Posted Thu, Oct 7, 10:27 a.m.

Hi, Quinn, I enjoy your comments, too, but this one's puzzling. Did I say or imply that lacking words for "nature" as distinct from "human" made a people or culture "docile" or peaceable? Even that misty-eyed Romantic Wordsworth was inspired by the French Revolution (at least until heads started rolling). ...

Posted Thu, Sep 9, 10:21 a.m.

@Sarah: Michael sent his story to Crosscut editors almost two weeks ago, well before the President's speech.

Posted Sat, Aug 14, 4 p.m.

Email from Jim O'Halloran: Judy, to correct a small but important factual error, which I believe that I have caused: it’s about Mike O’Brien’s vote in full Council on Monday, Aug. 2 regarding the Comp Plan amendment docket. I must have told you that O’Brien voted alone to oppose the ...

Posted Fri, Jul 30, 11:28 a.m.

On second thought, so as not to involve my wonderful publisher and online newsmag, please email me at judylightfoot@earthlink.net.

Posted Fri, Jul 30, 11:20 a.m.

hlwelborn, under the circumstances, I've told Paul Hedlund I'm willing to serve as his (volunteer) agent. Please email me at judy.lightfoot@crosscut.com.

Posted Thu, Jul 8, 8:12 p.m.

Aaron Goss at Aaron's Bicycle Repair asked me to post this question: Why are the unused RR tracks on Valley near Fairview still there? I personally know of many cyclists that have crashed on them. It is a major bike route.

Posted Tue, Jul 6, 4:04 p.m.

Email from SDOT director Peter Hahn: Judy, Good article today and excellent video. First, 15th Ave. (assuming we are talking about the same stretch of road; you mentioned 45th) is scheduled for a major repaving in 2011. I have included below Web links to our Paving Program, to 15th, and ...

Posted Sun, Jun 20, 5:02 p.m.

Steve, I laughed until it hurt. That's because I know, unfortunately, just what you mean (as well as all those should-be-forgettable lyrics).

Posted Sun, Jun 20, 2:53 p.m.

Erin, your comment was apt - my father was light-footed indeed, as well as often lightheaded (and not infrequently light-fingered). Morro, one difference between your father and mine may be - obviously, I can't KNOW there is this difference - that mine neglected me but was never abusive. It would ...

Posted Fri, Jun 4, 1:43 p.m.

A friend called to ask whether tix will be sold at the door. Perhaps I should have added above that many seats are still available, and that the box office at the Moore opens an hour before each performance.

Posted Sat, May 29, 9:31 a.m.

As Anderson writes above, the Deepwater Horizon gush of pollution was certainly not "unprecedented," not even in the Gulf. But it's certainly remarkable that in the 30 years since the Ixtoc blowout the wealthiest industry in the world has developed no visible new technologies for responding to disasters of their ...

Posted Fri, May 28, 10:39 a.m.

Thank you, Ross Anderson, for providing some intelligent, well-informed context for scientific and governmental responses to this terrible accident, and in such a concise, focused way. It's a more useful article than many I've read about the event in national media.

Posted Mon, May 24, 1:05 p.m.

What I appreciate about Berger's article is not just the cogent analysis. It's how the author navigates the tricky territory between wishing success on a deeply worthy enterprise and wishing that the leader of the enterprise would control his temper and his rhetoric. In an era when so much public ...

Posted Fri, May 21, 3:06 p.m.

Harris Meyer highlights a practical reason why Arizona is losing financially because of declines in "tourism and conventions": organizations that have Hispanic members or employees will avoid bringing their people to a state where they are at risk of being stopped by police just because of how they look. I ...

Posted Sun, Apr 11, 7:53 a.m.

I think Robinson's point, easily lost here because children were hurt in these cases, is about a difficult kind of personal work aimed at replacing the corrosive blame and indignation toward others that we're tempted to hold onto so that we can feel superior. He isn't saying that crimes shouldn't ...

Posted Sat, Apr 10, 1:18 a.m.

Thank you for these comments. The internment of Japanese Americans reminds us that protecting our rights requires stepping up to defend the rights of all of us, including immigrants, NRA members, devout Muslims, and Tea Partyers. As Thomas Paine said, "Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, ...

Posted Thu, Apr 1, 5:25 p.m.

Sarah, you're always right.

Posted Wed, Mar 31, 11:19 p.m.

Perhaps I should have mentioned that Leonard specifically referred to U Bookstore, which was selling books at the event, but her message at that moment seemed to me to be a broader principle that did not exclude other independently owned local (general) bookstores such as Elliott Bay and Third Place. ...

Posted Mon, Mar 29, 3:57 p.m.

Ben, I adore your reviews! You're really on a roll with the latest series. Thank you.

Posted Mon, Mar 22, 9:36 p.m.

Re gun-toting in grizzly country: A back-country Alaska hiker encounters a guy on the trail headed in the opposite direction who's carrying a pistol. The guy carrying explains, "It's in case I run into a grizzly." The first hiker says, "No pistol can stop a grizzly." Gun-toter replies, "Oh, it's ...

Posted Fri, Mar 5, 4:29 p.m.

Kent, having become a curmudgeon I enjoyed your column so much I LOL'd. Or maybe LOLing at your column makes me a curmudgeon. In any case, as you suggest, the death knell of "smart" will ring sooner than we expect, and then we'll start calling the good new stuff "balanced," ...

Posted Sat, Feb 27, 1:59 p.m.

Ann Spiers - one of my favorite poets! Her poems often arise from scientifically informed observations of the natural world. And she *would* appreciate a superb writing style such as Darwin's. All this is beside the point here - which is to thank you, Ann, for sending this amazing narrative ...

Posted Fri, Feb 26, 2:12 p.m.

Well, is God violent, or not? http://crosscut.com/blog/crosscut/19162/

Posted Mon, Feb 15, 10:23 a.m.

michaeld, reading your wise comment I can't resist plugging my own homemade attempt to stitch the community back together, one marginalized person at a time, through Freestyle Volunteering. Choose one person sharing our public spaces who is socially isolated by homelessness or mental illness (the 2 conditions often coincide) and ...

Posted Sun, Feb 14, 3:35 p.m.

Ivan, I think you're being disingenuous, and that you know your conclusion doesn't logically follow from what I said. It would be convenient if only the people with a viewpoint opposing one's own operated "without thinking," but of course not-thinking doesn't pick sides. I hear and appreciate your skepticism about ...

Posted Fri, Feb 12, 4:31 p.m.

Ivan: It's always "surprising" to me when people reject opportunities to think. You really find it intellectually (let alone ethically) acceptable that voters who rejected charter schools in the past refuse to learn from what good charter schools do well?

Posted Fri, Feb 12, 4:23 p.m.

What a wonderful story! I love it, and though I just finished it I'm going to turn around and read it again, but thought that first I'd say, Thank you, Tony Robinson!

Posted Thu, Feb 11, 11:42 a.m.

I ask whether it's possible to learn anything from successful charter schools, based on some of their expressed values, and the question sparks such a high level of emotional threat it's as if I had proposed personally escorting a decadent and deadly enemy through the gates. Remarkable!

Posted Thu, Feb 11, 8:53 a.m.

Re charter schools performance: new research suggests that kids attending charter schools have higher rates of high school graduation and college enrollment. http://educationnext.org/the-unknown-world-of-charter-high-schools/ - has article and a video. I think good charter schools suffer from media sensationalism both positive and negative - the public gets disappointed that they're not ...

Posted Wed, Feb 3, 8:33 p.m.

jabailo: A woman asked Ben Franklin, on his way out of the Constitutional Convention, "Well, Doctor, what have we got?" Ben answered, "A Republic, madam, if you can keep it." Franklin believed that "keeping" the Republic meant preserving it from the disintegrating threats of "factions," voters whose only concern is ...

Posted Sun, Jan 31, 1:08 p.m.

Just thought I'd invite readers to post URLs for Haiti relief organizations they recommend, and kick off with this one: http://photos.pih.org/home2.html - Paul Farmer's Partners in Health. Perhaps you read about PIH in Tracy Kidder's book about Farmer's dedicated work in Haiti, "Mountains Beyond Mountains."

Posted Sun, Jan 31, 1:08 p.m.

Just thought I'd invite readers to post URLs for Haiti relief organizations they recommend, and kick off with this one: http://photos.pih.org/home2.html - Paul Farmer's Partners in Health. Perhaps you read about PIH in Tracy Kidder's book about Farmer's dedicated work in Haiti, "Mountains Beyond Mountains."

Posted Thu, Jan 28, 1:10 p.m.

Thanks for this, Ben. We just bought tix.

Posted Mon, Jan 25, 5:01 p.m.

Mate' discusses in his book (and spoke about during his interview on KUOW's Weekday program) the fact that most individuals who use opiates don't become addicted. People generally encounter them, as you suggest, when recovering from surgery, etc., but he also talks about American soldiers in Vietnam who routinely injected ...

Posted Sun, Jan 24, 3:21 p.m.

Serial Catowner, I apologize for my mistaken rendering of what Dr. Mate' said at Town Hall. He does favor decriminalizing drugs, because doing so would take the profit for drugs out of the hands of dealers and would stop sending addicts to jail. But strong restrictions would need to be ...

Posted Thu, Jan 21, 1:02 p.m.

A message about the next Frugal Foodies arrived in my mailbox today. Here's a slightly edited version: At the next (and second of its kind!) Frugal Foodies Seattle, an event aimed at gathering together a group of 12-15 people to prepare and share a meal together, we're going cross-cultural with ...

Posted Tue, Jan 12, 7:43 p.m.

dbreneman, must agree with you about the quality of Copeland's concluding Q above, although at least he concedes that it was "somewhat overstated."

Posted Tue, Jan 12, 9:02 a.m.

Cameron, hello, I'm a reader of Crosscut as well as a writer here. Joe had nothing to do with deleting your earlier comment. I emailed the editor the suggestion that it be deleted because it was sheer invective, with no apparent reasoning offered in support. Such comments contribute nothing to ...

Posted Mon, Jan 11, 2:26 p.m.

Seattlelifer, I bet you'll enjoy this new article in "The Atlantic" on good teaching, based on data from Teach For America: http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/201001/good-teaching.

Posted Mon, Jan 11, 2:17 p.m.

Spike, do you desire to touch the Mona Lisa? Probably not, even if you could get near her. The silky marble of the Pieta' might be a different case, but it's also IN one, tourists behind you flashing their cameras all over the glass or talking to their Webcams ("We're ...

Posted Thu, Jan 7, 12:44 p.m.

Morro, thank you for writing, and especially for the insight that people's intellects can be "stunted by our reaction to their beauty." Maybe the phrase "drop-dead handsome" should refer to beauty's impact not just on other people but on the possessor's brain, because we awestruck observers have a tendency not ...

Posted Tue, Jan 5, 4:55 p.m.

Entire cities built over the water are vulnerable: http://www.corriere.it//gallery/cronache/12-2009/venezia/1/venezia-sommersa_c67d0de6-f254-11de-b17d-00144f02aabe.shtml#1 .

Posted Mon, Jan 4, 10:42 p.m.

Tim, I appreciate your writing in this conciliatory way about the press release and Kristof. And we agree about the creative potential of conflict, if not about the most strategic form conflict should take under current circumstances. May I clarify that I never suggested reporters would refuse to cover an ...

Posted Mon, Jan 4, 4:47 p.m.

I love this essay - its smiling precision about the 4-footed characters who are our neighbors, and its hints about the characters of the persons they own.

Posted Mon, Jan 4, 8:37 a.m.

@Tim Harris: I think Alinsky would agree with us both that activists who "agitate to the point of conflict" about injustice are important change-agents - as you have been with Real Change News. But Alinsky would also ask whether Nickelsville activists and advocates are being strategic in the conflicts they ...

Posted Sat, Jan 2, 10:34 a.m.

The Boston "Big Dig" is finished, and Bostonians as well as visitors are enjoying the revived cityscape: "[Y]ou stroll the narrow, twisting streets of the North End, one of the city’s oldest neighborhoods, full of cafes and restaurants and boutiques, and newly vibrant in the post Big Dig era. No ...

Posted Wed, Dec 23, 10:14 p.m.

Thank you for this fine story, Kent, and Merry Christmas to you.

Posted Wed, Dec 23, 10:10 p.m.

Lovely, lovely essay that that not only made me sigh with pleasure and recognition but also made me (as the kids say) LOL. I'm sending it to everyone I know. Thank you, Tony!

Posted Mon, Dec 21, 7:17 p.m.

P.S. Yes, I know the country's name is "Czech Republic"!

Posted Mon, Dec 21, 7:13 p.m.

Thanks for this note! Any wincing I did is due to my own shortcomings in not having learned enough about Czechoslovakia. I also loved your comment, especially your catalogue of names to be reckoned with (I flunked Zizka, Martinu, and Benackova-Capova) and your story about removing the street signs to ...

Posted Mon, Dec 14, 2:55 p.m.

I'm glad some comment writers worth reading have (at this point, anyway) raised the level of discussion in this thread instead of letting readers who ridicule writers personally instead of responding civilly to their ideas shut the dialogue down. I wish Crosscut would delete ad hominem insults the moment they ...

Posted Mon, Dec 7, 10:29 p.m.

Wonderful story! Thank you, Jean.

Posted Mon, Dec 7, 5:25 p.m.

Poetry at Crosscut! Thank you, Himanee.

Posted Mon, Dec 7, 10:04 a.m.

Thank you for this fascinating slice of history.

Posted Mon, Nov 30, 2:03 p.m.

OK, all you people who are so serious about wanting to decriminalize marijuana possession, here's a challenge: Join members of your local affiliates of NORML and MMP to create an effective lobbying campaign with the 2010 WA Legislature. Even the best ideas and the most well-written Crosscut comments don't bring ...

Posted Thu, Nov 26, 10:01 a.m.

Judy is thankful for Himanee.

Posted Sun, Nov 22, 6:05 p.m.

Serial Catowner, I appreciate your cordial response. Are there groups with plans to lobby the Legislature on these bills? My "Lobbying 101" understanding is that legislators are responsive to their constituents, especially those who have cultivated a relationship with them in the past. So are supporters around the state planning ...

Posted Sat, Nov 21, 6:26 p.m.

Judy Lightfoot here -- It seems to me that skeptical legislators are more likely to be moved by answers to potential objections, so they should get an airing. Anyway, here's a nice visual summary based on stats like some of serial_catowner's: http://www.sloshspot.com/blog/11-13-2009/If-Marijuana-Production-Were-Legal-Projected-Tax-Revenues-by-State-245.

Posted Wed, Nov 18, 8:43 a.m.

joshuadf, thank you for this terrific quote. I love how Vonnegut always saw through illusions most of us don't question, and I hope to use his words in a later piece here at Crosscut.

Posted Wed, Nov 4, 1:39 p.m.

It's hard on media, too. At one Election Night party, as network newshounds struggled in the absence of TV-worthy material, the media narrative became the absence of a narrative. Reporters prompted guests to talk about how little there was to talk about, asking, "Wasn't it better when we voted at ...

Posted Sat, Oct 31, 5:04 p.m.

This is just to say welcome to Ann and that I enjoy her writing. I hope she'll meet many PNW readers and residents wanting to embrace an outspoken newcomer to the region.

Posted Fri, Oct 30, 3:23 p.m.

Poems on Crosscut! Well, verse, anyway, Frees words of their moss, but Means more than they say.