First, a couple of items from the archives.

September 2007, the burning question: finding new ways to sell wine. Howard Goldberg, who once wrote for the New York Times, thinks the answer is for Bordeaux estates to sell shrink-wrapped, powdered wine, which could be reconstituted (with designer water, no doubt) into vino. Great idea, Howard; we'll get back to you.

Meantime, TetraPak (the juice-box people from Sweden) have been hired by a Cordier (a French wine merchant) to "bottle" a line of boxed Bordeaux called Tandem. It's all about the most elusive of consumers: "the young people." Cordier ...

For commitment-averse gays and lesbians, the bell has tolled. Washington is going to make an honest man (or woman) out of you. As the Olympian's Brad Shannon and Jordan Schrader write, the state senate's 28-21 bipartisan vote for marriage equality was a watershed, with four Republicans siding with the majority Democrats (three conservative Demcrats opposed the measure.)

The battle isn't over yet, however. "The vote moves the state closer to a challenge by conservative and religious activists who plan a ballot measure to overturn it – echoing the fight in 2009 over expanding the rights of Washington’s ...

Tuesday's election-night victor, overshadowed by Florida's Romney-Gingrich mud fest, was Oregon's Suzanne Bonamici. As the Oregonian's Jeff Mapes writes, Bonamici easily defeated Republican Rob Cornilles to fill the 1st congressional-district seat vacated by the idiosyncratic (euphemism intended), scandal-plagued David Wu. 

"A former state legislator, Bonamici becomes the only woman in the seven-member Oregon congressional delegation. Her campaign expects that she will be sworn in within the next week," Mapes writes. "Besides becoming accustomed to Congress, Bonamici also has to get ready for another election. To earn a full two-year term starting next year, she needs to ...

The University of Washington may require a ten-plagues' scenario to catch the attention of Olympia lawmakers. Locusts. Unhealable boils. Lice. (The winter-quarter Plague of Darkness descended a few weeks ago.) Draconian budget cuts (since 2009, a 44 percent slash to higher ed statewide) now imperil faculty retention. As King5.com reports, "Budget cuts mean UW is ripe for raids by other institutions. And there's less and less the school can do to stop it."       

King5.com presents a sobering anecdotal narrative. Chemistry chair Paul Hopkins reports that he lost three faculty in one year. "Hard to recruit, hard to ...

No sooner do I write about how Portland is still enough of an idiosyncratic backwater to produce a show like Portlandia, while Seattle stopped laughing at itself after Almost Live died, than events conspire to prove otherwise.

Last Wednesday, a team of local improv, film, and theater veterans (self-described "immature professionals") brought forth their answer to Portlandia, Almost Live, and the perennial question: Is that guy in the coffeeshop wearing bicycle shorts, smoking jacket, hunter's cap, and engineer boots a hipster or a street crazy?

The result is called Local Brew, and the titular brew — which host Ross Asdourian ...

Leave it to a Husky to blast President Obama by echoing Jeremy Bentham. University of Washington president Michael Young, along with Western's Bruce Shepard and WSU's Elson Floyd, are incensed at Obama's posturing over mounting state tuition. "University of Washington President Mike Young said he's annoyed with Obama, who said Friday in Ann Arbor, Mich., that if universities don't give students a break, the federal government is going to start taking money away," the AP reports. 

Young, Shepard, and Floyd rightly note that "the actual total cost of educating college students — paid by tuition plus ...

Mariners outfielder Ichiro Suzuki and Husky basketball star Tony Wroten have gotten attention over the past week in part because of these talented athletes' abilities to vex us.

Mariners manager Eric Wedge reiterated his post-2011 season statements that Ichiro would not necessarily bat leadoff in 2012.
That has been his place in the batting order since he joined the Mariners in 2001 and began a streak of 10 consecutive seasons in which he got 200 hits or more — until he fell short last season.

During his 200-hit seasons, the almost certain Hall of Famer was pretty much left alone to ...

Politics insinuates itself, tendrilling into how we vote and why. The value of a secret ballot is we can keep mum or feign indecision. Politicians, however, need to strip down and reveal all, cabaret-like. A possible referendum on same-sex marriage is the latest how-you-gonna-vote litmus test.

"Republican Attorney General Rob McKenna has made no secret of his opposition to same-sex marriage since entering the [governor's] race and revealed this week he would vote to repeal a gay marriage law if it's on the ballot in November," the Herald's Jerry Cornfield writes. "McKenna does back the existing domestic ...

As we conclude the 18th day of the 2012 regular session, the lack of legislative urgency to solve the state's billion dollar plus deficit grows more troubling. It's been 92 days since the governor called last December's special session declaring "timely legislative action is needed to secure the State’s fiscal health and address the shortfall in the 2011-2013 operating budget." 

Perhaps it is time to revisit the Dec. 5 email Marty Brown, Director of the Office of Financial Management, sent all lawmakers under the subject line, "The urgency of budget action":

Members of the ...

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich's presidential bid has galvanized moon-colony aficianados, third-wife's-the-charm sympathizers and, of course, skeptics of all-things-food stamps. Now Gingrich's candidacy is breathing life into Washington's presidential caucuses, a quadrennial process that often mimics the effects of Ambien. As the News Tribune's Peter Callaghan writes, "is success has increased the chances that Washington’s GOP caucuses set for Saturday, March 3, might actually be important. If the nomination is still up for grabs, the remaining candidates may want to contest the first West Coast state and a state with a significant number ...

You may want to take those earbuds out while waiting for your luggage at Sea-Tac Airport. Starting this week, Sea-Tac Airport is offering free upgrades that include the sights and sounds of Northwest music. The Sea-Tac Airport Music Initiative: Experience the City of Music launches on Saturday (Jan. 28) — a collaboration between the Port of Seattle, Seattle Music Commission, and PlayNetwork.

So what's it all about? Showcasing the Northwest's music culture, from Quincy Jones to Eddie Vedder, along with enhancing the experience of the 32 million passengers who travel through Sea-Tac Airport each year. The musical menu utilizes ...

The Seattle School Board is blowing up! A debate is opening up over a proposal made by School Board President Michael DeBell, which would state what are appropriate and inappropriate actions for the School Board to make, reports Seattle Times education reporter David Rosenthal. This is apparently in response to two newly elected members, Sharon Peaslee and Marty McLaren, whose involvement is rumoured to have overwhelmed Interim Superintendent Susan Enfield and her staff. According to Rosenthal, DeBell said the new members might also have affected Enfield's decision not to seek a permanent position.

Crosscut Editor-in-Chief David Brewster first discussed ...

I’ll admit it, I’ve been watching too much political theater on TV of late.  Thanks to live streaming video, I’ve seen all but one of the Republican presidential primary candidate debates so far, falling under the sway of a spectacle that makes so-called Reality TV look like Playhouse 90 by comparison.

 I don’t know if it was it Herman Cain’s fast-food approach to rhetoric,  Jon Huntsman’s laborious wisecracks, Rick Perry’s dubya moments, Newt Gingrich’s turn as Doctor Evil (with history PhD), Mitt Romney’s botox smile, Rick Santorum’s earnest boyishness (or ...