The Washington Post has a fascinating overview of the Alaska corruption scandal and what surveillance videos revealed about the inside workings of the so-called Corrupt Bastards Club (that's what the crooks called it) where booze, Viagra, and $100 bills could buy you an Alaskan lawmaker. Some Alaskans have been shocked not so much at the corruption but at the penny ante nature of it. It seems to have hurt local pride to discover that politicians would sellout so cheap, often for no more than a handful of C-notes.
Seeing another Husky risk paralysis is a good time to remember that in big-time college sports, everyone gets money except those taking risks on the field.
Seattle is talking about the Sonics leaving, but Tacoma is wondering if the Sonics will be coming back. Not the basketball team, but the legendary 1960s rock band from the City of Destiny, arguably the best Northwest band of its era. I was weaned on the Sonics, who were punk before Punk and grunge before Grunge, but as big a fan as I was of such pre-psychedelic garage anthems as "Psycho," "The Witch," "Boss Hoss," etc. I never saw them live and had given up all hope of ever doing so.
Three reasons for Monday-morning quarterbacks to be optimistic:
Yes, the Washington Husky gridders (3-7) have lost to four top-25 teams (Oregon, Ohio State, Arizona State, and USC), but they also beat one (Boise State, otherwise undefeated at 9-1).
Yes, the Seahawks can lose to the 49ers tonight and still have a share of the division lead at 4-5.
No, the 0-7 Sonics (aka, the Oklahoma Soonics) can't possibly be mathematically eliminated from the postseason until at least January.
Seattle Opera's recent production of Gluck's rarely performed Iphigenia in Taurus was reviewed by Crosscut music critic Fred Hauptman, in an appraisal that was basically positive but critical of the cuts and substitutions of some music, calling them "disfiguring cuts and additions imposed upon a perfect original."
In turn, the review prompted this response from Seattle Opera General Director Speight Jenkins, reprinted below, and a further discussion of the version of the opera from Hauptman (following Jenkins' letter).
Communities in Snohomish County are like rabid Dawgs vying for a University of Washington branch campus. But what will they get? Here's a look at the UW branches in Bothell and Tacoma and their local imprints.
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