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[credmond]

Ken,

The advisory board members all live west of 35th from North Admiral down to Fauntleroy. That was the intention since the RR route follows the 54 (not 54X). However, we – all 19 of us – have pushed continuously for loop bus systems to join up with the RR and to extend the 21 and 60 so they better cover both White Center and Arbor Heights. Metro does plan on a second round of community involvement once the primary route is decided. That second round would include what additional local bus links (or loops) would be necessary to link everyone in WS with the RR route.

Delridge is an exception since the 120 serves the Delridge corridor (down to the Burien TC) on 15 minute centers Monday through Saturday. Delridge bus service has improved and that improvement shows in ridership – the 120 is now one of the top-ten buses in the entire system for ridership. Proving that if you actually provide service, people will use it.

[Ken]

While the recent House of Representatives “Christmas resolution” was being covered in the PI generating 5 pages of condemnation of Jim McDermott for voting against it, another far more disturbing resolution was introduced, one which, does not appear to have been noticed by anyone.

On December 18, 2007, Congressman Randy Forbes (R-VA) introduced H. Res. 888, a resolution “Affirming the rich spiritual and religious history of our Nation’s founding and subsequent history and expressing support for designation of the first week in May as ‘American Religious History Week’ for the appreciation of and education on America’s history of religious faith.”

This resolution, which purports to promote “education on America’s history of religious faith,” is packed with the same American history lies found on the Christian nationalist websites, and in the books of pseudo-historians like David Barton. It lists a total of seventy-five “Whereas’s,” leading up to four resolves, the third of which is particularly disturbing — that the U.S. House of Representatives “rejects, in the strongest possible terms, any effort to remove, obscure, or purposely omit such history from our Nation’s public buildings and educational resources,”

This is historical revisionism on a grand scale and it looks like it will slip through congress with no notice by the press busily baying like a pack of dogs across New Hampshire.

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c110:H.RES.888:

For debunking of specific “whereas” see this book/website:

http://www.liarsforjesus.com/

Many people here in WA have told me that the takeover of the Republican party in the 80’s by fundamentalist, was repulsed and corrected. Informed people know better. The stealth use of steeplejacking of existing churches, using fake history in homeschools and christian schools, and the appeal to authoritarians of the dominionist, punish everyone world view, has all but wiped out moderate republicans in the WA GOP.

The Theocratic wing of the Republican party is driving now and with Huckabee’s rise in the primaries, they will only get bolder.

[credmond]

It’s funny, in the Wiki entry for Pennsylvania, they mention Tastykake as being one of the local food traditions – previously citing Pennsylvania as the capital of the snack food world. Yum, I think I can even remember one of their radio jingles. I’d said caramel earlier, obviously I meant to say butterscotch. That’s probably also the only butterscotch item I ever liked – hate the stuff, otherwise. I always thought they put something in the recipe so that it would become addicting. Also, apparently Philadelphia is the heart of the American food flavor and scent industry. Knew someone who worked there and they were always inventing new compounds which totally tasted or smelled like – a Jones Soda. Wonder who does the chemistry work for Jones.

[MissK]

I just got the best haircut I have had in a long time. Seven salon has advanced training for their stylists and they always need hair models. You can find these on Craigslist under the beauty section. Best $75 haircut I didn’t have to pay for :-)

On another note Ola salon, I tried 3 times and was not pleased with the results.

[andrea]

Excellent article Kayleigh, thanks for the link. I saw Huckabee on Leno briefly last week and thought he was slightly reminiscent of Clinton (bass playing 60’s kid ponying up to a late night talk show crowd), but thought nothing further of him until he won Iowa last Thursday. Now the full extent of his right-wingedness is so blatant and so over the top for my rational mind, that I hope any other Republican wins tonight for sanity sake.

[cburns]

I think there was a previous thread about stylists in WS but that may have gone dormant. I’ve been heading downtown for haircuts for ages, but thinking about switching to a neighborhood salon. Nothing fancy (i.e. color, perm, etc), just in the market for relatively straight-forward, slightly stylish hair cutting. Curious what recommendations others may have. Thanks.

[beachdrivegirl]

I agree about fasttan. I just went in there yesterday and was upset to find out that my tans that I bought in August had already expired! I had bought 10 tans right before going to the Bahamas and was planning on using half before and then the other 5 right now before going on another trip…unforutaly for me I had to buy tans twice. I guess I will have to look into Island Tan b/c my pocket book can not keep up with FastTans sleazy ways.

[Ken]

Kinsley: a joke quote from Wikipedia:

---

On July 12, 2006 Kinsley underwent a form of surgery known as deep brain stimulation, to treat his Parkinson’s Disease. Initial reports suggest that the operation was a success. According to a joke reference in Time Magazine, Kinsley’s first words out of the operating room were, “Well, of course, when you cut taxes, government revenues go up. Why couldn’t I see that before?”[2

---

So I wonder if he will show up at the caucus in his precinct?

[Ken]

I am released from comcast bondage and save about 70.00 a month. It would have been more but I had a grandfathered plan that they kept trying to force me to upgrade so they could double the price. The last straw was after the 06 windstorm when they dropped power to my block by 40% and refused to fix it as long as I could get a signal on most of the channels when I moved the tv to within 10 foot of the demarc. I had paid for two boxes and full slate of channels for 12 years.

Dish and direct are both good. I have dish and a friend is a direct installer. They both have a good deal on HD DVRs.

The downside for some people is you lose the semi local cable news channel and the weather channel does not give the local radar and forecast “on the 8’s”. TWC just cycles through the regional current temps and the national radar. Also MSNBC is only available on the highest priced digital plan so Keith Olbermann viewers have to pay a few bucks more per month.

On the other hand, some channels come in both east and west coast editions. (three hours earlier)Nikelodeon? (twice the spongbob seems to tickle the 7 yeaar old.)

My DVR has totally released me from the tyranny of the tv schedual and fast forward at 4x spped through commercials keeps me from falling asleep and missing the last 15 min.

[WSB]

The other half of the team, who is up and reading the NY Times on Sundays hours before we creak to life, notes that Michael Kinsley (moving to WS or perhaps already here, as we reported last month:

https://westseattleblog.com/blog/?p=4809 )

has an item in today’s NYT about the presidential candidates and “change”:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/06/opinion/06kinsley.html

[credmond]

One way I strive to be able to stop for pedestrians wanting to cross 35th is to go the speed limit on 35th. It’s 35 miles per hour, not 40 or 45 or 50. Of course, about two-thirds of the cars are passing me on the left. But those of us in the curb lane are at least in a position to slow down and stop, and since there’s usually at least two or three of us going the legal speed, that is a lot of cars to be stopping and drivers in the other lanes pay attention. I’ve stopped for any number of pedestrians in the area around Camp Long up to Morgan St. and had no problems and others eventually stopped to allow the pedestrians to cross. By not recognizing the need to stop sooner, others merely delayed the entire flow of traffic as the pedestrians weren’t going to cross until all 4 lanes were stopped – as it should be. We can subtly enforce the laws ourselves by actually abiding in them. Strange concept, I know. Oh, I also bike and walk on 35th – all the time, and ride the bus. So I do have a good feel for how traffic flows throughout the day and week. The alternative to not being nice, by the way, is to put 35th on a road diet – reduce it to one travel lane in each direction with a center turn lane. Which would be better?

[credmond]

If you’re lucky, on a Comcast main trunk, in a popular area for them then you’ll do fine. If there’s a lot of Comcast folks in a single neighborhood, they respond fast if one of them has a problem, they don’t want to generate a serious customer migration. We’ve got two digital set boxes – now about 5 years old, and two equally ancient remotes. The Comcast software is only slightly less sucky than the AAT MotoRazr software on my cell phone – which is to say they both suck a lot. But they work, and like an old microwave, they do what you tell them to do even if it takes some weird contortion of the buttons to do it. If you’re in some isolated Comcast, single customer, zone, I’d expect your service would get pretty bad even if you had their latest set boxes and fancy, back-lit, remotes. Ask around, if other neighbors in your area have Comcast and are happy with it, then you in the right area for Comcast. If you see a lot of dish antennas on people’s houses or balcony’s, see which one has the most logos and ask a couple of folks what they think.

I personally think it totally depends on where you are in West Seattle. I think Highland Park/White Center is a dish network area. Gatewood Hill seems to be a fairly happy Comcast area. The Junction seems to be in love with their DSL (and why not, the freakin’ switch is about 100 yards from everyone).

[san]

I personally boycott Starbucks. The coffee is terrible, and the environment is just fake and creepy. And, seriously, does West Seattle really need 11!? Flippin’ outrageous! Why do people support that place? Stick with the little guy shops. The coffee is usually great, and the people you buy from actually have personalities. It’s nice to see your joe hand-made instead of recreated via button pushing. Just my 2 cents.

[JayDee]

Dear All:

I just bought a HD TV and it is being delivered tomorrow. I have normal Comcast Cable, but I dislike Comcast (Value, Customer Service are my beefs), and would like to explore other possible HD sources.

My main concern is how well these work in West Seattle in terms of HD picture quality (PQ) and the local vendors. Secondly comes price. My sister pays $100 plus for her Comcast HD and that seems steeper than the real (not intro) costs of Dish or Direct. If Dish is $59, Direct is $49 (for instance, for similar lineups) then PQ and equipment/service would be the deciding factor. From my exploration on the web, I’ve seen that PQ is a local thing, and connected to quality of installation, and cable equipment, dish set-up.

If Comcast is really superior in PQ (Because, with HD, PQ is key) then maybe it is work sucking it up. But my experience has been less than Comcastic and I am willing to change.

Thanks for your advice – JayDee

[Anonymous]

When I was looking for something unique I went to every nursery in the greater Seattle area. The choices were slim and not that healthy looking. A friend sent me to Bamboo Gardens of Washington. It’s between Redmond and Fall City, but if you have an afternoon, it is so worth the drive. They have a complete forest almost, of full grown (some are 30+ feet) bamboo. You really get a feel for what they will become. I thought I was looking for black, like everyone always is. But when I saw all the choices, many were much more attractive. Look at their website and you’ll see what I mean. Everything from shrub to timber varieties.

[Julie]

The California alignment would be better for me personally, but I’d support the Fauntleroy alignment for speed improvement, depending on how much speed. credmond, do you know the differential? One of my concerns about this “rapid” ride is safety of pedestrians, bikes, and cars sharing the road with these buses. (That grade-separation problem, again!) Seems to me this need for safety will surely slow the buses down. How would the safety compare California vs. Fauntleroy? I have a hunch California has fewer accidents, and if that hunch is correct, I’d guess it has to do with the lower speed on California. How would the “rapid” (I plan to keep quoting it to remind everybody that this is NOT a Rapid Transit solution) buses affect both streets? Would it make less difference on Fauntleroy because it’s already faster?

[credmond]

Jan, – Ah yes, Tastykake – I think they were out of Philly and everyone I knew wanted the three-pack of caramel icing-covered cakes. You could eat the whole package in – like – six bites. Perfect for teenagers with no sense of diet (that was me, btw). I used to work in the Harrisburg Farmer’s Market and sold souse, scrapple and tons of other “exotic” items. Scrapple wasn’t that bad if you fried it and poured real maple syrup on top of it. But then, Spam wasn’t that bad either if you sliced it thin and fried the dickens out of it. Almost had a bacon (cheap, albeit) taste and with the addition of maple syrup was totally edible.

[AdamOnAlki]

I don’t know if anyone else has driven onto “the island” yet today (01/01/08), but it appears that someone wrecked on one of those triangle, off-ramp dividing impact barriers leading up to Admiral Way on the West Seattle Bridge. New Years revelry go on a bit too long? Any info on this? Any other reported NYE accidents?

[WSB]

How about a streetcar down California … say, Myrtle to SW Seattle. Oh wait, we had that, what, 60 years ago? But seriously, the poll idea is a good one. We’ll put this in queue for the main page as everyone else starts waking up from post-holiday stupor in a few days.

[credmond]

My number one Christmas pet peeve used to be dead lights in the tree. I never trusted those little lamps and every two or three years I’d have to replace a whole string. The larger bulbs were too hot and were dangerous for little kids so we never got used to having them around. We had one string when our youngest was a toddler and we finally chucked it. This year, for the first time, the tree lights are all LEDs and I’m hoping they last longer than a few years.

Otherwise, all the other pet peeves are okay. I kinda like sneaking over to Southcenter and breezing in and out. I go to Guitar Center and REI there sometimes because it can be quicker than trying to get over to Westlake area – either by bus or in a car. There’s a way, if those are the only places you’re going, to get from Gatewood there and back in an hour or less. Also, if you park by the bus center and just walk in the long way, there’s no real parking hassle. I always park in what we used to refer to back east as West Bumf*** – fewer dints in the car and you usually remember where you parked.

[granted]

I’ve been both a driver and a pedestrian and have felt the frustration from both sides of the issue. What I have to remind myself as a driver though is that I have the greater power over the pedestrians, therefore I also have the greater responsibility. A mistake I make as a driver has a much greater impact given that my vehicle weighs thousands of pounds and is typically traveling at speeds of 30mph or more. If I need to pay greater attention or slow down a little in order to spot and wait for pedestrians, then that’s a responsibility I have to accept. It’s the tradeoff I should be willing to make for the speed and convenience of personal motorized transportation.

That said, in practical terms everybody’s got a lot on their minds and sometimes people do forget to check every corner at all times for a pedestrian. One idea that could help is speed bumps. A well-placed speed bump can be just the thing to remind the distracted driver that they need to check their speed and watch for pedestrians. In areas such as 35th where people tend to drive faster (although the speed limit is 35mph), a series of the rumble bumps — not sure of the correct name for them — might be in order.

To me it seems like the least we could do when people are quite literally being killed in the streets.

[JanS]

hehehe…House…I’m afraid our prison system couldn’t handle them all. And I totally agree with you. I, too, am both. As a pedestrian I walk with a cane, hopefully temporarily. I’m a little slower than the average person, so really have to be heads up about where and when I cross. As a driver I try to pay attention, but we have to remember that we have a big hunk of metal (erm…sometimes plastic…hehe) around us, and it’s not always able to stop on a dime. There are times when drivers are damned if they do, and damned if they don’t.

[TheHouse]

I’m both a pedestrian and driver in West Seattle and Downtown Seattle. The fact of the matter is that there is fault on both sides of the coin on this matter. Yes, there are many drivers that ignore crosswalks but there are just as many pedestrians that either don’t pay attention crossing the road or dont pay attention to the crosswalk signals. When you’re driving 30-40 mph and don’t see a pedestrian until right before the crosswalk, you may be risking an accident more by slamming on your brakes (might get rear ended). The easiest way to avoid all of this is if we simply jail stupid people.

[andrea]

I am not a fan of Fastan either. I went there a few times and the service was poor and the people behind the counter acted as if they had better things to do than wait on me. And regarding what CMP said above, the tanning salon north of Charleston is Island Tan, and they are great! The place is clean, breezy, and they have good package deals.

[vincent]

I hate to be a party pooper, but given the reality of this situation this just sounds like a lot of whining. As someone who frequently is bus riding pedestrian (using crosswalks marked and not) as well as a bicycle commuter this whole discussion sounds *exactly* like when people complain about bicycles dart around and don’t obey traffic laws and adhere to all traffic laws. Except somehow its from the point of view of the pedestrian/bicycle. Stay with me for a second. 99% of the road using public are car drivers. Anything that is as restriction to people driving is a frustration and a source of aggravation, they don’t care why, all they know is your slowing them down the 15 seconds that might make a difference. Usually the people behind the wheel blame everyone but themselves, and insist on laws to keep peds and bicycles from slowing them down. Read the hate and vitriol that drivers have for bicyclists. http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/soundoff/comment.asp?articleID=344924

now remember for a second, that if a ped or a bicyclist makes a mistake they fall down. If a car blows a crosswalk, someone dies.

Sorry to get in you face about it, but if you want people to care that your in a crosswalk, start treating it like its your life. Make a bigger deal about it, cause a scene, call the cops. because right now your just that 1% of people using the road that are easily dismissed. did we all forget that a rabbi on his cellphone hit his SECOND pedestrian in a crosswalk last summer? The gentlemen that was killed was a assistant to the city council. What did the driver get? NOTHING. You think emailing the council is going to do something?