park/White Center line, though as you can see in the photo, which Eric sent, Seattle Police helped out.) Sgt. West says the driver was southbound on 8th, getting ready to turn left (eastbound) onto Roxbury, and was apparently “blinded by the sun” when she hit a 67-year-old woman who was walking northbound across the street. She was driving very slowly, Sgt. West says, so the pedestrian suffered only “very minor injuries.” The bicycle seen on the ground by passersby belonged to a witness who stopped to help, NOT to the victim, according to Sgt. West.
(Early Thursday morning, by Don Brubeck from the WSB Flickr group pool)
BRIDGE CLOSURES THIS WEEK: Again this week, TWO overnight closures of the West Seattle Bridge’s easternmost and westernmost sections are scheduled EACH weeknight, 9 pm-5 am – the eastbound Spokane Street Viaduct (for the SSV Widening Project), east of the 1st Avenue South exit, and the Fauntleroy Expressway (for its seismic-retrofit work), west of the Delridge Way exit. Details on both closures are here.
STAIRWAY WORK IN ALKI: As previewed here on Friday, SDOT plans to start work today on the project to add an upper stairway to the 60th/61st/Spokane connection.
VAN HALEN ALBUM PREVIEW PARTY 8 pm tonight at Feedback Lounge, with the folks from Easy Street Records on hand to sell it (details here).
MORE NIGHTLIFE: Trivia with Brian Calvert at Christo’s on Alki, 7 pm … Karaoke with Kelli at Skylark Café and Club, 9 pm … Also at 9 pm, the “Flat Earth Society” weekly vinyl DJ’ing at West 5 features DJ Backbacon (Matt Lukin – alumnus of the Melvins and Mudhoney) … Talarico’s has karaoke @ 9:30 pm.
The theme of our most widely circulated story this past week was – don’t miss an opportunity to tell people how much you love/appreciate them. We keep trying to find the right time to tell you exactly that, but there’s always one more story that needs to be written, one more e-mail to answer … but finally here in the middle of the post-Super Bowl night, we’re going to just stop and say: THANK YOU.
The occasion: January’s final numbers for WSB readership are in, and it was a record-setting month:
*First month ever with more than 1,100,000 pageviews (final total: 1,165,345 pageviews for January 2012)
*First month ever with more than half a million visits (final total: 500,844 visits for January 2012)
The previous WSB records were set last October, the first month ever with more than a million WSB pageviews, part of a big 2011 that we never just stopped down for a second to mention either:Read More
Five years after the “sexpresso” trend was 
Longtime West Seattle businessman Jim Sweeney, who has operated 
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