Posted Thu, Oct 29, 4:59 p.m.

Judy Lightfoot here: My thanks to Sarah and RevSandy, and my apologies for two statistical errors: (1) The total of 4 that I gave for the count of homeless people sleeping on Edinburgh streets is wrong. A 2008 one-night count in the Edinburgh city center found 39 "rough sleepers" (http://www.hopuk.org/documents/headcountpressrelease2008_000.doc). ...

Posted Thu, Oct 29, 4:15 p.m.

Experimental comment

Posted Fri, Oct 23, 4:43 p.m.

Some non-business facets of Mallahan are profiled now in daily posts on his campaign website - http://joemallahan.com/. Prior posts are at http://joemallahan.ning.com/profiles/blogs/i-know-joe-javier-valdez and http://joemallahan.ning.com/profiles/blogs/i-know-joe-jim-mallahan. He's a mensch!

Posted Tue, Oct 20, 11 a.m.

Re big engineering projects always going over budget (sometimes b/c going way past deadlines): the bridge built to replace the one in Minneapolis that collapsed into the river came in under budget and early. With oversight and strict management, it's not impossible to meet big-project goals.

Posted Mon, Oct 19, 7:27 p.m.

I'm a former teacher who retired early, and I do a lot of volunteering. I'm still a little amazed at having received totally unexpected offers of employment (admittedly, two of them came before our Titanic economy went COMPLETELY under) from people in charge of the places where I volunteered. One ...

Posted Fri, Oct 16, 2:32 p.m.

It's in the "blog" section. What is a blog? http://www.blogger.com/tour_start.g What is Crosscut's purpose? http://crosscut.com/about/

Posted Thu, Oct 15, 5:02 p.m.

@Sarah: it's a blog - personal experience/reflection, etc.

Posted Wed, Sep 23, 7:55 p.m.

A message from a conservative group involved in environmental issues - opposing I-1033: Passage of Initiative 1033 will lock in place drastically low levels of funding for natural resource agencies. Because of the poor economic condition in Washington, spending for natural resource agencies was slashed by about 25% in the ...

Posted Wed, Sep 23, 5:02 p.m.

Mr Eyman, if you were really interested in what Washington voters want, instead of just in having your way, you wouldn't bombard every single conversation about the topic with long monologues making the same point over and over again. You make so much noise it's hard to hear oneself think! ...

Posted Wed, Sep 23, 12:45 p.m.

"sound bite": a brief, striking remark or statement excerpted from an audiotape or videotape for insertion in a broadcast news story." (Random House Unabridged, 2d ed.). A phrase meaning spoken not written words may have been ill-chosen for the article's context, but there's no negative connotation of trying to oversimplify ...

Posted Wed, Sep 23, 11:06 a.m.

@kieth: I don't think it's about distorting meaning or bypassing the consciousness of voters. The point is about helping people "digest" something complicated. A myriad of ideas and details is hard to take in all at once. Skillful speakers and teachers know that when a topic is complex, it helps ...

Posted Wed, Sep 23, 7:56 a.m.

Knute, they might have been thinking they'd try treating the guy like a human being. More than 90% of people with paranoid schizophrenia hurt nobody but themselves - they're more often the victims of crime than the perps. The popular media often perpetuate myths about schizophrenia and violence, myths that ...

Posted Tue, Sep 22, 10:18 p.m.

It cost the city almost $2M to daylight and restore Ravenna Creek in Ravenna Park, uncovering the flow and rerouting it, cleansing the water, and replanting the banks. Yet owners often let their dogs romp in the creek. The dogs tear up the banks with their playful claws, and pollute ...

Posted Thu, Sep 17, 8:38 a.m.

Knute, your post reminds me of the late David Foster Wallace's hilarious "Shipping Out: On the (nearly lethal) comforts of a luxury cruise" (Harper's, 1996): http://www.harpers.org/archive/1996/01/0007859.

Posted Wed, Sep 16, 10:14 p.m.

Indeed, afreeman - because Kammerer started it all with a terrific article!

Posted Wed, Sep 16, 10:12 a.m.

King County will soon close 39 neighborhood parks in areas ranging from Federal Way to Kirkland, because of a $56 million County budget shortfall. According to a Seattle Times article, "Unless cities, school districts or other public or private agencies agree to take over the parks, ... county workers will ...

Posted Tue, Sep 15, 10:50 a.m.

'They tell us, and we majorly accept, “small classes are better,”...' No respected research is out there to support the notion that smaller class size leads to better teaching and learning. None. Zilch. Good teachers can of course use smaller classes in creative ways, but mainly teachers want small classes ...

Posted Tue, Sep 15, 8:25 a.m.

Sarah, you're right about the need for committed advocacy and action. Do you know for a fact that people writing these comments AREN'T writing their elected officials and in other ways trying to change things? Shaming and chiding tends to shut people down. Let's cheer each other on! Contact information ...

Posted Fri, Sep 11, 6:03 p.m.

Nancy, thank you for adding information about some longer-term solutions for family homelessness than appear in the article. Home-step provides sweat-equity housing and support for homeless families in Seattle (http://www.home-step.org/) Hope-link provides housing for families and works to keep families in financial crisis from losing their housing (http://www.hope-link.org/gethelp/housing. University Church ...

Posted Mon, Sep 7, 9:43 a.m.

Thanks for turning down the volume, Kieth. It's ironic that someone would write in such an uncivil, thoughtless way about someone else's incivility and thoughtlessness. Still, dog owners who don't leash their dogs in public areas ARE being thoughtless and uncivil. Also illegal.

Posted Sat, Sep 5, 9:44 a.m.

Nice story, Mr. Davis, but I wish you and others would obey the leash ordinance and leash your dogs in public spaces. Dog owners always insist that their dogs are gentle and would never hurt anyone, but their belief hardly reassures people who have been bitten by a dog on ...

Posted Thu, Sep 3, 8:41 a.m.

A trenchant, graceful piece, Professor Locke. The purist in me resists conceding even an inch to a person whose views feel hostile to my dearest beliefs. But when I examine my resistance closely, it really does begin to seem infantile: MY toy! MY way! MY policy! Do 2-year-olds negotiate and ...

Posted Thu, Jul 2, 10:48 p.m.

It probably goes without saying that people who donate their time, money, or image to worthy causes are at least making gestures to benefit others - doing the right things, even if for what might be called the wrong reasons. With so many temptations to be wrong both ways, half ...

Posted Wed, Jul 1, 8:33 a.m.

I'm not exactly a chicken-hearted turd, but I'm no hero, either. Kudos to Marilyn for her courage and to Kimberley for her terrific story.

Posted Tue, Jun 23, 11:46 a.m.

dpc456, I enjoyed reading your line of iambic pantameter. Here's the thought expressed in iambic pentameter, in which 5 (hence, "penta") feet (hence, "meter") contain a pair of unstressed-stressed syllables (iambs) each. In other words, the line goes da-DA 5 times (as in 'The PIECE / reMINDS / us ALL'...): ...

Posted Mon, Jun 22, 9:53 p.m.

Steve, are you really "Welcome Steve Clifford"? It's a rather presumptuous name, implying that you think everyone you meet would want you around - your choice, of course, but if it's your name, shouldn't you tell your readers to capitalize the "w"? On the other hand, if "You are welcome ...

Posted Fri, Jun 19, 10:50 p.m.

Was it William James who said that seeking truth and avoiding error lead us to very different destinations? Here the first responses to a gentle invitation to seek a little truth in an unpopular corner of history come from people firmly focused on avoiding error. I appreciate both kinds of ...

Posted Fri, May 15, 8:10 a.m.

Sitting here by my brightening window this morning, barely awake, I'm caught in Berger's reverie. Please, some oysters and crab for breakfast! Well, at least an earlier visit than usual today to "Eating Locally in the Pacific Northwest": mouth-watering food forays by two native-born Puget Sounders, with photos (and recipes!) ...

Posted Tue, May 12, 7:06 p.m.

Persuasive, wise, prudent argument! The notion that the arts are just "frills," or frivolous instead of essential to community health and prosperity, is wrongheaded, shortsighted, narrow-minded, knee-jerk (etc. etc.) nonsense.